Originally posted by ImpacthoundI don't think TOR will get any bigger in population because of the upcoming movies. The recent J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies did nothing for the Star Trek Online MMO, and the Hobbit trilogy movies did nothing for Lord of the Rings Online's playerbase either. TOR will be 4 years old when Episode 7 comes out, and the other two franchises didn't even air commercials or advertise their respective MMOs before the trailers preceding the movies.If anything, the only game commercials you can expect to see tied to the new Star Wars movie will be Battlefront 3.If you're just talking about the producer's letter/roadmap/cancellation of Shadow Realms, it's all empty smoke and baseless hype at the moment. Blizzard has way more staff & when they cancelled Project Titan in May 2013, it still took ages to reassign staff and launch their WoW expac Warlords of Draenor behind schedule. I don't expect any "big things" from SWTOR in 2015 when the current plans are so empty. They still don't even have a date for Togruta heads released for players, which have been companions and NPCs since launch.
QFT.
I also firmly and personally believe that due to SWTOR's huge mismanagement when it launched, that lasted until a few months after F2P mind you, it won't ever be able to fully recover from all that scrunity it faced for being the worst launch of an MMO in the history of MMO gaming. SWTOR was riddled with bugs (and so much more than your average amount), low capacity server launches (hence the long queues), too many servers launched to allievate the low capacity servers, p**-poor PvP support, little-to-no PvE endgame with an incomplete Operation (one of the only 2 available); the list goes on.
To this day, most of these issues still exist due to the fact that EAware still believes that a "story-driven" MMO is sustainable. Protip: it's not. The only thing that saved SWTOR from certain doom in 2012 was the cash shop and since most casuals (the vast majority of the game's player base) love instant gratification via spending IRL cash so instead of pay-to-play they can pay-to-customize (something EA is taking advantage of), the profitability of F2P is why SWTOR is still backed by a skeleton dev team. It's sad to say it but it's true.
So to answer your question OP, no, not at all. I believe SWTOR will continue to float by by its average-sized playerbase that'll continue to pour hundreds of thousands of $ for content that should be earned through gameplay rather than through cash that could be put towards at the most expansion packs and DLC and the like.
I believe that if they advertise along with the movie ads and during the coming attractions, they could very well pull in a lot of non-gamers and or non-mmorpg gamers who don't use the usual channels like gaming sites to see what's even out there to play.
I don't think TOR will get any bigger in population because of the upcoming movies. The recent J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies did nothing for the Star Trek Online MMO, and the Hobbit trilogy movies did nothing for Lord of the Rings Online's playerbase either. TOR will be 4 years old when Episode 7 comes out, and the other two franchises didn't even air commercials or advertise their respective MMOs before the trailers preceding the movies.
If anything, the only game commercials you can expect to see tied to the new Star Wars movie will be Battlefront 3.
If you're just talking about the producer's letter/roadmap/cancellation of Shadow Realms, it's all empty smoke and baseless hype at the moment. Blizzard has way more staff & when they cancelled Project Titan in May 2013, it still took ages to reassign staff and launch their WoW expac Warlords of Draenor behind schedule. I don't expect any "big things" from SWTOR in 2015 when the current plans are so empty. They still don't even have a date for Togruta heads released for players, which have been companions and NPCs since launch.
That's because STO is a horrible game. No amount of movie hype is going to help a bad game. Despite the horrible engine the SWtoR runs on its still a quasi decent game.
I also firmly and personally believe that due to SWTOR's huge mismanagement when it launched, that lasted until a few months after F2P mind you, it won't ever be able to fully recover from all that scrunity it faced for being the worst launch of an MMO in the history of MMO gaming. SWTOR was riddled with bugs (and so much more than your average amount), low capacity server launches (hence the long queues), too many servers launched to allievate the low capacity servers, p**-poor PvP support, little-to-no PvE endgame with an incomplete Operation (one of the only 2 available); the list goes on.
? Worst launch in the history of MMO's? All I can think from that is you haven't played many MMOs... Compared to SWG's launch as well as launch state (content present) TOR was miles ahead..That's just one example, EQ2 is another, AO another, AOC etc..etc..etc.. TOR was one of the few MMO releases I've taken part in since 2005, mostly due to the state of games in beta going into launch, it was one of the few I had little problem with. It had issues, but most were miniscule, never even had a queue issue, no crashes..etc..
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Originally posted by Ludwik Played TOR for a year and loved every minute of it. GW2 hype machine was the only thing that managed to pull me away.
I'd return if they continued on with original stories. That Jedi Knight storyline still gives me the warm and fuzzies.
There are small extensions of the class stories in the Shadow of Revan expac. It's only 1 short questline per class, but it is something.
And supposedly the new upcoming content will contain more of class stories. With their return to a "focus on story" this year.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
I'm not expecting any spectacular changes. Then again, Bioware seems to be aiming for some well timed expansions by the time of the movies. And EA definitely has the resources to spread the word when the time comes, whereas Lotro and STO had far small budgets to work with due to Cryptic and Turbine being nowhere near as rich as EA or Bioware.
