Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
SWTOR- Getting way overhyped..
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Sorry but you are miles out. Bioware aren't overhyping the game, At all.
They are professionally posting up content on completed features, and developing as any good developer.
MMO fundamentals are nothing special it is what all the games do, surprisingly the Hero Engine delivers these , so additional coding to tweak to a Star Wars template and away you go. Bioware releases fantastic games and the core MMO elements are not difficult to deliver (look at all the trash out there, core fundamantals exists), but gameplay is and that is what Bioware excel at.
It is fans who are overhyping due to the crap state of the MMO market at the moment, just note Bioware have stated their policy on release of statements and content. They will talk when they are pretty sure its finished for release. Great approach.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I don't think its really fair to say that because other recent games with lots of hype have failed, so will SW:TOR. Those were different companies with totally different design philosophies. Bioware is a great company and virtually everything they have released about the game so far has made me more excited about it. They have consistently released games with huge amounts of polish and tons of quality content. Like Blizzard, they are a company known for quality in all of their titles. The same cannot be said about companies like SOE, Cryptic, Funcom, Mythic, etc.
Bioware is made up of gamers and they know full well that the game must be every bit as polished and feature-rich as WoW if they are to succeed. This is why they have poored unprecedented amounts of cash and time into the development of this game. By comparison, the amount of time and money spent by Funcom, Cryptic and Mythic on recent titles is nothing...
It's pretty obvious why the game is being "overhyped". It's a BioWare title, period, the end, enough said. Name one BioWare title that failed to deliver, did not sell, needed launch patches, was not generally fun, and was not overhyped. Personally, I really don't see any. They're that good and I believe the "overhype" is well deserved and you will get your money's worth.
I'm a huge star wars fan and definitely will be buying this game at release, but I have a question/concern that I'm wondering if most of you share...
How come the in game gameplay animation and graphics look like crap? I mean c'mon... the cinematics that were leaked look amazing, but the graphics look like a second-graders Saturday morning cartoon.
I really do think this game will do well, but I am also worried about the release of GW2 at around the same time. The graphics in that game look 5 times better than the footage in star wars and TOR was supposed to be farther along.
Either way... I think the new age of MMO's is here. Star Wars is going to steal all the sci-fi fans, and I think GW2 is going to steal all the hardcore pvp and fantasy fans. At least I hope it turns out this way.
/prays to god that they clean up the graphics and animations before release!
I don't really think the graphics look like crap. I also don't think they are close to matching AOC and GW2 either. I believe they are taking the WOW approach with accessability . If they ratchet up graphics too much it will alienate a piece of the audience, which is the Star Wars fan who is a more casual gamer without a hopped up PC.
My guess is that once in game that graphics will be fine but not stellar and the Bioware gameplay elements will make up the difference.
Bioware has no failed yet and I don't think they can afford to on this one. They seem tuned in to what makes a fun game experience.
SWTOR- Getting way overhyped..not by me! LOL!
^ This pretty much sums it all up for me as well
A) I don't see that. At least here on MMORGP.com I see way too unfounded negative views. Like saying it would be like a single player game or what. WHERE is it overhyped? Can you brink links or sources which fit into "overhyping" cheers? All articles I read are positive but with caution. I don't see overhype. Can you link what sources you mean?
I wondered the same thing. It turns out it's because of graphical computing budgets. A computer can only handle so much animation detail, character texture detail, world environment texture detail, character polygon count, environment polygon count, graphical shaders, environmental scripting. If one thing is very high the others have to be a lot lower.
For example in WoW the character animations are so fluid and detailed because the textures are cartoonish and the amount of character and world polygons are very low. Other games like Lineage 2 have high character and world polygons, high texture quality, but their animations are crap. The designers have to decide what they want to make look good with the computational budget they have.
In TOR they have more polygons than WoW. The textures are about the same quality as WoW. And the smoothness of the animations is a little worse than WoW BUT they have a lot more animations in the combat system they are using (lightsaber combat, reflecting blaster bolts, light sabers hitting and blocking each other, etc) than wow does.
Looking forward to GW2 but in the videos I noticed that although the characters and world have high textures, high shaders, and good animation, everything has really low polygon count. The armor almost looks like its painted on the character instead of being a physical object the character is wearing. They probably used most of their graphics budget on textures, shaders, and animation. But what about polygons and behind-the-scenes scripting?
Quoted for truth
Shattered Steel - Their first title
MDK games
Jade Empire - A decent game but failed to grab
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood... yeah.
Mass Effect: Galaxy
Knights of the Old Republic - Yes, I'm going there. Maybe alot of people still have their rose tinted glasses on regarding this game, but this game was extremely buggy on release. Took BioWare a while to put things in proper order.
BioWare is a good game developing company, but they have had their share of problems also. They're not impervious to failures. Baldur's Gate was their second game and its release earned them a reputation as a good RPG maker.
