SWTOR: Really EA? Are you seriously surprised?

[Ryotknife]

Could you point out what WOW does better? A friend of mine said some people had complaints about swtor and I want to know what wow does to keep its subscriptions.

I think the reason people don't stick around is because they just want to play for ridiculous amounts of time every day and blow through all the content as fast as possible, like they could afford to do with WoW because of how grindy and overflowing with padding their content was, and TOR deliberately avoids putting in such crappy content (all of TOR's 20 bear asses content is minimal, in many cases completely optional, and most often automatically done during another mission). I personally play for about 3 hours or so each day and do everything available, so it took 3 months or so to get through my first character, and my second is going through not too much faster. I take my time, but others don't, so they don't stay.

if TOR did everything better than wow...people would not be leaving in droves. Was first released TOR better than first released WoW? certainly. but like you mentioned a lot of problems facing TOR are also what WoW HAD (key word here). This is coming from someone who is officially done with WoW as of two years ago (Mists of Pandaria dont tempt me in even the slightest)

PVE in TOR is just horrid. the fact that the bosses in the hardest operations (8-16 people) are a complete joke even by WoW 5 man dungeon boss standards. A shame too, as the first flashpoint, Black Talon, was designed very well and a lot of fun, as were some of the other flashpoints.

Let us not forget how insanely difficult it is to even FIND a group for a flashpoint. I think once i hit 50 i manage to find 3 pickup groups over the course of 4-5 months...

pvp is a whole different bag of problems. Assassins are pretty much perfect, and the other force users are designed pretty well from the word go. the non force classes are pretty much one trick ponies who dont bring much to the table team wise compared to the force classes. course that is from a few months ago when i quit.

I played a powertech (bounty hunter) first time through because i love powered armor. Quite honestly, it was one of the worst classes ive ever played, and ive played quite a few classes in wow that were, at the time, completely terrible. Switched to a juggernaut and it was better than my PT in everyway possible, and hell juggs werent even OP.

Huttball was fun though.

There are things TOR did very well. Leveling was a blast. But it didnt take any lessons from WoW really, and then took forever to implement any fixes.

 

[Bat Vader]

all i have to say for swtor is that i'm enjoying it. I'm having a blast doing OPS with my guild. and when there is no ops i lvl my alts.

I am having a blast with TOR as well. If the game does go fully free to play I think people that pre-ordered the game and bought it on day one or people that purchased the Collector's Edition should get premium access. That is if they offer premium access.

 

[lapan]

They took a engine that was still in beta and made a ridicolous amount of servers. Then when players start decreasing they can't even transfer the characters for a long time since the engine wasn't able to. Not to mention the outdated graphics and the bugs the game suffers from

Combine that with horrible customer support and you have a formula set for fail.

 

[Starke]

I think it was level capped at some point but they got rid of that very quickly, the original f2p model for the game was terrible. They changed it from the complains and now its a very nice, perhaps one of the best f2p models out there.

Yeah, the old saying is really true, "you only get one chance to make a good first impression." The impression that stuck with me was of an incredibly naked cash grab, where if you wanted to do anything you had to cough up real money.

I might go back to it some day at least for a look see, if not for the fact that I'm pretty heavily committed to Champions Online, and now Secret World, which pretty much eats my gaming time.

 

[Zetatrain]

Actually (unsure if someone mentioned this already, though) SWTOR is available in Asia and Australia (and that general area) as well now, and WoW's been around for 8 years, while SWTOR's been around 6 months. I mean, WoW didn't suddenly get 10 million subscribers on launch day, it's a long process. WoW's had its population drops as well over the years (they even had one quite recently). The thing seems to be, that people overall are fairly tired of MMOs, as most of them are having a bit of a rough time (which will likely blow over soon). Adding to this that everyone seems to think and/or want that this and that company or game will fall, things may seem a bit more dire than they actually are. Especially BioWare seems to have had a lot of this. Considering SWTOR has 1.3 million subscribers after only 6 months, it's doing pretty damn well. And to those of you who thought WoW would fall after its recent population drop; one does not simply fall with 10 million subscribers.

In short; SWTOR won't fall any time soon, its only been out for 6 months, stop comparing it to a game that's been out for 8 years (16 times as long).

Finally someone with half a brain posts.

Vanilla WoW had no end game content either. WoW has been around for 8 years. All MMORPGs are the same. Wow end game content is badge collecting doing boring dailys over and over and over... Zzzzzz

Whinge whine whinge whine whinge fucking moan moan moan moan...

Gamers are getting embarrassing.

True, vanilla WoW did not have much if anything in the way of end game content when it first came out, but at the same time I don't think WoW had much in the way of competition back then. Today there are many other MMOs (some of which are F2P)that players can flock to once they get bored of SWTOR, so the need for end game content becomes much more important than it was almost a decade ago.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

I liked Swtor for the most part. I played it past the free 30 days, which is something I couldn't say about any other MMO I tried in the past 4 years. But, there were some horrid glaring issues that affected the game, and the attrition from my friend's list meant that I very quickly ran out of people that wanted to play.

