For those of you interested, a new video is up commentating on some of the major problems that swtor is having in regards to keeping a lot of its initial players.

 

Now please be aware, even though i go into some detail over the course of the video, I am personally not detoured from playing the game yet.

I still very much enjoy the games pvp aspec and think its well implemented, my only issue is the lack of content in this area but i am willing to give the game a few more months to see what comes.

 

please enjoy -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFlPcydWzLI

Uggh I dont want to sit and watch a video of someone complaining about something that isnt the games focus. Especially when said person claims that their opinion is 100% correct when opinions are just that opinions.

For those of you interested, a new video is up commentating on some of the major problems that swtor is having in regards to keeping a lot of its initial players.

 

Now please be aware, even though i go into some detail over the course of the video, I am personally not detoured from playing the game yet.

I still very much enjoy the games pvp aspec and think its well implemented, my only issue is the lack of content in this area but i am willing to give the game a few more months to see what comes.

 

please enjoy -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFlPcydWzLI

 

Sorry my friend, 15mins of video just saying the same thing, what has already been pointed out many times on the forum, isn't something to 'enjoy'. I would rather shove burning razorblades in my eyes.

 

I understand what your trying to do, but do people really want to see what they already see for themselves in game?

Nothing. What's wrong is the playerbase.

 

But nothing a mass extinction can't fix.

 

*charges Death Star*

Nothing. What's wrong is the playerbase.

 

But nothing a mass extinction can't fix.

 

*charges Death Star*

 

Haha your post made me think of this pic showing the 5 day weather forecast for alderann

 

Monday - 25c

Tues - 30c

Weds - 15,000c

So what IS wrong with Swtor?

 

An awful lot less than at release, they are progressing SWTOR very well.

 

Having said that SWTOR was released too early (probably 6 months too early), and it is too linear and static - most everything else stems from that (it was a bit like releasing 1/2 a great game at Live).

 

But in another 6 months if they keep the rate of developement up, the game is going to be an awful lot better.

 

The only thing they did absolutely terribly was RvR/Ilum. I've really got no idea what was going on there (and they don't seem to either).

 

 

 

Also a 3D Space Expansion is frankly a game changer, if they do that well, then the sky is the limit.

Uggh I dont want to sit and watch a video of someone complaining about something that isnt the games focus. Especially when said person claims that their opinion is 100% correct when opinions are just that opinions.

 

Its my comments and opinions based on my own experience and the opinions of others, everyone has their view.

This video's goal isn't to "Just" complain about the game but to offer more suggestive idea's to fix it by pointing out its problems. As i've said, a lot of my regular gaming friends have already left this game for others due to boredom and that is very disappointing as i myself still enjoy it.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Heraseth

I've always wanted to write one 'IBTL' post, this is it.

I would rather shove burning razorblades in my eyes.

 

Sounds fun...

Edited April 25, 2012 by Lord_Ravenhurst

The only thing they did absolutely terribly was RvR/Ilum. I've really got no idea what was going on there (and they don't seem to either).

 

At least they admitted Ilum was a failure, and have went back to doing a complete redesign. Other games would just let it continue on never fixing it. They would just release something new someday, and keep the old in place.

For those of you interested, a new video is up commentating on some of the major problems that swtor is having in regards to keeping a lot of its initial players.

 

Now please be aware, even though i go into some detail over the course of the video, I am personally not detoured from playing the game yet.

I still very much enjoy the games pvp aspec and think its well implemented, my only issue is the lack of content in this area but i am willing to give the game a few more months to see what comes.

 

please enjoy -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFlPcydWzLI

 

is that you in the video???

The only wrong stuff with this game is BW listened the pre-release wall of QQ about LFG tool crosserver PVP , and now almost everyone rerolled on high populated server making mid-low just phantom servers .

 

So that said please BW focus on LFG tool with crosserver PVP and maybe your game will raise or maybe its to late.

the game is fine, the lack of players is what is wrong.

It's supposed to be an MMO , not a single player game with nothing to do but the same boring dailies, basicly it might as well put in a 'game over' screen on some servers since they are to dead for end game, time for bioware to actually address this issue or atleast let the community know what if anything they plan to do about it.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Bubalous

the game is fine, the lack of players is what is wrong.

It's supposed to be an MMO , not a single player game with nothing to do but the same boring dailies, basicly it might as well put in a 'game over' screen on some servers since they are to dead for end game, time for bioware to actually address this issue or atleast let the community know what if anything they plan to do about it.

 

Well short of Xserver LFG or forcing people to rename themselves after Server merging, there is not a lot Bioware can do.

 

If you have an idea, please share.

Large part of the most vocal complainers are PVPers, who, in all MMOs, will always complain. Balance in MMO pvp can never be achieved anyway.. These are the people who claim that they will leave if things arent fixed blah blah since they are extremely impatient and have the attention span of a mosquito.

 

Part are hardcore raiders who actually have a valid point in complaining about the bugs, since to be frank; SWTOR operations have been some of the most buggy MMO content I have laid eyes on during past two decades. They are getting better but there are still persisting bugs.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Karkais

What's wrong with SWTOR?

