"One and done is this title. Unless you are and alt fanatic and like to listen to the same voice actors on different characters then by all means, go to it." - You are entitled to your opinion. I do not share it.
"Many, many servers have half the population, or less, than they started with, calls for servers merges are on the forums, i checked today after reading this article, the community thief deletes these threads as fast as they start and they still hit 3 pages or more." - See previous reply.
"Illum is a dead planet, supposedly made for endgame it is a mix of foolish ideas and poorly thought out execution by inexperienced developers not thinking ahead. Couple this with multiple exploits and no rollbacks or people being handled and you have a massive migration out of game, hence the underpopulated servers." - I'd love to see your proof that folks are leaving the game because of Ilum. Granted, Ilum was a disaster, and when it was released it was certainly a mess, but leaving the game because of it? I'd like to know where you got this idea.
Even saw a ton of diehard fans trying to justify why the servers seem more empty........get this, one quote from many of the same, "The reason the servers seem so empty is because they upped the level cap limit........" - Increasing the server pop count definitely has an effect on server load. The servers that were displaying full are now displaying standard or heavy; because the population cap is higher, then the metrics get skewed. Yesterday's full of 500 players is now today's standard of 500 players.
"If that reasoning and actual statement isnt enough to make you laugh at some of the brain power these TOR fans have i do not know what will." - I fear for your children.
"Like any business Bioware spins the hype monster, what they are stating is not reality and also shows the huge lag in metrics they use. Right now that entre report is based on the second or third day of launch, today is a very different picture, and that isnthate, its a cold fact." - Please support your facts with evidence. I've seen no such decline on my server (US-Shien). As for the earnings call you are undoubtedly referring to, you must have misinterpreted the call. They clearly stated that the usage numbers and subscriber counts were from the end of January. I suggest you listen to the call again, if you even bothered the first time (I did).
"In the immortal words of one SWTOR dev, "lets go right and piss around in nothing." " - While you are entitled to your opinion, I happen to disagree completely. Cheers!
"Many, many servers have half the population, or less, than they started with, calls for servers merges are on the forums"
You do realize that they increased server population caps by a factor of 2 in the first 3 weeks the game was out right? Here, I'll give you the quote.
Frank Gibeau (President of EA):
"I want to take a second to correct the reports which speculated that a lack of congestion was a sign of slow participation. Shortly after launch, we doubled the efficiency of each server, allowing us to handle twice as many players and remove the waiting lines. The lack of congestion is a function of great engineering."
Negative. LucasArts will retain upwards of 25% of all profits once development costs and infrastructure costs have been recouped by EA. That means that all box sales and most of the first 3-4 months of payments will go straight to BioWare's coffers, not LucasArts. It's only after BioWare gets clear of the development cost that the mynock named George Lucas will latch on and start sucking.
So hey, look. I'm a former WoW player (5 years) and current TOR player (CE owner), so I never really understood the whole Guild Wars thing at all; never tried it, never wanted to, never saw the point.
You could not be more correct if you tried, sir. His books are so-so, but his game writing has been outstanding. Even the writing in DA2 was pretty good (if a tad formulaic and overly scripted with minimal player input), even though the gameplay was rather ... spotty? No, that's too generous. The gameplay in DA2 was an aborted baby of horrible ideas.
Anyways, good luck Drew. I read Revan and the Mass Effect books. You're going to need all the luck you can get.
Excellent points! I completely forgot the Brazil launch. As for the D3 copies, you're absolutely right. They'll lose potential revenue from the Annual Pass free copies, but they more than make up for it with the sub fees from an entire year. Great post!
They'll never give us that info. Plus, balance the sub loss with WoW launching in Brazil as well. It'd be interesting to see how the numbers broke down, but it would be financially irresponsible to their stockholders to divulge that type of information.
New Star Wars: The Old Republic video celebrates a successful launch
Feb 21st 2012 7:05PM (Massively)"One and done is this title. Unless you are and alt fanatic and like to listen to the same voice actors on different characters then by all means, go to it."
- You are entitled to your opinion. I do not share it.
"Many, many servers have half the population, or less, than they started with, calls for servers merges are on the forums, i checked today after reading this article, the community thief deletes these threads as fast as they start and they still hit 3 pages or more."
- See previous reply.
"Illum is a dead planet, supposedly made for endgame it is a mix of foolish ideas and poorly thought out execution by inexperienced developers not thinking ahead. Couple this with multiple exploits and no rollbacks or people being handled and you have a massive migration out of game, hence the underpopulated servers."
