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

[Gramul]

I think is a little premature to call a game with a 1million plus subscribers an utter Failure.

The game no longer has 1 million plus subscribers, otherwise they're just wasting money on subscriptions they're just sitting on. It had a strong start, strongest in a long time, but now every server seems to be trailing at light population and the game is hurting. The game is plagued with hundreds of issues never addressed, a lack of overall content to keep people there after the story, issues surrounding EA leading to some very bad press, and stupid decisions from EA in general.

[XxOstiaxX]

The game no longer has 1 million plus subscribers, otherwise they're just wasting money on subscriptions they're just sitting on. It had a strong start, strongest in a long time, but now every server seems to be trailing at light population and the game is hurting. The game is plagued with hundreds of issues never addressed, a lack of overall content to keep people there after the story, issues surrounding EA leading to some very bad press, and stupid decisions from EA in general.

1.7 a month after release(After free trial was over) and they have lost 400k...... I know you can count

[Riv]

TOR was pretty crappy lol. I was max lvl on 2 characters b4 the free trial even ended.

[Antipika]

TOR was pretty crappy lol. I was max lvl on 2 characters b4 the free trial even ended.

You're just as bad as people saying XIV sucks after completing one leve.

You may like or not like a game, but at least make an effort to try and distinguish something that is "crappy" and something that "you don't like". SWTOR is not "crappy". It has downsides, but a lot of good parts as well. We are still talking about over a million subscribers (unless someone prove with a trusted source that there is less)...

[Celia]

You're just as bad as people saying XIV sucks after completing one leve.

You may like or not like a game, but at least make an effort to try and distinguish something that is "crappy" and something that "you don't like". SWTOR is not "crappy". It has downsides, but a lot of good parts as well. We are still talking about over a million subscribers (unless someone prove with a trusted source that there is less)...

There is a significant difference between having two character as max level and completing one levequest.

[Antipika]

There is a significant difference between having two character as max level and completing one levequest.

>b4 the free trial even ended.

And how is that different from experiencing the game? It's like getting PL'd in XIV from 1 to 50 and say "lol XIV, I got 50 before my free trial was over and the game sux"...

Unless Bioware made massive changes regarding leveling, I started playing back in december when the game started, getting level 50 took "some" time (provided that you were doing quests and actually reading the text). So twice 1>50 in less than 30 days mean that little to no content was played the way it should have been played (i.e. reading text, going through certain areas etc.). I won't even talk about anything end-game related.

Also if you level not one, but two characters to 50 in less than 30 days, without PL/help, it means that you played hardcore for a bit and that you at least *slightly* enjoyed the game (or have serious issues for playing something you really hate).

[Eekiki]

Also if you level not one, but two characters to 50 in less than 30 days, without PL/help, it means that you played hardcore for a bit and that you at least *slightly* enjoyed the game (or have serious issues for playing something you really hate).

Well, I haven't met a person yet that truly enjoys level grinding. It's accepted by most MMORPG veterans that "the real game begins at the level cap", so many people rush to get there as quickly as possible.

[_pops]

I don't think this was mentioned before, but...

You also got to understand where we are now. Most, if not all, players who used to play Everquest/FFXI/WoW back in the day are now reaching their mid-20s to early 30s. I should say those who still are keeping tabs with the MMO genre have HIGH expectations nowadays. I can assume this is the case because we get those bursts of nostalgia and we want to experience that again.

In this day and age where we're seeing the influx of the newer generation coming into the scene. This generation's "expectations," I should say, wants and HAS to have everything now, now, NOW. So, we have developers who want to cater to that kind of demographic because they know they'll keep that audience interested if they continue to spoon feed them with OOOH SHINY content that takes little to no skill whatsoever to achieve. Kind of like giving them a quick fix of "sense of achievement" in which it starts to wear off over time. So unless they can keep up with that, people will get bored and want to go/do something else.

I guess attention span comes into play here, as well. There are too many "distractions."













I actually have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Denmo]

The forum for the failed MMO FFXIV is hotly debating the failures of other MMOs.

Is it hard irony, or a sign of doom?

[Asiaine]

In this day and age where we're seeing the influx of the newer generation coming into the scene. This generation's "expectations," I should say, wants and HAS to have everything now, now, NOW. So, we have developers who want to cater to that kind of demographic because they know they'll keep that audience interested if they continue to spoon feed them with OOOH SHINY content that takes little to no skill whatsoever to achieve. Kind of like giving them a quick fix of "sense of achievement" in which it starts to wear off over time. So unless they can keep up with that, people will get bored and want to go/do something else.

Although I agree with this, my only statement would be: Surely there is enough room in the world for 99 instant gratification MMORPGs and 1 (FFXIV) that is not.