I'm excited because I'm sick of mmos where I have to grind to get to the fun stuff, I want fun from the start, I want good content from the start, sure it's all "grinding" at it's core, but it's how it's wrapped in that matters. You might argue I want a single player game, perhaps, but a single player game doesn't give me an online persistent world with other people.
So in my view, it's the best of two worlds, the single player experience, online in a massive setting, and of course it's Star Wars made by Bioware.
It's not out yet so we'll see if it meet MY requirements for a fun game. Chances are it will.
The reasons for the hype are pretty much the same reasons for the hate of the game. Star Wars and BioWare. For some people nothing else needs to be known about the game.
As you see so often, even in this thread, there are those who say those two together is enough, and others who say the game is decidedly "single player."
Though there is more than enough information out there about a number of interesting features aside from the amazing storylines, explaining them here wouldn't make much of a difference. There are threads upon threads of information covering everything from the classes and hybridization, to the unique crafting system, to many of the multiplayer aspects, to the size and scope of the worlds, but not everyone bothers to read that information.
BioWare will have 3 launches this year, quite possibly their biggest launch year ever, and I would bet that the final release of the three will be SWTOR. Naysayers be damned, when this game launches, hype or no hype on these MMORPG.com boards, the gaming community will be there.
So while some people may find the topical response that TOR is being developed by BioWare and thats enough, I find that the feature list is more than adequate to pique my interest in this title.
Biggest hype is about the story . ... lol seriously? Why not just make a movie, I skip past them in games anyways so that my group doesnt have to wait for me to watch it.
Because Bioware doesn't make movies, they make games that happen to be the closest thing to watching a movie in video games would be my guess. I remember SE made a Final Fantasy movie too in my opinion video game devs should stick to what they do best and let movie houses do what they do best.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
What hype? The only hype I see is for a different game we know next to nothing about.
Funny how hours of unedited gameplay footage, not to mention developer panels plus interviews and blog entries constitutes 'next to nothing'.
Yes and still less then other games. People have based their "fact based opinion" behind such little information.
I will most likely play GW2, but the hype behind it yet knowing so little blows away any sort of hype behind TOR currently on this site.
No doubt there, but the hype is for a good reason.
Arenanet has proven themselves in the mmo market with a game that millions of people played. It would be like Blizzard making a WoW 2, people are going to get excited.
Again though we have had a lot of information regarding GW2, if you haven't seen it yet I would check out this panel discussion with the developers:
Also Arenanet tend to never talk about something unless it is up and working. These guys don't exaggerate their games features like some other devs we know.
This is a bit of an exagerration I think I've played GW1 and don't see that the amount of people playing that game comes close to the hype surrounding GW2. It does though sound like a pretty good game the hype though is reaching unattainable proportions.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
What hype? The only hype I see is for a different game we know next to nothing about.
Funny how hours of unedited gameplay footage, not to mention developer panels plus interviews and blog entries constitutes 'next to nothing'.
Yes and still less then other games. People have based their "fact based opinion" behind such little information.
I will most likely play GW2, but the hype behind it yet knowing so little blows away any sort of hype behind TOR currently on this site.
No doubt there, but the hype is for a good reason.
Arenanet has proven themselves in the mmo market with a game that millions of people played. It would be like Blizzard making a WoW 2, people are going to get excited.
Again though we have had a lot of information regarding GW2, if you haven't seen it yet I would check out this panel discussion with the developers:
Also Arenanet tend to never talk about something unless it is up and working. These guys don't exaggerate their games features like some other devs we know.
This is a bit of an exagerration I think I've played GW1 and don't see that the amount of people playing that game comes close to the hype surrounding GW2. It does though sound like a pretty good game the hype though is reaching unattainable proportions.
They've sold 6 million copies of GW1... I'm sure that has SOMETHING to do with it.
Biggest hype is about the story . ... lol seriously? Why not just make a movie, I skip past them in games anyways so that my group doesnt have to wait for me to watch it.
