I am all for giving a game a good score, if they are worthy of it. BTW I really wish people would stop saying I hate this game, I don't. I have never hated this game, I am just disappointed and frustrated with it...because I want to love this game and I want it to succeed big time. If I come across as being critical of the game it's because I think in many areas Bioware missed a huge opportunity to make the game better than it is right now and some of the issues that were in beta should have never made it live. That doesn't mean I hate it.
Back to the topic though, if people think this game deserves a 7 or an 8, hey I am ok with that. At least that implies the game is not perfect and needs some work. Giving it a 9 though is pretty much saying, game is perfect...when it is not. It can attain a 9 - but I cannot honestly see how anyone - professional critic or not - can give it a 9.
I didn't mean to imply you specifically hated the title, I know that you are critical of it, but I also know that what you are looking for isn't SWTOR, you are looking for a virtual world Teala, SWTOR isn't a great virtual world.. its a great GAME, theres a big difference. Is that a missed opportunity? In comparison with SWG, yes.. because SWG was a virtual universe.. that is not in the scope of SWTOR.
9 is saying the game is near perfect... and it may be unfortunate, but if you want to grade the game on a curve, SWTOR is really the best you're going to get.. relatively low queue times, low instances of crashing or player issues, and as always the most vocal on the forums are always the minority of the population. Really, how many launches have gone better? How many games have had these few issues?
How many games in the last 3 years didn't launch with a day 1 patch that was completely counterproductive to the launch cycle... every day 1 patch I've ever seen created more problems then they fixed. SWTOR played very safely here, and one of the benefits of that is the polish and sheen we see on the content. Sure, I've crashed a few times, and I find some aspects of the game frustrating, but overall I'm having a great time. an 8.5 would be my personal score... whats .5 points in that scope?
Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!
LOL Danny Wojcicki is the ONLY one that at least has an non-bias opinion. Everyone else is a Fanbot. Any "professional" reviewer that gave SWTOR anything beyond a 7 should just stop reviewing games because its obvious where your loyalty lies (in the pocket of whatever Dev Company has the newest shiney game out).
well considering negative reviews are getting real life threats placed I can see why they are scared
^ entire comments deleted threatening the reviewer
Teala you said the squirrels in Rift did not have life like enough animations for you. You want to sit here and tell me this game rates a 8 or 9 seriously? Like I said Bioware gets a free pass because everyone wants KOTOR 3 to succeed.
I've played both DCUO and Vindictus. Nothing new there. What makes them so special to you? DCUO is City of Heros is Champions Online (played them all). Vindictus is a VERY lame korean grinder with setpiece classes/characters. It's combat is skyrim/fallen earth like. Been there, done that too. GW2 looks like its another "aimed" system. Unoriginal and Bland. TERA same thing. Unoriginal and bland. See how you can apply that to any MMORPG out there? It's because it's all been done before. Hence, MY POINT.
if you think that TOR's combat system is anywhere CLOSE to the games i listed... then there is nothing I can say to you. lmao. your rabid fanboism has clouded your mind... seems BW has pulled the old Jedi mind trick on you, buddy.
had TOR utilized the same aiming system as either DCU or Vindictus... omg...
I would hate it. No offense but not everyone enjoyed DCUO combat that much.
Understandable. I knew quite a few people that didn’t "get it" that you had to dodge and block to win a fight. To a player that is used to your normal tab target MMO... DCU was like a shock to the system. I can only imagine how TOR would handle the same system.
I am all for giving a game a good score, if they are worthy of it. BTW I really wish people would stop saying I hate this game, I don't. I have never hated this game, I am just disappointed and frustrated with it...because I want to love this game and I want it to succeed big time. If I come across as being critical of the game it's because I think in many areas Bioware missed a huge opportunity to make the game better than it is right now and some of the issues that were in beta should have never made it live. That doesn't mean I hate it.
