Hey Im a human male but I now want to be called Loretta as a human female though I have no working female genitalia. It is my right as a human to change what I am at a whim.
Oh look a potatoe is an apple of the earth!
It is not F2P it is an unlimited trial to level 15. F2P my ass, I hate swtor spin.
HAHAHAHA.......HAHAAHAHAHAHA! Do....what!?
I have no idea what you just said, but somehow I think its the most epic thing Ive ever read on these forums.....
In any case I guess they said, " Lets just stop giving out free weekends and make it permanent. Might as well. " They were doing it all the time anyways. Oh and the other junk they're adding should be super swell. I guess.
Don't give him too much credit... He ripped it off from Monty Python. It's from their movie 'Life of Brian'.
Originally posted by Alalala To anyone considering SWTOR: I played it, and got several character class to high level. Reflecting on my experience, I would rather watch my own young children die slow painful deaths the play this poorly conceived, horribly designed, soul crushing abomination, even when offered for free. Any questions?
one of the most horrific posts I have ever seen written in these forums.. you sir should seek medical attention
Agree, that was a (very poor and sick) attempt at hyperbolism.
Honestly, if he only took time to read what he had written. But then again, I think the guy is hardly a 49-years old dude with children...
Sadly this won't help th egame because the game as a whole is a boring flawed game, and level 15 is long enough to know that its just a more boring than the orignal world of warcraft clone with a star wars skin. Hell at a low lv during the open beta i fell asleep sitting up IN combat because it was so damned boring and generic. Sad thing? I just woke up 2 hours earlier after a normal nights sleep, so this should give you an idea how boring the game is.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Like I said before, even if SWTOR was free I still wouldn't play it. SWTOR has proven time and again it is the worst form of WoW clone with a Star Wars label on it. EA made their quick buck and are abandoning ship literally.
There is nothing Star Wars about SWTOR and with each content update, BW adds more pew-pew brainless crud to satisfy the instant-gratification kiddies because their parents' credit cards are the only ones naive enough to pay for that mediocre game.
Actually, to people new to the genre I think that will get them to buy. Then they will realize the level 1-50 game is a quick ride with nothing beyond it.
I do not believe many new players will make the transition from 24/7 soloing to raiding. I won't even mention the horrible PvP.
It truely is a sad time for online gaming when what was supposed to be the biggest game of 2012 goes partial F2P in six months time. Why do all these developers think they can recreate WoW? How many failures does the industry have to suffer before these guys will wake up and STOP making WoW clones?
Other than Tera with targeting and GW2 with a no-sub model, I dont see any game set to launch this year with any kind of unique gameplay. Its all tab-targeting, raids and poorly implemented PvP. I was very happy for the industry when WoW was hitting record numbers and really hoped it would bring more good games into the MMO market but now... I sometimes wish WoW had never been launched and more games with open worlds like SWG (before all the bad stuff) had been developed.
Its just sad that the leadership at Bioware spent years in development, used some of the best talent that the game industry had to offer and spent $150 million and the best they could come up with is SWTOR.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
SWToR is fine and fun, but plays like a single player game really.
My interpretation is the same as many others here, I think it feels too much like desperation and is definitely not a good sign, in fact a very bad sign about the health of the game.
Hah! I'll finally get a chance to try this out. I wonder how deep in the storyline can I go up to level 15? I'm guessing it's not possible to "beat" the game before cap?
SWToR is fine and fun, but plays like a single player game really.
My interpretation is the same as many others here, I think it feels too much like desperation and is definitely not a good sign, in fact a very bad sign about the health of the game.
It really does play like a single player game. But more so, lets say it was a single player game. Lets say they sold it that way.
There would still be problems due to the static worlds. I'd immediately be trying to figure out why everything feels so.....well.....carnival like really. "Come over here and kill these guys standing here? No? Well there's some more standing around doing nothing over heeeeere! Jump on the spaceship ride! "
I mean there are theme parks and then there's Swtor and Im not sure anything bothered me more than the static worlds. I noticed it almost instantly once I stepped outside. I even said, " Erm....something feels very off here....".