 

A lot of things, but nothing that will make me watch a biased video based on someone else's interpretation of it. (I don't listen to podcasts either. Why watch and listen when you can read an argument quicker?)

 

The issue of sub numbers arose on Kotaku the other day and I summed up my thoughts pretty much there:

http://kotaku.com/5904663/bioware-says-the-old-republic-subscription-numbers-arent-dropping?comment=49168384#comments

Edited May 3, 2012 by llesna

We all know the basic issues of the game, they're working on fixing that. I trust the developers. Anyway, back to some swtor gaming!

While yes there are some who generally won't bother with watching video's or commentary's, podcasts, but there are still many others who will and would like to see a 15 min video, over hours of searching for forum topics for information that may or may not contain something to make them feel like they are not alone in thinking this way.

Granted this is subjective and i respects personal opinions on this.

 

Some here also say that this has been posted a thousand times before, so why hasn't something already being done about it? There are hundreds of working item models in game that just need a lick of paint and an ilevel change to bring some gear variate to end game while the designers buy time to get new and improved designs into the game, does anyone believe this should take 6 months work?

 

Why haven't they made it rewarding for players to go out and take part in world pvp? The implementation is already there, we've seen a portion of it in ilum, would it really take that many months to tweak this so those who are on pvp servers can actually enjoy world pvp and feel rewarded outside of warzones?

 

These are just a couple of the points i cover, The video recognizes problems with the game and offers suggestions to fix them, suggestions that are not outside the realm of reasonable fix time, some areas admittedly i do delve into would require quite some time to change, but these are the suggestive points. Like the space missions, secondary professions..etc

 

Last couple of points on the video, once again this is not an attack on swtor, those of you jumping to defense of the game i can understand, but actually watch the video before doing so, I'm offering constructive criticism to the game to help improve it the best way i know how.

If people wish to attack any of the points made, then so be it, however i will only take constructive and mature points/posts seriously.

 

FYI! I'm Irish, not Slovene.

some valid points in the video...

Thank you for posting this thread and the accompanying video. I'm assuming you're a professional game reviewer given the quality of the commentary.

 

I'd like to see more gamers like you on US servers.

 

Ciao, bello.

Some here also say that this has been posted a thousand times before, so why hasn't something already being done about it?

"Something?" Like what? There's some things about game development (and software dev in general) that you are ignoring. You are also ignoring that Bioware has addressed the repeated requests. They *will* be updating the LFG tool. They *will* be addressing server population. They already said so. The fact that they haven't dropped everything else for 1 feature, but have instead worked it into the future expansion of the game is a *good* thing. Again, you aren't considering how development realistically works.

 

There are hundreds of working item models in game

It seems you answered your next "question" yourself.

 

Why haven't they made it rewarding for players to go out and take part in world pvp?

If they say they will, but want to be sure to get it right, would that be enough for you for now? There will be merc commendations for open world PvPing. They have said so. But, PvP rewards are still in flux right now, and certainly won't be settled until 1.3. It's better for them to play conservative on the rewards now, rather than make a mess they can't clean up later. (I know, doesn't solve the "but my preferred method of play is best and I want it now" problem).

 

The implementation is already there, we've seen a portion of it in ilum, would it really take that many months to tweak

Did you see Ilum in the beta? The answer to your question is "yes, it does, and sometimes, things still don't come out right and have to be scrapped at release."

 

These are just a couple of the points i cover, The video recognizes problems with the game

The video reviews the different types of gameplay, calls them boring, and tells us that BW needs more players who want to PvP with you. And that we need fishing on Alderaan.

 

Now, I think swtor is severely lacking. In fact, the cooking thing? I want that too.

But you are treating this game like it's 2 years old, though. WoW, as far as I know, did not have *any* of the features you like in its first year. TOR has launched with as much leveling content as 10 years of WoW, in addition to an initial start at PvP, scavenger hunts, crafting, etc. The systems are all in place, and BW is building content *very* quickly. I mean, 3 Operations available in the first 4 months? But you want to dress as a rainbow clown, as you say in the video.

 

My point is, I'm not at all content with TOR--it had better not stay as it is, or I won't keep paying. But what's there for now is vast, and across this enormous platform, Bioware will continue to build more of everything. I think that if the only problem you find with TOR, in general, is that it isn't mature enough yet, then that's actually not so bad after all.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Journeyer

"Something?" Like what? There's some things about game development (and software dev in general) that you are ignoring. You are also ignoring that Bioware has addressed the repeated requests. They *will* be updating the LFG tool. They *will* be addressing server population. They already said so. The fact that they haven't dropped everything else for 1 feature, but have instead worked it into the future expansion of the game is a *good* thing. Again, you aren't considering how development realistically works.

 

If you watched the video you will see I didn't cover either of these because neither of these are the direct cause of people leaving over the past 3 months, a huge majority of which don't bother to voice their opinions with the forums but instead talk among friends,family and colleagues. If the instances were fun, challenging, rewarding and took more time and experience to complete, people would find a way to get groups and stick around. Heavy emphasizes on rewarding.

