Star Wars: The Old Republic loses 25% of its subscribers

[gamevet]

That's because PSO is very much a Japanese style game.

If you can't sell Star Wars, what makes you think Phantasy Star would do much better?

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Because gameplay wise it's radically different from the typical western MMO. It can draw in it's own crowd that's not the same as what WoW brings in, and it could easily get people who play WoW but want to try something that's actually different. On top of that PSO2 will not only be free to play, it will also be free to download. Theres zero risk to take in giving it a try.

[gamevet]

Because gameplay wise it's radically different from the typical western MMO. It can draw in it's own crowd that's not the same as what WoW brings in, and it could easily get people who play WoW but want to try something that's actually different. On top of that PSO2 will not only be free to play, it will also be free to download. Theres zero risk to take in giving it a try.

So was Darkspore (Electronics Arts), and it had a solid marketing campaign, including beta invites. Not even 6 months after it was released, I could find a brand new copie for under $9. I promise you, no amount of advertising could make PSO2 a hit in North America. Right now, Japanese style RPGs aren't a big seller here.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

PSO2 wont have retail copies. It's 100% free to download. So that makes things very different. You won't have to purchase ANYTHING to try the game. Just download it, make an account, and log in. You only have to pay if you want things like additional character slots, additional skill trees, an optional room for your character, etc.

[gamevet]

PSO2 wont have retail copies. It's 100% free to download. So that makes things very different. You won't have to purchase ANYTHING to try the game. Just download it, make an account, and log in. You only have to pay if you want things like additional character slots, additional skill trees, an optional room for your character, etc.

Yeah, you can do the same thing with Lord of the Rings and the Marvel MMO on PS3. People just don't care, because there are 100s of free games out there, that try to get a piece of the MMO pie.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

But PSO2 is radically different from all of those. Those other ones that try to do that either mimic WoW or just come off as Cheap and generic. PSO2 is neither of those. PSO2 is different enough to stick out from those games. I'm not saying it will dethrone WoW, but it might make enough of an impact to shake things up a bit.

This gameplay is radically different from those other MMOs you listed:





The only thing that comes even close to that is Guild Wars 2.

[gamevet]

Yeah, I understand your enthusiasm for the game. I really liked playing PSO on the Dreamcast as well. PSU, on the other hand, didn't wow me enough to keep playing it more than a couple of months.

Unless you're a fan of Phantasy Star Online, most of the gaming public probably won't take notice to it.

[Kamahl]

Yeah, you can do the same thing with Lord of the Rings and the Marvel MMO on PS3. People just don't care, because there are 100s of free games out there, that try to get a piece of the MMO pie.

Those 2 games are exceedingly boring though. People only care about MMOs with good combat these days. (Wow get's a free pass due to the huge community, tons of content and well developed lore, because otherwise it's boring garbage).

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Yeah, I understand your enthusiasm for the game. I really liked playing PSO on the Dreamcast as well. PSU, on the other hand, didn't wow me enough to keep playing it more than a couple of months.

Unless you're a fan of Phantasy Star Online, most of the gaming public probably won't take notice to it.

There's nothing wrong with PSU. I've been playing it since it released in 2006. If you would have continued to play it instead of quitting after a few months like all the other PSO fanboys who cried it wasn't PSO Episode 5, you would have been able to see how much better it got.

At this point the only thing PSO has over PSU is a better lobby system, and a better atmosphere. PSU beats PSO in every other category.

By quitting early you missed out on all of this:

























And theres even more than that.

[gamevet]

I saw no reason to keep playing, because I lost interest. I wasn't going to keep playing a game that I wasn't enjoying. We've had this discussion before.

Star Wars: Galaxies was a far better community experience than PSU, and even it got dummied down to be more like WOW.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Well that's your loss, but it's completely unfair to dismiss an MMO based entirely on it's first few months when it's been out for over 5 years and has grown and changed dramatically since then. Most of your complaints about the game are probably not even valid at this point.

[EclecticGroove]

Well that's your loss, but it's completely unfair to dismiss an MMO based entirely on it's first few months when it's been out for over 5 years and has grown and changed dramatically since then. Most of your complaints about the game are probably not even valid at this point.

Maybe so, but this is often a failing of the company itself. Either for not advertising what is available correctly, or not managing expectations of the playerbase.

But more often, it's usually their fault for not actually providing that content initially. A game 5 years in is not the game when it was released, and unless they are constantly adjusting, tweaking, and changing the game to keep people interested, many will just stop playing. And if they are not consistently trying to keep the game in the eye of gamers both new and old, then people will never have any reason to check it out again.

One player giving up a game is the gamers fault. If the game just never took off and remained relatively niche, that is the company's fault.

[gamevet]

Yeah, Sega wasn't doing a lot of updates the first 3 months. They added the ability for players to open their own shops to sell crafted goods, opened up a few map area and added a couple of new enemies. It just wasn't enough to justify paying for the service. Still, you could burn through everything the maps had to offer within a week and then it becomes nothing more than a grindfest.

I'd much rather have KOTOR 3, or an expansion for Skyrim over either of these games.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Wow, so you left before we even got the first expansion or the first events. And what you described, it sounded like you didn't even play for more than a month. The shops were available from the start of the game. I know because I remember using them the first few days and have screenshots of crazy prices within those first few days.

The game started with 10 missions spread across Parum, Neudaiz, and the Colony, with about 6-8 unique areas, 3 classes, and the level cap was 50. In the next month they added 8 new missions with about 6-7 new areas. In the next month they added 7 new classes, a bunch of new skills, spells, and items, they increased the level cap to 60 and added in higher difficulty level missions. They also added the first Story Missions.

By November of 2007 the level cap was 100, tons of new skills and missions were available, we had had 2 events, and they implemented tons of system updates that tweaked the gameplay and fixed problems in preparation for the Expansion.

The PSU that exists today is radically different from what we had 5 years ago.

In just 3 months the game had changed dramatically. But from what you described I doubt you were even around for a month.

[gamevet]

I paid for 3 months and moved on.

PSU is what it is. You get your updated maps, grind through them and wait for the next update. Where it fails, compared to your typical MMO, is the lack of exploration available. It's pretty much Gauntlet with less maps and a lobby.

Biosware tried to break away from being a grindfest, by offering a game that was more story driven, than grindfest and players burned through it.