You think?

Are non-HD TVs flawed?  Checkers used to be all the rage. 

It's simple.  What was fun 5 and 10 years ago, just doesn't hold attention like it used to. 

You could play another game.

That's usually how I roll.  I play a game til I'm bored, then move on.

Ya.  It's sad for a rank and file guy to lose his job... and to have it happen in such a mismanaged manner (usually people are laid off in an orderly fashion and nothing like this debacle)... but c'mon.   

38 Studios was a disaster... they ended with over $150 million in debts... and $22 million in assets. 

Boo hoo for your loss of camraderie and the loving arms of Curt Schilling.  Grow a pair.

Haven't killed final couple of bosses in Act 4. 

Checked AH - upgrade to weapon will cost me 10+ million or $50+...

Don't care to grind gold... don't care to pay $$$... don't care to redo elites 10000x hoping for rare drop... don't really care to kill Diablo on Inferno.

On to next game.

You guys are way over-thinking this.

XFire doesn't have to be very accurate to tell us what we already know as evidenced by 15 other sources.  If you're trying to use XFire to predict TOR subcribers within +/- 10,000.... you're wasting your time.  If you're using it as another piece of evidence TOR has taken a massive suscriber hit since lauch... it works just fine.

*1387 for 6/9 - another all-time low for a Saturday.

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by cooper85

The entire front page is filled with this... Concerning to say the least.

You do relize the people who love the game are playing it and not posting now. Wait until Monday.

You do realize that every single time there is a beta and someone gives the game a negative review... some other guy, comes into the forum and claims that only people that don't like the game would make posts while the beta is stil on?

But amazingly... some games really are... not that great.

That was literally unwatchable... the abridged version, as well.

Of course they want Blizzard to do something about gold - because gold is basically worthless and farmers won't make any money off it.  Items will sell for $... but buying gold is for suckers. 

Thing is... the moment your average player looks in the AH and sees that the next level of item improvement requires him to either pay $$$ or establish a nest of farming bots... that's the moment that player stops playing... which in turns kills demand for all the farmed gold, even more.

I'd expect Daiblo gold eo just to continue to lose value - almost to the point of worthlessness...  rare dropped items though, should have a market - I just don't think people will be using gold to buy them.... why bother?

I've found the game enjoyable and certainly got my money's worth... but I can see how it might not have as much lasting appeal as D2.  It feels really small... and 150 hours in, I'm bored of the grinding. 

I would say... I might come back to the game at some point, but in this day and age - I probably won't... there are just too many other new games to spend my time on and likely some good ones in the very same genre, too.

Bankruptcy today... not only are they broke, but owe $150 million.

Probe starting - I wonder if anyone will go to jail.

1425 for 6/6.

Calculating actual sub #'s from the XFire data is obviously not going to give us very accurate info and will involve quite a bit of educated guessing and application of similar patterns....

BUT... even if we get something as inaccurate as a +/- 50% margin of error... you can still see (along with all the other indicators we have) where TOR is headed.

1417 for Tuesday AND the game is ranked 14th overall... #15 is Aion.

Remember, we expect #'s to rise from mon - sun.... it's important to compare the same days, then consider if there are any other obvious factors affecting the data -- ie.  last monday was a holiday, thus why it was almost as high as sun.

1426 for monday - tue and wed look like they will bring new all-time lows.

6/3 = 1576... looks like only a tiny drop from 1 week ago.  Pace of decline slowing for the moment, maybe? 

Originally posted by Gdemami

 

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Originally posted by Deepfall

 

Also, profitability with only 500.000 subscribers would not be reached before years.

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2.4M boxes sold + 500k/month subs = 159M revenue within 3 months(very underestimated calculation).

No need to fail in math more than article you linked...

But when all is said and done - EA probably sees less than 2/3 of the box revenue and who knows how much of the monthly sub revenue. 

And then there are the continuing monthly costs to run the game... additional development and marketing... are those > monthly revenue?  Beyond just that... is it worth their time to involve X number of talented inviduals in a project that isn't making a substantial profit.. not just keeping its head above water.

Also... how do you factor the $860 million EA paid for Bioware.... oh yeah.  Sure they have Dragon Age... and Mass Effect... but surely a good portion of that money was intended to be recouped by some TOR profitability?

Despite some that don't understand the business stating otherwise... SWTOR is on its way to being a pretty epic financial failure.  That's really indisputable.

It's kind of like the company that invested millions in some great new HD CD technology... right as MP3's became the standard. 

Ya... ya... ya....

Every thread criticizing the HERO engine, then populates with some "in the know" developer/engineer-types that tell us how our opinion is just wrong.

OK.  Fine.. maybe it is... maybe HERO engine is wonderful.  But until most of us gamers actually see a product using the HERO engins that doesn't suck... we're not going to believe you.  And you know that... and no amount of "well you just don't understand..." is going to matter.

Save your breath.

I would not mess around with this company.

Tried for several days to cancel my account.  The online account management simply doesn't work.  Went through the process several times... never recieved a confirmation email... no change in my account status. 

Tried to contact their so boldly displayed 24/7 ONLINE SUPPORT... waited 4 hours for my place in the queue to drop from 95 to 22... only to see it then start to RISE... I gave up when I was up to 27!!! 

I remember when they were having account management problems on launch... OK... I sent a ticket then, didn't get a reply until 2 weeks later --- sorry for the delay, we've been busy.  if you're still having problems please contact our online support.

I think most people in here understand exactly what we can get from xFire and what we can't... if someone wants to come in here and think they are utterly meaningless or indicative of a thriving and healthy SWTOR... be.. my... guest.

I'm just going to continue tracking :)

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by fadis
Ever heard of a little game called MINECRAFT?

 

 

The game looks like it was made in 1992, yet has millions of online users... the company that figures out how to take its appeal and twist it into a modern MMO setting will probably have... the... next... big.... thing.

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Minecraft uses too much bandwidth to even be thought about as an MMORPG. It's not possible to compress the data that needs to be transmitted any smaller - so the pipe it's passing through needs to be larger, which would make it astronomically expensive. You can fit 3 people per 1Mbs of bandwidth. No time in the near future will it be feasible to squeeze a massive minecraft server into the world.

Aside from that, not one issue with sandbox mechanics is solved by Minecraft. It works because of the scale. People are playing with a small number of people and they are picking and choosing who they play with. Scale it up and you have all the issues you have with sandbox games in general.

Minecraft is a great example that people like sandbox games, a great example of indie development, and a great example that game play is at least as important as graphics, but it's not a good example of the desire of people to play sandbox MMORPG.

** edit **
I play Minecraft and run a server. I also play on other public servers. I'm not bashing the game at all. It just wouldn't solve any issues with sandbox MMORPG.

 

Although I'm late to the party with the Minecraft mention...

You're missing the point.  I'm not versed in all the technical challenges - but the success of a game like Minecraft surely indicates that there is a very lively market for sandbox features.  And as many of those types of things that could be incorporated into AAA-quality MMOs, would surely be appreciated.

I don't even really like Minecraft - the game.  I see it more as a sort of "tech" demo.  And I'd be happy to wager you'll see many features derived from MC start to make their way into more larger-scale and successful online games. 

I just don't agree with the OP, at all. 

1434.