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SWTOR May Still Be Headed Down a Dark Path (LONG POST)


MOPSFounder

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Let's Take a Trip Down a Sinking Ship Memory Lane...

 

EA Investor Calls In early January, this game was reported to have sold more than 2mil copies and had 1.7mil subs (a number inflated by EA investor calls). Later in March or most likely April I believe, this game was reported by EA investor calls to have 1.3mil subs (more inflated numbers). Finally, on July 31st, 2012, EA investor calls revealed this game had over 500k subs but less than 1mil (very vague response). The July 31st investor call was made prior to the end of players' 6 month subs (it was really 8 months for those still subscribed because you received 1 "free" month after buying the game and 1 other "free" month after Game Update 1.2).

 

 

The inflated 1.7mil subs (inflated number) reported in early January down to 500k–1mil reported on July 31st is one thing that proves that this game is a TORtanic to the majority of the MMO community. I stress that these numbers were inflated because many, many people stopped playing and most likely unsubbed during or before their "free months" ended.

 

I think this game's niche community will be for those that are altoholics and love re-rolling, experience the Story but don't mind the on-rails experience, and are majority PvE players. I think that community will just show up post-F2P and we'll see how big (or small :o) this niche is.

 

Game Updates The Rise of the Rakghouls Game Update was released on January 18, 2012—29 days after official release of SWTOR (36 days after day 1 of EGA). Not only that, this update was actually delayed for 24 hours! It FINISHED the unfinished 'Karagga's Palace' Operation and gave us a Tier 1 Flashpoint.

 

On April 12, 2012—87 DAYS after 1.1—Legacy was finally released. If I remember correctly, I remember this patch was somewhat of a flop since it disappointed a part of the community (this just partially sums it up). We FINALLY got a new Warzone, a TIER 2 Flashpoint known as 'Lost Island' and received the new Operation known as 'Explosive Content'—which was MISSING its Nightmare Mode difficulty and still is to this day. By the way, the Operation and WZ brought you a "new" planet called Denova, which is nothing more than a measly instance. :p

 

 

Not only that, but during the MMORPG.com Panel at PAX East, James Ohlen said this: "For 2012 we really want players to feel like they're getting their money's worth. You're going to see so many changes and additions to the Star Wars universe. It's going to be impressive. We have our Update 1.2 coming in the next week and then after that it's going to continue to roll out month after month. It's exciting."

 

My reaction to this day: ".........."

 

On June 26, 2012—68 DAYS after 1.2—Allies was finally released. We FINALLY got the Group Finder. The Group Finder was something that was, in my opinion, needed for this game. We also got some new Legacy perks, Adaptive Gear (something else the community really wanted), Augment Unlocks and finally... RATED WARZONES. RWZs were supposed to be in 1.2, but EAWare turned their back on us 24 hours before that patch hit live and told RWZs weren't going to be in 1.2.

 

Unfortunately, this patch was also more feature-heavy than it was content-heavy. So honestly, we really haven't really received much new content if you still want to count the RWZs (which are still stuck in its "Pre-season") and that lackluster Chevin Conglomerate World Event.

 

 

We also have

video that James Ohlen was in. I really had to say this but I feel bad for him having to read off those scripts. They need to give their developers time to read over scripts before putting them in front of a camera. It makes them sound like William Shatner: "And… the new… features coming in… this great patch…1.3… called Allies… are really… awesome."

 

As for Terror From Beyond... (Coming Soon™ on September 26th) 90 DAYS after 1.3! This patch has taken the #1 spot as the patch with the lengthiest amount of time to be released from its predecessor. 90 days... and from analyzing what this patch will entail it's yet another feature-heavy patch just like 1.3.

 

I'm more of a PvP-oriented player and let me say this patch looks disappointing. The only content we get is 'Terror From Beyond' and I'm not even geared enough to do it. I play Operations but I play PvP a whole lot more, and even looking at what most of the community said about the new tier of gear it just sounds very disappointing.

