I'm stil chuckling at the sheer cluelessness Bioware has in business decisions to pull a stunt like this.
If they had just gave those who quit a , hey come back for 7 days and see the new patch , no one who have blinked.
But tossing in , on yeah , you paying subs with 50's get a whole free month , and you who are paying and may have multiple 40's spread over both sides ? Nothing. - It just screams "stupid idea , dont do this".
Come on , someone up there had to have said this may cause problems , surely at least one person still at Bioware isn't completely looney ?
Honestly , I thought the Vanguard/McQuaid meltdown , parking lot fiasco , might have never been topped with drama and amuseement watching the ship burn , but Bioware , you might just prove me wrong. At least I'll get to see the forum drama for this to make up for being disappointed in the game.
I was thinking the same thing. At some point in the board meeting....wasn't there one person who was thinking.... wait... this may actually hurt more than help? I have to believe that discussion HAD to come up. Right?
Has there been anything about the game and it's condition to suspect there's anyone there who knows what they're doing? Or ever has been?
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Now that I think about it , they did also announce a few days before early start that there would be no grace period , even though they had said for months there would be.
After a couple days of raging and screaming from the community they reversed that decision and acted like they were great because they listened to the community.
I guess after being that moronic at launch in the PR department , I shouldn't expect the stupidity to not continue.
So loyal players get free days? Where's the market incentive in that. Loyal players will normally stay loyal, it's new players TOR should be worrying about. 1.7 Mil is a gracious amount, but just handing free month's aren't going to keep them. I'm not complaining, but it makes me all the more excited for GW2. No more monthy hassle, less anxiety on everyone. Pay once, done till expansion.
I didn't play SWG early on, but were they giving away free months so close to their launch? I don't ever remember seeing it...I hope those that like it, keep liking it...But I am asking, because some on here like to kick SWG, but at this rate, SWG will of lasted as a sub game much longer than TOR...
I'm stil chuckling at the sheer cluelessness Bioware has in business decisions to pull a stunt like this.
If they had just gave those who quit a , hey come back for 7 days and see the new patch , no one who have blinked.
But tossing in , on yeah , you paying subs with 50's get a whole free month , and you who are paying and may have multiple 40's spread over both sides ? Nothing. - It just screams "stupid idea , dont do this".
Come on , someone up there had to have said this may cause problems , surely at least one person still at Bioware isn't completely looney ?
Honestly , I thought the Vanguard/McQuaid meltdown , parking lot fiasco , might have never been topped with drama and amuseement watching the ship burn , but Bioware , you might just prove me wrong. At least I'll get to see the forum drama for this to make up for being disappointed in the game.
I was thinking the same thing. At some point in the board meeting....wasn't there one person who was thinking.... wait... this may actually hurt more than help? I have to believe that discussion HAD to come up. Right?
I can only guess and speculate. Usually this happens when one or a few people are running the show and everyone else is too afraid to challenge it. Star Wars prequels come to mind.....ahem....cough.....
This is even more speculatory, but I also wonder if things are a little stressed over there. Perhaps not the happiest of work environments making the fear worse regarding those in charge, who may be doing a lot of fussing at those people who really arent all that much at fault.
But all thats just a guess and its the best one I have.
Nah , these dev's look thrilled and overjoyed to be working on a growing and booming project that is running just as planned.
After all the smug arrogance of Bioware employees, it's really fun watching them reap what they sowed. Hell of a lot more fun than the game. Well done, lads!
___________________________ Have flask; will travel.
After all the smug arrogance of Bioware employees, it's really fun watching them reap what they sowed. Hell of a lot more fun than the game. Well done, lads!
I wish I could say that I didn't feel exactly like this, but I do. There were quotes that came out maybe April or June of last year where the 'two doctors' in charge of TOR -- supposedly masters of their craft -- basically admitted that WoW was, for them, the sum total and pinacle of all MMO creation, and that most (if not all) needed to be cloned or you wouldn't have a viable game.
What's more, the game they eventually launched wasn't even a good WoW clone. It felt like WoW, but disjointed; broken up into a dozen or so disparate planets, seeded with too few players per server, instanced to all hell, with a million little things missing (combat logs? UI enhancements? How do you release a game in that state?).
