I don't see the point in speculating like that if you have no idea what's going on internally.
I've been so much inside and outside of these scenarios that this particular line becomes less important, people will display their opinion about these things, and often they do so from previous experiences of the exact same scenario.
I have no doubt what DICE might or might not do out of this will be the best thing in the deal, but EA did not go into this deal to make a lone fantastic game and stop at that, it's never been that way.
EA already botched the Old Republic MMO pretty badly. They didn't botch it in the development side of things, they botched it when it came to the business. I don't want to see more of that applied to the Star Wars franchise going forward. But I strongly suspect that we will.
no, they absolutely botched it during the development stage. using outdated gameplay models, vertical progression (which has been proven to be unsuccessful in new mmo's time and again), making all the same mistakes that mythic/bioware-mythic made in WAR on the pvp side of the game as well. they absolutely proved that they not only fail to learn from their mistakes, but they seemingly outright ignored them.
and as a result, SWTOR went free to play under a year from launch. a game that was supposed to be quite literally a gold mine if done right. something they had to work very hard to fuck up.
now i don't mean development stage as in - individual developers. i mean the direction of the game from the higher ups. focusing a huge portion of the budget to voice acting instead of optimization and gameplay dynamics. a huge portion of the games population just spacebarred through the content anyway.
I love MMOGs that do the whole 'big singleplayer story' type thing. It seems like a complete waste of tacking on an MMO component in the first place (if you're going to make an MMO, surely you want to have gameplay and content that encompasses a multiplayer environment?). There's a reason why something like Eve is in it's 10th year as a game.
yeah i agree ambershee. SW:TOR would have been far better off being KOTOR3 and MAYBE having very limited multiplayer (like, you could connect with up to 7 other friends or something to play through the storyline together).
Some interesting tidbits, http://kotaku.com/the-last-months-of-lucasarts-472038151
It sounds like First Assault and Battlefront III are the early front runners to have been picked up by EA, that video footage is interesting.
"Shortly after the tragedy in Newtown, Disney chief executive Bob Iger announced that the company would look closely at the violence featured in its games — a poor sign for developers currently at work on several violence-filled projects."
no, they absolutely botched it during the development stage. using outdated gameplay models, vertical progression (which has been proven to be unsuccessful in new mmo's time and again), making all the same mistakes that mythic/bioware-mythic made in WAR on the pvp side of the game as well. they absolutely proved that they not only fail to learn from their mistakes, but they seemingly outright ignored them.
I'm not disagreeing with the particulars. I diferentiate between development and design. Most of the mistakes you are citing are high-level design mistakes. Development is the day-to-day nuts and bolts of putting the game together. As far as I know, The Old Republic had pretty decent production values, and wasn't plagued by bugs. (or at least not anymore than any other average MMO)
As far as I can tell, the development for the game was solid. As you've pointed out, there were any number of design and marketing mistakes. That's where I think they botched things. And making a game free-to-play is not the end of the world, even for an MMO. Lord of the Rings Online proved that an MMO can make that transition gracefully, and still be commercially viable. The Old Republic has not made that transition gracefully, and now EA is suffering for that shortcoming. (again, all the reasons you have cited are why)
At the end of the day, we all know why this fiasco came to pass. They tried to do things the same way World of Warcraft does them, and you can't do that in a subscription-based MMO. (because World of Warcraft is already doing it better) Again, botching happening all over the place.
yeah i agree ambershee. SW:TOR would have been far better off being KOTOR3 and MAYBE having very limited multiplayer (like, you could connect with up to 7 other friends or something to play through the storyline together).
Yes, that would have been a much better approach, especially with the kind of sprawling narratives they were going for. They could have sold the over-arching game as a standalone product, and then sold additional branching quests as optional DLC.
Replies
I've been so much inside and outside of these scenarios that this particular line becomes less important, people will display their opinion about these things, and often they do so from previous experiences of the exact same scenario.
I have no doubt what DICE might or might not do out of this will be the best thing in the deal, but EA did not go into this deal to make a lone fantastic game and stop at that, it's never been that way.
Sequels to Gungan Frontier (GunganFrontier2-4.com) tops the list, hahahahaha. Also Order67.net, WolfpackAdventures.net and WookieHunters.com.
Not a promising set of titles.
Gungan Frontier Sequels:
http://whois.domaintools.com/gunganfrontier2.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/gunganfrontier3.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/gunganfrontier4.com
Order67:
http://whois.domaintools.com/order67.net
Wolfpack Adventures:
http://whois.domaintools.com/starwarswolfpack.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/wolfpackadventures.net
Wookie Hunters:
http://whois.domaintools.com/wookieehunters.com
But considering Disney.... Jar-Jar as the scrappy marketing face of Star Wars is totally possible
no, they absolutely botched it during the development stage. using outdated gameplay models, vertical progression (which has been proven to be unsuccessful in new mmo's time and again), making all the same mistakes that mythic/bioware-mythic made in WAR on the pvp side of the game as well. they absolutely proved that they not only fail to learn from their mistakes, but they seemingly outright ignored them.
and as a result, SWTOR went free to play under a year from launch. a game that was supposed to be quite literally a gold mine if done right. something they had to work very hard to fuck up.
now i don't mean development stage as in - individual developers. i mean the direction of the game from the higher ups. focusing a huge portion of the budget to voice acting instead of optimization and gameplay dynamics. a huge portion of the games population just spacebarred through the content anyway.
anyway, all that aside, gief battlefront 3!
Uh.
Oh.
It sounds like First Assault and Battlefront III are the early front runners to have been picked up by EA, that video footage is interesting.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/10/4209766/lucasarts-employees-suspected-studios-closing-took-gdc-as-an
"Shortly after the tragedy in Newtown, Disney chief executive Bob Iger announced that the company would look closely at the violence featured in its games — a poor sign for developers currently at work on several violence-filled projects."
I'm not disagreeing with the particulars. I diferentiate between development and design. Most of the mistakes you are citing are high-level design mistakes. Development is the day-to-day nuts and bolts of putting the game together. As far as I know, The Old Republic had pretty decent production values, and wasn't plagued by bugs. (or at least not anymore than any other average MMO)
As far as I can tell, the development for the game was solid. As you've pointed out, there were any number of design and marketing mistakes. That's where I think they botched things. And making a game free-to-play is not the end of the world, even for an MMO. Lord of the Rings Online proved that an MMO can make that transition gracefully, and still be commercially viable. The Old Republic has not made that transition gracefully, and now EA is suffering for that shortcoming. (again, all the reasons you have cited are why)
At the end of the day, we all know why this fiasco came to pass. They tried to do things the same way World of Warcraft does them, and you can't do that in a subscription-based MMO. (because World of Warcraft is already doing it better) Again, botching happening all over the place.
Yes, that would have been a much better approach, especially with the kind of sprawling narratives they were going for. They could have sold the over-arching game as a standalone product, and then sold additional branching quests as optional DLC.
Sounds not so 'kid-friendly' and more 'child abuse' to me!
I assume Star Wars is getting integrated into Disney Infinity now?
Man, if there was any chance of a Brawl style game with Iron Man, Mickey, and Chewbacca, all in one...
Magic 8-Ball says...signs point toward yes.
Marvel vs. Disney vs. Star Wars?
...
...okay, that actually sounds pretty awesome.
The only problem is that I don't know of any studios that EA has that would be a good fit for such a game.