Content Warning: The opinions expressed below are in the context of an MMO veteran whom dislikes Linear-MMOs to the extreme. Please understand & be respectful, Thank you :)!

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I asked this to myself after reading an Article posted on the 24th from the "Founders" of Bioware talking to Penny Arcade about their company, SWTOR's launch, and Mass Effect.

The following quotes struck me completely offguard with the sense of "D...Did they REALLY just say that?".

Quote #1: “We’re the fastest-growing MMO in history, and it’s really a credit to our fans,” Muzyka said. “The launch was fantastic.”

Quote #2: "The final beta test was actually larger than the launch itself, and Zeshuk remembered watching the number of players logging into the game, while other MMO veterans remarked that the numbers had surpassed the launch of other titles they had worked on. “You just passed our launch,” someone would say. The numbers would continue to climb. “You just passed our launch,” another developer would point out. The numbers continued to climb. "

Quote #3: “Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. “The interesting thing, the implication of a Mass Effect MMO has so many expectations. We already bit off a big thing to chew with a Star Wars MMO, and that’s not so small,” he said. "

Quote #4: "The possibility space, that’s a term that I heard Will Wright say about ten years ago, and it really struck me,” Muzyka continued, pointing out that most Bioware properties could work as MMOs. “When you deliver a game, and you deliver it for a player, you have to capture what they think is the possibility space. You need to let them do everything they think they should do, and you can’t block them from doing anything they think they should be able to do. You have to nail all the features and content that should be in that possibility space.“ He paused for a moment.

“Mass Effect is a big possibility space.”

Now, I'm not going to take the massive amount of time & typing to comment on each one of these quotes as I highlighted in blue the areas I really wanted to focus on. As a whole, I don't believe Bioware really GET what they're even doing with MMOs. It almost sounds like they're in denial land considering betas are ALWAYS larger than any game's launch. Even RIFT had a multi-million user login beta. Not to mention Age of Conan that had so many unique logins during beta & open beta that the servers they had kept crashing (albeit their setup was horrid, but that's besides the point).

As a conversation went on my clan's teamspeak. I REALLY hope Bioware decides to stop working in the MMO market. In my opinion, they'll only start butchering their own IPs into nothingless. Bioware should concentrate all of their time on single-player games, as that's what they're good at!

What's your thoughts on the matter :)?

Article Link

Of course they don't get MMOs. They made what they always make, a singleplayer game, but they bolted on some basic COOP functionality.

Words can't describe how shocked I am after reading that.

MMO easy to make and run.Thats definitely the reason their current mmo is running so smooth....

The last comment i heard from Bioware for a Mass Effect MMO was that they find the task to be daunting. if they do go for it, i hope they see this for the challenge it is.  none of this promising the world so that it becomes hard to deliver.

Sounds like Bioware thinks the only difference between a single player game and a mmorpg is that more people are on at the same time.  Which is true to a degree but  then again also not true.  There should be, needs to be in my opinion, a different concept for the mmo -  in that a single player game only has to excite 1 person at a time but a mmo has to excite everyone who is logged in at the same time.  Elderscrolls: Skyrim is a great single player game but if there were a couple of thousand other people running around or even just hundreds, it would lose something.  Not completely sure what but the sense of cohesion is what it most likely is. Just my opinion.

The part about MMOs being easy to make was a joke, btw.

Beyond that, I would agree that they certainly talk the talk but have NOT thus far proven they can walk the walk.

They missed a whole lot of "things players expect they should be able to do" with TOR as of yet.

They are judging the success of thier MMO by box sales and short term subscription numbers, which is a huge mistake. I think within a month or two they will understand what they did wrong, so lets hear what they have to say when the sub numbers fall and see how confident they are then.

Originally posted by dubyahite
Quote 3 was obviously a joke if you don't take it out of context and twist it to fit your weird agenda.


The rest seem pretty much non noteworthy if you ask me. Not sure wha the point of this is.

The problem here is that pretty much everyone i linked this to didn't take it as a joke. It's very hard to get the impression of a joke simply from an interview put into text like that.

IF it really was a joke then the interviewer writing this up for PA should have annotated "jokingly" or something akin to that. Simply putting "as so and so laughed" isn't straight forward enough to be considered a joke. I've read many interviews that were serious, but included the line "as so and so laughed" etc.

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by dubyahite
Quote 3 was obviously a joke if you don't take it out of context and twist it to fit your weird agenda.

The rest seem pretty much non noteworthy if you ask me. Not sure wha the point of this is.

The problem here is that pretty much everyone i linked this to didn't take it as a joke. It's very hard to get the impression of a joke simply from an interview put into text like that.

IF it really was a joke then the interviewer writing this up for PA should have annotated "jokingly" or something akin to that. Simply putting "as so and so laughed" isn't straight forward enough to be considered a joke. I've read many interviews that were serious, but included the line "as so and so laughed" etc.

"“Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. "

Really? That's hard to understand he was laughing/joking while saying it?

Originally posted by BadSpock

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by dubyahite
Quote 3 was obviously a joke if you don't take it out of context and twist it to fit your weird agenda.

The rest seem pretty much non noteworthy if you ask me. Not sure wha the point of this is.

The problem here is that pretty much everyone i linked this to didn't take it as a joke. It's very hard to get the impression of a joke simply from an interview put into text like that.

IF it really was a joke then the interviewer writing this up for PA should have annotated "jokingly" or something akin to that. Simply putting "as so and so laughed" isn't straight forward enough to be considered a joke. I've read many interviews that were serious, but included the line "as so and so laughed" etc.

