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Star Wars: The Old Republic [Releasing Date: Dec 20 NA/EU - NDA Lifted]
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FieryBalrog
Member
Some beta dude's thoughts on end-game and difficulty:
http://www.fohguild.org/forums/2129152-post7241.html
Short and fairly positive review from betacake:
http://www.betacake.net/2011/09/star-wars-old-republic-exclusive-first.html
http://www.fohguild.org/forums/2129152-post7241.html
Short and fairly positive review from betacake:
http://www.betacake.net/2011/09/star-wars-old-republic-exclusive-first.html
So, the game could maybe, possibly get delayed to 2012. Weekend betas may potentially be done. The game is lacking appeal for hardcore MMO fans. The gameplay itself isn't very different from WoW, except for the story elements, which don't carry it as far as they should. The game may only be able to hang onto Star Wars fans, and most likely only those that are not heavily into WoW.
.... Can't wait for this to go free-to-play.
.... Can't wait for this to go free-to-play.
rukland said:
I think his point was that it's concerning that EA isn't doing anything to negate the bad press. Now, I'm not sure what they could do without "protesting too much".Morn said:
FieryBalrog
Member
I got the same "we would like you to test SWTOR" email.
...
Asking me to pre-order of course, supplies are limited!
...
Asking me to pre-order of course, supplies are limited!
Hardcore mmo fans imo are the same people who crank out hard modes in wow and complain it's too easy
casuals are your average players or You could be Donald (guy at the end)
casuals are your average players or You could be Donald (guy at the end)
Yea I read the full post on the forums, this was without a doubt a feedback problem. They want to see how the new build goes with smaller groups of testers before allowing large groups to play it. Despite my joking around about a 2012 release date, I was relatively confident it was going to release sometime this year(Dec.), now not sure.
LowParry
Member
Most MMOs usually go through that suffering phase of end game un-polish. How Bioware will treat that is hopefully a careful fix. Time will tell. I'm still going with a November release though if the next couple weeks come out the same as recent event, expect 2012. I kinda hope it does go 2012.
Strange.
Why make big PR announcements at the major conventions about September beta weekends, then after one weekend call it off citing 'a new build on the way' as the reason. That's surely not the real reason because that would prove an idiot level of organisation exists within the company.
Something must be up, the plot thickens.
Why make big PR announcements at the major conventions about September beta weekends, then after one weekend call it off citing 'a new build on the way' as the reason. That's surely not the real reason because that would prove an idiot level of organisation exists within the company.
Something must be up, the plot thickens.
2012!
I, personally, am a casual MMO player, but plenty of my friends and even my mom and her husband are hardcore players. My judgement that the game is not going in the right direction for them is based on what I hear about the game, not necessarily the opinions of GAF. I hear what they are saying, I watch the videos, I read other beta testers and see the info Bioware has released. My opinion is based on my observations and is very much an assumption, especially considering I am not in the beta. I recognize my lack of first-hand experience, but I would stand up for my ability to interpret this industry and how information flows.CcrooK said:
Fake edit: I'm concerned this may be poorly worded and may not be clear. Please let me know if that is the situation and even if you care for me to restate it.
Hawk269
Member
Agree the push back on the testing is a concern. While it could be the new build, I doubt it. For a project this size, they have flow-charts that they use to determine where they need to be and when they need to hit those targets. This new build just did not show up overnight and without some planning. They had to have known that around this time frame the new build would be ready.
So the real question is this. If the last weekend had a July build and the new build is ready to roll out, what did they learn that is not already implemented in the newer build? They say they got a ton of feedback & data back from this past weekend. But how can you have a new build based on the learnings from a July build and data that they just got cause the weekend testing just ended monday evening? It just does not add up.
Time Line:
A) July Build in use for a while...
B) This past Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday Weekend Beta testing with a ton more testers.