My main issues with Swtor are:
1. The engine is ass. It looks pretty, but runs horribly. I can run Battlefield 3 on max settings with nary a glitch, but the same couldn't be said for Swtor. Not to mention that if you get more than 20 people on the screen at once, your frame rate takes a massive nose dive. Tried PVPing in illum? I tried it and endured it every day, to complete the dailies and get the pvp crates.

2. As someone previously said, pick up groups. They don't often happen for 4 mans. Once my friends stopped playing this would be a regular scenario. I log in. I go to the imperial fleet. I spend 20 minutes unsuccessfully getting a group to run something, I log out and do something else. Sure, I get that there was a vocal group that opposed any group finder for Swtor. I bet they don't play anymore either, along with the people who quit because it was missing such an accepted feature for a modern MMO.

3. The Oceanic debacle.
Yes, we Aussies rolled on The Swiftsure, and yes, everyone else there loved or hated us because of it. Then they decided to open Oceanic servers, almost 2 months after release, BUT they didn't have server transfers. Way to fracture a community. The guild I was in at the time literally split in half, from those who jumped ship straight away, to those didn't want to relinquish their main character straight away.

Sure. There's more issues I had. Glitches and bugs. Being unable to complete quests, or dungeons due to bugs. The PVP gearing up issue, how when they decided to change it, it made it almost impossible for new players to gear up to the standard that everyone else was already at, due to PVP crates. The raid content being over far too quickly, or having annoying mechanics (Tower of Hanoi.. ).

Anyway, this game might end up being like Conan. It showed a lot of promise, but it's going to take a lot of patches to bring it to where it needed to be. By then, it's probably too late, and they'll have to cut the development team at some stage.

 

[Starke]

Anyway, this game might end up being like Conan. It showed a lot of promise, but it's going to take a lot of patches to bring it to where it needed to be. By then, it's probably too late, and they'll have to cut the development team at some stage.

Honestly, at this point, I'd be inclined to say, "it's already too late", they've already started to cut the development team down. Meaning new content is now going to start sliding out past release date, and the schedule's going to be shot to shit. Once that happens, any consumer faith in their ability to keep adding to the game will be gone, and then... it's done.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Much of WoW's popularity is because it's so popular. WoW was successful because of a combination of events and luck that can never be repeated. In 2004 when it launched, although there were other MMOs (including the titan of the day, Everquest), WoW had something the others didn't. Warcraft III, probably the most popular RTS of its day was played by millions. It had fans worldwide and suddenly they could be a part of the same world as Arthas (who they just watched fall from grace), Sylvanas Windrunner and Jaina Proudmore.

Because these were video game afficionados, this fan base migrated to WoW en masse. Unlike Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix or other film-based franchises, Warcraft fans were avid games players, rather than movie-goers (who may not be interested in playing a game). By disdaining high graphical reqs they had a larger potential audience. They also came up with a "magical" combination of time-sink, grinding and carrot-and-stick gameplay that keeps people playing way past the point they should have stopped. It's so addictive it has destroyed relationships, marriages, killed people and caused others to commit murder.

Then because of its popularity, the income meant it could see the most ongoing development and expansion over time. It attracts many who are otherwise non-gamers, drawn because it's the de facto MMO with the most people. The tragedy is that all other games try to emulate and/or beat it and so every MMO looks and plays like WoW or borrows mechanics/gameplay wholeheartedly. Kingdoms of Amalur was WoW offline for Christ's sake.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

On topic, SWTOR is a good game and a good MMO. I had no issue with getting, installing or subscribing to the game. My server was very popular to start but after March the population disappeared. The knock on effect meant there was no one to team with, very little PvP and a pathetic economy. I've since moved to a very well populated server and couldn't believe the number of players waiting there for me, but I think too much damage has already been done.

BioWare/EA took too long to bring server transfers about. My guild shrunk to a third in size between March-April, and they still left it two more months for server transfers. They lost the "casuals" to start with, but dragging their feet cost them more than half of the lifers, those players who dedicate to an MMO. More than three months of waiting and begging and failing to find a team for any dungeon/flashpoint, raid/operation or even missions around quest hubs, not to mention an empty marketplace (eg. no crafting mats, few, overpriced items, etc) was too much for many players.

Ultimately, what people fail to realise is that after the Star Wars, LotR, Matrix, "Richard Garriot" (WTF?), Star Trek, DC Universe, etc novelty wears off, it becomes "just another game" with missions, ranged DPS, "LF good geared healer", travelling times, gear and the rest. Concentrate on that instead of trying to get stupid references to a franchise only the fanboys will care about, and forget moments later. It has to be the best game, not the best homage to another work of fiction. This is what I fear Bethesda will do with future TES/Fallout MMOs.

 

[AndrewF022]

I honestly don't know what EA/Bioware were thinking with sinking so much money in a subscription based MMO in this market..

