SWTOR Goes F2P in the Fall

[Rokal]

Not everyone who expressed displeasure was called a troll, at least not by most of us. The main people singled out to my recollection - rightly - were the ones trying to tell us all the gameplay decisions were terrible, post release, when they hadn't even played the game. I don't recall anyone ever saying Nebu or Falc were trolling, or Soln or Ratman or Tannhauser (my apologies to anyone if I'm misremembering your opinions of the game) or any of the other people who tried the game and decided they didn't like it. Even Rokal, who for whatever reason sets nearly everyone off all the time was never accused of trolling that I noticed.

Posters criticizing the game fell into three camps:

-People who played the game and wanted to vent about their experiences with the game or what they'd like to see change.
-People who didn't play the game, but wanted to talk about what SWTOR meant for the industry overall.
-People who didn't play the game and wanted to tell us why they decided not to.

Only posters in the third camp were dismissed, and only after repeating their opinion multiple times. There was no conversation to have with those posters after a certain point (if they ever actually wanted to have one). The reasons they decided not to buy the game or why they thought it would fail never changed so the only reason they continued to post in the thread was to have their decision validated by saying "I told you so."

[eldaec]

I love the ONLY CUZ IT'S STAR WARZ stuff. You know who doesn't give a shit about Star Wars? Me.

Not sure what star wars means to those of us who played the game, but star wars is exactly why it gets posted about so much.

People are still harping on about SWG even in the thread about another unrelated star wars game going f2p.

[ajax34i]

I'll probably play this game again at some point in the future, mostly because I haven't done more than a couple class stories.

It's a single-player game with an online fee attached, and I don't expect it to ever be more than a single-player game.  The online fee, I cancel when other games catch my attention; no sense paying when I'm not playing.

[Kageru]

In the MMO business, failure and success are relative to your development costs and your running costs. By those metrics, including their own stated goals, this is a failure. Full stop.

I agree with your metrics of course but that's really not what I was getting at.  Some people are using the situation to act like: "Look I was right SWTOR failed because <personally disliked design choice>!".  That sort of attitude is pure rubbish vs a game that most PLAYERS are happy with.

It's not inconsistent. The retention numbers suggest that many players enjoyed the story, came to the end of the story and stopped playing. So even if they enjoyed the game, and it was good at the story bits, it was a failure as an MMO.

[Amaron]

It's not inconsistent. The retention numbers suggest that many players enjoyed the story, came to the end of the story and stopped playing. So even if they enjoyed the game, and it was good at the story bits, it was a failure as an MMO.

That's exactly the kind of statement that has absolutely no basis.   There are too many other factors going on here.

1)  Complete crap performance on content updates and general patches.
2)  90% of the servers were half empty a week after release.
3)  No LFD.
4)  Broken Ilum.
5)  Very unpopular PvP gearing system.

If you consider all of the above the retention says exactly the opposite of what you're claiming.  Something was keeping people subbed.  Let's not forget the metrics that a ridiculous percentage of the player base was hitting max level.   The VO bit them in the ass there.   Fun leveling means more players at the cap.   Why didn't they quit faster if that's all they enjoyed?

[Lantyssa]

People are still harping on about SWG even in the thread about another unrelated star wars game going f2p.

Yes, but that's a combination of being Star Wars, SimBeru, and enough for a few editions of How To Fuck Your MMO Up for Dummies, Advanced Stupid Decisions for MMOs, and So You Want to Piss On Your Customers? all from one game.  While we've seen some spectacular happenings in recent years, I'm not sure any yet compare to the rise and fall of SWG.

[Ingmar]

If YAY STARWARS is the reason I played one, shouldn't I have forced myself to like the other? I just feel like there's no logic at all here. It's just a way for someone to dress up "you're stupid for liking this game" in slightly less directly insulting words. The end.

[Margalis]

I agree with your metrics of course but that's really not what I was getting at.  Some people are using the situation to act like: "Look I was right SWTOR failed because <personally disliked design choice>!".  That sort of attitude is pure rubbish vs a game that most PLAYERS are happy with.

What are you even talking about?

Most players aren't happy with it, and the pool of potential and expected players is even less happy with it. Before the game launched EA said they could get WOW numbers. Sure, I guess the people who to this day are super happy with it are super happy with it - but that's a tautological statement. The people still playing FFXIV are happy with it I guess...and? You are doing the same thing Sky does, separating the audience into "haters" and true fans. The fact that subs are nosediving means players are not happy.