And, as icing on the proverbial cake, what does this same development team do in the months following launch? They play up a micro-patch containing a zombie knock-off instance, blow a more major patch containing a legacy system that seems utterly backwards (and probably should have been in at launch) completely out of proportion, and then flail about like little kids when the Titanic starts to heel over (weeks and weeks after most of us realized that the game had hit an iceburg and was doomed wholesale).
Unfortunately, I'm of the firm belief that the game is flawed on a fundamental level -- that it does too many things wrong or in a confused fashion, put too much emphasis on a boring set of stories and voice-over, and is too bisected by load screens and travel times at the cap -- and unsalvageable. Unlike SWG, which was broken six months after it released, TOR launched in such a wretched state that it could never be saved -- not without a ground-up redesign costing 20-30 million dollars.
But, since this is an MMO, that's not going to happen. Because with these games, you get one shot -- one chance, right out of the gate -- to win over customers, and then you're done. Spending more money on this puppy now would be like trying to renovate a house as the other half burns to the ground. It'd be tantamount to throwing away cash, and EA will not do it.
The game is flawed; the game is unfixable; they should have listened to us two years ago when we said the train was off the tracks; this is the result.
Don't start tin foil hatting me, we're talking about EA after all. Forget Bioware, they do not exist any longer, EA bought them out and is only keeping the Bioware name around to exploit the reputation they once had, once being the key word since they no longer exist right? OK now that that part is settled.
2+2= since they announced at the same time and at the last minute before going live, that ranked warzones will not be in the patch, but they have already implemented an alternative means to get the new armor, they must of known long before the announcement because it isn't possible to code in the alternate armor grind or whatever in one day. Coding just doesn't work like that at all. The backlash yesterday called them out on that being a bait and switch. They were caught, no question about it. Any monkey and it's flees could see it.
The game is already hemorrhaging subscriptions and from the reaction yesterday they realized they are going to lose many more so what can they do? What carrot can they dangle to keep things at a minimum? Yep, offer a free month for current and a week for returning players. Maybe that will pacify enough players to forget about their bait and switch or at least they will be able to count any canceled subscriptions another month since they are already granted a free month to pad the subscription numbers again.
EA must of also thought since ranked warzones only effect level 50s then just offer the free time to level 50s. The people that aren't level 50 aren't concerned anyway about ranked warzones so they will at least have a little money coming in for the month.
The suits being so disconnected to their clientele didn't realize at all when you give one person something then everyone expects it. They also don't realize that gamers are not all 12 year olds and many are well educated doctors, lawyers and such from all walks of life and common sense tells us it's kind of obvious what scam they are trying to pull here.
Remember we are talking about EA so what in any of that does not make any sense unless you know nothing about EA’s history?
Wow...they have a lot of pissed off players on the offical boards.
Yes, yes they do. It's SUCH an obviously transparent ploy...
Exactly. Everyone with half a brain can see that this promotion has nothing to do with valuing their customers but simply slowing the hemorrhage of players at max level. So now BW has managed to put off their max-level exodus for a month at the expense of pissing off their entire casual/alt playerbase.
They could have simply gave everyone with an active account the free month but only allowed redemption of it after reaching Lv50. This would've been an immediate allure to those already bored at max level while those still leveling would have been pleased knowing that a nice, real-world reward
SWTOR is doomed for failure not because of the game itself but because of the developer's poor decision-making skills.
I actually personally hope swtor fails hard.. why? it'll show devs that the wow-clone formula just does not work anymore, and they might actually start to try to do their own stuff insted of just copy and paste from world of warcraft like most mmorpgs have been doing.
I respect your point, but I vociferously disagree with people who call SWTOR a WoW clone, and here's why: If they had cloned WoW and made this game WoW with lightsabers, they would've ended up with a better goddamn game.
They screwed up PVP so much this update might be forever remembered as NGE 1.2.
I don't get it, half of the servers are PVP, why would you want to piss off that many of your current players. What they did to the PVP rewards is a joke.
I have never been pissed when I buy a bad game, I just count my losses and move on. But I am livid at Bioware ATM, I waited for this game for 5 fking years.... What a complete cluster fk of a game. I wish I could take all of my money back and give it to some homeless person downtown.
That might be a gross understatement. Since I posted earlier, I've been home and downloaded 1.2. Healing is totally f'ing useless in pvp now. The 'ingenious' resolve mechanic this game had has been made obsolete by the fact that no one survives more than 3 GCD's worth of people pushing dps buttons. You'll NEVER get a full resolve bar because you'll be dead long before it fills.