Well i've never associated myself with the group you associate youself with to begin with. My platinum watch is your hypothetical crap in the garbage dump, I am perfectly fine with this.
Sand boxes can get away with having almost no story and weak lore, if done right. But Theme Parks have to have stories for the ride. There's just no other way about it. I can't pin Bioware for making a great story, it's what I have known them for more than 10 years.
I'm this excited about ToR, its BIOWARE, and it STAR WARS, its like all your dreams coming true, it as good as find a wormhole that takes you there for reals!
I'm excited because we will finally have a game where we do more than open a quest, ignore the worthless text box of a broken story, kill 10 of something, collect xp and soon to be outdated gear from the next identical expansion, rinse and repeat. We will finally have the RPG back in MMORPG. Also, the other thread with the latest impressions added to that optimism.That thread directly below yours which is worth you taking the time to read is here--> http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/300356/Updated-Handson-Event-SWTOR-Jedi-Experiences.html
Or you might want to check out the more all encompassing thread at the main forums which is here--->
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations. i dont believe these 2 games are really going for the same type of game player anyways. GW2 being a more free form wander around looking for "events" to participate in if they feel like it, and ToR being geared towards those who are interested in a more immersive epic story driven questing experience. i personally plan to play both as a kind of antidote for when one style gets a little on my nerves i can switch to the other. gamers keep complaining that devs dont listen to what they want, well, these baseless, useless comments and complaints might be a leading reason why. by the way.. there is tons of information on all areas of game play directly from the star wars devs personally. u dont even have to look very hard to find it, so i would stop talking about baseless hype over an unknown game. this site alone links u to plenty of info. for computer nerds, some of u aren't very bright.
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations. i dont believe these 2 games are really going for the same type of game player anyways. GW2 being a more free form wander around looking for "events" to participate in if they feel like it, and ToR being geared towards those who are interested in a more immersive epic story driven questing experience. i personally plan to play both as a kind of antidote for when one style gets a little on my nerves i can switch to the other. gamers keep complaining that devs dont listen to what they want, well, these baseless, useless comments and complaints might be a leading reason why. by the way.. there is tons of information on all areas of game play directly from the star wars devs personally. u dont even have to look very hard to find it, so i would stop talking about baseless hype over an unknown game. this site alone links u to plenty of info. for computer nerds, some of u aren't very bright.
I totally agree with your post. That is how i have felt since this summer. What I see is playing TOR for my more in depth story and using GW2 as a break in between for more warhammer online type action but in a PVE sense where I can just join in with others at will and run around arcade style without the focus being on the story even if it does have a good story.
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations.
The OP of the thread never directed the thread towards an intelligent debate to begin with. The truth of the matter is pretty evident. MMORPG hype is fairy simplistic. Hell if it were complex, it wouldn't spread like wild fire.
OP asked for an obvious answer, so I gave an obvious answer.
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations. i dont believe these 2 games are really going for the same type of game player anyways. GW2 being a more free form wander around looking for "events" to participate in if they feel like it, and ToR being geared towards those who are interested in a more immersive epic story driven questing experience. i personally plan to play both as a kind of antidote for when one style gets a little on my nerves i can switch to the other. gamers keep complaining that devs dont listen to what they want, well, these baseless, useless comments and complaints might be a leading reason why. by the way.. there is tons of information on all areas of game play directly from the star wars devs personally. u dont even have to look very hard to find it, so i would stop talking about baseless hype over an unknown game. this site alone links u to plenty of info. for computer nerds, some of u aren't very bright.
I totally agree with your post. That is how i have felt since this summer. What I see is playing TOR for my more in depth story and using GW2 as a break in between for more warhammer online type action but in a PVE sense where I can just join in with others at will and run around arcade style without the focus being on the story even if it does have a good story.
you realize that guild wars 2, right from character creation has a verry heavy personal story?
and the fact that kinda like biowares dragon age, you choices matter, but instead of saving before a choice and not likeing the outcome... guild wars 2 choices are perm..
