What can SE learn from Bioware's failing Star Wars MMO?

[Agoven]

Will a Star Wars fan of 50 years old play an MMO? Does the younger generation really enjoy Star Wars or is the franchise only for the older generation?

Why do we no longer have a Star Trek TV show? etc etc...

Why do we still have Final Fantasy? It's because SE makes it and remakes it...so that every generation can still enjoy it in a new manner. And they continue to make Final Fantasy and build off their predecessors...SE carries the franchise forward to the new generation of players while carrying the past generations.

SE works very hard not be yesterday's news...just saying...

Why can't MMOs be a fad? MUDs are your original computer RPGs...console systems...hand held systems...what is to say with all of them? It's fair to say video gaming could be a fad.

It's like saying adventure games are a genre...but mostly dead genre...so thus was a fad.

Will the WoW generation end with WoW? Those high school and college kids are now 10 years older...are they still playing games or have they started families, gotten jobs, and moved on to bigger and better things like REAL LIFE?

Pokemon was said to be a fad...it's gone on for 17+ years now and still going strong as ever...

SE doesn't need to learn anything from SWOTOR.

SE just needs to continue working to improve and add content to the game and add new and interesting things and systems that stand the test of time...and FFXIV will be a success for another decade.

[Rognis]

I'm not too much into star wars but another problem I read was jedi's standing on equal ground as gunners. Alot of the star wars fanbase hated this and the technology being equal or better than what the future held. Lucas arts had an amazing game in SWG before SOE ruined it and XIV has kind of grasped at what made SWG great. Architects building the biggest cities on the servers or a few outposts at important spots. If SE did more with the DoH/DoL i'm sure it would grab more people than just building up the combat aspects of the game.

[Darkvalkyr]

Didn't help that ME3 ending haters boycotted TOR after the game, too.

[Nix]

I think before ME3, SWTOR had lost about 400,000 subs>< so if that is true Darkvalkyr, then that is pretty crazy D:

[Asiaine]

Wow (teehee) lots of discussions here. Please allow me to offer my understanding:

SW:TOR ran into problem: It took a great premise (Bioware rich stories) and tried to make it a continuous world. A Bioware game takes years to make, and is consumed in a month. To keep people happy they would have to deliver years worth of content every month. This is not feasible. Therefore they add filler content. The filler content is not sufficient to keep people happy.

Therefore the recipe is unlikely to be successful.

What SE (and everyone else) has to keep in mind is: People don't want a WoW clone. WoW is already out there. If someone implemented a 100% clone of WoW it would not do well. WoW is doing well because it *IS* WoW. It's name is enough to draw in and keep people.

What SE (and anyone else) should do is be themselves. Leverage their strongest assets. What is Final Fantasy's assets that make it stand out from all else?
-- An engrossing world through which to traverse
-- Beautiful music and graphics
-- Amazing cutscenes and storylines
-- Strong RPG elements (mechanics).

SW had a few but not all of those. WoW had a few but not all of those. FF has all of those and needs to focus on these pillars. Do not be a clone: Copy Cat Groups never live long.

[Ruisu]

SW:TOR ran into problem: It took a great premise (Bioware rich stories).

Wh..what? Bioware hasn't seen this since 2008. All of their recent games have been garbage, storywise. The fact that they were selling their game solely on this, and voice acting was a huge red flag. At least Square Enix admits their mistakes, and is making a completely new game. Hell, at least FFXIV at launch was original, even if in a bad way. SWTOR was unoriginal, and shit.

[Duelle]

SW:TOR ran into problem: It took a great premise (Bioware rich stories) and tried to make it a continuous world. A Bioware game takes years to make, and is consumed in a month. To keep people happy they would have to deliver years worth of content every month. This is not feasible. Therefore they add filler content. The filler content is not sufficient to keep people happy.

This is a fair point.

What SE (and everyone else) has to keep in mind is: People don't want a WoW clone. WoW is already out there. If someone implemented a 100% clone of WoW it would not do well. WoW is doing well because it *IS* WoW. It's name is enough to draw in and keep people.

There's a difference between straight out copying WoW and drawing inspiration from WoW and giving things your own twist so that they make sense in your setting/IP. FFXI drew from EQ and gave it its own twist, in a way. The same rule applies here; look at games like WoW do, draw on what works, change things to make it fit your setting and move on. This can be applied to lots of things, from party dynamics to additional things like pet battles or transmogrification.

Strong RPG elements (mechanics).

I'll disagree. Mechanics-wise FF has been very weak. XI alone proved that many of the ideas from the console games simply didn't work in an MMORPG. Thief, Red Mage and Summoner being the poster children of that.

I think the only really unique stuff was Ops since the 'hard mode' FPs were exactly the same as the regular ones but with amped up difficulty for some extra rewards, there wasn't really anything fresh about it.

The point of having multiple difficulties is so that the e-peen brigade's feelings don't get hurt when the dirty casuals get to clear the content and see how the story ends. Freshness has nothing to do with that approach to design. The only thing I wish developers would use is mid-encounter triggers for hard modes rather than an on/off button.

[Nix]

You obviously weren't playing as a Smuggler.

Awww I really enjoyed the smuggler storyline, I loved hunting Skavak and getting Flashy back haha D:

The point of having multiple difficulties is so that the e-peen brigade's feelings don't get hurt when the dirty casuals get to clear the content and see how the story ends. Freshness has nothing to do with that approach to design. The only thing I wish developers would use is mid-encounter triggers for hard modes rather than an on/off button.

To me the hardmode felt more like a cop-out "Hey, we can't think of other content for you guys to tackle right now, so just try this same thing just at a harder difficulty (yay!)"
Your opinion is a nice take on it too, honestly I'd not thought of it from that perspective♪

[Amherst]

Awww I really enjoyed the smuggler storyline, I loved hunting Skavak and getting Flashy back haha D:

Yeah, it was great. The problem is that act two and three fell apart. Everything after defeating Skavak was just so boring.

[Nix]

Yeah, it was great. The problem is that act two and three fell apart. Everything after defeating Skavak was just so boring.

Yeah, I agree!

It was a nice twist at the end, but like everything post-skavak and before the twist was pretty balls ; ; I found it hard to continue.

Atleast we got Flashy back!