SW: The Old Republic Part 3

[Raithe]

So Bioware announce they sold 2 million copies and have 1.7 million active subscribers at present..

 

http://www.askajedi.com/2012/02/01/1-7-million-active-subscribers-growing-ea-earnings-call/

 

Now it's just to see how long it lasts..

[Malcador]

Yep, wait to see how it's doing at 3 months, then 6 months.

[Hurlshort]

So Bioware announce they sold 2 million copies and have 1.7 million active subscribers at present..

 

http://www.askajedi....-earnings-call/

 

Now it's just to see how long it lasts..

 

That's pretty much what I expected for it, very good numbers.

 

I'm guessing they need to keep about half those numbers to really be a solid hit and ensure there is a nice big team working on it going forward. I really have no idea if that will happen. I've heard a fair amount of grumbling and there are a lot of folks playing it like a single player RPG, which means they will likely leave after they finish the story quests. But I've also seen a lot of rabid fans that can't get enough of it. I know I'm in for the long haul, I can tell there is enough content to keep me occupied for a good year or two at minimum.

[Malcador]

Some other stuff mentioned on a call

• Sold-through 2 million units since December.
  
• 1.7 million active subs. Rest have not started yet or have opted out.
  
• Metrics suggest players are loving game.
  
• Unique logins 1 million per day, average playtime 4 hours per day.
  
• Server performance allowed introduction of players faster than expected in pre-order.
  
• Server stability has been excellent.
  
• Lack of congestion was not sign of slow participtaion. Shortly after launch, server efficiency was doubled, allowing servers to handle far more players and lifting the limits previously experienced.
  
• Next phase- new content, frequent releases and aggressively courting new subs.
  
• Another major update in March, larger than most recent one.
  
• Adopting rates are trending favorably.
  
• Ambitious plan to reach broader market with new marketing buys, will be seeing that soon.
  

Edited February 1, 2012 by Malcador

[Hurlshort]

Is the game available in Asia yet? I know Korea/China account for a good portion of that huge WoW number.

[Malcador]

Official forums are rather amusing watching the fanboys wank and trolls come up with all kinds of reasons why TOR will be dead.

[Calax]

Some other stuff mentioned on a call

• Sold-through 2 million units since December.
  
• 1.7 million active subs. Rest have not started yet or have opted out.
  
• Metrics suggest players are loving game.
  
• Unique logins 1 million per day, average playtime 4 hours per day.
  
• Server performance allowed introduction of players faster than expected in pre-order.
  
• Server stability has been excellent.
  
• Lack of congestion was not sign of slow participtaion. Shortly after launch, server efficiency was doubled, allowing servers to handle far more players and lifting the limits previously experienced.
  
• Next phase- new content, frequent releases and aggressively courting new subs.
  
• Another major update in March, larger than most recent one.
  
• Adopting rates are trending favorably.
  
• Ambitious plan to reach broader market with new marketing buys, will be seeing that soon.
  

Note: The one in march will supposedly be designed to dramatically increase the Legacy system, and I expect will have a few more raiding instances.

 

 

Edit:

And the Emperor is stealing powers from Darth "I talk in a toilet"

 

Edited February 1, 2012 by Calax

[pmp10]

1.7 million active subs. Rest have not started yet or have opted out.

When was the data collected - before or after first month was done?

[Malcador]

The company launched

[Spider]

Looks like it's from before the first 30 days ran out.

[Nepenthe]

Finally got to the end of act 1 and unlocked my Legacy. Kind of wanted to do it before all the good names were taken (like my first choice was, so I had to go with a William Gibson reference).

 

Now have to put this on ice for a couple of weeks, which is probably a good thing, hit a total disinterest into the normal quests on Alderaan.

[Raithe]

Finally got to the end of act 1 and unlocked my Legacy. Kind of wanted to do it before all the good names were taken (like my first choice was, so I had to go with a William Gibson reference).

 

Now have to put this on ice for a couple of weeks, which is probably a good thing, hit a total disinterest into the normal quests on Alderaan.

