It's not because it's star wars to me that i "bother" with this game.
It's because finally a company has the guts to make a game focus on story. A game that allows you to make choices in your quest which is much better then all of the released MMOs out there.
They took the pain staking challenge of voicing over every single NPC in the game instead of doing it half way and voicing over the main characters, talk about immersive breaking when one NPC talks fully and the next doesn't. Yes this kind of immersive breaking occurs in Single player games as well.
They made (from dev comments) huge worlds and in a time when MMO worlds are getting smaller and smaller (ala rift) that is a major step back in the right direction.
That is just a small list.
I will state that many many people have played the game and have given it major praise, so apparently there is something there people enjoy, regardless how hard it might be for people to understand (not really to the OP on that one) that people will enjoy this type of game or have confiedence in a company that has proven themselves to be a top notch company over the years.
Really i went back to other MMOs and wondered what the heck people see in any of these. Text based no choice questing where you grind mobs over and over again just for the sake of it and try and call that fun.
I played UO, it was boring to me.
I played EQ, loved it for a while but it was the community keeping me there.
I played any number of F2P games and triple A releases, sure those games have quests, but the way they do it, they make it a mechanic of a game to get gear, not to put their care into the quest. I could write up 90% of quest dialog in my sleep. it really isn't that hard, here i'll show you:
Oh great...great. I'm in so much trouble.
I lost my headband when i was coming home from the market, some wild pigs attacked me and i got scared and dropped it. Please (player) go and get my headband, you'll probably have to kill a few of them as i'm not sure which pig ate it. Please help me get my headband back it was a family heirloom, if you return with it i can give you some stuff i have in back.
(reward) +2 sword of greatness, +2 armor of protection, 5 potions of healing, 5 potions of mana
Accept Decline
Seriously you do that kind of stuff over and over again. i'll do it again
Oh good (player) your here. Listen the court of all mighty importance wants work out of it's people. You might be a mighty hero but while your here you'll do as i say. Go and pick up some rocks from around the quarry. 20 should do. I'll be here when you get back
(reward) 5 health potions, 20 gold,
Accept Decline
This is how the majority of the quests play out in MMOs. Theres no interaction back and forth. Theres no life, and all of it is meaningless.
Other then graphics of the world I just mimic how quests play out in nearly all MMOs.
Notice how instead of the NPC being stationary they actually move around, the lips move, they actually have emotions that you can hear. The player character can actually interact with the NPC instead of the NPC doing something like
I need your help
whats that? you have important things to do? well this is more important.
In this case your not saying how your character response, in this case it's a one way conversation that i could do with a disconnected phone and get the same results. Thats not conversation thats just talking for the player character.
This kind of difference is throughout the game, that is what people enjoy. They like fully voice, they like having some choice in what happens in the quest. It feels more like they are creating a path. Is it limitless options? no, but it's a heck of a lot more then just doing what the NPC tells you to do over and over again with no way to interfere. I got happy when an NPC mentioned my characters name in dialog...how sad is that, that i have to go for scraps like that to feel that npc notice my player character.
(yes this comes off as harsh but seriously, people are not looking at what MMOs do in the way of questing and how terribly restrictive it is and how most don't care about putting effort into questing)
This is why people skip quests, what point is there in reading it other then lore. I can't affect it, i can't change it, i can't do a thing with it, other then do the quest as designed. It's why people love DE, they can affect how the event (i still see them as public quests, even after seeing it in action but thats besides the point) by either getting involved or not being involved. It's so they can have a effect on the game world instead of the game world holding them with a leash telling them how to do everything. Same thing here. You can choose what your character says and effect the quest by either helping the person or not. Either by keeping them alive or killing them. These changes are based on player action and may or may not occur depending on if they go down this route.
An extra added bonus is this continues over into multiplayer which i have yet seen done in any single game in existance (yes even single player) where peole can affect other peoples quest progress based on their choices. That alone adds a good deal of choaticies (that a word?) to the quest as your never sure if that smuggler your with will just shake down that sith lord for more money and cause a fight where it might otherwise have been a peaceful exchange.
Frankly i can't see how people don't see the advantage (not including the people who just want to see the negatives because they don't like a game). I have no problem with people disliking a game. But lets be realisitic, questing as compare to TOR basically sucks. It's completely linear. theres no interaction with the npc, and most quests are so simple that a forum poster can write up one in 5 mins. Thats not work, thats not good story telling. Thats a mechanic to get gear, and frankly i'm tired of devs getting away with that. Hopefully now if TOR is successful they will have to take more time to make questing interesting.