 

We get some much needed Group Finder mechanic expansion, a few new facial emotes and a few Companion Customization options like we do with our characters. It just mirrors what 1.3 was and may be is in place to keep most of the players occupied until F2P hits... :(

 

 

Well looks like this patch has been followed up by a broken GTN for ALMOST 24 hours. A patch was launched at 5am EST/2am PST and ended at almost 6am EST/3am PST, and the GTN is missing a few selections and is still broken. Furthermore, the text appears to be smaller with black outlines on it and it seems some players are having trouble with the Space missions.

 

Looks like EAWare wanted to meet the deadline first and care about quality later. With each and every patch that comes out, it seems like these devs almost always break something important and they fail to possibly give something in-game as an apology, or do something to make sure they're aware of the issue and that they'll do something to make sure they have their customers' support.

 

It seems like the devs don't care about keep their customers content while they're trying to fix something really major in-game. :(

 

Lack of Communication in July If you all remember, back in July the devs seemingly never responded or talked about anything. The only thing that kept their communication up was the Tomb of Freedom Nadd's chat always going down. Then on July 31st, 2012, the EA Investor Call announced the dreadful F2P announcement... which sparked an outcry by many forum-goers. In response to the outcry, CommunitySupport finally came back and swept up most of the "QQ/Hate threads".

 

Server Queues This is a big one, phew! Back when it was released, my god, pretty much every server had a queue from 5mins to like 1 or 2hrs! Outcry by the community got EAWare to create loads of other servers, which in turn backfired, and lead many of the players to create their own destination server—The Fatman—and left their original characters in limbo in their "dying" servers to go to that PvP server during the time EAWare didn't respond to the recommendation of server merges or character transfers.

 

Finally, somewhere in mid-June, EAWare implemented character transfers, created these "super-servers", and ultimately with these transfers crippled The Fatman server. Further players unsubscribing and not playing placed a dent on The Fatman server. Finally... Guild Wars 2. PvP servers were mainly affected, but overall the game was still bleeding out players.

 

On September 18, 2012, these mega-servers were created and merged several origin (and even destination servers like The Fatman) into populated destination servers. In the end, the APAC servers were highly ignored. This thread explains more on the situation at hand with the APAC community.

 

(Some) Last Words... As you can see with the current information I've provided about SWTOR's timeline about management and content/patch releases, I think this game is somewhat of a TORtanic. It deserves that moniker frankly because of how EAWare has been handling the game and how they tried to cater to too many crowds during pre-launch.

 

James Ohlen even said content would be rolling out monthly after 1.2, and now they're saying post-F2P we'll be getting something EVERY 6 weeks? For all we know, the first thing we'll get 6 weeks after F2P will be delayed just like patch 1.1 was or worst of all, just like RWZs were.

 

Many players are still complaining how this game still has bugs that haven't been fixed since launchand now 1.4 has multiplied the amount of bugs present in this game. It seems like EAWare is making its CURRENT paying player-base wait on F2P content because all they care about currently is their UPCOMING influx of new players. Their communication to the community is poor and when they do communicate, they answer questions without ACTUALLY answering them.

 

The docs of BioWare have retired, or so they say, so it seems like EA will be more in control of what BioWare does with this game.

 

The Force just isn't really strong with this game right now, and the Force in it will continue to diminish if EAWare keeps making poor management and business decisions with this game. :(

Edited by MOPSFounder
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I see your points however, I cant leave this game, like with SWG I'm always pulled back.

 

I just don't find the grass any greener anywhere else.

 

I un-subbed but I'm back after trying other MMO's and to be honest I'm glad I came back when I did. The server merge for me was good (though i had no name change required) and I don't suffer much with ques tho I'm glad there is the odd short wait as it means there is actually people on there.

 

I finally find it east to get the Heroics etc done cos there is people to help. The community in the most part on this game is fantastic, helpful and friendly so looks like most the whining kids have left.

 

They still claim to be working on the "huge" (as they put it) space project and the F2P model which for me is now an MMO requirement (tho they must get it right).

 

I love the game and it draws me back, i don't think you pump the money into F2P setup and a space upgrade if you have given up the game. Its an MMO, its fixable and its very young. The only ones who will destroy this game is the people leaving too early and not giving support for a game they wanted to succeed.

