Game News BioWare fan-feedback ruins SW: TOR

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Star Wars: The Old republic

I'm going out of my way and make a MMO newspost due to the hilarity involved. You see, it seems EA isn't so happy with Star Wars: The Old Republic, probably because of lack of subscribers too much success. That's why word is, it'll become free to play soon.

However, now it appears an anonymous BioWare insider found out who's to blame for SW: TOR's failures. The fans.

“EA blames us and to some extent they’re right to. But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow,” he stated mentioning that gamers actually wanted SWTOR to be more like Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), a single player role playing game by Bioware before it was acquired by EA, rather than World of Warcraft (WoW).

Fans have called him out and claim that Bioware is just pointing fingers for their own failure as they opened the official forums on September 12, 2011 where as the game came out three months later on December 20, 2011. It is hard to believe that three months worth of fan feedback could influence the game that was in development since 2006.

This game could have been so good were it not for the stupid BioWare fans.

In related news Shamus Young of TwentySided tried himself at the game too and wrote a few articles about his experiences. Fans of art direction waffle will like this:

I think this lackluster art is a big part of what people mean when they say that SWTOR feels like a free-to-play online game. The visuals lack the polish and splendor that you’d expect from a big-name studio. It all comes off as dull or amateurish. I suspect this is what happens when you try to solve a production problem by throwing money at it. Yes, you can hire out of the pool of artistic clone troopers that Game Developer Colleges are pumping out these days. Yes, you can pay those people $butt to work seventy hour weeks in order to to mass-produce game assets. But you aren’t going to have a lovingly crafted work of art when you’re done. You need people with both skill and experience, and then you need to give them time to do their jobs. If you don’t, then you’re going to have a sterile world with no heart.

World of Warcraft is more than just a giant skinner box of well-tuned mechanics. It’s a vibrant playground where the music, the architecture, the soundscape, and the lighting all combine to create an atmosphere and set a tone.

And don’t tell me SWTOR isn’t “trying to beat WoW”. They spent 200 million on this thing. It actually doesn’t matter if they want to beat WoW or not. They did not use their assets wisely, and we got a game that was much less than it could have been.

And here he analyzes more shortcomings, which I assume the fans demanded.

In SWTOR, the game is at the bottom, and the visuals are just window dressing. Ugly window dressing, if you believe what some people are saying.

Even if you use hotkeys to activate those powers at the bottom instead of using the mouse, that bar is still the center of the gameplay. You need to manage your cooldowns, and trigger your powers in the most efficient order. You don’t choose target by aiming at them, you choose them by selecting them with the mouse or by pressing TAB.

In a game like Jedi Knight, Force Unleashed, or Republic Commando, you don’t spend all your time looking at your health bar and ammo count at the bottom. You spend it looking at the world in front of you. In fact, designers go out of their way to add as much information to the world as they can so you don’t need to look down very often. When you get shot the view kicks, your character cries out, and there’s a red flash to indicate the severity of the hit. In some games there’s even a directional arrow to go with it, so you know which direction the damage is coming from. You know you’ve been shot, and you should have a pretty good idea of how hard you were hit. All without needing to look away from the game.

 

[Untermensch]

So, how long until EA close Bioware?

 

[Zed]

So, how long until EA close Bioware?

I think they'll see what happens with DA3 first.

 

[Morgoth]

So, how long until EA close Bioware?

Which one? There are countless BioWare studios at this point, the original one (Edmonton) will probably never be shutdown.

 

[Gragt]

“EA blames us and to some extent they’re right to. But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow,” he stated mentioning that gamers actually wanted SWTOR to be more like Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), a single player role playing game by Bioware before it was acquired by EA, rather than World of Warcraft (WoW).

A bit off-topic but aren't you annoyed by the frequency at which the same information can be repeated over and over in the same news article?

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

The question is: id there going to be any "fan backlash"? A proper one? Or will "the fans" stick by Bioware?
"It wasn't our fault! We weren't careless or anything... the ICEBERG sank the ship! It's its fault!"

 

[Roguey]

Game journalists reporting anonymous Joystiq comments as legitimate is annoying, it was shitty when they did it with anonymous fired Alpha Protocol guy too.

 

[SCO]

“EA blames us and to some extent they’re right to. But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow,” he stated mentioning that gamers actually wanted SWTOR to be more like Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), a single player role playing game by Bioware before it was acquired by EA, rather than World of Warcraft (WoW).

A bit off-topic but aren't you annoyed by the frequency at which the same information can be repeated over and over in the same news article?

psychology. repetition == truth

 

[Necroscope]

But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow

Same old song:

End of line.

 

[SuicideBunny]

right. tor would have been a huge success if only it was even more wowlike.

 

[DraQ]

Stage Six:
Praise and glory for Blaming the nonparticipants.

 

[Jaesun]

Maybe this will make LucasArts pull their head out of their ass and continue making KotOR Single Player games. KotOR III by Obsidian please. Thanks.

 

[mondblut]

Maybe this will make LucasArts pull their head out of their ass and continue making KotOR Single Player games. KotOR III by Obsidian please. Thanks.

As if a KOTOR single player game, by Obsidian (of Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege 3 fame) of all people, released in 2012, wouldn't fucking suck.

...and as if KOTOR didn't fucking suck from day one, come to think of it.

 

[mondblut]

Also, some art assets for SWTOR were outsourced to a russian company employing a bunch of ex-7.62 people. Funny how the world turns.

 

[Alex_Steel]

A bit off-topic but aren't you annoyed by the frequency at which the same information can be repeated over and over in the same news article?

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

 

[felipepepe]

A bit off-topic but aren't you annoyed by the frequency at which the same information can be repeated over and over in the same news article?

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth man, that's why "console graphics are cutting-edge", "games are getting better and better each year", "BioWare is known for it's great writting" and all that...

 

[sgc_meltdown]

bioware games are failing because they care too much about what their fans want

the fans should tell bioware to not care about them if they truly cared about bioware

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

fucking fans

 

[Brother None]

Man. BioWare sure blames its fans for a lot of things. By this point the whole thing comes across as an abusive relationship, with the victim (fans) just not being able to leave their spouse (BioWare) despite the never-ending abuse they get from it.

 

[Kane]

goddamn fans

inb4 Melcar

 

[Black]

I feel this is relevant.

 

[Kane]

your games are shit Dgaider and so are your stories.

 

[dextermorgan]

But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow

But... From what I've gathered, the game is actually nothing like KOTOR? Regardless, any way they try to spin it they still end up looking horribly incompetent.

 

[Excidium]

What the hell is the guy talking about, swtor is probably the biggest wow clone there is. It's much more like wow than kotor. The only thing it has from kotor is the setting.

 

[Infinitron]

What the hell is the guy talking about, swtor is probably the biggest wow clone there is. It's much more like wow than kotor. The only thing it has from kotor is the setting.

Yes, but it is more like KOTOR in one pertinent way - full voice acting. That alone made the game a far costlier enterprise.