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.
why cant i sit in the damn chair in the cantina ??????
You can, or at least I saw a player doing it last weekend. No I did not figure out the command though. I asked but he was apparently AFK. I did figure out the command very easily to lounge on the bar though. Had quite a few in the cantina snickering over it.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
why do I bother with this game? simple, it's the first time in a long time where the RPG element is present in a mmoRPG. I went into the beta with low expectation this weekend and playing it for 20 hours all i can say is
I've seen many video's of this game.. but don't see any new things in it..
Why are people so excited of this game? to me its just an tab target quest from a to b game?
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
We're excited about it because we like storytelling in our games and Bioware excels at it. We're also excited because it's Star Wars. How many times do detractors like you need to read and/or hear this before you learn it?
I've seen many video's of this game.. but don't see any new things in it..
Why are people so excited of this game? to me its just an tab target quest from a to b game?
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
What, it seems to be a solid themepark mmorpg with all the features you'd expect, and on top of that there's the story if you prefer some point behind leveling. So it has everything the other themeparks have + an option to play more story and/or singleplayer focused, always only a good thing when a game has more options.
In Rift you only accept walls of texts to grind for no purpose, that is why I quit playing it at lvl20. Oh and because there are no cities in that game, TOR has huge cities, even city planets Rift just seems like a cheap platform for end game, that's why it failed in my eyes and in many others.
I've seen many video's of this game.. but don't see any new things in it..
Why are people so excited of this game? to me its just an tab target quest from a to b game?
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
Lets get some facts straight,
1. WOW is tab target and has more subs than just about all the worlds other MMO's combined so there is indeed a market for tab targeting in MMO's. The fact that you dont like them is pretty much irrelevent since games without it sell less. I'll bet you feel making a game aimed at the smallest demograph is a great idea but for the rest of the world, we like to make as much money as possible. If you like NON-Tab-Target games so much, get out there and get people playing them so they make more money and developers want to make them.
2. Rift and Aion are the most successful games launched in the last three years. Look at all the others, DCUO, STO, CO, APB, HellGate and EarthRise and where they are now... F2P because they could not make enough money on a sub model. Maybe in your world having enough subbers to make money is a bad thing but to the rest of the world, money is a good thing.
Promise me you will not play TOR or post in their forums...
A completely laughable statement. Just because the industry as a whole has been a complete mess doesn't mean the bar has been proverbially lowered for these two TERRIBLE "MMOs". BOTH Rift & Aion FLUNKED hard only a couple months post-release.
No One, except the small hardcore fanbase of these two titles, will look back on them as anything more than different attempts at iterating WoW into a new form. They're FAR from "successful" or anything inspiring.
That being said, SWTOR will be no different unless they find a way to diversify end-game content. HOWEVER, one key detail needs to be pointed out about SWTOR. It's a "NICHE" product, and by "NICHE" i mean that there is a SPECIFIC audience that this game caters to, WoW-kids. The millions of SWG, UO, EQ, and DAOC fans will be left wanting for at LEAST another year for a DECENT challenging MMO to come out that requires thought & skill.
SWTOR will probably keep your interest for a month or two, and then flunk like RIFT or Aion only ending up sustaining itself with a couple thousand players like AION & RIFT. They've done a LOT of server merges so far, and it won't stop anytime soon.
Atleast this guy know what he is talking about. Everyone determin success on numbers. As this guy said, its a NICHE, if 10 million buy the game and only the NICHE stay to keep playing. Then its a success. This game was ment for the star wars fans who love the deep lore in the game and love every cut scean they can get their hands on. If these fans love the game after launch, then is a huge success. if all other quit .. then they just gave Bioware more money to help their fans getting more content faster.
Wish more people understood how marketing workes..
Yeah, and thoose "big citys" are just linear corridors with backdrops....Trully amazing yes! Corucant anyone? Then we have the world, i remember all thoose saying that Swtors smaller and linear world are better then for example SWG:S couse it will feel alive....Yeah, if a pack of mobs every here and there is what you are looking for then go for it!
Remember that this is an "mmo" that will be released 2011 and not 2005, remember the budget they built it with...Remember all this when you step into this "amazing" and "refreshing" game for your first time.
Im sorry to say, but i think Bioware will come away to easy with this one. I have said it before, they shouldnt have come and touched the MMO-players world but stay and done there linear and kliche Single-player games instead.