C) Tues/Wednesday AM announce a newer build is coming real soon
D) Wednesday late afternoon mention that "we just learned a ton of info from this weekend and we need to cancel beta weekend so that we can sort shit out".
E) Mass confusion and concern from gamers on what the hell is going on.
So the real question is this. If the last weekend had a July build and the new build is ready to roll out, what did they learn that is not already implemented in the newer build? They say they got a ton of feedback & data back from this past weekend. But how can you have a new build based on the learnings from a July build and data that they just got cause the weekend testing just ended monday evening? It just does not add up.
Time Line:
A) July Build in use for a while...
B) This past Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday Weekend Beta testing with a ton more testers.
C) Tues/Wednesday AM announce a newer build is coming real soon
D) Wednesday late afternoon mention that "we just learned a ton of info from this weekend and we need to cancel beta weekend so that we can sort shit out".
E) Mass confusion and concern from gamers on what the hell is going on.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Hate to say I told you so.Jira said:
(But I did. During E3)
Hawk269
Member
Tendo said:I pre ordered this. I want it to be good. I don't like what I'm hearing though. I don't want to cancel my pre order but with so many other fall games I'm passing for this...These impressions make me really bummed.
Agree. Bugs and higher level stuff is not conerning me because bugs are going to be fixed and later game content may have not been implemented in the version weekend players were playing.
For me, the consistent mention of "too easy" is concerning and linear is also a big one for me. Two things MMO's dont fuck around with is being too easy and linear. MMO (M=MASSIVE) is suppose to be more open and not as linear as the reports. However, I will say that we dont know how much the game opens up, if you go back to different parts of planets at higher levels etc. But please BioWare adjust the difficulty cause a too easy MMO is not a good thing.
LowParry
Member
Sigfodr said:
I guess that would depend on how people view the term "hardcore". Hehe. That term reminds me back in my no life days of playing EQ2 and required to raid for 40 hours a week. Seriously a second job to me. But for the raiding hardcore mind set, I guess we could go and say for those who raid 3 - 4 days a week. A few hours or so. Eh, what am I saying. Offfffftrack. Anywho, I'm probably in the same boat as you as I've had maybe an hour or two of actual play time and the rest of just watching others play with information they've given me.
As the current state of the game goes, it's a mixed bag but I've seen much more positive comments than the negatives. I could make the guess that some of those negative comments are just from those who get the high off trolling but they are there from those who are legit.
Right now for all we know, we'll be seeing this new build come out next week or the next for a weekend testing. I think right now the time for panic is not needed. Not yet. Unless things remain the same for those next couple of weeks, then I'd probably start to worry on how well polished this game will be by launch.
Hawk269 said:
Exactly how I feel. Right now in my gaming budget I am between this and UC3. I'm starting to lean that way. At least there I know I'll get an amazing story and some super fun multi. It is just too much of a monetary gamble to get another mediocre game in an MMO shell. This continues to look and sound like DCUO with slightly more stuff. And lightsabers. But man I love lightsabers
LowParry
Member
I think so far, the improvements in terms of looks have been going on very nicely. Just an example:
http://mediacdn.disqus.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/143/4233/original.jpg
Agreed. It's not the new build, it's the feedback they got from the weekend event that has them in delay mode.
http://mediacdn.disqus.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/143/4233/original.jpg
Jarmel said:
Agreed. It's not the new build, it's the feedback they got from the weekend event that has them in delay mode.
Hawk269
Member
I did not see the full post that a dev posted over at the official site, so here it is:
Hello all,
There is no Beta Testing Weekend scheduled for this weekend. There may be further Beta Testing Weekends during September, but we're not going to guarantee it. The weekend that just finished was really our first dry run of Beta Testing Weekends as a whole, and we have plenty of data to crunch, and decisions to make before we start things up again.
Further to that, as Chris Collins explained in another thread, we are about to roll out a major new build for The Old Republic. That build won't be ready for this weekend. Just as we did not feel it was a good decision to ask potential EU testers to download our client only to have to download it again, the same applies for this weekend.