Saying that the game is mechanically very conservative is not just an expression of preference - it's a game design analysis. I prefer games with more ambitious mechanics, sure. But even if you don't prefer that you have to admit that mechanically the game is very safe. (To put it charitably)

Mechanics are what drive long-term retention, because mechanics are cheap and content is expensive. Stuff like story and setting are cool, but the novelty of those cannot keep people subbed for long periods of time without a ton of production effort. And you spend 95% of your time in an MMO doing repetitive mechanical stuff, so that stuff better be appealing.

It's absolutely fair to say that the game is failing because emphasis on story is unsustainable and the mechanics are too undercooked to be compelling to a wide audience that is bored of those mechanics and can experience them in better form in another more popular game.

The main selling point of the game was full voice-over and the 19 War and Peaces worth of story on top of a WOW clone. I thought that formula would be very difficult to make work and I think I was right. I personal dislike the design but beyond that I also thought the design would be unsuccessful based on what I know about MMOs. As I've said a billion times, MMO success is about retention and the SWTOR strategy is not a good one for retaining players.

[Mosesandstick]

Did you play the game? Anyone who played SWTOR can point to a huge list of things other than what you consider the "main point" as reasons for the game bombing.

[Cyrrex]

There is a major point to be made about the mechanics being a bit stale, so I think Margalis is right about that.  I think that tab targeting and hotbar combat are the primary reasons that I have trouble sticking to any MMO anymore.  The story can be great, the atmosphere great, nice graphics, etc., but in the end...I am just not having as much fun as I once did by tabbing to the next mob and hitting 1,2,3,1,4,2,1,8 ad infinitum.  I played TSW over the weekend during the free event.  I found it to be a pretty cool all things considered, but at the end of the day they are not getting my money for the above reasons.  I still manage through SWTOR because I really like the stories and am a Star Wars dork, but goddamn I want the combat paradigm for MMOs to change.  I am fine with the skills, the levels, the auction houses, the gear, the stats, the mods, the chats, the guilds, the grouping, the soloing, the fetch quests, the pets, the travel, the titles, the achievements and all the other trappings.  But give me some first person type controls, for fuck's sake.

[Mosesandstick]

I think a broad discussion of what went right and wrong with SWTOR would be great. As long as people who comment have actually played the game and we keep in mind that not everyone has the same tastes.

[Kageru]

It's not inconsistent. The retention numbers suggest that many players enjoyed the story, came to the end of the story and stopped playing. So even if they enjoyed the game, and it was good at the story bits, it was a failure as an MMO.

That's exactly the kind of statement that has absolutely no basis.   There are too many other factors going on here.

1)  Complete crap performance on content updates and general patches.
2)  90% of the servers were half empty a week after release.
3)  No LFD.
4)  Broken Ilum.
5)  Very unpopular PvP gearing system.

I see these as a side effect of their focus and budgeting, not the primary cause. They believed story was enough by itself and skimped every-where else.

[Rasix]

Mechanics really weren't the problem with the game.   Seriously, focusing heavily on that just makes it seem even more like you have no idea what you're talking about and just picking a personal bone.   It's like railing against the presence of levels, talent trees, or classes. 

It was badly executed as a MMO.  Too many systems just weren't polished or even implemented to garner enough traction in the market.  Some very poor design decisions were made. 

It still worked for me, but I'm on the extreme end of the solo scale so a lot of the MMO systems don't even factor into my play.  But even as someone that avoided the company of others, you could still feel where they didn't get things right.   Some cool systems were present, but they were over shadowed by the major things they just fell flat on.

The thing is, the folks working on the problematic areas you'd think were outside those that would be a different team than the story ones.  Poor execution?  Lack of available resources?  There are a number of things that could have gone wrong.

[eldaec]

I know people disagree with me, but I still don't accept that it was 'impossible' to add story at an acceptable rate.

If you set your game up with appropriate reusable assets and small number of actors on contract it would be perfectly possible.

But you'd have to build game and team around it and not put one foot in raidtard development. Most important you'd need a development plan that supported it.

500k subscriptions is plenty to fund an ex pack size story each month. But not if you also want to build a whole different eq style raid game that starts at level 50.