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations. i dont believe these 2 games are really going for the same type of game player anyways. GW2 being a more free form wander around looking for "events" to participate in if they feel like it, and ToR being geared towards those who are interested in a more immersive epic story driven questing experience. i personally plan to play both as a kind of antidote for when one style gets a little on my nerves i can switch to the other. gamers keep complaining that devs dont listen to what they want, well, these baseless, useless comments and complaints might be a leading reason why. by the way.. there is tons of information on all areas of game play directly from the star wars devs personally. u dont even have to look very hard to find it, so i would stop talking about baseless hype over an unknown game. this site alone links u to plenty of info. for computer nerds, some of u aren't very bright.
I totally agree with your post. That is how i have felt since this summer. What I see is playing TOR for my more in depth story and using GW2 as a break in between for more warhammer online type action but in a PVE sense where I can just join in with others at will and run around arcade style without the focus being on the story even if it does have a good story.
you realize that guild wars 2, right from character creation has a verry heavy personal story?
and the fact that kinda like biowares dragon age, you choices matter, but instead of saving before a choice and not likeing the outcome... guild wars 2 choices are perm..
Thats what they are saying, but I have seen very little proof that it will be as epic in nature as SWTOR with branching story lines, full voice overs, the unknown of group choices affecting the story when you are with others, and a story pretty much intertwined into the entire game, not just a personal story. The videos I have seen from GW2 have focused primarily on the gameplay and how you randomly join in with others and how those sort of chain other random events. Just as SWTOR needs to show more gameplay to us, GW2 needs to show more story to us. Personally, Ill be happy with SWTOR being more story epic in nature and GW2 being more arcade style join in with others to have fun (oh, along with that personal story you mentioned). Every game has a story. Some companies are just better at telling them and Bioware has a proven record in that regard. Also, you will not be able to save your story. They have stated in SWTOR that the choices you make from a story perspective are permanent unlike Dragon Age or Single Player games.
im a huge bioware fan i love story, and their gameplay they put into their games, that alone will keep me playing, plus it has mmo features such as flashpoints raids pvp, yep im never gonna play wow again nor anyother mmo. swtor is IT for me, that and my battlefield badcompany 2 and fps games. but yeah the whole reason people are wondering. is because they dont know bioware. so they shouldnt ask anymore less they look like morons. and i mean its meant to pull in mostly bioware fans and some star wars fans.
I don't mean to troll, but I'm honestly wondering why there is so much hype behind this game? Watching a few videos on YouTube, it does not look good to me at all. I can't really say anything about content since I've never played the game, but at first glance the game looks like it has mediocre graphics, choppy animations and boring, slow-paced combat. So far, the only reasons I can come up with on how this game will succeed are Bioware and the fact that it is based on Star Wars. With the videos I've seen, the budget that went into this game doesn't really match the quality and the hype.
Is there something I'm missing here? If anyone could enlighten me, I'd greatly appreciate that. Again, please don't be mad and yell at me haha. I know I look like a troll asking this question and having this be my first post but I'm really not!
This is the answer at least from my point of view. There are three different perspectives a person can come from when they get interested in the game.
Star wars fan
Like so many have said if your a star wars fan you'll go after it like crazy, especially a game made by a company that is generally known for bringing out great games. So few star wars games are good, and this one has the best chance of any
Bioware fan
If your a Bioware fan, then your a fan of interactive stories where the choices you make change how the story develops (kinda like a really advanced version of choice your own adventure)
MMO fan
This is probably the hardest one to grab simply because they are the most cautious and potentially the most critical of well everything. But if your an MMO fan then your most likely hyped over the fact that the quests are presented in a fashion that is more then quest text and the combat is more fluid.
As for the game itself?
Well heres a small list of things that are done better or unique to the MMO world that may be getting people interested
First off, it's bioware: Bioware hasn't made an MMO yet so a lot of people want to see what they are planing, they go in a completely differnet direction then what MMO fans are used to. Which would be skip the story, grind to max then grind for gear. This game promises to give a big story, thus removing the grind.