So think of the single player games you've messed with or single player RPGS. They just dont...seem like that. Same for mmos. Now Im no dev, but I do know that inputing patrol waypoints is not really at all difficult and for the life of me I dont know why there are just whole groups of mobs standing around doing absolutely nothing.
The game in the end is severly lacking in general world A.I.
And thats not to mention the how linear the worlds feel in themselves. I've hardly ever seen an "open world" type game with so narrow an open world. Except for Dragon Age. Oh......ahem......right. Bioware. Hmmm......
Well... if in a year they still are somehow, for whatever reason, grasping hold of some slim hope, or treading water to stay afloat, I won't be suprised. What DOES suprise me is how long bioware and EA will continue to try to keep itgoing, rather than just re-tool it into a lobby/multi-player game.
It MAY bring them more revene, and possibly make it profitable int he long run, to give people 'unlimited' access with limited char slots, as a 'single player game with multiplayer functions' rather than as a mmo, which it is not.
During EA's press conference at the pre-opening festivities for E3, BioWare announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be ripping a page out of many other MMOs' playbooks: Starting in July, SWTOR will be F2P through level 15.
The team also noted that new warzones, high level content, new companions, and more will be coming throughout the balance of 2012.
Which is still a far stretch from going completely F2P!
Just saying that before all the SWTOR haters come and say "told ya so, SWTOR is dying and will be going F2P soon!"
Level 15 can be easily reached on a free weekend, so it's really just to tempt the more casual gamers... though I wonder how much more casual you need to be to take more than 2 days for lvl15?
Or maybe they want to breed a low lvl PvP crowd? hm...
Or it's all a numbers game to them... *shrug*
It's actually closer than you think. This is not a plan, this is a reaction. IN six months they have made a 360 from their original game plan.
The sub model is just not worth the investment.
Guys, aren't you all jumping the gun a bit?
Look at it realisticly:
A MMO provider has a choice of 2 sources of income (not counting item shops or advertising):
1. box sales,
2. subscriptions
BW was going with both on release.
And they made a shitload of money on those box sales, around 2.4 Mio unites(!).
The problem is now that there isn't an infinite market for this product: basically you have the MMO gamers and you have the SW fans.
Now this group is actually further reduced because not every SW is going to play a MMO, or even just a PC game. Thet may go console or no gaming at all.
On the MMO side, well, obviously you have those who already prefer some fantasy setting over a sci-fi setting. And amongst the sci-fi MMOers you have those who prefer another brand (e.g. Star Trek) or no brand at all over SW.
Finally you have the SW MMO fans who love the SW movies setting but are not sold o the SWTOR/KOTOR setting (and in turn want SWG).
Pretty much what you can say is that BW has sold all the boxes it can!
So now they need to put their bets on the subscriptions.
We know SWTOR still has a rather comfy number of active subscriptions (1+ Mio), so now at the 6 months mark dropping the need to buy the box is a smart move.
Because now you can "cash in" on those gamers, who didn't feel like shelling out $60 for the box.
But, given that the Lvl15 FSP only lets the progress the characters a very short step of the way, these new gamers may be okay with dropping a 1, 2, 3 months subscription SWTOR's way.
Now, bit of simple math: even with a low number of just 1 Mio subscribers and considering that everybody got the initial 30 days free as well as probably 75% of all subscribers got the bonus 30 days free - heck, let's say 100%! - you are looking now at around 4 months worth of 1 Mio subscriptions at $15 each. That is $60 Mio.
Now, if BW can get just 50K new subscribers worldwide - remember that SWTOR wasn't reallt easily available everywhere - for 1 month at $15, heck that's a nice $750K.
Now, considering that we don't know the actual costs of making SWTOR, considering that we don't even know what options BW now can follow up on with the material it has - e.g. I could swear that Eir in GW2 was voiced by the same voice actress as Akaavi Spar in SWTOR, ans worse yet, their lines seemed partially identical, I'm wondering maybe BW is renting out their audio collection to other companies, and of course to other projects within BW and EA? -
Plus, who knows what spin BW's accountants are able to put on SWTOR actually losing BW/EA money on the books?