If this game are a succses in the long run, there will be no more Companys trying to develope the MMO-genra...We will just get this boring and tiresome excuse of MMO:s in the future.
Yeah, and thoose "big citys" are just linear corridors with backdrops....Trully amazing yes! Corucant anyone? Then we have the world, i remember all thoose saying that Swtors smaller and linear world are better then for example SWG:S couse it will feel alive....Yeah, if a pack of mobs every here and there is what you are looking for then go for it!
Remember that this is an "mmo" that will be released 2011 and not 2005, remember the budget they built it with...Remember all this when you step into this "amazing" and "refreshing" game for your first time.
Im sorry to say, but i think Bioware will come away to easy with this one. I have said it before, they shouldnt have come and touched the MMO-players world but stay and done there linear and kliche Single-player games instead.
If this game are a succses in the long run, there will be no more Companys trying to develope the MMO-genra...We will just get this boring and tiresome excuse of MMO:s in the future.
Please stop speaking on behalf of other people. Besides, the majority of players disagree anyway. Even with the dip recently, WoW sub numbers crush everything in the market.
I see no reason why Bioware should not cater to what people will pay for.
SWTOR is aiming towards people who will pay for an MMO that has a good plot.
Whether that succeeds or not is up to the market.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
It's simple: if you don't like themepark MMO's or have gotten yourself jaded and burnt out on themepark MMO features because of having played them too extensively for years to the point of MMO fatigue, then SWTOR has little to offer you. If you can still enjoy themepark MMO's like Rift, Aion, LotrO etc and have fun while MMO gaming, then SWTOR might be interesting. Shouldn't be that hard to understand, imho.
Yes, that's the situation in a nutshell.
I wanted a Star Wars KOTOR Sandbox MMORPG. many Players hoped for same but that is not what was made. I myself won't be playing SW:TOR, not because I think it will be poor quality or because I think it will flop (quite the opposite), but rather because I am finished with themepark MMOs and I know for a fact MMOs can be designed as sandbox MMOs and since I prefer them I will wait.
As big as the Star Wars IP is someday, maybe years from now, some Dev Team will make a sandbox Star Wars MMORPG based upon the KOTOR Era, and if I am still alive then I will try that out.
A completely laughable statement. Just because the industry as a whole has been a complete mess doesn't mean the bar has been proverbially lowered for these two TERRIBLE "MMOs". BOTH Rift & Aion FLUNKED hard only a couple months post-release.
No One, except the small hardcore fanbase of these two titles, will look back on them as anything more than different attempts at iterating WoW into a new form. They're FAR from "successful" or anything inspiring.
That being said, SWTOR will be no different unless they find a way to diversify end-game content. HOWEVER, one key detail needs to be pointed out about SWTOR. It's a "NICHE" product, and by "NICHE" i mean that there is a SPECIFIC audience that this game caters to, WoW-kids. The millions of SWG, UO, EQ, and DAOC fans will be left wanting for at LEAST another year for a DECENT challenging MMO to come out that requires thought & skill.
SWTOR will probably keep your interest for a month or two, and then flunk like RIFT or Aion only ending up sustaining itself with a couple thousand players like AION & RIFT. They've done a LOT of server merges so far, and it won't stop anytime soon.
Atleast this guy know what he is talking about. Everyone determin success on numbers. As this guy said, its a NICHE, if 10 million buy the game and only the NICHE stay to keep playing. Then its a success. This game was ment for the star wars fans who love the deep lore in the game and love every cut scean they can get their hands on. If these fans love the game after launch, then is a huge success. if all other quit .. then they just gave Bioware more money to help their fans getting more content faster.
Wish more people understood how marketing workes..
I'd say that both posters are wrong. Aion wasn't a fluke, worldwide it made something like over 200 million dollars in revenues last year and it'll easily have over a million subs worldwide on its current 75-100 servers (Aion needed only 30-35 servers to cater to 900k+ players in the US/EU), if something isn't as big a success in the US doesn't mean it's a failure worldwide.
As for a niche, sorry, I wouldn't call the themepark MMO genre a niche, especially since that has provided gaming fun for millions upon millions of MMO gamersm where as sandbox MMO players/fans have been far, far less.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
A little story. A once proud Pc developer named Dice created a genre of fps we all were dreaming off, they continued creating great online Pc fps gaming. Then a company by the name of EA took them over and merged them with the rest of the independent developers they devoured over the years.