I'm completely disheartened by 1.2 and ashamed to have been an ardent defender. I was convinced if I gave them time, they'd figure some stuff out and get things going in the right direction. I hereby surrender hope of BW (and specifically Georg f'ing Zoeller) ever managing to pull their heads out of their asses and STOP fucking a craptactular game up more.
Wow...they have a lot of pissed off players on the offical boards.
Yes, yes they do. It's SUCH an obviously transparent ploy...
Exactly. Everyone with half a brain can see that this promotion has nothing to do with valuing their customers but simply slowing the hemorrhage of players at max level. So now BW has managed to put off their max-level exodus for a month at the expense of pissing off their entire casual/alt playerbase.
They could have simply gave everyone with an active account the free month but only allowed redemption of it after reaching Lv50. This would've been an immediate allure to those already bored at max level while those still leveling would have been pleased knowing that a nice, real-world reward
SWTOR is doomed for failure not because of the game itself but because of the developer's poor decision-making skills.
I actually personally hope swtor fails hard.. why? it'll show devs that the wow-clone formula just does not work anymore, and they might actually start to try to do their own stuff insted of just copy and paste from world of warcraft like most mmorpgs have been doing.
I respect your point, but I vociferously disagree with people who call SWTOR a WoW clone, and here's why: If they had cloned WoW and made this game WoW with lightsabers, they would've ended up with a better goddamn game.
Oh its a WoW clone. Just a very poor copy.
You see this is why modeling your game severly after WoW mechanics is bad. Graphically similar, same style of combat and skills, heck all of it. But WoW has had the better part of a decade to refine its game. So you put something else out that resembles it but oh yea, you dont have 7 years or so to refine it.
Its like there's one burger joint in town. They opened 7 years ago. They were fair at first, but over time have greatly improved. You open a burger joint. You are still trying to figure out what you are doing. And you fail almost instantly due to the competition already being all polished and king of the burgers. Now....if you had opened a pizza joint, you'd have been just fine.
THIS IS WHY DEVS NEED TO GIVE UP EMULATING WOW. Stop it. Variety is the spice of life. Do it as differently as you can, do it as well as you can, and let the chips fall where they may.
A lot of developers think doing it drastically differently than WoW is a big risk. Bull ****. Know what the risk is? Doing it like WoW. Has the industry not seen enough examples to not understand this yet? I mean come on. How long does it take? You are NOT playing it safe emulating WoW. Thats the most dangerous thing you could possibly do.
Meanwhile Im sure in seven years Swtor will begin to resemble something like WoW....or they would if they had WoWs budget, and player base. Which they dont and will never have. But lets say they did. In 7 years you'd have a pretty good resembalence to World of Warcraft. Right before they decide to shut down the servers.
When Bioware said it was safe to emulate wow, and they didnt want to stray too far from what "works" my very first thought was, " You are incredibly stupid. "
THIS IS WHY DEVS NEED TO GIVE UP EMULATING WOW. Stop it. Variety is the spice of life. Do it as differently as you can, do it as well as you can, and let the chips fall where they may.
A lot of developers think doing it drastically differently than WoW is a big risk. Bull ****. Know what the risk is? Doing it like WoW. Has the industry not seen enough examples to not understand this yet? I mean come on. How long does it take? You are NOT playing it safe emulating WoW. Thats the most dangerous thing you could possibly do.
Meanwhile Im sure in seven years Swtor will begin to resemble something like WoW....or they would if they had WoWs budget, and player base. Which they dont and will never have. But lets say they did. In 7 years you'd have a pretty good resembalence to World of Warcraft. Right before they decide to shut down the servers.
When Bioware said it was safe to emulate wow, and they didnt want to stray too far from what "works" my very first thought was, " You are incredibly stupid. "
This man gets it. Been saying this myself for years, but its nice to see others coming to this conclusion on their own. The replication is deadly -- it was deadly to a really quality product like, say LOTRO, it was deadly to a subpar product like AOC, and it is even more deadly for a shoddy production like TOR.
People are willing to forgive flaws -- they are, really! Even in this day in age, when WoW is spit-polished and squeaky clean, humans are still willing to forgive errors. And the more creative something is, the more people are willing to forgive, because the goodness that is contained within is so raw and fresh that it makes the mistakes worth overlooking.
