One of the many characters I played was a Master Ranger. This skillset was almost all about RP and Community, because there was nothing "uber" about them in combat, even when combined with a skills like Master Rifleman. What we could do, is kick arse at PVE, track mobs for hunting parties and set up some awesome camps for healing, shelter and socializing. I built a character, and a reputation for being an awesome Ranger, and contract hunter.
I imagined my character as an outdoors survivalist who would just walk out into the outback of the planets with no mount or vehicle. I would lead people on great safari hunting adventures, better than any quest I have ever got from an NPC. I would set up camps out in the middle of nowhere and just wait to see who would stumble over to my campfire for some healing and good conversation. I was often invited on many other adventures while doing this.
I would also use the Ranger related crafting skills I had and another crafting toon, so I could set up survival shops stocked with tents, foods, meds, camps, and other things adventurers could buy and use while out creating their own stories withing the game. My homes were decorated from floor to ceiling as Hunting Lodges which were opened to the public. I often received in-game emails and tells from people who told me how awesome they looked, and thank yous.
As a contract hunter, I had a huge network of crafters as clients who would ask me to hunt down rare items they needed to make high end foods, weapons, armor and meds. I would get on the forums and post ads, and I had a mailing list of people in game I would contact when I came across high-stat resources. I was one of the go-to guys on my server, and I loved it.
I didn't need a story or a scripted dialog, because I made my own adventure.
See what I did there?
I removed all references to everything you said that was "Star Wars."
And guess what, your post still reads just fine.
You know why?
Because all of that is very sandboxy imaginative stuff to do sure, but is it Star Wars?
Yeah... not so much.
What you did there was stupid. We lived in a Star Wars universe. We crafted Star Wars items. We hunted Star Wars mobs. We hung out in Star Wars cities. We did Star Wars quests. I felt like I was living my life IN Star Wars, and I would bet than anyone else who played and enjoyed the game will tell you the same thing. The reason I was there was Star Wars.
The break down you are having is that you don't understand why anyone would not want to play a hero character. You probably have no idea why anyone would want to be a crafter-only character, or a social/political character either, yet you sit here and talk about how important story is to you.
Anyone who remembers SWG at the time also remembers how bad it was with fotm classes and constant nerfs/buffs to create new fotm classes. No questing system and everyone wearing composite armor waiting to get insane buffs from docs to go to dantooine to grind the same mob forever.
SWG was a bad game with some good ideas that were too hard for their team to impliment. Everything you are talking about that you enjoyed is the product of a good imagination only. In WoW you can play an herbalist and roleplay how you sold your wares. I would do it more for fun and found a network of people who would buy from me even when i started charging more than the AH.
Hopefully TOR will steal the good ideas that SWG did have but there was nothing that made me feel star warsy in that game until JTLS came out. But foremost i hope they create a good foundation in the game itself which is something SWG lacked
> The dialogue. . .[options]. . .seemed a bit tedious.
> . . .story building element to the game is great from a single player perspective
> killing slugs is not my idea of being a Sith bad-ass.
> other players will know not to mess with you if you have on certain stuff, I suppose it is the same as WoW.
> In the end I found the Sith Warrior lacking.
> . . .as a starting quest and starting area I was bored quickly when killing giant slugs.
> . . .The skills were ok, with standard light saber attacks and some jumps and blasting effects, but again I fear for my abilities when it comes to ranged opponents.
> . . .just seemed like another MMO in my book.
No better impression than other recent reports we've been reading.
How many more objective, hands-on reports and Bioware release information do we need to receive before it's realized by others that SWTOR is shaping up to be nothing more than an wonderfully developed single-player game attempting to be massively-multiplayer game by emulating World of Warcraft with lightsabers in a pve, highly scripted and static world?
Game is how far out yet you can assume so much about the overall game even when other sites have commented on how it truly has the mmo feel. Why are some people so ignorant to the fact that all games have quests with story just bioware is encouraging player interaction in these quests beyond the simple get more xp and gold and move along to next quest How in any way does spending a little extra time talking to a quest giver make the game single player?
Hell your party member can interact with them too. That leads to more MULTIPLAYER interaction than any other mmo has right now.
