SWTOR

[Rasix]

Seems like a potential goldmine for RMT.    "You want your companion back?  You clicked through all three of the death confirmations?  Well, we have a "restore option" you can buy for $10. Ok.. is that MasterCard or Visa?"

[Koyasha]

Yeah, from a quick search a mention of killer holograms has the disclaimer that that's supposed to get/is patched out.  So we'll go with that.

They should definitely leave this option in for Sith, via force-choking.  Vader did it!

Kinda like how there's 3-4 different Gandalfs across the expansions and patches?  

Unlike an NPC, even a major NPC, I think it'll be a pretty big deal when my character's voice changes - and I hope they're planning to avoid that for as long as possible.  Eventually it's probably going to happen, but once I'm used to my character sounding one way, if she suddenly sounds totally different it's going to bug me.  Possibly for quite a while.  Inevitable if the game lasts long enough though, I figure.

[Sky]

Seems like a potential goldmine for RMT.    "You want your companion back?  You clicked through all three of the death confirmations?  Well, we have a "restore option" you can buy for $10. Ok.. is that MasterCard or Visa?"

I like it. Dumbass tax.

[Malakili]

Seems like a potential goldmine for RMT.    "You want your companion back?  You clicked through all three of the death confirmations?  Well, we have a "restore option" you can buy for $10. Ok.. is that MasterCard or Visa?"

And we already know Bioware is willing to have NPCs selling DLC - want to find out whats up with Morrigan - pay up mother fucker.

[Amaron]

They probably need it to release when it's supposed to in order to have some sort of income in this fiscal year.

Their fiscal year ends March 2012.   It's just not going to happen.   I think it's a bit of a stretch to even believe Blizz can upset all their release plans just to take a potshot at SWTOR with a single player game anyways.

[Ingmar]

It is also (gasp!) possible that the timing of other Blizzard stuff wasn't some vast evil conspiracy to derail other games in the first place.

[Venkman]

Everyone is all doom and gloom over the idea that you could fuck up and lose your companions. What you guys are missing, is that we are not the norm for MMO players. Normal MMO players will not be making a single plotline decision past newbie level without first consulting Alakakotor/SWTOWIKI/etc. to find out which option gives them the 100% best advancement scenario.

Most players won't care about bad things happening to NPCs, because they'll simply look things up first and won't make those choices.

Err, WE are the crowd that will do that. The masses they hope to attract are console gamers and quasi RPG folks who are either bored of WoW endgame or quit when they hit the cap but never found anything approaching WoW's level of polish. They're core gamers but not HARD core games min/maxing their way to foozle.

Whatever happens with companions will be decided by the frequency of bad decisions made by the ignorant. Which likely means there will be no way to cause permadeath to them by launch.

[Simond]

It is also (gasp!) possible that the timing of other Blizzard stuff wasn't some vast evil conspiracy to derail other games in the first place.

Yes, I'm sure that is was all purely a coincidence that every single time a new MMO launched there was a WoW patch a week each way of the launch date.   

[Sjofn]

If your game can get knocked out by a WoW patch, you had no fucking business releasing anyway, frankly.

[Venkman]

It is also (gasp!) possible that the timing of other Blizzard stuff wasn't some vast evil conspiracy to derail other games in the first place.

Yes, I'm sure that is was all purely a coincidence that every single time a new MMO launched there was a WoW patch a week each way of the launch date.   

January, January, December. Or, two that were meant for December and a third that made it. Because the time to sell entertainment and product is in December. When everyone else in entertainment and product is doing the same.

That's the market, not a conspiracy :)

What Blizzard does get away with is promising December and still managing to get the shelf space even after missing it a month. That's market support that few other companies can touch.

If you can't beat a WoW expansion. it's not because Blizzard is out to get you. It's because you weren't good enough to be on the market against competition at all.

Diablos and the *craft RTSes are different, but neither has launched anything in such a long time, I'm curiious if they'll keep to the March and July (respectively) release timing. They can't launch everything with a Blizzard name in the same month.

[Amaron]

Oh they'll definitely do the patch thing.   Patches don't have release dates.   They don't sell boxes and they don't have to be shipped to stores.    They will definitely try to release D3 in some way that it causes problems for SWTOR too.   I just think it's a huge stretch to think they can even manage releasing it within 2~3 weeks of SWTOR.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Wow patch 4.2 is next week. That would mean the next major raid would be 5 months from now and that is just WAY too fast for a wow patch.

[Azuredream]

That's the market, not a conspiracy :)

What he said. I do not believe there are any meetings between Blizzard heads where the topic of discussion is "how can we time the release of this product to undermine our competition?"

[Merusk]

It is also (gasp!) possible that the timing of other Blizzard stuff wasn't some vast evil conspiracy to derail other games in the first place.

Yes, but that's why you're not in marketing and sales.

That type of thing is considered, analyzed and parsed into tiny data bits over projects that generate less revenue than a multi-billion dollar MMO franchise.

[Merusk]

Wow patch 4.2 is next week. That would mean the next major raid would be 5 months from now and that is just WAY too fast for a wow patch.

Unless it was another "We promise we won't do this again.." ToC type patch.

[caladein]

Wow patch 4.2 is next week. That would mean the next major raid would be 5 months from now and that is just WAY too fast for a wow patch.

Five to six months is on the long side for a raid but leaves them where they can either counter a holiday release or let Firelands last until January which leaves Deathwing's raid out for a bit less time (a good thing).

[Chimpy]

If your game can get knocked out by a WoW patch, you had no fucking business releasing anyway, frankly.

This time 1000 billion.

