SW:TOR

[oscar]

So is this worth a play at all? My consoletard friend wants me to give it a try with him. It sounds pretty dire but hey.

 

[ohWOW]

Is any MMO worth a play at all?

 

[Angthoron]

So is this worth a play at all? My consoletard friend wants me to give it a try with him. It sounds pretty dire but hey.

No

Is any MMO worth a play at all?

Yes

 

[ohWOW]

And that would be?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

It's not dead yet?

 

[Fafnir]

It's not dead yet?

pretty much sums it up.

 

[ohWOW]

I decided to visit their website.

Shit

 

[Angthoron]

Google-Imaged for "The old repubic", not a single NSFW photoshop found. Disappointing.

 

[Average Manatee]

Answer me this: How can Guild Wars 1 + 2 afford to be free? I mean, it's not even f2p is it? It's totally free as long as you purchase the box?

So how to they pay for servers and staff and maintenance, all the things required for MMOs?

Same reason LoL does I'm sure. Lower profit margin and making money off of goodwill of fans/people who like buying pretty stuff.

And sa far as I understand, ArenaNet plays on the fact they can maintain a high rotation in the playerbase. With a game + expansions as the cost, you'll see a lot more new players taking the place that go away, and a lot of people who buy the game and play only for a short time. More importantly, they're tapping to the non-MMO market through this, generally it's subscriptions that drive people away.

Not at all. The dirty secret of the MMO industry is that they make you think that you are paying for server access. The servers are in fact almost free to keep up (relatively speaking). We're talking pennies on the dollar that people pay monthly for WoW. As long as you have a good server architecture the maintenance is a similarly small amount of jewgold. In the early days this was understood and what the monthly fee was really for was to support ongoing development. If you are paying a monthly fee and not seeing semi-monthly content updates then 90% of it is pure profit.

 

[abija]

If you are paying a monthly fee and not seeing semi-monthly content updates then 90% of it is pure profit.

Erm, that depends on subscription numbers and content cost. Why do you think both TSW and SW:ToR fired people?

 

[ohWOW]

To maximize their own profit without keeping to pay the employees of course. It's well known jewish tactic.

 

[Average Manatee]

If you are paying a monthly fee and not seeing semi-monthly content updates then 90% of it is pure profit.

Erm, that depends on subscription numbers and content cost. Why do you think both TSW and SW:ToR fired people?

I was talking purely on a basis of server upkeep costs (practically nothing) vs monthly subscription costs (relatively huge). Firing people is due to budgeting too many people for content updates or simply not needing them anymore once the main development is done.

The biggest per-player expense is usually support. If a player gets hacked or w/e and takes up an hour of a support person's time then that's probably their $15 a month used up right there. If something is bugged in the game and 5000 file bug reports then you still have to sift through them. Of course the number of players who do cost MMOs money in this way are usually a fraction of a percent, so overall it doesn't hurt too badly.

 

[abija]

My point was everything you list is a function of subs but profit is that function minus the cost of development. If you don't pull enough subscribers you're nowhere close to 90% profit even if per player costs cover only 1% of what they pay.
Bioware raped themselves pretty bad with SW:ToR because the development costs are retarded and shit like full voice over set them up with that issue for future content too. It's like they assumed 3-5 mils guaranteed subs when they designed the features.
Long time ago they basically promised a KotOR with monthly episodes and I think first content with some decent quest lines will come 1yr after release and the personal stories probably won't be touched until expansion, if even then.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Client is still not Free so I checked their site and returned to Iquisitor... holding my nose.

 

[Average Manatee]

My point was everything you list is a function of subs but profit is that function minus the cost of development. If you don't pull enough subscribers you're nowhere close to 90% profit even if per player costs cover only 1% of what they pay.
Bioware raped themselves pretty bad with SW:ToR because the development costs are retarded and shit like full voice over set them up with that issue for future content too. It's like they assumed 3-5 mils guaranteed subs when they designed the features.
Long time ago they basically promised a KotOR with monthly episodes and I think first content with some decent quest lines will come 1yr after release and the personal stories probably won't be touched until expansion, if even then.

You are comparing a one time cost with a reoccurring income. That just doesn't work.