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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Opiate for the Masses
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com Star Wars: The Old Republic Columnist Eric Barnett returns this week with a look at the lore and other small tidbits of information being leaked out of the Bioware studios surrounding the development of their highly anticipated MMO.
With development continuing to grind along, the Old Republic website does its best to keep us entertained while we patiently wait for more information. I use patiently very loosely here being that if you are like me, you turn into a kid at the candy store looking at some new chocolate bar. You have no idea if it will like it or not, but man do you want it. E3 is looming just around the corner, hopefully yielding some Star Wars related goodies for us. In the mean time, the good folks over at www.swtor.com have been feeding the fans with some hype inducing nuggets of back story lore. This week, we will take a dive into the midi-chlorian deep end and examine the universe behind the game.
Read Opiate for the Masses.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Some body should write these guys a letter,
the cloning of WOW with a different theme was so 5 years ago.
Give me a sandbox, not koto CO -OP with a 15 dollar sub.
Thanks but no Thanks, Bioware in for a rude awakening when it comes to the mmorpg crowd imo.
I'm doing a good impression of being non-chalant and patient, but it's all an act. I'll turn feral once the information on playable races comes out.
Hope the game is out by 2011.
The 'article' reads like something a former SOE spurned SWG player would write.
Also, for your guidance, the people making SWTOR are are the same people that made SWG, M59, Shadowbane, and The Sims Online.
Which is to say everything they've pushed out was total crap.
Not all BioWare offices are equal. BioWare Austin isn't the same as BioWare Edmunton. Which is to say that the BioWare that made stand out titles like Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age, KOTOR, and NWN are NOT the same BioWare that's making SWTOR.
Zebras don't change their stripes.
You're going to get the same half assed, half backed, derivative diku crap that they've pushed out before.
But your naivety is very, very cute.
I would really like the master / apprentice system to be more fully explored in this game. I realize that many people can reproduce the same feeling through RP but to add some viable bonuses / skills based on this system would add a lot of depth to the force sensitive classes. If this could be tied into the guild ranks system as well it could add tons of fun for PvP / PvE and some light RP to heavy RP value depending on player. Also this way the other classes could also potentially benefit form this system as well. Something along the lines of extra skills for being guild leader / officer etc... depending on your class of course. This could add some fun possibilities for moving up/down the ranks in your guild through assassination / duels hehe. Well I can dream can't I? :-)
As to what I would rtaher see between lore / comics / screen shots / trailers, I'd have to put them in following orde rof importance:
Lore > Comics > Screen shots > Trailers :-)
How depressing for me as a Star Wars fan, I'm sure there are a ton of others as well. When I see anything about Star Wars the old republic online, all I see is ANOTHER item based / gear based / level based / no skill / hand holding / struggle to keep ahead PvE MMO. PvP will be a joke in this game, just like rest of the PvE MMO's out or being made. I'm so tired of great IP's that deal with massive wars being turned into small scale arena PvP with a bunch of jack asses who think PvP should be rewarded. Don't forget that EA Games has their dirty hands in this game. I hope that a MMO developer out there has the balls to take a great IP that deals with war and turns it into a fantastic game. Enough with all these light weight sissy PvE MMO's.
Amen Bro. And as much as I hope this game kicks ass, it's going to have too much influence from Lucus, who produced two great films completely by accident and then managed to destroy the rest with his 'vision'. Even comparing Empire Strikes back, arguably the best movie of the series, to Return of the Jedi is like comparing Tolkien to Rowling. One of these days 'Holywood' is going to catch on to the fact that over the top special effects and huge explosions detract from the 'reality' of a movie and sometimes too much action can actually be boring.
This game definitely isn't WoW. For one thing, WoW never had a story. It IS a sandbox. And not a very good one.
And the moaning continues....
Take a moment off your usual complaining time and look at the last years of MMO market. You had plenty of 'indie' 'different' 'not-wow-like' games promised and announced and obviously they didnt/dont work out.
I would love a perfect MMO as well but that aint going to happen. You are minoriity and thus from buisness point of view you can be sacraficed. Just like WoW was a success so TOR has a chance to be. It will not be the vocal minority of 'pro skill' players that decide about it but the casual masses that want to *gasp* enjoy the game (i know, blaphsemy).
The game obviously isint targetted at people that want a challenge and pvp based on twitch reflex and 'mad skillz', whatever that would actually mean (i missplaced my skill-o-meter somewhere...), and dont count for such games in nearest future form any of the AAA developers, your only hope are indie games, that apparently most bashes anyway, just for sake of complaining.
Frankly, the only thing that remains is to follow the old saying - want to have something done properly, do it yourself.