Back to the topic though, if people think this game deserves a 7 or an 8, hey I am ok with that. At least that implies the game is not perfect and needs some work. Giving it a 9 though is pretty much saying, game is perfect...when it is not. It can attain a 9 - but I cannot honestly see how anyone - professional critic or not - can give it a 9.
I didn't mean to imply you specifically hated the title, I know that you are critical of it, but I also know that what you are looking for isn't SWTOR, you are looking for a virtual world Teala, SWTOR isn't a great virtual world.. its a great GAME, theres a big difference. Is that a missed opportunity? In comparison with SWG, yes.. because SWG was a virtual universe.. that is not in the scope of SWTOR.
9 is saying the game is near perfect... and it may be unfortunate, but if you want to grade the game on a curve, SWTOR is really the best you're going to get.. relatively low queue times, low instances of crashing or player issues, and as always the most vocal on the forums are always the minority of the population. Really, how many launches have gone better? How many games have had these few issues?
How many games in the last 3 years didn't launch with a day 1 patch that was completely counterproductive to the launch cycle... every day 1 patch I've ever seen created more problems then they fixed. SWTOR played very safely here, and one of the benefits of that is the polish and sheen we see on the content. Sure, I've crashed a few times, and I find some aspects of the game frustrating, but overall I'm having a great time. an 8.5 would be my personal score... whats .5 points in that scope?
I don't grade games based solely on a good launch. As for me wanting a virtual world, I play WoW, it is not a sandbox game. I just want a good game. A game that launches with the basic bells and whistles. Bioware had 8 years of work done for them on what makes a good themepark game - its called WoW. All the work was done for them. Bioware claimed they used WoW as their model to make their game...yet I am not seeing it. Couldn't they have at least gave us more robust UI customizable by the players? What about something as simple as adding more "world" to the "worlds" - no wind, no rain, no night and day cycles, no weird creepy crawlies or birds? What about high res graphic textures, not just for cutscenes, but for the whole game(they were in beta when I was testing it), but now they are gone? The list can get longer...and we shouldn't be making a list like this...this is basic stuff.
So do you see my point? I can see people being a little less critical and giving the game a 7 or 8, but a 9 score is not warranted. If you cannot see my point, I guess we're just going to have to agree that we disagree.
Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!
LOL Danny Wojcicki is the ONLY one that at least has an non-bias opinion. Everyone else is a Fanbot. Any "professional" reviewer that gave SWTOR anything beyond a 7 should just stop reviewing games because its obvious where your loyalty lies (in the pocket of whatever Dev Company has the newest shiney game out).
well considering negative reviews are getting real life threats placed I can see why they are scared
^ entire comments deleted threatening the reviewer
Teala you said the squirrels in Rift did not have life like enough animations for you. You want to sit here and tell me this game rates a 8 or 9 seriously? Like I said Bioware gets a free pass because everyone wants KOTOR 3 to succeed.
Oh hell no...lol...I think you are thinking of a different Teala. I rated the game a 5! Too many basic bells and whistles missing for me, and the worlds are way too linear, lifeless, poor MOB AI,.... OMG, me think the game gets a 8 or 9? LOL...it will take a miracle patch from Bioware to get me to rate this game an 8 - let alone a 9!
Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!
LOL Danny Wojcicki is the ONLY one that at least has an non-bias opinion. Everyone else is a Fanbot. Any "professional" reviewer that gave SWTOR anything beyond a 7 should just stop reviewing games because its obvious where your loyalty lies (in the pocket of whatever Dev Company has the newest shiney game out).
well considering negative reviews are getting real life threats placed I can see why they are scared
^ entire comments deleted threatening the reviewer
Teala you said the squirrels in Rift did not have life like enough animations for you. You want to sit here and tell me this game rates a 8 or 9 seriously? Like I said Bioware gets a free pass because everyone wants KOTOR 3 to succeed.
