[massively] Analysts "concerned" about swtor, EA's stock falls

[pontifex]

We all know MMORPGs have peaks then drops epecially after the initial launch ,the trick is keeping players coming back and paying monthly sub fees,only WoW seems to have mastered that theme,and I'm not a WoW fan before anybody asks.

not sure what this has to do with what i said, but ok...

 

[PowerYoga]

what's so bad about the game? I haven't followed up but it seems like it got favorable reviews on launch.

 

[irishScott]

what's so bad about the game? I haven't followed up but it seems like it got favorable reviews on launch.

Depends on whom you ask: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-the-old-republic

85% from critics

60% from users

 

[Arkadrel]

what's so bad about the game? I haven't followed up but it seems like it got favorable reviews on launch.

So did Age of Conan, and thats F2P after getting a huge launch ->
falling flat on its face.

Its very common for mmos to launch with issues, then a few months after when people reach that area level wise and run into the bugs or lacking endgame => quit game.

With SWTOR I was worried when I first saw some of those "lets play SWTOR" videos on youtube.
The gui/interface just didnt look that great, nore the gameplay videos.


*edit:

when it comes to MMOs never pay any attention to the review sites, listning to the community that plays it is a much better indicator of the game.

 

[Kalmah]

I avoid TOR forums at all cost,infact don't even go there,everybody has opinions and thats why you and members like myself post here,regardless next 6 months or so will be critical for TOR,subs are their bread and butter for TOR .

I refuse to post on any forum related to EA as I don't want to get banned from origin and lose the copy of bf3 that I received as a gift.

I don't know how much truth those rumors held but when the publisher makes me feel like a 'guilty until proven innocent' DRM-invoking inconvenience I really don't want anything to do with them. I feel ashamed that I'm even playing BF3.

Bioware have lost their sense of community. I remember back with NWN1 when the devs themselves were helping people write code on their forum for the toolset. The games were created for the very people on their forums. Bioware were actively asking questions and getting feedback for their games. In a sense I felt like they were my friends.

 

[darkewaffle]

what's so bad about the game? I haven't followed up but it seems like it got favorable reviews on launch.

Nothing, actually. It's got a lot going for it, but the management is still learning how to run an MMO and as such I think some of the changes they're making are kind of haphazard, but you can see they're trying to get it right; you just can't patch every day when something doesn't work immediately, it's something you have to see play out to some extent.

But it's just something that will come with experience as the game goes on, just there's a lot of crying that every patch ruins the game, everything's imbalanced, everything's wrong, etc.

 

[Genx87]

I dont think people trying out these games and going back to others is that surprising. For many WoW was their first MMORPG. For me it was my third. I got WoW on launch and quit within 4 months. Why? Because it was more of the same. I have gone back here and there over the course of time. Why start something if it is rebadged of something you have already done? People leave WoW and try this game and realize the underlying game is the same and go back. Why recreate the wheel?

That is why I think there is room for niche games if development houses would lower their target. And their targets are kind of silly. They all want to be the next World of Warcraft. Lower the bar and costs and produce something that is niche but successful like an EVE online. Hell I think even something like World of Tanks is probably successful even if it has a fraction of the players of WoW or SWTOR.

 

[atticus14]

game is okay, just pray you never have to deal with customer support for anything major as the best they do is copy/paste from their helpers handbook even if it doesnt relate to your problem. With that said I think Guild Wars 2 will win over a lot of people, its hard to beat a full featured and modern-looking mmo that doesnt use a subscription method. With GW2 available and other games i just cant see myself being a loyal swtor subscriber long term.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Atticus14

Aion going Free2play

I used to pay for that, but couldnt get my brother to play with me, so I went back to WoW.
I actually liked Aion... I dont see why anyone would pay to play WoW, when games like Aion are F2P.

 

[zokudu]

I might buy a boxed copy for when they do f2p. I don't think the MMO subscription model will last much longer I might even venture SWTOR is one of the last subscription model MMOs to release. There are just too many pros for devs and consumers in the f2p model.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

I predict that TOR will be financially successful enough that we can expect "lowered thresholds", as DICE, another possession of EA, puts it, in MMOs for years to come.

 

[coloumb]

I see the trolls [OP] have come out from under the bridge near SWTOR and posted the same crap here as well. I wonder..was the OP banned from the SWTOR forums?