A lot of people have there sites on TOR some say WoW killer which I hope. I see it more like the Disneyland of MMO games. Now I know what is feels like to hear about this wonderful MMO that will stand above the rest and totaly rock my wrold. But some people don't want to give themselves such a high expectation for TOR because of the 99% of newer releases all with in the last couple of years (Conan, WAR, Aion, STO) have been a major let down so why should we get our expectations up for TOR??
I will tell you why Answer is BIOWARE in comparison how many of us thought that Blizz could come out with a great MMO way back in '01 when we thought to ourself yeah I love playing Star Craft and Diablo II etc. But a open world fantasy MMO?? come on you have to admit your skepticism. I admit mine. We all gave WoW a chance back in '04 and look we loved the game. So here we are with the Same Skepticism for TOR Lets all continue playing our favorite Bioware game until TOR dose launch and save our judgment until then.
here's my humble (and pretty pissed off review of SWTOR, as I was really looking forward to it...at the beginning)
the graphics : lets face it - it is probably one of the ugliest -let's do it cute wow style, kids will love it - graphics I've seen in modern days...hell, if it had graphics at least like Tabula rasa I would be completely satisfied...
combat : you gotta be kiddin me...not considering tka the smoothness in the vids is terrible, you can almost feel the hit/wait for GCD atmo in it...please redone
PvE : with the focus on class story telling, this game is going to be Massive SINGLEPLAYER online game with monthly fees...great job there!
PvP : you've seen the combat, no point to flame it anymore....and talking about the class balance : of course there will be! why wouldnt when you have completely same 4 classes with different names on each side! and to make sure it really IS balanced, lets just be original a do completely insanely revolutionary AoE/Heal/DPS/Tank system! yeah we're here and we rock the MMO scene!
Endgame : With such a huge focus on storyline and no news about endgame...I am really,really sceptical
Crafting system : not enough info on my side...wont judge it then;)
Any original ideas I am looking towards in every new MMO : where the heck are hovercraft races as in KOTOR, where are the galactic fights - the core of star wars (DAMN IT, why arent the re any, really boils my blood), and hell! star wars were always about choosing your side! you are not some robot who began as a sith and ends as a sith nor sweet,nature loving jedi - you actually EVOLVE in life! (and this is the successor of KOTOR - real shame), I could continue but this game will b more disastrous fault then the STO (remember the forums before it came out?? the game's gonna be awesome, Im so sure about it! ..blah)
Conclusion : Scrap the basis, change graphics and actually take inspirations from other game then WoW! -you aint gonna kill it and you aint gonna be as succesful - people are already pissed at it but you still see the dollars in your head whie blindly copying every aspect of it there is...shame on you
And poor Bioware thats gonna ruin its name:(
And someone please try to convince me that I am not right..I really beg you..
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
Thank goodness. It'd be a shame to make this a pvp centric title and make it suck right off the bat like all the other pvp centric rpg's MMO's out there.
PvP and RPG = much suck.
Fluffwise I'd love to see more about the ordinary people in the Sith Empire. Those who live in and support it.
The Empire does after all consist of human beings (well, a few aliens perhaps too) that follow the Emperor and give him their support. Why do they do this? What is the soldiers take on the war? Are they proud to serve the greater cause?
What makes them loyal and why do they keep fighting for the empire? When it comes to lore, at least about the Sith Empire, this is imo perhaps the most important question of all.
For me SWOTOR seems to me to be another mission/action/LOLlercoaster themed game with NPC induced everything. Booooring!
maybe, but the deal braker for me is that it isn't a Fantasy game, its Sci-fi.
Alot of you people just need to take a big and i mean big chill pill. I have never seen more fickle people in my life when the argument of the stylized graphics vs ultra realistic starts to get thrown around. Let's all say this togeither. If TOR was made with ultra realistic graphics, it would only be accessible to a monority of people that have very high end machines that can handle it. Then Bioware would have the same type of problems that Funcom went through and still have with AOC.
What happens then. The less people that can actually run the game makes for empty servers and a very small community. I guess for the people that constantly moans and groans and thinks they are entitled to have TOR made specifically with them in mind and nobody else, this may be ok.
Knock, knock, time to wake up. This game is being made to run on almost every system as it should be. Now for this bull crap argument on TOR being this single player co-op instanced game. if you do a little reading you can see that Bioware has said on many occasions that TOR will cater to a large spectrum of playstyle's and have huge open, explorable worlds with a crafting system that will benifit the community. Now this is what they have said not an opinion nor a fact from myself.
Now, if you want to sit back and spew out a bunch of totally false nonsense as facts, even though nobody but Bioware has even played the game and try and convince either yourselves or others that TOR is gonna suck, go right ahead.
For me, like so many others that are actually adults and have patience, will just sit back and wait for the game to actually be released before saying or giving to many opinions about TOR.
If they have PvP servers with level restrictions like in WAR I'll be happy.
