Very limited content at ARR launch :( ?

[Lux_Rayna]

*l'sigh*

These threads are such a headache lol. Look, 2.0 is not an expansion but a new release. A. New. Release. If you take one thing from this post, please take that. New releases do not have a lot of endgame content because, clearly, they are new. Why would you have a lot of endgame content when most of your players aren't going to be there for a while. Basically you have *something* (in this case what we have now) while you simultaneously work on the next content release. Usually you will have it mapped out in regards to time. It will take the avg person x amount of hours/days/months to get to lvl cap and dry out the current endgame content. They approximate these things after all, the level curve is designed to buy them time. While all this is going on, they will get feedback on current content. They will patch, balance, etc etc...and maybe even adjust the next content release they had planned. Then when it looks like the playerbase is ready for new things, they drop new things. Hurray! And everyone cheers.

Why anyone expects a bunch of new endgame content is truly beyond me. This is a re-release, not an expansion pack. All the new content will be from lvl 1 to lvl 50. We'll probably have some new things but not a lot in terms of endgame. Its mostly about the new guys.

EDIT: Besides, most of us will be working on relics.

[Antipika]

*l'sigh*

These threads are such a headache lol. Look, 2.0 is not an expansion but a new release. A. New. Release. If you take one thing from this post, please take that. New releases do not have a lot of endgame content because, clearly, they are new. Why would you have a lot of endgame content when most of your players aren't going to be there for a while. Basically you have *something* (in this case what we have now) while you simultaneously work on the next content release. Usually you will have it mapped out in regards to time. It will take the avg person x amount of hours/days/months to get to lvl cap and dry out the current endgame content. They approximate these things after all, the level curve is designed to buy them time. While all this is going on, they will get feedback on current content. They will patch, balance, etc etc...and maybe even adjust the next content release they had planned. Then when it looks like the playerbase is ready for new things, they drop new things. Hurray! And everyone cheers.

Why anyone expects a bunch of new endgame content is truly beyond me. This is a re-release, not an expansion pack. All the new content will be from lvl 1 to lvl 50. We'll probably have some new things but not a lot in terms of endgame. Its mostly about the new guys.

EDIT: Besides, most of us will be working on relics.

That was good in 2002. Not now. Lot of people left SWTOR because of lack of endgame content. Players (new ones) won't wait, if after couple of months, there isn't enough, they will leave.

Customers are way more volatile today unlike one decade ago.

True that we have no idea on how much content will be actually in at release timing (or at 30 days after release (end of free month)). End of the free month, 2nd month (end of first paid month) and end of 4th month (end of 90 days billing period) will be deadlines for SE to deliver.

If within 60~120 days after release there isn't enough content (real content and not farm hamlet defense all day long to get a relic), people will leave, it's as simple as that.

[Lux_Rayna]

That was good in 2002. Not now. Lot of people left SWTOR because of lack of endgame content. Players (new ones) won't wait, if after couple of months, there isn't enough, they will leave.

Customers are way more volatile today unlike one decade ago.

True that we have no idea on how much content will be actually in at release timing (or at 30 days after release (end of free month)). End of the free month, 2nd month (end of first paid month) and end of 4th month (end of 90 days billing period) will be deadlines for SE to deliver.

If within 60~120 days after release there isn't enough content (real content and not farm hamlet defense all day long to get a relic), people will leave, it's as simple as that.

No..people left SWTOR because it was overhyped. That's all there is to it. Every mmo in existence (practically) has followed this formula. What killed SWTOR is that it did not meet the insane hype it was given, causing ppl to leave in disappointment. Everyone keeps claiming it was because of lack of endgame content, but honestly it just wasn't a good game. I've never heard of lack of endgame content killing a game upon release. Maybe after a year or so, but ppl dont abandon ship that fast on a game thats enjoyable. SWTOR just sucked compared to the hype, and the convenient excuse was "lack of endgame content". Hype killed SWTOR, and nothing else.

