BioWare holding Star Wars: The Old Republic guild summit next month

Thats a pretty neat idea. At least its something. Ill be honest and say I don't follow WoW or Blizzard but Bioware seems like its really trying to pay attention and give players every chance to change the path the game developers will go vs Blizzard who seems like a faceless entity and does what it pleases. But again I don't follow them so I don't know of any similar events. In any event cool idea Bioware.

I find the assertion of 1.7 million active subscribers to be misleading in representing the active-player-base. The game forces you to be an active subscriber for 30-days when you purchase it. Plus, lots of people I know bought 60-day time codes with the game or added another month or two when they were all hyper and giddy over the initial 'wow' factor.. A large group of the player base is locked in as '90-day' subscribers for accounting purposes.

But that doesn't mean they're active. Traffic in this game has dropped like a stone. Despite adding 20% to their customer base in January (300K subs), the play-traffic is still down 40% since January 8th, well after the kids went back to school after winter break.

I think what you're seeing, with the subscription claim, is nothing more than a timing artifact. Something that any professional accountant would be familiar with and not accept with credulity. Unlike some GameSpot writer or fanboy

These kinds of early-reporting accounting artifacts are to be expected and is not without precedent. The pattern SWTOR is going through is virtually identical to Warhammer online. HUGE boost in subs (to 800K), dropped quite a bit after the first month then farily rapidly over the next five months till it hit 100K subs in six months.

So now is not the time to be claiming anything about the player base from a reported subscription basis.

One more thing, Bioware can add all those features that player were use to them on wow but.... Do you think Blizzard or Trion can turn there game into a game like SW? With Voice acting and great stories for each class NEVER it will never happen because they can't!

People always find the negative, just tell me what is wrong with this event? I think its great that Bioware listen to us the players and not only trough the forums.

@toddx77 or bioware could play their own game.... and if they dont see the OBVIOUS flaws, and what needs to be fixed... then they should have never made an mmo to begin with. Same s*** happened with warhammer online, the Devs never played their own game, and didnt have a clue what alot of the issues were and what needed to be fixed. You see what happened to that game right? If i had myself $200 million to throw towards a game... you best believe i would be looking at every MMO in the last 8+ years that has failed terribly... and do the exact opposite. Bioware, clearly, hasnt done that, at all.

"Star Wars MMORPG developer inviting group leaders to three-day Texas event next month to meet with designers and discuss state of the game." So they're going to talk about how much the game blows... and what they need to do to TRY and fix it. Good luck Bioware.

@ DrkeX That's what happen when WoW (7yr old game) has time to gel features in the mind of MMO players, that any game launching in this day & age without half those features seem way back.. In all fairness, SWTOR should have had half of more of those features already built in.. Your telling me a company like Trion (who did rift) can get half those features in @ launch, with less than half the budget/team size of Bioware.. Doesn't that show that Bioware slacked off on SWTOR.. Even upcoming release (GW2, Tera) has more standard features in the game than SWTOR.. I like SWTOR, i but i will bash it, when the bashing fits the bill.

I read the forums daily, and finding a constructive thread is difficult. Most threads are filled with trolling (although it's died down since the free month ended) But most of the "Feedback" consists of asking WoW features, that's not really constructive by making a thread saying "I wunt arenas"

For all of you saying bioware should just read the forums have you considered that bioware would rather talk to the fans face to face to get an open discussion going? Its a lot easier to have a conversation and ask someone questions face to face while listening to them talk and hearing their tone of voice instead of just posting stuff on forums and waiting for them to reply and just reading text.

i don't own it-don't have that kind of cash or time -but i do like the look -if they want to make consumers happy give them more stuff for free-or hell add more races you can play as well as new classes -hell add new extras even if their little things -like let them buy homes and decorate them with stuff-i would love to see someone with a room full of carbonited bounties they keep as memetos of their missions ect....

It's good news for hardcore SWTOR supporters since it's hard to imagine BW inviting any but the most dedicate guild leaders, and that among them, any but the most hardcore will put up the money to attend. We should probably expect more of the same to come out of the event. Is that good? You decide. I just hope that it doesn't disproportionally favor the view of Americans, or Texans. :)

why listen to guild leaders when they the majority of the ppl on the forums have the same problems/suggestions: 1. FPS/optimization fix overhaul 2.LFG system 3. add ons

Merge some dam servers already. Im sick of there only being 20-30 people on a planet that im questing on. Loving the game but tis too empty

Merge some dam servers already. Im sick of there only being 20-30 people on a planet that im questing on. Loving the game but tis too empty

They sound like a bunch of cheapasses with that statement there at the end.

