Star Wars: The Old Republic Profitable With 500,000 Subs

[JediMB]

Good stories and characters mean nothing for an MMO.

Thirty years ago good stories and characters didn't mean anything to any genre of videogames.

 

[Crimsane]

Lofty goals. Ones I hope to see them meet, but even so...

 

[IamGamer41]

Its going to be a copy of War hammer crash, Only wow has perfected the MMO style game.


1 year after its out there will be 100,000 people playing maximum

I saw the game play, its stiff and unnatural, not like the smooth game play WoW has, even though wow is a bad game this wont make people turn over

I think your wrong.You really cant compare the stiffness of graphic of a game thats not even in beta to one thats 6 years old.Take it from someone who has played it for 5 years that people are tired of it.Take the newest expansion,I was lvl 85 within 36 hours and there I was doing what I had been doing for the last 6 months in Wrath of the Lichking.Doing dailies and running heroics for points. Theres just no where else thats enjoyable to go to.Your also forgetting that everything in TOR will be voiced.That in its self will be a big draw to people who love a cinematic experience when they play. 500k subs Id say it will pull that in about 1/2 a year.

 

[Flames66]

I take it they are planning to do a monthly subscription plan then. That's me out.

 

[mcattack92]

EA should just make it free to play with micro transactions.They would earn more than the estimated $900mil. When LOTR online went free, it tripled the revenue that they were earning from subscriptions.

 

[Plurralbles]

Monthly subscriptions: I will not pay for.

Sorry bioware, I love you! Kinda'... not really.

 

[Thoric485]

I'd gladly throw in my money. Just because it's a MMORPG that would try to actively involve the community in the game's story and atmosphere.

As long as Bioware don't make it a part of their "PREORDER BONUS EXCLUSIVE DLC CALL NOW, GET THE SLAP CHOP COMPANION AND THE FREE GRATY COMPANION, BUY TWO GET THE SHAMWOW HELMET" marketing strategy. Seriously. Fuck this crap.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Hah. You think I just want the game to fail because its BioWare? No, I'm basing my thoughts on experience with many MMOs. And I see BioWare making the same mistakes lots of others have made in the past. Good stories and characters mean nothing for an MMO. And narcissistic? If you're not sure what a word means, don't use it. Their exist dictionaries on the Internet which are free.

The disaster was that when Blizz made paladins and Forsake in the beginning, the Forsaken were undead and immune to fear. This gave them a massive advantage over the Alliance which could only be countered by paladins with abilities specifically designed to hurt the undead. The Horde became almost exclusively undead while the Alliance had to match with just as many paladins to keep up. Eventually, Blizzard stepped in and changed the Forsaken to humanoid and turned their passive fear immunity into an activated ability which has been nerfed ever since. For a long time afterwards, paladins had a long list of abilities originally intended to fight the Forsaken which were now useless as demons and undead enemies are rare compared to, say, spiders.

If BioWare wanted to succeed. They should have took a hint from Sony and left Jedi out from the start, but that would piss senseless idiots off. They ruin the game because everyone wants to be one. Blizzard was smart enough to leave heroes out. LoTR had enough sense as well. BioWare is just steaming ahead thinking its a good idea. They're letting their ideas get in the way of making a game.

Really, I personally saw the lack of engaging stories as one of the greatest weaknesses of MMOs as a whole. Since not many games really made much of an attempt to have good stories, MMO fans tended to ignore them. By having an interactive story like this, it makes the story more accessible and easier to dive into.

The way that TOR is being made is very different from how SWG wanted to be played. SWG wanted to create a working interactive universe. TOR wants to create epic adventures for the players. SWG CU/NGE got stuck in between and became a deformed hybrid. Having Jedi at the start of the game was terrible for SWG because of its style. However, it works a lot better in this because of what Bioware is trying to achieve. Yeah, there are going to be a lot of Jedi running around. But from what I can tell, that's really part of the point. They want to make it so that if everyone chose classes that are really popular, it won't harm the community. At least not to the level that SWG did.

It is also worth noting that all classes in the game have a separate story to play. So until your 8th character you're always going to have new dialogue and story to sink your teeth into.

You make the point that everyone will want to play as Jedi and then point the imbalances present in early World of Warcraft. What makes you so certain that they are going to make all Jedi overpowered? It is worth noting that in lore, Jedi aren't really that much more powerful than just a well trained soldier. It is just the really powerful Jedi Masters that get all of the attention in the movies and other media.