What you have mentioned are the necessary actions bioware needs to implement to try keep their remaining low/med population servers together by merging them. As it stands, the remaining people who do still enjoy the instances can no longer spend as much time doing them due to having long wait times in finding people. I too fall into this category because the large majority of my own friends have left the game due to the boredom with the *existing* content.

 

If they say they will, but want to be sure to get it right, would that be enough for you for now? There will be merc commendations for open world PvPing. They have said so. But, PvP rewards are still in flux right now, and certainly won't be settled until 1.3. It's better for them to play conservative on the rewards now, rather than make a mess they can't clean up later. (I know, doesn't solve the "but my preferred method of play is best and I want it now" problem).

 

Unfortunately not, this was a comment on a general design decision which I personally think has cost them a lot of subscriptions to which I explained why. This however goes a lot deeper then I think you give credit for and not something that can be fixed over night or in coming months. I mentioned ilum to point out a reward system for killing players was already in play on release, that same or similar reward system could have been a base on players from day 1. Would it have made a difference to leveling? IMO Absolutely, it would have helped to entice world pvp, the potential for low level raids on enemy camps, more chat in social channels and more people making more friends, causing more distraction and time all during the peek months.

As it stands now, I don't know the effects of throwing it in for newcomers or people leveling alts, the sense of watching your back out in the open worlds and or any hate I should have for the republic as a sith is mostly diminished.

 

Now, I think swtor is severely lacking. In fact, the cooking thing? I want that too.

But you are treating this game like it's 2 years old, though. WoW, as far as I know, did not have *any* of the features you like in its first year. TOR has launched with as much leveling content as 10 years of WoW, in addition to an initial start at PvP, scavenger hunts, crafting, etc. The systems are all in place, and BW is building content *very* quickly. I mean, 3 Operations available in the first 4 months? But you want to dress as a rainbow clown, as you say in the video.

 

My point is, I'm not at all content with TOR--it had better not stay as it is, or I won't keep paying. But what's there for now is vast, and across this enormous platform, Bioware will continue to build more of everything. I think that if the only problem you find with TOR, in general, is that it isn't mature enough yet, then that's actually not so bad after all.

 

I think you missed or I failed at getting across some key information in the start of the video when I stated, the video is an analysis to what *could have* being done differently with the *existing* content and functionality to make people stick around longer.

I'm not looking at this from a direct *oh its missing this and that* but from a, if this was tweaked a little differently here and there prior or swiftly after launch, it may have had more of an impact on the many people who started and stuck this game for a couple of months but ultimately left.

 

Bioware made an amazing single player game, the experience leveling up was outstanding and I personally still enjoy the lvl 50 pvp content as I'm sure many others do. The real cracks only actually appeared at endgame and my view on this was simply to look at what they could have done a *little* differently to buy themselves a lot more TIME for the many thousands of subscription that ultimately left while waiting for content releases. I'm saying that they simply needed more ways to distract the player.

 

Content being a lot harder = more time to complete

Raid content being a lot harder = more time to complete

More unique items = more time spent trying to get them

World pvp incentive = more time leveling and helping friends

Trades being harder = more time spent on this

Dark side/light side points having double the difficultly for good rewards = more time spent

Ultimately all this and a lot more the game already has the ability to offer could have helped to sustain many many more people until new content arrived.

 

I'm personally not about to jump the wagon, I'll give them the time and money based alone on the work that went into the single player aspect to allow the mmo aspect to really kick off, its an unfortunate reality though, that not everyone thinks this way.

Its my comments and opinions based on my own experience and the opinions of others, everyone has their view.

This video's goal isn't to "Just" complain about the game but to offer more suggestive idea's to fix it by pointing out its problems. As i've said, a lot of my regular gaming friends have already left this game for others due to boredom and that is very disappointing as i myself still enjoy it.

 

Having watched your video... up to around the 8 min mark.... you didn't really offer any suggestions tho....

 

You know a complaint I have is all the load screens... we all know they can be a pain when you are into a good grinding groove and have to switch planets or just go train new skills. They recent tried to cut some of it out by allowing you to go directly to your ship from a planet that has a orbital station. But you can't do that going down to the planet.

 

Fix the load screen times... or cut more out and the game won't be as bad..... Having watched quit a few you tube videos.. it seems like alot of players are sitting for a minute or more on a load screen just to switch to another area in 30 secs. Make load screen for instances.. be they quest ot others.. but cut out the loading of each hop to get to a planet.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Excorsion

Nothing I'm having fun

The problem is simple, low population servers. I can't find a reason to even log in now, lvling an alt is pointless, there is virtualy noone on a planet to group with, there's noone to run flashpoints with at current lvls, etc. The game itself is great, the problem is bioware can't take the heat of the badpress by closing servers that are far to underpopulated. I would like to play the game, but bioware has made it almost impossible for me to play this massive multi player game they designed around the idea of "mmo".