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"Bioware may revamp 'Anthem' in bid to save it


Lhancelot

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"Hey guys! We got the most powerful, popular IP on the planet but instead of taking advantage of that, let's pull our miserably failed dumpster fire game that was universally panned out the fire and try rebuilding it!"

 

For the past few years we got Star Wars movies coming out! We got The Mandalorian right now! We got so much Star Wars buzz on this planet right now it's like our psyches are filled with nothing but Star Wars, pop culturally speaking! Yet, no word on any REAL meaningful resource allotments for this game.

 

Answer this: Is there one person on the planet that is hoping they pull Anthem out the garbage and make it better?

 

I suppose whoever created Anthem would like to make it respectable but someone needs to save this person from themselves. Wanting to make Anthem work is obviously an exercise in futility and everyone knows it, except for BW apparently.

 

When the ship has sailed, you accept that and you move on to a new ship, Anthem creator(s). You will gain zero life points by clinging to a sinking ship, in fact you will lose life points doing this.

 

Now, what about SWTOR?

 

Consider this. If you were to proclaim publicly that there would be renewed focus and energy put into SWTOR to improve upon it, would that draw interest and create joy? Yes! Yes, it would.

 

Invest in something that is univerally beloved and well-known that is has unlimited potential and trending up, or instead invest in an unknown heavily disliked something that was universally panned as awful. They are choosing the second option?

 

Not only this, but from how I understand it, they basically are monopolizing the franchise from a gaming perspective so this means they are the only ones that have the access to the Star Wars IP for a MMO. There's zero competition as they hold the only key to the only Star Wars MMO out now, right?

 

I'd suggest leaving Anthem in the dump, and instead revamp SWTOR. I realize this game has brought money in just coasting along while being neglected over the years, but imagine how much more money it would bring in if the game had enjoyable gameplay, more stories, a better conquest system, and a total clean up of the gear sets and tacticals, meaning make improvements to these features and this game!

 

Why leave this game in this half-baked, always-in-flux unfinished state, when resources could be used to prop this game up and refine it? I just view Anthem as a failed venture, and at this point they ought to cut their losses and focus on improving the only Star Wars MMO on the planet while this IP is riding a massive wave of popularity.

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Wishful thinking. SWTOR is what it is and they'll conitnue along the same lines as long as they bring in enough money. The game is just too old to do a complete revamp for. Certainly in EA's eyes.

 

It's better to hope for new games and there is a new game finally that seems to do well so that's good. I doubt though that that's BioWare's concern. And to be honest, I do not know if BioWare will ever make a game again worth spending money on.

 

The fact that they are talking about fixing Anthem in a big way, just shows you how detached they are from their customers. Sure, there is a group of people still playing it. Any game will have some hardcore fans no matter how flawed it is, but if they think that the general public will actually give a damn and give Anthem another go is not realistic.

 

There are a lot of people who played it that are thoroughly disappointed and the larger public no longer cares. Even if they fix the gameplay in all of its facets, there is stil the glaring issue of an uninspiring story, so much unused potential in the background and lore and just generally a lack of content. In SWTOR terms Anthem is the size of the Fleet, Dromund Kaas and 4 FPs. That's the whole frikkin game. The game's content needs to be tripled in size and the story and surroundings more compelling on top of all the changes they are talking about now.

 

But people just need to stop thinking that development of Anthem is in the way of SWTOR getting much more content. Even if they dropped Anthem entirely I doubt it will change much for SWTOR. Ok, it may make some difference but not nearly as much as some people think. SWTOR is just something they want to maintain as long as possible provided it brings in enough revenue. Beyond that, nobody is planning anything big for SWTOR.

 

Maybe a new SW MMO could be a good idea but the question is whether or not EA will still have a deal because even if they wanted to do that (not saying they do), it won't be for another few years at least. But heck, maybe the next SW game will be based on the Mandalorian. That seems to be doing very well. I enjoy it very much myself.

 

I just really don't think that the idea of a huge overhaul of SWTOR is realistic at all. It's not maintenance mode as such but I think they've sort of got their cadence going and that's all we will get.

 

I will dare and double dare BioWare to prove me wrong though :p:D

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The fact that they are talking about fixing Anthem in a big way, just shows you how detached they are from their customers. Sure, there is a group of people still playing it. Any game will have some hardcore fans no matter how flawed it is, but if they think that the general public will actually give a damn and give Anthem another go is not realistic.