By the way, I said your behavior was narcissistic because I got the impression that you thought your opinion was more important than everyone else's.

I played Origins. It's nice having a short little background, but it means nothing to the grand scheme of things. Let's assume the entire story is separate, what difference does the reason make if you're killing space wolves to gain a greater understanding of the force or to receive some promotion in the military? You're still killing spaces wolves, the same man is still talking to you, but his dialog changes a little to say, noble jedi instead of soldier.

A good story is great, but even the best stories get tiring if someone drags them out. There's a good reason they're not that good in MMOs. MMOs are supposed to hold your attention for years while still leaving room for your Mary Sue to run around. What is the impact of your character going to be in KoTOR 4? "The legendary hero did X." But you really did Y. You killed Revan about 50 times and suddenly the character everyone knew and loved is dead because of some nameless Jedi. It's suddenly canon.

I'm not saying Jedi will be overpowered (talking about why balancing people who carry swords which cut through next to everything is another discussion.) I'm saying no one will be happy with Jedi. And it will hurt the community. Those few and far between tank characters are going to be worth their weight in gold. The game is being balanced around all four classes, yet most of the player base is going to go straight for the Jedi, and expect other people to fill in the other classes. They'll probably then ***** about their being too many Jedi while swinging around a laser sword that strangely can't cut through cloth. I would bet money now that the population of the two Jedi classes will be around 75% with those smugglers being about 15% and the tanks being 10%.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

If BioWare wanted to succeed. They should have took a hint from Sony and left Jedi out from the start, but that would piss senseless idiots off. They ruin the game because everyone wants to be one. Blizzard was smart enough to leave heroes out. LoTR had enough sense as well. BioWare is just steaming ahead thinking its a good idea. They're letting their ideas get in the way of making a game.

I'm very confused with your relating Lord of the Rings Online in this. What possible character type/class could possibly be considered similar to a Jedi and would be so popular that every single person would play one?

Besides, if even the possibility came about that everybody would choose to be a Jedi from the start, I only see that lasting for maybe 2 to 3 weeks. The reason I say this is that true MMO players are going to want try out most if not all classes/types/races at some point.

Three weeks into playing LotRO, I had a main character of a Hobbit guardian level 20 and three alts, Man captain level 17, Dwarf runekeeper level 15, and an Elf hunter level 14.

When I play TOR when it it comes out, I will probably do like you think, and play a Jedi from the start. But like most MMO players, after a few weeks, I will try out the other classes and whatnot.

On top of that, with how many Han Solo fans there are out there, I bet there will be quite a few smugglers out there as well.

I feel it is actually quite naive to think that this game won't do well, and keep doing well. It would have to bomb in every single aspect of the game for it to do bad, and even then I can see it doing okay.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Good stories and characters mean nothing for an MMO.

Thirty years ago good stories and characters didn't mean anything to any genre of videogames.

It's like you've never played an MMO before.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

If BioWare wanted to succeed. They should have took a hint from Sony and left Jedi out from the start, but that would piss senseless idiots off. They ruin the game because everyone wants to be one. Blizzard was smart enough to leave heroes out. LoTR had enough sense as well. BioWare is just steaming ahead thinking its a good idea. They're letting their ideas get in the way of making a game.

I'm very confused with your relating Lord of the Rings Online in this. What possible character type/class could possibly be considered similar to a Jedi and would be so popular that every single person would play one?

Besides, if even the possibility came about that everybody would choose to be a Jedi from the start, I only see that lasting for maybe 2 to 3 weeks. The reason I say this is that true MMO players are going to want try out most if not all classes/types/races at some point.

Three weeks into playing LotRO, I had a main character of a Hobbit guardian level 20 and three alts, Man captain level 17, Dwarf runekeeper level 15, and an Elf hunter level 14.

When I play TOR when it it comes out, I will probably do like you think, and play a Jedi from the start. But like most MMO players, after a few weeks, I will try out the other classes and whatnot.

On top of that, with how many Han Solo fans there are out there, I bet there will be quite a few smugglers out there as well.

I feel it is actually quite naive to think that this game won't do well, and keep doing well. It would have to bomb in every single aspect of the game for it to do bad, and even then I can see it doing okay.

Try rolling a wizard in LoTR. Come back and tell me how your Gandalf lookalike goes.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I'd gladly throw in my money. Just because it's a MMORPG that would try to actively involve the community in the game's story and atmosphere.