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I stopped playing SP games when DLC started becoming all the rage. TOR is the last MMO I'm going to give any opportunity to keep me entertained for any length of time. If it fails, I'm done with video games, period. I'm going to stick with books. Edited by Nyghtfal
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Yes, they did quit Bioware, both have posted their fare-well letters.

And, yes, that means EA will have a bigger say in Bioware.

 

They decided to ignore their subscribers and put all their hopes on f2p: they abandoned their subscribers with no new content for months, they lied to them, they disappointed them with their renames, thir refusal to copy to PST... all that resulted in the loss of 2 million customers.

 

We'll see what f2p brings. I doubt it will save the game, but they made it so that it's the only thing that's left.

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The biggest thing they did was cater to the casual gamers. Making the game to easy on pve aspect screwed them when it came to end game. Far to easy for players to burn threw. Pvp wise they fuked with world pvp. Not enough mix of players crossing. Orgin planets I get, all the other planet should of had major flow of action if players crossed Paths. Illum well that speaks for itself. Warzones are fine but they lack large scale warzones. Limit of 8 Players per side??? Really is that all they can manage? I was pumped for this game an enjoy the hell out of it when I was sub.

 

I did NOT unsub because of the price. Game as a whole is worth the monthly fee if the add on to it as promised and fixed it up as they went. I have moved on to another mmo, an I don't believe I'll be coming back even when it's free. EA is a company that has ruined many other game in which I enjoyed in the past until they merged or bought them. Today those games are still being made but now they are cheap an dumb. An I have a good feeling that ToR is going to suffer the same fate.

Let's put warhammer guy (don't recall the name) in charge, you know he did so well with the mmo warhammer. It's a shame this game has turned out to be just like Swg. I'm not certain which one was a bigger failure at this point.

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Yes, Yet again a game company tells us how 'excited' they are and how much they 'care' about the community. I was on a dying sever, that died. I could log on and be the only person on a planet.

 

I rang, emailed and posted on the forums, but NEVER, not once got any official response. No information, or explanation to what was being done. To make matters worse I had to sit back and watch other people enjoy new content.

 

I have been, like others a long time supporter of these game companies, and I expected better.

 

So, why don't I leave? To be honest, there is nothing out there, if there was a game released that was decent I would be off.

 

But to give them credit, they still took my money every month, they give me a dismal service, but made sure they took the cash.

 

No apologies, no recognition and just feel like they could not care less about the same gamer's who have supported them for years.

 

Disappointed gamer (as per normal!)

 

*** Character transfer - took way too long to be introduced, should have been in since release or soon after.***

Edited by righrughrpgrpg
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I'm sorry but I had a hard time getting past the first paragraph. Inflated numbers? Based on what information? What do you have that proves their numbers were lower than what they said they were? Yes I finished reading and while some points are valid you simply throw out conjecture as fact and then refer back to your own unproven statements as if they were already confirmed facts. Show me a link proving they lied about their numbers.

 

Maybe if you said TORtanic a few more times like you're the first person to ever say maybe it might drive home your point another six feet into the ground.

 

I remember legacy being a flop? Well according to you every single thing they have done so far has been tainted and/or worthless so you think maybe you are seeing things with dung colored glasses?

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I'm sorry but I had a hard time getting past the first paragraph. Inflated numbers? Based on what information? What do you have that proves their numbers were lower than what they said they were? Yes I finished reading and while some points are valid you simply throw out conjecture as fact and then refer back to your own unproven statements as if they were already confirmed facts. Show me a link proving they lied about their numbers.

 

Maybe if you said TORtanic a few more times like you're the first person to ever say maybe it might drive home your point another six feet into the ground.

 

I remember legacy being a flop? Well according to you every single thing they have done so far has been tainted and/or worthless so you think maybe you are seeing things with dung colored glasses?

 

This.

 

OP accept the game isnt for you and move on, blatently lieing about the game doesnt give your post any credibility. Your comments are far to opinionated, biased and with false information for it to stand up to any decent discussion. Unfortunatly its childish posts like this that are holding up the game improving because BW are listening to the vocal few instead of the majority who are playing the game.

