Star Wars: The Old Republic – State of the Game

I agree with what people are saying. The SUB price was NOT driving people away, it's the quality of the game. I've been playing since Closed Beta and this game feels like WOW with Star Wars Skins. I don't feel like I own anything in this Universe and I don't feel like I"m playing my own story, everything is predetermined.

I HATE the mini space game. You could take some lessons from Star Wars Galaxies. People LOVED building their own ships out of parts from crafters and they LOVED having furniture they could move around their ships and having player housing. The entire game feels like it's on rails and that's what's driving people away.

Two things I'm looking for basically for the leveling experience. One was stated earlier, but different areas to level or different planets so each new alt doesn't have to do the same quests, over and over and over. I'm leveling my fourth 50, and I just can't stand doing the same quests.

The other thing that would make leveling so much more interesting, actually have the quest lines of each faction cross paths a lot more. I never see Imperials while I'm leveling cause their quest lines take up one half of the map, and mine take up the other half. You just don't run into each other unless you wan to explore, but then you take the chance of running into lots of the opposite faction which doesn't usually end well.

Oh, and Lag and Crashing... Lag spikes are unbearable at times. There was a time a couple days ago, where no one on fleet on our server could basically do anything. You couldn't move, running in spot, and couldn't click anything. All you could do was type in general for 30 seconds at a time, multiple times. Then there's the crashing.... since 1.4, I have crashed every single day I have played at least once. Usually it's not during boss fights in operations, but it does get annoying cause it takes like 5 minutes to load the game back up each time.

Thank you for the update; it's good to get an idea of the Big Picture at the studio.

I'm not convinced that the subscription fee was the whole story behind people dropping subs; I think the days of people playing one game for months at a time are over. It's too crowded and interesting a marketplace, and people will flit back and forth between different things. I'm not sure whether F2P will be a solution for SWTOR, but I hope it is. People can flit back, pay for what they want, and flit away again at will. So, obviously, frequent updates and new content fits into this style of playing.

Thanks, too for the information on the APAC servers. Please consider a merge; OW PvP is purportedly non-existent on the PvP server anyhow, and there's no RP on Gav Daragon apart from what people organise in-guild, so I suspect the majority of players would be fine with a merge to PvE. Perhaps a merge, followed by transfers for those who prefer a particular play-type over a ping rate.

Unresolved questions:

• Single Gender Romances. You've said they are coming. Any timeline for that?
• Super Secret Space Project. Yes, I know it's a Secret. But some info would be Super.
• Mini-games; when are those Hutts going to get their acts into gear, and bring Pazaak into the casinos?

SOOOO true. The price isnt the issue as much as they think. I can play wow for $15 dollars a month, which since I subscribe to SWTor, I guess I am. They followed the wow model so closely guess what we got? Wowtor. Not that there arent things in swtor that I like better than wow, and thats why I am still playing swtor. It is however pretty much the same game.
I use the Pork fried rice analogy: I dont like onions, so the place that makes their pork fried rice without onions is where I am going to go. Really though, pork fried rice is pork fried rice where ever you go.

EDIT: End game gear grinds, PvP gear grinds, stacking stats, ....its been done. Yes the stories are good, some are great. Yes companion systems is fairly versatile and useful in game. Thats the big inovation? I watched these forums for a longtime before I signed up and watched the dreams of something different: No trinity, Statless modable gear, get dwindles down by corperate doche's into Wow in a star wars skin, which for all the "innovation" is what we got. I've said it before a, here it is again: To want to emmulate Wow success isnt bad, but you copied their game almost to the letter in mechanics.

My initial impression of Disney's emphasis on games in their business is, it doesn't look good for this game. I could be wrong, and it could go eitherway. They certainly have the money. If they care and have the balls and brains to come tear it up maybe this game can become something more than a passtime.

Seems as though the devs have finally realized this.

Nice post!