I'm past blind faith with upcoming MMOs because there's nothing but disappointment, especially for the ones you are truly excited about. Age of Conan comes readily to mind. It had a tremendous amount of hype for a long period of time. Just before it came out, there was a huge Blitz of promotion, interviews, videos, etc. I bought into that last, pre-release Blitz.
AoC was supposed to be a Grade A MMO title. But it failed terribly when it came out in '08, and people STILL talk about its failure. There were a ridiculous amount of people at the beginning, but in a span of a few months, they were all gone. It's like the brightness of a match being lit in a completely dark room but burning out in a span of a few seconds. It was there one moment, a few seconds later... gone.
BioWare would do well to have their s**t together with TOR, because they themselves don't have a clean record if you followed their history. Because they're treading into the territory of a beloved setting made by them and using the fabled Star Wars name, there are alot of expectations. I would dare to say that the expectations for TOR make the expectations for AOC look like we didn't give a care. It's KOTOR, but made into a MMORPG, and using the Star Wars name, one of the biggest franchises in the world with a huge following.
What I sincerely hope TOR doesn't become is an online version of KOTOR. KOTOR was a great single-player RPG experience, but it is limiting in what kind of freedoms a player has. And if you're venturing into MMORPG territory, that's a big no-no. Maybe I'm worried for nothing in this specific regard, but weird things happen out there.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Yes the game is being over-hyped by fans. It's Star Wars afer all. When I say 'over' hyped I'm talking about the amount of hype releative to the amount of meat Bioware has thrown out (not all that much). If a non IP game had released the amount of info Bioware has it simply would not have the hype that TOR does.
Over-hype is fine, as long as the game doesn't blow. People should have high expectations from producers of anything, if that expectation isn't met the amount a game was hyped only amounts in how humilating the punishment will be. If the game succeeds then the hype will reward them.
Hype has no bearing on the quality of the product. Previous over-hyped games have deserved their crushing defeat.
Currently Playing: The Game
I tend to agree with the sentiment that over-hyping is primarily being done by fans and news sources if by anyone. You really can't blame blame Bioware for the same crimes. Most of what they have released is raw information, not some kind of opinionated bias claiming that their game is superior. I am personally very excited for TOR and think that the hype is at a good level for where we are; of course, keeping in mind that much of this will calm down significantly after E3 has passed.
Caddaric
www.dominusnihil.com
Veteran of SWG, LOTRO, COH
Future player of SW: The Old Republic
Ya know, I am always of the mind that I have gotten all the BW games save a couple of the downloadable NWN modules, but I always forget about Sonic and the ME mini adventure with Jacob/Miranda(you get a convo with ish on Omega if they are in grp). DOnt really consider it a loss I missed these 2 games.
I had no idea about the shattered steel and MDK though. Think this is first I ever heard of them. I have been visiting their site infreuqently since I got ahold of BG2 back around 2000. Gonna have to check it out next time I am there. Course I take pain pills daily for over 4 yrs now...probably forgot about it :P
I know JE is supposed to be weaker than the average BW game, but still intend to play thru it. I actually ordered it tonight for 360(had a xbox copy and the PC edition....the 360 version should give acheivement pts).
Looking forward to some new ME2 content supposed to be out tomorrow as well. If JE isnt too bad a game, should have another full week of BW games on the slate.
Peeps can hate BW all they want. I own and have played thru BG+ expansion/BG2 + expansion/NWN+retail expansions/KOTOR/ME + all content/ME2 + all content/DA:O + expansion and all content....with Jade Empire waiting to go. I have yet to be unhappy with BW.
Until I run into a "O chit" game or 2 from them, I will continue to support them blindly.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
What does overhyped mean? And why does it matter to you whether a game gets hyped or not?
Yes it is pretty much (or even more) like Warhammer. Hopefully this fat british clown won't do presentations for it soon.
All hype does is creating fanboys and we all know how quick fanboys can become hateboys and therefore telling everyone and their mother how this or that is shit and they need to change it asap, otherwise they're going to quit blabla.
I strongly advice Bioware showing facts (ingame) instead of hype so everyone can make up his own mind on this one.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
They have released two cinematic trailers one of which was over five minutes long and have still not released much real information about how the game will work. We have gotten a lot of vague comments and they have said they expect two million players and that all MMOs on the market are pointless. Now they have also said a bit about flashpoints and some other interesting tid-bits, ubut to say they have not released opinionated bias or that they are not hyping this game is just a case of seeing what you want to see.
Are you being serious? Hell, I got nothing else better to do, so oh well.
First of all is the term "hype." It just means the general word out in the streets. The gaming community in this particular example. It means the level of anticipation and excitement of something. You have people, from the company or not, talking about how X is going to be great because of Y and Z.
Overhyped means the "hype" for something is ridiculous. It can be a variety of things, and I'll use video game examples again. It can be ads promoting the game everywhere you look. It can be an unusually high amount of articles, "exclusive previews" (lol), posted promo videos, dev interviews, forum posting, etc. dedicated for some game. Usually things get ramped up a whole lot in the last few months before the game goes live/gold.
Personally, and because of past experiences, I get cues when something is being touted alot more than what it really is going to be.
