Quote I'm not a games designer. I've been a business analyst for over 10 years, and specialise in IT developments, looking at how processes work and deliver for customers and users.



I've played MMOs since 2005, organising Guilds and gaming communities for some of that time, and witnessed games transform as I played them to mixed critical reception. In all, I believe I have a reasonable perspective on what makes an MMO work for its players, coupled with realistic expectations around the lead time involved in designing and delivering platform change. But I'm not a games designer. I'm a player.



If SWTOR doesn't adapt, my opinion as a player is that it will spiral to a smaller and smaller player base and then die. Commercially, that may be acceptable to Bioware, but it seems like a missed opportunity to me. SWTOR could relatively easily adapt and maintain an MMO market share, and continue to provide revenue and a fun gaming experience.



There are a couple of fundamental mistakes in the game design at present:

1. Endgame content fun is limited to Battleground PvP and Operations.

2. Scaling the PvP Gear has made PvE content redundant.



With less dirct impact, but significant because the design has failed to deliver are the rest of my "top ten":

3. World PvP doesn't work at all

4. The Legacy system fails to offer incentives to play, it's just a money sink

5. Queue times for Battleground PvP content are artificially longer than necessary

6. Token based rewards are all itemised gear, lacking in vanity items which retain value beyond item scaling

7. The experiment with a world event in the Rakghoul Plague had no follow up

8. SWTOR lacks community management tools, encouraging players to use external tools and making it easier for them to migrate to other games

9. Change management between reward systems has been poor and demoralised players

10. Gear frequently fails to match the Star Wars tone



If the above aren't clearly being addressed, I expect I'll move on to the next MMO... which would be a shame, because SWTOR has several saving graces which make it a game worth saving, if you can. I hear nothing but praise for the quality and pacing of Operations, the quality and balance of the PvP Battlegrounds, the class skills and talent trees, the great visual design of the game worlds, and the excellent story-driven interface and cut-scenes.



So, Bioware, can you maintain that high quality whilst finding someone with the game design skills to deal with the problem areas which undermine them?



Not liking to present problems without some ideas about a solution, here are some thoughts:



1. Endgame content fun is limited to Battleground PvP and Operations: By limiting rewards to scaling gear with itemisation levels, you swiftly make the game content outside that redundant. This includes all the work the teams have done on Crafting Skills, Quests and Daily Quests, Space Battles and Flashpoints. They just don't provide any kind of useful rewards. Furthermore, the design makes them a grind for money and tokens (and possibly Social level), not an enjoyable experience you would choose to do for the fun or challenge or reward. The rewards need urgent review as a short term fix. Future content needs to be made to be fun to play and repeat, and offer an interesting and lasting choice of rewards.



2. Releasing the new cash-purchased level 50 PvP Gear was fine for balancing the PvP arena, but immediately rendered Tionese and lower itemisation gear redundant. For 200k you could immediately be Operation-ready and able to take on someone in full Tionese. Why have you not upped the PvE rewards to match the scaling in the PvP gear? Why would anyone now do a Flashpoint more than once, when the rewards are valueless? The PvE rewards need to scale at the same rate.



3. World PvP is problematic for every game you see it in. The main issues are a lack of opponents, unbalanced teams or uninspiring rewards. So, offer some decent rewards only available through World PvP for one. Then design the area to make it easy for people to get to from their main (ie: Fleet) location so it's quick to load. Design a big area with multiple objectives, so a small mobile group can still have successes, or give them a stats boost if necessary. Then offer a range of fun Daily Mission Quests which are in the PvP area but not PvP dependent to bring people back to the area actively on a regular basis. A fun PvP scenario and a few in-game graphic effects would be a bonus.



4. The Legacy system fails to offer incentives to play, it's just a money sink: This seems to have missed the point in implementation, and really needs a redesign. Legacy level itself should reward players who have kept on playing any and all content, as an incentive to keep playing. Crazy costs just make it painfully unappealing; do you really want to blow 2 million credits on a spurious reward, or keep that banked for Operations costs? As a money sink, it is equally daft; at best a short term fix to a bloated economy amongst a small elite of obsessive players - why make everything a static cost rather than offer recurring items of limited duration? Surely the economy will shrink once, then bloat again in the same way? Legacy should be designed to make it easier to play up alts, and reward people for doing so, encouraging people to enjoy the content without the more restrictive experience of their first levelling. And where are the fun vanity rewards? A few emotes? What about pets, roleplay gear, titles, ship cosmetics, etc? It's a missed opportunity to incentivise players to stay that just needs a strategic rethink about what it's trying to achieve.



5. Queue times for Battleground PvP content are artificially longer than necessary: Implement a cross-server queueing system for PvP Battlegrounds and for Flashpoints, to make it a faster experience for the players. This seems like a massive oversight, and is not market competitive with the current same-server only system.



6. Token based rewards are all itemised gear, lacking in vanity items which retain value beyond item scaling: More rewards should be fun, interesting, utility items, or pure vanity items (especially items with limited charges to encourage players to purchase again and again). Just offering itemised gear for the tokens you collect in PvE or PvP creates a natural cap on how long they have any value, and is entirely unnecessary.



7. The experiment with a world event in the Rakghoul Plague had no follow up: This came and went like a ball of confusion. It was interesting, but over in a flash, leaving in its wake a load of confused players who didn't see any ongoing references to what has happened, and were left holding stacks of tokens/inventory items that they couldn't spend, but presumably need to hang onto? This needed to blend more seamlessly into the ongoing world, ideally leading on into the next event, and leave behind a legacy of fixed vendors/suppliers/quests to allow players to complete/spend their tokens and get closure to their story.



8. SWTOR lacks community management tools, encouraging players to use external tools and making it easier for them to migrate to other games: If you don't have an event calendar and other guild management tools easy to use, players are forced to use external options - their own Forums, Facebook, Steam etc. This makes it a lot easier for your SWTOR Guild communities to move away from the game. As an individual player, that may not be a bad thing, but looking at the future of the SWTOR community as a whole, it's not a bright outlook. You should have a development team working on making the Guild and Community experience in SWTOR as easy and supported as possible. It's those communities which will remain loyal during the gaps in content, and will encourage more casual players to return, whilst keeping your servers alive for new players. In many ways, Guild communities act as in-game advisors and moderators, engaging with, managing and supporting less experienced players on Bioware's behalf. You need to be engaging with them and making them happy to be here.



9. Change management between reward systems has been poor and demoralised players: A lot of the issues with SWTOR suggest a lack of thorough impact assessment when changes are put into the game. Someone needs to have a clear strategic overview of what the design teams are doing, and be capable of gap analysis - asking the questions like what happens to the PvE content if we implement this new PvP itemised gear? Then (and this is often the hard bit) someone needs to listen to them, and do something about the gaps, preferably before the new content is released. Get a good Change Manager.



10. Gear frequently fails to match the Star Wars tone: We don't play Star Wars to look like transformers, nor to have oversized WoW shoulderpads inflicted upon us. Realistic costumes and some normal looking clothes and armours would be better.



I appreciate it's possibly arrogant and assuming for me to offer recommendations on how to run your game as someone outside your company. You may well have good reasons for some of the above concerns, and be confident you have others in hand. You may disagree with my perspective, that's fine too. But please listen and consider - I know I am far from being alone in my concerns, and I'd like these issues addressed so that SWTOR can become the success it deserves to be.



Regards, Alastair