Second the combat system or more specifically the enemy AI/duck and cover system:
I linked these two together. Because both you and the enemy can duck behind cover. Instead of an enemy noticing you (aggro) and then running straight at you and spaming whatever skills it has. In this game it's promised that the AI will find cover and try and fire at you from it, kinda like how ME did.
Also like ME you can duck behind cover, not as much as ME as you could almost duck behind any cover, but thats SP, in this instance as long as theres a green outline of a character near an object, you can duck behind it to get additional bonus to def and for some classes a new skill set that is specifically designed for cover fighting.
The story is another factor.
What is so unique about the story? well the actual story nothing. It promises to be great, but every game has a great story right? No what i belive that is going to be so unique about the story is the ability to shape the story how you want. In a normal MMo when you double click or whateve it is you have to do to start the quest, a text box shows up and at the bottom is what you'll get and a nice little (maybe cherry coated) accept or decline button. At this point you have to do what is ask (kill 10 rats) Then return to the npc, double click again, click complete then grab your reward. Quests in this respect are more a means to get loot then actually part of the story. You don't have any say what happens. It's just a check list.
Now what does BW promote that is different then that? Simply the fact by bringing the character into the quests. When you active the quest person. The first thing you notice is that everyone starts talking, and i do mean everyone (more on that in a bit) Also at certain points in the quest, a wheel of sorts pops up and you can pick to either hear more, be nice, be mean or be something in between. You can do this in multiple instances. We'll take the previous example. You come up to a guy and he starts rambling on about how he needs you to kill 10 rats for him and he needs it done pronto, before he'll give you the acceptance letter. Now you COULD go and kill the 10 rats as suggested, or you COULD punch the guy in the face, kill the guards, threaten him until he gives you the acceptance letter anyhow.
Now instead of going to kill 10 rats, you've changed it to getting the acceptance letter now, you've also changed your story, because you may run into him later or his people, and instead of him being nice (cause you did him a favor) and letting you into his base, now he'll be mean or sarcastic and probly send you into a dangerous area to get killed in (which he wont be successful).
The idea that your choices can have inpact in your story later on is what interests a lot of people.
Next we have companions.
During your story you're going to pick up companions, these companions all have personal motives and agendas, which may or may not correspond to your own. How you react to certain situations can make them either like you, dislike you, hate you, or outright betray you. Also you can have an affect on their morale standing. Say you have a general who has been washed out and is with you to regain some honor. Hes a good guy but hes also mad that all his work was forgoten and so was he. Now you COULD, boost him up by getting him back in the fight and thus show them that he is worth something, or you COULD foster that hate of his and send him on a mission of revenge against the original offenders.
Next we have your other companions, the real life ones.
In some instances they are just there to provide a line or two in the story if they are there. However they can influences minor things like if one party member has made the guy mad before, he'll remember that and may comment on it where he wouldn't have before. Thus they add flavor to the conversation, however the biggest influence is when you get out of the class story, take a flash point ofr instance (a group dungeon encounter) when you reach a certain point in a dialog your giving an option to either (for this example) save or kill the captain, but heres the trick, that same option is given to the rest of your group, whoever wins the roll, takes out the action (which means if you wanted to save the captain but the other 3 didn't, he may still end up dead), thus changing the encounter. You'll be facing different enemies and with or without help which may make it harder, easier or just plain different.
Finally the Voice over.
Why is Voice over so big with some people? Frankly it's the immersive effect, you can get involved in a book yes, but what happens when you try and smash a large amount of text into a movie every few minutes, you get the silent movies. It's road blocks. You just defeated a whole clan of orcs, you bested the general and hes is down. you walk up to the quest NPC, and you get. Well you get what your seeing here, about 6 paragraphs of text, you quickly have a decision to make, do i read the text to learn more, hold up my friends and potentionally get attacked while talking ot him, or do i click past it, get my reward and move on. Most choose the latter. In this one, when you talk to him, you start talking to the npc and he talks right back. Every bit of dialog (text) in this game is voice overed, even your own character.