As long as Bioware don't make it a part of their "PREORDER BONUS EXCLUSIVE DLC CALL NOW, GET THE SLAP CHOP COMPANION AND THE FREE GRATY COMPANION, BUY TWO GET THE SHAMWOW HELMET" marketing strategy. Seriously. Fuck this crap.

I definitely would expect them to do that. I'd be mad if they didn't. I love it when games have such pre-order incentives. I like getting something extra that other people don't get or don't get until later.

I wish people would stop boo-hooing over the whole Dragon Age 2 thing. It was an awesome incentive. Besides, it wasn't exclusive DLC, it will eventually be sold to people that didn't pre-order.

Besides there was no excuse not to pre-order it, other than not wanting to because you don't know what the game is going to be like. But that is just too bad, pay the 7 to 10 dollars or whatever the DLC will be for people that didn't pre-order, whenever they get the chance.

It was an easy to get 5 dollars to pre-order, and a totally free pre-order if you chose to get it from Amazon like I did.

Hey, if anyone from BioWare is reading this, make a pre-order incentive of a special lightsaber and a special smuggler's gun.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Good stories and characters mean nothing for an MMO.

Thirty years ago good stories and characters didn't mean anything to any genre of videogames.

It's like you've never played an MMO before.

You've played World of Warcraft right?

Have you played through some of the starting zones after 4.0.3?

The stories for the starting zones are actually really good. And you know what? They really contribute to the experience. The reason you think that is because most MMOs don't even try.

Sure, you could argue that with the end game the story no longer matters. But there are structures that would focus on a triumphant end and then immediately transitioning you to PvP.



Personally I played through KoTOR and Mass Effect several times because the stories were so damn good.

Hah. You think I just want the game to fail because its BioWare? No, I'm basing my thoughts on experience with many MMOs. And I see BioWare making the same mistakes lots of others have made in the past. Good stories and characters mean nothing for an MMO. And narcissistic? If you're not sure what a word means, don't use it. Their exist dictionaries on the Internet which are free.

The disaster was that when Blizz made paladins and Forsake in the beginning, the Forsaken were undead and immune to fear. This gave them a massive advantage over the Alliance which could only be countered by paladins with abilities specifically designed to hurt the undead. The Horde became almost exclusively undead while the Alliance had to match with just as many paladins to keep up. Eventually, Blizzard stepped in and changed the Forsaken to humanoid and turned their passive fear immunity into an activated ability which has been nerfed ever since. For a long time afterwards, paladins had a long list of abilities originally intended to fight the Forsaken which were now useless as demons and undead enemies are rare compared to, say, spiders.

If BioWare wanted to succeed. They should have took a hint from Sony and left Jedi out from the start, but that would piss senseless idiots off. They ruin the game because everyone wants to be one. Blizzard was smart enough to leave heroes out. LoTR had enough sense as well. BioWare is just steaming ahead thinking its a good idea. They're letting their ideas get in the way of making a game.

Really, I personally saw the lack of engaging stories as one of the greatest weaknesses of MMOs as a whole. Since not many games really made much of an attempt to have good stories, MMO fans tended to ignore them. By having an interactive story like this, it makes the story more accessible and easier to dive into.

The way that TOR is being made is very different from how SWG wanted to be played. SWG wanted to create a working interactive universe. TOR wants to create epic adventures for the players. SWG CU/NGE got stuck in between and became a deformed hybrid. Having Jedi at the start of the game was terrible for SWG because of its style. However, it works a lot better in this because of what Bioware is trying to achieve. Yeah, there are going to be a lot of Jedi running around. But from what I can tell, that's really part of the point. They want to make it so that if everyone chose classes that are really popular, it won't harm the community. At least not to the level that SWG did.

It is also worth noting that all classes in the game have a separate story to play. So until your 8th character you're always going to have new dialogue and story to sink your teeth into.

You make the point that everyone will want to play as Jedi and then point the imbalances present in early World of Warcraft. What makes you so certain that they are going to make all Jedi overpowered? It is worth noting that in lore, Jedi aren't really that much more powerful than just a well trained soldier. It is just the really powerful Jedi Masters that get all of the attention in the movies and other media.

By the way, I said your behavior was narcissistic because I got the impression that you thought your opinion was more important than everyone else's.

I played Origins. It's nice having a short little background, but it means nothing to the grand scheme of things. Let's assume the entire story is separate, what difference does the reason make if you're killing space wolves to gain a greater understanding of the force or to receive some promotion in the military? You're still killing spaces wolves, the same man is still talking to you, but his dialog changes a little to say, noble jedi instead of soldier.

