EA Blames Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

[Bvenged]

snip

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Well that's what's great about this site - it's community-friendly. If it was all suits-and-ties professionalism it wouldn't be about gaming. We're a savage lot. Also, shock title? The title's not far off the mark.

The same thing goes on over at Destructoid, Kotaku etc. etc. but then again they also get community members whining about the "unprofessional" attitude in articles.

Also, the witty humour is a great addition to the news that our industry is self-destructing.

Yeah, Greg, yeah - your witty humour in this article... Greg Carter, you hybrid of two columnists - what have you done with the original Greg and Grey?

 

[The Wooster]

I guess there I'd take issue with calling anyone who throws down the money to play World of Warcraft a "non-gamer", aside from the extreme example of people who have never owned a console or installed a game on their PC trying it out for the first time. By the time they've played a month or three, if they've put any time into it at all they already qualify for the gamer tag in my book. A matter of personal definitions, I suppose.

That's true. I don't buy into that "you're not a gamer" thing. Perhaps "non-traditional gamers" would be better, but Warcraft draws in people who literally have no gaming experience, or very limited gaming experience. And there's a lot of people like that.

I'm still not sure that WoW has anything innately more appealing than the other MMOs on the market that aren't attributed to it's long history or sheer numbers of players....

....So... I guess I'm asking where you think that ability lies. Because I'd argue it's not inherent in the questing, combat, storyline or initial fanbase. You play WoW because your friends play WoW, WoW lets you play with your friends, and WoW keeps expanding and improving enough to still be fun to play.

If I knew exactly what WoW did "right" that allowed it to pull in so many users, I'd be making games myself. Some of WoW's popularity is down to momentum yes, but it needed something special to start that momentum in the first place. I don't think that "x" factor that turns a game from a product to a social phenomenon is something you can quantify and repeat. I mean, Angry Birds is a pretty good well-designed physics puzzler, but I couldn't explain it, of all the games in that genre, was the one to go nova.

 

[iseko]

As I pointed out in another thread, I think the casual players are the ones actually playing... It's the hardcore players that make lvl 50 in a week and fast run through all the content in a month. They are the ones leaving because there is virtually no end content. Leveling a character is LOADS of fun. Once you have done that there are operations, getting gear, flashpoints and pvp. You can do those in a matter of days.

And yea each class has a different story. But each planet has its own story. And its the same for all imp classes. Same for the republic. And to level you have to do them as well. So basically, after two imp characters and 2 rep characters you are bored of the story leveling.

Casual players are the way to go swtor. EA is getting his shit backwards!

edit: they had to give accounts with a level 50 character a free month to play so they would try out the legacy system and lvl 50 pvp wouldn't be a wasteland. Yea, it's the casuals who take 2-3 months to become level 50 that are leaving... Idiots

 

[shintakie10]

snip

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Well that's what's great about this site - it's community-friendly. If it was all suits-and-ties professionalism it wouldn't be about gaming. We're a savage lot. Also, shock title? The title's not far off the mark.

The same thing goes on over at Destructoid, Kotaku etc. etc. but then again they also get community members whining about the "unprofessional" attitude in articles.

Also, the witty humour is a great addition to the news that our industry is self-destructing.

Yeah, Greg, yeah - your witty humour in this article... Greg Carter, you hybrid of two columnists - what have you done with the original Greg and Grey?

Im fine with the witty humor. Generally it adds somethin to what would normally just be a depressin article. What I take issue with is when they outright make shit up. The homophobe line was a good example. This one? Meh. Would I like it better if it wasn't that, sure, but I wont lose sleep over it.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Woah, woah, what? could you possibly link that to me if you remember which article it was? I don't believe I read that.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Yeah, Greg. Really?

Oh yes, please do point out a misspelling and offer nothing of substance. The line back there--you see it? That's the line between edgy and childish.

 

[shintakie10]

-snip-

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117103-Best-Buy-Employee-Outs-Straight-Guy

Apparently it was edited since the last time I read it. You can still find the line in the comments where it was quoted though.

 

[TheCaptain]

That sounds wrong... I'm as casual as you get, and I still have like six class stories to go; while all my more "serious" friends have cancelled their subs because there wasn't anything to do for them, I'm still happily prancing about exploring...

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

-snip-

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117103-Best-Buy-Employee-Outs-Straight-Guy

Apparently it was edited since the last time I read it. You can still find the line in the comments where it was quoted though.

Oh, yeah. That one. It's all coming back to me now.

I honestly believe it's a case of the guys up stairs watching the income have given the orders to just make as many inflammatory and outrages remarks as possible in articles to get page views. Remember how much money trouble Escapist was having-not even paying their artists and such?

 

[The Wooster]

-snip-

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117103-Best-Buy-Employee-Outs-Straight-Guy

Apparently it was edited since the last time I read it. You can still find the line in the comments where it was quoted though.

Oh, yeah. That one. It's all coming back to me now.

I honestly believe it's a case of the guys up stairs watching the income have given the orders to just make as many inflammatory and outrages remarks as possible in articles to get page views. Remember how much money trouble Escapist was having-not even paying their artists and such?

Actually it was a poorly constructed sentence on my part that my editor called me out on, so I changed it. But I would say that, I'm part of the system.

 

[The Wooster]

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Woah, woah, what? could you possibly link that to me if you remember which article it was? I don't believe I read that.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Yeah, Greg. Really?

Oh yes, please do point out a misspelling and offer nothing of substance. The line back there--you see it? That's the line between edgy and childish.

Dude I'm as angry as you are. Greg really crossed the line this time. The line between edgy and childish, like you said.