Thus giving the feeling that your playing in a movie rather then in a world where your forced to do tasks. In the end it's about what your looking for. If your the type of person who likes to just grind up all the way and grind some more on gear, this game offers that choice but it's not really the design behind it. If you want a immersive world with a deep story (thats hypothecial cause the game isn't out yet) then this is the game for you.
The biggest problem people are having when they "look" at the game is the graphics, or rather the art style as the actual excution of the graphis are fine. They see star wars the clone wars. Which is fine but it's a turn off to some. Secondly most of the video we are seeing is from either 6 months or 1 year, 6 months ago. Bascially this last summer or the one before that.
BW has been really hush on it's features, what i mean is they're not showing them much. The hype you're seeing now is not nearly the hype you will see when Bw really starts flooding the info.
thirdly and potentionally the biggest problem is, because there is an NDA and how BW works with their marketing (or rather doesnt) we haven't seen a whole lot of actual game play footage. We get to people a person walk around, converse in some dialog, kill a robot. But other then that, the actual grouping. taking down raids, showing PvP for more then a few seconds. We haven't seen a whole lot.
Finally the other problem people have is EA, they frankly don't like the company or rather more so some of their practices and they are worried it will make it in game (this is my concern as well).
All in all the hype boils down to a few factors.
First off it's star wars, it looks like it's finally a star wars MMO that being done in a way that feels like a star wars MMO by a company that isn't SoE
Second off is that it's from Bioware, which has a really long track record (all the way back to balders gate) of giving very indepth stories, which some people may be looking for.
Finally these two facts may combined may give us a game that doesn't suck and feel boring all the way through to max level.
Basically people are hoping for a game that will have a very indepth story, that they can immerse themselves in with a whole plethora of other people while living out their star wars fantasy.
I do also have a full feature list in my sig if you want any more info.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Dang Whilan, awesome write-up there. Hit all the points I was going for as well as a few I forgot to include. Thankfully I didn't post my write-up before I read yours. Good job.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Comments
The hype in just 2 WORDS:
STAR WARS
This is your reason for all the HYPE.
I'm excited because I'm sick of mmos where I have to grind to get to the fun stuff, I want fun from the start, I want good content from the start, sure it's all "grinding" at it's core, but it's how it's wrapped in that matters. You might argue I want a single player game, perhaps, but a single player game doesn't give me an online persistent world with other people.
So in my view, it's the best of two worlds, the single player experience, online in a massive setting, and of course it's Star Wars made by Bioware.
It's not out yet so we'll see if it meet MY requirements for a fun game. Chances are it will.
Corrected it for you
Corrected for both of you.
This is not a game.
The reasons for the hype are pretty much the same reasons for the hate of the game. Star Wars and BioWare. For some people nothing else needs to be known about the game.
As you see so often, even in this thread, there are those who say those two together is enough, and others who say the game is decidedly "single player."
Though there is more than enough information out there about a number of interesting features aside from the amazing storylines, explaining them here wouldn't make much of a difference. There are threads upon threads of information covering everything from the classes and hybridization, to the unique crafting system, to many of the multiplayer aspects, to the size and scope of the worlds, but not everyone bothers to read that information.
BioWare will have 3 launches this year, quite possibly their biggest launch year ever, and I would bet that the final release of the three will be SWTOR. Naysayers be damned, when this game launches, hype or no hype on these MMORPG.com boards, the gaming community will be there.
So while some people may find the topical response that TOR is being developed by BioWare and thats enough, I find that the feature list is more than adequate to pique my interest in this title.
Because Bioware doesn't make movies, they make games that happen to be the closest thing to watching a movie in video games would be my guess. I remember SE made a Final Fantasy movie too in my opinion video game devs should stick to what they do best and let movie houses do what they do best.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
IT WAS CORRECT THE FIRST TIME! This reason alone will push the sales much higher than having anything to do with BioWare.