So, yeah, BW may actually fare rather nicely out of going this F2P trial model...
Well it is still best theme park mmo after wow. After more thinking about what i would playbeside wow and eve online i got only 2 options-AOC and SWTOR. I stay at my point that not one mmo today gives you that RP feeling like SWTOR and i wish them luck.
It is the typical move EA pulls with their mmo's when they fail, they did it to WAR, unlimited freetrial to lvl 10 or 11 (can't remember). Now SWTOR is failing fast and they are pulling out the same tool to try to plug the same hole that didn't work in the same way it failed for WAR.
SWTOR is not a god awful game, MORTAL ONLINE is an example of just god awful pile of trash mmo. SWTOR is just a mediocre game.
Yes, we all hoped it would be something light years ahead of what it actually turned out to be, but that is just the card we have been dealt.
Now I don't remember how long EA waited before using the "Oh look we have a unlimited free trial now, please love us again!" card on WAR but they seem to have done it with greater speed on SWTOR. Probably because they fear a repeat of WAR and want to desperately hang on to every number they have.
This is all hearsay of course but when history repeats itself doesn't it start to ring true?
The level cap raise, I don't understand either. That seems like a horrid idea. There IS things to do at level cap, it would be much better if they concentrated on polishing them completely before raising the cap and adding new bugged end game content.
And when the already in place content is polished, add more with richer story and funner mechanics that actually work! We play your games Bioware because we love the story and use of engaging cinematics, which SWTOR lacks throughout most of the game (Minus your own personal story quests).
Bioware I know EA owns all of your souls like the demonic overlords that they are, Mythic R.I.P. But come on guys! Think before you leap! If you are trying to give end game players something to keep playing and paying for just polish what you already put in the game. Hell even the new round of Legacy unlocks is well worth the grind.
Oh, and what the hell was that monster shark tentacle void beast in that trailer? I thought I was watching a TERA trailer or something.
Anyone here that is well versed in Star Wars lore please fill me in on what that thing was and why it could possibly be in the game or universe? Not denying, just curious...
p.s. pad those sub numbers EA pad em reeel gud!
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
It is the typical move EA pulls with their mmo's when they fail, they did it to WAR, unlimited freetrial to lvl 10 or 11 (can't remember). Now SWTOR is failing fast and they are pulling out the same tool to try to plug the same hole that didn't work in the same way it failed for WAR.
SWTOR is not a god awful game, MORTAL ONLINE is an example of just god awful pile of trash mmo. SWTOR is just a mediocre game.
Yes, we all hoped it would be something light years ahead of what it actually turned out to be, but that is just the card we have been dealt.
Now I don't remember how long EA waited before using the "Oh look we have a unlimited free trial now, please love us again!" card on WAR but they seem to have done it with greater speed on SWTOR. Probably because they fear a repeat of WAR and want to desperately hang on to every number they have.
This is all hearsay of course but when history repeats itself doesn't it start to ring true?
The level cap raise, I don't understand either. That seems like a horrid idea. There IS things to do at level cap, it would be much better if they concentrated on polishing them completely before raising the cap and adding new bugged end game content.
And when the already in place content is polished, add more with richer story and funner mechanics that actually work! We play your games Bioware because we love the story and use of engaging cinematics, which SWTOR lacks throughout most of the game (Minus your own personal story quests).
Bioware I know EA owns all of your souls like the demonic overlords that they are, Mythic R.I.P. But come on guys! Think before you leap! If you are trying to give end game players something to keep playing and paying for just polish what you already put in the game. Hell even the new round of Legacy unlocks is well worth the grind.
Oh, and what the hell was that monster shark tentacle void beast in that trailer? I thought I was watching a TERA trailer or something.
Anyone here that is well versed in Star Wars lore please fill me in on what that thing was and why it could possibly be in the game or universe? Not denying, just curious...
p.s. pad those sub numbers EA pad em reeel gud!