They started to design their gaming for the console telling us Pc gamers not to worry ,they're working on our title, but doing a few games on the IP for the console. Time past and they assured us the Pc gamer that a BF for us is coming, it arrives and it's clearly a console port yet again.
EA has drummed the mantra of "must beat cod" creating a game that's trying to be BF and COD at the same time. Where I'm I going with this? Well the once proud independent Bioware is no more and part of the EA collective, and the mantra of must beat WOW is has been at the heart of TOR development, just as "must beat cod" is at the heart of BF3 courtesy of EA pulling the strings which I suspect will result in Bioware game that's missing touch it had it rps pre EA
It's funny how any game with less then 11 milion subs are considered epic fail by so many people.
OP: What are we "bothering" with? What can possibly "bother" us? We're passively waiting for a new game to be released, discussing it from time to time. Personally, i'm not "bothered" by anything.
It's a good question. Why does everyone seem so very concerned with how other people are spending their money?
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I've seen many video's of this game.. but don't see any new things in it..
Why are people so excited of this game? to me its just an tab target quest from a to b game?
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
Other than swtor being an exception to not being a grind due to its cinematic nature in quests, and me being a SW fan...
Why would anyone after finding the cake at the end of an mmorpg and going through the long grind, ever bother doing that again unless it was worth it. I have played through the grind, and the only time I'll ever do that again is if the story is worth it, or if there is no grind.
If there is amazing pvp, open world etc etc but there is a grind, I wont be able to play that game. I am done with grinds. I am not wasting another hour of my life grinding again. Its straight to the parts I enjoy. If it feels like grinding, then i might as well be working and earning money and not staring at some pixels hoping it is all worth it at the end game.
I hope devs realize the grind is wearing some of its veterans out, and we need something that is rewarding but still takes us to the action. Games have pvp which offer exp, but then people are grinding instances (which are too few in between considering the other option of trying to grind quests, or mobs), or grinding whatever for a long long long time to get to the next stage. I don't mind doing things repetitively which are fun when it has a lvling system, but I dont like to feel like I am stuck in one place too long becuase I have to grind exp pvp,pve, or who knows what to get to the next point and rinse and repeat. Why cant the grind be quick, but long enough that it takes me through all the content that they have created.
The story in other mmos that have thier own unique IP and no back ground lore that I have read on previously, I could not care one bit about the walls of texts that are suppose to be quests, but really are just a grind to end game. The solo content of mmos are monotonous. Thats the problem, and people who enjoy mmos more than I do in quests which are quite pointless then that is becuase they are in groups of freinds making it more entertaining for themselves.
I in fact do play solo quite a bit, but also group. However my overall experience will be solo, and from my exp, solo in mmos is work. I can't do that anymore. I wont be playing rift, or any new mmo other than the ones which are really promising because frankly I am done. I have been spent. My past of mmos, have ruined my joy for video games if there is ever a grind. I have deep receded memories of anguish and pain that fester up at the sight of any rpg that is even beautiful as it may be will cause a lethargic reaction of me convulsing, frothing and spamming explicit words in my mind with the need to bash my head against the wall so the numbing pain can silence the demons the mmos have created and planted into my thoughts and my soul. For example, Skyrim, looks great right? I can't play it. I just can't. I want to, but mmos which me and my friends tried playing through and some not even reaching the end has left me bitter towards the grind. I am not a fan of the grind. I know its importance, but I am not a sucker if the importance is badly disguised or not that important with a lack of cake.
So games like GW2 or swtor are alright in my book. However many things will leave a bump on my head to contain the apocaplyse from escaping the mental prison I created. I keep them inside for you, and self flagellation is not an easy sacrifice, especially to the head.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
A little story. A once proud Pc developer named Dice created a genre of fps we all were dreaming off, they continued creating great online Pc fps gaming. Then a company by the name of EA took them over and merged them with the rest of the independent developers they devoured over the years.
They started to design their gaming for the console telling us Pc gamers not to worry ,they're working on our title, but doing a few games on the IP for the console. Time past and they assured us the Pc gamer that a BF for us is coming, it arrives and it's clearly a console port yet again.
EA has drummed the mantra of "must beat cod" creating a game that's trying to be BF and COD at the same time. Where I'm I going with this? Well the once proud independent Bioware is no more and part of the EA collective, and the mantra of must beat WOW is has been at the heart of TOR development, just as "must beat cod" is at the heart of BF3 courtesy of EA pulling the strings which I suspect will result in Bioware game that's missing touch it had it rps pre EA
Considering the fact the game Bioware produced after EA bought them out includes Mass Effect2, the 'EA is killing our OLD Bioware' matra rings hallow.
