Originally posted by PioneerStew

Neither.  WOW updated its content (excluding tweaks in patches) very rarely in large expansions, and it didn't seem to do that game much harm. 

This is actually the biggest reason I had for quitting WoW. I felt like I wasn't getting my money's worth paying 15 bucks a month for an xpac every couple of years and a few little content patches every 4-5 months. It's a joke how little content Blizzard actually puts out compared to other games.

I believe there's already at least a years worth of content planned out for SWtOR, if not it would be rather silly, considering they're looking at this game as long-term investment and revenue source not a quick bang it out and get a heap of cash then forget it game (like some SOE games recently, Warhammer..etc)

I would expect regular content updates.

Originally posted by Xthos

If I cannot purchase/buy a copy of SWTOR from EA/Bioware, and get into the game the day of the launch, I will stop posting here....anyone else have faith that this 'limit' is real and not just a lame ploy to get people to pre-order, and take the challenge, and stop posting if a copy of SWTOR can be had?

 

Please, like they can spend all this money making the game, having the pre-order record or whatever, but they can't buy enough servers to make sales unlimited....like if they let 1 million people in, but all of a sudden 1.1 million people would break things! 

 

Not that it matters, it's just odd that so many believe this, and then swallow the lie, behind the lie.   Companies are in business to make money, creating a fake shortage to drive sales makes more money...You would have a bad company if a company as big as EA/Bioware wouldn't buy enough servers/bandwidth to make as much cash as they could.

 

Yeah people have limited things before, but these were companies that had limits in cash/resources...Like they say, you gotta have money to make money...Those companies didn't....EA/Bioware does.

 

Any takers?

 

I don't understand why you're so upset. Obviously there is a limit on boxed copies of any game..that's just common sense. I haven't read anything anywhere about a lack of digital pre-orders. If anything its more or less a way to funnel more people into buying the came through Origin.

The exact quote from the email is this, it's confusing I suppose..but it doesn't say anything about running out.

"With the release date revealed, pre-order quantities will go fast. If you haven't already, make sure to pre-order* now and secure your Early Game Access and exclusive in-game bonus item."

Sounds to me like they're saying you could miss out on Early Game Access..not on a freakin pre-order..

Originally posted by lostkoss

Launching a couple of days before Christmas is PURE GENIOUS.

They know that a lot of people, especially children, have previous commitments for the holidays.

Launching at this time will reduce server stress as some of the people that would play continously will have to stop and go to Grandma's house or out of state or whatever. College kids too.

Every person who has to be "out of town" for that week and can't log in acts as a natural server stress reducer.

I like this move it really makes a lot of sense to me even if I reall don't want to wait that long :)

 

P.S.  Don't feel bad for the employees that have to work, unless you feel bad for the McDonalds employees and everyone else who has to work.

 

As someone who has worked retail the past two christmases..yes it does suck so of course I'm going to feel bad for the employees working on Christmas, the added stress here is this is like a grand opening a few days before Christmas, it's gonna suck for them.

My only concern is..do the people that will be stuck squashing server problems on christmas day get Overtime ?

I believe you misunderstood the use of the phrase. Often you hear "I don't have enough time anymore" in regards to things like raids. Where you have to set aside a block of time sometimes in excess of four hours. That was fine when the only responsibility we had was middle school and high school, but as college, jobs and families come into the picture finding 4 uninterrupted hours is much more difficult.

It's not that there is some massive change in the amount of time availible, its that uninterrupted time that is growing scarce.

Originally posted by kolsovo

These days I'm seeing alot of hype for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Both long time Star Wars IP fans and WoW haters alike seem excited, but is it for the right reasons?

 Plenty of people are excited for reasons unrelated to hatred of current games or a love affair with a long-lasting franchise.

I think a good amount of people remember Warhammer Online. There was BIG hype about it- The WoW slayer, the new DAOC, Warhammer Fantasy IP, etc etc...

 There wasn't nearly as much hype about Warhammer as there was for GW2, and GW2 is still far surpassing SWTOR in that department, the supporters of that game were rabid from the first screenshot with no actual knowledge of it. Hype does not mean a game is going to fail, WoW was hyped too.

And what happened?

 WAR isn't technically a failure, as they are well within the black, but EA didn't invest nearly as much in WAR as they are in SWTOR, WAR's quick exit is partly due to EA dropping it like it was diseased the moment the first 100k left.