But the closer you get to WoW, then less and less wiggle room you have. If a game is going to shamelessly copy dozens of prime elements from another game, then they had better make damned sure that every single one of those stolen ideas ar either A) on par, or improvements, ranging from minor to groundbreaking.
What is ultimately unacceptable, however, is to clone WoW (which was, itself, modeled on EQ, a game already closing in on a decade old when WoW launched) and then include flaws that even WoW did not have seven years ago when it launched. That's what's wrong with TOR -- it's not just broken; it's a broken mockery of an older product that takes literally no risks; breaks littlerally no new ground. In playing it safe; in endeavoring to clone what they saw as WoW's most powerful elements, Bioware has completely doomed their product and, ultimately, themselves.
However, having said all this, I have absolutely no faith that anyone in the gaming industry has learned anything from this, the latest 'lesson' in a long line of identical prophetic signs. WoW clones will continue to be churned out. Sandbox elements (not sandbox games, mind you, but the elements [home ownership, city building, exploration, in-depth crafting, player-driven societies) will continue to be eschewed in favor of copies of Blizzard's cut-and-dry title. The industry will never change until something forces it to.
Well, I must say, I sure am glad they sent me an email telling me about this free time they're giving me. Oh wait, they didn't.... As a person who no longer plays SW:TOR, I'd naturally be looking at their website every day, not giving the information anywhere else is obviously sound business practice.
Ah well, I have some free time now. I could go back to all those things I loved, the wonderful planets with their awesome day/night cycles and interesting weather patterns, the interactive npc's who are acting out battles in front of the Jedi Temple and... ahh, yeah.. maybe not..
After all the smug arrogance of Bioware employees, it's really fun watching them reap what they sowed. Hell of a lot more fun than the game. Well done, lads!
I wish I could say that I didn't feel exactly like this, but I do. There were quotes that came out maybe April or June of last year where the 'two doctors' in charge of TOR -- supposedly masters of their craft -- basically admitted that WoW was, for them, the sum total and pinacle of all MMO creation, and that most (if not all) needed to be cloned or you wouldn't have a viable game.
"It is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb," Zeschuk told the audience.
"If you have established standards, WoW established them."
Is it too soon to say this game bled out faster than SWG and sandbox games aren't the work of the devil after all? Cuz I've been holding onto that line for a while now...
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.
Looks like they need to add some old sub accounts before the end of the month reports. My guess, they don't have a "vast majority" of those initial 1.7 generated numbers I can see it now, sir we have about 700K paying, well then find me 151K more so I can claim a majority are still active damn it!.
If not, we will hear subs described in terms like, Lions Share, many, almost all, vast, large, masses, when it comes to paying players.
Oh and 57 servers that never come out of light status more than 1 hour a week for the last 2 weeks. Ouch!
The amount of blatant misinformation you spread on this site is amazing.
15 pages saying how bad the game/ea/bioware/levelling/gameplay/graphcs/pressing buttons is because they gave currently subbed 50's a free month... lol u jelly?
I do believe it's just a spin to keep numbers high for the quartal report.
However, they made a descision which is only natural to their cause. If they would give out REASONABLE free months to the real fanboy playerbase (which deserves it), they get good (better) numbers but entierly lose a month's sub money.
By kneejerking loyal players and just giving current active lvl50 a month they hit the most endangered subs (now you can twink for free!), increasing sub numbers for the report and still getting decent amount of money from everyone else. They know they get away with it.
EAware just beeing itself, the biggest Developer Troll to it's "loyal" fan base. Now bow and say "Tank you!" with a smile you ungrateful whimps! (Pun intended)
I concur with people here saying it reeks of desperation, but on the other hand.
They did a fair thing giving those players who bought the game and left a possibility to acknowledge the game as it should have launched. At the same time they rewarded loyals by giving a free month.
You may spin the conspiracy theories as you wish, but I think this all amounts to them being a positive as a developer (although I personally don't like the way they made the game). The other decision could've been more smoke and mirrors and luring people to sub to see how the 1.2 patch is.
Technically a bribe but it's BW's sandbox they can do what they want with it.
Edit: When I say sandbox I meant it's their den to do with as they please, not a sandbox mmo before that is pointed out, if indeed the effort is made to point it out etc.
Technically a bribe but it's BW's sandbox they can do what they want with it.
Edit: When I say sandbox I meant it's their den to do with as they please, not a sandbox mmo before that is pointed out, if indeed the effort is made to point it out etc.
