There's hundreds of "reviews" on the internet now, from character levels 1-20 approx. Most of these "reviews" end up telling what kind of a game TOR is, in great detail, also the "reviewer" and some readers make decisions whether they will play the game or not based on all that. All that is very hard for me to understand, it's like we're back to the times where people give their judgement on a mmorpg based on the noob levels VS. the game being something where you supposedly spend 90+% of the played time on max level doing whatever you do at max level.
I'm not sure what to make of that, personally I've been trying to find now after the NDA lift a lot of information on higher level stuff and class abilities and such to make up my mind about what class to play and what kind of content to expect, but ALL I see are these lvl20 "reviews" - how people dont feel like being in a mmo, I dont think I ever did anything mmo-like in any mmorpg when I was lvl20 maybe hit 1 dungeon - and quite honestly they are starting to annoy me just because I cant find any information about the game beyond everyone's impressions of the game after they finished Elwynn Forest and there was not enough raids and world bosses or open world PvP objectives at lvl15.
I understand everyone is in a hurry to pass their judgement now after the NDA lift, but seriously fluff butterflies and not enough NPC's that walk around in cities are the least interesting bits to propably most people looking to play a mmorpg with thousands of other people perhaps a long time. I do love my butterflies and back and forth walking NPC's in Skyrim, and I damn well have earned them for running around alone in a singleplayer game which also could be a bit bigger tbh (best singleplayer game propably in 5 years for me though, hats off for Skyrim, fus-ro-dah!).
a) I never pretended it was a review, hence calling it "beta reflections".
b) I said quite clear I played only 5 days and only the early level.
So people get what I said this was. A brief insight.
Though you treated it like a review in large part, like saying you dont see how you could see your self staying in the game for more than 6 months, and this all was based on the 10% partion of the game, not on the 90%. Also the "not feeling like being in a MMO" is pretty hard slap towards any mmorpg based on the noob levels, I've played many mmo's and I only needed to group for some tutorial instance if even for that. I guess no mmo feels like mmo looking at the first few levels, usually you dont need to group at all just for leveling purposes if you so choose, this rule wont change, not with TSW or GW2 either.
You are totally entitled to say it sure, but it or similar comments does not have much credibility when leaving most of the game untouched and unexperienced, the part which is the most important, where the staying power is or isnt. Again, it's not wrong, and it's hard to give a correct view of something you know only part of, and everyone wants to do it, it's just a bit hard on the readers, trying to figure out if you should really listen to someone or if you are just hearing the verdict about a crime scene where the investigator only peeked in from the front door without going upstairs to investigate where the actual crime happened :P
I dont think I ever did anything mmo-like in any mmorpg when I was lvl20 maybe hit 1 dungeon - and quite honestly they are starting to annoy me just because I cant find any information about the game beyond everyone's impressions of the game after they finished Elwynn Forest and there was not enough raids and world bosses or open world PvP objectives at lvl15.
Yeah, this. There obviously won't be any raiding from the get-go. If everyone truly wanted that, then everyone would be playing Warhammer Online with their Public Quest system.
I try to remain in defense of both critics and fans though. It's important to note that people were feeling like the game is a single player RPG in the beginning. Maybe even more so than WoW did. I think that's a fair reason. It's just beta first impressions though... Wait till the Full Reviews come out.
I dont think I ever did anything mmo-like in any mmorpg when I was lvl20 maybe hit 1 dungeon - and quite honestly they are starting to annoy me just because I cant find any information about the game beyond everyone's impressions of the game after they finished Elwynn Forest and there was not enough raids and world bosses or open world PvP objectives at lvl15.
Yeah, this. There obviously won't be any raiding from the get-go. If everyone truly wanted that, then everyone would be playing Warhammer Online with their Public Quest system.
I try to remain in defense of both critics and fans though. It's important to note that people were feeling like the game is a single player RPG in the beginning. Maybe even more so than WoW did. I think that's a fair reason. It's just beta first impressions though... Wait till the Full Reviews come out.
Well I hope the full reviews and thorough class evaluations comes before the head start kicks in so I can decide my class I wanted to be an Agent so bad, but I dont like the idea of mandatory cover usage as a sniper, at all. Then I thought I'd go Bounty Hunter, still remaining ranged... But I lolled in joy so much about the Sith Warrior story bits on some videos, and I like light sabers, so I'm torn. /le sigh...
Thanks for this write up. I think it greatly illustrates what to expect from SWTOR.
I myself found out , i can not play theme park MMO anymore. I got RIFT free copy, i still have it lying around not activated. And i think RIFT is a great theme park, made by company that really knows and invests all in quality.
SWTOR is same gameplay , i dont care for anymore. And as for Bioware "story" , I started not to care for their writting anymore. Especially after playing games like Witcher , with far more mature and real themes. Bioware started spinning their "recepy" way to often,for it not to become boring - and it starting to show.
I am glad I did not fall for this game. Infact I am leaving mmorpgs forever , and will now play only virtual worlds. Well...and GW2 , and D3 ...
Yeah boiiii! Virtualworldists in da hous! We're like brothers setting off on a mission. Good to know others are out there.
- I was in a tavern, and tossed over a vase accidentally, and the daughter of the inn keeper yelled at me "Hey, watch it!"
