Looking back at swtor over the last year

[RoninaThorstone]

You have to delete your WoW characters.

No, first he has to submit to a higher power.

but seriously, you don't have to do that. You can just uninstall and move on with your life. A lot has happened while you've been in the grid. Global warming, war in the middle east, cellphones, wifi.

[Parrin]

No, first he has to submit to a higher power.

but seriously, you don't have to do that. You can just uninstall and move on with your life. A lot has happened while you've been in the grid. Global warming, war in the middle east, cellphones, wifi.

Not to mention all the new cat memes.

[Deleted]

EDIT: Nothing to see...move along

[Psychlon]

I don't know the extent to which gear is an issue, but in any gear based MMO PvP system, gear is always a problem. Gear will always play a role that skill can't necessarily overcome.

You can absolutely outplay the hell out of someone at every turn, but if they have enough gear, they can overcome it and still wreck you.

It's exponential in a live event situation. Maybe in a vaccuum it's a small percentage, but unfortunately it's not how it plays out in the game. 1v1 might not be as much of a problem, though you have to factor in what types of classes are fighting.

Realistically you can't judge PvP based on the interaction of a Dps versus another same class Dps in a vaccuum. Once you start adding different specs, healers, more than one person, suddenly the difference in gear, which is small on paper, translates to an insurmountable difference. All of this exists for two reasons. Gear disparity and class imbalance.

One of those is up to developers to make right. The other is something that honestly has no place in true competitive PvP. It's just a mechanism for trapping people into progression and thus playing longer. I personally have no problem with gear in PvP, because I like gear grinds, but objectively it's terrible.

You can easily put a well played recruit marauder vs. a bad played elite war hero marauder.... skill wins. If you have two equally played marauder, you will see a difference naturally.

Having said that..... with 1000+ warzones played on several chars, theoretical gear does make a difference as does your lvl (in 1-49 bracket). However though the "skill" level is fairly low. I could probably count the games not someone making a "rookie" mistake and we lost because of this. First, player actually have to step up a notch to make differences in gear count because as of now.... if you don't know what to do, you will lose, no matter what.

[SirRobin]

I still find myself wishing that BioWare had made KOTOR III instead of TOR. If they had stuck with KOTOR III, maybe EA wouldn't have been so hot to buy BioWare. Without TOR's rise and plummet, the Doctors and others might still be there.

[Edge-]

I still find myself wishing that BioWare had made KOTOR III instead of TOR. If they had stuck with KOTOR III, maybe EA wouldn't have been so hot to buy BioWare. Without TOR's rise and plummet, the Doctors and others might still be there.

I'm not sure about the timeline between SWTOR development start and the BioWare purchase was, but I think they were in it to purchase BioWare regardless.

[notorious98]

I'm not sure about the timeline between SWTOR development start and the BioWare purchase was, but I think they were in it to purchase BioWare regardless.

Riccitiello was a co-founder and managing director at Elevation Partners when they invested $300 million into Bioware and Pandemic in order to merge them together back in November of '05. Development for the game started in December of '05. In February of '07, he became CEO of EA and 8 months later they had purchased Bioware and Pandemic. Needless to say, I believe Riccitiello has always had a hard-on for Bioware.

[EyelessCrow]

You have to delete your WoW characters. It's the only way to break the spell/addiction. If you're truly addicted, call their support line and get the information on how to submit a letter to delete your account.

I have had all of my characters deleted and brought back over the years numerous times each...the restoration limit on characters is a lie

[SirRobin]

I'm not sure about the timeline between SWTOR development start and the BioWare purchase was, but I think they were in it to purchase BioWare regardless.

Well BioWare opened the Austin studio to make TOR in May of 2006 and EA announced they were buying BioWare in October of 2007. In fact, they did the same thing with Mythic after they started making WAR. Of course BioWare had a good track record already but the chance they could be making the next WoW seems to push them over the top.

[RoninaThorstone]

the chance they could be making the next WoW seems to push them over the top.

"And then they drank the koolaid" - Voss Town Massacre\
but seriously, I want to believe that they weren't aiming for that and that that was just EA hyping. There just aren't enough MMO players out there for two wows.

[SirRobin]

"And then they drank the koolaid" - Voss Town Massacre\
but seriously, I want to believe that they weren't aiming for that and that that was just EA hyping. There just aren't enough MMO players out there for two wows.

Oh I doubt the actual developers were aiming for that. I imagine most just wanted to make a good game. The guys at the top though? Bet they were having wet dreams about raking in as much cash as Blizzard was.

[Edge-]

Oh I doubt the actual developers were aiming for that. I imagine most just wanted to make a good game. The guys at the top though? Bet they were having wet dreams about raking in as much cash as Blizzard was.

If you go back and look at some of the EA executive statements, that's exactly what they were aiming for. BioWare also expressed similar sentiments though, at least as far as hyping the hell out of it.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12...itious-achiev/

[RoninaThorstone]

I recall one of them being like "1 million would be something to write home about" and that's always seemed slightly optimistic but reasonable to me. That's how I have always viewed bioware's real stance and the other stuff was hype / trying to sell enough boxes to get into black on launch day.

750k was what I thought the game would settle at but given what happened over the summer I was shocked when they said they had more than 500k and that they had gained subscribers since going f2p. I guess its possible they are at 750k. I mean, I like being right but I would be surprised.

[Deleted]

Oh I doubt the actual developers were aiming for that. I imagine most just wanted to make a good game. The guys at the top though? Bet they were having wet dreams about raking in as much cash as Blizzard was.

Sadly you have too much faith in (that part of) humanity. As an example David Eckelberry, DDO Lead Game Designer, in an interview with a german gaming magazine prior to the game's launch, aimed for "20% of WoW's subscription numbers" and called himself modest doing so. That was at a time when WoW was between five and six million. Moron. Way too many designers have dollar signs in their eyes, delusions of grandeur and no respect for the average customer. They function best when a suit hold them on a short leash. Imho.

[Deleted]

Sadly you have too much faith in (that part of) humanity. As an example David Eckelberry, DDO Lead Game Designer, in an interview with a german gaming magazine prior to the game's launch, aimed for "20% of WoW's subscription numbers" and called himself modest doing so. That was at a time when WoW was between five and six million. Moron. Way too many designers have dollar signs in their eyes, delusions of grandeur and no respect for the average customer. They function best when a suit hold them on a short leash. Imho.

Well TBH, it ain't exactly like they (and other MMO producers/publishers) could knew WOW would turn out to be a one-time success. Like I said in other thread, there hasn't been a situation in any other entertainment industry where one success couldn't be at least in big part replicated. MMO market is complete anomaly :P

---------- Post added 2013-02-20 at 02:09 AM ----------

I'm not sure about the timeline between SWTOR development start and the BioWare purchase was, but I think they were in it to purchase BioWare regardless.

And more specifically - John Riccitiello. It is absolutely no coincidence that Riccitiello was CEO of Elevation Partners, owner of Bioware pre-EA, which sold Bioware to EA shortly after Riccitiello became the CEO of EA.

[notorious98]

And more specifically - John Riccitiello. It is absolutely no coincidence that Riccitiello was CEO of Elevation Partners, owner of Bioware pre-EA, which sold Bioware to EA shortly after Riccitiello became the CEO of EA.

Johnny Come Lately.

He was actually a co-founder and managing director.

[Canderous1]

i feel like bioware kinda dropped the ball on swtor. i think of what could have been and it just makes me sad.

i am back playing wow, because even though i love the stories and star wars itself, it eventually comes back to gameplay.