Nobody's really sure how many players the game has nowadays. Maybe 100k at MOST? And that is a liberal estimate. 

 Actually there are plenty of fairly accurate projections that have it hovering around 100k-200k. That's not bad, its still profitable.

And then came Rift. Yet again, everyone cheered (and cheer) WoW Slayer, new big MMO, etc etc. And what happned? Yet again, everyone was disappointed. Now, not that Rift is dying like WAR is- it still has a decent playerbase, but I think they're heavily customizable class system will be their downfall eventually.

There was virtually no hype for Rift, it was never called a WoW Slayer, at best people called it a stop-gap between the WoW era and the new era of GW2/SWToR/TERA.  Rift is holding a rather sizable playerbase 500k+, that's very succesful if you ask me, and claiming that the class system is going to be its downfall is pure speculation and personal preference. I for one love the somewhat sandboxy appeal of it..like a sandbox with blueprints.

 

But this isn't a Rift bashing thread. This is about people yet again getting over-excited about a game, and then being SO SURPRISED when it turns out the game is either unfinished, under-developed, or just another clone!

 No game has every been released finished, WoW had one of the worst releases in history, but somehow it prevailed. WoW itself was a clone of the game before it, so expecting the primary ideas of the genre not to be copied if they prove succesful is silly, and honestly if we didn't all want clones we'd be playing games like EVE, Dawntide...etc.

Basically, I just wanna suggest that everyone do some legitimate research on a game before you scream "OMG SWEET EPIC GAME WOW SLAYER!" 

 

This especially goes for SWTOR- I think that SWTOR will likely be a major fail, as many people are a bit too excited about the IP, perhaps moreso than the actual gameplay (like what happened in WAR).

WAR partially failed because people were excited about the idea of RVR, dating back to DAoC, not because of the WAR IP. You've oversimplified a very complex and sad end to a game that had loads of potential had EA put their full faith into it and not balked the moment things started to sour.

I'd be curious to see actualy demographic numbers, how many subs in NA, EU and Asia and what numbers have been lost. Keep in mind more then 3/4ths of their subscriber base according to an old figure that said there were only 2-3 mil in NA don't have Cata yet (China just got wrath.)

I don't think you can point to any one factor, or any one expansion. The game is starting to show its age, there are contenders gaining traction (Rift, LoTRO, Eq2) an economic downturn, and new prospects on the horizon (SWtOR and GW2).

If we could ever get actual believable numbers..then it'd be worth paying attention to, but 9 million in an Asian market is pittance if numbers floating around for other asian based games are to be believed.

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by evianwater

Stopped reading when he said Blizzard released a polished product in WoW...

 

How quickly people forget one of the worst launches in MMO history with more bugs then beetlejuice's lunch.

 

It's really getting tiring hearing about how WoW is the pinnacle of quality..they copied everything, hit at the right time and got lucky. WoW was and is and always will be..a very bland game with little innovation, poor quality and some of the worst CS around. Stop pretending it's some phenomenal game, whats phenomenal was their marketing department.

No way could such a game as your described would ever be able to keep its subs and growing

It's been losing subs for three straight years since peaking at about 12 million..or at least thats what numbers say from sites here and there, but since its nearly impossible to get factual numbers..who knows how many subs they have ?

And if you don't think poor products can be wide-spread you're mad. Notoriety and familiarity are *huge* in selling a product, WoW has them both now in spades. Like I said, they got lucky.

Oh and by the way..last I checked EQ, UO and EQ2 are still going strong with a couple hundred thousand subs (all came before WoW, though eq2 was the same month)

And games like Rift are doing very well in the post-wow market. I think Trion is very happy with where they are right now.

Stopped reading when he said Blizzard released a polished product in WoW...

How quickly people forget one of the worst launches in MMO history with more bugs then beetlejuice's lunch.

It's really getting tiring hearing about how WoW is the pinnacle of quality..they copied everything, hit at the right time and got lucky. WoW was and is and always will be..a very bland game with little innovation, poor quality and some of the worst CS around. Stop pretending it's some phenomenal game, whats phenomenal was their marketing department.

By the same token, shouldn't shooting a fireball at a rat instantly destroy it ? and maybe start other fires ? Or in a game like Modern Warfare..shouldn't one shot kill instead of give you a little red pulse that you can go hide behind a wall for 3 seconds and be super duper fine again ?