Biggest annoyance of this article is that it is so uninformative. I want to hear about how well the stories flow, if they are boring say so but if you are skipping them then your opinion is worthless to me. If the gameplay is stale then say so and explain why. Just learn to be objective enough to at least compare it to other games at a similar level. There is no mmo i can think of that low levels play the same as end game.
Hey don't get me wrong. I already mentioned there are a few things about this game that i wish was differant. My first mmo was SWG pre cu and i loved every minute of it right until i quit with the NGE. The thing that SWG lacked sorely was a good personal story that would have enhanced the sandbox system. The thing is, and really the most horrible concept is that WOW has made the majority of mmo gamers power levelers and alt junkies. No body wants to take their time and actually relish in the whole game anymore. It's all about the epeen end game nonsense.
Hey don't get me wrong. I already mentioned there are a few things about this game that i wish was differant. My first mmo was SWG pre cu and i loved every minute of it right until i quit with the NGE. The thing that SWG lacked sorely was a good personal story that would have enhanced the sandbox system. The thing is, and really the most horrible concept is that WOW has made the majority of mmo gamers power levelers and alt junkies. No body wants to take their time and actually relish in the whole game anymore. It's all about the epeen end game nonsense.
Only thing SWG really lacked was Balanced combat, Working classes, a meaningful pvp system, a real pve system beyond grinding x mobs, a more thought out combat system, some semblance of a story or purpose in the game.
I felt more like i was in a Star Wars theme park or diarama while on E playing that game then some one a part of the Star wars universe. "Oh wow look at all the rancors and combat medics throwing bombs through walls!!"
Hey don't get me wrong. I already mentioned there are a few things about this game that i wish was differant. My first mmo was SWG pre cu and i loved every minute of it right until i quit with the NGE. The thing that SWG lacked sorely was a good personal story that would have enhanced the sandbox system. The thing is, and really the most horrible concept is that WOW has made the majority of mmo gamers power levelers and alt junkies. No body wants to take their time and actually relish in the whole game anymore. It's all about the epeen end game nonsense.
Only thing SWG really lacked was Balanced combat, Working classes, a meaningful pvp system, a real pve system beyond grinding x mobs, a more thought out combat system, some semblance of a story or purpose in the game.
I felt more like i was in a Star Wars theme park or diarama while on E playing that game then some one a part of the Star wars universe. "Oh wow look at all the rancors and combat medics throwing bombs through walls!!"
I was actually responding to Longstryder., but i agree with what you are saying.
Hey don't get me wrong. I already mentioned there are a few things about this game that i wish was differant. My first mmo was SWG pre cu and i loved every minute of it right until i quit with the NGE. The thing that SWG lacked sorely was a good personal story that would have enhanced the sandbox system. The thing is, and really the most horrible concept is that WOW has made the majority of mmo gamers power levelers and alt junkies. No body wants to take their time and actually relish in the whole game anymore. It's all about the epeen end game nonsense.
Only thing SWG really lacked was Balanced combat, Working classes, a meaningful pvp system, a real pve system beyond grinding x mobs, a more thought out combat system, some semblance of a story or purpose in the game.
I felt more like i was in a Star Wars theme park or diarama while on E playing that game then some one a part of the Star wars universe. "Oh wow look at all the rancors and combat medics throwing bombs through walls!!"
I was actually responding to Longstryder., but i agree with what you are saying.
Btw I did like the game for a time too music but after a while i realized i like it more due to my own imagination and the good times i had with the people i played with.
I liked the article. And the Giant Slug killing. And the annoyance of the author.
You see, you are in the Sith starting area. There is zero reason for your Sith masters to give you "interesting" things to do at the start, and all the reasons - to give the most menial and boring.
The MMO does take place in the past, before the Rule of the Two. That means that:
1. Back then, the Sith were quite numerous.
2. There were many acolytes.
3. There must have been an efficient and simple way to sort them into more promising (that is, arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive) and less promising.
Now, what is the simplest and most efficient way to find out, whether an acolyte in question is arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive?
Simple. Give him the most menial and boring tasks in the Universe.
And arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive person expects to figth Jedi Masters from day 0, not the pathetic Slugs!