- I'd love to see your proof that folks are leaving the game because of Ilum. Granted, Ilum was a disaster, and when it was released it was certainly a mess, but leaving the game because of it? I'd like to know where you got this idea.
Even saw a ton of diehard fans trying to justify why the servers seem more empty........get this, one quote from many of the same, "The reason the servers seem so empty is because they upped the level cap limit........"
- Increasing the server pop count definitely has an effect on server load. The servers that were displaying full are now displaying standard or heavy; because the population cap is higher, then the metrics get skewed. Yesterday's full of 500 players is now today's standard of 500 players.
"If that reasoning and actual statement isnt enough to make you laugh at some of the brain power these TOR fans have i do not know what will."
- I fear for your children.
"Like any business Bioware spins the hype monster, what they are stating is not reality and also shows the huge lag in metrics they use. Right now that entre report is based on the second or third day of launch, today is a very different picture, and that isnthate, its a cold fact."
- Please support your facts with evidence. I've seen no such decline on my server (US-Shien). As for the earnings call you are undoubtedly referring to, you must have misinterpreted the call. They clearly stated that the usage numbers and subscriber counts were from the end of January. I suggest you listen to the call again, if you even bothered the first time (I did).
"In the immortal words of one SWTOR dev, "lets go right and piss around in nothing." "
- While you are entitled to your opinion, I happen to disagree completely. Cheers!
New Star Wars: The Old Republic video celebrates a successful launch
Feb 21st 2012 6:57PM (Massively)"Many, many servers have half the population, or less, than they started with, calls for servers merges are on the forums"
You do realize that they increased server population caps by a factor of 2 in the first 3 weeks the game was out right? Here, I'll give you the quote.
Frank Gibeau (President of EA):
"I want to take a second to correct the reports which speculated that a lack of congestion was a sign of slow participation. Shortly after launch, we doubled the efficiency of each server, allowing us to handle twice as many players and remove the waiting lines. The lack of congestion is a function of great engineering."
And here's the link.
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call
New Star Wars: The Old Republic video celebrates a successful launch
Feb 21st 2012 6:53PM (Massively)Negative. LucasArts will retain upwards of 25% of all profits once development costs and infrastructure costs have been recouped by EA. That means that all box sales and most of the first 3-4 months of payments will go straight to BioWare's coffers, not LucasArts. It's only after BioWare gets clear of the development cost that the mynock named George Lucas will latch on and start sucking.
Guild Wars 2 closed beta impressions -- Elisabeth's thoughts
Feb 20th 2012 1:08PM (Massively)I see the point now.
ArenaNet, consider me sold.
The Firing Line: Derek Smart on Line of Defense
Feb 17th 2012 11:43AM (Massively)Mr. Smart never fails the community. He's like the 'Ocean Stratagy' of game developers. Thanks for the lulz, Derek!
The Firing Line: Derek Smart on Line of Defense
Feb 17th 2012 10:02AM (Massively)Here's the Gamespot review: http://www.gamespot.com/all-aspect-warfare/reviews/all-aspect-warfare-review-6216554/
LULZ
BioWare lead writer Drew Karpyshyn leaves BioWare
Feb 17th 2012 9:58AM (Joystiq)You could not be more correct if you tried, sir. His books are so-so, but his game writing has been outstanding. Even the writing in DA2 was pretty good (if a tad formulaic and overly scripted with minimal player input), even though the gameplay was rather ... spotty? No, that's too generous. The gameplay in DA2 was an aborted baby of horrible ideas.
Anyways, good luck Drew. I read Revan and the Mass Effect books. You're going to need all the luck you can get.
WoW Moviewatch: Sentinel Hill
Feb 9th 2012 6:43PM (WoW)It is a damn SHAME that this didn't win the competition. Fantastic video.
World of Warcraft subscriber numbers dip 100,000 to 10.2 million
Feb 9th 2012 6:20PM (WoW)Excellent points! I completely forgot the Brazil launch. As for the D3 copies, you're absolutely right. They'll lose potential revenue from the Annual Pass free copies, but they more than make up for it with the sub fees from an entire year. Great post!
WoW loses another 100,000 subscribers
Feb 9th 2012 6:02PM (Massively)They'll never give us that info. Plus, balance the sub loss with WoW launching in Brazil as well. It'd be interesting to see how the numbers broke down, but it would be financially irresponsible to their stockholders to divulge that type of information.