Badda-Boom... dere it iz!

Boo, I was having fun with my F2P to 15 characters on a totally empty server. Then again I always wanted another KOTOR and not a MMO.

Consolidations are usually the beginning of the end.

Everyone off the good ship TOR, because it's sinking fast!!

Creston

Has this gone F2P yet? Are they going to have the capacity when it does?

I might still be playing this if they did this 5 months ago. Too little too late.

For what it's worth, will be playing Guild Wars 2 until Planetside 2 comes out.

Creston wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 11:35:
Everyone off the good ship TOR, because it's sinking fast!!

Creston

I will say, while playing BL2 last night, that I wish I could upgrade favorite weapons like I could in TOR.

That's like the only positive thing that pops into my head about TOR right now, but it is positive...

I'd hate to have to be the guy who has to give these press releases and try to spin what can only be described as the spectacular drawn-out implosion of their 300 million dollar failure as a positive. "Oh yeah, server consolidation after going F2P a scant year after releasing with a resounding thud, baby! We totally ROCK!! High fives all around!!".

I'd hate to be the guy that convinced the board of directors that a current gen Star Wars themed mmo is going to make us billions of dollars because the genre is booming and there are no signs of subscription-based mmos dying anytime soon. What a bunch of dumbasses. Do they even play games?

Not to mention the fact that most women hate Star Wars and sci-fi themed games.

I'd hate to be the guy that convinced the board of directors that a current gen Star Wars themed mmo is going to make us billions of dollars because the genre is booming and there are no signs of subscription-based mmos dying anytime soon. What a bunch of dumbasses. Do they even play games?

Eh...I think this was a good idea at the start that just got executed poorly. When it was launched it was basically an amusement park with a lot of broken rides. Leadership needed to recognize the importance of getting less content completed to an acceptable level rather than getting as much content started as possible and then expecting players to just stick around while they finished building it all.

The flashpoints were a cool idea but were essentially broken because you have to get this very specific group together to run them. Why couldn't the flashpoint adjust difficulty to match the players coming in. If there are 4 Imperial agents that want to run a flashpoint then tweak the difficulty so they can do it.

The PvP matching system worked great...for imperials! Took very little time to start a game...but then there were 3 maps!?

Space combat looked good for most of the game then abruptly stopped once you hit 50. You make me wait till lvl 50 to use proton torpedoes then there is nothing to use them on!?

The side kick companion system was working well until you get a healer...then there is no point in using anything else! And you get 5 or 6? of them and can only use one...why not let players use all of them at once on special missions!? (or at least 3)

So many things were moving in the right direction and just never got fleshed out.

Heres an idea.. for the next "update" they give the remaining players NPC allies so they can at least pretend there are people to play the game with ^_^

Tumbler wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 13:55:

I'd hate to be the guy that convinced the board of directors that a current gen Star Wars themed mmo is going to make us billions of dollars because the genre is booming and there are no signs of subscription-based mmos dying anytime soon. What a bunch of dumbasses. Do they even play games?

Eh...I think this was a good idea at the start that just got executed poorly. When it was launched it was basically an amusement park with a lot of broken rides. Leadership needed to recognize the importance of getting less content completed to an acceptable level rather than getting as much content started as possible and then expecting players to just stick around while they finished building it all.

The flashpoints were a cool idea but were essentially broken because you have to get this very specific group together to run them. Why couldn't the flashpoint adjust difficulty to match the players coming in. If there are 4 Imperial agents that want to run a flashpoint then tweak the difficulty so they can do it.

The PvP matching system worked great...for imperials! Took very little time to start a game...but then there were 3 maps!?

Space combat looked good for most of the game then abruptly stopped once you hit 50. You make me wait till lvl 50 to use proton torpedoes then there is nothing to use them on!?

The side kick companion system was working well until you get a healer...then there is no point in using anything else! And you get 5 or 6? of them and can only use one...why not let players use all of them at once on special missions!? (or at least 3)

So many things were moving in the right direction and just never got fleshed out.

Sure, there might have been some cool ideas, but the problem, as I said, is that it's a subscription-based current gen mmo in the Star Wars universe. And that was a problem at the time it was announced. No "ifs", "ands", or "buts" about it. It was a bad idea all around, every way you look at it.

Prez wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 13:07:
I'd hate to have to be the guy who has to give these press releases and try to spin what can only be described as the spectacular drawn-out implosion of their 300 million dollar failure as a positive. "Oh yeah, server consolidation after going F2P a scant year after releasing with a resounding thud, baby! We totally ROCK!! High fives all around!!".

I'd hate to be the guy who got the TOR tattoo on his shoulder.

nin wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 12:49:

Creston wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 11:35:
Everyone off the good ship TOR, because it's sinking fast!!

Creston

I will say, while playing BL2 last night, that I wish I could upgrade favorite weapons like I could in TOR.

That's like the only positive thing that pops into my head about TOR right now, but it is positive...

We might not be able to upgrade the weapons, but the new added tokens for achievements are just awesome and those do allow you to upgrade certain aspects of your weapons or your personal self. Love that they added this.