Thus, such a person will quickly become enraged with Slug-killing thus showing the masters his worth.
People need to calm down, and stop throwing tantrums every time someone writes an article or opinion that isn't absolute praise for this game. Much of the game's media to date has revolved around story. Rather than write yet another article on storytelling, Fuller instead took an objective look at the early.
Bioware devs talk volumes to reporters about how great the storytelling is, but are quite mum on other features, unless those features are "like WoW".
The fact that Fuller wasn't impressed with what he experienced is his opinion as a writer and gamer. His opinion is based on experiences while ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME.
People attacking him for writing his opinion, which doesn't reinforce their worshipful opinions of this game, opinions which are based on DEVELOPER HYPE AND VIDEO FOOTAGE, NOT ACTUAL GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE, is ridiculous.
I'm all for people being excited for a new game, and as a Star Wars fan, I hope the game is fun and does well. That said, there's a point where excitement becomes fanaticism, and some people are crossing that line.
Why is it every time someone say something even slightly negative about TOR there's an imminent shitstorm? Reasonable people realize that just because Bioware is putting their stamp on it doesn't mean the game won't or doesn't have problems. This article confirmed what I already figured out. TOR will be a generic themepark MMO with an emphasis on personal story.
I agree that if the demo was to short to get a decent impression, don't write about it.
I have played brilliant sandbox games, singeplayer rpg's, themeparks, rts's, fps's, tps's ..... i really don't give a crap how this game is build, as long as it's fun.
There have been a lot of warning flags raised abut STOR, it is up to you if you take notice of them and wait till the game has launched and seen a review not a preview before you buy.
I almost get the impression he did his review of the game for two reasons.
The first being is sort of a few pushed into one idea.
He wanted to play the game like "many people play games now". To just rush through a game to get higher level, better gear, more skills, etc. He had already decided how he felt about the game before playing, and knew what he was going to say. He skipped the storyline, then said the story was bland. Story is a big part of the game. So basically, take a big part of another game, let's say raiding, or gaining epic gear, and skip that. That's basically what was done in this preview.
My second thought is..
Maybe he is trying to garner more discussion on this site, for this site, and about the game. I've seen this review talked about on a few other forums. Not because of what was said in it, but how it was said and how the review was done. And of course, the people talking about the type of people who posted replys here. Various bad words were used lol :P.
Whatever his real reasons, some things are true. Some people will totally ignore the story. They will spam spacebar in hopes of ending conversation. They will randomly pick choices in the conversations. They will care about one thing. End game.
It sure would be cool if (even with Bioware saying that there will be endgame in addition to everything else), people played the game, and not just thought about OMG RAID, EPIXXX GOOOO GIMME NOWWWW. But that's just peoples current mentality. That is pretty much the mentality of this review too, it would seem.
I would LOVE to be able to be deeply involved in a story, with some of my best friends, and have the normal parts of an MMO. But wait, you say TOR has this? Wow! Raiding, crafting, pvp, pve and a great, involved, detailed story that I can share with my friends?!
I guess I'm a bad person for not being part of the "EPIX NOW OR I QUITLOL" crowd.
I'm a big fan of READING all their is when playing a game, knowledge is the way of improving your enjoyment. Understandably it was a short demo that was "played" not tested from the way it's been worded, but the whole idea of "testing" something is to get all the info. If someone got a trial for a current MMO they don't try to race to the end content cause it isn't in the trial, same with testing. My point is that when you test something you should test everything their is about it, specially for publications such as this, that way you get the full details across to ALL parties interested in the title not just the "i want my end content" players. Fair enough if the publisher prefers that style of play but as a play tester who publishes what up coming games are like it's not the kind of play testing thats needed, it needs to be someone who will actually do EVERYTHING they can and publish all they learn.
With that said, games require a certain amount of imigination, for example : the killing slugs to start with as a sith warrior, your a training sith warrior still learning the ways, the afore mentioned slugs are vicious killer slugs that attack and devour the local population, your sent in to stop the attacks. Simple imagination process that adds to the game, it's not truelly role play either so those that don't role play have nothign to worry about.
"I think the story building element to the game is great from a single player perspective and there is no lack of it here, but again, this is an MMO."