[eldaec]

And of course, the running needs to go, and the xp curve requiring trash quests needs to go.

Right now I can't even consume the existing story quest content because the time sinks prevent me staying interested long enough. Worrying about how quick they add content almost seems like a good problem to have.

[Spiff]

Mechanics really weren't the problem with the game.

Allow me to disagree, they weren't the only problem; The execution of the mechanics was poor, which left me feeling an utter lack of control over my character development.

They put a heavy emphasis on the 'story development' of your character (will you max the red points or the blue?), but mechanically:
- one superstat to rule them all (why not just have 1 stat then: call it 'combat rating' or some other generic shit and be done with it?), which also meant virtually no meaningful
  choices to be made gear-wise.
- the only gear choice was: do you want to look fugly or like a ridiculous clown (granted that's not so much a mechanical as a design problem).
  I want to dress up my dolly, it's why I loved my GI-Joe (let's be honest; it was just a butch looking barbie) and it's important to me in an MMO: I want to show off, in style.
- Even the skill-trees felt bland and ineffective to me; hybridizing was actively discouraged (more and more with every balance patch) and most of the choice was too
  superficial: 'do you want skill A to do 10% more dps or skill B to have a 10% shorter cooldown?'

It left me feeling oddly disconnected from my character in some way, which for an MMO that touts that connection to be one of their main selling points is a problem.
Just another case of them putting all their eggs in the story-basket, but lacking any real insight or inspiration for the mechanics of a (diku) MMO, which is certainly one of the reasons I jumped ship as soon as I did.

It deserves to be said (again  ) that it wasn't just unpolished in certain areas; it was bland (apart from the story) the blandest MMO I've ever seen.
Perhaps it's not the main reason they didn't reach expectations, but I believe that even if they had launched as polished as they should have AND had content updates every month or 2, they still wouldn't have had long-term success (by their own pre-launch standards) in a market filled with fickle and jaded customers.

[eldaec]

I'd agree that mechanics were pretty mediocre. Just don't think that is why it failed.

They didn't put all eggs in the story basket. They talked about it, but lacked follow through.

Trying to launch with half baked PvP, half baked raids, a half baked economy, being too scared to release the time sink crutch, all gave me the impression they just lacked any kind of confidence in their own product. They seem to genuinely believe that straight line development from the eq model is the only way an mmo can work and they needed all that crap rather than spend time focussing on whatever was going to differentiate their game.

[eldaec]

Spiff's point about skill trees is another really good example of fear and lack of confidence ruling development.

If this is story based game, why was it so critical that no one built hybrids or that any kind of synergy exists between skills outside of the same tree?

[Amaron]

Before the game launched EA said they could get WOW numbers. Sure, I guess the people who to this day are super happy with it are super happy with it - but that's a tautological statement.

Who gives a shit what they said.  I'm talking about the people who BOUGHT the game.  Most of them were happy with the basic game and only quit over various cockups.  Let's not even get started on losses due to the economy either.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying SWTOR gameplay was great or anything.  I'm just saying you can't point to this as proof for your personal MMO pet peeves.

[Modern Angel]

like you have no idea what you're talking about and just picking a personal bone. 

See, this is the kind of thing I mean. We can't have a meaningful discussion about this game because there's this weird narrow band in which we can talk about it and criticism cannot color outside those lines without someone (multiple people) going HEY WHY IS THIS PERSONAL FOR YOU/WHY ARE YOU TROLLING/WHAT'S UP WITH THE HATE?

The mechanics are fair game. Pointing this out isn't a personal bone; I own the game, played it for two months, had okay fun with it, then I stopped. I don't care what you play. I mean it! I hate geek culture because it internalizes what you consume as your identity. I don't play that game. Played it when I was 17, 18, 19. Not interested. It really IS mechanics. I'm active on other forums (more populated with a better cross-section of players than this one) and in other places and, somewhere between slow content releases and lacking end game, people kept saying: I played this before.

The WoW Clone is dead. Everyone has played this fucking game before for 8 years. It's not because if they'd just executed it a little better, made it MORE like WoW, added in a ton of raids, they'd be sitting on 10mil subs. There was no way, once they put pen to paper on the design documents with red ink saying DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS CLASS ABILITY: MAKE IT LIKE WOW, that it was going to be a success. I'll put my e-ass on the line, such as it is: there will never be another successful WoW clone, period. Variations on a theme, hot key combat... that's not what I mean. If you release a game now and your mechanics are mirror images of WoW's with the numbers filed off, if you have a carbon copy endgame (WE HAVE RAIDS), you will fail. It's dead.

