SWTOR PvP Arena's will most likely be still born.

Currently on the PTS for SWTOR is the next major update for SWTOR. Well actually a subset of the next major patch. That subset is the new PvP Arenas that Bioware intends to release with some intention of reshaping the competitive PvP landscape in SWTOR. Unfortunately it would appear that Bioware is making another major misstep in this release.



Bioware has said that class balancing will not happen until at least 2.5 or 2.6 patches. Which means that all of the unbalanced class issues that have been around since 2.0's launch at the beginning of the year will not be addressed for at least another 2 to 4 months. The reason this is a major miss step in my opinion is that what has transpired on the PTS server is Arenas have exasperated the unbalanced classes and reduced the Arenas appeal due to only certain classes being truly competitive.



With Bioware saying those issues wont be addressed for another 2 to 4 months, it will result in Arena's being still born. Sure for the first couple of weeks the masses will play them, however ranked PvP will become none existent except for those players that do have FOTM classes and want to play them. Therefore by the time Bioware gets around to fixing the issues, the bad smell from the rotting corpse of PvP Arenas will be beyond even the best Necromancers ability to revive.



I am a software developer by trade and I certainly understand prioritising development to address the high revenue generating features over the least. The 2.4 patch for Bioware does just this. It adds two new PvE Operations, which it's no secret that there are more active PvE focused players than PvP focused players. However I think Bioware needs to retain both crowds for a viable healthy community. Not to mention that should the PvP crowd leave and brand the games PvP a complete waste of time, it will limit the appeal potentially for new players and devalues all of the work and effort thats gone into PvP in the past.



Not addressing the PvP class balances even in small incremental steps is a major oversight by the Development Team Leads and Project managers at Bioware. Hamstringing the release of the PvP Arenas in such a way is only going to devalue all of the hard work and resources poured into the PvP update for this patch.



Bioware I think you owe it to yourself and the community to make a decision on whether you want a PvP community in this game or not. Coming out with half baked PvP updates is a sure fire way to kill your PvP community and to poison the well to such an extent it will never recover. If you dont want PvP seriously, then you owe it to your PvE customers to not waste precious development resources on PvP and address their concerns. Stop talking about a Super Secret Space Project and move the development resources onto it and get it in the spot light this decade.



However if your smart, then the business senses should be saying that you would want to attract both crowds and not limit the appeal of your game and ensure that you can maintain a healthy subscriber base to counter the next triple AAA MMO's when they come out of beta in early 2014. The MMO business is about retaining subscriber numbers. Without subscribers no one is going to buy your cartel content packs and the revenue dies. Im sure the majority of the cartel coin spending players have a sub. The freeloaders are going to be a small percentage of that revenue in my opinion.



Minor tweaks to the glaring classes that have very clear and definite issues will at least help give Arena's a fighting chance, unfortunately as it stands, Ranked PvP Arena's will be still born on arrival and one of the last nails to be put in the PvP coffin will be hammered home.



Come on Bioware, dont poison the well, heal PvP to full.