Did Ineffective Monetization Kill Star Wars: The Old Republic?

[GLo Jones]

It didn't fail because of the pricing method. It failed because it simply wasn't as good as it's competitors, and has possibly the worst customer service I've ever witnessed. Seriously, it's like they don't want to make money.

 

[elilupe]

Spice and Wolf! <3

I'm glad someone appreciates it

 

[Pyro Paul]

In any event, the reason it failed was not because of poor effort on the part of the artistic staff of the game, nor because of mismanagement by BioWare Austin, but rather because the MMO business model itself is unsustainable. I made this point elsewhere, but in summery: there is no way that you can keep revenue levels high enough, even with constant updates and expansions. In trying to meet what MMO developers think are the demands of their players, they invest heavily only to face server depopulation regardless. WoW may be king, but its time will come as well. In fact, I consider the MMO to be a dying genre, populated largely by people I would rather avoid, in real life and even across a game server.

Note: I am still trying to popularize the pronunciation of MMORPG as: "more-pig." I have been unsuccessful so far.

The MMO buisness model in and of itself is sustainable as proven with WoW and Eve online. The issue isn't with the buisness model but with the way individual developers approche the problems in a saturated MMO market. Rather then evolving the proven formula they are simply adding to it in an attempt to draw a lions share of the market.

It is a problem in every saturated market... rather then evolving something to the next step, they spend their time trying to out-do every one else to be come the biggest name on the block.

And this will be a problem so long as WoW remains the largest MMO.

once WoW dies we will probably see the next evolution of MMO pushing more boundries, such as player footprints.

 

[malestrithe]

It did not have enough to do at the start of the game. WoW's success is that it gave new players a world to explore.

DC Universe and The Old Republic failed because it did not have enough for the people willing to power through the game to see everything, or as much as possible, before getting bored.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

The MMO buisness model in and of itself is sustainable as proven with WoW and Eve online. The issue isn't with the buisness model but with the way individual developers approche the problems in a saturated MMO market. Rather then evolving the proven formula they are simply adding to it in an attempt to draw a lions share of the market.

It is a problem in every saturated market... rather then evolving something to the next step, they spend their time trying to out-do every one else to be come the biggest name on the block.

And this will be a problem so long as WoW remains the largest MMO.

once WoW dies we will probably see the next evolution of MMO pushing more boundries, such as player footprints.

WoW and Eve online have proved the opposite. They have proved that the business model is unsustainable. Sure, they have lasted a few years, but they cannot last 15 years, nor even 10. That is what it means to be "unsustainable" as opposed to "dead."

 

[Snotnarok]

Subscription models are like the Highlander.
THERE CAN BE ONLY OOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNE!

But there's two Highlanders, the demoman being the second one :U.

There can be ONNLLLAH ONNNNNE! .......Eye.

I heard it was a lot of problems ranging from updates not patching problems, huge imbalance issues not being addressed and no new content. But I didn't play it this is just what I heard from a friend who did play it.

 

[nasteypenguin]

WoW and Eve online have proved the opposite. They have proved that the business model is unsustainable. Sure, they have lasted a few years, but they cannot last 15 years, nor even 10. That is what it means to be "unsustainable" as opposed to "dead."

Isn't that purely speculation your doing there? I don't know about Eve but I'm pretty sure WoW is still doing well enough to sustain itself at the moment. It may not have the players it used to but you can't presume it will suddenly become bankrupt in the near future because of that, could even just be a lull. It may not have proven sustainable, although you'd have to tell me how long it needs to live to actually prove that, but it certainly hasn't proven anything unsustainable yet.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

WoW and Eve online have proved the opposite. They have proved that the business model is unsustainable. Sure, they have lasted a few years, but they cannot last 15 years, nor even 10. That is what it means to be "unsustainable" as opposed to "dead."

Isn't that purely speculation your doing there? I don't know about Eve but I'm pretty sure WoW is still doing well enough to sustain itself at the moment. It may not have the players it used to but you can't presume it will suddenly become bankrupt in the near future because of that, could even just be a lull. It may not have proven sustainable, although you'd have to tell me how long it needs to live to actually prove that, but it certainly hasn't proven anything unsustainable yet.

No. I explained my reasoning earlier, and here is a link to another person's reasoning.

Spoiler

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...l-World-of-Warcraft-Activisions-Achilles-Heel

 

[Pyro Paul]

WoW and Eve online have proved the opposite. They have proved that the business model is unsustainable. Sure, they have lasted a few years, but they cannot last 15 years, nor even 10. That is what it means to be "unsustainable" as opposed to "dead."

... what?

Seriously, what are you talking about?

15 YEARS??
what are you basing this off of?

 

[RN7]

The monetization model is what killed TOR, though not because players wanted to blast through the content. The monetization model killed it because it wasn't sustainable. Firstly, the majority of players cared mainly for the story, as the raiding and pvp were subpar. Once the story's done, they leave. Good content wasn't being produced to a sufficient level to keep players coming back. They're still kind of doing it incorrectly, as a player can get from 1-50 and experience the story without paying a cent. They'd have to have some pretty darn good microtransactions to make F2P worthwhile.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Being designed by committee is what killed The Old Republic, seeing someone that made a lot of money and saying "Hey! We can do that! And our franchise already makes a lot of money, so that means we'll make even more money!"

I can't tell you how pleased the smug **** in me is that this was not the case.

 

[Pyro Paul]

The monetization model is what killed TOR, though not because players wanted to blast through the content. The monetization model killed it because it wasn't sustainable. Firstly, the majority of players cared mainly for the story, as the raiding and pvp were subpar. Once the story's done, they leave. Good content wasn't being produced to a sufficient level to keep players coming back. They're still kind of doing it incorrectly, as a player can get from 1-50 and experience the story without paying a cent. They'd have to have some pretty darn good microtransactions to make F2P worthwhile.

That isn't because the unlimited subscription model is unsustainable... it is that they did not produce or maintain the content that made it sustainable.

A major problem people are running into when developing unlimited subscription based games is that they ignore the single most important facet:

Community IS Content.

the reason Eve has stood the test of time as an unlimited subscription based game is because it does not restrict this single facet. Interaction with other players is what makes the game, be it running with friends or guildmates and creating a massive fleet to take on tough missions or running for your life away from other players who are intent on collecting your corpse and feasting on your delicious tears...

Hell, look at WoW.

What is the primary reason people go back to wow when jumping ship for another MMO?
"Because all my friends are in WoW."


What has failed SW:TOR is that they tried to make Story content the major draw, and the problem with that is that once the story is done, people leave. And rather then developing a game which takes the next step to evolve the 'Community is content' model, they are going through their backlog of games made and trying to add diffrent aspects to draw people back.

an the next Unlimited Subscription based MMO that is successful will have to have 'Community Footprinting'. That is, as players do things to the world, the world changes for every one.

ie: Every one chops wood in this forest, the forest disappears.

it is the next step in the predominant facet 'Community Is Content'...