"The Old Republic will be the biggest failure in MMO history," says EA developer

[WeedyPirate]

this is pretty old.

but like many have said, he's obviously pissed due to being let go and is venting. i bet he knows very little about the development of tOR. Heck, some of the things he was saying about a game he actually worked on were ridiculous and petty, i wouldn't put much faith in the tat he spouts about somebody elses game.

 

[slipknot4]

Gravity cat not amused, nor surprised. I mean, why did they put Bioware on it? Or... wait, why did they put Bioware in charge of making a Star Wars MMO. Everyones expectations will be over the roof by the time of the release.
But yeah, I've made up my mind.

 

[Marowit]

Well, every publisher will attempt to market their MMO like that generally, because they want bored WoW players to switch. And that's a good chunk of WoW players. But a lot of people will care about the story and conversation wheel as well. Primarily fans of Bioware and/or fans of the previous KoTOR games. And these aren't necessarily independent groups. Many people who still play WoW have most likely played and enjoyed Bioware RPGs as well. So hey, killing two birds with one stone.

As far as combat goes, I'm not sure on the click to attack thing. I'm not sure if there's a "basic" attack at all. It seems like it might be entirely ability-based. But the positive part of that is that all your abilities have a very short cooldown (looks like approximately a global 2 seconds). So in other words, it will be faster-paced than WoW. It also seems like they want you to be able to fight several enemies at the same time from the get-go. So it will play more like Diablo in that regard.

If they want bored WoW players to switch, they need to offer something unique that WoW doesn't have. Yes there's the story/voice acting, but the majority probably won't care for that. So your left with basically gameplay. And if its similar to WoW, the bored WoW players will try, go "this is basically what I've been playing for years", get bored with the gameplay and whole "starting over" aspect, feel the grind harder since it'll feel like they've done it all before meaning they're more likely to just leave, and then they'll actually leave and go back to WoW.

Again, I know they have story and voice acting, but chances are most won't care for that except Bioware fans. And unless at least a million or so fans buy and stick with the game, it may not do so well.

The one thing you don't seem to consider, or at least acknowledge, in your, 'this is what I'm already playing,' statement is that the setting will be, or at least should be, fairly distinct.

I agree with you that if the game is too similar they will fall into the same trap that Warhammer did, but WAR was originally developed by the one-hit-wonder Mythic. WAR did offer some slight nuances on the tired high-fantasy genre, but in the end, when the game failed to deliver the hype, it was just a high-fantasy MMO.

I give BioWare a little more credit at avoiding that fairly obvious pitfall - they've done some good work on improving WAR - and they seem to have some pretty savvy developers there. ME 1 vs. ME 2 was like night and day, and whether you liked it or not ME 2 was much more playable than ME1. Notice I say playable, I didn't use enjoyable since that's obviously personal preference. I think they've done a pretty smart thing by feeling out the waters of RPGs with ME(1,2) and DA:Origins, and seeing what people like/dislike from their contemporary MMOs.

I am cautious about the game, but in the end I'll probably end up buying it day-one...I've been craving a good Sci-Fi MMO (and yes, I've tried Eve, and I can't stand it...).

 

[Flying-Emu]

I said that two years and $30 million ago.

All the signs are already there. Jedi/Sith from start, huge trailers with no gameplay, roughshod use of canon.

Sorry Star Wars fans, this is gonna crash like the Death Star.

Root, may I just say that I am so very happy that I'm not the only one who thinks this. The more info they release about this game the more I realize it's going to blow chunks. HARD.

GUess I'll be sticking to WoW.

 

[Flying-Emu]

WoW, which can certainly be boring, at least didn't feel like alpha on release.

Certainly wasn't much better.

I dunno about you, but I played on the day of release, and holy hell was the game horrendous.

 

[00slash00]

i was on digg last night and came across this article

http://furiousfanboys.com/2010/10/ea-developer-old-republic-will-be-one-of-the-greatest-failures-in-the-history-of-mmos/

i really want a star wars mmo (and dont mention galaxies, because i try to pretend that game never happened).

To be honest, I thought galaxies was a relatively decent MMO (back before they completely changed it). I will admit those memories might be tainted with nostalgia, for it was the first MMO I ever really played, outside of free ones like runescape *shudder*

i played it right when it came out and there wasnt really anything to do and i found myself extremely bored so i quit. i heard that it later got much better, and then eventually turned to shit again once everyone started becoming jedis

 

[GloatingSwine]

OT: All incarnations of the Death Star have blown up, not crashed.

Except for the Maw Installation Prototype. That one was sucked into a black hole.

Silence heretic. Kevin J Anderson has never written a Star Wars book.

Anyway, I still expect TOR to be World of Warcraft with jedi robes on, which is why it will fail, because it will attract a small subset of the existing WoW playerbase, who will play it for six months and realise that it isn't really offering anything concrete that WoW isn't, and by this time WoW will have had content updates anyway so there'll be new stuff for them to do when they inevitably gravitate back to it.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Probably will be shit, I'll be honest with you I've found all MMOs to be shit

I will give this a try but am really cynical about this and won't be surprised in the slightest if it is shit

Plus you have WoW to compete with guys. It's like trying to fight against a mountain

 

[ZodiacBraves]

i was on digg last night and came across this article

http://furiousfanboys.com/2010/10/ea-developer-old-republic-will-be-one-of-the-greatest-failures-in-the-history-of-mmos/

i really want a star wars mmo (and dont mention galaxies, because i try to pretend that game never happened).

