Star Wars: The Old Republic (MMO)

[Kyero Fox]

I'll put this right here

[Kyero Fox]

Haha, Saw this coming. along with the bull shit.

-waits for Syn's post- XD

[Tokkan]

Sorry, deleted post. Here's the announcement again

SWTOR Going F2P

[Khu]

Called it.

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by Khu

Called it.

Everyone called it.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

T'was a sucker bet.

Can't say I'm impressed with the implementation though. Just reeks of cash grab.

Oh, here is some more info I found... interesting.


Quick, kick the game while it's down... repeatedly.

2:03: Disappointing performance of Star Wars: The Old Republic was offset by powerful performance of Battlefield 3.
2:11: Lowered expectations in SWTOR, future outlook affected by it.
2:20: Our diversity allows us to make up for a miss on one franchise (SWTOR) with a hit on another (BF3).
2:26: Star Wars is the primary driver for adjusted guidance to a lower number. Battlefield 3 offset SWTOR performance.

Some tid bits on the F2P scheme.

2:14: Giving people choice along side subscriptions should give people plenty of options and drive players to the game. Mentioned break even point was 500,000, SWTOR is well above that but under 1 million total subscribers. Offering two-tiered pricing plan in November. For players who cancelled their subscriptions, feedback provided as they cancelled indicated that 40% were turned off by the monthly subscription fee.

2:16: SWTOR will retail for $15 along with a free month of subscription. Premium players: $15 a month, currency for boosts, customizations, and faster level progression. Free: players move at their own pace and comfort level, can buy new stuff when/if they want.

2:50: Question on expectations of the future of Star Wars. Frank Gibeau: The idea with F2P is to open the funnel and get some of the players back that we lost to churn. We anticipate that the mix between subscriptions and free to play are going to be balanced but we don't foresee free to play revenues as incremental to anything that we discussed in the call.

Honestly EA was to greedy (queue laughter), and Bioware was probably to ambitious for an entry to an already saturated MMO market. It's a pity too, because the game isn't bad, per say. There are quite a few nice things, and the quest dialog is nice. It's just to slow on the content, lack of organised pvp, and the world not being... exciting... enough, its far to linear. It's almost like playing in a diorama at times with all the static set pieces, and obviously 'false' scenery. That and like most MMO's its too similar to WoW, and because of that it gets weighed against WoW which has had years to be refined. People that leave WoW don't want to play WoW again.

It'd be nice if we could go back to the day of people making games for fun rather than meeting quota's and profit margins, but the sun will probably explode before that happens (outside of indie's (EA cracks me up when it tries to claim indy 'cred')).

[Nixl]

Originally Posted by Xacual

Everyone called it.

Yup.

Not much to say at the moment. I looked at the official forums again and I cannot decide whether it was for the best or that Bioware just shot themselves in the foot again.


That being said, maybe...just maybe TOR will be declared non-canon(no mullet man Revan!) and someone else could get the rights to Kotor. I just do not want to think that TOR is the last Kotor game there will ever be. I do not want the series to end with a whimper.

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

T
Honestly EA was to greedy (queue laughter), and Bioware was probably to ambitious for an entry to an already saturated MMO market. It's a pity too, because the game isn't bad, per say. There are quite a few nice things, and the quest dialog is nice. It's just to slow on the content, lack of organised pvp, and the world not being... exciting... enough, its far to linear. It's almost like playing in a diorama at times with all the static set pieces, and obviously 'false' scenery. That and like most MMO's its too similar to WoW, and because of that it gets weighed against WoW which has had years to be refined. People that leave WoW don't want to play WoW again.

It'd be nice if we could go back to the day of people making games for fun rather than meeting quota's and profit margins, but the sun will probably explode before that happens (outside of indie's (EA cracks me up when it tries to claim indy 'cred')).

TOR had basic flaws as does any MMO, but it definitely needed at least 3 more months of development. In my opinion, where Bioware screwed up most is its lack of communication/feedback capabilities and believing that people would pay $15 a month for the right to make alts.

I also agree, if people want WoW, they will play WoW.