Oh hell no...lol...I think you are thinking of a different Teala. I rated the game a 5! Too many basic bells and whistles missing for me, and the worlds are way too linear, lifeless, poor MOB AI,.... OMG, me think the game gets a 8 or 9? LOL...it will take a miracle patch from Bioware to get me to rate this game an 8 - let alone a 9!
You have to actually play the game first extensively to rate it otherwise who would take your review seriously? you haven't even played the game yet have you?
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Oh hell no...lol...I think you are thinking of a different Teala. I rated the game a 5! Too many basic bells and whistles missing for me, and the worlds are way too linear, lifeless, poor MOB AI,.... OMG, me think the game gets a 8 or 9? LOL...it will take a miracle patch from Bioware to get me to rate this game an 8 - let alone a 9!
opps guess I read that wrong. I vote 6-7 because it is not complete and the pvp is just making people rage. I do not see Mike B's score coming out any higher. The pve side is way more healthy then the pvp side, but by the time Mike B. reviews it has been a month and he is not scared to be critical.
Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!
LOL Danny Wojcicki is the ONLY one that at least has an non-bias opinion. Everyone else is a Fanbot. Any "professional" reviewer that gave SWTOR anything beyond a 7 should just stop reviewing games because its obvious where your loyalty lies (in the pocket of whatever Dev Company has the newest shiney game out).
well considering negative reviews are getting real life threats placed I can see why they are scared
^ entire comments deleted threatening the reviewer
Teala you said the squirrels in Rift did not have life like enough animations for you. You want to sit here and tell me this game rates a 8 or 9 seriously? Like I said Bioware gets a free pass because everyone wants KOTOR 3 to succeed.
Oh hell no...lol...I think you are thinking of a different Teala. I rated the game a 5! Too many basic bells and whistles missing for me, and the worlds are way too linear, lifeless, poor MOB AI,.... OMG, me think the game gets a 8 or 9? LOL...it will take a miracle patch from Bioware to get me to rate this game an 8 - let alone a 9!
You have to actually play the game first extensively to rate it otherwise who would take your review seriously? you haven't even played the game yet have you?
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
I don't grade games based solely on a good launch. As for me wanting a virtual world, I play WoW, it is not a sandbox game. I just want a good game. A game that launches with the basic bells and whistles. Bioware had 8 years of work done for them on what makes a good themepark game - its called WoW. All the work was done for them. Bioware claimed they used WoW as their model to make their game...yet I am not seeing it. Couldn't they have at least gave us more robust UI customizable by the players? What about something as simple as adding more "world" to the "worlds" - no wind, no rain, no night and day cycles, no weird creepy crawlies or birds? What about high res graphic textures, not just for cutscenes, but for the whole game(they were in beta when I was testing it), but now they are gone? The list can get longer...and we shouldn't be making a list like this...this is basic stuff.
So do you see my point? I can see people being a little less critical and giving the game a 7 or 8, but a 9 score is not warranted. If you cannot see my point, I guess we're just going to have to agree that we disagree.
But you again, miss the point, wind, rain, night and day have no bearing on playability, they are aesthetic. As are high res graphic textures (which they have, but not on everything for some reason). UI customization I agree with, they do need better customization there, but these are very minor, nitpicky things.
Would you rather have wind, rain, birds, and a moon every 4 hours... or 3 warzones to play instead of 2.
In a perfect world, we could have everything in the game that we want, and infinite amounts of time to create said game without people getting frustrated it was taking too long, or investors complaining they have yet to see a return, but this isn't a perfect world. They've already mentioned customizable UI is incoming, as well as AA and graphical enhancements.
The foundation is rock solid, and the game is playable and enjoyable. No game has come close to the amount of content and polish in all aspects as SWTOR has... so why shouldn't it get a high rating? Because we can't watch the sunrise?
