- Pre-Orders over 400,000
Like many MMO gamers I know, I am anxiously awaiting the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. And like many, I have pre-ordered a copy of the game even though an official release date has not yet been announced. So many of us are interested in this game, that it has broken records for pre-release orders.
I would love to play this game; just like so many other fans who line up for hours at gaming conventions and talk about the game on blogs, podcasts, Twitter, and Facebook. In fact, the SWTOR Facebook page hit 400,000 “likes” today. Many of us are signed up on the SWTOR official forums and have volunteered to test the game. Having over 2 million signed up on the Forums and over 1 million signed up for the testing program shows a tremendous interest in this MMO.
I can’t imagine the sheer terror of disappointing that many highly vocal fans. I’m sure this is coupled with a strong sense of validation for hard work and vision, but I wonder how much the fear of failure is holding the company back. How many other games would wait this long and insist on release day goals that may not be fully achievable? Think about the vast number of things that could go wrong (and have gone wrong for others), completely unplanned or bizarre. Murphy’s Law and computer gremlins cannot be chained, controlled or anticipated.
So I have to wonder, is the desire to so strictly control the release and push for perfection driven more by stage fright than by real showstopping issues? Will any game ever be perfect enough? Can any game ever have a flawless release when dealing with so many variables? And now that Bioware has set such a high standard for a flawless release, will that inhibit their desire to say “good enough,” or will they keep pushing for perfection to the point that they miss a target window? It has already been said by an executive that while they WANT to release in Holiday 2011, they COULD release in early 2012 if they had to.
I want a quality game and I’d like a happy, lag free, queue free launch, but I’m willing to put up with a certain amount of launch hassle just to play the game. Bring up the curtain, turn on the lights, and give us a grand show. Maybe you’ll flub a few lines, maybe some props will fall over, but at this point in the long years of rehearsals, I just can’t see the show being a flop.
The situation BioWare is in is definitely not ideal. Can you imagine, if the developer was a single person that person would have had a nervous breakdown 10 times over by now.
My guess is, launch isn’t going to be perfect, but then very few MMO launches are. I just hope people are going to be understanding. Granted, there will be a vocal minority who will no doubt complain, but I hope the internet community doesn’t get caught up in the negativity as it usually does.
Exactly. I hope that the positive voices drown out the negative ones. I’m often embarrassed by how badly people tend to behave when expressing their opinions. You see it from the average fan but also from high profile reviewers who should know better. I have seen enough in the SWTOR community who are more than willing to be helpful, patient, and constructive to help redeem the rest.