The Daily Grind: Did BioWare make the right call?

@(Unverified)
I would like to say that it is their product and they have the right to do whatever they want with it. Everyone's acting like their human rights have just been abused, but BioWare can do whatever they want with it. If you don't like it and want to show them what they did was stupid then don't buy the game. It's pretty simple.
Honestly this game looks way to cookie cutter for me to give two rats about anyway and all the people that spent $150 on a game are the ones that are going to be taking the risk, I can't get my head around how people would spend that much money on something you haven't tried/barely tried. Who knows, give it 2 months and they'll probably come crying about how bad this game was at launch.

@(Unverified) Specially when you consider Oceania adds a whole 10% extra to the servers......not only that but they mostly play at the lowest population times as well.

I also heard the idiot EA/BW spokesmouth saying it would cost '100's of millions more to launch everywhere' like to know based off what. An extra 10% more server capicty that they will need eventually anyway? Or distribution costs? It costs $4,500 to send a 40' sea freight container CIF (Costs, Insurance & Freight) from the US to Australia, sure it's going to be several 40' containers but 100's of millions of dollars worth it ain't.

@mmogaddict localization costs a freakin' mint. You need translators to change the quest/item text, moderators to handle the forums, GMs that can speak the language to handle in-game issues, Customer Service people to take calls, tech support that can handle OS/ISP issues unique to that region (and speak the language to tell people how to fix their game), and of course having all those people online during the time that people in those regions are online.

Adding a new language to a game can add an immense cost.

@Kaoss

I spent the big bucks for 2 reasons.

1. I love Star Wars
2. My friend is in Beta & loves the game ( He even bought the CE )

Not every game is for everyone but I like that more options are starting to pop up. I played WoW for a long time & welcome change.

@(Unverified)

Watch out mate, you're getting bombarded by fanboys and your ratings are plummeting. Basically, here's the successful formula to dealing with fanboys:

1: When you come onto a topic of something they like, and fanboys will flock to in hopes of White Knighting every terrible decision they make, agree whole heartedly with them. It's not brown nosing, it's being an ascended Jedi Master (Eternal Space Virgin).

2: Should you disagree with all knowing Gods like Bioware (creators of such great games like Dragon Age 2), hide your message so only the astute can find it. Loop your agreements and disagreements, so the unwashed masses (fanboys) can't get it. They'll think you are legend, while the rest of us smarties cackle as they agree whole heartedly with you.

3: If you dare to insult your imperial masters, use a nerfbat rather than uprooting the stupid tree and dropping it on their collective heads. Otherwise, you may end up having your comments disappear without warning.

4: Before reading the forums after your post to see what the fanboys say, get some headache medicine, and open the Darwin Awards in a separate screen. Your IQ will fall as fast as being in the physical presence of Paris Hilton.

Now you know how to deal with fanboys and their communities. Fly right, stay safe, and never ask a Jedi Master to run more than 2 feet, otherwise his mommy will get mad at you for nearly giving her boy a heart attack. This message has been brought to you by NERD RAGE, with 4 eyes comes 4 times the POWER!

@Kaoss Exactly, this game will not be the WoW-killer, or anything special. It is WAY over hyped and will probably live up to no one's expectations past the initial novelty.

@(Unverified)
I am glad that your friend is enjoying the beta and that you managed to get a pre-order. I hope you thoroughly enjoy the game. I myself like Star Wars but I'm not one of those people hugely into it, I've seen the six movies, I know some of the characters and that's about it, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.
I hope your money is well spent :)

@Kaoss "I can't get my head around how people would spend that much money on something you haven't tried/barely tried." I agree.
MMO history is clear on what kind of bat$hit crazy this is.

@Saker
I agree, I'm scratching my head to try remember a game where two months after launch everyone still loved it. To be fair RIFT did pretty well, but also to be fair, WoW had a problematic launch from what I'm told yet that game is THE MMO now. But that is why I never buy a game that I haven't played before release, I think every game has potential, but launches rarely contain that potential, but months/years later down the track often the game will be showing it's true potential and that is when I will spend my money (and less of it than those at release :) )

@ShivanSwordsman Getting downvoted on this forum gets you more reads than being upvoted.

@(Unverified)

If EA really wanted to do this whole staggered country launches, what it should have done:

- Not sent emails saying to pre-order from Origin to persons who, due to their country (known by EA, since we were asked for it when registering), wouldn't be able to pre-order.

- Not added advertisement telling users can pre-order from Origin to localized versions of Origin in countries that can't actually pre-order. The Brazilian version of Origin is still stating, erroneously, that we can pre-order; every day that advert stays up, I get more tempted to sue them for false advertisement.

- Released, at the very least, a worst-case schedule for the launch in the resr of the world, with the latest dates the launch at each other market could actually happen; and state whether or not those other markets will be able to purchase the Collector's Edition or the Digital Deluxe versions.

- Released information about subscription prices (or, at least, a ceiling for them) together with the pre-order.

This whole staggered launch mess, the way it was conducted, dropped my enthusiasm for the game from "I will certainly pre-order" to "I might take a look after I'm bored with GW2". And if, by the end of the week, they don't either open pre-orders to Brazil, or remove that blasted advert telling me to pre-order now from the starting page of the Brazilian version of Origin, I'm quite tempted to sue them for false advertisement.

@DarkWalker I don't know how good this will be for you but SR has stated that the sub fee won't be anomalous, sounds like the standard $15 a month to me

@Vgk
I don't trust the company that put an end to Ultima, Wing Commander, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, etc; the one that decided to add paid DLC to about every Bioware game published since the acquisition; the one that thought it cool to release the basic version of a subscription game for $60.

The only reason I'm not sure they will pursue a price hike is that the market is actually moving towards smaller prices. If not for that - if F2P wasn't such a challenge to the traditional subscription model nowadays, if GW2 wasn't launching with a subscription-less business model, if not for the plethora of promotional plans currently available that drop the subscription price to $10 per month - I would be quite certain of EA trying to increase the subscription price.

@fallwind Except the language in use in most of the Oceanic region is ... wait for it..... English.

@fallwind

Localisation for what. The Primary language in australia is english.

I would even go so far to say that the US and europe would both have other language localisations to start with anyway

@(Unverified)

Limiting copies was a bad mistake, as is still holding back on the subscription price. I know thats why I haven't bought any copy yet.
If the subscription is optimistically outragious and (say for arguments sakes) the most expensive subscription for an MMO ever (to claw back the development costs) - how many of you will be playing continuously from release if the sub is fifteen dollars plus ?.

No sale until the sub is detailed personally.

@(Unverified)

I thought the NDA didn't allow people in the Beta to tell others they were even invted to the beta testing.

@fallwind

That's not even taking into account all of the marketing needed, which is actually the biggest initial upfront cost.