Wonder if the Red Shirt guy will be there?

"Additionally, those chosen to attend must pay for all expenses, including travel, food, and lodging." hahahaha! wooooooooooooooow! $200 million and they can't even foot the bill for the invites! Guess it all went to voice acting expense. Looks like EA/Bioware are being cheapskates on this one.

@ racerx719 They're probably hoping the lack of footing the bill weeds out undesirables. If a person is seriously willing to fly (for most of us, it would be flying) to Texas and spend all that money just to "talk" to employees must be very hardcore Star Wars fans. If it was a convention or a gaming event, I could understand, but for casual conversation?...

@pariah23 When SOE shipped those "selected" people out to San Diego they also were hand selected and very active members of the community or leaders of the top tier guilds. This is open to EVERYONE.. So I can kinda see why they arent flipping the bill for the super fancy awesome casual pony guild to come

Really? lmao......read the forums.....heads always yell at people for not searching, looks like BIOWARE is no different, I'd like to meet the idiots who come from out of state, spend all that money, just to talk with some geeks about a game that wasn't ready. I have a simple solution, remove the shards....learn multiplayer code, and allow GUI addons.

@ Nagaviper I think Bioware is exaggerating the population count a bit, but one thing for certain is they need to start merging a few servers. They're afraid to do that because it's an ominous sign their mmo didn't meet their server load expectations, but they need to suck it up and do it.

@ lhughey And they'll all be wearing Princess Leia outfits, treating it like a convention. Meanwhile, Captain Kirk will be there to claim Star Wars is derivative of Star Trek. It will be a lot of fun.

And yeah, Bioware not footing the bill is pretty pathetic. When SOE invited a bunch of us out to San Diego for a similar event regarding EverQuest, they paid for all expenses.

More like, it's what beta should have been for. Unfortunately the forums were just as bad then too and any good ideas or suggestions got buried in a sea of idiocy from people demanding to be able to sit in chairs or use chat bubbles.

isn't this what the forums are meant for? If they would actually moderate their forum and start punishing all the trolls and fanboys they could read them without having to browse through pages of junk posts.

There will be all kinds of cool guys there I'm sure.

What the...? Now wait a sec, what makes guild leaders so darn special? In my experience, GMs are nothing more than punks and whiny kids with a small army of sheeple and a goofy guild name over their heads.

" Additionally, those chosen to attend must pay for all expenses including travel, food, and lodging." ouch. At least the EVE Online guys pay for it.

@Nagaviper I fail to see how this game is 'failing hard'. They have confirmed the figures (in excess mind you) needed to make a profit, so imo, that is a pass. You don't like "Bugs, Poor customer support, lag, Bad pvp and end game content" in a newly released mmo? Then don't play a newly released mmo.

Other games have done this sort of thing without having to invite people physically. They just used their official forums to hear out what players thought and what they wanted to see improved. That's it, no expensive travels and hotels. Just plain and simple little threads with questionnaires.

They said there are 1.7 million active subscribers? i doubt that i have maybe 500-800 people total on my server and that is medium load

This game is falling hard. Bugs,Poor customer support,lag,Bad pvp and end game content is killing this game.

It's a cute gesture, but really just a PR maneuver. Nothing prevents them from browsing their own forums to glean what the players want. Nor does anything prevent them from opt-in surveys or market research. A lot of players will be eagerly cozened by this, thinking "Bioware has our best interest in heart, and they LISTEN!" but whatever gets brought up at this "summit" is already up for discussion. At least they seem to know that guild players are less likely to unsubscribe than unguilded.

That sounds good honestly. If they actually will take advice and do what people will want. As honestly a lot of times even with blizzard users and guilds will have a lot of great ideas and the developers are like "Well thats not in our plans right now" etc. With MMOs i really think developers should listen to what their players want more. I see a LOT of players of the game having issues and for me i think its a good game but, if they are having the summit they still should consider some of the stuffs. Wish i could go but . alas travel limiations /money etc. hah. :-p

Thanks for the news.