The Elder Scrolls Online

It might be harder, but maybe just a little bit.

You honestly think anyone will approve the funding amounts that STWOR's burned through? Not gonna happen unless they can promise a profit in the first couple of months after release. STWOR expected unrealistic long term sub numbers and sold that to the investors. That failure killed any chance of that type of business model getting funded again for a very long time, if ever.

No, I don't think anyone would fund a $300M MMORPG. A third of that? Sure.

Besides this train wreck the upcoming MMOs seem to have a more modest budget and approach, although I might be totally wrong there. The only ones that i would group as possibly expensive are EQN and "Titan". Well the latter is guaranteed expensive but after 8 years of money hats I doubt they run dry.

Grim1_sl said:

You honestly think anyone will approve the funding amounts that STWOR's burned through? Not gonna happen unless they can promise a profit in the first couple of months after release. STWOR expected unrealistic long term sub numbers and sold that to the investors. That failure killed any chance of that type of business model getting funded again for a very long time, if ever.

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Who the hell would have thought that Bioware wouldnt have hit the mark with an IP like Star Wars? If the idea was getting pitched to me, knowing the company and IP... I would have probably been duped as well. SWTOR is a good game, dont get me wrong. But it could have been leaps and bounds better.

Its a very poor game, it didn't even do WOW correctly.

I think calling it poor is bit much. Did it make for a lasting mmo? No. But the leveling experience was top notch and I still enjoyed PVP a lot and some of the ops were at least semi-inventive. At this point, WoW doesn't do WoW right.

Caeden_sl said:

I think calling it poor is bit much. Did it make for a lasting mmo? No. But the leveling experience was top notch and I still enjoyed PVP a lot and some of the ops were at least semi-inventive. At this point, WoW doesn't do WoW right.

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it was star wars and bioware. that combination alone should have been enough to have over 10 million subs without even trying. the fact that the game is almost barren already probably makes it one of the biggest flops in video game history. SWTOR is the "gigli" of MMO's.

etchazz_sl said:

it was star wars and bioware. that combination alone should have been enough to have over 10 million subs without even trying. the fact that the game is almost barren already probably makes it one of the biggest flops in video game history. SWTOR is the "gigli" of MMO's.

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Eh, the KoToR Single player games combined never came close to 10m sales, and I am probably safe to assume that they had a substantial amount of overlap from individuals buying the first one and then the second one. The IP -is- big, but as far as games go (especially PC centric ones) it isn't WoW numbers big. People watch the movies, but not nearly as many play the rpgs. Both single player games had between 1.5 and 2m sales(across all platforms). Now, it's been years since either one of those was released, but do you think that Star Wars role playing games for the PC desire has increased 5 fold, minimum, in that time? Fantasy fans are not always Sci Fi fans, either.

Just saying, Bioware was dumb to aim for WoW numbers. But it is also pretty dumb for people to assume that they could have hit those kind of numbers anyway given the track record. Bioware's absolute best sales numbers are in the 4m range. Prior to WoW, Blizzard had TFT at 5m, Starcraft at 9m and Diablo 2 at 4m. Prior to ME3, Bioware's weren't really that comparable on a per-franchise basis.

To the uninformed, Star Wars games might seem like a stronger IP, but in reality it's not nearly as amazing as some would like to believe. Doesn't excuse the state of the game in the slightest, but expectations were ridiculous from -all- corners, not just Bioware/EA's.

The thing with a Star Wars IP is that the potential and possibilities were limitless, and EA chose to stick with the bare minimum and instead wasted resources on voice overs. The potential of an entire galaxy filled with tons of races, planets, entire vastness of space, the unknown stuff still for creating, and just the concept of the Star Wars universe is so immense, the fact that they still gave us a bare bone game is just sickening. I knew voice overs were going to be the bane of TOR from day one, those things are expensive and demanding and they hogged so many resources that EA started to cut funding, and this became obvious when every single race was human, no swimming, no day/night etc. I couldn't really give a shit about swimming or day/night, but those are prime example of budget cuts that made their way into the game.

EQ2 was mostly voiced over at launch, and they were pretty quick to abandon it(not completely) due to the amount of resources, both time and money, that it actually takes to put them into play.

The best part is, playing SWTOR now to kill time, and I'm going through it with volume off 100% of the time (like, you know, every MMO), spacebar-ing my way through 90% of the cutscenes. A cinematic experience is all well and good, but what the fuck made them think that voicing every random 'collect 10 bear asses' quest would add anything to the game? Would have made so much more sense to do voiceovers and cutscenes for the class storylines and maybe some of the major quests, then spend the rest on the basic stuff the game is missing.

And yeah, it feels like a waste because the Star Wars universe has a really unique feel to it and a ton of potential. Oh well, there's always the new round of movies coming up.

Bah no beta invite kinda figured that shit would happen. Current pc got to much ballz. Need to build a pos out spare parts just to lazy 2 do it.

They basically said everything I needed to hear. Cyrodiil is going to be fuckin awesome.

http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en...yrodiil-part-1

Some particular highlights:

You can use Alliance Points to purchase armor and weapons or to advance inseveral skill linesspecific to Cyrodiil.

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Caves, crumbling towers, and Ayleid ruins dot the landscape in Cyrodiil. Locations like these are known to contain valuable treasures, but they?re often protected by brigands (or much worse). If you choose to delve into the depths in the pursuit of gold or glory, be prepared! Even if you can defeat the inhabitants and their dangerous leaders, you?ll always have to be on your guard for explorers from the other Alliances who seek the same treasures.

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The vast province of Cyrodiil, from its fertile farmland to snowy mountains, is rich in resources prized by craftsmen. As you explore the diverse landscape, you?ll discover sought-after resources and materials to use in crafting. There are valuable materials that can only be obtained in Cyrodiil, and players of any level will be able to forage for them. Keep in mind that Cyrodiil is very large?if you prefer to avoid battles with other players, it will be easy to find materials far from keeps and other large conflicts.

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IMO, they are doing PVP right - it totally says "DAOC 2" to me. We've already established that I'm an optimist, but time will tell

You're doing more harm than good at this point.

Tarrant_sl said:

Shill this game harder please.

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Ahh, that old chestnut. C'mon man, you can do better. Nothing to say about the substance of the post? Or of the announcement? Did you play DAOC? Or are you one of the ones getting wound up about the next WOW clone du jour, Wildstar?

Both you better back down or I will send you to Grown Up section for a week

Tarrant_sl said:

No, I plan on getting this. But for weeks all you've done is sing praises at bread crumbs of information and bump the thread anytime it was half way down the page or lower. It's downright laughable.

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Ahh, cute new title for me. Well, whatever, dude - if you go look through all of my posts, you won't find one that isn't objective, and backed up by released info. You also won't find one that is half as full of shit as 90% of the rest of this forum, only difference is, that I'm not sitting around holding cocks like the rest of you. I'm not afraid to stick my neck out and disagree with the fucking crazy rantings of Utnayan. I'm not scared to predict that those of you saying this game is a train wreck, and that Matt Firor doesn't know what he's doing, and that they don't have anything done other than one canned demo are all full of shit, and will be playing this game when it releases.