- Namely by their choice of words (official or not)
- How much information about REAL gameplay they're releasing (cutscenes don't impress me now. I'm Jaded, yes)
- Level of arrogance by devs during forum posting / interviews / articles (BioWare IS talking smack about game development these days *2*3*4*, something that they have NEVER EVER done before, not like the classic days of BG1 & 2, NWN, KOTOR, etc., when all they did was to try to put out good games and let that speak for them... these days? The arrogance is astounding from the once silent dev house)
- How many site banners I see promoting the game in every major gaming site I go to or magazine I read, or even trailers in the movie theater.
- How great certain features are going to be. Greatly impacted by first point.
- How rabid and uncompromising the fanbois are. Regardless of reasonable flaws or points of concern people will have from any released information.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Overhyped? No not really..at least not by Bioware. To hype something up is to over promise, and exaggerate the games potential. I haven't seen this coming from the makers of the game.
This again.
2 Of those are about JRPG's and not MMO's, the devs of FFXIII actually agreed that their game isn't an RPG, the other is an opinion piece by one of the presidents.
In a later article that president said they were pleasantly surprised with games like Demon's Souls (link). This wasn't an opinion unsupported by other western game developers and reviewers btw, there were other opinion pieces that blamed JRPG's for becoming stagnant.
That other article has already been discussed to death, if you read it with sense for context you see it's a story guy (writer) who complains about lack of story and abundance of grind in mmo's.
The last article is about the Wii, not MMO's, and one of them disagrees with the other.
Your own opinion being hurt doesn't mean that others are being arrogant, it's just their opinion; it just happens that these guys are at the very top of the pyramid right now, so what they say gets noticed a lot more easily, as it did with the JRPG bussiness.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Bad stock choice, IMO, the price for EA stock is already too high to make a real gain on, though it might be good if you plan to hold on to it as a long-term investment.
The problem in what you're suggesting here lies precisely in Bioware trying to capitilize on the successful design of WoW. One would think that someone at LucasArts, or game designers who helped destroy SWG with the NGE now working on TOR, would realize that a game too closely resembling WoW will not ultimately be nearly as successful. I agree that Bioware is trying to improve on the WoW blueprint, but taking too much from it could do more harm than good.
As I've stated before, the NGE didn't fail solely because of SOE's historical ineptitude in releasing the NGE half finished, but also because no one playing SWG at the time had any interest in playing WoW. If they had, they'd have simply switched games. I'll repeat what I've stated about the NGE for TOR, should TOR too closely mimic WoW: It would be like Coke II all over again.
Coke II was launched by Coca-Cola as an attempt to pull away Pepsi drinkers by making a Coke that tasted like Pepsi. It was a complete failure. No one who liked Pepsi bothered to try Coke II because they were already satisfied with Pepsi, and no one who liked Classic Coke wanted it because, obviously, they didn't care for Pepsi to begin with.
No one who has already been playing WoW and is completely satisfied are likely to start over all over again on TOR if it plays essentially the same, and no one who detests WoW's gameplay is likely to stick around after discovering that it plays like WoW either. It's a gamble for EA and Bioware, we'll see how well it plays out. If they walk the line without stepping over it, the game will do just fine, if they step over the WoW line, it'll be labeled a clone, and then it's anyone's guess what will happen.
Now, to the point of the OP, I believe that any MMO with even a relatively big budget now gets overhyped, if ony to drive up box sales in the event that the game is a bust. I also believe that the overhype itself is what actually killed AoC and WAR, along with the launch mismangement. Every MMO at launch will have bugs, kinks in the gameplay system, and areas of content/combat that are lacking and need fixed. Raising player expectations to nearly fanatical levels, or misleading them even unintentionally, prior to release will undoubtedly cause a backlash of rage and cancelled subs in the early months of the game after launch.
I hope Bioware delivers a well polished, well recieved game experience, and pulls off a reasonably smooth launch. I have my concerns, but I remain cautiously optimistic until release.
The amount of cash, spam, adverts, comics, etc and the amount being spent on the games development is a raising eyebrows time, especially if the game actually sucks, has been done before or fails to dent WoW, which has been seen with other titles, so it may be forced to go server merge, cash shop, free to play then.... the dark side will have won. Booo.
It's not overhyped at all. It's Bioware. They are using a Game Engine built specifically for MMO's. They are funded by EA so they have the resources and the experience to do anything.
All it comes down to is how fun the game is and how it will keep players busy and engaged within the world. The story will be phenomenal, the game being entirely voiced is a major plus and hell, it's a KoToR sequel straight from Bioware itself!
You all look at what other MMO's have and expect ToR to have the same mechanics. That is why MMO's fail because whatever they do WoW does it better. I think Star Wars ToR will be a major contender to WoW and I am certain this one will bring me to finally leave WoW after my 5 year long play streak.
I CAN"T F***ING WAIT!!!!
i agree i don't see whats so great about swtor, and yes way too overhyped imao.
ah well, i guess this is how other people felt about aion that i loved to death.