Yea, yea and you are the fan of gw2, we know, we know
Yea, yea and you are the fan of gw2, we know, we know
Actually... Nope sorry I am not. I haven't followed that game at all and I hated GW1. Currently I'm playing Tera, and liking it, suck at pvp really bad though. And am thinking of returning to Rift when Conquest launches.
Good guess though my friend
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
It is the typical move EA pulls with their mmo's when they fail, they did it to WAR, unlimited freetrial to lvl 10 or 11 (can't remember). Now SWTOR is failing fast and they are pulling out the same tool to try to plug the same hole that didn't work in the same way it failed for WAR.
SWTOR is not a god awful game, MORTAL ONLINE is an example of just god awful pile of trash mmo. SWTOR is just a mediocre game.
Yes, we all hoped it would be something light years ahead of what it actually turned out to be, but that is just the card we have been dealt.
Now I don't remember how long EA waited before using the "Oh look we have a unlimited free trial now, please love us again!" card on WAR but they seem to have done it with greater speed on SWTOR. Probably because they fear a repeat of WAR and want to desperately hang on to every number they have.
This is all hearsay of course but when history repeats itself doesn't it start to ring true?
The level cap raise, I don't understand either. That seems like a horrid idea. There IS things to do at level cap, it would be much better if they concentrated on polishing them completely before raising the cap and adding new bugged end game content.
And when the already in place content is polished, add more with richer story and funner mechanics that actually work! We play your games Bioware because we love the story and use of engaging cinematics, which SWTOR lacks throughout most of the game (Minus your own personal story quests).
Bioware I know EA owns all of your souls like the demonic overlords that they are, Mythic R.I.P. But come on guys! Think before you leap! If you are trying to give end game players something to keep playing and paying for just polish what you already put in the game. Hell even the new round of Legacy unlocks is well worth the grind.
Oh, and what the hell was that monster shark tentacle void beast in that trailer? I thought I was watching a TERA trailer or something.
Anyone here that is well versed in Star Wars lore please fill me in on what that thing was and why it could possibly be in the game or universe? Not denying, just curious...
p.s. pad those sub numbers EA pad em reeel gud!
Actually WAR just had really deep rooted problems & when the community kept presenting them (Magical resistance that didnt work & DOTS that could be stacked an unlimited ammount in PvP anyone ?) to the developers only to be told by the developers that we didnt know what we were talking about.....
Still yes SWTOR is Epic fail, Epic due to the ammount of money pissed away on something so very average. Not to mention for an MMO it feels painfully like a fairly average singleplayer CRPG with co-op....
Making something free doesnt make it any less boring, sure a few more people will try it but I think the majority of people will try it and realise in the starter zone that the game is shallow and the storlines poorly paced.
Actually WAR just had really deep rooted problems & when the community kept presenting them (Magical resistance that didnt work & DOTS that could be stacked an unlimited ammount in PvP anyone ?) to the developers only to be told by the developers that we didnt know what we were talking about.....
Still yes SWTOR is Epic fail, Epic due to the ammount of money pissed away on something so very average.
Making something free doesnt make it any less boring, sure a few more people will try it but I think the majority of people will try it and realise in the starter zone that the game is shallow and the storlines poorly paced.
True, WAR was on a different level.
I don't understand the story pacing either, for all of the money they had and it seems they used a healthy portion of it on the voice overs and cutscenes, you think they would of made sure at least the personal story quests would flow and make sense, fit star wars lore/settings, and give you actual joy/sorrow in whatever decision you made.
I played a few classes twice just to see if the endings were different if i were full dark or full light. Sure along the way somethings changed but overall everything ended exactly the same. Not to mention every single quest outside of your own personal story is a repeat for every single class.
I even asked over and over and over in the weekly Q&A's if they were planning on adding split story lines for class stories sometime in the future, for example working for the other hutt on Hutta instead of Nemro or whatever his name was.
But they of course always picked the questions like "How do I taunt a monster?" every week.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
During EA's press conference at the pre-opening festivities for E3, BioWare announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be ripping a page out of many other MMOs' playbooks: Starting in July, SWTOR will be F2P through level 15.
