George Smith - Raid Designer Leaves SWTOR

Exactly, with the level sync and boosting the old ops to lvl65 its all about the new players attracted by the hype of the movies. New players will come and see that there is ton of story content, and that story is good. Then they will see there is a lot of raids and that new story comes out each month and they will be pretty hyped. They have used minimum amount of effort/money and hope the movie hype will bring new subs.

Unfortunately for us old players who have experienced every content, there is nothing new. Game is pretty stale and some of us will move on because of it. I have leveled every Advanced Class, experienced every class story there is and that is only a fraction of the time I've spent in the ops and in pvp. For me this game has become boring without new pvp and pve elements. I have 17 toons and I've only managed to do KoTFE story on couple of them, first couple of times it was fun but now its extremely boring. Alliance system is interesting on the first glance but you can do it on only 1 toon since the grind is unbearable. Besides with so many companions you don't get attached to them like you did in pre-kotr era. Hemdil Tre is an exception since he talks too much and you will hate him straight away.

The big picture is that since launch, this game has hemorrhaged people for 1 single reason more than any other - lack of endgame content.

Yet two nights ago I was farming the best gear in the game in.... an instance I cleared in 2012.

So who is the new raid designer? Or does this mean there won't be any new raids in SWTOR anymore?
*Laughs hysterically, then starts to cry*

Atm there is no such beast

2.1 ways to look at it.

1) Optimistic. Georgie finished the new raid(s) and as such had liberty of time to move to a side-project since it will be a year+ before the other teams have said raid(s) ready to launch in-game.

2) Pessimistic. Georgie was politely told to move to a side-project as his ideas for new raids were unwelcome in the future of SWTOR, and as such he's now working on Mass Effect Andromeda to have something to do, as the Raid Team is being shipped off to other Bioware assets. In short, for the next 12 months, there will be no raids, not even a design for one.

2.1) Realistic. Georgie was let go to fill in another Bioware position as there's no intention for a new raid for the next 12 months. After said 12 months, they will re-hire him, or others, to pick up a new raid for their next Content Cycle.

2.1 is the answer, Eric's comment of "no comments" regarding new OvE content period pretty much puts done to that deal.

Well if you like all that leveling there is always FFXIV ARR and there you do not even have to swap toons. Every class, every "job" (advanced class based on combining basic classes), every crafting skill leveled on the same character. You have, a "character" story, plus individual class stories and "job" stories. There are more solo quests than you can shake a stick at, dungeons and raids... The only issue is you have to appreciate the near Shakespearian nature of Anime story telling (and the related art design), but in terms of game play AND story, you simply do not run out of it unless you choose to (or play 24/7/) I suppose). There is always something to level, if you chose there is no "I must do this" and that leveling always has a story.

Until 2 weeks ago I had not even thought about looking elsewhere. Someone on another thread said "why can't they do what FFXIV does and put in stuff for every one and make it work?"

I hadn't played the game but a friend was and I asked him for one of those "recruit a friend trials.". That person was right...no one would have an excuse...story focused, joint solo/story, group or raider for criticizing the amount of content. They might not like the " style" of the art and game play but general content? Enough for every play style, maybe more for solo/story tbh.

My problem is that all this micromanagement is now gone with 4.0. I really long for the time when I could tinker around endlessly.

I just switched back to FFXIV ARR because frankly SWTOR has lost my sub loyalty now. I have like three months or so left on it before it expires completely so there's time for them to pull me back in and I hope they do but as it stands...newp. Anyway, I am loving FFXIV. Nice change in atmosphere, tbh.


I would LOVE a Mass Effect MMO...as long as it is given better treatment than SWTOR was/is. Normally I am a Fantasy genre gamer but Star Wars and Mass Effect are the only two Sci-Fi ones that I really really like. Truth be told, a Mass Effect MMO (if done right) appeals to me even more than a Star Wars one for some of the very reasons you state above concerning lore, etc.

This is not good news for this game for sure. It also explains why Eric have no info to share regarding pve group content in 2016 first half year or longer. It is clear that there have been cuts to team size yet again.

Overall i did enjoyed George work and he was really talented raid designer.