Story is in every MMO, SWG legacies quest line, LotRo Book quests etc etc. they are a means that the developers use in order to give the players somethign to do along the way to max level content, without a little story we all might as well be throwing our monthly sub money away and play boring MMO's with only end game content where we load in the very first time and we're max level with uber gear purely killing each other, hmmmm FPS games anyone.
Anyway, thats my feedback on this write-up and i think i speak for a a few thousand others in the world when i say it's not all about end game content. Publishings like this should be COMPLETE and in depth. An MMO started off as an MMORPG (Role Playing Game), meaning that when your playing the game YOU are that character, otherwise whats the point in playing? to reach end game and just go round killing others? Play FPS games or 3rd person shooters, Want to improve your character and earn mega money? play the sims, want to experience all this and a hell of a lot more? play MMORPG's, thats how i see things.
The kind of ppl that look at this review and go "damn, looks like it'll suck ass" is exactly the kinda ppl I dont have any interest in playing with anyhow so... thumbs up!
I liked the article. And the Giant Slug killing. And the annoyance of the author.
You see, you are in the Sith starting area. There is zero reason for your Sith masters to give you "interesting" things to do at the start, and all the reasons - to give the most menial and boring.
The MMO does take place in the past, before the Rule of the Two. That means that:
1. Back then, the Sith were quite numerous.
2. There were many acolytes.
3. There must have been an efficient and simple way to sort them into more promising (that is, arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive) and less promising.
Now, what is the simplest and most efficient way to find out, whether an acolyte in question is arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive?
Simple. Give him the most menial and boring tasks in the Universe.
And arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive person expects to figth Jedi Masters from day 0, not the pathetic Slugs!
Thus, such a person will quickly become enraged with Slug-killing thus showing the masters his worth.
So, keep up the good work, Garret.
Great post. I think that sums up Biowares way of thinking pretty good.
Actually, the OP likely represents a good portion of people who will play the game in the same way the OP played it.
Which is all fine PROVIDED these people concede that (i) the game is not quite for them, and (ii) Bioware have been CRYSTAL clear in telling them it wouldn't be.
Really? comparing a general gaming / MMORPG sites coverage of 1 particular game at a convention of many games, to the depth of articles posted on sites DEDICATED to covering that game? Of course those sites are going to have much better written and in depth articles and information when it comes to that particular game.
That's like watching G4TV, which covers all aspects of gaming, and covered the entire convention and then sending them angry letters that they didn't spend the entire week covering only SWTOR because it happens to be what YOU are a huge fan of.
Or watching ESPN which covers various sports and throwing a fit because it's not all NFL all day every day.
Clearly there is a LOT of interest in the game and even for a site as large as this it is one of just a few that are in development and a really HOT topic. I am more of a fan of GW2 than TOR but yes, I've been following TOR.
I DO think there is an "awkward" gap in quality between the OP (a professional journalist) and the impression posted in the comments (an enthusiastic amateur). I do not think the OP thought very carefully about what he was writing and he's been called out on it by a lot of people, not just me.
Yeah, I brought that up, only in a bit more detail. Considering other forums are linking to this thread, and posting about this thread and this site. It will bring in traffic, new users to post (as you can see new posters IN this thread) and potential clickers to their adds.
I wouldn't be surprised if in 6 or so months when GW2 is getting closer, if we don't see something similar :P.
So many people are being hard on this guy cause he skipped the dialogue. Quite frankly i do not read quest dialogue and i'm not a new MMO gamer i've been playing since 1996. I play to make my own story personally and I know many others who do the same, my father being one who is 59 years old and not some dumb kid.
Some people play to play the other aspects of the game, not to play the story line. If i wanted to play for the story and not to play to fight and compete against 100's of other real people, i'd play a single player RPG
There have been a lot of warning flags raised abut STOR, it is up to you if you take notice of them and wait till the game has launched and seen a review not a preview before you buy.
I think one of the initial things that will get many when playing SW:TOR are the graphics. It really has the look of a cartoon/comic book in terms of the artwork. I can get why Bioware went in that direction, it will, like WoW, allow the game to be played on older machines with few issues, but if you compare it to the graphics in FF XIV beta at the moment they look very dated in style.