Customer volatility can be avoided if you keep expectations in line. SWTOR's marketing team was stupid and decided their brand name could carry any amount of hype they gave it. Clearly they were incorrect. Then again they've never really made a great MMO before so its an easy mistake to make. Lots of franchises come into the MMO biz thinking a brand name will do it. BUZZ! You actually have to make a good MMO. SWTOR was just a flat-out disappointment. And it wasn't because of endgame content. The game just didnt live up to anyone's expectations after the silly hype campaign.

Trust me. If a game is well-made and is legitimately fun, people will wait as long as they have to for new content. They'll want to be in the game JUST to be in the game. Endgame content spam is what crappy F2P MMO's do to keep ppl addicted to their cash shops. A well-made game does not have to do that. There's hardly any endgame in FFXIV but I love playing it just because. I need no reason. It's fun. And im guessing Yoshi gave us insanely long Relic Quests for a reason. That should keep most of us occupied for quite some time. There are some hardcore ppl with relics completed already, but the rest of us will still be working on them, playing with SMN, and getting our gear ready for the next big content release.

[XxOstiaxX]

No..people left SWTOR because it was overhyped. That's all there is to it. Every mmo in existence (practically) has followed this formula. What killed SWTOR is that it did not meet the insane hype it was given, causing ppl to leave in disappointment. Everyone keeps claiming it was because of lack of endgame content, but honestly it just wasn't a good game. I've never heard of lack of endgame content killing a game upon release. Maybe after a year or so, but ppl dont abandon ship that fast on a game thats enjoyable. SWTOR just sucked compared to the hype, and the convenient excuse was "lack of endgame content". Hype killed SWTOR, and nothing else.

Customer volatility can be avoided if you keep expectations in line. SWTOR's marketing team was stupid and decided their brand name could carry any amount of hype they gave it. Clearly they were incorrect. Then again they've never really made a great MMO before so its an easy mistake to make. Lots of franchises come into the MMO biz thinking a brand name will do it. BUZZ! You actually have to make a good MMO. SWTOR was just a flat-out disappointment. And it wasn't because of endgame content. The game just didnt live up to anyone's expectations after the silly hype campaign.

Trust me. If a game is well-made and is legitimately fun, people will wait as long as they have to for new content. They'll want to be in the game JUST to be in the game. Endgame content spam is what crappy F2P MMO's do to keep ppl addicted to their cash shops. A well-made game does not have to do that. There's hardly any endgame in FFXIV but I love playing it just because. I need no reason. It's fun. And im guessing Yoshi gave us insanely long Relic Quests for a reason. That should keep most of us occupied for quite some time. There are some hardcore ppl with relics completed already, but the rest of us will still be working on them, playing with SMN, and getting our gear ready for the next big content release.

People do jump ship if there is no content to do in a game, for example FFXIV Bombed hard because it was a bad game, but they still had around 50K users after the first month, then that number started going down, because there was really nothing to do in the game, there was no purpose to overcoming the grind..... People that where able to put up with the horrible U.I and lag left because there was absolutely nothing to do at end game, that is not to say that people also left because of game mechanics and lack of auction house etc etc. But to say that lack of content is not a major reason, is pretty idiotic, swotors problem was that as you played your own arc of the story, and every single class had it's own distinct storyline and quest related content, by the time you got to cap, they all converged in to literally one, and the content available at cap was very lackluster by numbers and quality, also PVP play's a major role in the dip that swotor has seen in it's subscription, the huge unbalanced across classes was very detramental to the game, and PVP brings a lot of players but it also brings huge balancing problems.

Was swotor overhype ? Dunno, i got about what i expected from the game, a Kotor feel in a MMO setting, really great voice acting, and a quest based leveling up experience, could it have been developed better ? Sure, was it a success on release ? Yes, is it a success now ? Yes, will it be a success in the future ? Who knows.