 

I'd say the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is this total detachment from reality, not just customers... This mentality has plagued SWTOR, too.

 

I guess it's a systemic issue that won't change as long as the same people remain at the helm steering this boat.

 

I am with you already on looking to the future. I just was in a melancholy mood and thinking about how badly EA/BW has dropped the ball here.

 

This game actually has survived thanks to really solid development with it's original chapters along with very entertaining stories and unmatched voice acting.

 

SWTOR has managed to survive in spite of neglect and truly awful design changes over the years, imagine had it been nurtured with game design changes that players actually liked versus many features and changes that have only served to push players off the game?

 

Imagine had they actually constructed the gameplay around skills and abilities that were properly balanced, instead of what seems to be just random numbers jammed into the game play?

 

I mean it's very clear no one tested for BW in PVP to see how all the numbers stacked up. DPS got a significant boost to their damage, while 2 of the three healers ate a nasty nerf that has made them impotent performing at a much lesser clip than they did prior to 6.0.

 

Point is not to point out all the flaws in 6.0 or even past updates, but instead to highlight just how far off base this game has fallen when considering how solid of a base it began with. Sure, it has a crappy engine, but that isn't what causes poorly designed updates and/or unfinished updates to be added to the game.

 

It's just comically funny that instead of making the good food on their plate as best as possible, they actually are looking at a plate of ground up garbage (anthem) and think it makes sense to grab that plate and try serving it along side of the plate that is decent, but not until they add some salt and pepper to it. No amount of salt and pepper can turn garbage into edible food, let alone good food. This is just dumb on their part.

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it sucks but it's the smart thing to do. with star wars they can't churn out whatever they want for how long they want because they don't own the IP. if they make their own and it's successful it'll be better for them.

 

Well they had years to develop SWTOR and take it to higher levels and chose not to, so maybe at this point you are right. But good luck to them.

 

Rejuvenating a bust of a game when it was super hyped like Anthem was is not going to work. 5+ years of work on Anthem and total neglect of SWTOR, and Anthem rolled out like this? What were they doing the whole time?

 

Maybe they were busy enjoying the fruits of their early success, and like a one hit wonder band just lost all interest in continuing success? Really seems like the wheels have fallen off this wagon over the years. :(

Edited by Lhancelot
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Consider this. If you were to proclaim publicly that there would be renewed focus and energy put into SWTOR to improve upon it, would that draw interest and create joy? Yes! Yes, it would.

 

Thing is though that SWTOR is an 8-year-old game at this point. It's viewed as an old thing/product. It's something most people in the gaming space already made their mind up about at one point or another.

 

With Anthem they're hoping to do what Square did with Final Fantasy 14, ie double down on it, revamp it, etc. The instances where that's actually happened, where a company has been able to turn a game's negative perception around is not only few & far between but it's not something that happens 8 years into a game's life cycle. FF14 turned itself around 3 years after it launched. Elder Scrolls Online had a very middling kind of launch but over to the course of a year or two they kept releasing big enough updates to the point where more & more people got on board with the game. No Man's Sky, while not an MMO, turned itself around in the course of a year or two after it launched with an extremely negative reception.

 

The point being that there's a window of time to do or accomplish a turn around like that, but unfortunately for SWTOR it seems to be long past that point. I would personally love for it to happen, but from a business perspective, the amount of money/resources required for that could be potentially used to develop a different game or spent better elsewhere from EA's perspective.

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While I agree with OP's estimation of player interest (Anthem will never have the kind of loyal following that Star Wars automatically inspires), boards tend to focus more on the numbers than tenuous concepts such as loyalty. At least, not in the good way.

 

They may see that they've already more than made back their initial investment from SWTOR, and that Star Wars inspires significant brand loyalty from customers. In other words, it's possible that a minimal investment is sufficient to keep the target base subscribing. In other words, they probably value loyalty only as a number that shows how little they have to do to keep their target customers happy. What is the most economically viable way to keep people hanging on with as little effort as possible?