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
And all reviewers i know actually play the game for atleast 2 to 3 weeks before giving the review. How can you review a game without playing it? not that i personally care for your reviews because for me ign.com is last stop for my review/preview needs.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
I don't grade games based solely on a good launch. As for me wanting a virtual world, I play WoW, it is not a sandbox game. I just want a good game. A game that launches with the basic bells and whistles. Bioware had 8 years of work done for them on what makes a good themepark game - its called WoW. All the work was done for them. Bioware claimed they used WoW as their model to make their game...yet I am not seeing it. Couldn't they have at least gave us more robust UI customizable by the players? What about something as simple as adding more "world" to the "worlds" - no wind, no rain, no night and day cycles, no weird creepy crawlies or birds? What about high res graphic textures, not just for cutscenes, but for the whole game(they were in beta when I was testing it), but now they are gone? The list can get longer...and we shouldn't be making a list like this...this is basic stuff.
So do you see my point? I can see people being a little less critical and giving the game a 7 or 8, but a 9 score is not warranted. If you cannot see my point, I guess we're just going to have to agree that we disagree.
But you again, miss the point, wind, rain, night and day have no bearing on playability, they are aesthetic. As are high res graphic textures (which they have, but not on everything for some reason). UI customization I agree with, they do need better customization there, but these are very minor, nitpicky things.
Would you rather have wind, rain, birds, and a moon every 4 hours... or 3 warzones to play instead of 2.
In a perfect world, we could have everything in the game that we want, and infinite amounts of time to create said game without people getting frustrated it was taking too long, or investors complaining they have yet to see a return, but this isn't a perfect world. They've already mentioned customizable UI is incoming, as well as AA and graphical enhancements.
The foundation is rock solid, and the game is playable and enjoyable. No game has come close to the amount of content and polish in all aspects as SWTOR has... so why shouldn't it get a high rating? Because we can't watch the sunrise?
Yes they do matter, to me, and many others it seems, becuase you see post about it on the main forums all the time. It's called immersion. It helps draw me into their game and makes me want to continue to play their game. So yes, things like this does have an impact on my perception of the game and how it plays. Imagine how cool it would be to see Coruscant at night! What about any ofthe worlds at night?
Anyway...we can discuss this till we're old and grey. We see things differently. I wish to see a better game. You are OK with what you got. Well you got what you wanted. Enjoy it. I'll be waiting for the better game to arrive before I play it.
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
And all reviewers i know actually play the game for atleast 2 to 3 weeks before giving the review. How can you review a game without playing it? not that i personally care for your reviews because for me ign.com is last stop for my review/preview needs.
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
And all reviewers i know actually play the game for atleast 2 to 3 weeks before giving the review. How can you review a game without playing it? not that i personally care for your reviews because for me ign.com is last stop for my review/preview needs.
I rated the game in the Games Rating Menu and had 7.8 as outcome. Which is already a rather low rating - i really dont see a 6 or lower justified and believe such a rating is coloured by personal preference, especially as any rating below 7 means a game is utter crap and SWTOR is very far from being crap. In fact its a good game that has some averages and some outstanding parts.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
"In short, SWTOR is great for Star Wars fans, but mediocre for everyone else."
I have to wholly disagree with this comment. Although I can respect that he has his own opinion of the game, I can't say that he should make a broad statement such as this one, that seems to speak for all the other mmo players. I say this with this to back up my opinion: I am really far from a Star Wars fan whatsoever. Although I enjoyed the movies at least once, I never was a big fan beyond the respectful nod to its success. Yet in spite of this, I found SWTOR (which I played in the beta so far) to be outstanding from an MMO perspective. It was immersive, and enjoyable for the entire 25 + hours I played over the weekend I got to play... And when I get the chance you can rest assured that I'll be buying the game too.
So as one of the "everyone else" group, I say that statement was an exaggerated one based on his own lack of enjoyment.
Personally, I'd sit on this review for at least several weeks.
Like it or hate it, you're going to get a message board firestorm either way. Let people relax, give your mods a rest.
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.
TOR is the most content rich MMO game in history and one of the most polished and technically sound MMORPGs ever released.
Is it the most feature rich?
Nope. Not even close.