 

Congratz

 

I have to admit, although Alderaan looks pretty, and is kind of enjoyable to randomly explore for a bit.. (from the Imperial side) they didn't have any really outstanding storylines in the quests that pulled me along. Maybe it's because I was a Sith Inquisitor, and when I landed on a world that was all "noble houses, politicals, betraysl and intrigue" I thought I'd really have a chance to shine in that arena... but just didn't really get that feel. There were some moments of fun, and the actual class story was okay with some good moments, but just..failed to really sink into taking advantage of everything.

[Nepenthe]

I found the storyline quests (republic, jedi) quite enjoyable, but the sidequests are starting to get a bit tedious. I'm pretty overleveled, but I like to keep it that way because my friend from the same server's been working the evening shift (no same time gaming) and Rogue Moon in general seems to be pretty quiet - hard to get parties, so need to be leveled to handle the harder non-heroics solo.

[Hurlshort]

I did enjoy arresting the fake king of Alderaan in his flooded throne room. But yeah, the different houses were fairly uneventful.

[Calax]

The wierd thing on Alderaan was that it was set up as sort of a two house war... then as quests went on all of a sudden NPC's are screaming about House #3/4/5 appearing and messing stuff up. It honestly doesn't seem to have a cohesive story to it.

 

And one thing that's getting frustrating to me is that the questing you do, on either side, never intersects with the questing of the other side until the very end. Part of this is from the fact that the two factions go through the area at different times (so everything you do as a Republic member, is undone by the Imps and vis versa), but also because the questing areas where you ARE the same level are put on opposite sides of a gigantic invisible wal so that you don't even see the other faction (particularly jarring on Nar Shadda where you go to all the same places, and see the enemy's trainers, but can't see the enemy players).

[Raithe]

And one thing that's getting frustrating to me is that the questing you do, on either side, never intersects with the questing of the other side until the very end. Part of this is from the fact that the two factions go through the area at different times (so everything you do as a Republic member, is undone by the Imps and vis versa), but also because the questing areas where you ARE the same level are put on opposite sides of a gigantic invisible wal so that you don't even see the other faction (particularly jarring on Nar Shadda where you go to all the same places, and see the enemy's trainers, but can't see the enemy players).

 

Hm, I know my SI did run into various player Republic characters on tattooine, seen them in passing, especially around the Sand People canyon area.. In fact I got partially disrupted by one git because I'd just been in a Heroic quest and buffed someone who had their PvP flag set, which automatically makes you PvP - I'd forgotten about it, and carried on questing, and just as I was trying to deal with some Sand People this git of a Jedi jumped me out of nowhere when I was in mid PVE fight and down to about 30% health.

 

And I did run into Republic players when I was Sith on Alderaan. Possibly helped by the fact that during my exploration phase I went at high speed into the Organa Palace area without realising it..

[Malcador]

I saw maybe 5 Republic players on my way to 50. Passed one, killed 3 and died to another one. Heh, was funny to use another Sith in the area as bait though for one of them. It is rather odd not seeing many people out in the field.

[Calax]

And one thing that's getting frustrating to me is that the questing you do, on either side, never intersects with the questing of the other side until the very end. Part of this is from the fact that the two factions go through the area at different times (so everything you do as a Republic member, is undone by the Imps and vis versa), but also because the questing areas where you ARE the same level are put on opposite sides of a gigantic invisible wal so that you don't even see the other faction (particularly jarring on Nar Shadda where you go to all the same places, and see the enemy's trainers, but can't see the enemy players).

 

Hm, I know my SI did run into various player Republic characters on tattooine, seen them in passing, especially around the Sand People canyon area.. In fact I got partially disrupted by one git because I'd just been in a Heroic quest and buffed someone who had their PvP flag set, which automatically makes you PvP - I'd forgotten about it, and carried on questing, and just as I was trying to deal with some Sand People this git of a Jedi jumped me out of nowhere when I was in mid PVE fight and down to about 30% health.

 

And I did run into Republic players when I was Sith on Alderaan. Possibly helped by the fact that during my exploration phase I went at high speed into the Organa Palace area without realising it..