To be honest, I thought galaxies was a relatively decent MMO (back before they completely changed it). I will admit those memories might be tainted with nostalgia, for it was the first MMO I ever really played, outside of free ones like runescape *shudder*

i played it right when it came out and there wasnt really anything to do and i found myself extremely bored so i quit. i heard that it later got much better, and then eventually turned to shit again once everyone started becoming jedis

I guess part of the reason I had liked it at the time, was the real sense of worlds and adventure. Yes, it was slow and at times could be quite boring, but it felt like you were actually in star wars galaxies. I thought the sense of true immersion I got from that game was quite amazing. Again, my nostalgia goggles are on, and since I can't really go back and try it again anymore, I'll probably never know.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

OT: All incarnations of the Death Star have blown up, not crashed.

Except for the Maw Installation Prototype. That one was sucked into a black hole.

Silence heretic. Kevin J Anderson has never written a Star Wars book.

Hey, not everyone hates KJA's books. I find them hilarious, over the top fun.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

It's Bioware+Star Wars. It's going to sell regardless. The only question remains is if it'll survive long term.

not long with Guild Wars 2 round the corner

But that could end up a failure instead and people will go back to TOR. You never know.

Yeah I suppose but to be far the 1st one is still goin strong, not to mention they said they wanna make GW2 playable on pc's that are not top of the line. In addition to no subscription fees.

Tbh my money is on Guild Wars but I suppose only time will tell.

You also bring up a good point but let us remember FF 14. I'm sure the people who enjoyed FF 11 went to play it thinking it would be awesome (as 14 can be thought of as a spiritual sequel since they're the only 2 MMO FF games), saw that it was a mess and went back to FF 11.

NOTE: I pretty much used this as an example, I highly doubt what I said actually took place.

I see what yours saying but by the looks of Guild Wars 2 it seems very impressive, and from all the feedback from the critics and such seems to back that up. The opposite occured for FF14.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Hell it might even be me or
this guy http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view

LMAO. Nothing like clicking on a link and finding out that it points to yourself. No, it wasn't me. I'm still laughing at how inaccurate his comments are. Cracks me up every time I see them. It's a shame that people are gullible enough to take the ranting of somebody that never had anything to do with this project as gospel, though.

Oh well. This is the Internet. We have stupidity in abundance here.

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

Based on my past experience playing Bioware games, i don't think this is going to be the biggest failure in mmo history, i mean come on, its BIOWARE. The guys that helped make rpg's what they are today.

 

[Korten12]

The best MMO coming out in the next few years won't be TOR or WH40K, it will surprise everyone when Guild Wars 2 turns out to be a runaway hit.

Exactly, GW2 FTW!

 

[xXDeMoNiCXx]

It's Bioware+Star Wars. It's going to sell regardless. The only question remains is if it'll survive long term.

not long with Guild Wars 2 round the corner

But that could end up a failure instead and people will go back to TOR. You never know.

Yeah I suppose but to be far the 1st one is still goin strong, not to mention they said they wanna make GW2 playable on pc's that are not top of the line. In addition to no subscription fees.

Tbh my money is on Guild Wars but I suppose only time will tell.

You also bring up a good point but let us remember FF 14. I'm sure the people who enjoyed FF 11 went to play it thinking it would be awesome (as 14 can be thought of as a spiritual sequel since they're the only 2 MMO FF games), saw that it was a mess and went back to FF 11.

NOTE: I pretty much used this as an example, I highly doubt what I said actually took place.

I see what yours saying but by the looks of Guild Wars 2 it seems very impressive, and from all the feedback from the critics and such seems to back that up. The opposite occured for FF14.

Well I can honestly say I haven't followed GW so those facts eluded me.

 

[LogicNProportion]

2 things.

First, if you're the type of person who wants to pretend Star Wars galaxies never happened, you are already devoid of a soul.

Second, this is old news. EALouse originally coined this, and the guy/girl was obviously on a rage-rant.

TOR looks good from what I can see, and even if it turns out to be a WoW clone, it's a fecking STAR WARS WoW clone. That alone makes it better than WoW.

 

[Korten12]

It's Bioware+Star Wars. It's going to sell regardless. The only question remains is if it'll survive long term.

not long with Guild Wars 2 round the corner

But that could end up a failure instead and people will go back to TOR. You never know.

Yeah I suppose but to be far the 1st one is still goin strong, not to mention they said they wanna make GW2 playable on pc's that are not top of the line. In addition to no subscription fees.

Tbh my money is on Guild Wars but I suppose only time will tell.

You also bring up a good point but let us remember FF 14. I'm sure the people who enjoyed FF 11 went to play it thinking it would be awesome (as 14 can be thought of as a spiritual sequel since they're the only 2 MMO FF games), saw that it was a mess and went back to FF 11.

NOTE: I pretty much used this as an example, I highly doubt what I said actually took place.

I see what yours saying but by the looks of Guild Wars 2 it seems very impressive, and from all the feedback from the critics and such seems to back that up. The opposite occured for FF14.

Well I can honestly say I haven't followed GW so those facts eluded me.

go to http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.236131-All-yours-Guild-Wars-2-Information-Topic-Dungeon-Info-Updated

 

[Shaoken]

Want to know why Warhammer online was a failure? it was rushed out the door by EA, it was a MMO published by EA, KOTOR is a MMO published by EA, do dah math.

Yet Bioware has been taking it's time with this game, and Bioware is quite well known for producing great games despite being published by EA. Point nullified.

Back on the original topic, EALouse, even if they are actually a EA employee, is not in a position to know what TOR is like, nor are they in a position to know how much it costs. And considering that they fucked up when they said it cost more to make than Avatar (even at $300 mill it's still cheaper than that movie) I honestly doubt they're legitimate, just another Marvel_b0y situation.

 

[Adzma]

It's a shame. On the one hand I want BioWare to suffer total humilation for their incredibly stupid decision to make a KotOR MMO rather than a proper sequel, but at the same time I love them to bits and want them to excel.

Doesn't matter anyway now I suppose.