The end of the arguement. Is SWTOR in decline? Can it be saved?

A recent article I read suggested this.

It is a downtrend in MMOs in general, not just this one.

I'd say we're no lower than the 4th or maybe the 5th circle of hell (Greed and Anger respectively) whereas the GW2 Forums are probably 7th Circle, Violence. An example. On the GW2 forums your response to me wouldnt have been what you said above, instead what you would have said is:

"NOTHING IS WORSE THAN THE TOR FORUMS YOU BABY ****** MORON. THAT PLACE IS STUPID AND ONLY #%* #%*& NOOBS USE IT! L2PLAY YOU MORON."

No joke, nearly every response is just people yelling at each other, no joking, no kidding, no friendly puns or silliness, just raw anger and violence.

Those forums should be avoided like an outbreak of Rakghoul Plague.

English ...Do You Speak it?

It is a most wonderful word twisting thing huh?

Now does anyone here watch stocks to invest in? Thing is this, LAST YEAR THESE CUTS WERE PREDICTED, because the titles were OVERBUDGET. Now its RUMERED that is going to happen because of this or that.

Its a coorprate move, that has been linked to SWTOR going down the drain.

Has anyone seen or played Champions online? Star Trek online? As much of a trekkie as I am, if these game havent died, I highly doubt this on will for some time to come, and EA is still a heavy hitter that knows when they got a licence to make cash, and here it is wrapped up in a Star Wars bow, not to mention the long relationship Lucas Arts has with EA.

If you want to link these layoffs, that I might add , Has not been confirmed on layoffs or reasons, then show me a press release from EA saying SWTOR is Failing, or that they have future plans on letting Lucus Arts down and pulling the plug.

NOT to mention Bioware wasnt just hatched out of an egg, they have more than one succesful title under their belts to make revenue with, doubt they are going to let this investment go after all this.

Rottons Worthless Opinion...take it for what it is worth

2nd link is broken

That was what caused me to finally leave DAoC.

Don't know about TOR specifically, but video game sales in general have decreased significantly. It's party due to the general decline of the world economy and the continued diversification of entertainment. Many more people are spending their time on smartphones or just not playing video games at all...i.e. surfing the web and interacting on social networking sites.

Sources:

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/7304...lunge-in-march

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/0...tware-decline/

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wir...9#.T4y-Je2y6mQ

Read this where EA denies the rumor

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rumou...layoffs/094475

or

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/04/1...ayoff-rumours/

If proven true I'm sad for the peons who did their best to salvage the game from your total lack of vision and good management.


That being said, first look at these topics and do a reality check:

Start here, go through this and maybe double check with that.

Now whatever you do:

Top priority: either merge the clusters or offer free character transfer.

This has to be done in a semi controlled way, meaning use this to balance factions.
If you don't then the game is doomed. Don't even waste people time and $$$ doing anything else on the game before.


Then the game, (if you still want to call it a MMO), has mostly 2 majors issues:

1. Lack of content at level 50
2. Lack of world PvP

You need to add more and even more instances and world content for PvErs. Don't imagine any number because it won't ever be enough: it's an MMO. You will never be able to deliver content fast enough. So just keep it coming the faster you can, in a polished way.
In due time you'll have fluffy and sandbox content that'll close the gap for you.


Now for PvP people always gets bored very fast of Warzones. You can add PvP (and PvP) ranked arenas to mitigate the issue still it won't do the trick. It would just be a plaster. Especially on PvP server you need to make PvP "available" anywhere = on any planets and from level 1. Note I did not say promote griefing nor ganking. As long as PvP = instanced something, or specific planets only it doesn't works.


Once you'll done the above you'll be able to dig in things like adding a decent 3d space sim, working on things like making the world feel more alive, add playable wookies/droids, housing furnishing and other non combat based activities.


Top of that never ever forget the roots of the game:

• It's Star Wars: not AoC Wars, not Rift Wars, not Diablo Wars, not Wow shoulder pads Wars
• Characters locked in iconic roles = no cross skills transfers
• Factions being locked = no same faction PvP
• Class story
• Special note: ditch the specific color palette for planets and classes.

And please do something to get rid of most of the loading screens

As far as saved can go...

Game is in rough shape from the beginning because of the engine and the nature of MMO and PvP.

Many good 'fixes' have come already and I think the current team will find good use for PvP and Warzones, maybe even Ilum eventually.

PvP Story lines are still kinda less then epic once one has done it once. I mean there isn't a lot of replayability in the scope of all the Planets...

Can it be saved....

So far I see a problem with it's core style - PvE. Although touted as very much PvE, it seems to lack IN stories, just a run-through storyline per character. For example I would expect extensive multi-direction Companion Side quests.

Daily's - Pretty big waste of time IMO, they should be so grindy with the idea.

I think the rest of the game will come along nicely, even Operations.

Yes I think there is one major flaw that probably won't change, the general theme just isn't that MMO'ish even though many parts are very quality.

Probably will never get to WoW status, just a steady 1.5 million... That sounds like a money maker to me, I hope EA can get it together and not look so much like trash.

SWTOR seems to be well funded I don't think there is anything that they can't do, frankly, except hurt themselves by knowingly mis-target their audience here. What they have now is a success for everyday SW fans and young MMO players in general love it all around already!

I don't think it will be saved to become a true Categorical Pinnacle, no, it's far too Pop. It likely will never earn "favorite of all time" recognition, but anything is still possible. I'd give it another 18 months before completely writing it off, BW has a lot of work to accomplish and they WILL delive 'something'.

cheers