That does not mean, however, that as soon as our new build is available we'll be rolling out a Beta Testing Weekend immediately. As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes.
We rolled out this previous weekend as a relatively small scale event; from now we will do bigger and bigger events, but that doesn't mean it happens every weekend. When we do resume, we'll be inviting many more people in.
While many of you are excited and anxious to know what's happening regarding Testing Weekends, I want to point out that a lot of posts on the subject with a lack of corresponding posts from us does not mean that we're not listening, or not aware of your interest. It shows your interest in the topic, which is understandably high, but we will not always be able to react instantaneously.
In the past couple of days we've been preparing a comprehensive FAQ regarding Game Testing Weekends as a whole, along with some details about the weekend that just happened. We'll post that tomorrow - in all languages, as we know the subject is of interest to everyone.
=========================================================
I decided to read between the lines of this post and I kept seeing the same thing come up...2012....2012....2012. They clearly state that they did not want to roll out the new build without internal testers and the testing group to try it first...unless this build is close to a release canidate, I think that it will be 2012 (Feb..2012) before we see it.
Hello all,
There is no Beta Testing Weekend scheduled for this weekend. There may be further Beta Testing Weekends during September, but we're not going to guarantee it. The weekend that just finished was really our first dry run of Beta Testing Weekends as a whole, and we have plenty of data to crunch, and decisions to make before we start things up again.
Further to that, as Chris Collins explained in another thread, we are about to roll out a major new build for The Old Republic. That build won't be ready for this weekend. Just as we did not feel it was a good decision to ask potential EU testers to download our client only to have to download it again, the same applies for this weekend.
That does not mean, however, that as soon as our new build is available we'll be rolling out a Beta Testing Weekend immediately. As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes.
We rolled out this previous weekend as a relatively small scale event; from now we will do bigger and bigger events, but that doesn't mean it happens every weekend. When we do resume, we'll be inviting many more people in.
While many of you are excited and anxious to know what's happening regarding Testing Weekends, I want to point out that a lot of posts on the subject with a lack of corresponding posts from us does not mean that we're not listening, or not aware of your interest. It shows your interest in the topic, which is understandably high, but we will not always be able to react instantaneously.
In the past couple of days we've been preparing a comprehensive FAQ regarding Game Testing Weekends as a whole, along with some details about the weekend that just happened. We'll post that tomorrow - in all languages, as we know the subject is of interest to everyone.
=========================================================
I decided to read between the lines of this post and I kept seeing the same thing come up...2012....2012....2012. They clearly state that they did not want to roll out the new build without internal testers and the testing group to try it first...unless this build is close to a release canidate, I think that it will be 2012 (Feb..2012) before we see it.
Considering the new build is bringing in multiple language support etc its a rather important milestone in build development. Beta Testers are using a Build from July right now and its been said the weekend testers had an older build than that.Jarmel said:
There is a considerable amount of work to pushing a new test build live
Isn't the whole point of the weekend betas related more to stress testing the servers and spreading positive word of mouth? People aren't going to get very far or have much that's useful to say about an MMO after playing a few hours (if that) on the weekend.Parn said:
Delaying weekend beta testing because you want people to play the new build would be silly.
antonz said:
Read between the lines in that post. They would have stated it was a temporary delay if it was just implementation of a new build. For them to flat out indefinitely cancel the testing like that after a huge convention push means something went horrifically wrong in the first weekend which leaves two options. First being the game was extremely buggy and the second being the feedback was extremely negative to the point that they don't want anybody else playing until some of the complaints are addressed. And while the game is buggy, it certainly isn't that bad. Which leaves option 2.
Also note this part, "As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes." They want to make sure the smaller groups like the changes and improvements and see what they think before open the doors open to the rest of the public. That shows a lack of confidence on Bioware's part.
Again you don't cancel stuff when you can delay. You only cancel in extreme emergencies.
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