I have a theory if you will all indulge me for a few moments.
There are 3 type of gamers.
Gamer A – Well mannered, sensible, grounded individuals, mature, constructive, good insights, instincts, and outstanding morale fibre – A player of decency and breeding – understands the gaming industry and how it works, patient, skilled/unskilled, jack of all trades masters of none perhaps but either way great asset to his/her friends and games alike. Has a good life / work / game balance – an ideal subscriber in pretty much every way!
Gamer B – A hard core player – A player dedicated and devoted to being the best. A genius, at work – committed and dedicated. A frigging master at playing and understanding the game and its mechanics at almost a binary level! A player that pretty much owns everything in the game and everyone – A player that operates at another level to A and C – A Group that displays glimpses of being an Gamer A but equally displays character traits of GAMER C – Still a player that pushes for new content and expansion! – A needed subscriber!
Gamer C – The retard – the moron, the idiot, the I want it all and I want it now! The I pay my subscription and I want it all my way, and if I don’t get it I’m going to scream and shout and throw my toys out of the pram. The I have no opinion so ill adopt the one that gives me most attention and is most likely going to make me look good. The drama queen, let’s make a scene type person. The disruptor, the over inflated EGO type, bent everyone agreeing that I’m brilliant and you should all do what I say and worship me. The twisted agenda, infecting everything and everyone with negativity type - moaning for moan sake, for revenge for being born or whatever who knows. – The immature, the mummy’s boy/girl, the fool – the I can’t see past my own hand type – The type of player who will flock to where ever he or she gets the most attention, because they are emotionally stunted wasters, gaming junkies, the scourge of the gaming community – A player that just bumps up the stats who no ones wants to listen to but so shouts the loudest!
Agreed....these are all extreme cases, but you get the jist – Most people im sure in one way or another fit into one of these category’s, or are a combination of 2/3 – There may even be sub cats lol.
The point is - when Swotor launched it attracted all 3 types of gamers - Then Subscriptions dropped when Gamer C fled for reasons related to their personality disorders. Leaving Gamer A and B to grow the game slowly. Blame what ever you will for its success / demise – but reading the forums, most negativity comes from Gamer C – that’s evident 9/10 times - no suprises their - sadly gamer C is massive properportion of players especially in the world of gaming - they can make or break a game - we put the power and future of our games in their hands which is the scary reality.
Ppersonally I hope swotor continues to grow slowly building quality muscle, not quick gains I hope its not too bottom heavy - F2P, might bring back more of player c types - but hey you have to make the figures look good hey bioware?
But 3 steps forward and 2 steps back is still a gain of 1 - Quality rather then quantity will remain the constant which is ofern a trend seen in most sucessfull stable business models when looking at growth forcasts so we should take comfort in that. Gamer C is the driver of fast success but - a sustainable succuess requires all 3 and Swotor in my view is opperating for the time being on this trend line - we just need more gamer A and B types and less of C
- The Above is just my opinion and entirely conjecture to what I have read and believe to be true – I could be wrong.