 

With Anthem, they may at this point be looking at a massive financial loss if they simply pull the plug. Their reasoning may be something along the lines of this:

 

"We've already spent $400,000 on this game, and we've only made $100,000 back. Either we scrap it and lose $300,000 or we invest another $100,000 in the hopes of getting a game that will let us get our investment back."

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"Hey guys! We got the most powerful, popular IP on the planet but instead of taking advantage of that, let's pull our miserably failed dumpster fire game that was universally panned out the fire and try rebuilding it!"

 

For the past few years we got Star Wars movies coming out! We got The Mandalorian right now! We got so much Star Wars buzz on this planet right now it's like our psyches are filled with nothing but Star Wars, pop culturally speaking! Yet, no word on any REAL meaningful resource allotments for this game.

 

Answer this: Is there one person on the planet that is hoping they pull Anthem out the garbage and make it better?

 

I suppose whoever created Anthem would like to make it respectable but someone needs to save this person from themselves. Wanting to make Anthem work is obviously an exercise in futility and everyone knows it, except for BW apparently.

 

When the ship has sailed, you accept that and you move on to a new ship, Anthem creator(s). You will gain zero life points by clinging to a sinking ship, in fact you will lose life points doing this.

 

Now, what about SWTOR?

 

Consider this. If you were to proclaim publicly that there would be renewed focus and energy put into SWTOR to improve upon it, would that draw interest and create joy? Yes! Yes, it would.

 

Invest in something that is univerally beloved and well-known that is has unlimited potential and trending up, or instead invest in an unknown heavily disliked something that was universally panned as awful. They are choosing the second option?

 

Not only this, but from how I understand it, they basically are monopolizing the franchise from a gaming perspective so this means they are the only ones that have the access to the Star Wars IP for a MMO. There's zero competition as they hold the only key to the only Star Wars MMO out now, right?

 

I'd suggest leaving Anthem in the dump, and instead revamp SWTOR. I realize this game has brought money in just coasting along while being neglected over the years, but imagine how much more money it would bring in if the game had enjoyable gameplay, more stories, a better conquest system, and a total clean up of the gear sets and tacticals, meaning make improvements to these features and this game!

 

Why leave this game in this half-baked, always-in-flux unfinished state, when resources could be used to prop this game up and refine it? I just view Anthem as a failed venture, and at this point they ought to cut their losses and focus on improving the only Star Wars MMO on the planet while this IP is riding a massive wave of popularity.

 

Well let me me say that I do not like anthem (had hopes for it but it was ****). I will also say i share the sentiment that i wish tor would get doubled down on. ESO had a rocky launch but bethesda and zenimax did not quit and look at it now one of the most populated and best mmo's on the market. Swtor could be that if resource and time was put into it but here is why they won't.

 

1. EA does not make all the money from this game. Licencing fee's alone take a large chunk out of this games profit. This game just does not have the sub count to boot to make up for that. Is it profitable yes it is, but why invest money in an mmo that may or may not pay off at this point. This game is quite dated in alot of aspects, you won't captivate a crowd looking for a star wars mmo because this game has not created good mmo features. People don't need to show up and be a subscriber to enjoy alot of the solo content, I have a friend who is preferred, gets his little star wars fix and moves on for a few months and buys whatever cool outfit is out on the market. This game has a plethera of issues that need resolving. So as a producer trying to captivate this crowd of players that will no doubt fizzle out after the star wars rush is over would be a waste of time.

 

2. Merchandising, EA can't create revenue for tor outside of the game itself like that could have with anthem. Lets say anthem was a big hit, people would buy T-shirts, figures, funkos, mugs, etc. They can't do that with star wars stuff. They will never have total control of their brand or product. It is much more worthy indevour to create their own IP and have long term revenue streams from it. This is business 101. There is not a strong incentive to invest in a star wars game like this unless it had a booming playerbase that is all subbed for the most part.

 

3. It ain't canon. Disney has been doing their best to make fans forget the old canon. "We had no source material to go off of for the new movies" - Kathleen Kennedy. Swtor is a constant reminder of the legends EU. So EA does not have an incentive to invest and neither does Disney. If this game was made by a lucasarts in house studio then yes they would probably invest in it because the merchandising and keeping of the profits.

