Could Star Wars the Old Republic be hurting itself?! It certainly is possible.
The game is known for its constant friday updates, but these updates could be doing more harm than justice to the up coming game, let me explain just how. At first many people were very excited over each Star Wars the Old Republic update, especially when they were first announcing the classes and advanced classes. But now, for many readers, the updates are constant let downs, instead of interesting new news about the game they have been waiting quiet some time for. Because of this it could be possible that Bioware is infact killing its own game before it's even ready for the real world!
Now don't get me wrong, Bioware doesn't have to update each friday and it is very nice that they do take the time to. But because of the fact they do people would expect a little more than a 2 minute video or some interview about a guild that is going to be in the game, before the game is even announced for release! For many it seems that instead of fridays being days they can't wait to come in order to discover new information about their favorite game to watch; it is instead becoming a day where players pray for a release date, beta info, or something interesting. Now I know many of you may enjoy the updates, and whatever little thing Bioware releases about the game, however for many seeing a video of others playing the game without even showing any game footage just isn't too appealing.
So is Bioware killing the hype of Star Wars the Old Republic by delaying the release of a release date and other information we have been waiting for? Well we can look at this from two points of view.
Bioware is not killing the hype at all but instead building more and more that will be released in a frenzy of excitement when the release date is finally released, which will hopefully be very close to the time of the actual release date. By doing this Bioware can insure that they will get the maximum preorders in and the media coverage they want, it also gives them plenty of time to finish up the final touches to the game so that they can work at their own pace and avoid rushing. Also for the players who have stopped caring about Star Wars the Old Republic because of the dull updates, they will surely come back once they hear the release date.
The other opinion could be that Bioware is destroying the game's hype and that many players are losing interest and faith in Bioware due to the boring updates. Thinking of this opinion we can look at how at first when the game was announced it was very exciting, then it was even more so once the first cinematic was released. Each week was a surprise as we learned more about the classes and how the game would work. Then the updates became dull for awhile until the preorder announcement was released when the hype increased greatly, with people hoping that next they surely must release a release date. However Bioware did not in the following weeks and the hype fell down as quickly as it surfaced. Using this opinion it seems that Bioware would have been better off announcing the game at a later date so they could skip the boring updates and go straight into the game's details then release date.
Here is a graph showing how opinion's two idea of how hype increases with each announcement then decreases with the following announcements, causing people to lose interest in the game.
It may not be very professional or accurate, but it does get the point across.
My opinion on the matter is that Bioware is doing a fantastic job when it comes to making sure the is an update each week for us to read, however they are doing a pretty poor job at choosing a good topic that the majority of the community will enjoy, or even read. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can begin to see more interesting information coming out about the game as Bioware stated in E3 that they are still aiming for a 2011 release date for Star Wars the Old Republic and hopefully we can get that release date out of them soon.
I know that the boring updates haven't affecting me too much and I still constantly check the swtor site every Friday in hopes for that golden release date or some other news I didn't even know I should have been excited for in the first place! But that's enough about me, what is your opinion on your matter, is Bioware handling the updates good, should they not release any unless they have something good to post, should they continue as they are doing, or should they simply try and devote more effort into longer more interesting articles and videos that the community would love to see?
Please be sure to post below with you thoughts, as we'd love to hear them!