I am from Europe but for the Oceanic server problem is it that hard to promote the game in other parts of Asia like Japan, Thai, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

I have a question:

However before I write the question I would like to post some rough assumptions on my behalf. Out of 10 players, about 8-9 of them would be there for the PvE content while only 1 of them would be there for the PvP content. There would be a few of those players that enjoy both, but they would have priority to one or the other. I am assuming these statistics are accurate from my own observations and from surveys done in previous MMO games.

So my question is as follows:

Assuming that at LEAST 10% of the player base is ONLY for PvP why is less than 10% of the content directly related to PvP.

And before I get the follow as an answer: "You got PvP weapon in 1.4"

They were a joke with barely an increase of +6-12 bonus power. The pure reason they were implemented is because they couldn't release a patch 'without' any content for PvP.

I was also going to make a comment about balance changes d but this comment is too long already, so I will save that for another time.

So in conclusion:
When will content changes be made with the amount of PvP players taken into account?

Thank you for putting out a state of the game blog. You are going to have a tough job for awhile, but I do appreciate it.

I haven't quite picked out the format, but something that might help:

1. A short statement of the game's health. (We may not agree, but I think it's there.)

2. What went wrong (1-3 items), and what is in place to prevent it from happening again. (Here a detail or example of what is in place may inject more confidence into the discussion)

3. What is going well (1-3 items), and how you are going to maintain or leverage that for the future.

4. The next three to four things in development to get released in order from nearest to latest (I don't think you need to even say 'this fall', just have them in relative order). This will tell us what to look forward to, and give you fodder for future what is going well, and not so well sections. You can of course leave out surprises (like the rakghoul plague event and hold out and later sprinkle in things like mini-games) and then place those in to tide us over.

I have seen state of the game pieces from other companies and I really like them. I know it's tough right now, but keep at it. I know I'll be glad you did.

When are we going to see same gender relationships??

1. the game is broken, with many many issues. I know my self and others have addressed, I know for a fact that even some bioware employees had agreed and posted about in the beta forums before launch. While it looks stunning, you have failed to understand the wants and needs of MMO players. And the idea of a deliverable product.

2. If you think that statement is true you should really retire now. as YOU clearly have no clue what the player base wants as players. While I know F2P can be a good thing. If it is controlled or structured by EA, its going to end up like so many other company's they have destroyed. in the trash and completely useless. the real issue is you served both customer service and game play at a substandard. Sorry the excuse that it was a *new game* and a freshly launched game is not a good enough excuse. You say you have a couple games under your belt and have been in the industry for 12 years. You would think with the amount time in MMO games and with the amount of MMO games out there you would by now understand what they want. And with the technology level be able to at least produce a game at the current fielded level of the MMO gaming not take steps backwards.
WoW wouldn't have 10million subs. EQ, L2 would not have lasted as long as they have. SWG still had subs until its forced closer. Other games that while they sucked still held on to subs and are able to continue functioning. And Eve one of the most brutal games out there still using a sub and slowly growing in players.

3. Again. You seem to be lost. It was not the issue at all. The problem was the content you put out was substandard and in some cases completely broken. I wont get in to the fact that what *bioware* said was going to be released and what was actually released was 2 completely different things.

On a side note. Instead of focusing on continuing to turn this in to a money grab for EA I.E. turn the game in to F2P, you should have been focusing on fixing the issues at hand and listening to the customer base that you forcefully shunned and pushed away and fix the game at hand.

PS. maybe you should have been the one in charge of the art department as the top tier gear is ugly as hell.. And by looking at your tattoo(or your tattooist) you have a better grasp at what looks cool then the current art department.
Also the BS about developers leaving and what not is just that BS. its better to not say anything at all then to put out false statements. it make us think you think we are idiots or tools and don't actually follow whats going on behind closed doors. Some of us live in austin and know bioware employees. And it bothers me to hear from my friend about the truth and then see lies posted.
Your *awards* mean nothing if the game is failing....

(PS: i apologize of for grammar errors and spelling.)