EA also let them produce Dragon Age: Origins which is an awesome RPG.
Dragon Age2 had some issues but 2 out of 3 awesome games and 1 average one is still 'Winning'.
And please, BF3 with its 64 vs 64 is awesome and looks absolutely stunning.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
3. Who cares what others think, I play for fun and its way fun to me.
Can i try endgame in beta? Since 99% of my time will be spent there i would like to see that.
Other 1% is nice to see, but hardly relevant.
For OP
Hype is strong with this one, IP and BW ring a bell....but game from what it seems is just tired old generic themepark MMO model. Some people are just in denial.
And to the poster above: DA was in producton some 6-7 years. Started weeeeell before EA took over. Only full product of EA time for now is DA2. I find it adequate game, but pretty much lacking to all previous games from BW. I didnt buy BW games for being adequate. Theres slew of those on the market already.
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
Seems you know as much about Rift as you do SWTOR.
On your topic though, story line seems much beter than msot MMO's. The setting is much different than the standard fantasy type which is refreshing. Companion system seems very interesting. And that is what I gathered from NOT being in the game and just on the information given to me. Saying nothing of beta of course because of the NDA ... but my pre order is still in and I can't wait till release.
3. Who cares what others think, I play for fun and its way fun to me.
Can i try endgame in beta? Since 99% of my time will be spent there i would like to see that.
Other 1% is nice to see, but hardly relevant.
For OP
Hype is strong with this one, IP and BW ring a bell....but game from what it seems is just tired old generic themepark MMO model. Some people are just in denial.
I can not remember a single case where Bioware wasn't totally up-front on what SWTOR is and isn't.
'This is KOTOR3-infinite' was a 'Made by Bioware' catch-phrase for how long?
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
3. Who cares what others think, I play for fun and its way fun to me.
Can i try endgame in beta? Since 99% of my time will be spent there i would like to see that.
Other 1% is nice to see, but hardly relevant.
For OP
Hype is strong with this one, IP and BW ring a bell....but game from what it seems is just tired old generic themepark MMO model. Some people are just in denial.
I can not remember a single case where Bioware wasn't totally up-front on what SWTOR is and isn't.
'This is KOTOR3-infinite' was a 'Made by Bioware' catch-phrase for how long?
For quite a while - until it dissapeared. Now its - "play flashpoints and operations for best loot - you even get social points for it to get even more -loot".
I've seen many video's of this game.. but don't see any new things in it..
Why are people so excited of this game? to me its just an tab target quest from a to b game?
I predict this game will end up the same as rift..
I know it's probably been said a lot already, but the reason people are so excited about it is because a lot of people have been able to play it at this point. It is so much better than any video or interview gave it credit, and I would be really shocked to see it end up like Rift. Don't know how much else I can say other than just try it and see. This is not going to be the average release of yet another MMO failure.
Comments
It's not because it's star wars to me that i "bother" with this game.
It's because finally a company has the guts to make a game focus on story. A game that allows you to make choices in your quest which is much better then all of the released MMOs out there.
They took the pain staking challenge of voicing over every single NPC in the game instead of doing it half way and voicing over the main characters, talk about immersive breaking when one NPC talks fully and the next doesn't. Yes this kind of immersive breaking occurs in Single player games as well.
They made (from dev comments) huge worlds and in a time when MMO worlds are getting smaller and smaller (ala rift) that is a major step back in the right direction.
That is just a small list.
I will state that many many people have played the game and have given it major praise, so apparently there is something there people enjoy, regardless how hard it might be for people to understand (not really to the OP on that one) that people will enjoy this type of game or have confiedence in a company that has proven themselves to be a top notch company over the years.
Really i went back to other MMOs and wondered what the heck people see in any of these. Text based no choice questing where you grind mobs over and over again just for the sake of it and try and call that fun.
I played UO, it was boring to me.
I played EQ, loved it for a while but it was the community keeping me there.
I played any number of F2P games and triple A releases, sure those games have quests, but the way they do it, they make it a mechanic of a game to get gear, not to put their care into the quest. I could write up 90% of quest dialog in my sleep. it really isn't that hard, here i'll show you:
Oh great...great. I'm in so much trouble.