[Lux_Rayna]

People do jump ship if there is no content to do in a game, for example FFXIV Bombed hard because it was a bad game, but they still had around 50K users after the first month, then that number started going down, because there was really nothing to do in the game, there was no purpose to overcoming the grind..... People that where able to put up with the horrible U.I and lag left because there was absolutely nothing to do at end game, that is not to say that people also left because of game mechanics and lack of auction house etc etc. But to say that lack of content is not a major reason, is pretty idiotic, swotors problem was that as you played your own arc of the story, and every single class had it's own distinct storyline and quest related content, by the time you got to cap, they all converged in to literally one, and the content available at cap was very lackluster by numbers and quality, also PVP play's a major role in the dip that swotor has seen in it's subscription, the huge unbalanced across classes was very detramental to the game, and PVP brings a lot of players but it also brings huge balancing problems.

Was swotor overhype ? Dunno, i got about what i expected from the game, a Kotor feel in a MMO setting, really great voice acting, and a quest based leveling up experience, could it have been developed better ? Sure, was it a success on release ? Yes, is it a success now ? Yes, will it be a success in the future ? Who knows.

This is only an issue with bad games. That is really all there is to it. A good game never has that issue, because ppl enjoy playing it. A bad game has to give reasons for ppl to play (like new content), otherwise ppl wont put up with it. Both SWTOR and FFXIV were bad games, which is why their lack of endgame content continued to hurt them. Lack of endgame content is NORMAL for new releases, and everyone mmorpg player who would bother putting in serious time knows this already. The casual crowd doesn't matter because most of them wont even get to enjoy endgame content anyways, or take so long to get through it new content will be forthcoming immediately (as in my case). Like I said, the endgame content (or lack thereof) never ever ever kills a game. Ever. The avg human with avg brain capacity understands an MMO is not an infinite world. Content will run dry, you will have to wait for new stuff to be made, etc etc. Thats the very nature of MMO's. There's no such thing on this planet as an endless stream of new endgame content. That being the case, if we KNOW this, then it is impossible to claim a lack of endgame content is ever the problem with new releases. It can't be.

The only problem EVER is that the game sucks. And when the game sucks, you need another ostensible reason for playing, which more often than not, comes in the form of available endgame content. As we can see, the root of the problem is always fun. If it is a good game (ie fun), lack of endgame content will never matter. Its a part of the MMORPG genre. If the game sucks (SWTOR and FFXIV say hi), then endgame content is the only thing that can salvage it. A lack of which will have more ppl leaving than staying.

[XxOstiaxX]

This is only an issue with bad games. That is really all there is to it. A good game never has that issue, because ppl enjoy playing it. A bad game has to give reasons for ppl to play (like new content), otherwise ppl wont put up with it. Both SWTOR and FFXIV were bad games, which is why their lack of endgame content continued to hurt them. Lack of endgame content is NORMAL for new releases, and everyone mmorpg player who would bother putting in serious time knows this already. The casual crowd doesn't matter because most of them wont even get to enjoy endgame content anyways, or take so long to get through it new content will be forthcoming immediately (as in my case). Like I said, the endgame content (or lack thereof) never ever ever kills a game. Ever. The avg human with avg brain capacity understands an MMO is not an infinite world. Content will run dry, you will have to wait for new stuff to be made, etc etc. Thats the very nature of MMO's. There's no such thing on this planet as an endless stream of new endgame content. That being the case, if we KNOW this, then it is impossible to claim a lack of endgame content is ever the problem with new releases. It can't be.

The only problem EVER is that the game sucks. And when the game sucks, you need another ostensible reason for playing, which more often than not, comes in the form of available endgame content. As we can see, the root of the problem is always fun. If it is a good game (ie fun), lack of endgame content will never matter. Its a part of the MMORPG genre. If the game sucks (SWTOR and FFXIV say hi), then endgame content is the only thing that can salvage it. A lack of which will have more ppl leaving than staying.

First off if your game is focused on PVE, and you dont have a good amount of end game content, then you are doing it wrong, also long gone are the times of just killing random monsters over and over and over because it was 1998 and the gap between the content that you had and the content that was comming was huge as far as time and quality....

Content is KING in MMO'S!! You can have the most amazing battle system, and after a while it will be repetitive, look at Terra, awesome battle system(With short comings ofcourse) but way more involved that your regular MMO battle system, and what killed them ? Lack of endgame content. It's like everything else, after a while, the repetition kills the fun factor, you can only have so much fun, doing the same content over and over again until you turn blue.