This is a bit of an exagerration I think I've played GW1 and don't see that the amount of people playing that game comes close to the hype surrounding GW2. It does though sound like a pretty good game the hype though is reaching unattainable proportions.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Star Wars + Bioware + $150,000,000 = hype.
They've sold 6 million copies of GW1... I'm sure that has SOMETHING to do with it.
Well i've never associated myself with the group you associate youself with to begin with. My platinum watch is your hypothetical crap in the garbage dump, I am perfectly fine with this.
Sand boxes can get away with having almost no story and weak lore, if done right. But Theme Parks have to have stories for the ride. There's just no other way about it. I can't pin Bioware for making a great story, it's what I have known them for more than 10 years.
I'm this excited about ToR, its BIOWARE, and it STAR WARS, its like all your dreams coming true, it as good as find a wormhole that takes you there for reals!
I'm excited because we will finally have a game where we do more than open a quest, ignore the worthless text box of a broken story, kill 10 of something, collect xp and soon to be outdated gear from the next identical expansion, rinse and repeat. We will finally have the RPG back in MMORPG. Also, the other thread with the latest impressions added to that optimism.That thread directly below yours which is worth you taking the time to read is here--> http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/300356/Updated-Handson-Event-SWTOR-Jedi-Experiences.html
Or you might want to check out the more all encompassing thread at the main forums which is here--->
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=188836
There Is Always Hope!
i have been following both GW2 and ToR very closely for some time... and i can say with little doubt that most of the people talking about both games on these forums know little to nothing about either game. if people would put half as much effort into becomeing informed b4 shooting off their mouths, we could all have fun and constructive debates about our opinions and expectations. i dont believe these 2 games are really going for the same type of game player anyways. GW2 being a more free form wander around looking for "events" to participate in if they feel like it, and ToR being geared towards those who are interested in a more immersive epic story driven questing experience. i personally plan to play both as a kind of antidote for when one style gets a little on my nerves i can switch to the other. gamers keep complaining that devs dont listen to what they want, well, these baseless, useless comments and complaints might be a leading reason why. by the way.. there is tons of information on all areas of game play directly from the star wars devs personally. u dont even have to look very hard to find it, so i would stop talking about baseless hype over an unknown game. this site alone links u to plenty of info. for computer nerds, some of u aren't very bright.
I totally agree with your post. That is how i have felt since this summer. What I see is playing TOR for my more in depth story and using GW2 as a break in between for more warhammer online type action but in a PVE sense where I can just join in with others at will and run around arcade style without the focus being on the story even if it does have a good story.
There Is Always Hope!
The OP of the thread never directed the thread towards an intelligent debate to begin with. The truth of the matter is pretty evident. MMORPG hype is fairy simplistic. Hell if it were complex, it wouldn't spread like wild fire.
OP asked for an obvious answer, so I gave an obvious answer.
you realize that guild wars 2, right from character creation has a verry heavy personal story?
and the fact that kinda like biowares dragon age, you choices matter, but instead of saving before a choice and not likeing the outcome... guild wars 2 choices are perm..
Thats what they are saying, but I have seen very little proof that it will be as epic in nature as SWTOR with branching story lines, full voice overs, the unknown of group choices affecting the story when you are with others, and a story pretty much intertwined into the entire game, not just a personal story. The videos I have seen from GW2 have focused primarily on the gameplay and how you randomly join in with others and how those sort of chain other random events. Just as SWTOR needs to show more gameplay to us, GW2 needs to show more story to us. Personally, Ill be happy with SWTOR being more story epic in nature and GW2 being more arcade style join in with others to have fun (oh, along with that personal story you mentioned). Every game has a story. Some companies are just better at telling them and Bioware has a proven record in that regard. Also, you will not be able to save your story. They have stated in SWTOR that the choices you make from a story perspective are permanent unlike Dragon Age or Single Player games.