I lost my headband when i was coming home from the market, some wild pigs attacked me and i got scared and dropped it. Please (player) go and get my headband, you'll probably have to kill a few of them as i'm not sure which pig ate it. Please help me get my headband back it was a family heirloom, if you return with it i can give you some stuff i have in back.
(reward) +2 sword of greatness, +2 armor of protection, 5 potions of healing, 5 potions of mana
Accept Decline
Seriously you do that kind of stuff over and over again. i'll do it again
Oh good (player) your here. Listen the court of all mighty importance wants work out of it's people. You might be a mighty hero but while your here you'll do as i say. Go and pick up some rocks from around the quarry. 20 should do. I'll be here when you get back
(reward) 5 health potions, 20 gold,
Accept Decline
This is how the majority of the quests play out in MMOs. Theres no interaction back and forth. Theres no life, and all of it is meaningless.
Other then graphics of the world I just mimic how quests play out in nearly all MMOs.
Now look at this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP1Wt4YUVi0
Notice how instead of the NPC being stationary they actually move around, the lips move, they actually have emotions that you can hear. The player character can actually interact with the NPC instead of the NPC doing something like
I need your help
whats that? you have important things to do? well this is more important.
In this case your not saying how your character response, in this case it's a one way conversation that i could do with a disconnected phone and get the same results. Thats not conversation thats just talking for the player character.
This kind of difference is throughout the game, that is what people enjoy. They like fully voice, they like having some choice in what happens in the quest. It feels more like they are creating a path. Is it limitless options? no, but it's a heck of a lot more then just doing what the NPC tells you to do over and over again with no way to interfere. I got happy when an NPC mentioned my characters name in dialog...how sad is that, that i have to go for scraps like that to feel that npc notice my player character.
(yes this comes off as harsh but seriously, people are not looking at what MMOs do in the way of questing and how terribly restrictive it is and how most don't care about putting effort into questing)
This is why people skip quests, what point is there in reading it other then lore. I can't affect it, i can't change it, i can't do a thing with it, other then do the quest as designed. It's why people love DE, they can affect how the event (i still see them as public quests, even after seeing it in action but thats besides the point) by either getting involved or not being involved. It's so they can have a effect on the game world instead of the game world holding them with a leash telling them how to do everything. Same thing here. You can choose what your character says and effect the quest by either helping the person or not. Either by keeping them alive or killing them. These changes are based on player action and may or may not occur depending on if they go down this route.
An extra added bonus is this continues over into multiplayer which i have yet seen done in any single game in existance (yes even single player) where peole can affect other peoples quest progress based on their choices. That alone adds a good deal of choaticies (that a word?) to the quest as your never sure if that smuggler your with will just shake down that sith lord for more money and cause a fight where it might otherwise have been a peaceful exchange.
Frankly i can't see how people don't see the advantage (not including the people who just want to see the negatives because they don't like a game). I have no problem with people disliking a game. But lets be realisitic, questing as compare to TOR basically sucks. It's completely linear. theres no interaction with the npc, and most quests are so simple that a forum poster can write up one in 5 mins. Thats not work, thats not good story telling. Thats a mechanic to get gear, and frankly i'm tired of devs getting away with that. Hopefully now if TOR is successful they will have to take more time to make questing interesting.
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.
why cant i sit in the damn chair in the cantina ??????
You can, or at least I saw a player doing it last weekend. No I did not figure out the command though. I asked but he was apparently AFK. I did figure out the command very easily to lounge on the bar though. Had quite a few in the cantina snickering over it.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
why do I bother with this game? simple, it's the first time in a long time where the RPG element is present in a mmoRPG. I went into the beta with low expectation this weekend and playing it for 20 hours all i can say is
Currently Playing: SSFIV AE, SFxTekken, SWTOR, WoW. Waiting for: GW2, Resident Evil 6.
We're excited about it because we like storytelling in our games and Bioware excels at it. We're also excited because it's Star Wars. How many times do detractors like you need to read and/or hear this before you learn it?
In a nutshell its going to be WoW v2.0
They looked ral good at wow and tried to copy many many things over , this may be good or bad, thats for you to decide.
Iam done with wow and going to try the beta event and hope it can provide alot of fun.
Still GW2 is the date iam waiting for tough, but if SW is good fun i will play it instead of crap wow.
What, it seems to be a solid themepark mmorpg with all the features you'd expect, and on top of that there's the story if you prefer some point behind leveling. So it has everything the other themeparks have + an option to play more story and/or singleplayer focused, always only a good thing when a game has more options.