 

BTW the game is still hugely succesful, and Ive been very happy with the content thats been added, id like it to be more frequent and more depth, but in a years time we will see a very different game, much improved and a lot more content.

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The Force just isn't really strong with this game right now, and the Force in it will continue to diminish if EAWare keeps making poor management and business decisions with this game. :(

 

 

 

This is exactly what happened with Warhammer Online. :mad:

 

There were at least THREE occasions where WAR could have been turned around, and all were ignored or taken in a disasterous direction (under Mythic EA, Bioware-Mythic EA and then Bioware EA) to a back drop of swingeing development cuts from late Beta onwards.

 

F2P is SWTORs last chance, they have to do something other than stick it in maintance-mode and try to milk it. :(

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I'm sorry but I had a hard time getting past the first paragraph. Inflated numbers? Based on what information? What do you have that proves their numbers were lower than what they said they were? Yes I finished reading and while some points are valid you simply throw out conjecture as fact and then refer back to your own unproven statements as if they were already confirmed facts. Show me a link proving they lied about their numbers.

 

Maybe if you said TORtanic a few more times like you're the first person to ever say maybe it might drive home your point another six feet into the ground.

 

I remember legacy being a flop? Well according to you every single thing they have done so far has been tainted and/or worthless so you think maybe you are seeing things with dung colored glasses?

These numbers were inflated because of the "one month extra sub" EAWare gave to the community during 1.2 and for the game's retail box. Here you go and here you go. The EA investor calls made these sub reports BEFORE these free months ended for those that were still subscribed but were not playing.

 

I never exactly stated EAWare has done so far is tainted and/or worthless. Please quote me on that if I've said that in the OP. Also, if you think a lot of what I've said is nothing but subjective then boy, you got another thing coming. I did a lot of research on this and I have provided links to prove many of this factual information! That is why a lot (NOT ALL) of this is objective.

 

:cool:

Edited by MOPSFounder
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This.

 

OP accept the game isnt for you and move on, blatently lieing about the game doesnt give your post any credibility. Your comments are far to opinionated, biased and with false information for it to stand up to any decent discussion. Unfortunatly its childish posts like this that are holding up the game improving because BW are listening to the vocal few instead of the majority who are playing the game.

 

BTW the game is still hugely succesful, and Ive been very happy with the content thats been added, id like it to be more frequent and more depth, but in a years time we will see a very different game, much improved and a lot more content.

If you think I'm lying about the server add-ons and population decline; if you think I'm lying about the decrease in subscriptions since January; if you think I'm lying about the delay of RWZs; if you think I'm lying about the delay of patch 1.1; oh boy, you've got another thing coming.

 

If you're going to stay ignorant and not realize that this game has been sinking for a long while now, then I pity you. :(

 

I have provided more links in the above post! :D

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This is exactly what happened with Warhammer Online. :mad:

 

There were at least THREE occasions where WAR could have been turned around, and all were ignored or taken in a disasterous direction (under Mythic EA, Bioware-Mythic EA and then Bioware EA) to a back drop of swingeing development cuts from late Beta onwards.

 

F2P is SWTORs last chance, they have to do something other than stick it in maintance-mode and try to milk it. :(

Soluss (who sadly doesn't post because he probably unsubbed :() posted a thread which stated they may be discussing to try and milk their subscribers already. /shrug

 

This does not look pretty from what Soluss posted. Looks extremely valid and he may be correct, considering that EAWare will now take more control of this game since the BioWare docs have retired—and like I've said before... "Or so it seems." :(

Edited by MOPSFounder
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Too bad swtor can't handle large pvp fights like wow or any other mmorpg. This applies to large pve raids too.

 

 

There are at least 240 players in most of those battles. I like to see swtor even have half those numbers, but as ilum has proven swtor engine can't handle large number of players in combat in a small area. That's what happens when you have a poorly optimize programming or poorly coded.

 

That's why most of the pvpers left for gw2 or went back to wow. Had ilum worked the situation would be different at least for the pvpers and pvp servers.