Story, he skipped it so he has no right to be critical of it.
Melee vs. Ranged, if he has played other MMOs then he would know this wasn't something to be answered in a 30 minute demo of a lvl 2 character.
The 1st quest - This is the only thing he had any right to be critical of. There could have been more to the quest than just kill 10 slugs. Do we "know" that the quest was part of his Class story arc? Bioware has said there are Class story arc quests, and world story quests. He could just as easily have been doing a world quest. It seems it was a class story arc, but we can't be 100 percent. We also don't know what the next quest was. Perhaps the slug quest was the only "kill x mob" quest in the chain. So, you get thru that and you are off to being that bad*** sith you always wanted.
We know too little, and so does he. I just believe that in order to write any kind of prereview on a game that you cannot skip anything, and see what the WHOLE of the game entails. He was there to demo the game and he skipped content in order to write a review, and there is no way to write an objective article that way.
IMHO, you either play everything and judge it all on its merits, or you don't write an article on it. Period. Plus do your research, and don't say "I wanna play Darth Maul", and then pick the wrong class for that fantasy. Anybody that is in journalism should have to review the subject that they are talking about. Which he clearly didn't
In the end, if you play like the OP, if you find yourself nodding as you read the impression, then Bioware will happily take your money but you are NOT the target audience for this game.
Comments
I think you may be right. It's like buying season tickets to your favorite team and never using them.
Anyone who remembers SWG at the time also remembers how bad it was with fotm classes and constant nerfs/buffs to create new fotm classes. No questing system and everyone wearing composite armor waiting to get insane buffs from docs to go to dantooine to grind the same mob forever.
SWG was a bad game with some good ideas that were too hard for their team to impliment. Everything you are talking about that you enjoyed is the product of a good imagination only. In WoW you can play an herbalist and roleplay how you sold your wares. I would do it more for fun and found a network of people who would buy from me even when i started charging more than the AH.
Hopefully TOR will steal the good ideas that SWG did have but there was nothing that made me feel star warsy in that game until JTLS came out. But foremost i hope they create a good foundation in the game itself which is something SWG lacked
Game is how far out yet you can assume so much about the overall game even when other sites have commented on how it truly has the mmo feel. Why are some people so ignorant to the fact that all games have quests with story just bioware is encouraging player interaction in these quests beyond the simple get more xp and gold and move along to next quest How in any way does spending a little extra time talking to a quest giver make the game single player?
Hell your party member can interact with them too. That leads to more MULTIPLAYER interaction than any other mmo has right now.
Biggest annoyance of this article is that it is so uninformative. I want to hear about how well the stories flow, if they are boring say so but if you are skipping them then your opinion is worthless to me. If the gameplay is stale then say so and explain why. Just learn to be objective enough to at least compare it to other games at a similar level. There is no mmo i can think of that low levels play the same as end game.
Hey don't get me wrong. I already mentioned there are a few things about this game that i wish was differant. My first mmo was SWG pre cu and i loved every minute of it right until i quit with the NGE. The thing that SWG lacked sorely was a good personal story that would have enhanced the sandbox system. The thing is, and really the most horrible concept is that WOW has made the majority of mmo gamers power levelers and alt junkies. No body wants to take their time and actually relish in the whole game anymore. It's all about the epeen end game nonsense.
Only thing SWG really lacked was Balanced combat, Working classes, a meaningful pvp system, a real pve system beyond grinding x mobs, a more thought out combat system, some semblance of a story or purpose in the game.
I felt more like i was in a Star Wars theme park or diarama while on E playing that game then some one a part of the Star wars universe. "Oh wow look at all the rancors and combat medics throwing bombs through walls!!"
I was actually responding to Longstryder., but i agree with what you are saying.
Btw I did like the game for a time too music but after a while i realized i like it more due to my own imagination and the good times i had with the people i played with.
Good.
I liked the article. And the Giant Slug killing. And the annoyance of the author.
You see, you are in the Sith starting area. There is zero reason for your Sith masters to give you "interesting" things to do at the start, and all the reasons - to give the most menial and boring.