There Is Always Hope!
Knights of the Old Republic is one of my top five favorite games of all time, so, of course, I'm hyped for this game.
Playing | GW2
Wanting | Pantheon
Watching | Crowfall
Retired | WAR, Cabal, MO, CO, SHK, WoW, FFXIV: ARR
im a huge bioware fan i love story, and their gameplay they put into their games, that alone will keep me playing, plus it has mmo features such as flashpoints raids pvp, yep im never gonna play wow again nor anyother mmo. swtor is IT for me, that and my battlefield badcompany 2 and fps games. but yeah the whole reason people are wondering. is because they dont know bioware. so they shouldnt ask anymore less they look like morons. and i mean its meant to pull in mostly bioware fans and some star wars fans.
Interesting that someone's first post on this site is asking why people are so excited over this game.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
This is the answer at least from my point of view. There are three different perspectives a person can come from when they get interested in the game.
Star wars fan
Like so many have said if your a star wars fan you'll go after it like crazy, especially a game made by a company that is generally known for bringing out great games. So few star wars games are good, and this one has the best chance of any
Bioware fan
If your a Bioware fan, then your a fan of interactive stories where the choices you make change how the story develops (kinda like a really advanced version of choice your own adventure)
MMO fan
This is probably the hardest one to grab simply because they are the most cautious and potentially the most critical of well everything. But if your an MMO fan then your most likely hyped over the fact that the quests are presented in a fashion that is more then quest text and the combat is more fluid.
As for the game itself?
Well heres a small list of things that are done better or unique to the MMO world that may be getting people interested
First off, it's bioware: Bioware hasn't made an MMO yet so a lot of people want to see what they are planing, they go in a completely differnet direction then what MMO fans are used to. Which would be skip the story, grind to max then grind for gear. This game promises to give a big story, thus removing the grind.
Second the combat system or more specifically the enemy AI/duck and cover system:
I linked these two together. Because both you and the enemy can duck behind cover. Instead of an enemy noticing you (aggro) and then running straight at you and spaming whatever skills it has. In this game it's promised that the AI will find cover and try and fire at you from it, kinda like how ME did.
Also like ME you can duck behind cover, not as much as ME as you could almost duck behind any cover, but thats SP, in this instance as long as theres a green outline of a character near an object, you can duck behind it to get additional bonus to def and for some classes a new skill set that is specifically designed for cover fighting.
The story is another factor.
What is so unique about the story? well the actual story nothing. It promises to be great, but every game has a great story right? No what i belive that is going to be so unique about the story is the ability to shape the story how you want. In a normal MMo when you double click or whateve it is you have to do to start the quest, a text box shows up and at the bottom is what you'll get and a nice little (maybe cherry coated) accept or decline button. At this point you have to do what is ask (kill 10 rats) Then return to the npc, double click again, click complete then grab your reward. Quests in this respect are more a means to get loot then actually part of the story. You don't have any say what happens. It's just a check list.
Now what does BW promote that is different then that? Simply the fact by bringing the character into the quests. When you active the quest person. The first thing you notice is that everyone starts talking, and i do mean everyone (more on that in a bit) Also at certain points in the quest, a wheel of sorts pops up and you can pick to either hear more, be nice, be mean or be something in between. You can do this in multiple instances. We'll take the previous example. You come up to a guy and he starts rambling on about how he needs you to kill 10 rats for him and he needs it done pronto, before he'll give you the acceptance letter. Now you COULD go and kill the 10 rats as suggested, or you COULD punch the guy in the face, kill the guards, threaten him until he gives you the acceptance letter anyhow.
Now instead of going to kill 10 rats, you've changed it to getting the acceptance letter now, you've also changed your story, because you may run into him later or his people, and instead of him being nice (cause you did him a favor) and letting you into his base, now he'll be mean or sarcastic and probly send you into a dangerous area to get killed in (which he wont be successful).
