For my part, no amount of free will ever change the fact that the gameplay was boring and uninspired. F2P won't make me go back, for sure.

The man responsible for this WoW skills copy paste, Georg Zeller, he was fired sure .. but the amount of needed work to rebuild entirely original & entertaining combat skill mechanics is unrational. Especially since they're nearly shutting the big revenue source down now.

Originally posted by Darthconnor
Really does make you wonder if its EGO or just that they are clueless. They see all those threads about features and systems needing to be added fixed or redesigned, then they go sit down at a meeting and think that its not their game its the customers just don't want to pay 15 bucks....

I think its more a case of just being clueless to the requirments of modern MMO's. Most of the higher ups in the SWTOR dev team came from SOE with some Mythic folks added to the mix further down the line.

 

SOE games from EQ1 up to DCUO all suffer from exactly the same issues SWTOR does..

1) Rushed out the door way to early

2) Missing content and features that should of been in the game at release

3) Bug fixes taking way to long  and then those fixes causing other bugs

4) Major lack of PvP balance

5) Taking forever for new content to be added to the game

6) Total lack of respect towards the customer

 

Sadly those in charge just haven't wised up to the fact that there is a huge choice of MMO's on the maket now with more coming out every few months and players just wont pay a sub fee and stick  around in a crap game anymore.

Originally posted by Cromica

I left because Ilum was crap, the stories were not very good, crafting was totally pointless, and really just over all the game was exactly the samething that has been done for years and years.

Unless they totally redesign the entire game I see no reason to ever install it again.

I, sadly, agree in full.

The combat (PvE) is just awful.

PvP the combat isn't too bad, but it's entirely gear based (which makes it awful.)

PvE 10+ is balanced for Companions, and that kind of explains (to me) without a doubt why I had SO much more fun with the game and combat 1-10 than I did 11-50 (especially 30-50).

PvE balanced for Companions sucks. Plain and simple, it's boring, tedius, entirely too slow for Star Wars, and just a horrid grind.

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Originally posted by skamper

Well cool. They're turning the dial to free to play, but who cares?

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According to EA data it is 40% of the people who left.

Originally posted by Jounar

1) Rushed out the door way to early

2) Missing content and features that should of been in the game at release

3) Bug fixes taking way to long  and then those fixes causing other bugs

4) Major lack of PvP balance

5) Taking forever for new content to be added to the game

6) Total lack of respect towards the customer

 

I think you just nailed several major releases in the last 5 years. WAR for example.

Just fixing the price point of a game is not going to fix why folks left.   All one has to do is look at the host of the many problems that folks left the game for.

(1) The number one reason why folks left is they was the lack of content.  Once you got to 50 you ran out of stuff to do other than grind or do operations and with half the operations bugging out well that left you grinding dailies.

(2) Another reason is folks were bored,  After I hit my fourth alt to 50, I was like omg I can not run that quest again.  While  I found the class story arcs great,  the rest of it was just repetition, and after you raised alts you become alt out in a since.

(3) The price point never bothered me I paid for a 6 month sub,  only played 3 months of it.  Again boredom had set in.

(4) Space on rails, so they are getting new space missions it is still star-fox space on rails missions.  We want real space combat like in JTL jump to light speed for those non swg folks

(5) Broken operations. Eternity vault anybody?? You ever down SOA only to have him come back alive, ever had him bug out because the tank got into a mind trap, or somebody fell through the floor.  All the bugs in this game totally ignored, and were ignored during beta. 

(6) lies and broken promises. What happened to the 500 planets, what happened to 1.3 million subs.  So forth and so on, little hard to trust them at this point.  This is the same kind of bs that got Turbine into trouble. 

(7) Lack of content, and content updates.  Does anybody really believe the lie that they are going to do content updates every 6 weeks,  if so lets talk about the coastal-land in Kentucky I have for sale.

(8) It has to be fun,  well after 4 alts it became unfunny.  Now everybody has their own definition of fun.   I think ea/bioware misread what I had to say when I unsubbed.  I did say it was not worth the 15 bucks, but I said I would not be back until they fixed the problems.  In fact I ran out of room on the exit survey to tell them all the problems they needed to fix.

Yes the game is not worth 1 red cent for me to play,  and free to play still does not make it worth anything.

Can ea/bioware pull off what turbine did , I don't know.  LOTRO was a way better game when it went free to play and had 5 times the ammount of content in it that game than what swtor has lately. I just don't think that swtor is positioned the way some of these other pay to play games were when they went free to play.

Originally posted by Cromica

I left because Ilum was crap, the stories were not very good, crafting was totally pointless, and really just over all the game was exactly the samething that has been done for years and years.

Unless they totally redesign the entire game I see no reason to ever install it again.

Agreed. Overall the game very much sub par, not worth the monthly sub and as of right now, not worth the download and my hardrive space.

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Originally posted by MidBoss

No, what is likely going on here is people wrote "This game is not worth a monthly payment".

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Along the same argument you used just paragraph above: Those did no have to buy the game in the first place?

It is the "sub" that people leave for. Not in and of by itself, but because "I wont pay for crap.".

Many will pick up and play the F2P, but I would imagine that EA will put the features that are workable into the cash shop.

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Originally posted by Gdemami

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Originally posted by MidBoss

No, what is likely going on here is people wrote "This game is not worth a monthly payment".

---

Along the same argument you used just paragraph above: Those did no have to buy the game in the first place?