Also, at least one person thinks that you need to monetize it differently. 1.5 mil people or so were apparently worried about their subscription fees charging.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/175409/

[Merusk]

WoW clone is dead.

Much like the EQ clone is dead.

Much like DIKU is dead.


See, that's the thing. People have been touting that for 10+ years. There's still plenty who enjoy the DIKU mechanics. Just because you want something different now doesn't mean it's dead.  

Ask Raph how much trumpeting about people getting tired of DIKU has gone for his games.   Not much because they aren't.  They're not likely to be for a while. DIKU mechanics are being added to more games because it's simple and people understand them and it gives nice ding-grats feel goodies.  

However, with SWTOR it's not the mechanics, it's the execution.  You don't wind-up feeling stronger as you level.  You suffer extreme ability bloat.  Talents are - as mentioned - pretty dull and uninspired. Even the ones they ripped-off from WOW lack the panache of that game's abilities.

Lum has some wonderful words about that gamasutra article.   He posted them to Facebook, though so I'll share them here.

Lord save us from wannabe MMO analysts. First Michael Pachter thinks SWTOR is going to be more popular than cheese, and now this.

From the linked article: "Starting on the first day of the retail launch of SWTOR, I held an "economic deathwatch" on the LinkedIn Game Developer group forum. I tracked the real world exchange rate from SWTOR credits to real dollars. By giving almost daily exchange rates I was able to demonstrate that the value of game credits fell by 97 percent in the first 30 days."

If I see another IDIOT trying to make game design assumptions based on THE PRICING DECISIONS OF PARASITIC GOLD FARMERS I swear to god I am going to go to GDC specifically to start kicking reporters in the junk.

What went wrong with SWOTR? Nothing aside from a ridiculous budget making any hope of ROI pointless and poor retention based on a couple of key features dropped in rushing the game out despite a ridiculous budget.

This particular game's spectacular failure doesn't mean its concept is tired.  It means someone else did it better, why switch? Despite the losses in subs due to stupid decisions on Blizzards part, there's still many millions playing that game.  Not hundreds of thousands... millions.

There's no reason to switch until someone comes along and does it better.  That hasn't happened yet because they're cloning directly.  They're not ripping-in to the systems, finding the flaws of Blizzards model and improving there in the same way Blizzard did with EQ and DAOC. Eventually someone will and we will see another shift.  Of course since it's DIKU more pundits will say "this added nothing! This is just another Clone!" and fail to learn, just like they've failed to learn from Blizzard's original model.

The only thing dying is the subscription-based game.  Which it should because the 'freemium' games make shitloads more money.

[Malakili]

This particular game's spectacular failure doesn't mean its concept is tired.  It means someone else did it better, why switch? Despite the losses in subs due to stupid decisions on Blizzards part, there's still many millions playing that game.  Not hundreds of thousands... millions.

There's no reason to switch until someone comes along and does it better. 

The main problem is that breaking into a market in which development time continues after launch means you are ALWAYS going up against something that has been in development longer and has gone through all the problems you are going to face.  MMOs  aren't like televisions, where the newest models are just flat better.   The further problem with MMOs is that they are built around getting people to pay every month, which means if people wait (or buy it, play it a month, and then decide to wait to resub), your income goes bye and bye, and then it is too late.  The idea that some game is going to burst onto the market and just beat WoW is absurd to me, and any game developer or publisher who thinks it is going to happen is delusional as far as I am concerned.  WoW came out nearly 8 years ago now, and although they've been having a few issues in the last couple, they STILL continue to make major revisions to their game.  The amount of iteration done on WoW is insane - no MMO just coming out can possibly hope to be that refined.

That is really TORs problem more than anything.  WoW has made the market insanely difficult to break into.  TOR in 2004-2005 and every single one of us would have shit ourselves the first time we logged in.  In 2012 no one cares.  It isn't that TOR is especially dated even, its just that it simply doesn't have 8 years of post release revisions, iterations on mechanics and content additions on its side, and that is now the standard in the industry.