 

4. Finally this is the worst part to me as a player since beta. This game is not as successful as we may think it is. The game is not coming anywhere near. Games like ESO, FF, WOW, GW2 (kinda fizzling out), are all getting constant updates because of how much they are bringing in, two of those are sub based, they are all actually owned by the group working on them, control merchandising, and as the player pop to boot. And this hurts me but tor's main revenue stream is the CC market. You gonna get another armor or flair their, that is where the money is for them. Maybe if all the f2p and preferred started all paying 15 bucks a month maybe then it could turn producer and upper mangement heads. But atm it is a consistent revenue stream that has not warranted increased funding.

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"Hey guys! We got the most powerful, popular IP on the planet but instead of taking advantage of that, let's pull our miserably failed dumpster fire game that was universally panned out the fire and try rebuilding it!"

Or to re-phrase it...

"Hey guys! We had the most powerful, popular IP on the planet, until Disney turned it into a dumpster fire. So let's try and rebuild Anthem before we have nothing left."

😏

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Well let me me say that I do not like anthem (had hopes for it but it was ****). I will also say i share the sentiment that i wish tor would get doubled down on. ESO had a rocky launch but bethesda and zenimax did not quit and look at it now one of the most populated and best mmo's on the market. Swtor could be that if resource and time was put into it but here is why they won't.

 

1. EA does not make all the money from this game. Licencing fee's alone take a large chunk out of this games profit. This game just does not have the sub count to boot to make up for that. Is it profitable yes it is, but why invest money in an mmo that may or may not pay off at this point. This game is quite dated in alot of aspects, you won't captivate a crowd looking for a star wars mmo because this game has not created good mmo features. People don't need to show up and be a subscriber to enjoy alot of the solo content, I have a friend who is preferred, gets his little star wars fix and moves on for a few months and buys whatever cool outfit is out on the market. This game has a plethera of issues that need resolving. So as a producer trying to captivate this crowd of players that will no doubt fizzle out after the star wars rush is over would be a waste of time.

 

2. Merchandising, EA can't create revenue for tor outside of the game itself like that could have with anthem. Lets say anthem was a big hit, people would buy T-shirts, figures, funkos, mugs, etc. They can't do that with star wars stuff. They will never have total control of their brand or product. It is much more worthy indevour to create their own IP and have long term revenue streams from it. This is business 101. There is not a strong incentive to invest in a star wars game like this unless it had a booming playerbase that is all subbed for the most part.

 

3. It ain't canon. Disney has been doing their best to make fans forget the old canon. "We had no source material to go off of for the new movies" - Kathleen Kennedy. Swtor is a constant reminder of the legends EU. So EA does not have an incentive to invest and neither does Disney. If this game was made by a lucasarts in house studio then yes they would probably invest in it because the merchandising and keeping of the profits.

 

4. Finally this is the worst part to me as a player since beta. This game is not as successful as we may think it is. The game is not coming anywhere near. Games like ESO, FF, WOW, GW2 (kinda fizzling out), are all getting constant updates because of how much they are bringing in, two of those are sub based, they are all actually owned by the group working on them, control merchandising, and as the player pop to boot. And this hurts me but tor's main revenue stream is the CC market. You gonna get another armor or flair their, that is where the money is for them. Maybe if all the f2p and preferred started all paying 15 bucks a month maybe then it could turn producer and upper mangement heads. But atm it is a consistent revenue stream that has not warranted increased funding.

 

These are all really good points. Can't say I disagree with anything written here, makes me sad though.

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Yeah, I don't know why. It had an excellent flight mechanic and decent fluid/fun combat but other than that it was very hollow. It was simply the worst Bioware Game that I have ever played. Its story, characters, immersion, and role playing features were at the very bottom. Golly, you did not even get to "see" your character outside combat suit except in like two cut scenes (partial face at that). Andromeda was a masterpiece compared to Anthem.

 

I would hope they would spend the resources on SWTOR, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or a new IP. They could just move flight mechanic to new game and be better off. I guess I don't understand target audience. I guess just shoot stuff, fly around, and get loot.

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"Hey guys! We got the most powerful, popular IP on the planet but instead of taking advantage of that, let's pull our miserably failed dumpster fire game that was universally panned out the fire and try rebuilding it!"

 

In my opinion, based on what I've read and seen from game reviewers...Anthem is all but dead. Anthem is going to go the way of 'Wild Star.' This is EA's fault straight up. Not BioWare's. EA forced BioWare to use the Frostbite engine, one that is not designed for MMO RPG type games, that cost them personnel, time, and more money than it would if they'd obtained the license for the Unreal Engine 4.