The sad part is, you had to clarify that, otherwise risk endless rants and posts.
I wonder who made that decision and why. I can't think of any reasonable explanation why someone - in his right mind - could come up with that decision. Sounds like folly. They won't fool the stock market (or the analysts) with that, they alieniate many of the casual BioWare fans and they lose revenue from the players with level 50 characters that are still p(l)aying. For what? What does EA BioWare think to achieve with that?
Pure panic reaction? Drug abuse in the board room? Some manager showing the reality of the Peter Principle?
Looks like EA BioWare are rapidly approaching the "joke-of-the-industry" threshold.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
I admit i was kinda gobsmacked when i read this perhaps 10 minutes ago. As long as your account has never been banned, you bought the game, have one level 50 and have paid a months sub at some point you're getting 30 days free added to your account as long as it's currently active. People who have no game time left can come back for 7 days.
Comments
Has there been anything about the game and it's condition to suspect there's anyone there who knows what they're doing? Or ever has been?
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Now that I think about it , they did also announce a few days before early start that there would be no grace period , even though they had said for months there would be.
After a couple days of raging and screaming from the community they reversed that decision and acted like they were great because they listened to the community.
I guess after being that moronic at launch in the PR department , I shouldn't expect the stupidity to not continue.
ew.. what have we here..
So loyal players get free days? Where's the market incentive in that. Loyal players will normally stay loyal, it's new players TOR should be worrying about. 1.7 Mil is a gracious amount, but just handing free month's aren't going to keep them. I'm not complaining, but it makes me all the more excited for GW2. No more monthy hassle, less anxiety on everyone. Pay once, done till expansion.
Played - M59, EQOA, EQ, EQ2, PS, SWG[Favorite], DAoC, UO, RS, MXO, CoH/CoV, TR, FFXI, FoM, WoW, Eve, Rift, SWTOR, TSW.
Playing - PS2, AoW, GW2
I didn't play SWG early on, but were they giving away free months so close to their launch? I don't ever remember seeing it...I hope those that like it, keep liking it...But I am asking, because some on here like to kick SWG, but at this rate, SWG will of lasted as a sub game much longer than TOR...
Better hope Lucas doesn't decide to get involved.
Nah , these dev's look thrilled and overjoyed to be working on a growing and booming project that is running just as planned.
Don't they ?
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/20070-pax-east-2012-interview-with-james-ohlen-and
After all the smug arrogance of Bioware employees, it's really fun watching them reap what they sowed. Hell of a lot more fun than the game. Well done, lads!
___________________________
Have flask; will travel.
I wish I could say that I didn't feel exactly like this, but I do. There were quotes that came out maybe April or June of last year where the 'two doctors' in charge of TOR -- supposedly masters of their craft -- basically admitted that WoW was, for them, the sum total and pinacle of all MMO creation, and that most (if not all) needed to be cloned or you wouldn't have a viable game.
What's more, the game they eventually launched wasn't even a good WoW clone. It felt like WoW, but disjointed; broken up into a dozen or so disparate planets, seeded with too few players per server, instanced to all hell, with a million little things missing (combat logs? UI enhancements? How do you release a game in that state?).
And, as icing on the proverbial cake, what does this same development team do in the months following launch? They play up a micro-patch containing a zombie knock-off instance, blow a more major patch containing a legacy system that seems utterly backwards (and probably should have been in at launch) completely out of proportion, and then flail about like little kids when the Titanic starts to heel over (weeks and weeks after most of us realized that the game had hit an iceburg and was doomed wholesale).
Unfortunately, I'm of the firm belief that the game is flawed on a fundamental level -- that it does too many things wrong or in a confused fashion, put too much emphasis on a boring set of stories and voice-over, and is too bisected by load screens and travel times at the cap -- and unsalvageable. Unlike SWG, which was broken six months after it released, TOR launched in such a wretched state that it could never be saved -- not without a ground-up redesign costing 20-30 million dollars.
But, since this is an MMO, that's not going to happen. Because with these games, you get one shot -- one chance, right out of the gate -- to win over customers, and then you're done. Spending more money on this puppy now would be like trying to renovate a house as the other half burns to the ground. It'd be tantamount to throwing away cash, and EA will not do it.
The game is flawed; the game is unfixable; they should have listened to us two years ago when we said the train was off the tracks; this is the result.
Ha.
Ha.