 

[Tanakh]

If I knew exactly what WoW did "right" that allowed it to pull in so many users, I'd be making games myself. Some of WoW's popularity is down to momentum yes, but it needed something special to start that momentum in the first place. I don't think that "x" factor that turns a game from a product to a social phenomenon is something you can quantify and repeat. I mean, Angry Birds is a pretty good well-designed physics puzzler, but I couldn't explain it, of all the games in that genre, was the one to go nova.

For Angry Birds i would say in order of importance:

- Luck
- Character design
- Good implementation of the gameplay

They did nothing new, but it was a well executed game that got very lucky and was targeted at the right market at the right time.

And yeah, WoW did a bunch of things right, go play Everquest, Asheron's Call or DaoC, all of them were big way before warcraft so inertia is not the right answer. I know it sounds vage, but i think it's doing all the baiscs good from start and trying to polish them as much as they could, from the casting animations to the implementation of their Global Cooldown, just compare the level desing for places like the (old) barrens to tatoine. I dislike most of Blizz politics, and i will never play WoW again, but as a mmo? It's the pinnacle of a decade to say the least.

Also:

Dude I'm as angry as you are. Greg really crossed the line this time. The line between edgy and childish, like you said.

Bloke, stop feeding trolls and QQers and go to sleep!

 

[Dryk]

How can they tell that they're "casual"... sounds like they're just making excuses to keep their investors happy

"No, no it's still good, all those people who left were going to leave anyway. These ones that are left, they're around for good... don't worry we'll be able to afford the golden pirate ship soon."

 

[Dastardly]

"And as the service evolves from here, what we're seeing is that some of the initial casual customers have gone through a billing cycle and decided not to subscribe to the game."

From the sound of it, I don't think this was a dig at "casual gamers." I think he literally meant casual. People who weren't into this game directly, or in any personal way, but were just kind of "seeing what all the fuss was about." The MMO equivalent of walk-by traffic and window shoppers.

We might be finding offense where there is none.

 

[Kahani]

The Old Republic... is not as important as... SimCity," he said

Wait, what?

 

[Sixcess]

"And so building from a base that we're at right now, we feel very confident that this business is going to continue to stay competitive throughout the remainder of the year."

Building? These guys have to realise that there is no building to be done here. Once MMO numbers start falling they do NOT rise again. They're at 1.3m now, but by the end of this year they'll be lucky to be at 500K.

people stopped because it was feeling like a sp experience. and after that, people were done with it like most sp games. it was a fun game, but there was not enough to do to keep it playing.

This.

They're losing people because the game is built so much as a single player game that people are finishing the game and moving on. Did they really think they were going to convert their core fanbase of Bioware RPG fans into endgame raiders? Once the story is done these people are leaving.

"So it's a business contributor, while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity," he said, "but it's more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf."

This is perhaps the most hilarious thing I've ever read about SWtOR. Talk about damning with faint praise.

 

[Avionius]

With emphasis on single-player storylines, ability to play solo throughout the whole game, reduced group sizes, encouragement to play alts, arcade mini-game, linear gear progression and simplified class diversity TOR looks pretty much focused on casual appeal.

And yet EA states that the casuals were not their target group...

So what is there for (hard)core players?

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Woah, woah, what? could you possibly link that to me if you remember which article it was? I don't believe I read that.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Yeah, Greg. Really?

Oh yes, please do point out a misspelling and offer nothing of substance. The line back there--you see it? That's the line between edgy and childish.

Dude I'm as angry as you are. Greg really crossed the line this time. The line between edgy and childish, like you said.

I's funny, because your behaviour would see a user warned. You've gone out of your way to intentionally avoid the point and have resorted to passive aggressive trolling. Nice to see the standards are so very high for professional conduct around here. Then again, I wouldn't expect someone who refuses to engage in any form of intelligent discourse once they've been criticized to be anything of a well worded journalist.

A shining beacon for Themis Media. I'll have to pass on my praise.

 

[The Wooster]

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

Wait wait. This was the straw that broke the camels back and not the one where Carter called someone a homophobe in another article with absolutely no proof that it was true? This then lead to so many people comin into the article with lines like "At first I felt bad for him, but then I read he was a homophobe and think he deserved it."

You have weird standards for what is too much.

Woah, woah, what? could you possibly link that to me if you remember which article it was? I don't believe I read that.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Come on. I know the Escapist has been diving head first into shock titles to get readers into the news articles lately, but that's just blatantly unprofessional. The really stupid straw that broke this camels back, mayhaps.

EA Blames Filthy Casuals For Falling Old Republic Subscriber Numbers

Really, Greg? Really?

Yeah, Greg. Really?

Oh yes, please do point out a misspelling and offer nothing of substance. The line back there--you see it? That's the line between edgy and childish.

Dude I'm as angry as you are. Greg really crossed the line this time. The line between edgy and childish, like you said.

I's funny, because your behaviour would see a user warned. You've gone out of your way to intentionally avoid the point and have resorted to passive aggressive trolling. Nice to see the standards are so very high for professional conduct around here. Then again, I wouldn't expect someone who refuses to engage in any form of intelligent discourse once they've been criticized to be anything of a well worded journalist.

A shining beacon for Themis Media. I'll have to pass on my praise.

Make sure you address it to Greg.

 

[PingoBlack]

They're not the Star Wars fantasy. It's not the big expansive universe that appeals to so many people worldwide.

Big expansive universe? Not really, that would be EVE.
EA/BioWare made a planet surface simulator with map to serve as space travel.

Still, you have to admit it ... Their freaking PR machine is unstoppable in sheep shearing. However, BioWare is doomed in my opinion. EA will demand heads at BioWare at minimum.

 

[LongMuckDong]

Medal of Honor made money?

[sub][sub]Must... not... add... "u"... to... "honor"[/sub][/sub]

Why the fuck do you wanna misspell it?

Not sure if joking or oblivious.

Either way, it's brilliant work.