Jedi Archive
Thread: Don't you find it funny that SWG says they passed 1 million subscribers?
Alboin wrote:
There's something in economics I will never understand... Imagine, if they would announce turning back to original combat system, 3 free new planets completely connected with the rest of the game and say 5 new dungeons on old planets... I think they would hit 1mil active sunscribers immideately, because almost everybody who left would come back...For some reason they don't do it...
Message Edited by Beasthunt on 09-23-2005 06:37 AM
Beasthunt wrote:
What they don't state is, that 500 thousand of them don't play the game anymore and would cancel there accounts if it were not for there toons getting erased. So they pay the monthly fee and don't play the game anymore in hopes that it will be better one day.
I would love to cancel my account, if I could come back in about 6months-1year and my toon still be there and all the items. So like a drone, I pay my 15bucks a month, because I think all my time I've invested in mytoonis atleast worth that mutch.
So congrat's SOE, a good portion of your user base is paying but not playing. You should be very proud!!
Message Edited by Beasthunt on 09-23-2005 06:37 AM
Don't know where you got that idea from but No characters have been erased yet on cancelled accounts. Ive had guild members come back well after a year of not playing to pick up right where they were.
Alboin wrote:
There's something in economics I will never understand... Imagine, if they would announce turning back to original combat system, 3 free new planets completely connected with the rest of the game and say 5 new dungeons on old planets... I think they would hit 1mil active sunscribers immideately, because almost everybody who left would come back...For some reason they don't do it...
In my opinion had SOE/LA focused on fixing the issues after release, balancing combat along with buffs before implementing and pushing players into the Jedi grind they would have kept the 350k+ subscriptions for a bit longer though they would have lost a portion due to SOE/LA's lack of creativity when content is involved. For some strange reason it seems all they can think of for dungeon content is add in some mass mobbing creatures/NPCs followed up by a generous sprinkling of SBD's to top it off.
HeadRoll wrote:
Agree. Pre Jedi days, first year of release. 400k plus subscribers. Soon after Holo days, Jedi popping left and right.. SOE loses half their subscribers.to what you say, 200k.You do the numbers. Now you know why they are back to focusing on the original professions....Creature Handler, Squad Leader, Ranger...and leaving Jedi in the back row.
Quiet420 wrote:
they have about 200k subscribers, whereas wow has around 2 million....it's sad....SW has much greater potential as an intellectual property, it's just this game was broken and underfunded from the beginning, they were more concerned with basic functionality and an early release then quality control and providing an experience that would realize that kind of potential....I believe the fact that SOE is more concerned with EQ (in house IP that they don't pay licensing on)plays a factor as well...they sort of use SWG as a tool to recruit EQ'rs
There is a very good reason for that lack of creativity. They were trying to create unsoloable content. They couldn't balance the old system so they tried to make it harder.
Veustuh wrote:
In my opinion had SOE/LA focused on fixing the issues after release, balancing combat along with buffs before implementing and pushing players into the Jedi grind they would have kept the 350k+ subscriptions for a bit longer though they would have lost a portion due to SOE/LA's lack of creativity when content is involved. For some strange reason it seems all they can think of for dungeon content is add in some mass mobbing creatures/NPCs followed up by a generous sprinkling of SBD's to top it off.
Beasthunt wrote:
What they don't state is, that 500 thousand of them don't play the game anymore and would cancel there accounts if it were not for there toons getting erased. So they pay the monthly fee and don't play the game anymore in hopes that it will be better one day.
Odds are they count every sale of SW:G along with SW:G "The Total Experience" as two different sales in which they consider everybody who's signed up for the one month free as an "active subscriber". Worse yet is they'd never admit that at least 1/8 to 1/4 of the total active logging in population at one time was bots. I know before we canceled I accounted for 7 accounts and a close friend counted for 8 accounts. Instead of saying that these people were2 active subscribers with several active accounts they'd count it as 15 active accounts.