This is extremely difficult to implement in an online scenario. You would have to make objects obey the laws of physics which would be extremely taxing, performance wise, in an online, seamless world. Not only that, you would have players interacting in "non-desireable" ways with these objects, such as placing them in awkward locations or just breaking them for no purpose at all.
- I was walking in a city with shield and 1handed sword, and a guard I passed by said "I too prefer one handed weapon. Always the best choice!"
Again, difficult to implement in an online scenario. What if multiple players pass by the guard at the same time? Not only that, the NPC AI has to recognize the players and acknowledge them, further taxing performance.
- I dropped my tash stuff in the streets since I felt I carried too much, and a guard yelled at me "Don't drop you trash here, or else!"
Same as what has been said previously.
- Guards partrol the city, in the night with torches. If you pass by them they look at you!
Patrols do actually exist in most modern MMORPG's, including SWTOR. NPC's looking at the players leads to the issue of many players passing by the NPC at that moment. This, however, is possible as Mortal Online has implemented it (even though it is rather buggy where they can't really decide where to look).
- When I enter a Jarls court or a tavern, the NPCs always stand somewhere else, always doing something else. In MMOs, when I enter a palance or a tavern, all NPCs always stand at the same place.
NPC's that have no purpose at all are fine moving around, but NPC's that have a purpose (quest giver, vendor, etc.) get really annoying if they keep moving around, especially when there are several people trying to interact with them at any given moment.
- When I did something in the city, the NPCs talk about it.
SWTOR does have this with its dialogue. When you talk to an NPC, he sometimes acknowledges your previous acts. However, having random NPC's talk about something you did is extremely hard with voice-overs since the workload would be greatly increased. DDO has done this, though, but that game's dialogue and story are presented in text.
- a blackmith works at his various workbenches, makes a lunch break, have conversations with friends on the way, then goes back to work, then to his house for dinner than to bed.
Again, this is only fine in an online scenario for NPC's that have no purpose whatsoever, especially since time passes even if you are offline. Imagine logging in to forge your new super epic armor just to find out the NPC is currently sleeping. In a single player game, you just hit the Wait button or Sleep button and there you go. This simply doesn't work in an online scenario.
Why can this not exist in a MMO at least to *some* degree? Why are all NPCs like nailed to the group puppets even now in a 2012 MMO? I mean, I know a MMO can't copy single player game mechanics 100%. But a bit more than this 10 year old MMO concept should be possible these days. At least some fake city life. A few things going on around me in a city. But this was just SO bad. Sorry, I loved a lot other things, but these dead cities really annoyed me.
That's just the way online games work. There are advantages and disadvantages, and your demands simply aren't reasonable for a game that needs to accomodate several people at once and that persists even after you log-off.
That and the awful plastic textures.
These shoulderpads are supposed to be metal, but don't LOOK like metal: (And the shirt at the neck looks like drawn on the skin! Even the most flimsy shirt has *some* thickness and doesn't cling to the skin like that! It looks like a 10 year old 3d mesh!)
Some people think the graphics and the art look absolutely great and Star Wars-appropriate. Sure, you can improve the models and textures, add bump mapping, etc. but all that is very taxing, performance-wise.
Simply put, you are expecting single player qualities in an online scenario, which, for the time being, is mostly not possible or not feasible.
Comments
Though you treated it like a review in large part, like saying you dont see how you could see your self staying in the game for more than 6 months, and this all was based on the 10% partion of the game, not on the 90%. Also the "not feeling like being in a MMO" is pretty hard slap towards any mmorpg based on the noob levels, I've played many mmo's and I only needed to group for some tutorial instance if even for that. I guess no mmo feels like mmo looking at the first few levels, usually you dont need to group at all just for leveling purposes if you so choose, this rule wont change, not with TSW or GW2 either.
You are totally entitled to say it sure, but it or similar comments does not have much credibility when leaving most of the game untouched and unexperienced, the part which is the most important, where the staying power is or isnt. Again, it's not wrong, and it's hard to give a correct view of something you know only part of, and everyone wants to do it, it's just a bit hard on the readers, trying to figure out if you should really listen to someone or if you are just hearing the verdict about a crime scene where the investigator only peeked in from the front door without going upstairs to investigate where the actual crime happened :P
Yeah, this. There obviously won't be any raiding from the get-go. If everyone truly wanted that, then everyone would be playing Warhammer Online with their Public Quest system.
I try to remain in defense of both critics and fans though. It's important to note that people were feeling like the game is a single player RPG in the beginning. Maybe even more so than WoW did. I think that's a fair reason. It's just beta first impressions though... Wait till the Full Reviews come out.
Well I hope the full reviews and thorough class evaluations comes before the head start kicks in so I can decide my class
I wanted to be an Agent so bad, but I dont like the idea of mandatory cover usage as a sniper, at all. Then I thought I'd go Bounty Hunter, still remaining ranged... But I lolled in joy so much about the Sith Warrior story bits on some videos, and I like light sabers, so I'm torn. /le sigh...
Yeah boiiii! Virtualworldists in da hous! We're like brothers setting off on a mission. Good to know others are out there.
Simply put, you are expecting single player qualities in an online scenario, which, for the time being, is mostly not possible or not feasible.