@slyngelag said:

HA! while I am still playing and having a lot of fun with the game, this email is just... embarrassingly pathetic.

The 400 I get from every MMO I've ever played or signed up for out of boredom aren't pathetic. Hell, I got Aion ones that were doing double experience weekends. Free WoW time. Or a free item in some F2P shop.

I don't get how this is any different. They are using what people think is the best part of the game, the story, to try and get you to come back. Big deal.

@Mdk5631: This just in, MMO adds features after launch. All a ploy to get you to spend money.

Burnt out. Cancelling before they take any more of my money.

Also, can't wait for Mass Effect 3.

I was getting a bit bored, but then I started up a new character. A Chiss mostly light side Bounty Hunter and it might be the best story yet. Even better than my Agent. Not only is Mako my favorite companion so far she loves pretty much every decision I make. All the imps are total space racists to me because I'm not human which just makes it more satisfying when you are allowed to kill them.

I still have over a month left on my Game Time Card so we'll see then if I will continue to play or not, but right now I'm on my second wind so to speak.

MASS EFFECT 3 WILL BE GOOD

Yes I still play. Have I had emails like this from every MMO I played...Why yes, yes I have!

I wouldn't call the email pathetic. You played the game, so you have to expect they'll try to convince you to return.

Sure most people won't return at the moment, but if they address all the problems that players are complaining about then those emails might just work to their benefit in the end.

cancelled as well... MMO fatigue kicked in after 2 hours for me.

@selbie said:

I wouldn't call the email pathetic. You played the game, so you have to expect they'll try to convince you to return.

Sure most people won't return at the moment, but if they address all the problems that players are complaining about then those emails might just work to their benefit in the end.

"Hey, this female Twi'lek companion that you hardly used misses you" seems pretty pathetic to me.

I'm not saying it's not a valid tactic though.

I stopped playing in the beta, seems a bit soon for them to already be sending the please come back emails. Reminds me of fucking netflix

Yeah, this is pretty pathetic and weak compared to what other MMO's have send out of Emails. Even though people usually think of the Story as the strongest part of Old Republic, it is pretty pathetic compared to the free-game time, some free item or double experience. That was at least something, instead of a picture of a companion begging me to return to the game.

Also isn't this extremely early to begin sending out these kinds of Emails to the players?

Still playing it. Very much enjoying it.

Oh also doing it as SINGLE PLAYER ONLY as I can.

Fuck the MMO part, except for random games of Hutt-Ball to get me some phat exp.

I didn't think it was either gross or pathetic and I bet this would work on some people. It's not the most elegant way to get someone back but It's not worth it to get stressed over.

That e-mail is hardly the most pathetic thing I've seen from an MMO to retain players, WoW flat out says you'll make an Orc cry if you cancel your account.

But yeah, still playing and loving it.

I love Star Wars and I enjoy MMO's anyway, plus the story stuff and being able to do it with friends is something I really like with multiple characters in the cut-scenes chiming in. There's a bit of incentive to play other classes with the offering of more class stories to play out with some really different motivations for each class.

Also stuff get's added and changed all the time and I like that about MMO's.

End game stuff seems fine at the moment, but MMO fans bitching isn't exactly anything new in the world.

No. I was considering going back but then I was accepted into the Diablo III beta.

Yep, still with it. Level 31, just got off Tatooine. Been soloing it most of the way, and I'm quite liking it so far.

@Luchalma said:

Yes, and loving it more than I ever thought I could love an MMO.

Seems you're looking to much into the email. It's just a cute little message.

Shhh, we need to leap on everything Old Republic does wrong. There was a memo.

I have two guys around level 30 and one at level 20. I'm enjoying the stories so far. Dreading what awaits me (or does not await me) at 50, buts there new content out in March, so by the time I'm 50 more stuff to do!

Nay, got my sith warrior to 25 and stopped playing. Class story is cool and all, but everything else is just worse WoW.

Yes, I am, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with it.

I reached level 50 with my Sith Juggernaut and I'm continuely playing both him and a new Jedi Knight character I started, as well as other's that I plan on levelling.

I feel the the story is fantastic and I find the combat a lot more engaging and fun than in other MMOs out at the moment. I'm going to keep playing until I'm done with it, but I don't see that being any time soon.