[Destined_Fate]

Ugh... f2p sounds horrible when you consider what they'll be selling.

With Cartel Coins you can purchase convenience items, boosts, visually unique gear, collectibles, and more.

Well there goes balance out the window. I feel bad for those that choose to stick around to pay the monthly subs since things are going to be way different now.

[Mahou]

Premium players: $15 a month, currency for boosts, customizations, and faster level progression. Free: players move at their own pace and comfort level, can buy new stuff when/if they want.

Huh? Sorry for being stupid, but what does the bolded part for the free player mean? Can free player somehow adjust their leveling speed or is it just a round-about way to say "lower level speed"?
Same about "can buy new stuff when/if they want" what stuff: content "uprgrades", the restricted game options or just fluff items

Anyway, I count to those who quit SWTOR as well. Not exactly due to P2P, but I found myself - as usual - play it less and less despite of never reaching the max. level .

[Westlo]

I have a mid 30 Maruader (lol @ my prediction of them being OP a few months after release coming true, too many people playing "balance checkers" instead of chess.) and a high 20's Agent, might actually finish the story for one of them when this goes F2P.

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Quick, kick the game while it's down... repeatedly.

lol @ TOR looking like Gundam AGE while BF3 is Unicorn.

[Destined_Fate]

Well you can only have 1 character and it has to be human if what the forums on SWTOR says is true.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Well you can only have 1 character and it has to be human if what the forums on SWTOR says is true.

Both those characters are human anyway, and if only one i'll probably go with the Marauder, but whatever i'll decide when it comes to it and it's not like it will ever be a major focus compared to WoW/GW2 let alone other non MMO games.

[MeisterBabylon]

Originally Posted by Xacual

Everyone called it.

Exactly.

Now I am glad I rolled a human chara for my Vanguard. Nor did I transfer to the Oceanic server.

Jay'n Shepard is still in action!

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Oh, here is some more info I found... interesting.

What does it take to bash the heads of EA together to make them realize they should just make Battlefront 3?

Star Wars + BF3 level FPS + FPS being the most popular genre = how can you not have made this yet?

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Honestly EA was to greedy (queue laughter), and Bioware was probably to ambitious for an entry to an already saturated MMO market. It's a pity too, because the game isn't bad, per say. There are quite a few nice things, and the quest dialog is nice. It's just to slow on the content, lack of organised pvp, and the world not being... exciting... enough, its far to linear. It's almost like playing in a diorama at times with all the static set pieces, and obviously 'false' scenery. That and like most MMO's its too similar to WoW, and because of that it gets weighed against WoW which has had years to be refined. People that leave WoW don't want to play WoW again.

Ambitious, yet not ambitious enough seems to be the core of the problem. They changed the questing in a way that many liked, but the rest of the game being the same ol' same ol' bored people quite rapidly.

Of course, the failure of one is the boon of another. GW2 seems to have paid close attention, and their main story quests are just as much fun as SWTOR's were.

[Skane]

Star Wars vs WH40K in a Battlefield-type map.

Make it happen.

Cheers.

[Destined_Fate]

Well there is that 40k MMO being made, wonder how they'll turn out. Hopefully better than the fate of SWTOR that failed to reach the level of hype surrounding it.

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Well there is that 40k MMO being made, wonder how they'll turn out. Hopefully better than the fate of SWTOR that failed to reach the level of hype surrounding it.

They canned it and turned its development into a single-player game instead.

Cheers.

[Destined_Fate]

Oh really? Didn't think they would do that. Would be better since the WA40k SP games always end up being fun even if they're heavily Space Marine Bias.

[MeisterBabylon]

I think that single player game would be Space Marine 2. Which is brilliant. A 40k mmo should be based on Dark Heresy at most, space marines would be too restricting in variety. Plus this allows guild based pvp as you go about backstabbing other imperials and you could still pve them xenos.

As for Star Wars, that's one more free game for me to play. Never really cared for the frills anyway, until someone uses cheese paid abilities to win.

[MeisterBabylon]

I think I'll roll Sith this F2P weekend, after being all Republic so far. Anyone else coming back?