[UnSub]

Outside of MMO titles in development for years - Wildstar, TESO - I can't see any large studios / publishers getting excited about creating another AAA MMORPG. That path leads to a bottomless pit that you throw money down and receive abuse from players as a result. If EA + BioWare + Star Wars can't do it, then good luck with your shot.

Instead the multiplayer focus is moving to F2P FPSs, MOBAs and Diablo-likes. They can be smaller and cheaper to create and new content is paid for directly by players rather than a monthly subscription that goes towards the promise of new content sometime later one.

Plus the rise of F2P / F2P-based hybrids (cue "I don't want to be nickel and dimed; I just want to pay a sub fee and get all the content" sideline) where players will accept less because they are paying less.

[Falconeer]

The problem I have is not that some (still lots of) people are having fun with it. I respect all forms of fun, including crazy dark weird stuff that it's better to leave out of this conversation.

The problem I have is with those people that are refusing to see why regardless of the fun they are having it IS objectively an outdated DIKU and how that is the reason that led to its relative but undeniable failure. And how that was totally foreseeable from the beta.

That's probably the admission I am looking for. Not the "you were right, I didn't have fun. I lied to myself". Please. More like "you were right, all in all this product was sub-par on so many levels that it was doomed to fail (relatively, given the investment and the producer's expectations)". How can we still be dancing around that?

[Ingmar]

I don't care what you play. I mean it! I hate geek culture because it internalizes what you consume as your identity. I don't play that game. Played it when I was 17, 18, 19. Not interested.

Unless it's GW2 we're talking about. 

[Ingmar]

it IS objectively an outdated DIKU

See, first you have to convince me that DIKUs are outdated. I don't agree with the fundamental core of your point.

[Malakili]

it IS objectively an outdated DIKU

See, first you have to convince me that DIKUs are outdated. I don't agree with the fundamental core of your point.

I think he meant that, for a DIKU, it was outdated.

[Lakov_Sanite]

DIKU won't die, it will always have a core following of people who love that style of gameplay. I will say that it's time in the sun is over and the vast majority of people who tried it in the wow era ARE in fact sick of it now. 

I will be surprised if any DIKU ever comes close to 5mil subs.  F2P diku has an appeal to it but F2P seems to work best in more casual games.

[Modern Angel]

See, that's the thing. People have been touting that for 10+ years. There's still plenty who enjoy the DIKU mechanics. Just because you want something different now doesn't mean it's dead.  

The difference between diku then and diku now (and for the record, this isn't my personal preference; I'm pretty okay with diku) is that the development costs have been pushed through the stratosphere. This isn't 2002, when you can crank something out for 5-10mil or whatever, nab your 75-150k subscribers, and be fairly well off moving forward. The ground's shifted. If it costs 50mil, at minimum, to launch a AAA MMO and the ceiling for post-WoW diku, out of the gate before the dust has settled, is 1.5mil subscribers? You can't operate under the old assumptions anymore. That's not a recipe for success.

Also, good takedown on that dumb assed Gamasutra piece by Lum. I told the guy who linked it to me, "You REALLY think people rushed through content in three weeks because the charge was coming?" I usually like Gamasutra but that was just one of the dumbest things ever posted there.

[Sky]

Personally, I just don't give a shit anymore about the business side of MMO success.  Success of a MMO for me is "did I have fun".  Everything else is noise. Unfortunately that noise can get a bit loud and makes people angry.

[Lantyssa]

Spiff's point about skill trees is another really good example of fear and lack of confidence ruling development.

When $200 million is on the line, they won't take any risks.  We knew this back when spending $50 million seemed extravagant.

Same as them deciding to not let players kill off companions, nor let them have interchangeable kits.  "Players may do something they later regret, and get mad at us for it.  PROTECT THEM FROM THEMSELVES!  Put rubber bumpers on everything!"  Well, no, that isn't actually true.  On the whole it may average out that way, but individually we each have areas we tolerate a little more complexity and choice.  Let us decide when that is rather than forcing it on us across the board.  Then no one is happy.

[Rokal]

There's no reason to switch until someone comes along and does it better.  That hasn't happened yet because they're cloning directly.  They're not ripping-in to the systems, finding the flaws of Blizzards model and improving there in the same way Blizzard did with EQ and DAOC. Eventually someone will and we will see another shift. 