A good story is great, but even the best stories get tiring if someone drags them out. There's a good reason they're not that good in MMOs. MMOs are supposed to hold your attention for years while still leaving room for your Mary Sue to run around. What is the impact of your character going to be in KoTOR 4? "The legendary hero did X." But you really did Y. You killed Revan about 50 times and suddenly the character everyone knew and loved is dead because of some nameless Jedi. It's suddenly canon.

I'm not saying Jedi will be overpowered (talking about why balancing people who carry swords which cut through next to everything is another discussion.) I'm saying no one will be happy with Jedi. And it will hurt the community. Those few and far between tank characters are going to be worth their weight in gold. The game is being balanced around all four classes, yet most of the player base is going to go straight for the Jedi, and expect other people to fill in the other classes. They'll probably then ***** about their being too many Jedi while swinging around a laser sword that strangely can't cut through cloth. I would bet money now that the population of the two Jedi classes will be around 75% with those smugglers being about 15% and the tanks being 10%.

Jedi Classes have the only healers in the game to my knowledge and Jedi Knights/Sith Warriors have a Tank class to spec into. So it isn't like Jedi are an arbitrary addition to the game like in SWG.

Yeah, I've played WoW. The starting zones are good, but I'm referring to the idea that this story driven game is going to keep players around doing the same thing over and over again at the end as BioWare tries desperately to one up every little thing the players do to add more challenges.

Oh, lovely, so now you won't even need soldier tanks. I'm sorry, let me readjust my pool to 85% jedi, 15% smugglers.

 

[Krajin]

Its going to be a copy of War hammer crash, Only wow has perfected the MMO style game.


1 year after its out there will be 100,000 people playing maximum

I saw the game play, its stiff and unnatural, not like the smooth game play WoW has, even though wow is a bad game this wont make people turn over

Wow has, infact, NOT PERFECTED the mmo style. Sorry.

 

[Archtype]

Goodness some of you are clowns.

OK, let me get this straight, a STAR WARS game is being released by a game publisher that dwarfs Blizzard (which is EA for you thick WoW fanboys people out there) and the game itself is developed by one of (if not THE) the most respected and revered RPG companies EVER.

....and you expect me to believe it cannot pull off 500k subscribers.....?

Ow kids. That reasoning is painful to say the least. Allow yours truly to educate you all for a second regarding some of the absurd assumptions that this thread contains thus far.

First, for all of you that think "oh snap! 500k!? They might be able to pull if off for several months or so, but that is nuts!".....

Here is the deal, you forget the amount of quality DLC that BioWare is capable of producing. You see, there are companies that actually work (crazy, I know). Unlike Blizzard, BioWare does not goof off for 10 years at a time and throw out a game like SC2 which was feasible to produce 7 years ago. As crazy as this sounds, it would not surprise me if BioWare cranked out expansions and addons within the first 6 months. Have you already forgotten ME2 with DLC like "The Shadow Broker"?
In case you did not bother to look it up, the addition was excellent. Typical BioWare.

Also, there are VERY LARGE PORTIONS of this game that BioWare is obviously keeping under wraps... So how is it that you assume that the game will not include enough content etc?

If a company with a reputation as stellar as BioWare's says that something is going to be good, and they bank "X" million dollars of resources on it.... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the game is going to rock, and it will shed new light on a genre that is in desperate need of progress. I am not sure about a WoW killer, but it WILL BE extremely successful. I would not BLINK if they reported 4 to 5 million sold within 6 months.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Try rolling a wizard in LoTR. Come back and tell me how your Gandalf lookalike goes.

This tells me that you haven't played LoTRO or haven't played it very long.

I usually saw at least one Gandalf look alike each day I played it. Heck, my dwarf runekeeper was a dwarf version of Gandalf. He had a hat like Gandalf, and everything he wore was dyed gold. I called him Frenin Thegold(it would have been The Gold, but the last name thing won't let me have a two word last name). So with that I can be happy and imagine all that I want that my dwarf is a gold wizard.

Heck it you want to go the staff magic route, you have the Lore Master class. Several times I saw a Lore Master that was dress like Gandalf, but his clothes were all in black(with the wizard looking hat). He even had wizard in his name, Wizo-something, I don't remember the full name.

The powers that these classes have are awesome and feel just as good as it would if there was a wizard class.

The only thing that is barring players from being a wizard, is an imagination. I always played my dwarf as if he was a wizard. I was going to write a back story for him too, I just didn't get around to it.