Even if this does go free to play, this game is a bog-standa WoW clone with a Star Wars paint job. Blagh.
EA Considering "Different Models" for The Old Republic
- Thread starter The Wooster
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Well I guess considering I already own an account with a level 50 on it I might as well see if the game is still completely trash. From current videos it looks slightly better gameplay wise, no stupid clunky animations and such. Unfortunately it still suffers from the biggest problem: its exactly the same game as WoW but shittier.
The market leader for MMOs is League of Legends now, it's more popular than WoW thanks to Asian players.Vie said:
I don't see why the game going F2P means it's dying, TF2,LoTRO,DDO,DCUO all managed to more than triple their revenue by going F2P, that seems better than sticking to P2P and dying out slowly, I mean 4 years ago WoW was the best thing since sliced bread, it was all anyone ever spoke about it seemed, now all it gets is people complaining about out.
Single player game with tacked on multiplayer fails to be good enough for long term subscription demand ... yes, people called this game Kotor 3 multiplayer a long time before release and predicted this. You know, not experts like EA, but random schmucks like me.
Then they talk about F2P just to notice game is not designed to properly support F2P ... yes, same schmucks on the interwebz mentioned that if their sub model fails, game must be designed to support micropayments, for example it needs a large variety of useless stuff to sell. And Kotor 3 multiplayer just didn't have any fluff, hell it lacks birds even!
Honestly, BioWare got EA, exactly as they deserved. Now they can use their PhDs to wipe their behinds after EA eats them alive. I just hope all developers then frame a copy of those dirty PhDs on their walls as a warning of what to never ever do in life.
Then they talk about F2P just to notice game is not designed to properly support F2P ... yes, same schmucks on the interwebz mentioned that if their sub model fails, game must be designed to support micropayments, for example it needs a large variety of useless stuff to sell. And Kotor 3 multiplayer just didn't have any fluff, hell it lacks birds even!
Honestly, BioWare got EA, exactly as they deserved. Now they can use their PhDs to wipe their behinds after EA eats them alive. I just hope all developers then frame a copy of those dirty PhDs on their walls as a warning of what to never ever do in life.
They should go for one of those hybrid models where you can either subscribe to get the full experience, or make micro-transactions for the stuff you're missing out on. I think Champions Online did this?
EDIT: And as someone else pointed out earlier, why do all MMO subscriptions have to be in the same price range? Why not mix things up a bit there? Maybe even have two or three tiers of subscriptions for the same game?
EDIT: And as someone else pointed out earlier, why do all MMO subscriptions have to be in the same price range? Why not mix things up a bit there? Maybe even have two or three tiers of subscriptions for the same game?
There is one game that is still doing incredibly well despite a lower subscription rate. It's... Wait for it... Runescape!Giftmacher said:
I dont get why there is so much debate on why the game failed, its a pretty dull game. If some Korean company had made the game and not used the Star Wars trimmings it wouldnt of got passed the beta phase its so generic.
The only good part was the sound, and that was just by using the SW audio banks no real hard work needed there.
Graphics ? Modest at thier best, mediocre most the time if not completely bland.
Mechanics ? Same as WoW, find a basic rotation and use the rotation to grind through the levels.
AI ? D-uh stand here and attack enemy if they come too close or attack us, and the rare patrol spot to spot types... nothing interesting, nothing new.
Storyline ? This is arguable, personally the voice didnt really add much after the first few missions and I even sort of mentally disregarded the talking... but many did like it so its a personal taste issue.
So we have a graphically bland and technologically mediocre game with good audio due to having a ready supply of usable audio assets from the franchise, with typical run of the mill MMO mechanics and no real attempt to make them interesting and enemy AI that is basic at best.
The story is arguably good or not depending on taste (but I think the settings ruined any story anyway).
The biggest joke is that EA probably spent more money on the marketing of this game than on the technical aspects, and probably more for the voice actors too... hell I got the impression that the actors accomadations costed more than the actual engine which the game is running on.
The only good part was the sound, and that was just by using the SW audio banks no real hard work needed there.
Graphics ? Modest at thier best, mediocre most the time if not completely bland.
Mechanics ? Same as WoW, find a basic rotation and use the rotation to grind through the levels.
AI ? D-uh stand here and attack enemy if they come too close or attack us, and the rare patrol spot to spot types... nothing interesting, nothing new.
Storyline ? This is arguable, personally the voice didnt really add much after the first few missions and I even sort of mentally disregarded the talking... but many did like it so its a personal taste issue.
So we have a graphically bland and technologically mediocre game with good audio due to having a ready supply of usable audio assets from the franchise, with typical run of the mill MMO mechanics and no real attempt to make them interesting and enemy AI that is basic at best.
The story is arguably good or not depending on taste (but I think the settings ruined any story anyway).
The biggest joke is that EA probably spent more money on the marketing of this game than on the technical aspects, and probably more for the voice actors too... hell I got the impression that the actors accomadations costed more than the actual engine which the game is running on.
I was interested in the 15 levels free-to-play-trial, but then whilst getting ready to download it, it mentioned installing origin and I just left, saddened. Possibly in disgust.
This right here. I enjoyed the game a lot for a few months, but having to pay fifteen bucks a month is simply ridiculous. Especially when I played it to enjoy the story, not to prance around in PvP. Make it a half of that cost and we can talk...Vigilantis said:
"Riccitiello also claimed that investors are relying too heavily on monthly NPD reports to gauge EA's performance. He pointed out that NPD's reports only track retail sales in the US and don't take into account EA's blossoming digital business."
EA keeps saying that their digital business is blossoming. I think this is appropriate for EA.