 

This is why Anthem did not have all that the original stated they would put in the game. EA's only desire is to make as much money they can with the least amount of effort. SWTOR is a living example of that too. I believe that EA has surpassed NCsoft as the single most hated game company in the industry.

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Or to re-phrase it...

"Hey guys! We had the most powerful, popular IP on the planet, until Disney turned it into a dumpster fire. So let's try and rebuild Anthem before we have nothing left."

😏

 

Disney had nothing to do with it. SWTOR was made by people who had no experience in making MMO, so they focused on solo content instead of creating good endgame content. So people reached endgame, saw there is barely anything to do and left. Long before Disney came around and bought SW.

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Thing is though that SWTOR is an 8-year-old game at this point. It's viewed as an old thing/product. It's something most people in the gaming space already made their mind up about at one point or another.

 

With Anthem they're hoping to do what Square did with Final Fantasy 14, ie double down on it, revamp it, etc. The instances where that's actually happened, where a company has been able to turn a game's negative perception around is not only few & far between but it's not something that happens 8 years into a game's life cycle. FF14 turned itself around 3 years after it launched. Elder Scrolls Online had a very middling kind of launch but over to the course of a year or two they kept releasing big enough updates to the point where more & more people got on board with the game. No Man's Sky, while not an MMO, turned itself around in the course of a year or two after it launched with an extremely negative reception.

 

The point being that there's a window of time to do or accomplish a turn around like that, but unfortunately for SWTOR it seems to be long past that point. I would personally love for it to happen, but from a business perspective, the amount of money/resources required for that could be potentially used to develop a different game or spent better elsewhere from EA's perspective.

 

Pretty much this, for us to revamp SWTOR would require significant amount of resources which EA will not invest in a game this old. Unfortunate really but alas its the business reality we live in.

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Disney had nothing to do with it. SWTOR was made by people who had no experience in making MMO, so they focused on solo content instead of creating good endgame content. So people reached endgame, saw there is barely anything to do and left. Long before Disney came around and bought SW.

*sigh* I shouldn't need to clarify this but ….. Now that Disney has turned Star Wars into a dumpster fire, interest in all things Star Wars is on the decline - look at the poor sales of SW merch - so now BW may want to try Anthem again rather than throw more money at SWTOR.

(But, who knows. 🙄 )

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Yeah, I don't know why. It had an excellent flight mechanic and decent fluid/fun combat but other than that it was very hollow. It was simply the worst Bioware Game that I have ever played. Its story, characters, immersion, and role playing features were at the very bottom. I would hope they would spend the resources on SWTOR, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or a new IP. They could just move flight mechanic to new game and be better off. I guess I don't understand target audience. I guess just shoot stuff, fly around, and get loot.

 

I guess this puts us in the position of hoping they take lessons learned from this disaster, and apply it to a future game, if they ever do another MMO. If they do another loot N shoot, pretty sure it will be a big fat fail too.

 

Reminds me of when Jordan decided he was going to be a Major League Baseball player. Sure, he did it, but in reality it just hurt his legacy and served more as a break away from basketball than it did at providing Jordan with a new profession.

 

It seems by the work they did, they were on a 5+ year hiatus with Anthem all the while letting SWTOR sit on a back burner neglected from being given any truly high quality features while they poured a lot of time and effort into a game they couldn't make right no matter how hard they tried. Anthem was doomed from the get go, it seems now looking back.

 

Disney had nothing to do with it. SWTOR was made by people who had no experience in making MMO, so they focused on solo content instead of creating good endgame content. So people reached endgame, saw there is barely anything to do and left. Long before Disney came around and bought SW.

 

I agree with this. ^

 

I'd have to see some concrete evidence regarding how EA or Disney is to blame for what has happened to BW over the years, and their lack of quality in game development recently.

 

Now, I think these parent companies probably could have had a bigger more positive impact on BW and games like Anthem and SWTOR, but without knowing their professional work arrangements, who knows what really is happening.

 

My guess is that EA has actually kept a hands off approach with BW, letting them do their "magic" while they manage themselves, and I think that's the problem here. BW seems like the prison where the inmates are running it. Lack of discipline, no one really held accountable for missteps no matter how often or bad the missteps are, it just seems like a circus tbh.