Oh yea still super addictive

I cancelled after a week of play. Just wasn't what I was hoping it would be. Just regret spending out on the game in the first place. Haven't missed it at all.

I get an email like this every other week from an mmo ive played at some time in my life, i usually just open and delete and then dont think about it again. I havent played in 2 weeks mostly due to Kesslers Run getting really quiet and my brothers PC breaking down so i have no one to hang with. They are doing an anniversery thing in Star Trek this weekend so whilst im in the mmo mood ill probably log a couple of hours.

I sure am still playing Jeff. Actually rolling my second character - a lvl 27 Sniper. The IA really is the hidden gem for storylines in that game - Ryan was right.

When I first started playing my original character on a low population server, I agreed completely with your assessment that the world was instanced to the point where it didn't really feel like an MMO any more from a social perspective.

However, since rolling this new character on the Kessler Run server, I kind of disagree with you. The Imperial Fleet (basically the Empire's Stormwind) is packed to the gills with players at seemingly any time of the day. To the point where the game is bringing my two video cards to their knees. Sure a lot of questing areas are instanced off, but I consider that a good thing, because it means I'm probably about to encounter a story bit, instead of typical MMO quest pablum. It also means the mobs I kill aren't going to respawn, which is a plus.

I almost left the game because my lvl 50 Jedi Shadow was boring me to tears since finishing the storyline, but I'm glad I didn't. Rolling this sniper has gotten the game's hooks back into me.

I haven't cared about an MMO like this since I left WoW like 6 years ago. It's flawed in a lot of ways, but still good.

Yet another thing in The Old Republic that should be done by fellow players instead of pre-programmed NPC's.

I usually take it 10 levels at a time, which takes some time, before I get a little tired.

Right now I am hitting about 60 hours in Skyrim and I'd love to get more time with that, and, eventually, finish all the quests. as soon as I'm done I'll probably get back to SWTOR full time. I'm in a great guild, I hate my scoundrel and can't believe I didn't make a dude with a lightsaber, so I'll be rolling a Guardian and a Shadow :)

All I can say is, whether they're desperate or not, that e-mail does reek of desperation. So if things aren't all that bad, they probably shouldn't be sending out shit that makes it look horrible.

I bought a 60 day card and kind of wish I did not since the games just sitting there. I'm not fully done with it yet though.

All the comments on here are making my thoughts that this game will be free to play in 12 months time as solid as Han Solo in frozen carbonate

Someone doesn't play Facebook games. Good!

Lasted two weeks before I decided, "Yep that is enough MMO for this year." Cancelled my subscription 3 days later.

Still playing, and enjoying.

It's so fucking boring playing this game by yourself, holy crap. I made it to level 31 and haven't touched it in about 10 days now. I don't feel like starting over just to play with dudes on Giant Bomb either, because the game itself is pretty dull. All the dialogue and story stuff is just laughable for the most part, like it's even worse than Dragon Age 2. The future of BioWare looks bleak indeed.

Oh and hey, check this out: http://imageshack.us/f/834/1328189603943.jpg/

XD luv bioware <3

I stopped playing this game a while ago, so disappointed with it.

Well, I think you're looking at this a bit too cynically, Jeff. I still get emails from Eve Online promising me free game time if I come back. How's this any different?

Would you rather they send out in "Dear Player, we would like to remind you to renew your subscription to our product, whereby we will also credit you with free game store coins bla bla bla..." format?

Not that I'm blindly defending them, but it could probably also just be an effort on BioWare's part to make what would otherwise be a boring marketing e-mail more personalised...?

No, I am no longer playing. I was loving it, then I just lost interest in it.

I had a Jedi as my first character and it got extremely tedious by the time i got to Hoth because the game feels unbalanced and I felt like I was doing next to no damage, so I spent most of my time fighting 3 mobs or so and then healing for 15 seconds after every fight. I managed to complete the game but Voss had to be the worst thing i've ever had to go through in a game, it constantly sends you back and forth to the same places and the story was really terrible. The Jedi Knight story was pretty good but I felt like i was doing chores too often as I hated Alderaan, Hoth and Voss but Corellia was sort of alright.

I also gave smuggler a try inbetween to see some of the story stuff but it seemed really cliche'd and predictable and I never had an incentive to go on after the prologue was complete.