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk[/link]
EA keeps saying that their digital business is blossoming. I think this is appropriate for EA.
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk[/link]
It isn't that ToR is a bad game, but its that the market has moved past EQ/Vanilla WoW style RPGs. There are a couple of great Cracked article about just that: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-crucial-lessons-learned-by-watching-kids-play-video-games/ and http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/
There is no tolerance for grind anymore and that or pvp is all MMORPG endgame ever is. Nobody is willing to read novels to play just because they have other shit to do. So most of the detail of the backstory is wasted.
If anyone remembers playing Vanilla WoW you know you spend a large percentage of your play time waiting for raids or even instance groups to form. That or you scheduled your life around the game to be there at a certain time, at which point it might as well be a job.
Previously there were only MMO type games as the social outlets for all of the people who wanted to interact with other people but didn't want to do it in meatspace. Now there are gillions of social options including forums like this one, so MMOs lost their niche as the place to "hang out".
WoW has adapted to these changing times with quest markers and automatic cross server party creation. Blizzard is doing their damndest to turn battle.net into a social network not focused on any specific game. But even still WoW is bleeding subscribers and is holding on by sheer inertia. Just recently LoL replaced WoW for the top number of players at, least according to one measure, and its only going to get worse for them.
The market as matured pasted WoW style MMOs. WoW will gradually fade but there will never be another to replace it.
There is no tolerance for grind anymore and that or pvp is all MMORPG endgame ever is. Nobody is willing to read novels to play just because they have other shit to do. So most of the detail of the backstory is wasted.
If anyone remembers playing Vanilla WoW you know you spend a large percentage of your play time waiting for raids or even instance groups to form. That or you scheduled your life around the game to be there at a certain time, at which point it might as well be a job.
Previously there were only MMO type games as the social outlets for all of the people who wanted to interact with other people but didn't want to do it in meatspace. Now there are gillions of social options including forums like this one, so MMOs lost their niche as the place to "hang out".
WoW has adapted to these changing times with quest markers and automatic cross server party creation. Blizzard is doing their damndest to turn battle.net into a social network not focused on any specific game. But even still WoW is bleeding subscribers and is holding on by sheer inertia. Just recently LoL replaced WoW for the top number of players at, least according to one measure, and its only going to get worse for them.
The market as matured pasted WoW style MMOs. WoW will gradually fade but there will never be another to replace it.
60$ to install the game
another 30 on top of that to play it.
I invested 90 dollars into a mediocre MMO. For god's sake, why can't companies be like runsecape? Where you don't have to pay tripple A pricing for just the client, and you just buy monthly subscriptions?
I mean, if I were an MMO creator, I'd just wait a few more months to get my gold plated toilet.
another 30 on top of that to play it.
I invested 90 dollars into a mediocre MMO. For god's sake, why can't companies be like runsecape? Where you don't have to pay tripple A pricing for just the client, and you just buy monthly subscriptions?
I mean, if I were an MMO creator, I'd just wait a few more months to get my gold plated toilet.
I don't think so. I think there is still a decent market out there for a grind style MMORPG. You just have to structure the grind in a way that keeps people interested.rembrandtqeinstein said:
Essentially the point of a grind is to give the player a palpable sense of accomplishment in small bites. Small enough that he won't accomplish everything too quickly, but large enough that he can see his progress advancing. That's still a valid thing for a game to focus on. Especially in the MMO arena where your rank or accomplishment is constantly compared to that of other players.
The problem with SWTOR wasn't that they copied WoW. It's that they copied WoW from 3 or 4 years ago, and then did it poorly. Lots of people bought the game and had a decent time playing it. And if there was a future in it, they would have convinced others to buy it and continued to grow. Instead we had a decent single player game for a couple of weeks, another couple of weeks of mild raiding and then nothing special to do.
There are places where WoW style MMORPGs can innovate. LFG type systems that automate the process of grouping with others was a huge step forward. Personally, I suspect the next big thing will be integrating player actions into the narrative of the game. Like if you kill the big dragon, then your name gets put up on a statue in the town square and the next raid boss is a large scale model of you with some corruption effects attached. Stuff like that will get people more interested because they'll have more stake in what's going on.
Frankly, I think of the reasons why WoW has managed to stay on top so long is that the addon system allows blizzard to basically crowdsource innovation constantly and just pick the most popular or most useful of the crop and add them into the game.
Dear EA and Bioware,
Before you decide to make your game free to play and what business model you make with that, here are two things you NEED to watch first:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/power-creep
and
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions
Before you decide to make your game free to play and what business model you make with that, here are two things you NEED to watch first:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/power-creep
and
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions
I'm not a wow fanatic but I wanted to see this game die a horrible death just so I could watch all those smug assholes sobbing in the streets.RedEyesBlackGamer said:
I don't get it. If you don't like wow, cool, but why be up in arms demanding everything kill it.
I'm not talking about you, that message is more to the throngs of people who always worship games they think will kill wow
.It's just another game, ignore it and enjoy whatcha like. That's what I'm saying.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure TOR doesn't force you to install Origin. I bought and downloaded it from Origin, and I didn't have to install it. It asked you to make an account, sure... but downloading the software is optional I believe. At least for this game.John the Gamer said:
Personally I think someone on this site is trying to milk the TOR not doing as good as it wanted for all it's worth. There are articles here about this game I don't see on any other site. Some journalist here has some real hate boner for the game, I'd reason.
Considering they just made the prologue F2P, I wouldn't hold your breath on anything else happening for at least the next 6 months. It's shrunk, but definitely treading water now, and I'll keep playing at least until the new planet is released at the end of this year.