I'm not saying that there aren't such places, just that they're usually designed such that you don't go INTO the enemies territory. On Alderaan I didn't even see an imperial, or their base. I got the feeling that they had a base and quests in the territories that I wasn't given them, but never much overlap.

 

 

Don't know about Imps.... Ardath (Of the Senjak Legacy) my inquisitor just got there on Corellian Run, so we'll see. I do think they're gonna have to add more leveling pathways if they want to make the game have a longer lasting appeal.

[Raithe]

On a certain level, I can see the partial reason for the way it's set up. On both Tattooine and Alderaan the Imperial and Republic starports are on pretty much the opposite sides of the world maps. And the world quests don't really send you into each other's territory for the most part. And if a player is only interested in PvE, they can focus on the questing without really worrying on opposing players interfering. But if you do , you can easily wander up to those areas.

 

On Tattooine, the Jundland is way big and you tend to have the Imperial missions in the south and the Republic ones in the North - There is that small section of the map thats a "Black Market / Smuggler's Haven" that automatically sets everyone entering it into PvP. However, when you reach the Dune Sea, there are a few quests that overlap on both sides. Notably, finding that hidden Czerka base. So you can easily run into each side, just not in an automatic PvP situation.

 

With Alderaan, the Republic is in the South, and the Imperials are to the North - again, most world/class quests keep you out of each other's territory until you reach the end stages and the west side of the world map, where the False King's Palace is is pretty much shared by both sides for questing.

 

But think about it, you've got a maximum of around 200 players of each side to any world instance, so 400 total. The majority of the time, unless you're on Fleet the numbers seem to bounce between 40-140 players of a faction on any world instance that I've been on. Which is spread across the levels, all running around doing their class quests, the heroic quests and the assorted world quests, bonus series and wotnot.. On what are usually, fairly wide maps. Unless you go out looking, it's not surprising you don't run into a lot of other players.

 

I mean, the way the stories seem to go, is that your character is this ultra heroic, pretty much nexus point for how things are shaping for either side. No matter how many other players you run into, it's your efforts that shape whats going on, or tearing down what the other side is doing. - Which is kind of entertaining when you realise you're encountering s omething you set into motion when you played a character on the other side - But even when grouping for flashpoints and heroics, the story doesn't really want you to recognise that the other people in the party are just as ultra-heroic/influential as you are.

[Spider]

That is sort of the selling point of the game, isn't it? Compared to other MMO's at least. You get to play a single player story surrounded by MMO mechanics. But you certainly can solo the game and it won't be that much worse compared to a true single player game. You actively get to take part in starting the war, which is kinda cool.

 

Don't think I would have liked it much had the story focus been lesser.

[Calax]

That is sort of the selling point of the game, isn't it? Compared to other MMO's at least. You get to play a single player story surrounded by MMO mechanics. But you certainly can solo the game and it won't be that much worse compared to a true single player game. You actively get to take part in starting the war, which is kinda cool.

 

Don't think I would have liked it much had the story focus been lesser.

True, but like I said, I do think that they need to add in a second or third "path" to leveling for the game to have a bit more longevity.

[Malcador]

They'd have to alter the class quest paths to go there as bread crumbs, as well, maybe.

[Raithe]

Well they've always said they have a plan to roll out new worlds and add depth.

 

I guess they expected people to spend more time playing around on multiple classes from both sides , and that would give them time to extend the play and add in such things.

[Malcador]

That's a rather poor plan on their part, then

 

Also, after playing Huttball so many times I've come to hate Steve Blum.

[Hurlshort]

True, but like I said, I do think that they need to add in a second or third "path" to leveling for the game to have a bit more longevity.

 

This I can agree with wholeheartedly. I would probably say that is going to be my biggest hurdle with TOR in the long run.

 

I hope they continue to add areas for all level ranges, not just end game content. It is one of the reasons I still go back to games like Everquest 2 and Lord of the Rings Online, they continue to make it interesting to start and level new characters.