Star Wars: The Old Republic Profitable With 500,000 Subs
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
Actually, the present proves you wrong, for the exact same reason: a lot of game devs noticed the same thing, namely that a lot of MMO gamers just skipped quest text and quests being 'same old same old' stuff, so they went about making quests more immersive and engaging, or as some devs stated to bring the 'RPG' back into MMORPG.Midnight Crossroads said:
And that's what really is happening at the moment, companies revamping quest mechanics each in their own way:
- CATA introduced a lot more fun quests and story to their questing (eg see Worgen starter area)
- The Secret World will introduce more story immersive questing, an evolution of what you saw in AoC starter area
- Guild Wars 2 introduces more story or RPG to its questing by introducing the Personal Story quests
- SW:TOR introduces more story or RPG to its questing by adding VO, cutscenes and choices that have impact and that will decide what questlines you will get as followup later in the game.
So no, what BW is doing with the questing mechanics isn't that far out, since we see 4 MMO companies having come to the exact same conclusion, namely that it needed revision.
That doesn't mean that all the other MMO aspects won't be in SW:TOR, story immersive questing doesn't replace those features, it replaces the bland standard MMO questing.
Those that couldn't give a s**t about quests in MMO's can still skip the cutscenes, but there are lots of people who are looking forward to quests that are more immersive and different from the current standard MMO quests.
Regarding the class selection, polls clearly stated that it's pretty healthy spread out over the classes, in much the same way as you see in other MMORPG's.
BioWare will be getting my 15 a month for at least a couple months. Til I do and see everything.
MMOs are way too easy these days and its so easy to make it to the "end game". I played EQ1 for 5 years and never once got bored, or lost interest simply because it actually took time to get where I was going.
MMOs are way too easy these days and its so easy to make it to the "end game". I played EQ1 for 5 years and never once got bored, or lost interest simply because it actually took time to get where I was going.
Yes, we've already discussed everything you've brought up. We even brought hard numbers into the discussion which proved Jedi classes out numbered other classes 1.5 to 1.Realist said:
Ve are in agreemont ven. For vu see, I too play Vow and find it to be quite enjoyable. (Apologies for the crappy german accent.)Octorok said:
I plan on expanding from just WoW though to Guild Wars 2 and The Old Republic, hopefully I can afford both, if not I might have to become a male prostitute... I mean get a job at Gamestop.
Ah good, then you've already realised the hard facts that a revision of the quest mechanics is a good thing, as 4 MMO companies and among them BW have come to realise as shown recently.Midnight Crossroads said:
Regarding the division among classes, 2 things:
- a comparison of 1.5 to 1 is clearly a huge difference from the 3 to 1 that you were throwing around, it's simple math.
- a popular class 'outnumbering' less popular classes with 1.5 to 1 isn't that odd, even fairly usual in MMORPG's. In AoC, WoW and LotrO you can even encounter a 2 to 1 difference on some servers. So, nothing to cry wolf about. That is, even for a speculation since the poll is nice, but the game isn't even live yet.
Your point would be relevant if it concerned what we were discussing, which was lasting appeal to keep the that 500k playerbase around.Realist said:
The numbers I posted were pretty accurate. I said 75 15 10, it was about 60 20 15 with change. The smuggler and soldier classes were combined to compete with Jedi, which was what I was addressing. Reading comprehension for the win and all that.
this worries me as well, as much as i want this game to be excellent and prove me wrong (at which point i will happily swallow my pride and purchase it), but from what i've seen it looks like it could be on shaky ground for a lot of people. Also needing to maintain that high a number could be a problem with out regular content updatesMidnight Crossroads said:
Eh, sorry, but you were the one that dragged story into the discussion of (lasting) appeal in the first place. Let me quote from your first post:Midnight Crossroads said:
"Voice acting? Who cares? I read my quest while running. Lots of players don't even do that. All that voice talent will go to waste as players spam the ESC key. It's a waste of money, time, and effort."
- It is not a waste of time and effort, the actions of the 4 companies I mentioned and recent reactions from a lot of beta testers that found the standard MMO questing in Rift to be 'boring and same old same old', have shown that standard MMO questing needs revision.
That is not a waste of time and effort: it takes 200-250 hrs on average to reach level cap in an MMORPG, most of the time spent leveling is done by quests. In those 200-250 hours of leveling and questing players will decide whether it's worth subbing to an MMO or not, so if the questing can be made more interesting and engaging than just 'same old same old' (next to the combat etc) that's a win.
Another quote:
"BioWare puts way too much effort into the story. WoW isn't still going because people are waiting with bated breath for the next exciting chapter in WoW's unfolding story. They have to release stories on a schedule. It's a lose-lose situation. Either they make it long enough to kill their own lore, or they don't come up with enough that they can salvage it after the servers shut down. You'll know they're done for when you have Revan on farm status."
- First, a lot of gamers liked the changed questing into more story questing in CATA. Second, you state it as if "story", or BW's questing revamp which "story" in gameplay mechanics actually is, is the only thing SWTOR will have. It's not, they have all the other MMO features as well, War zones, dungeons, crafting, raiding content etc, the "story" as you use it refers to the questing, and quests in any MMORPG are only good for the first 200-300 hours or so. After that, people spend their time on other MMO features and so will they do with SWTOR.
Regarding the classes: eh, sorry, your numbers are distorted, the "60" consists of 4 Force user classes, 2 Jedi classes and 2 Sith classes.
So if you want to make the comparison of Force users (4 classes) vs non-Force users (4 classes, bounty hunter, imperial agent, smuggler, trooper), then it'd be 60 to 40, which is quite a difference from 75 to 25, or to put it in a simpler example: you said that for every 10 regular class players there would be 30 Force class players (3 to 1), while it's more like for every 20 regular class players there'll be 30 Force class players (1.5 to 1).
But hey, if you want to keep believing that BW is doing it all wrong and the game will be a huge failure no matter what and don't give a damn about story or quests being 'same old' and standard, be my guest. After all, opinions differ, agree to disagree and all that.
Cata is a new expansion which Blizzard implemented to overhaul a 10 year old game. We're talking about long term, which is what I was referring too. Again, reading comprehension is valuable skill. The other MMOs you listed have yet to be released. I've seen hype for MMOs before. Lots of them are free to play or had their servers shut down for good. Where is your proof that it will hold the attention of the 500,000 players 10 years from now?Realist said:
And my numbers are not skewed. If you were so keen to pay attention to my posts, you would notice I said Jedi. That means, any force using class. I didn't say, there would be 75% of one Jedi class. Going by the numbers I specified, there is, in fact a 4 to 1 ratio in Jedi classes to soldier classes and a 3 to 1 for Jedi to smugglers.
Everyone says that this game will be amazing because it's Bioware, but you all forget that this is also Bioware's first MMO.
I am somewhat interested in this game, but a lot of people who have gotten to play the testing versions are saying that the multiplayer component of the game seems out of touch. Which would be devastating for an MMO.
Personally I plan to play this game only until I have seen most of the content and then quickly head over to Guildwars2 which seems a lot more solid in both single and multiplayer components and all the other reasons to be excited about that game.
Personally I plan to play this game only until I have seen most of the content and then quickly head over to Guildwars2 which seems a lot more solid in both single and multiplayer components and all the other reasons to be excited about that game.
Hate. So much hate. Remember, hate leads to suffering. On the path to the dark side, you haters are.
Statistical evidence has repeatedly shown that roughly .05% of the people who play MMORPGs frequent the official forums of sites run by the developers of the MMORPG that they are playing. Roughly 25k people took the poll as to which class they were planning on playing upon release. The numbers add up.