The MMO does take place in the past, before the Rule of the Two. That means that:
1. Back then, the Sith were quite numerous.
2. There were many acolytes.
3. There must have been an efficient and simple way to sort them into more promising (that is, arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive) and less promising.
Now, what is the simplest and most efficient way to find out, whether an acolyte in question is arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive?
Simple. Give him the most menial and boring tasks in the Universe.
And arrogant, passionate, willful and impulsive person expects to figth Jedi Masters from day 0, not the pathetic Slugs!
Thus, such a person will quickly become enraged with Slug-killing thus showing the masters his worth.
So, keep up the good work, Garret.
People need to calm down, and stop throwing tantrums every time someone writes an article or opinion that isn't absolute praise for this game. Much of the game's media to date has revolved around story. Rather than write yet another article on storytelling, Fuller instead took an objective look at the early.
Bioware devs talk volumes to reporters about how great the storytelling is, but are quite mum on other features, unless those features are "like WoW".
The fact that Fuller wasn't impressed with what he experienced is his opinion as a writer and gamer. His opinion is based on experiences while ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME.
People attacking him for writing his opinion, which doesn't reinforce their worshipful opinions of this game, opinions which are based on DEVELOPER HYPE AND VIDEO FOOTAGE, NOT ACTUAL GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE, is ridiculous.
I'm all for people being excited for a new game, and as a Star Wars fan, I hope the game is fun and does well. That said, there's a point where excitement becomes fanaticism, and some people are crossing that line.
Why is it every time someone say something even slightly negative about TOR there's an imminent shitstorm? Reasonable people realize that just because Bioware is putting their stamp on it doesn't mean the game won't or doesn't have problems. This article confirmed what I already figured out. TOR will be a generic themepark MMO with an emphasis on personal story.
I agree that if the demo was to short to get a decent impression, don't write about it.
I have played brilliant sandbox games, singeplayer rpg's, themeparks, rts's, fps's, tps's ..... i really don't give a crap how this game is build, as long as it's fun.
There have been a lot of warning flags raised abut STOR, it is up to you if you take notice of them and wait till the game has launched and seen a review not a preview before you buy.
I almost get the impression he did his review of the game for two reasons.
The first being is sort of a few pushed into one idea.
He wanted to play the game like "many people play games now". To just rush through a game to get higher level, better gear, more skills, etc. He had already decided how he felt about the game before playing, and knew what he was going to say. He skipped the storyline, then said the story was bland. Story is a big part of the game. So basically, take a big part of another game, let's say raiding, or gaining epic gear, and skip that. That's basically what was done in this preview.
My second thought is..
Maybe he is trying to garner more discussion on this site, for this site, and about the game. I've seen this review talked about on a few other forums. Not because of what was said in it, but how it was said and how the review was done. And of course, the people talking about the type of people who posted replys here. Various bad words were used lol :P.
Whatever his real reasons, some things are true. Some people will totally ignore the story. They will spam spacebar in hopes of ending conversation. They will randomly pick choices in the conversations. They will care about one thing. End game.
It sure would be cool if (even with Bioware saying that there will be endgame in addition to everything else), people played the game, and not just thought about OMG RAID, EPIXXX GOOOO GIMME NOWWWW. But that's just peoples current mentality. That is pretty much the mentality of this review too, it would seem.
I would LOVE to be able to be deeply involved in a story, with some of my best friends, and have the normal parts of an MMO. But wait, you say TOR has this? Wow! Raiding, crafting, pvp, pve and a great, involved, detailed story that I can share with my friends?!
I guess I'm a bad person for not being part of the "EPIX NOW OR I QUITLOL" crowd.
I'm a big fan of READING all their is when playing a game, knowledge is the way of improving your enjoyment. Understandably it was a short demo that was "played" not tested from the way it's been worded, but the whole idea of "testing" something is to get all the info. If someone got a trial for a current MMO they don't try to race to the end content cause it isn't in the trial, same with testing. My point is that when you test something you should test everything their is about it, specially for publications such as this, that way you get the full details across to ALL parties interested in the title not just the "i want my end content" players. Fair enough if the publisher prefers that style of play but as a play tester who publishes what up coming games are like it's not the kind of play testing thats needed, it needs to be someone who will actually do EVERYTHING they can and publish all they learn.