Don't start tin foil hatting me, we're talking about EA after all. Forget Bioware, they do not exist any longer, EA bought them out and is only keeping the Bioware name around to exploit the reputation they once had, once being the key word since they no longer exist right? OK now that that part is settled.
2+2= since they announced at the same time and at the last minute before going live, that ranked warzones will not be in the patch, but they have already implemented an alternative means to get the new armor, they must of known long before the announcement because it isn't possible to code in the alternate armor grind or whatever in one day. Coding just doesn't work like that at all. The backlash yesterday called them out on that being a bait and switch. They were caught, no question about it. Any monkey and it's flees could see it.
The game is already hemorrhaging subscriptions and from the reaction yesterday they realized they are going to lose many more so what can they do? What carrot can they dangle to keep things at a minimum? Yep, offer a free month for current and a week for returning players. Maybe that will pacify enough players to forget about their bait and switch or at least they will be able to count any canceled subscriptions another month since they are already granted a free month to pad the subscription numbers again.
EA must of also thought since ranked warzones only effect level 50s then just offer the free time to level 50s. The people that aren't level 50 aren't concerned anyway about ranked warzones so they will at least have a little money coming in for the month.
The suits being so disconnected to their clientele didn't realize at all when you give one person something then everyone expects it. They also don't realize that gamers are not all 12 year olds and many are well educated doctors, lawyers and such from all walks of life and common sense tells us it's kind of obvious what scam they are trying to pull here.
Remember we are talking about EA so what in any of that does not make any sense unless you know nothing about EA’s history?
Theres no need to troll SWTOR, its developers or its fans, the game trolls them all by itself. Incredibly funny.
I respect your point, but I vociferously disagree with people who call SWTOR a WoW clone, and here's why: If they had cloned WoW and made this game WoW with lightsabers, they would've ended up with a better goddamn game.
That might be a gross understatement. Since I posted earlier, I've been home and downloaded 1.2. Healing is totally f'ing useless in pvp now. The 'ingenious' resolve mechanic this game had has been made obsolete by the fact that no one survives more than 3 GCD's worth of people pushing dps buttons. You'll NEVER get a full resolve bar because you'll be dead long before it fills.
I'm completely disheartened by 1.2 and ashamed to have been an ardent defender. I was convinced if I gave them time, they'd figure some stuff out and get things going in the right direction. I hereby surrender hope of BW (and specifically Georg f'ing Zoeller) ever managing to pull their heads out of their asses and STOP fucking a craptactular game up more.
Oh its a WoW clone. Just a very poor copy.
You see this is why modeling your game severly after WoW mechanics is bad. Graphically similar, same style of combat and skills, heck all of it. But WoW has had the better part of a decade to refine its game. So you put something else out that resembles it but oh yea, you dont have 7 years or so to refine it.
Its like there's one burger joint in town. They opened 7 years ago. They were fair at first, but over time have greatly improved. You open a burger joint. You are still trying to figure out what you are doing. And you fail almost instantly due to the competition already being all polished and king of the burgers. Now....if you had opened a pizza joint, you'd have been just fine.
THIS IS WHY DEVS NEED TO GIVE UP EMULATING WOW. Stop it. Variety is the spice of life. Do it as differently as you can, do it as well as you can, and let the chips fall where they may.
A lot of developers think doing it drastically differently than WoW is a big risk. Bull ****. Know what the risk is? Doing it like WoW. Has the industry not seen enough examples to not understand this yet? I mean come on. How long does it take? You are NOT playing it safe emulating WoW. Thats the most dangerous thing you could possibly do.
Meanwhile Im sure in seven years Swtor will begin to resemble something like WoW....or they would if they had WoWs budget, and player base. Which they dont and will never have. But lets say they did. In 7 years you'd have a pretty good resembalence to World of Warcraft. Right before they decide to shut down the servers.
When Bioware said it was safe to emulate wow, and they didnt want to stray too far from what "works" my very first thought was, " You are incredibly stupid. "
This man gets it. Been saying this myself for years, but its nice to see others coming to this conclusion on their own. The replication is deadly -- it was deadly to a really quality product like, say LOTRO, it was deadly to a subpar product like AOC, and it is even more deadly for a shoddy production like TOR.
People are willing to forgive flaws -- they are, really! Even in this day in age, when WoW is spit-polished and squeaky clean, humans are still willing to forgive errors. And the more creative something is, the more people are willing to forgive, because the goodness that is contained within is so raw and fresh that it makes the mistakes worth overlooking.