Does anyone know yet when this is going free to play? I’m pretty sure this is the first step consolidating users to going free. I’m just dreading that all of my chars now have some weird ass server name in front of all my char’s now. Usually you will only get a chance to rename them after the move has taken place. Not months later which has always bothered me that they don’t allow us to rename.

We might not be able to upgrade the weapons, but the new added tokens for achievements are just awesome and those do allow you to upgrade certain aspects of your weapons or your personal self. Love that they added this.

I agree, I think it's my favorite new feature.

nin wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 14:43:

Prez wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 13:07:
I'd hate to have to be the guy who has to give these press releases and try to spin what can only be described as the spectacular drawn-out implosion of their 300 million dollar failure as a positive. "Oh yeah, server consolidation after going F2P a scant year after releasing with a resounding thud, baby! We totally ROCK!! High fives all around!!".

I'd hate to be the guy who got the TOR tattoo on his shoulder.

HAHA!

I don't see why they are waiting so long to go fully F2P.

DC Universe implemented F2P as soon as they realized a monthly sub wasn't going to work. The game still runs, and is even generating some money. I think it is because they didn't wait until everyone quit and the player base was so small that you couldn't make money off the in-game store.

Seems to me that Bioware/EA is counting on people to want to come back and give them a second chance....and with all the competition out there, I am not really sure that is going to work. Would have been smarter to go F2P while you still had most of the players' attention. Particularly given that the biggest complaints about the game revolve around endgame and PVP content...which are the only things to keep you playing after you complete a the story line. Even if people come back, how do you sell them anything in the in-game store if they leave again as soon as they wrap up their storyline?

I don't know, I am not a developer and I have zero experience in managing a project like that....but it just seems like one bonehead short-sighted decision after another.

Steele Johnson wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 13:25:

Not to mention the fact that most women hate Star Wars and sci-fi themed games.

Ignorant much?

Jivaro wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 16:02:
I don't see why they are waiting so long to go fully F2P.

DC Universe implemented F2P as soon as they realized a monthly sub wasn't going to work. The game still runs, and is even generating some money. I think it is because they didn't wait until everyone quit and the player base was so small that you couldn't make money off the in-game store.

Seems to me that Bioware/EA is counting on people to want to come back and give them a second chance....and with all the competition out there, I am not really sure that is going to work. Would have been smarter to go F2P while you still had most of the players' attention. Particularly given that the biggest complaints about the game revolve around endgame and PVP content...which are the only things to keep you playing after you complete a the story line. Even if people come back, how do you sell them anything in the in-game store if they leave again as soon as they wrap up their storyline?

I don't know, I am not a developer and I have zero experience in managing a project like that....but it just seems like one bonehead short-sighted decision after another.

They actually have a pretty reasonable number of high pop servers from what I have seen. Now how many of those players are free-to-15 like me vs paying users? No idea.

MattyC wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 16:27:

Jivaro wrote on Sep 19, 2012, 16:02:
I don't see why they are waiting so long to go fully F2P.

DC Universe implemented F2P as soon as they realized a monthly sub wasn't going to work. The game still runs, and is even generating some money. I think it is because they didn't wait until everyone quit and the player base was so small that you couldn't make money off the in-game store.

Seems to me that Bioware/EA is counting on people to want to come back and give them a second chance....and with all the competition out there, I am not really sure that is going to work. Would have been smarter to go F2P while you still had most of the players' attention. Particularly given that the biggest complaints about the game revolve around endgame and PVP content...which are the only things to keep you playing after you complete a the story line. Even if people come back, how do you sell them anything in the in-game store if they leave again as soon as they wrap up their storyline?

I don't know, I am not a developer and I have zero experience in managing a project like that....but it just seems like one bonehead short-sighted decision after another.

They actually have a pretty reasonable number of high pop servers from what I have seen. Now how many of those players are free-to-15 like me vs paying users? No idea.

It would be interesting to see those numbers, but logic says that the longer they wait to pull the F2P switch, the more people lose interest all together. I mean, every business class I ever attended, every marketing meeting I have ever attended...the bottom line was that you need to stay relevant so that if you make dramatic changes people give you a chance. Let yourself become irrelevant and people cease to care how good your changes are. Maybe that is changed a bit in the entertainment industry, as I said I am not a developer, but I would think it would be pretty much the same.

Waiting until Fall to make the switch, particularly with the holiday releases coming, seems bad in another way. Every single MMO I have played that switched to F2P....no matter how good/bad the result....went through some growing pains during that switch. If it needs a bunch of tweaking, the timing of the release isn't exactly going to make for very forgiving players. Waiting until the market gets competitive, school is back in session, the holidays are starting....it just seems like very poor planning all the way around.

I guess I just look at this whole release, from the very beginning, as poorly thought out and poorly executed. The game has strengths, I myself actually like it more then most people it seems. The problem, I believe, is similar to the one that Galaxies had. The developer/publisher is relying too much on the license and worrying too much about appealing to everyone rather then finding a specific target audience. I think they should have gotten good at something, then worried about getting better at other things, if you get my meaning. This game, from the beginning, did a whole lot of things, and all of them are at best "average". In today's market I just don't see that being profitable long term, and I definitely don't see it making for a good game.

This comment was edited on Sep 19, 2012, 17:00.