In the beginning with the lack of publicity this game received along with the lack of advertising I'd guess that there were around 500k people who tried the game, of those 15k didn't care for the game, 350k got tired of all the bugs and issues over the first 9 months, of the remaining active subscribers at least 1/5 picked up a second account either to help with a grind or for something different to do. Between January 04 and JTL subscriptions dropped off to one of several lows (July - August 2004 after Hayden's remarks and the fall out of Publish 9) though picked up after the release of JTL, fell off in December 04 through January 05, picked back up for the CU and RotW but quickly fell again due to lack of interest from consumers to which is being experienced now.
Basically every expansion will drag a few back; however, since the CU has been less than a key hookpoint for returning players it seems that SW:G will continue to keep it's current size but fluctuate slightly at times. With WoW and soon to be D&D online along with LoTR online going live in the next 4 months this will thin out the active (being those who play regularly) subscriptions a bit further. At this point in time it seems there are so many different MMO choices out there that each will have their hardcore player base with those who rotate between them to either try them out and/or come back to see if anything sparks a renewed interest in the game.
Quickest and easiest way to fix the old system (after December '03) would have been to axe secondary buffs by half. Plain and simple it was the 2k+ secondary buffs that turned players from Rick Moranis to Arnold Schwarzenegger (before his governorship
Supermite wrote:
There is a very good reason for that lack of creativity. They were trying to create unsoloable content. They couldn't balance the old system so they tried to make it harder.
Veustuh wrote:
In my opinion had SOE/LA focused on fixing the issues after release, balancing combat along with buffs before implementing and pushing players into the Jedi grind they would have kept the 350k+ subscriptions for a bit longer though they would have lost a portion due to SOE/LA's lack of creativity when content is involved. For some strange reason it seems all they can think of for dungeon content is add in some mass mobbing creatures/NPCs followed up by a generous sprinkling of SBD's to top it off.
) or Sylvester Stallone where it’s one person verses an entire country’s army. Without these overpowered buffs nobody would be able to wear the heaviest of armor and spam their specials endlessly. In addition a cut in buffs would have affected everybody not just non-Jedi nor Jedi but all classes and all players. A change in that along with the removal / balancing of the insane looted weapons and dots would have sufficed in fixing the system of old to prevent players from soloing 99.9% of the game.They sold 1m copys of the game no way in hell they got 1m active subs atm. Pre curb i had 5 accounts most people i know had 1 extra with a doc/dancer no need now so alot less active acount now i would think
Even if they got 1m active subs wow still kick them in the ass with 4mill+ active account
Sairnath wrote:
Beasthunt wrote:
What they don't state is, that 500 thousand of them don't play the game anymore and would cancel there accounts if it were not for there toons getting erased. So they pay the monthly fee and don't play the game anymore in hopes that it will be better one day.
I would love to cancel my account, if I could come back in about 6months-1year and my toon still be there and all the items. So like a drone, I pay my 15bucks a month, because I think all my time I've invested in mytoonis atleast worth that mutch.
So congrat's SOE, a good portion of your user base is paying but not playing. You should be very proud!!
Message Edited by Beasthunt on 09-23-2005 06:37 AM
Don't know where you got that idea from but No characters have been erased yet on cancelled accounts. Ive had guild members come back well after a year of not playing to pick up right where they were.
Well if i'm not mistaken. For those of us that were on live chat when I think Pub 22 went live and everything was shut down for a while. Tiggs said "Looks like it's time for a character purge". BTW what I forgot to put in there was........"scared" i.e. I would cancel my account, If I were not scared that my toon would be erased. That's what I actually meant to say. Sorry for the confusion.
Message Edited by Beasthunt on 09-23-2005 11:54 AM
the official word is that it is unknown how long an account will remain in inactive status before being deleted, of course, it is in their best interest to allow anyone who cannot, for any reason, maintain their account, to, at a later date, pick up where they left off
on the other hand, it's also in their best interests to make people believe that it is possible that if they do not maintain their account that it will be deleted....I have heard that 4 months is safe...but have seen people that have been away much longer come back.