But the closer you get to WoW, then less and less wiggle room you have. If a game is going to shamelessly copy dozens of prime elements from another game, then they had better make damned sure that every single one of those stolen ideas ar either A) on par, or
improvements, ranging from minor to groundbreaking.
What is ultimately unacceptable, however, is to clone WoW (which was, itself, modeled on EQ, a game already closing in on a decade old when WoW launched) and then include flaws that even WoW did not have seven years ago when it launched. That's what's wrong with TOR -- it's not just broken; it's a broken mockery of an older product that takes literally no risks; breaks littlerally no new ground. In playing it safe; in endeavoring to clone what they saw as WoW's most powerful elements, Bioware has completely doomed their product and, ultimately, themselves.
However, having said all this, I have absolutely no faith that anyone in the gaming industry has learned anything from this, the latest 'lesson' in a long line of identical prophetic signs. WoW clones will continue to be churned out. Sandbox elements (not sandbox games, mind you, but the elements [home ownership, city building, exploration, in-depth crafting, player-driven societies) will continue to be eschewed in favor of copies of Blizzard's cut-and-dry title. The industry will never change until something forces it to.
Well, I must say, I sure am glad they sent me an email telling me about this free time they're giving me. Oh wait, they didn't.... As a person who no longer plays SW:TOR, I'd naturally be looking at their website every day, not giving the information anywhere else is obviously sound business practice.
Ah well, I have some free time now. I could go back to all those things I loved, the wonderful planets with their awesome day/night cycles and interesting weather patterns, the interactive npc's who are acting out battles in front of the Jedi Temple and... ahh, yeah.. maybe not..
Here is a source of that:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-02-10-bioware-warcraft-is-the-touchstone-for-old-republic
Is it too soon to say this game bled out faster than SWG and sandbox games aren't the work of the devil after all? Cuz I've been holding onto that line for a while now...
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.
I might consider going back for a month til TSW comes out, but I guess I am a lower class citizen
I only had 2 chars to 43, 3 chars to 35 and 3 chars to 28
The amount of blatant misinformation you spread on this site is amazing.
Your conspiracy theories are comical.
15 pages saying how bad the game/ea/bioware/levelling/gameplay/graphcs/pressing buttons is because they gave currently subbed 50's a free month... lol u jelly?
I do believe it's just a spin to keep numbers high for the quartal report.
However, they made a descision which is only natural to their cause. If they would give out REASONABLE free months to the real fanboy playerbase (which deserves it), they get good (better) numbers but entierly lose a month's sub money.
By kneejerking loyal players and just giving current active lvl50 a month they hit the most endangered subs (now you can twink for free!), increasing sub numbers for the report and still getting decent amount of money from everyone else. They know they get away with it.
EAware just beeing itself, the biggest Developer Troll to it's "loyal" fan base. Now bow and say "Tank you!" with a smile you ungrateful whimps! (Pun intended)
I concur with people here saying it reeks of desperation, but on the other hand.
They did a fair thing giving those players who bought the game and left a possibility to acknowledge the game as it should have launched. At the same time they rewarded loyals by giving a free month.
You may spin the conspiracy theories as you wish, but I think this all amounts to them being a positive as a developer (although I personally don't like the way they made the game). The other decision could've been more smoke and mirrors and luring people to sub to see how the 1.2 patch is.
Technically a bribe but it's BW's sandbox they can do what they want with it.
Edit: When I say sandbox I meant it's their den to do with as they please, not a sandbox mmo before that is pointed out, if indeed the effort is made to point it out etc.
The sad part is, you had to clarify that, otherwise risk endless rants and posts.
Dang, that's a surprise.
I wonder who made that decision and why. I can't think of any reasonable explanation why someone - in his right mind - could come up with that decision. Sounds like folly. They won't fool the stock market (or the analysts) with that, they alieniate many of the casual BioWare fans and they lose revenue from the players with level 50 characters that are still p(l)aying. For what? What does EA BioWare think to achieve with that?
Pure panic reaction? Drug abuse in the board room? Some manager showing the reality of the Peter Principle?
Looks like EA BioWare are rapidly approaching the "joke-of-the-industry" threshold.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
quit around end of february , well the usual reason , got the email., LAughed really hard ... wow , been a while since i genuinely laugh this hard.