 

Actually, I was just reading about that pvp video consisted of 5 40 man raids for horde who assaulted the Sargeras sw gates and gs. Thus, consisted of at lest 200 players for horde against at least one full 40 alliance raid, but probably a lot bigger for 4 hours. This game can't even handle 40 vs 40 much less any thing over 200 players.

Edited by Knockerz
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Let's Take a Trip Down a Sinking Ship Memory Lane...

 

EA Investor Calls In early January, this game was reported to have sold more than 2mil copies and had 1.7mil subs. Later in March was reported by EA investor calls to have 1.3mil subs. Finally, on July 31st, 2012, EA investor calls revealed this game had over 500k subs but less than 1mil (very vague response). The July 31st investor call was made prior to the end of players' 6 month subs.

 

Game Updates The Rise of the Rakghouls Game Update was released on January 18, 2012—29 days after official release of SWTOR (36 days after day 1 of EGA).

 

On April 12, 2012—87 DAYS after 1.1—Legacy was finally released.

 

On June 26, 2012—68 DAYS after 1.2—Allies was finally released.

 

Unfortunately, this patch was also more feature-heavy than it was content-heavy. So honestly, we really haven't really received much new content if you still want to count the RWZs (which are still stuck in its "Pre-season") and that lackluster Chevin Conglomerate World Event.

 

As for Terror From Beyond... Coming Soon™! 88+ DAYS and counting from 1.3... :(

 

Lack of Communication in July .

 

Finally, somewhere in mid-June, EAWare implemented character transfers, created these "super-servers".

 

On September 18, 2012, these mega-servers were created.

 

James Ohlen even said content would be rolling out monthly after 1.2, and now they're saying post-F2P we'll be getting something EVERY 6 weeks? .

 

No REAL content has been delivered since 1.2. It seems like EAWare is making its current PAYING player-base wait on F2P content because all they care about currently is THEIR upcoming influx of new players.

Amazing post!!! Fantastic summary...thank you for taking the time it had to take to organize it all. Snipped a lot for space, but I kept the points that, when typed out, paint a perfect picture of SWTORs "development".

 

The highlighted yellow part is the one I want to comment on in particular. You're right. They take the measly few thousand players who pay for granted. If we haven't left by now, why do they care what we think? They have a pool of 2 MILLION+ people they're targeting, not a few thousand who are actually PAYING...obviously we don't want/need **edit** because we're ALREADY here...we'll be happy with ANYTHING right?! Why cater to us instead of the 2 MILLION+?

 

Greed, arrogance and ignorance, that's what's dooming this game.

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The one thing that can help speed this game up and have it march on stronger is having more people play it. Do you really think posts like these help? What is your end game here? Why are you posting this?

 

I don't know his reason, but I'd like to think his motive was to make BIOWARE aware of why this game is in such a massive freaking decline...LIES! Unfulfilled promises. Flat out ignoring their customers. I have no interest in their success/failure, other than enjoying the people I play this game with. I like to think that IMPROVING the game might bring back a few of the hundreds I knew who quit. The truth shouldn't hurt...if it does, time to look at WHY that is.

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Too back Eillack and Urael, that some of us like TUXs and I beg to differ. :D

 

Your post is too Soon(™)!! :p

 

This should be closed and reopened on Dec 22 2012 IF nothing has changed.

 

All this talk of greed, etc., etc. :rolleyes:

 

We don't have all the data. We don't KNOW what is going on inside EAware.

 

Ask TUXs, I have posted that EAWare has a MAJOR communications and PR problem. They don't even know how to write clearly. Just 3 or 4 words added to their announcement about this last round of mergers would have quelled the freaking firestorm that erupted (see the Server Consonidation thread post number 311 ).

 

I just think that at this time your Doom!!(™) post is too Soon!!(™).

 

Are you still having fun playing the game? If so

! :)
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The Force just isn't really strong with this game right now, and the Force in it will continue to diminish if EAWare keeps making poor management and business decisions with this game.
:(

 

Force perception is an individual experience and is subjective. ;)

 

Your thesis reads more like you have turned your back on the force and now want to admonish it. What is the point? Do you feel better now?

Edited by Andryah
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