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If the cost is $0 for the personal story content, I might actually download and play the game again. That's really all I was interested in seeing in the first place.

In fact, if I could play the game doing nothing but the class story content, companion content, and space combat, I'd definitely play the game. I'd even consider paying for it.

Originally posted by skamper

Well cool. They're turning the dial to free to play, but who cares? I think a lot of people are looking past the fact that even though it is going free, they still have not really addressed the reason why people left in the first place. I sincerely believe that if they just addressed the reasons, and invited the early adopters back, they would be much more successful. But instead they are practically keeping the same formula, design and content.

 

I really have not seen anything like "well patch SWTOR 2.0 Free to Play model is going to have this list of changes". Nothing. It sadly seems like they're just going to extend the life of the game enough to get what money they can before finally turning out the lights.

 

I hate to bring WoW into this but the reason their  numbers declined is because they failed to retain the customers they had, while they focused on bringing new ones in. If SWTOR goes the same route, and does not improve the content, then highly doubt this massive budget project can sustain itself. Sure you will have the curious people, and the kids who can't afford the monthly fee, but the money is in the people who bought the game and decided it was not fun.

 

We want to like this game again BioWare.

That depends, on what "peoples" reasons for leaving were.  I may have had different reasons for leaving than you did, as did many others, and many others may share your reasons for leaving but find mine unimportant.  If they would have had constant fairly speedy updates like Trion did in the beginning, I would probably still be playing, but that may not be why you left.

Originally posted by xr00t3dx

Originally posted by jpnz

Umm.. the number 1 reason people left is because of the '$15 sub fee'.

That's a fact and not 'I don't like XYZ so everyone must hate XYZ!' opinion.

So yeah, EA/BW is fixing the number 1 reason people left SWTOR.

Umm.. Dum.. Doh..

No. That's not why I canceled so guess you're totally fucking wrong.

He didn't say that's why everyone left, he said that was the #1 reason.  

Originally posted by Gdemami

 

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Originally posted by MidBoss

No, what is likely going on here is people wrote "This game is not worth a monthly payment".

---

 

Along the same argument you used just paragraph above: Those did no have to buy the game in the first place?

 

Yes, SWTOR's failure is really all the customers fault

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Originally posted by lizardbones

If the cost is $0 for the personal story content, I might actually download and play the game again. That's really all I was interested in seeing in the first place.

In fact, if I could play the game doing nothing but the class story content, companion content, and space combat, I'd definitely play the game. I'd even consider paying for it.

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Yes, this exactly what makes me wondering.

SWTOR is so much focused on story line that it makes me wonder if there will be enough content for cash shop..

Originally posted by jpnz

Umm.. the number 1 reason people left is because of the '$15 sub fee'.

That's a fact and not 'I don't like XYZ so everyone must hate XYZ!' opinion.

So yeah, EA/BW is fixing the number 1 reason people left SWTOR.

I see you actually believe what they(EA) say vs. the truth. Everyone left because the game sucks as an MMO. It is a single player game with an MMO afterthought. No one will pay monthly for a single player game. And once you beat said game which you do at the end of your story, the game is well and truly over. So Free wont make them come back because they already beat the game Just like KOTOR.

 

It is a fact that If you put out a really Good MMO, you will be able to sustain the Sub model, and grow it. The F2P Model would make a games revenue flourish too, but again only if the game is really good.  But if your game sucks, no one will play it P2P or F2P Plain and simple.

And that is exactly what SWTOR is even according to EA itself. A Miss, a Fail whose financial crap turn was made up for by BF3 or so they say. When its own company calls it a Miss, you know it well and truly is a failure.

"2:20: Our diversity allows us to make up for a miss on one franchise (SWTOR) with a hit on another (BF3)."

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/21125-electronic-arts-q1-fy13-earnings-call

I find it ammusing that there are people that think it takes over 50% to be a majority. That only works if there are only 2 options.

 

 

 

I blame it on public education.

Originally posted by jpnz

Umm.. the number 1 reason people left is because of the '$15 sub fee'.

That's a fact and not 'I don't like XYZ so everyone must hate XYZ!' opinion.

So yeah, EA/BW is fixing the number 1 reason people left SWTOR.

Really? A fact? Amazing.

Well I guess "I'm" the only one who stopped playing because at cap there was little to do. Didn't mind paying the fee I can tell you that.

 

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

I find it ammusing that there are people that think it takes over 50% to be a majority. That only works if there are only 2 options.

 

 

 

I blame it on public education.

It does take over 50% to have a majority, if no option reaches 50% +1 it is a plurality, not a majority.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by jpnz

Umm.. the number 1 reason people left is because of the '$15 sub fee'.

That's a fact and not 'I don't like XYZ so everyone must hate XYZ!' opinion.

So yeah, EA/BW is fixing the number 1 reason people left SWTOR.

Really? A fact? Amazing.

Well I guess "I'm" the only one who stopped playing because at cap there was little to do. Didn't mind paying the fee I can tell you that.

 

Not the only one, just not one of the majority.

I quit because they couldn't make their version of the hero engine handle the few open world PVP battles that we ourselves managed to make happen with over 50 people - also I quit because under their own admission they didn't know how to make Illum work and gave up on it.

Is there some magic sauce in going F2P they this fixes these game design/engine/technological problems ?

 

15 dollars a month for shit vs getting shit for free , is well , still shit.