SWTOR - Rising MMO, or Destined for failure?

Ive been playing SWTOR (Star wars the old republic) since release, and at face value the game is great. Ive played Vanguard, Rift, WoW (since vanilla), Warhammer, GW etc etc... A lot of other mmos to base my opinions and expectations off of. The graphics and gameplay are solid and fluid - the pvp is for the most part balanced and there is a sufficient amount of pve content for a games beginning stages. While most of these virtues are all we expect from a game im very disappointed to see, what I think are very small issues, dragging this game down and slowly destroying it. From the moment I tried to purchase SWTOR online I was unable to complete my purchase through origin as it read my credit card as a paypal account... I tried several credit cards including my gfs under a different name over a 2 week period - numerous friends had the same issue and had to buy a hard copy. This may be because origin (EA games version of steam) is about as old as SWTOR, in other words - star wars is its guinea pig and they are throwing away customers. This in and of itself didn't stop me from buying the game. Shortly after I bought the game I noted how often maintenance was occurring and at extremely inconvenient times. The game seems to be down twice a week and while not all the shutdowns are for scheduled maintenance, the ones that are should be done at better times. Friday or Saturday night this week during peak hours they close the game for 8 hours... then 2 or 3 days later (tonight) they close the game again - if both of these instances truly were "scheduled maintenance", why weren't they done at the same time? No successful mmo that ive played has ever had scheduled maintenance on a weekend that I can recall. Aside from all the technical issues the game has (there aren't many but the ones that are there are noticeable) it seems like the game lacks discipline. By that I mean a standard to which bioware holds its players and their actions accountable to. I played WoW since release and I was banned 5 times, each and everyone of these bans were earned and I had no quarrel with Blizzard. General **** talking - account theft - exploits and "hacks" - scamming were just a few of the ways I found entertainment in the game. But regardless of what I found myself involved in, WoW seemed to always restore balance and correct my wrong doings. Although I never really "learned my lesson", I was penalized and had to rebuy the game and start all over which was punishment in itself. As I got older I stopped my juvenile antics and began to just play the game for games sake, however my brother who shares my ****** up sense of humor does a lot of the same stunts I used to in SWTOR - not only are his actions unpunished - they aren't even acknowledged. I mean at least WoW pretended to handle the situation and game players a warning from time to time. It to me meant that they were at least reading other players submissions. I don't know, is SWTOR going to let trivial things bring it to its knees - or are these just the ragged beginnings of an MMO super power?SWTOR - Rising MMO, or Destined for failure?
tl;dr



I hope they will succeed I really do but somehow I doubt it. I love the Star Wars universe and the Old Republic setting but right now I really can't see a bright future for the game. Hell I played one story line (bounty hunter) and wondering if I should subscribe for another month... I really don't know.SWTOR - Rising MMO, or Destined for failure?
A big company like Blizzard, who's been running WoW for years now, knows how to deal with an online community. Although there are always problems at release, (even with open betas, its impossible to know exactly how the servers will cope,) But I think because Bioware hasn't had as much experience with an MMO of this scale, that also contributes to why there seems to be so many problems. I think you're right, depending on how things play out in the next couple of months, SWTOR will could fade away as players just give up on it, (such as with aion.) Or, it may turn into a good game with a strong community, but a small one, (such as guild wars,) - but I can't see it turning into something as big as WoW. I just never saw as much hype around it as a game such as GW2, and the problems it has will turn away players who were not that invested in the game anyway. TLDR: I think Bioware will iron out the bugs, and it will have a place in the MMO market, but by the time that is done, the player base will have significantly decreased.SWTOR - Rising MMO, or Destined for failure?
BW made the mistake of trying to copy WoW as many have done.
They have also made the mistake of thinking modern MMO's can be released with huge issues.
You will see many people tell you that WoW this and WoW that, but the truth is WoW was an exception to the rule and an argument that starts with but WoW is simply a moot point.
WoW came out at the right time with just the right content and at a point where bugs were expected.
The fact is people do not want another WoW or even a game close to it, they want something new, something that is released without the same amount of bugs as a game had 10 years ago.You know learn from the past and do better instead of exactly the same.
This game wont last very long because BW, like a lot of MMO companies, have no clue what the consumers want, they base themselves off of the WoW model because it makes alot of money, which is incorrect to do.
All people want is an open world game without a 3 mechanic model, i.e. DPS,heals,tank, it has been overdone and it is stale.

BW went the other way from the consumers by making it extremely linear, not very open and still having the 3 mechanic model, along with bugs that you would see from a game 10 years ago.

To me the game seemed like a single player game with multiplayer options instead of an MMO, not worth a monthly fee.

I would like to note, BW also failed by taking shortcuts such as the 2 .exe's for one application, something that you would never see in any video game because of the issues it causes client side.