You have to wonder if the team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic is getting a bit desperate.
First the controversial-to-some promotion of gifting players with level capped characters free subscription time.
Now there’s a live event which, to this outsider, seems suspiciously similar to a well-known bugged event in World of Warcraft. I mean, I know that BioWare seem to be throwing story to the wind and pasting in more end game raid content, but do they really need to copy World of Warcraft’s bugs too? Or maybe they consider this one to be a feature.
In all fairness (and slightly more seriousness), the event seems to be quite the hit with many SWTOR players, so I guess it’s not entirely a bad move to replicate some of the more notorious events from the Disney of theme park MMOs, while placing them in a more controlled environment.
What I want to know is, are they trying to respond to the Mists of Pandaria beta by appealing to World of Warcraft players, or the ‘pre-players’ of Guild Wars 2’s rather successful recent pre-post-pre-order-purchase activation, or both?
Certainly, to my mind, they seem to be desperately scrambling to respond to something, I’m just curious as to what that something is, and why they feel the need to respond so soon in their game’s life.
Because a few hundred thousand subscribers, the dream of many an MMO developer, is their recurring nightmare?
Glad you mentioned the WoW plague link. First thing that popped into my mind the moment I read the news. That and “didn’t we have a plague event in EQ2 in 2006? Oh, and EQ in 2003?”
“Certainly, to my mind, they seem to be desperately scrambling to respond to something”
I dunno, I remember other MMOs having live events or holiday events a month after launch, and LOTRO patched in a whole new zone about a month after launch.
I don’t think you need a reason to do a live event.
I get the sense that 1.2 was the launch build. It’s a shame EA doesn’t quite understand the 1st rule to compete with WoW: Release when it’s ready.
The free month is appreciated though. TOR has become my “premium” single player rpg, like HBO’s Game of Thrones is my premium TV show. It really is a fun game once you pretend you’re 9 years old with your box of action figures again.
You know the saying, “if you can’t say something good, then don’t say anything at all.”
*crickets*
*breeze blowing through vast empty wheat fields*
*a discarded newspaper drifting down a street devoid of people*
*deep, impeneratable darkness of the abyss*
@Jim Unfortunately Van Hemlock’s 0th rule of all MMOGs (slightly expanded) is “They’re only ready a minimum of three months after release”
Providing incentive for players doesn’t inspire me to label them desperate.
Giving lvl 50 players free stuff (Game Time) to show off the new content and pre-season just seems like a great idea.
Hard to be desperate when your product is popular and you’re pushing all phases of the game forward in some way (Like PvP, Story, killing dragons for treasure, Legacy stuff, crafting adjustments).
Seems like they’re just getting it right as opposed to the other companies pushing these bad titles into the genre?