I then made an Imperial Agent and I have really been enjoying it apart from when I got to Alderaan and Voss, though they are no where near as bad as they were as Republic. I still noticed how the gameplay felt kind of uneven after Alderaan as enemies hit really hard and it is often a challenge to kill elite enemies in comparison to the beginning of the game where you could strategize to kill 2 in the one fight, but I am doing considerably more damage than I was as Jedi Knight. The story is far better than that of the other two classes that i've tried and Kaliyo Djannis is an amazing companion who has a lot of great interaction with your agent character, she is by far the best of the characters i've met and so good that I feel that you wouldn't need any other companions as an agent.

So my thoughts are that the Republic pretty much sucks in term of story and I feel like most people you encounter are too set on doing the goodest-of-good and it gets annoying. Also it seems like Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior feel severely underpowered by Hoth and onwards when you are fighting enemy NPCs. If anyone is thinking of playing this game I would recommend going Imperial as the characters you encounter feel more real to me.

I can't help but feel like this game was unfinished, maybe pushed out to be released inbetween the Star Wars blu-ray release and 3D theatrical release. Republic needs a lot of work and anything past Hoth feels like they are forcing you to spend the most time you possibly could to complete quests.

Loving all the different stories, I keep rolling new alts and then doing it again when they hit around 35

I got to 50 and made another character to 38 and I've fallen off hard now. I just don't think I have it in me to play mmo's anymore. So much time required for so little reward.

I'm still playing for the time being. I have a level 50 Sith Juggernaut, and I enjoyed the storylines as I leveled up the first time.

However, I'm having a hard time enjoying leveling a second character (I have a ~30 Bounty Hunter and Sith Assassin). Doing the same quests over again is really boring, and the class storylines aren't holding my attention as well anymore.

I'm beginning to ramp up to endgame stuff on my Juggernaut, and looking forward to seeing raids and whatnot, but my enthusiasm is beginning to languish.

Really, this game is just tiding me over until Guild Wars 2 comes out anyway!

@inappropriate_touchscreen said:

Well, I think you're looking at this a bit too cynically, Jeff. I still get emails from Eve Online promising me free game time if I come back. How's this any different?

Would you rather they send out in "Dear Player, we would like to remind you to renew your subscription to our product, whereby we will also credit you with free game store coins bla bla bla..." format?

Not that I'm blindly defending them, but it could probably also just be an effort on BioWare's part to make what would otherwise be a boring marketing e-mail more personalised...?

I think what Jeff is trying to say is that this level of "personalization" is the creepy part of this marketing scheme. He would rather Bioware/EA keep it professional in their plea for him to rejoin their MMO.

This marketing ploy is no different than when you attempt to delete your Facebook account. You are told that "X, Y and Z friends" will miss you when you are gone.

I canceled about three weeks in. Thought it was pretty fun but just didn't have the time.

Will not be done playing it for years! New to MMO's but can't get enough of it!

I remember reading a great article in GI magazine about how all these players on Star Wars Galaxies are saying their emotional goodbyes before all their servers were turned off. I can see why Bioware would be jumping to send these emails out when people are dropping off at 100 hours in when the previous Starwars MMO kept people around for years.

I think all of you railing on Jeff are missing a huge point, sure all of the other MMOs send these emails out, that doesn't make them any less pathetic, this is the one that Jeff received so that's the one that he writes about.

The timing of the email couldn't be any worse, who does Bioware really think is going to resub after getting this email, anyone they are sending this to has been out of the game for less than a month! These emails are typically reminders (as others have said) after you've been gone for an extended period of time and the game has new features/content.

Of all the MMO genre conventions that Bioware screwed up, I find it funny that they got this one "right".

I'm not an MMO person (mostly because I think that if I ever became one, it would ruin my life) but my roommate it playing it and loving it. I'd bet the thing finds its audience that sticks with it for quite some time. I mean, if Galaxies, which by all accounts was kind of bad, can manage to run for, what, five years? Then I bet The Old Republic which by all accounts is good if not particularly original, should be able to last at least that long.

Time is really what stops me from playing more often then not. I still have my Sub and the wife and I hop on and play about once a week right now as that is what life allows us. Its a great game with some flaws and changes that it could use to really make it a lot better. There is a lot of pve balance issues with melee characters.