The idea that your choices can have inpact in your story later on is what interests a lot of people.
Next we have companions.
During your story you're going to pick up companions, these companions all have personal motives and agendas, which may or may not correspond to your own. How you react to certain situations can make them either like you, dislike you, hate you, or outright betray you. Also you can have an affect on their morale standing. Say you have a general who has been washed out and is with you to regain some honor. Hes a good guy but hes also mad that all his work was forgoten and so was he. Now you COULD, boost him up by getting him back in the fight and thus show them that he is worth something, or you COULD foster that hate of his and send him on a mission of revenge against the original offenders.
Next we have your other companions, the real life ones.
In some instances they are just there to provide a line or two in the story if they are there. However they can influences minor things like if one party member has made the guy mad before, he'll remember that and may comment on it where he wouldn't have before. Thus they add flavor to the conversation, however the biggest influence is when you get out of the class story, take a flash point ofr instance (a group dungeon encounter) when you reach a certain point in a dialog your giving an option to either (for this example) save or kill the captain, but heres the trick, that same option is given to the rest of your group, whoever wins the roll, takes out the action (which means if you wanted to save the captain but the other 3 didn't, he may still end up dead), thus changing the encounter. You'll be facing different enemies and with or without help which may make it harder, easier or just plain different.
Finally the Voice over.
Why is Voice over so big with some people? Frankly it's the immersive effect, you can get involved in a book yes, but what happens when you try and smash a large amount of text into a movie every few minutes, you get the silent movies. It's road blocks. You just defeated a whole clan of orcs, you bested the general and hes is down. you walk up to the quest NPC, and you get. Well you get what your seeing here, about 6 paragraphs of text, you quickly have a decision to make, do i read the text to learn more, hold up my friends and potentionally get attacked while talking ot him, or do i click past it, get my reward and move on. Most choose the latter. In this one, when you talk to him, you start talking to the npc and he talks right back. Every bit of dialog (text) in this game is voice overed, even your own character.
Thus giving the feeling that your playing in a movie rather then in a world where your forced to do tasks. In the end it's about what your looking for. If your the type of person who likes to just grind up all the way and grind some more on gear, this game offers that choice but it's not really the design behind it. If you want a immersive world with a deep story (thats hypothecial cause the game isn't out yet) then this is the game for you.
The biggest problem people are having when they "look" at the game is the graphics, or rather the art style as the actual excution of the graphis are fine. They see star wars the clone wars. Which is fine but it's a turn off to some. Secondly most of the video we are seeing is from either 6 months or 1 year, 6 months ago. Bascially this last summer or the one before that.
BW has been really hush on it's features, what i mean is they're not showing them much. The hype you're seeing now is not nearly the hype you will see when Bw really starts flooding the info.
thirdly and potentionally the biggest problem is, because there is an NDA and how BW works with their marketing (or rather doesnt) we haven't seen a whole lot of actual game play footage. We get to people a person walk around, converse in some dialog, kill a robot. But other then that, the actual grouping. taking down raids, showing PvP for more then a few seconds. We haven't seen a whole lot.
Finally the other problem people have is EA, they frankly don't like the company or rather more so some of their practices and they are worried it will make it in game (this is my concern as well).
All in all the hype boils down to a few factors.
First off it's star wars, it looks like it's finally a star wars MMO that being done in a way that feels like a star wars MMO by a company that isn't SoE
Second off is that it's from Bioware, which has a really long track record (all the way back to balders gate) of giving very indepth stories, which some people may be looking for.
Finally these two facts may combined may give us a game that doesn't suck and feel boring all the way through to max level.
Basically people are hoping for a game that will have a very indepth story, that they can immerse themselves in with a whole plethora of other people while living out their star wars fantasy.
I do also have a full feature list in my sig if you want any more info.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Dang Whilan, awesome write-up there. Hit all the points I was going for as well as a few I forgot to include. Thankfully I didn't post my write-up before I read yours. Good job.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"