When all the big subscription based MMO players (+1 milion subs) like WoW, Aion, Lineage and Runescape are struggling to retain theres, how did they think they would fair with a brand new game (even if they do plonk the 'Star Wars' logo on the box)?. Especially when what they offer doesn't really differ from what's already available, and is an average game overall (well I think it is anyway).

So I don't think theres anyone that didn't see this coming. Live and learn I suppose. Maybe it will grow over time and all will be well in the end.

 

[Dresos]

My friends who played it ( I still haven't ) recommended it to me for the singleplayer experience, they played around 2-3 months and unsubbed because there were no more content than that.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

Could you point out what WOW does better? A friend of mine said some people had complaints about swtor and I want to know what wow does to keep its subscriptions.

What irritated me most about ToR was its lack of responsiveness.
When I pushed a button in WoW, my avatar executed that ability immediately while going through the animation.
When I pushed a button in ToR, my avatar first went through some animation and then executed the ability after that.

It was kinda like the bending in the Last Airbender cartoon versus Shyamalans movie adaptation abomination.

This. This so much.
Why can't MMO developers get it through their thick skulls that responsiveness feels good in your games, I hate feeling like I'm controlling a fucking tractor rather than a character. This is why WoW is the only hotkey based MMO I can stand, because the tractorish feel goes for RIFT and other mmos like that.

 

[Paularius]

Im still subbed in ToR and i really enjoy it.
I thought the leveling and stories were fantastic and didnt feel at all grindy. Infact its the first mmo i'd want to actually play for the leveling, no other mmo can ever say that. Altho it would be nice to have a little bit more free roaming on planets and i cant say much about the pvp as i never liked it in any mmo.
The game does have end content. There are three raids you can do each with a normal mode, hardmode, nightmare mode version for more difficult content and better loot aswell as a hardmode version for half the single group instances making them max level with tiered gear drops.

They've also announced the next content that will be released. Increased level cap, new planet, new playable race, new pvp and space missions possably including the guild capitol ship.

 

[Ickorus]

I still think they would have been better off releasing as a buy-to-play game, I knew from the moment I booted up the game in beta (at a friend's house) that it wasn't going to last as a pay-to-play game and if they'd only realised that themselves they could have avoided the negative stigma attached to games that switch from P2P to F2P.

 

[Paularius]

Wonder what the new race is.

I belive i hear it was the Kathar.
Will have to double check tho.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

They should've just stuck to making Knights of the Old Republic 3. Or kept the title, but focused on a single-player only game. That would have been much better imo.

Considering what they did with Mass effect 3 i'd rather they didn't completely ruin the KotOR series.

I would prefer to see the creators of KOTOR 2 make a sequel, I personally found the story to be way better and more original than the typical "save the galaxy, beat the villain,get the girl" bioware story.

On the subscription model, I actually prefer P2P. I find it much easier to just have a solid payment every month and have complete acces to the game than having to pay micro-transactions galore for the full experience.

I agree, which is why I think swtor should follow Guild wars 2's system.

Not to mention the outdated graphics and the bugs the game suffers from

Outdated graphics? You should take a good long look at the top selling MMO out there before you start criticizing SWTOR's graphics, the BEST selling mmo has worse.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I stopped reading when you couldn't be bothered even doing enough research to find out how many countries its actually available in. Mind that countries are not continents. There are only around 8 continents in the world.

North America
South America
Oceania
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Africa
Antarctica


Counteries KOTOR is avaliable in, from my limited experience on the forums:

Canada
USA
Mexico
England
Scotland
Ireland
France
Hungry
(Etc etc as the it's available in the entire European union)
Australia
New Zealand
Japan
China
Korea
Taiwan
Singapore
Hong Kong (Its an independent city)
Israel
Turkey
And a few southern African countries.

Short of distributing in the oceanic isles, middle east, northern African countries, and Southern American countries, they are pretty much international.

Excuse Bioware/EA for not seeing an urgency to get a copy of TOR to Syria.

Nice, I wasn't talking about KOTOR by the way. I'm talking about an mmo.

I know that was a typo btw. And don't BULLSHIT me with that info. I LIVE in THE CAPITAL of all South African countries and this game is nowhere to be found. Where did this info come from?

 

[lapan]

Outdated graphics? You should take a good long look at the top selling MMO out there before you start criticizing SWTOR's graphics, the BEST selling mmo has worse.

Granted, but it is much older. While it's probably TORs least problem it adds to a longer list of faults.

 

[Don Savik]

Outdated graphics? You should take a good long look at the top selling MMO out there before you start criticizing SWTOR's graphics, the BEST selling mmo has worse.

Granted, but it is much older. While it's probably TORs least problem it adds to a longer list of faults.

I kind of like the stylized graphics to be honest. They aren't low quality, just not very realistically detailed and gritty. Not everything has to be Crysis.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Sounds like you just had a bad time I play SWTOR and my experience has been stellar. Then again I live in North America. We server transfered our entire guild and now we see 255 people on fleet during downtime. LFG in general chat actually works and there are usually at least 50 people on a planet.

I am having a terrific time doing Raids daily and having fun with friends.

I am truly sorry you've had such a crappy experience.