 

If people want to place BW's demise on EA or Disney, then I'd agree if only the blame was for NOT supervising BW properly. By giving them the reigns to their own fate, with no real direction or supervision, it seems they are incapable of managing themselves.

 

BW has proven incapable of following feedback from consumers, and this too has only damaged this game as time has gone on.

 

BW is oblivious to what it's own fanbase wants for SWTOR, and instead follows game design changes influenced by it's lead developers own personal interest in the game.

 

This becomes apparent when you see PVE being a necessary facet to gear up efficiently while gearing via PVP is not possible. All the gameplay activities center around conquest mats and running FPs/Ops for gears.

 

My point is, this is a clear conflict of interest and I believe this has only corrupted the process of this game being developed for future success. You can't isolate swaths of different player types and expect the game to continue growing especially when it's forced to cater to a niche group of players by it's own game design; PVE raiders.

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I think the primary thing that keeps SWTOR relevant at all is the fact that it's the only Star Wars MMO on the market. They could opt to do a revamp/massive upgrade to SW:TOR if EA said so, but they are more likely to do a sequel than re-invest the same amount of money it would cost to actually do that in an 8 year old game. As SW:TOR dwindles in popularity and profit margins begin to shrink we will see the next installment of this IP.

 

They can do a lot more now than they could when they were initially developing this game, and making a similar game in terms of story content would not cost as much as it cost them back then, when literally no one was doing this type of story-telling in an MMO. However, I kind of have my doubts that the next TOR installment will be an MMO as we know it to be today, but they will want to do something that fills the void before someone else does.

 

As for Anthem, I don't think it has a passionate or dedicated enough core fan-base to invest too heavily in it's revamp. I don't think it will pay off enough to be worth siphoning resources from SWTOR, or any other potential BioWare projects for. Personally I think that game is a curse that will do more harm to BioWare than good and I honestly wish it had never happened in the first place because the games people want from BioWare are paying the price for a game nobody ever asked for in the first place.

Edited by Jesira
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At this point, if they were to really reinvest in SWTOR in a heavy duty sense, I think what would make the most sense would be to make a SWTOR 2 of sorts. Make it more of an action MMO, or even an action adventure game with some online play to match the modern sensibilities (and since SWTOR as a basis doesn't have that much "MMO" in it anyway). Go all out on realistic graphics, character creation, and early development tools for more easily creating new story content in a way that doesn't require the same kind of upfront budget that SWTOR does. Then have a main story thread that does use some voice acting (excepting for the player character), again, to save on budgetary and time issues (e.g. don't repeat past mistakes). Put the emphasis on the RPG experience (player choices, branching storylines) over strictly cinematic storytelling in every scenario; they can win over some of the realistic graphics people with the graphics for the game as a whole and things like character creation, while winning over some of the more tabletop types with an emphasis on RPG in the gameplay itself.

 

In other words, learn lessons from past mistakes and make something that is more sustainable and less expensive to develop for on a foundation level, while still appealing to the Star Wars and storytelling RPG interests.

 

The only problem is, I don't know who EA could get to develop a game like that. Bioware austin has proven time and time again that they can barely handle online play, much less a "live service" model. Maybe with a better foundation of a game (e.g. without the myriad of longstanding issues in its construction), they'd be able to do better, but I don't have much faith in them at this point and EA probably doesn't either for a project like that.

 

I think in an ideal world, they'd find a way to have a bioware studio and some other studio with experience in online play and solid tech in general, work together, with bioware utilizing their experience in storytelling and the other studio utilizing their experience in tech. Any game that is going to last needs a solid foundation to work from on a tech level and I don't think any bioware studios have ever been great at that stuff.

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I'd say the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is this total detachment from reality, not just customers... This mentality has plagued SWTOR, too.

 

I guess it's a systemic issue that won't change as long as the same people remain at the helm steering this boat.

 

I am with you already on looking to the future. I just was in a melancholy mood and thinking about how badly EA/BW has dropped the ball here.

 

This game actually has survived thanks to really solid development with it's original chapters along with very entertaining stories and unmatched voice acting.