This is Rift. Arguably a better DIKU game than WoW, it certainly felt like a big step forward for the genre with dynamic content, leader-free grouping, lots of mechanical improvements, and fast updates to justify a subscription fee. It didn't trounce WoW because no subscription DIKU game can at this point. If you wanted to play a DIKU game, most people will ultimately play WoW where all of your friends/guild/progress are. Because both games have a subscription you're inclined to only play one long-term.

The arguments in the thread are sort of missing the point. There isn't just one reason why the game failed. It's not stale gameplay vs. expendable content, it's both (with some other reasons also contributing). If the gameplay wasn't stale tab-targeting combat, maybe people would have been more inclined to repeat content or invest in the end-game. If the class stories or end-game were designed with more longevity in mind, maybe people would have ignored the stale combat a bit longer.

I told the guy who linked it to me, "You REALLY think people rushed through content in three weeks because the charge was coming?" I usually like Gamasutra but that was just one of the dumbest things ever posted there.

Why wouldn't they have? I think it's clear that plenty of people rushed through the content. Whose to say whether they did so because they didn't want to spend $15+, or because they really just felt like playing 10+ hours of SWTOR every day. The point of bringing it up in the article is that, whatever their motivation, allowing people to blow through all of your super-expensive non-repeatable content before subscriptions even began was a bad model.

By any metric SWTOR is a failure. It was a failure for EA/Bioware (based on their expectations) and it was a failure for players (over half of who have now left). I still think the game can be successful with a F2P model but subscription DIKUs will never get to or keep WoW numbers at this point.

[Riggswolfe]

some huge burning pile of failure.

In the MMO business, failure and success are relative to your development costs and your running costs. By those metrics, including their own stated goals, this is a failure. Full stop.

On the fanboyism thing, repeating yourself doesn't matter. We weren't bitching about restating the obvious when it was WAR or AoC or SWG or any other game we've John Maddened to death over the past ten years. This was the only game I can recall where people who enjoyed it got all huffy and were all WELL I NEVER WHY ARE YOU REPEATING YOURSELVES WE KNOW YOUR OPINION. The only one I can recall. Now, I don't care if you enjoy the game (I can find a thousand videos of naked men having their balls stomped on right now, proving people like terrible things) but that thing, where even mild criticism was chased off after it reached the in-depth discussion phase, with everyone who expressed displeasure in more than a sentence called trolls? Fuck you, that was as annoyed as I've ever been on these forums, at least when it came to a relevant, just released game.

Now, I'll append that just a bit by saying I get that annoyance once it's been out and fallow for awhile. That's why I pissed off. But it was going on right after release and right before. It was highly annoying and it was only because of Star Wars' hypnotic hold over people.

From a business standpoint TOR is certainly a failure. The big reason that people got a backlash when they talked about disliking it was stuff like what I bolded in your post. There seemed to be a group of posters who felt like not only was the game not to their liking but it was an utter shitpile and their reaction to "well I enjoy it" was essentially *points and laughs at the stupid people*.

Now, you can play the martyr if you'd like and talk about how agressive people were in defending it but it basically boiled down to the defenders reacting to the attitude of the people against it which in some cases very much felt like an anti-Star Wars, anti-Bioware backlash rather than anything specific about the game. And the reason people got called on restating things was because there were a few posters who came into every thread only to bitch about the game, regardless of the thread context and several of them never even played it.

I happened to like the game while admitting it had faults but like a lot of people I ran out of stuff to do and quite playing it. I worried even before launch that would happen but oh well, lesson learned for me, and hopefully Bioware.

[Mrbloodworth]

[Ingmar]

Spiff's point about skill trees is another really good example of fear and lack of confidence ruling development.

When $200 million is on the line, they won't take any risks.  We knew this back when spending $50 million seemed extravagant.

Same as them deciding to not let players kill off companions, nor let them have interchangeable kits.  "Players may do something they later regret, and get mad at us for it.  PROTECT THEM FROM THEMSELVES!  Put rubber bumpers on everything!"  Well, no, that isn't actually true.  On the whole it may average out that way, but individually we each have areas we tolerate a little more complexity and choice.  Let us decide when that is rather than forcing it on us across the board.  Then no one is happy.

The kililng off companions thing actually was possible in beta; the pushback and noise from testers was what ultimately made them change it. So, for that one feature specifically, we have the system we deserve apparently.