SWtOR is a game, just like every other mmo, or fps, or rpg or whatever. It's not based on realism, don't try to stuff it in a box because you saw it in a movie. Use the same imagnation you do with other games to allow bending the laws of physics..the game already does with space travel! Exceeding 300,000 km/s and all that to travel from planet to planet.

Thank you so much for such a well organized thoughtful and informative response. It answered all my questions to within a month of accuracy!

I've been doing some research and came across a few interesting tidbits that I've been waiting for after SOE Fan faire. First was the talk of "mercenaries" similar to eq1, has there been any rumoured date for those ? The next is the Group tool (a la Rift/World of Warcraft) is that it yet ? that was one thing I was really hoping SOE would add.

If either of these are coming soon I'll be resubbing!

Originally posted by Vinterkrig

I'm not trying to troll or anything like that, but I gotta say I've never seen a game so over-hyped, by players (not the company) that I cannot see anything but this game being disappointing  once its finally released and people see that it isn't the golden goose that you had all dreamed of.

 

I know this kind of "omg this is gonna be amazing" and then it isn't once its released happens for every game, but I just think this one has been taken to a new level. I've heard friends (ex guildmates) talk about how this is the saviour of the genre and such...

 

 

thoughts?

Hah, no game so over-hyped ? Have you not been following Guild Wars 2 ? The level of hype for that game makes this seem silly.

There's no point to this thread, no basis, no facts, just randomness.

I think this is a case of trolling cynism.

Originally posted by Teala

I would love to play some of the Eastern MMORPG's. but I just can't get past their grindy-ness, nor their art direction.

Look what she is wearing.   She looks like she is on her way to a rave, not to do battle with the minions of (evil name here).  Don't even get me started on the cheesy 'anime' run they have them do.

[Mod Edit]

Can't say I've seen the run animation, but it can't be any worse then Global Agenda. But seriously, you want them to change their art-style just for you ? (By the by, eastern games that try to use a western style are usually god awful, it doesn't translate well, and vice versa.)

Luckily we live in a world post EQ2 with appearance slots appearing more and more. This helps a lot with the "Why would I wear a metal thong in a frozen wasteland?" critique. One can only hope that games will come up with enough options that you can wear the metal thong, or a giant potato sack, and everything else in between. But the art direction will still be the same, it's still always going to be asian themed..because it's made in asia for an asian audience.

I was considering trying MO again..until I saw the inabillity for the CEO of Starvault to form a coherent sentence in english.  Unless..by some saving grace, this is just someone loosely translating ?

I didn't even know this game was released...the beta I played was so god awful I guess I just blocked it out.

Originally posted by sibs4455

I have never yet played a PVE based mmo where you need cc. High damage output is all that you will ever need except for a few bosses etc.

cc is for PVP.

This comment makes me so sad..because it means this is the WoW-generation that never played UO, EQ, DAoC or any of hte other games that came before the cartoony mess of easy.

Games have become very one-dimensional, EQ2 is probably the closest to having a 4th role with support being strongly featured in raids and groups for mana regen and buffing. CC died away in Eq2 after about the first year, kind of like WoW.

I'd say before we revist the need for CC for groups, it needs to be more attractive to the solo player, as that is what the market is for the most part now. Things like Tanks and healers suffer more I believe from the inabillity to solo as effectively as DPS do, making them less attractive to the casual player.

I tanked in EQ1, and off-tanked. I loved it. Tanking in WoW just completely turned me off, and so did healing. There's too much responsibility dumped on the healer or the tank and none on DPS. It made it frustrating playing with morons who'd never heard of deaggro (that's largely Blizzard's fault for dumbing down DPS so that a 4 year old can run a heroic)

Perhaps we should scale back the mass of classes so you don't have so much imbalance, and focus on refining the Trinity idea.

Didn't Ubisoft already have their hand in an mmo or two ? didnt they have something to do with Shadowbane ?

Just wait till this happens to Blizzard. The amount of data they take from their customers far exceeds what SOE takes. Part of the reason I quit playing, with their before xpac unauthorized data mining.

I'd play an SOE game in a heart beat, it's not their fault you gave out your information anyway. I will however be using gamecards in the future just as a precaution, if anything this has helped me on my end to be more concious of what's going on.