"“Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. "

Really? That's hard to understand he was laughing/joking while saying it?

We will see who gets the last laugh.. Bioware or the players.. My money is on the players after they have all Unsubed and this game joines Warhammer online with 2 servers and less then 50k playing..

Originally posted by Zlayer77

Originally posted by BadSpock
 

"“Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. "

Really? That's hard to understand he was laughing/joking while saying it?

We will see who gets the last laugh.. Bioware or the players.. My money is on the players after they have all Unsubed and this game joines Warhammer online with 2 servers and less then 50k playing..

Not at all the point, but thanks?

Originally posted by dubyahite
In the very next quote about the same subject he said:

I asked about the popular fan rumor of a Mass Effect MMO. “Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. “The interesting thing, the implication of a Mass Effect MMO has so many expectations. We already bit off a big thing to chew with a Star Wars MMO, and that’s not so small,” he said.

It became clear they had given the idea at least some thought. “It’s daunting, but the neat thing is it would lend itself to a different type of game play. It’s fun to think about. I imagine people think it would be just like Mass Effect as it is… but there’s lots of people there. It’s really interesting, I don’t know. It’s a tough one.”


So in one paragraph he says it's easy and laughs. In the next he says that it's "daunting" and "its a tough one" and you don't see how its a joke?


Maybe you should be the one "listening to themselves talk"

Im sorry we are hating on your favorit devs Here Dubyahite.. I really am. But dosent change the fact that WE think the game is garbage...

Its our opinion I know and you have 1,7 million friends playing.. so what do we know right? Just play the game and have fun and dont mind us haters. Because we will never change our minds...

Wolfshead nails it.. this is how we feel and SWTOR is at this moment on the TOP of the list of the games who follow this design and we hate it Period..

"To me, SWTOR feels like another predictable and soulless experience. It’s akin to a slick Hollywood blockbuster movie with cardboard good guys and bad guys with copious amounts of explosions and special effects thrown in for good measure.

No longer are MMOs are created with the expectation that anything can happen. Those days are long past. If players were left to forge their own destinies it would result in chaos and conflict which would be unacceptable to the story obsessed new breed of video game designer who insists that every aspect of what a player does should be tightly controlled and scripted. You see, you as a player can’t be trusted.

Instead MMOs have become virtual sausage factories where the spectator-like player sits back and enjoys the ride. Game design has been reduced to process of crafting every moment of the player experience — nothing is left to chance — a philosophy that would make amusement park tycoon Walt Disney proud."

We "Rage against the machine" screaming F. you I wont do what you tell me F. You I wont do what you tell me.... That is just how we roll...  Im politicaly active in IRL also, and this strugle for a better gameing experince I think will soon lead to activist groups inside the online gaming comunity. I would not be surprised if we get IRL RIOTS and figthing in the streets..In a few years time. There are many of us that are not far from taking to the Baricades. This might sound as Insane behavior but lets face it it's allready happening.. Just look at the Ingame Demonstrations In EvE online this summer.. Panic summit in ICLAND, public media taking time to report on it etc. Games have become much more REAL then the developers understand...

I would not be surprised that if you fuck up in the future.. lets say 20 years from now.. you might have to face an angry MOB outside your Studio.. and having to call in the police to use water cannons and riot shields... Would not surprise me at all...

I'm all for a Mass Effect mmo as long as it doesn't play like TOR.

Meh It is just a bunch of weightless fluff that they yammer on about to the press. Want to really hear their thoughts, you talk to them personally.

Originally posted by BadSpock

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by dubyahite
Quote 3 was obviously a joke if you don't take it out of context and twist it to fit your weird agenda.

The rest seem pretty much non noteworthy if you ask me. Not sure wha the point of this is.

The problem here is that pretty much everyone i linked this to didn't take it as a joke. It's very hard to get the impression of a joke simply from an interview put into text like that.

IF it really was a joke then the interviewer writing this up for PA should have annotated "jokingly" or something akin to that. Simply putting "as so and so laughed" isn't straight forward enough to be considered a joke. I've read many interviews that were serious, but included the line "as so and so laughed" etc.

"“Now that we’ve learned MMOs are really easy to make, and simple to run after the fact, we’re on it!” Dr. Zeschuk said, laughing. "

Really? That's hard to understand he was laughing/joking while saying it?

Was he really joking?  Or was he serious? SWTOR is a success to the people over at EA/BW so did they find it difficult to make?  Just as you took it as a joke someone else can easily take it as a  dev with a massive ego boasting about their project.  It is funny how the world can be viewed in  over 6 billion shades of grey.

Originally posted by dubyahite
Ok your response to me is not even relevant to the topic I was discussing.

I can see that you are upset to be proven wrong an all, but no need to riot.


My point was simply that he was very clearly joking in that statement and that you took the quote out of context and misrepresented the intention of the statement.

I don't give one crap if you think the game is crappy or if you love it. That's not what is at issue here.

If you can't handle being proven wrong about something then you shouldn't post things that are wrong.

I know he was joking. Im just saying that we wont listen.. We are to far Gone... To many of us this has become a fight that goes beyoned what game it is we are attacking this month. Im being honest here. Developers keep making games and calling them MMOS and we keep quiting them. But still they make them.. Warhamer online 2 servers left, LTRO free to play, AOC free to play, STO free to play....... Blizzard fires 600 people...

Maybe a time for change has come? Im not saying we are sane im not saying that we are rational but we sure are passionate about our games :)