In Rift you only accept walls of texts to grind for no purpose, that is why I quit playing it at lvl20. Oh and because there are no cities in that game, TOR has huge cities, even city planets
Rift just seems like a cheap platform for end game, that's why it failed in my eyes and in many others.
Atleast this guy know what he is talking about. Everyone determin success on numbers. As this guy said, its a NICHE, if 10 million buy the game and only the NICHE stay to keep playing. Then its a success. This game was ment for the star wars fans who love the deep lore in the game and love every cut scean they can get their hands on. If these fans love the game after launch, then is a huge success. if all other quit .. then they just gave Bioware more money to help their fans getting more content faster.
Wish more people understood how marketing workes..
Yeah, and thoose "big citys" are just linear corridors with backdrops....Trully amazing yes! Corucant anyone? Then we have the world, i remember all thoose saying that Swtors smaller and linear world are better then for example SWG:S couse it will feel alive....Yeah, if a pack of mobs every here and there is what you are looking for then go for it!
Remember that this is an "mmo" that will be released 2011 and not 2005, remember the budget they built it with...Remember all this when you step into this "amazing" and "refreshing" game for your first time.
Im sorry to say, but i think Bioware will come away to easy with this one. I have said it before, they shouldnt have come and touched the MMO-players world but stay and done there linear and kliche Single-player games instead.
If this game are a succses in the long run, there will be no more Companys trying to develope the MMO-genra...We will just get this boring and tiresome excuse of MMO:s in the future.
Please stop speaking on behalf of other people. Besides, the majority of players disagree anyway. Even with the dip recently, WoW sub numbers crush everything in the market.
I see no reason why Bioware should not cater to what people will pay for.
SWTOR is aiming towards people who will pay for an MMO that has a good plot.
Whether that succeeds or not is up to the market.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Yes, that's the situation in a nutshell.
I wanted a Star Wars KOTOR Sandbox MMORPG. many Players hoped for same but that is not what was made. I myself won't be playing SW:TOR, not because I think it will be poor quality or because I think it will flop (quite the opposite), but rather because I am finished with themepark MMOs and I know for a fact MMOs can be designed as sandbox MMOs and since I prefer them I will wait.
As big as the Star Wars IP is someday, maybe years from now, some Dev Team will make a sandbox Star Wars MMORPG based upon the KOTOR Era, and if I am still alive then I will try that out.
I'd say that both posters are wrong. Aion wasn't a fluke, worldwide it made something like over 200 million dollars in revenues last year and it'll easily have over a million subs worldwide on its current 75-100 servers (Aion needed only 30-35 servers to cater to 900k+ players in the US/EU), if something isn't as big a success in the US doesn't mean it's a failure worldwide.
As for a niche, sorry, I wouldn't call the themepark MMO genre a niche, especially since that has provided gaming fun for millions upon millions of MMO gamersm where as sandbox MMO players/fans have been far, far less.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
A little story. A once proud Pc developer named Dice created a genre of fps we all were dreaming off, they continued creating great online Pc fps gaming. Then a company by the name of EA took them over and merged them with the rest of the independent developers they devoured over the years.
They started to design their gaming for the console telling us Pc gamers not to worry ,they're working on our title, but doing a few games on the IP for the console. Time past and they assured us the Pc gamer that a BF for us is coming, it arrives and it's clearly a console port yet again.
EA has drummed the mantra of "must beat cod" creating a game that's trying to be BF and COD at the same time. Where I'm I going with this? Well the once proud independent Bioware is no more and part of the EA collective, and the mantra of must beat WOW is has been at the heart of TOR development, just as "must beat cod" is at the heart of BF3 courtesy of EA pulling the strings which I suspect will result in Bioware game that's missing touch it had it rps pre EA
Main premise of the game:
Level up!
Do some nifty things on your way to the highest level, then forget those things happened once you...
Start raiding!
Seems like I've seen this somewhere else...hmm...
Yeah i think your thinking of every MMO ever released or soon to be released.
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.
It's funny how any game with less then 11 milion subs are considered epic fail by so many people.
OP: What are we "bothering" with? What can possibly "bother" us? We're passively waiting for a new game to be released, discussing it from time to time. Personally, i'm not "bothered" by anything.
Why do you bother?
It's a good question. Why does everyone seem so very concerned with how other people are spending their money?
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Other than swtor being an exception to not being a grind due to its cinematic nature in quests, and me being a SW fan...