 

SWTOR has managed to survive in spite of neglect and truly awful design changes over the years, imagine had it been nurtured with game design changes that players actually liked versus many features and changes that have only served to push players off the game?

 

Imagine had they actually constructed the gameplay around skills and abilities that were properly balanced, instead of what seems to be just random numbers jammed into the game play?

 

I mean it's very clear no one tested for BW in PVP to see how all the numbers stacked up. DPS got a significant boost to their damage, while 2 of the three healers ate a nasty nerf that has made them impotent performing at a much lesser clip than they did prior to 6.0.

 

Point is not to point out all the flaws in 6.0 or even past updates, but instead to highlight just how far off base this game has fallen when considering how solid of a base it began with. Sure, it has a crappy engine, but that isn't what causes poorly designed updates and/or unfinished updates to be added to the game.

 

It's just comically funny that instead of making the good food on their plate as best as possible, they actually are looking at a plate of ground up garbage (anthem) and think it makes sense to grab that plate and try serving it along side of the plate that is decent, but not until they add some salt and pepper to it. No amount of salt and pepper can turn garbage into edible food, let alone good food. This is just dumb on their part.

 

Agreed. I like SWTOR in spite of its flaws and when it gets boring after a bit I need to take breaks but here I am again.

 

BioWare needs to stop believing in their BW Magic and go back to letting talent speak. The thing is that BW has never been a star at coding games but they used to be a star at telling a story through characters that open the world they create to your imagination and you care about the people in it.

 

They really should've known better than to get a half-finished engine thinking it's something they could finish properly. They should've just gotten a finished engine that could do what they needed and focused on the content instead.

 

Currently, I'm not even sure if BW is good at the content part of it. The last few games have a lot of characters in there that I simply couldn't care less about or just couldn't really connect to. The whole premise of the Pathfinder was weak in Andromeda or to put it in SW terms "vague and unconvincing". The Frostbite engine was another poor choice that required them to do a lot of work on the engine side rather than writing good stories and characters.

 

From the outside it seems so obvious that they're setting themselves up for failure time and again. Also Anthem shouldn't have been in Frostbite, it should've had a lot more content and they shouldn't have brainstormed for 4 years before having to rush to get anything out at all.

 

From my point of view DA4 is another disaster in the making. I'll wait for the final product but to be honest another attempt at live service with Frostbite when so many people have left BW in the meantime...dunno, it doesn't bode well.

 

So SWTOR is a game full of issues but at least we can still love it for the parts that are good, that relate to the world, the characters and especially the vanilla stories. Makes it easier to forgive some mistakes and you can't get it right every time either.

 

I do wonder what the apeal of 6.0 will be after the holidays. Anyone who plays a fair bit will be geared up by then and then the loot will just be superfluous entirely. That's something I hope they will address soon. Of course by monetizing decorations and cosmetics in general for the most part....makes it hard to come up with in-game rewards that are not loot. And then when you have a fast looting system, then people can get bored fast again as well.

 

So let's see what happens. BW needs to really rethink some of their strategies because SWTOR won't be around forever and after damaging the ME IP as well as Anthem and DA being shaky, they won't be able to lean on their past successes anymore and they'll need to have some current successes...

Edited by Tsillah
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I just wish they would properly capitalize on "The Mandalorian" hype. They need to do something, anything, to make use of that series being crazy popular! Everyone is talking about it! There are regular posts on Reddit from people coming back to this game because "The Mandalorian" gave them the Star Wars itch again. But capitalizing on the hype needs to happen asap, not months from now when season one is long over and the hype has already died.

 

If I were them, I'd get my art team making a Mando log in reward for the holidays, Mando themed cartel items and new Mando themed rewards for life day. And then I'd follow up with a short story patch based on the Mandalorians introduced in Onslaught.

 

Sigh, but we all know they've left for their 6-8 week vacation and nothing will be done to lure back players or keep the ones that did come back. Opportunity wasted.

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I just wish they would properly capitalize on "The Mandalorian" hype.

 

This is the big ball drop, so to speak. How do they not try to capitalize on this? Did they not know a new Star Wars movie would be coming out? Essentially these movies are free advertisement if they used them to help market this game. It’s like they are afraid to try to get people to come to the game, lol. Just another dropped opportunity to add to the hundreds of others. Just really seems like an immense loss of opportunity!

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