It's amazing how ridiculous this has gotten - people are grasping at straws trying to find anything to try and shut down SWTOR.

 

[Merad]

TOR was hyped to such a massive degree that it really had no chance of living up to all the expectations people were creating for it.

That said it launched with a great story system, but had/has some shockingly bad bugs and is very lacking in some areas (high quality textures still don't work, problems with things like game settings not saving correctly, no UI customization, etc). However, unless Bioware just falls flat on its face as far as fixing these things, I think the game will go on to be hugely successful. It's already extremely casual friendly, and it has the Star Wars name to help bring in people who aren't really in the normal gamer crowd.

 

[Anteaus]

I think the big problem is with development and marketing. SWTOR is no perfect, but it is a decent game that sold decent numbers and will be successful. The problem is that developers are so stuck on the idea of large margins and when they don't see huge sales (i.e CoD, Halo, Wow) from the start, they freak out and start blaming people.

Blizzard has Wow as a cash cow, just like Disney has WDW. These are lucrative assets that provide ridiculous cash flow for what can be considered relatively low upkeep. Every major developer can see the benefits of having a cash machine, so they dump tons of money into development with the hopes that they can produce one major IP that they can milk. The problem is that these types of hits are rare.

Anyways, it isn't enough to make money for these people. They want to make a ton of money, and now it isn't panning out so investers are asking questions. Bottom line, SWTOR is going to be financially successful but it's already obvious it isn't going to be the cash cow they hoped so there is a price to pay from a PR standpoint. I think they are setting the bar way to high in this sense. I'm tired of the fire and forget product release mentality out there now.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

The only thing I want from BioWare is ME3. The Old Republic reminds me of SW Galaxies all over again (I.E. devs doing things stubbornly, without much consideration from the players' feedback, only to see the game implode eventually).

Galaxies (Pre-NGE) was much better than TOR, however.

My 2 brothers and a friend in our guild all quit TOR yesterday, before they were billed for the first month. Had I known that, I would've quit too but unfortunately, I used a 2 month game card so my time won't run out until March.

 

[BrightCandle]

It's amazing how ridiculous this has gotten - people are grasping at straws trying to find anything to try and shut down SWTOR.

If you have batted your head against SWTOR Customer Support you would wish they had crawled into a hole and died as well. People affected by the technical problems are quite angry, not because of the problems but because of the way EA support handles them.

Based on how they treated me and other launcher problem people I think they deserve to fail and they have made enough people angry to make it a real possibility that the game never breaks even. But the reason we do this is not trolling, we are trying to give potential buyers a warning that the game is technically broken and that the customer service is non existent. All that for gameplay which is decidedly 2005 MMO means its probably not worth the outlay for most, and if you find yourself on the end of the launcher bugs you'll never play the game despite what you paid for it.

Peoples motives and reasons are mostly different to your expectations but assume the best rather than the worst because it makes everyone more friendly.

 

[Lonyo]

Oh no, EA's stock fell.
Maybe that has meaning.

That's why Microsoft's trebling of revenue and 400% increase in profits has led to a share price increase in the last 10 years.

Oh wait. Analysts suck. Investors suck. Share price movements are inane and don't have any real meaning most of the time unless a company is seriously in trouble.

 

[Nintendesert]

Galaxies (Pre-NGE) was much better than TOR, however.

My 2 brothers and a friend in our guild all quit TOR yesterday, before they were billed for the first month. Had I known that, I would've quit too but unfortunately, I used a 2 month game card so my time won't run out until March.

SWG and TOR are nothing a like other than sharing the same universe. TOR is a story based game and calling it a multiplayer KOTOR isn't too wrong. I enjoy it because I play it with my brother and we watch and enjoy the stories.

But to even try to proclaim that SWG was anything other than trash is absurd. That game was a griefers/exploiters paradise filled with urban sprawl and a pathetic combat system.

I know, I was there ruining everyone's day with eye shot spamming, TEF bug exploiting, baby pet DNA exploits and then we get into the all stats blacked out from flamethrowers and line of sight bugs with combat medics.

The game was a vast emptiness of suck.

 

[Jules]

SWG and TOR are nothing a like other than sharing the same universe. TOR is a story based game and calling it a multiplayer KOTOR isn't too wrong. I enjoy it because I play it with my brother and we watch and enjoy the stories.