The team also noted that new warzones, high level content, new companions, and more will be coming throughout the balance of 2012.
Which is still a far stretch from going completely F2P!
Just saying that before all the SWTOR haters come and say "told ya so, SWTOR is dying and will be going F2P soon!"
Level 15 can be easily reached on a free weekend, so it's really just to tempt the more casual gamers... though I wonder how much more casual you need to be to take more than 2 days for lvl15?
Or maybe they want to breed a low lvl PvP crowd? hm...
Or it's all a numbers game to them... *shrug*
I have played SWTOR for a month and my highest char (of two) is level 14. So there are definitely people out there who need that time.
It's true that this hasn't got anything to do with F2P. It's just a trial like any MMO should have. It's also a way to keep the starter areas populated. They were pretty empty already back when I still played.
Am I the only one who is excited about the new content they want to add to the game?
Yes and No
Some people are super stoked, go look on their forums. People over here are mostly against the game and the company behind it it seems. I was pretty into swtor from beta to about right after 1.2 failed to impress me.
I keep up to date with the news of the game though hoping to see something incredible that will bring me back to my dusty shadow. But alas, it never happens...
Here is my take from preview of content to come:
New Race:
Cathar, oh boy!!!! another race that was heavily shown throughout the game already with two companions being cathar, Jori and .... i forget the other..
No use in asking for more exotic races like Rodian or anything because EAWARE already stated, long long ago in a business office far far away, that they would never add any playable races that were non-humanoid due to the fact that THEY felt it would be unheroic for YOUR hero to not speak english in badly voiced accents.
New Warzone:
Didn't see enough of it to actually care, probably just a deathmatch style WZ.
New Space Game:
Same shit, different ship to destroy.
New Operation:
Giant Purple Tentacle Insect Shark Headed Monster of DOOOM!!!!! in a dark energy looking space field!!! with floating building thingies to stand on and hit air! OOooooOOO Aahhh!!! Did I mention... GIANT!!!!! Because nothing can EVER EVER!!!!! be fun or heroic if it isn't at least 50 feet tall.
New Level Cap:
Why...? The game just came out pretty damn much.. why a level raise..? Just to give people a reason to grind more before grinding more? I feel bad for the people investing time in gearing through the new 1.2 crafting system just to have it outdated faster then any game ever.
New Planet:
Cool, I think that is good stuff, with new personal story to go along with it? Cool Cool. Forcing the people who want to experience it to level 5 or 10 more levels, not cool...
"Congrats! You are level 50 and just became the biggest baddest strongest (YOUR CLASS HERE) Nobody is more heroic or epic then you are now in this moment!!!"
..... new planet!!! with new story!! that involves you and the Hutt Cartel having issues! (Translation: Hey you lvl 50 badass tough guy hero (your class here) go fight more droids!!!! hey there are some hutt cartel human thugs over there!
:Darth/Master Baddass (Your class here) is killed by Hutt Cartel Generic Thug ID 219249:
Damn, that is one truly badass epic Hutt Cartel Thug!
And that is my issues with the new content in a long and hard nutshell.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
And so it begins !! And I won't be saying I told you so ! The game is brand new and their answer to a mass exodus is free to play transition. You poor poor foolish swtor lovers your crap game is about to get a lot crapper. Its just a matter of time untill they close half the servers ! Swg lasted a good 6 years before they had to close servers down and 8 years before their license ran out ! Swtors license isn't running out! The game is just a pile of steaming shit and will die on its own. And I hope sooner rather than later! We need to free up that license again for a developer that gives a toss.
Comments
Don't give him too much credit... He ripped it off from Monty Python. It's from their movie 'Life of Brian'.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
Agree, that was a (very poor and sick) attempt at hyperbolism.
Honestly, if he only took time to read what he had written. But then again, I think the guy is hardly a 49-years old dude with children...
I wonder if they are doing this to increase the "active accounts" before the next share holder meeting.
