Thursday, May 24, 2012

I cancelled my SWTOR subscription today



I cancelled my SWTOR subscription today.  I spent way too much time telling them why but I felt I needed to do it for my anger at EA/Bioware and not because I think it will have any impact.  Here's what I wrote:
I really liked the single player aspect of the game but the developers totally failed in trying to make a immersive world.  Planets felt empty, playing through the game a second time for my legacy was a chore as there were no alternate paths, travel/spaceports were poorly implemented, and poor map/ quest designs made it seem like you spent most of your time running around a world trying to get around obstacles instead of having fun.  The game's engine didn't seem to be able to handle the load as it the game lagged at times especially when more than 10 people were in the same area.  That is pretty much inexcusable for a game that calls itself a multiplayer game.   
It really feels like you knew this game was poorly designed so you released at a time when  Star Wars/Bioware fans would buy it so you could maximize getting your investment back from box sales alone.  The developer conference in March pretty much confirmed it was released early as there were many comments like "we would have liked to get that into the release but didn't have time."   This game is a failure mostly of the designers that didn't have a good clear cut vision of what was needed, a game development team that couldn't get an engine to work, and upper management that cold-heartedly exploited the love of the brand names to maximize profit for developer mistakes. 
I know I'm not alone in my feelings and despite that I still want to love this game.  I just can't wait any longer for it to improve so I'm cancelling until I hear from those patient enough to stick around that things have been fixed. 
FWIW I have loved Bioware and all its products since Baldur's Gate and have bought every game they've released since that time.  It is apparent that EA cares little about protecting the name that Bioware built over the years.  The Bioware tradition of making sure their products are of the highest quality is no longer a priority so I will no longer purchase any of their products without first waiting a month or two to make sure this doesn't happen to me again.
 I'm not really sure anything else needs to be said.  I have 1 day left on my subscription (I didn't realize it but the they applied the 30 free days before I paid last month) and I'm not even sure I will log in.  It's not like there's anyone online for me to say goodbye.

I may post on this in the future as I hear of new developments but it will be spotty and most likely will eventually stop.

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