If a fuckiing patch to an existing game can make people shy away from yours, you need to either fucking make a decent game or at least hire some marketing folks who know how to sell something new.

A god damn incremental patch to old stuff should not cause people to avoid you in droves.

(jesus, I typed that all when drunk with no apparent errors.)

[tmp]

If a fuckiing patch to an existing game new content for a game people have been playing religiously for 5+ years can make people shy away from yours (..)

fixed.

[Malakili]

A god damn incremental patch to old stuff should not cause people to avoid you in droves.

The problem is in MMOs there is a ton that goes into it(edit: it being the decision of which to play).  Going back to WoW costs 15 bucks, picking up TOR will cost at least 50.  People have their communities to do said content already built in WoW, and they have their characters already the way they like them.  They probably also have a history of knowing they like WoW's content patches, whereas Bioware is new to the MMO space.

Its also not like a shooter where you're like, well, whatever I'll pick up a few different shooter and install/play whatever I'm in the mood for, because MMORPGs have quite a bit of time investment built into them and people aren't generally speaking going to have 5 (Pay to play) MMORPGs installed and subbed to on their machine at any given time, whereas I could with a few hours of installing stuff on Steam that I already own have about 5-6 shooters with active communities installed and running.

[Sky]

Unless you hate WoW and elves.

[Malakili]

Unless you hate WoW and elves.

This is true, but I really only think that is going to get you so far.  I mean, the people we're hypothetically talking about, who would be potentially dissuaded from buying TOR because of a WoW patch probably don't hate WoW and elves.  If wanting something other than fantasy is your main criterion, then no WoW patch is going to matter, but WoW certainly isn't aiming at that demographic with their patch anyway.

[Amaron]

This is true, but I really only think that is going to get you so far.  I mean, the people we're hypothetically talking about, who would be potentially dissuaded from buying TOR because of a WoW patch probably don't hate WoW and elves. 

SWTOR isn't going to lose much to a WoW patch though.   It's the shitty games like WAR and AoC that had to actually worry about that.

[VainEldritch]

Just watched the Tatooine Developer Walkthrough. Pooping a speeder bothers me. Much prefer the SWG system.

Agreed. SWG did a lot of things very well and while I understand that SWTOR is not that game, BW have touted taking the best from current MMORPG's - yet they seem to have excluded obvious and widely applauded SWG systems from their cherry-picking. To my mind they should have lifted space and crafting from SWG. Heigh-ho.

[Reg]

I hope and pray that Bioware continues to ignore suggestions from Bloodworth and the rest of the sad "haven't gotten over the NGE" crowd.

[Malakili]

I hope and pray that Bioware continues to ignore suggestions from Bloodworth and the rest of the sad "haven't gotten over the NGE" crowd.

You really don't have anything to worry about.

[Sky]

BW have touted taking the best from current MMORPG's

That's dev talk for WoW.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This is true, but I really only think that is going to get you so far.  I mean, the people we're hypothetically talking about, who would be potentially dissuaded from buying TOR because of a WoW patch probably don't hate WoW and elves. 

SWTOR isn't going to lose much to a WoW patch though.   It's the shitty games like WAR and AoC that had to actually worry about that.

I'm not saying it won't be a fun game but I think it's way too early to be putting swtor on this kind of pedestle.

[Sjofn]

This is true, but I really only think that is going to get you so far.  I mean, the people we're hypothetically talking about, who would be potentially dissuaded from buying TOR because of a WoW patch probably don't hate WoW and elves.

SWTOR isn't going to lose much to a WoW patch though.   It's the shitty games like WAR and AoC that had to actually worry about that.

That was my point, yes. The box sales of those games showed plenty of people are willing to drop 50 bucks on a new MMO. Patches to WoW emptying out those games showed they were Not Good Enough.


EDIT: Well, minus the "SWTOR won't lose to a patch" part. It has to be good to not lose. I think it will be, but if it's not, it goes in the "you had no fucking business releasing, then" pile.

[Amaron]

SWTOR isn't going to lose much to a WoW patch though.   It's the shitty games like WAR and AoC that had to actually worry about that.

I'm not saying it won't be a fun game but I think it's way too early to be putting swtor on this kind of pedestle.

Actually I'm not really saying SWTOR is going to be amazing with that.   I'm more saying WoW is kind of screwed up right now and I don't really believe they have enough time to unfuck it in a single patch 4~5 months from now.

[Venkman]

Man I hope you don't need to buy every incremental speeder bike and can skip ahead if you horde your cash. Even with the video editing there was just too much time spent on a speeder, especially at halfway through the levels. Reminded me of what it felt like to be running in Rift.

[Sky]

How does GW2 handle it? Their design decisions seem to be based on not annoying their customers.

[Evildrider]

Man I hope you don't need to buy every incremental speeder bike and can skip ahead if you horde your cash. Even with the video editing there was just too much time spent on a speeder, especially at halfway through the levels. Reminded me of what it felt like to be running in Rift.

I'll take that speeder at launch, I still remember running across the damn planets in SWG.  Now that was migraine inducing.

[Lantyssa]

Even worse if you weren't a Scout.  (Thank the Maker I was.)

[Venkman]

I'll take that speeder at launch, I still remember running across the damn planets in SWG.  Now that was migraine inducing.

Well, ok, I'm with you there. But if we go down this path, this is the very reason I became a Bard in EQ1 

[Murgos]

How does GW2 handle it? Their design decisions seem to be based on not annoying their customers.

It looks like you pull up the map and click on a marker and it instantly loads and takes you there.  It's hard to tell if that's just 'demo power' or if it's how travel will be handled in general.