This just seems like a really trollesque sort of a post. It has pretty much no news, and it's just your own opinion about the addicting level of SWTOR. You didn't give any real reasons, and though I refuse to play MMOs (too addicting, not enough time), I have plenty of friends who have been merrily playing it for a while, and all of them still love it. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I am saying you're wrong for making your opinion out to be the general consensus, when really it's not. Yes, the last paragraph redeems a bit, but the rest of the article is just so negative - it's really a turn off

My account is canceled as well. The 2nd half of the game was just so unenjoyable and buggy that I felt they didn't deserve my money. Let's not get started on the abysmal PVP. Overall, I thought the story was worth my 60 bucks....but barely.

Hello, Just bought the thing.

Please tell me when I should stop.

Please tell me a good breaking-point in the main story-line (without spoilers if possible), I'd stop there and cancel my account.

I am currently playing the Jedi Knight Sentinel build and I just started Coruscant (brushed off the senator...)

Cheers,

Patrick

[RANT/]

SWTOR: I played the Beta - wrapped it up when I got my lightsaber, at least that's how it feels in my head - following this I went to the station and that was too much running around and around a HUGE hub which was full of people running (jumping/zig-zagging) around with mostly crappy-creepy character names floating above their heads during beta, but now it's a ghostown. Coruscant is also HUGE, crossing the map to report mission accomplished, if only my holo-projector were 2-way, my mileage would vary greatly.

I don't like:

So far it's a gazillion Jedi and Sith plus one - this kills the whole SW mystic (slightly less than midi-cholrians mind you, but still).

Dark Side choices (for the light side) that speak the mind of a 14-year old.

Quest-givers should pull a chair and open a kiosk - take a load off.

Grinding.

Story-wise, I am trying to care.

All I wanted was SW Knights of the Old Republic III (IV-V-VI). I liked SWKOTORI and II and If it's about making dough - I would have been happy with online authorization, retinal-scan DRM and a 69.99 price tag and whatnot. You've got all the asset! Repackage as solo missions - do like KISS did and do separate covers/releases for each class, I don't mind.

The game is okay, and seems I just don't like MMOs (listen... it's not you, it's me... I think we should see other people). I end up playing solo within a great big World that's full of people running (jumping/zig-zagging) around with mostly crappy-creepy character names floating above their heads.

SWTOR SUPPORT is really not good and Best Buy ended up being really helpful against my expectations .

Guild Wars was also quite good - and very beautiful, I wanted to get into it so much that I ended buying the strategy guide as well as additional copies of the game for my friends (but they weren't gamers to begin with, so that was money well wasted). I stopped when the game started to become too hard for solo-ing even with hirelings at my side.

DDO Unlimited, I like this one because it's kind of high-fantasy and it's D&D (unfortunately Forgotten Realms it isn't). Despite that I am probably not that far into the game, towns/hubs are rather small and quest-givers are plentiful, sewer adventures here I come! And it's very solo-friendly.

[/RANT]

still playing. it's a decent game. far from perfect. the limited planets for alts makes it a chore after so much. And you grind like mad.

They should have had at LEAST a starter planet PER class...then at LEAST 2 planets to choose from (if not more) for each level range (like say Coruscant or Tattooine for 10-15...Hoth or Balmora for 15-20, etc) to give a little CHOICE so you're not grinding through the SAME thing (keep story questlines a seperate instance or something..but that does make this suggestion tricky..still the SAME path over and over again for each alt is a HUGE part of Champions Onlines downfall)

What is annoying..isn't SWTOR's fault..but idiot players who are judging any new MMO off a game that's been out for YEARS and has had time to implement a TON of additional content. of COURSE there's less content in SWTOR..it JUST came out. WoW at launch wasn't much different..and you can't expect companies to give us the kind of content WoW's had years to come out with on a brand new MMO.

I'll keep playing for awhile..not sure how long. When I'm bored I'll quit.

But this judging new MMO's because it doesn't have 6+ (how many has WoW been out now?) worth of content is absolutely idiotic. And the fault of the consumers..not the companies putting them out.

And, as has been said, Jeff...was this some sad attempt to just make a stab at SWTOR? I dislike EA and after DA2 I'm not too fond of BioWare...but these kind of e-mails come from EVERY MMO out there. I've tried or bought almost every one released and I get this crap from them ALL. This one is just dressed up...which is fitting due to SWTOR's focus on story and whatnot. Try harder to be legit.