Sadly this won't help th egame because the game as a whole is a boring flawed game, and level 15 is long enough to know that its just a more boring than the orignal world of warcraft clone with a star wars skin. Hell at a low lv during the open beta i fell asleep sitting up IN combat because it was so damned boring and generic. Sad thing? I just woke up 2 hours earlier after a normal nights sleep, so this should give you an idea how boring the game is.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
Like I said before, even if SWTOR was free I still wouldn't play it. SWTOR has proven time and again it is the worst form of WoW clone with a Star Wars label on it. EA made their quick buck and are abandoning ship literally.
There is nothing Star Wars about SWTOR and with each content update, BW adds more pew-pew brainless crud to satisfy the instant-gratification kiddies because their parents' credit cards are the only ones naive enough to pay for that mediocre game.
Actually, to people new to the genre I think that will get them to buy. Then they will realize the level 1-50 game is a quick ride with nothing beyond it.
I do not believe many new players will make the transition from 24/7 soloing to raiding. I won't even mention the horrible PvP.
It truely is a sad time for online gaming when what was supposed to be the biggest game of 2012 goes partial F2P in six months time. Why do all these developers think they can recreate WoW? How many failures does the industry have to suffer before these guys will wake up and STOP making WoW clones?
Other than Tera with targeting and GW2 with a no-sub model, I dont see any game set to launch this year with any kind of unique gameplay. Its all tab-targeting, raids and poorly implemented PvP. I was very happy for the industry when WoW was hitting record numbers and really hoped it would bring more good games into the MMO market but now... I sometimes wish WoW had never been launched and more games with open worlds like SWG (before all the bad stuff) had been developed.
Its just sad that the leadership at Bioware spent years in development, used some of the best talent that the game industry had to offer and spent $150 million and the best they could come up with is SWTOR.
SWToR is fine and fun, but plays like a single player game really.
My interpretation is the same as many others here, I think it feels too much like desperation and is definitely not a good sign, in fact a very bad sign about the health of the game.
Hah! I'll finally get a chance to try this out. I wonder how deep in the storyline can I go up to level 15? I'm guessing it's not possible to "beat" the game before cap?
It really does play like a single player game. But more so, lets say it was a single player game. Lets say they sold it that way.
There would still be problems due to the static worlds. I'd immediately be trying to figure out why everything feels so.....well.....carnival like really. "Come over here and kill these guys standing here? No? Well there's some more standing around doing nothing over heeeeere! Jump on the spaceship ride! "
I mean there are theme parks and then there's Swtor and Im not sure anything bothered me more than the static worlds. I noticed it almost instantly once I stepped outside. I even said, " Erm....something feels very off here....".
So think of the single player games you've messed with or single player RPGS. They just dont...seem like that. Same for mmos. Now Im no dev, but I do know that inputing patrol waypoints is not really at all difficult and for the life of me I dont know why there are just whole groups of mobs standing around doing absolutely nothing.
The game in the end is severly lacking in general world A.I.
And thats not to mention the how linear the worlds feel in themselves. I've hardly ever seen an "open world" type game with so narrow an open world. Except for Dragon Age. Oh......ahem......right. Bioware. Hmmm......
Well... if in a year they still are somehow, for whatever reason, grasping hold of some slim hope, or treading water to stay afloat, I won't be suprised. What DOES suprise me is how long bioware and EA will continue to try to keep itgoing, rather than just re-tool it into a lobby/multi-player game.
It MAY bring them more revene, and possibly make it profitable int he long run, to give people 'unlimited' access with limited char slots, as a 'single player game with multiplayer functions' rather than as a mmo, which it is not.
Guys, aren't you all jumping the gun a bit?
Look at it realisticly:
A MMO provider has a choice of 2 sources of income (not counting item shops or advertising):
1. box sales,
2. subscriptions
BW was going with both on release.
And they made a shitload of money on those box sales, around 2.4 Mio unites(!).
The problem is now that there isn't an infinite market for this product: basically you have the MMO gamers and you have the SW fans.
Now this group is actually further reduced because not every SW is going to play a MMO, or even just a PC game. Thet may go console or no gaming at all.
On the MMO side, well, obviously you have those who already prefer some fantasy setting over a sci-fi setting. And amongst the sci-fi MMOers you have those who prefer another brand (e.g. Star Trek) or no brand at all over SW.