It'll be interesting to see what they do with it!
Yeah nobody even watched those Hobbit movies.
MMORPG players are often like Hobbits: They don't like Adventures
I'm not expecting any spectacular changes. Then again, Bioware seems to be aiming for some well timed expansions by the time of the movies. And EA definitely has the resources to spread the word when the time comes, whereas Lotro and STO had far small budgets to work with due to Cryptic and Turbine being nowhere near as rich as EA or Bioware.
It'll be interesting to see what they do with it!
Yeah nobody even watched those Hobbit movies.
My original thought there was that WB didn't owe Turbine back when the Lord of the Rings movies came out, hence they weren't as big as EA.
I'm guessing by the time the Hobbit movies came out the game was simply too old to show in the movies without viewers going "WTF is that? Advertising for a game from a decade ago in theaters?" :P
PS: Your old avatar was better.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
My original thought there was that WB didn't owe Turbine back when the Lord of the Rings movies came out, hence they weren't as big as EA.
I'm guessing by the time the Hobbit movies came out the game was simply too old to show in the movies without viewers going "WTF is that? Advertising for a game from a decade ago in theaters?" :P
PS: Your old avatar was better.
LOTRO launched in 2007, SWTOR in 2011.
The Hobbit movies released in 2012, 2013 & 2014, so the MMO would have been 5, 6 and 7 years old if it had been advertised in tandem with theatrical releases.
The SW episodes 7-9 are scheduled to be released in 2015, 2017 & 2019, so SWTOR will be 4, 6 and 8 years old if they advertise in tandem with theatrical releases.
I think your premise tries to make the two scenarios less similar than they actually are.
The Hobbit movies released in 2012, 2013 & 2014, so the MMO would have been 5, 6 and 7 years old if it had been advertised in tandem with theatrical releases.
Just a short off-topic remark: LotRO doesn't have the right to use Hobbit (except those parts which are in LotR, like Bilbo in Rivendell for example).
Sure, they added the Erebor instance chain (not as part of the game's story, obviously), and the beornings (which is part of LotR as well, but of course Beorn and the movies have a huge role in this addition )
Hmm... second thinking, it could be also a similarity, since TOR is not canon anymore, so probably there won't be any TOR marketing tie to SW7 either, just like LotRO and the Hobbit movies... You're right, the two scenarios are similar indeed
PS. SWTOR had the worst MMO release, but ESO wasn't that far. The word is that there are still grouping (phase?) issues 10 months after release. In that aspect even SWTOR wasn't that bad.
People say that about every MMO. I had no issues during SWTOR's headstart (or after it).
ArcheAge was a much worse experience for a lot of people. For me it was the "QueueAge" issue, while others didn't get the rewards they paid a lot of money for until much later into the game, or found themselves unable to take advantage of their headstart because they couldn't get into the game at all (and by the time they did, all the land was bought up).
Plenty of other MMO's with terrible launch days out there too.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
The best move EA could make would be to put SWTOR on the consoles. It would consolidate their audience and give them a new excuse for failures. The movie enthusiasm will help them wash people through the game.
MMORPG players are often like Hobbits: They don't like Adventures
Originally posted by Archlyte The best move EA could make would be to put SWTOR on the consoles. It would consolidate their audience and give them a new excuse for failures. The movie enthusiasm will help them wash people through the game.
No doubt they'd make some money. But how well do MMOs like SWTOR and WoW play on a console? I always imagine it would be a disaster with the countless buttons you'd need.
Then again, FFXIV's also an MMO like them, and it seems to be doing fine.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
No doubt they'd make some money. But how well do MMOs like SWTOR and WoW play on a console? I always imagine it would be a disaster with the countless buttons you'd need.
Then again, FFXIV's also an MMO like them, and it seems to be doing fine.
The main difference is FFXIV 2.0 was always intended for console release from the ground up in all their interface and button/ability designs. I think BioWare would have a very hard time getting SWTOR to work well on consoles, not only with the engine not translating well to console hardware and netcode, but with basic controls.
Some people have made a personalized workaround to get XBOX controllers to work with SWTOR on a PC, but it's still clunky and can't hit every ability/use every input.
Considering they still haven't done cross-server queues or find GSF PVE too hard to develop, I don't see a console port of SWTOR ever being done.
PS. SWTOR had the worst MMO release, but ESO wasn't that far. The word is that there are still grouping (phase?) issues 10 months after release. In that aspect even SWTOR wasn't that bad.
Not even remotely true. Just a tired put down that keeps getting said by everyone who wasn't there cause its what everyone who wasn't there has said. With the exception of the operation Eternity Vault being buggy SWTOR had a fantastic launch. The only issue was wait times to get into game. I was in grp 2, day one early access and (other than SOA in EV) I didn't get any bugs till patch 1.2, which came out 5 months later.
I really need to make a doc of this and save it on my desktop so I can just cut and paste every time someone tries to spew this "fact".