Why would anyone after finding the cake at the end of an mmorpg and going through the long grind, ever bother doing that again unless it was worth it. I have played through the grind, and the only time I'll ever do that again is if the story is worth it, or if there is no grind.
If there is amazing pvp, open world etc etc but there is a grind, I wont be able to play that game. I am done with grinds. I am not wasting another hour of my life grinding again. Its straight to the parts I enjoy. If it feels like grinding, then i might as well be working and earning money and not staring at some pixels hoping it is all worth it at the end game.
I hope devs realize the grind is wearing some of its veterans out, and we need something that is rewarding but still takes us to the action. Games have pvp which offer exp, but then people are grinding instances (which are too few in between considering the other option of trying to grind quests, or mobs), or grinding whatever for a long long long time to get to the next stage. I don't mind doing things repetitively which are fun when it has a lvling system, but I dont like to feel like I am stuck in one place too long becuase I have to grind exp pvp,pve, or who knows what to get to the next point and rinse and repeat. Why cant the grind be quick, but long enough that it takes me through all the content that they have created.
The story in other mmos that have thier own unique IP and no back ground lore that I have read on previously, I could not care one bit about the walls of texts that are suppose to be quests, but really are just a grind to end game. The solo content of mmos are monotonous. Thats the problem, and people who enjoy mmos more than I do in quests which are quite pointless then that is becuase they are in groups of freinds making it more entertaining for themselves.
I in fact do play solo quite a bit, but also group. However my overall experience will be solo, and from my exp, solo in mmos is work. I can't do that anymore. I wont be playing rift, or any new mmo other than the ones which are really promising because frankly I am done. I have been spent. My past of mmos, have ruined my joy for video games if there is ever a grind. I have deep receded memories of anguish and pain that fester up at the sight of any rpg that is even beautiful as it may be will cause a lethargic reaction of me convulsing, frothing and spamming explicit words in my mind with the need to bash my head against the wall so the numbing pain can silence the demons the mmos have created and planted into my thoughts and my soul. For example, Skyrim, looks great right? I can't play it. I just can't. I want to, but mmos which me and my friends tried playing through and some not even reaching the end has left me bitter towards the grind. I am not a fan of the grind. I know its importance, but I am not a sucker if the importance is badly disguised or not that important with a lack of cake.
So games like GW2 or swtor are alright in my book. However many things will leave a bump on my head to contain the apocaplyse from escaping the mental prison I created. I keep them inside for you, and self flagellation is not an easy sacrifice, especially to the head.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
1. get a free beta code from this site.
2. try it for free during beta.
3. Who cares what others think, I play for fun and its way fun to me.
Considering the fact the game Bioware produced after EA bought them out includes Mass Effect2, the 'EA is killing our OLD Bioware' matra rings hallow.
EA also let them produce Dragon Age: Origins which is an awesome RPG.
Dragon Age2 had some issues but 2 out of 3 awesome games and 1 average one is still 'Winning'.
And please, BF3 with its 64 vs 64 is awesome and looks absolutely stunning.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Can i try endgame in beta? Since 99% of my time will be spent there i would like to see that.
Other 1% is nice to see, but hardly relevant.
For OP
Hype is strong with this one, IP and BW ring a bell....but game from what it seems is just tired old generic themepark MMO model. Some people are just in denial.
And to the poster above: DA was in producton some 6-7 years. Started weeeeell before EA took over. Only full product of EA time for now is DA2. I find it adequate game, but pretty much lacking to all previous games from BW. I didnt buy BW games for being adequate. Theres slew of those on the market already.
Seems you know as much about Rift as you do SWTOR.
On your topic though, story line seems much beter than msot MMO's. The setting is much different than the standard fantasy type which is refreshing. Companion system seems very interesting. And that is what I gathered from NOT being in the game and just on the information given to me. Saying nothing of beta of course because of the NDA ... but my pre order is still in and I can't wait till release.
I can not remember a single case where Bioware wasn't totally up-front on what SWTOR is and isn't.
'This is KOTOR3-infinite' was a 'Made by Bioware' catch-phrase for how long?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
For quite a while - until it dissapeared. Now its - "play flashpoints and operations for best loot - you even get social points for it to get even more -loot".
Yes, somewhere along the way...
I know it's probably been said a lot already, but the reason people are so excited about it is because a lot of people have been able to play it at this point. It is so much better than any video or interview gave it credit, and I would be really shocked to see it end up like Rift. Don't know how much else I can say other than just try it and see. This is not going to be the average release of yet another MMO failure.