With that said, games require a certain amount of imigination, for example : the killing slugs to start with as a sith warrior, your a training sith warrior still learning the ways, the afore mentioned slugs are vicious killer slugs that attack and devour the local population, your sent in to stop the attacks. Simple imagination process that adds to the game, it's not truelly role play either so those that don't role play have nothign to worry about.
"I think the story building element to the game is great from a single player perspective and there is no lack of it here, but again, this is an MMO."
Story is in every MMO, SWG legacies quest line, LotRo Book quests etc etc. they are a means that the developers use in order to give the players somethign to do along the way to max level content, without a little story we all might as well be throwing our monthly sub money away and play boring MMO's with only end game content where we load in the very first time and we're max level with uber gear purely killing each other, hmmmm FPS games anyone.
Anyway, thats my feedback on this write-up and i think i speak for a a few thousand others in the world when i say it's not all about end game content. Publishings like this should be COMPLETE and in depth. An MMO started off as an MMORPG (Role Playing Game), meaning that when your playing the game YOU are that character, otherwise whats the point in playing? to reach end game and just go round killing others? Play FPS games or 3rd person shooters, Want to improve your character and earn mega money? play the sims, want to experience all this and a hell of a lot more? play MMORPG's, thats how i see things.
Swanea has some good points.
The kind of ppl that look at this review and go "damn, looks like it'll suck ass" is exactly the kinda ppl I dont have any interest in playing with anyhow so... thumbs up!
Great post. I think that sums up Biowares way of thinking pretty good.
Which is all fine PROVIDED these people concede that (i) the game is not quite for them, and (ii) Bioware have been CRYSTAL clear in telling them it wouldn't be.
Clearly there is a LOT of interest in the game and even for a site as large as this it is one of just a few that are in development and a really HOT topic. I am more of a fan of GW2 than TOR but yes, I've been following TOR.
I DO think there is an "awkward" gap in quality between the OP (a professional journalist) and the impression posted in the comments (an enthusiastic amateur). I do not think the OP thought very carefully about what he was writing and he's been called out on it by a lot of people, not just me.
Yeah, I brought that up, only in a bit more detail. Considering other forums are linking to this thread, and posting about this thread and this site. It will bring in traffic, new users to post (as you can see new posters IN this thread) and potential clickers to their adds.
I wouldn't be surprised if in 6 or so months when GW2 is getting closer, if we don't see something similar :P.
My thoughts exactly
I think one of the initial things that will get many when playing SW:TOR are the graphics. It really has the look of a cartoon/comic book in terms of the artwork. I can get why Bioware went in that direction, it will, like WoW, allow the game to be played on older machines with few issues, but if you compare it to the graphics in FF XIV beta at the moment they look very dated in style.what is the OP really critical of?
Story, he skipped it so he has no right to be critical of it.
Melee vs. Ranged, if he has played other MMOs then he would know this wasn't something to be answered in a 30 minute demo of a lvl 2 character.
The 1st quest - This is the only thing he had any right to be critical of. There could have been more to the quest than just kill 10 slugs. Do we "know" that the quest was part of his Class story arc? Bioware has said there are Class story arc quests, and world story quests. He could just as easily have been doing a world quest. It seems it was a class story arc, but we can't be 100 percent. We also don't know what the next quest was. Perhaps the slug quest was the only "kill x mob" quest in the chain. So, you get thru that and you are off to being that bad*** sith you always wanted.
We know too little, and so does he. I just believe that in order to write any kind of prereview on a game that you cannot skip anything, and see what the WHOLE of the game entails. He was there to demo the game and he skipped content in order to write a review, and there is no way to write an objective article that way.
IMHO, you either play everything and judge it all on its merits, or you don't write an article on it. Period. Plus do your research, and don't say "I wanna play Darth Maul", and then pick the wrong class for that fantasy. Anybody that is in journalism should have to review the subject that they are talking about. Which he clearly didn't
If you think we are being harsh and critical, try reading this...
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=156738
In the end, if you play like the OP, if you find yourself nodding as you read the impression, then Bioware will happily take your money but you are NOT the target audience for this game.