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SWTOR - A Great Gateway MMO
pharazonic
Member Posts: 860
I think SWTOR, like WoW, is a great gateway MMO.
For people who don't typically play MMOs or PC games in general, SWTOR is probably -the- greatest thing since sliced bread. It's polished, superficially engaging and has distinct appeal.
"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
I need to take this advice more.
Comments
"superificially engaging"
Nice backhanded compliment. It takes style to insult with a compliment. Kudos to you, sir.
Oh come on, don't be a Negative Nancy!
I meant it in all sincerity ~ as it stands, it's mostly standard as far as MMO gaming conventions go, isn't it?
"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
I need to take this advice more.
I'm sorry but I don't know what you are talking about.
My OP is a reflection regarding the reactions SWTOR has received from MMO players across all experience levels, and different MMOs. I don't think it's a wrong conclusion.
Also, Happy Holidays!
"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
I need to take this advice more.
The OP is right, SWTOR is not a deep experience as far as the RPG in MMoRPG's go but its really good for the Genre in my opionion becuase its going to bring many more poeple to MMOs !
Which means bigger market and more development dollars... which is good for us all.
You could be right, this game could be a gateway to MMO's. It's offers a bit of a mix between an MMO and a single player experience, and does a more than decent job of it too.
Yes. Which doesnt make it a gateway mmo any more than any other themepark. You could say that for maybe 90% of all mmorpgs. It's a redundant statement.
What I like most about SWTOR is the aspects in which it's different and improved compared to WOW and the themeparks we've seen so far. From itemization systems to class stories and VO's, from it's take on crafting to social points, from a very useful and fun companion system to well implemented combat. From alignment to the commendation systems, etc. etc.
It might be a themepark but there's a lot of clever innovation and differences as well.
SWTOR didn't "revolutionize the genre" in that sense but it certainly innovated the themepark neck of the woods. Which was also dearly needed.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Dark, I may be wrong but i think he agrees with you... its not a themepark argument I think its like, SWTOR is doing again what WoW did... and as you accurately describe in a different way... via different features.. but it has that gateway appeal i think... make sense ? I think that is what he meant anyway.
What we have seen sadly in the industry is the same feature set repeated over and over in different appearance... Now I think some people who are negative on TOR hoped they would take that multiplayer exeperience and make it go deeper ( more complex player interactions etc etc ) ... but what TOR did is take that single Player RPG feel and story and add it to that themepark experience which certainly adds to it and brings more poeple in and adds more to it for sure...
SWTOR is very popular, but will it bring a large crowd of "first-timer" MMO players into the genre ?
I would think not.
WoW brought a huge crowd to MMO's, because it was the first ever MMO-incarnation of the WarCraft IP, which was already large at that time. The last single-player WarCraft RTS title sold over 4.5million copies, and was released around a year before WoW launched. The IP was fresh and vigorous at that time and MMO's were still relatively niche games.
But fans of the StarWars IP are not suddenly gaining access to MMO's for the first time, SWG has been there since 2004. LucasArts cleverly pulled the licence on SWG so that they could port all the SWG fans to SWTOR. But the StarWars IP is not what it was 15 or even 7 years ago. It is slowly declining, because it is solidly based on a series of movies that is not being bolstered with new releases. So the IP is fading from the collective consciousness.
Gateway to what?
It wont be sandbox games for the majority of folks. Even if they were interested, there arent any major NA publishers looking to produce a sandbox.
Luckily though more themeparks will be made, and I hope they take the VO stuff as a "must have" from now on.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
as standart as one can get, i like what ur doing
It depends where the poeple come from.. Lets say for arguments sake they are MMO players only and are used to or not familiar with the storytelling aspect as many SWTOR supporters tout... now you have just exposed thousands of MMO RPG thempark/sandbox and everything in between folks to something that truly only exists in single player RPGs...
Now flip it... You have Single Player RPG folks playing their first MMO !!!!!!!
The good thing that a release like this does ( as wow did ) is increase the market for MMOs because it brings peole through the "gate" from what they are used to into something much bigger.. ( from either side )
If SWTOR pulls new players into the MMO market, that's only ever a good thing, because the more players there are, the greater the potential for someone to start catering to a niche of the MMO market.
Hypothetically speaking, let's say so-called "sandboxers" make up only 5% of the MMO playerbase.
If the total MMO market stands at 1,000,000 players, then only 50K are potential subscribers to a sandbox MMO. Not a very attractive number for a serious developer.
But, if the total MMO market stands at 10 million players, then 500K are potential subscribers to a sandbox MMO, and developers start taking notice.
The larger a niche group gets, the more viable it becomes to make a game aimed at that general niche. The larger the total MMO playerbase becomes, the greater the chance of diversity in game choice.