Finally you have the SW MMO fans who love the SW movies setting but are not sold o the SWTOR/KOTOR setting (and in turn want SWG).
Pretty much what you can say is that BW has sold all the boxes it can!
So now they need to put their bets on the subscriptions.
We know SWTOR still has a rather comfy number of active subscriptions (1+ Mio), so now at the 6 months mark dropping the need to buy the box is a smart move.
Because now you can "cash in" on those gamers, who didn't feel like shelling out $60 for the box.
But, given that the Lvl15 FSP only lets the progress the characters a very short step of the way, these new gamers may be okay with dropping a 1, 2, 3 months subscription SWTOR's way.
Now, bit of simple math: even with a low number of just 1 Mio subscribers and considering that everybody got the initial 30 days free as well as probably 75% of all subscribers got the bonus 30 days free - heck, let's say 100%! - you are looking now at around 4 months worth of 1 Mio subscriptions at $15 each. That is $60 Mio.
Now, if BW can get just 50K new subscribers worldwide - remember that SWTOR wasn't reallt easily available everywhere - for 1 month at $15, heck that's a nice $750K.
Now, considering that we don't know the actual costs of making SWTOR, considering that we don't even know what options BW now can follow up on with the material it has - e.g. I could swear that Eir in GW2 was voiced by the same voice actress as Akaavi Spar in SWTOR, ans worse yet, their lines seemed partially identical, I'm wondering maybe BW is renting out their audio collection to other companies, and of course to other projects within BW and EA? -
Plus, who knows what spin BW's accountants are able to put on SWTOR actually losing BW/EA money on the books?
So, yeah, BW may actually fare rather nicely out of going this F2P trial model...
Well it is still best theme park mmo after wow. After more thinking about what i would playbeside wow and eve online i got only 2 options-AOC and SWTOR. I stay at my point that not one mmo today gives you that RP feeling like SWTOR and i wish them luck.
Reality:
It is the typical move EA pulls with their mmo's when they fail, they did it to WAR, unlimited freetrial to lvl 10 or 11 (can't remember). Now SWTOR is failing fast and they are pulling out the same tool to try to plug the same hole that didn't work in the same way it failed for WAR.
SWTOR is not a god awful game, MORTAL ONLINE is an example of just god awful pile of trash mmo. SWTOR is just a mediocre game.
Yes, we all hoped it would be something light years ahead of what it actually turned out to be, but that is just the card we have been dealt.
Now I don't remember how long EA waited before using the "Oh look we have a unlimited free trial now, please love us again!" card on WAR but they seem to have done it with greater speed on SWTOR. Probably because they fear a repeat of WAR and want to desperately hang on to every number they have.
This is all hearsay of course but when history repeats itself doesn't it start to ring true?
The level cap raise, I don't understand either. That seems like a horrid idea. There IS things to do at level cap, it would be much better if they concentrated on polishing them completely before raising the cap and adding new bugged end game content.
And when the already in place content is polished, add more with richer story and funner mechanics that actually work! We play your games Bioware because we love the story and use of engaging cinematics, which SWTOR lacks throughout most of the game (Minus your own personal story quests).
Bioware I know EA owns all of your souls like the demonic overlords that they are, Mythic R.I.P. But come on guys! Think before you leap! If you are trying to give end game players something to keep playing and paying for just polish what you already put in the game. Hell even the new round of Legacy unlocks is well worth the grind.
Oh, and what the hell was that monster shark tentacle void beast in that trailer? I thought I was watching a TERA trailer or something.
Anyone here that is well versed in Star Wars lore please fill me in on what that thing was and why it could possibly be in the game or universe? Not denying, just curious...
p.s. pad those sub numbers EA pad em reeel gud!
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
Yea, yea and you are the fan of gw2, we know, we know
Actually... Nope sorry I am not. I haven't followed that game at all and I hated GW1. Currently I'm playing Tera, and liking it, suck at pvp really bad though. And am thinking of returning to Rift when Conquest launches.