Tier 1 WAR at launch on the PvP servers was some of the best open world PvP I've seen in recent years.
My only complaint was that it was too narrowly sectioned off in the RvR lakes, as most non-RvR lake open-world PvP was ganking people trying to do PQ's.
The whole chicken/chaos chicken system was brilliant, and very fitting.
Too bad the population dropped off so sharply after Tier 1 due to the monotony of the PvE game...
I love star wars and the guys on the web site have put out some amazing things. But I can't help but feel the marketing guys have screwed the pooch on this one.
The web site, unofficial and official announcements all came out too soon for a Spring 2011 launch. They spent far too long refusing to suggest a release date and answering all questions with we can't talk about that. The game looks very much like a WoW clone down to the stylised graphics and from what we have seen of the Sith Warrior plays very much like the rogue. So while they are adding story or claiming to, as it turns out a claim also made by EQ2 all those years back. There seems to be very little that is new or going to grab those 2 million subs they need.
And then they are looking for a 2011 launch, if it isnt pushed back. I don't know about other folks here but when I go looking for a new MMO one that isn't out for over a year isn't so much of an option. Let alone one that starts marketting itself 3 years early. Short of the prison population there aren't many people that can say for certain where they will be in 3 years. And hopefully not too many that aren't going to find something else to do in that time than wait for an MMO.
So I get the feeling years from now the Marketing of ToR will be taught in the same class as the NGE, as how not to make an MMO. Which is a real shame cause Star Wars is a great licence but if ToR sinks its unlike LA will give it a 3rd go.
Single player game does not mean sub fee, you dope.
And pvp centric games like Planetside were fun, tho not rpg, UO wasnt a pvp centric game but it had great PVP, I think we have a big NICHE base for a UO 3d Open world full loot pvp SANDBOX (real sandbox) game. Just too many indie companies are trying to do it, no big fish try to take on the genre of a 3d UO.
Darkfall and MO and Xsyon might work, highly doubtful, but the fan base is there, bigger companies will see it and sooner or later will pounce on it.
Earthrise is looking nice, and doesnt look like a teaser that will suck when played.(AKA Mortal Online, even tho it looked kinda sucky from screenshots/vids
)
I would like to space combat just like in SWG and hopefully player cities. musicmann is right, you all start bashing the game without paying attention to the info that is provided by Bioware. And if all you do is bash it, then go back to playing WOW and leave us to SWTOR. Now I have some gripes myself, as in the classes especially knight, which is a rank in the Jedi not a class. But what i hate the most is that everyone compares the game to WOW. I don't really give a monkey's uncle about WOW never have and never will. But that's what everyone will compare it to, like it's the Star Wars of mmos. By the way when are all you haters out there going to put out your mmo? that's what i thought.
This game is going to be big and its going to make tons of money. That is obvious no matter what the flamers and trollers want to say. As for the flow of information, its excrutiatingly slow. I, like many others crave to know more and see more. The anticipation is great indeed. That said I am a patient person in general and I remind myself of that, knowing that it will all be out in time. BioWare has a fantastic reputation and makes excellent adn solid games and I believe they will continue to do so not matter what the haters say. In the end we'll see how it goes but I am certain that I will be playing and I can almost guarantee I will like it based on the companies current titles.
The community on this web site has degraded into something similar to WoW's /2 its full of trolls, flamers and sandbox cry babies that will never be happy playing games. I am looking foward to swtor i could care less in fact i hope that all of you people that constantly cry and flame stay the hell away from it. I find it pathetic that all most of you people can do is flame or derail every thread with your crap. There are very few people left on this web site that have anything to say that has any substance and discussion rarely exsists. No wonder the community in most MMO's is terrible.
To answer the questions specifically:
I feel that the updates done by the community team is fine for lack of better information. They are trying to keep interest while not really releasing much information on the actual game. I would like the updates to have more meat and less bread, but something is better than nothing.
I'd rather see screen shots and trailers, but the lore and comics are great ways not only to release a good background story, but another way they can try and monetize the IP. The more actual in game features I see the more excited I get.... but its better to build a mountain range then a plateau when you're trying to generate hype.
I have no real preferences on fluff items, but some ship prototypes would be nice to see in game, for those that like the rebel and empire ships.
So SO True.
I myself hope that not much more content is released regarding the actual game mechanics, until release. If they could avoid a Beta even better. The game can then live and die by reputation alone and not the drivel I am seeing here.
The quality of the background content coming from the SWTOR team is excelent , and shows a lot of dedication and professionalism. Maybe we will get a game world with some content and longevity , with end game years down the line.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
As opposed to massive PEENvPEEN zergs of asshats?
Just call me Force Push A Lot Bear.
Keep your PvP on XBL, thanks.
A whole lot of sizzle and very little steak.
I don't know why more people aren't concerned about the lack of hard information.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2