Uh...don't know much about Scandinavia, never been there. Also, just because I haven't posted before - I suppose that means I am an idiot for having a life then? However, I HAVE been to the SWTOR universe, and I seem to remember this being a long running argument. Don't get me wrong, like many others I really wanted this game to be good, but it just has fallen flat with many people, and that's something that can only be fixed by creating a totally different game.
I never got a chance to play Galaxies in its heyday, but I did try it out a couple of years before the end. Honestly, there were more players on that server than the ones I tried in SWTOR after the first 30 days. I really think that Galaxies would have been a great game if I had the chance to play it back in the day, but alas......I will never.
I too played WoW like many others here, and I cannot help but notice that the worlds themselves in this game seem very sanitary or something - there is no real ambiance to the levels. It just doesn't fell "alive" like the WoW kingdoms do. I guess I can't put it any better than that, but I suspect that a lot of you understand what I mean when I say this.
Also, someone earlier stated that every new game is the next "WoW killer". True, they ALL are for about a month or two it seems. I would have to say that Rift is probably the most likely at this point, and that's a real long shot at best. (Decent game.....but nothing new.) I for one can't wait for The Secret World, so I can drop $60 to be disappointed yet again.
Perhaps it is the fact that WoW was so.....innovative that it still lives? I know that there is a SERIOUS lack of innovation these days. Nothing compares to the first couple of months of playing WoW. I was amazed, there was so much to it. I just never got that feeling in SWTOR. It felt rushed.
Speaking of which, I find it really odd that so many people say things like, "Just wait until patch XXX.XXX, things will be different!" There is one thing that cannot be overstated: Once you have ran off the subs, they aren't coming back on the whole. Why spend money on a game that has already bored you on the pretense that they suddenly found a way to "fix things?" How about the novel approach of making right in the first place? I know, content gets added over time, but this game has no f--king soul or something.
To be honest, I got this game the first day it come out, and was out of it in less than 60 days. I found that at about level 25 or so, (a reoccurring theme from what I have read) I just stopped logging in. In fact, I just about forgot about the game at points in time.
As for the game being free, well that seems to be the way a lot of these flops go. I know you think that "only" 400,000 losses in this game isn't much, but how many quarters will this go on? I can assure you that EA won't let it go on too long. There comes a point when the company will cut and run. With statements like, "The annual outlook isn't too good either, with revenue expectations missing analysts expectations by more than $400 million. (EA in general, not all SWTOR in all fairness. To give you an idea: The shares are down about 9.5% in after hours trading. That means EA is suddenly worth almost 10% less as a result......in the end - that is what matters to EA. "The game, released in December, had 1.7 million subscribers at the end of the holidays; now, it has 1.3 million, meaning it’s a slow and likely hard slog to compete with Activision’s “World of Warcraft” and its massive base of 10 million subscribers"
A link to the Cliff's notes on WSJ if you care to read......blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/07/electronic-arts-shares-pounded-on-weak-outlook/
If my past observations of this conversation mean anything, I am sure someone out there will accuse me of being something else, and say that I am an idiot for thinking that the company isn't noticing the massive losses. I am sure someone out there will tell me that EA simply loves Star Wars, and they are willing to keep losing millions because of the die-hard out there.
To be honest, a Start Wars MMO should have been an absolute slam dunk. How in the hell do you mess THAT up?