Comments
I believe that if they advertise along with the movie ads and during the coming attractions, they could very well pull in a lot of non-gamers and or non-mmorpg gamers who don't use the usual channels like gaming sites to see what's even out there to play.
That's because STO is a horrible game. No amount of movie hype is going to help a bad game. Despite the horrible engine the SWtoR runs on its still a quasi decent game.
? Worst launch in the history of MMO's? All I can think from that is you haven't played many MMOs... Compared to SWG's launch as well as launch state (content present) TOR was miles ahead..That's just one example, EQ2 is another, AO another, AOC etc..etc..etc.. TOR was one of the few MMO releases I've taken part in since 2005, mostly due to the state of games in beta going into launch, it was one of the few I had little problem with. It had issues, but most were miniscule, never even had a queue issue, no crashes..etc..
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
TOR was as much a WOW clone as SWG was a UO clone...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I'd return if they continued on with original stories. That Jedi Knight storyline still gives me the warm and fuzzies.
There are small extensions of the class stories in the Shadow of Revan expac. It's only 1 short questline per class, but it is something.
SWTOR Referral Link
Free Goodies for new or returning players.
See what it gets you Here
And supposedly the new upcoming content will contain more of class stories. With their return to a "focus on story" this year.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
focus on story a.k.a. 1 year of development for 10 hours of gameplay.
Not smart. This game needs more systems and features, with replayability, not more story.
and how about a new pvp warzone?
if I wanted story I'd read a book
I had fun once, it was terrible.
Would so love this
"Let destruction rain!" from Asbel Tales of Graces f
Jedi's using blasters and Smugglers using Lightsabers? Please never become a dev for SWTOR, thats a terrible idea.
Adaptive armor lets anyone equip it and it will become Light, Medium, or Heavy armor based on your class type.
Yes he is.
Yeah nobody even watched those Hobbit movies.
My original thought there was that WB didn't owe Turbine back when the Lord of the Rings movies came out, hence they weren't as big as EA.
I'm guessing by the time the Hobbit movies came out the game was simply too old to show in the movies without viewers going "WTF is that? Advertising for a game from a decade ago in theaters?" :P
PS: Your old avatar was better.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
LOTRO launched in 2007, SWTOR in 2011.
The Hobbit movies released in 2012, 2013 & 2014, so the MMO would have been 5, 6 and 7 years old if it had been advertised in tandem with theatrical releases.
The SW episodes 7-9 are scheduled to be released in 2015, 2017 & 2019, so SWTOR will be 4, 6 and 8 years old if they advertise in tandem with theatrical releases.
I think your premise tries to make the two scenarios less similar than they actually are.
Just a short off-topic remark: LotRO doesn't have the right to use Hobbit (except those parts which are in LotR, like Bilbo in Rivendell for example).
Sure, they added the Erebor instance chain (not as part of the game's story, obviously), and the beornings (which is part of LotR as well, but of course Beorn and the movies have a huge role in this addition
)
Hmm... second thinking, it could be also a similarity, since TOR is not canon anymore, so probably there won't be any TOR marketing tie to SW7 either, just like LotRO and the Hobbit movies... You're right, the two scenarios are similar indeed
People say that about every MMO. I had no issues during SWTOR's headstart (or after it).
ArcheAge was a much worse experience for a lot of people. For me it was the "QueueAge" issue, while others didn't get the rewards they paid a lot of money for until much later into the game, or found themselves unable to take advantage of their headstart because they couldn't get into the game at all (and by the time they did, all the land was bought up).
Plenty of other MMO's with terrible launch days out there too.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
No doubt they'd make some money. But how well do MMOs like SWTOR and WoW play on a console? I always imagine it would be a disaster with the countless buttons you'd need.
Then again, FFXIV's also an MMO like them, and it seems to be doing fine.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
The main difference is FFXIV 2.0 was always intended for console release from the ground up in all their interface and button/ability designs. I think BioWare would have a very hard time getting SWTOR to work well on consoles, not only with the engine not translating well to console hardware and netcode, but with basic controls.
Some people have made a personalized workaround to get XBOX controllers to work with SWTOR on a PC, but it's still clunky and can't hit every ability/use every input.
Considering they still haven't done cross-server queues or find GSF PVE too hard to develop, I don't see a console port of SWTOR ever being done.
Not even remotely true. Just a tired put down that keeps getting said by everyone who wasn't there cause its what everyone who wasn't there has said. With the exception of the operation Eternity Vault being buggy SWTOR had a fantastic launch. The only issue was wait times to get into game. I was in grp 2, day one early access and (other than SOA in EV) I didn't get any bugs till patch 1.2, which came out 5 months later.
I really need to make a doc of this and save it on my desktop so I can just cut and paste every time someone tries to spew this "fact".
"Do you think TOR will get any bigger this year due to Star Wars making a comeback?"
No. Temporary player boost possibly, but nothing that will change long-term situation or overall Swtor situation.