But to even try to proclaim that SWG was anything other than trash is absurd. That game was a griefers/exploiters paradise filled with urban sprawl and a pathetic combat system.

I know, I was there ruining everyone's day with eye shot spamming, TEF bug exploiting, baby pet DNA exploits and then we get into the all stats blacked out from flamethrowers and line of sight bugs with combat medics.

The game was a vast emptiness of suck.

Thats funny considering i had a lot more fun playing SWG then TOR so far.

 

[Genx87]

I might buy a boxed copy for when they do f2p. I don't think the MMO subscription model will last much longer I might even venture SWTOR is one of the last subscription model MMOs to release. There are just too many pros for devs and consumers in the f2p model.

I agree with this 100%. I have spent far more money in World of Tanks than I would in WoW over the same time period. The devs have to make it worth your while.

 

[Arglebargle]

Thats funny considering i had a lot more fun playing SWG then TOR so far.

Your enjoyment does not equal good game design. Tastes differ. I still play and enjoy Master of Orion 3, but I would never claim it was anything resembling good game design.

SWG was released too early, and was systematically broken. Looks like TOR is suffering from something similar. They had a hard release date, with a lot of money tied up in it, so it was going to go out, regardless of condition. Some of the problems should have been obvious (faction balance on servers, etc), as should have the effect of a troublesome release on long term prospects. Though MMOs always have problems, they are always in a state of being rebalanced. We'll see if they can manage timely fixes.

Though it is EA....

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Your enjoyment does not equal good game design. Tastes differ. I still play and enjoy Master of Orion 3, but I would never claim it was anything resembling good game design.

SWG was released too early, and was systematically broken. Looks like TOR is suffering from something similar. They had a hard release date, with a lot of money tied up in it, so it was going to go out, regardless of condition. Some of the problems should have been obvious (faction balance on servers, etc), as should have the effect of a troublesome release on long term prospects. Though MMOs always have problems, they are always in a state of being rebalanced. We'll see if they can manage timely fixes.

Though it is EA....

Depends on what you mean by good game design. Complete and utter noobification, preferred to be known as "lowering the threshold" by EA as I mentioned before, isn't good game design either, if you're talking about game quality, but it IS good game design if you mean make it accessible to the masses to boost pure sales figures.

 

[Ns1]

Depends on what you mean by good game design. Complete and utter noobification, preferred to be known as "lowering the threshold" by EA as I mentioned before, isn't good game design either, if you're talking about game quality, but it IS good game design if you mean make it accessible to the masses to boost pure sales figures.

it's great for casual players like myself

no time to be hardcore anymore, can't spend 20000 hours grinding to L50 and getting raid gear

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

it's great for casual players like myself

no time to be hardcore anymore, can't spend 20000 hours grinding to L50 and getting raid gear

I'm enjoying TOR because I like it as a single player game and because I can random PvP without necessarily having spent twice as many hours grinding for gear as the other guy.

But I wanted to get back into a game like that, if we're talking about what I really want, because I prefer a game where accomplishing something like a full set of raid gear, or reaching max level, actually means it took a lot of work.

But, with that said, the good thing about it is, I can quit TOR to move on to another game without feeling like I abandoned a lot of work. If another game that fits my style better should ever come out, that is. That's the other thing : I prefer a game where it takes hard work but you have to get in on that kind of game from day one, you can't, for example, just go buy Everquest and start in playing on Zek and expect to ever get anywhere (except raped) unless you kiss ass to get in a guild. It's simply what happens when the game matures that much...note, of course, that I'm speaking as if PvP was the only valid way to play an MMO. People who only want PvE would...well, you still have to kiss guild ass to get into the endgame, but it's much less mandatory.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

SWG and TOR are nothing a like other than sharing the same universe.

I realize that, which is why I responded to the poster.

But to even try to proclaim that SWG was anything other than trash is absurd. That game was a griefers/exploiters paradise filled with urban sprawl and a pathetic combat system.

*shrug* I never had this problem. Galaxies was a sandbox game and you could do a ton of stuff. TOR is a game on rails by comparison.

I know, I was there ruining everyone's day with eye shot spamming, TEF bug exploiting, baby pet DNA exploits and then we get into the all stats blacked out from flamethrowers and line of sight bugs with combat medics.

The game was a vast emptiness of suck.

Sounds like TOR's valor or Ilum exploits.