Good guess though my friend
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
Desperation setting in unfortunately. Last stand for TOR before GW2 releases.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
Actually WAR just had really deep rooted problems & when the community kept presenting them (Magical resistance that didnt work & DOTS that could be stacked an unlimited ammount in PvP anyone ?) to the developers only to be told by the developers that we didnt know what we were talking about.....
Still yes SWTOR is Epic fail, Epic due to the ammount of money pissed away on something so very average. Not to mention for an MMO it feels painfully like a fairly average singleplayer CRPG with co-op....
Making something free doesnt make it any less boring, sure a few more people will try it but I think the majority of people will try it and realise in the starter zone that the game is shallow and the storlines poorly paced.
True, WAR was on a different level.
I don't understand the story pacing either, for all of the money they had and it seems they used a healthy portion of it on the voice overs and cutscenes, you think they would of made sure at least the personal story quests would flow and make sense, fit star wars lore/settings, and give you actual joy/sorrow in whatever decision you made.
I played a few classes twice just to see if the endings were different if i were full dark or full light. Sure along the way somethings changed but overall everything ended exactly the same. Not to mention every single quest outside of your own personal story is a repeat for every single class.
I even asked over and over and over in the weekly Q&A's if they were planning on adding split story lines for class stories sometime in the future, for example working for the other hutt on Hutta instead of Nemro or whatever his name was.
But they of course always picked the questions like "How do I taunt a monster?" every week.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
Nevermind.
I knew it... Now it's F2P up to level 15, and soon after (2 more months?) SWToR will be fully F2P...
Am I the only one who is excited about the new content they want to add to the game?
I have played SWTOR for a month and my highest char (of two) is level 14. So there are definitely people out there who need that time.
It's true that this hasn't got anything to do with F2P. It's just a trial like any MMO should have. It's also a way to keep the starter areas populated. They were pretty empty already back when I still played.
Yes and No
Some people are super stoked, go look on their forums. People over here are mostly against the game and the company behind it it seems. I was pretty into swtor from beta to about right after 1.2 failed to impress me.
I keep up to date with the news of the game though hoping to see something incredible that will bring me back to my dusty shadow. But alas, it never happens...
Here is my take from preview of content to come:
New Race:
Cathar, oh boy!!!! another race that was heavily shown throughout the game already with two companions being cathar, Jori and .... i forget the other..
No use in asking for more exotic races like Rodian or anything because EAWARE already stated, long long ago in a business office far far away, that they would never add any playable races that were non-humanoid due to the fact that THEY felt it would be unheroic for YOUR hero to not speak english in badly voiced accents.
New Warzone:
Didn't see enough of it to actually care, probably just a deathmatch style WZ.
New Space Game:
Same shit, different ship to destroy.
New Operation:
Giant Purple Tentacle Insect Shark Headed Monster of DOOOM!!!!! in a dark energy looking space field!!! with floating building thingies to stand on and hit air! OOooooOOO Aahhh!!! Did I mention... GIANT!!!!! Because nothing can EVER EVER!!!!! be fun or heroic if it isn't at least 50 feet tall.
New Level Cap:
Why...? The game just came out pretty damn much.. why a level raise..? Just to give people a reason to grind more before grinding more? I feel bad for the people investing time in gearing through the new 1.2 crafting system just to have it outdated faster then any game ever.
New Planet:
Cool, I think that is good stuff, with new personal story to go along with it? Cool Cool. Forcing the people who want to experience it to level 5 or 10 more levels, not cool...
"Congrats! You are level 50 and just became the biggest baddest strongest (YOUR CLASS HERE) Nobody is more heroic or epic then you are now in this moment!!!"
..... new planet!!! with new story!! that involves you and the Hutt Cartel having issues! (Translation: Hey you lvl 50 badass tough guy hero (your class here) go fight more droids!!!! hey there are some hutt cartel human thugs over there!
:Darth/Master Baddass (Your class here) is killed by Hutt Cartel Generic Thug ID 219249:
Damn, that is one truly badass epic Hutt Cartel Thug!
And that is my issues with the new content in a long and hard nutshell.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.