But as the game stands RIGHT NOW, the 8/10 reviews are 100% correct. For what it is, it is brilliant.
That's what a review is, a good one anyway, a "REVIEW" of what the game is and how well it does what it does.
WIsh lists and "I wish it had X" are all fine and dandy, but every MMO ever made has had and will always have a wish list 10 miles long. Even the holy SWG had massive complaining from players and non-players alike in regards to their "wish lists" for the game.
Hell, even the 6/10 review was accurate because the reviewer described what THEY felt about what currently exists in the game and how they felt about it.
Wish list reviews should all be a 10/10 because a wish list review is "the" recipe for a perfect game.
I rated the game in the Games Rating Menu and had 7.8 as outcome.
Which is already a rather low rating - i really dont see a 6 or lower justified and believe such a rating is coloured by personal preference, especially as any rating below 7 means a game is utter crap and SWTOR is very far from being crap.
In fact its a good game that has some averages and some outstanding parts.
It depends on how you look at the grading system. If the grading system is based on 1-10, that means a 9 is on the threshold of perfect. If someone rates that game say 5, that means they think it is average. Nothing special, just average. A rating of 1 would mean the game is far below average and I would stay as far away from that game as you can.
Too many games get ratings that are wonky. I myself have never played a game I can rate a 9 - ever. 8 yes...a 9. LOL!
Yes they do matter, to me, and many others it seems, becuase you see post about it on the main forums all the time. It's called immersion. It helps draw me into their game and makes me want to continue to play their game. So yes, things like this does have an impact on my perception of the game and how it plays. Imagine how cool it would be to see Coruscant at night! What about any ofthe worlds at night?
Anyway...we can discuss this till we're old and grey. We see things differently. I wish to see a better game. You are OK with what you got. Well you got what you wanted. Enjoy it. I'll be waiting for the better game to arrive before I play it.
"Better" is subjective, and night and day doesn't change the actual game, but if thats what works for you, then great. I don't like the premise of playing a game and grading it on the potential it didn't reach, thats counter productive. Skyrim would have been so much better if they kept all the spells and schools of magic from the prior games, right? But why knock it?
Whether you decide to play it now, or later, or not at all, at the end of the day we're left with our perception which is made up of our experiences plus our personal tastes. In my experience, I have never been part of a launch that had this much content, with this much polish, ever. My personal taste likes the story based content and can easily overlook minor annoyances in favor of a bigger vision with a truly immense amount of content.
I hope whatever you decide to do, you end up happy, I don't think we'll ever see day/night cycles. Probably not very many birds either, though you will get to see plenty of roaming bantha later on.
I'm with Teala. The key issue with Immersion and Playability is without rain, night cycles and various life the game feels like a static stage. A lot of the same mechanics apply to movies, tv and even broadway. The passage of time is especially important. Say for instance you see one scene in a movie and a character passes on to a new time period in the scene of the movie but the environment stays exactly the same, even after prolonged time has passed. You end up feeling the lack of scale and time passage. It makes it feel.... futile.
The weather and animals are important as well because a empty stage is hard to synch with as a actor. The same with games in many cases. The oddest part, there is the capacity for weather in the game. Ive seen it rain in a few locations... Not sure whats going on with that. Is there just a issue with timing or rendering?
At this point albiet all those problems I give the game a solid 6.5
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
And all reviewers i know actually play the game for atleast 2 to 3 weeks before giving the review. How can you review a game without playing it? not that i personally care for your reviews because for me ign.com is last stop for my review/preview needs.
Good for you.
So you still didn't answer my question..how do you plan to review the game without playing it?
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Forum PVP - how original and innovative. Google the names of the reviewers and see if anybody has any published cred if individual critiques are that important to you. I pre-ordered SWTOR, played a couple of betas, subbed and I am now playing and enjoying the game. Doubt anyone cares if I like/dislike any or all of the game - except Bioware. So Bioware, I like your game. Well done!
I'm getting really disheartened these days by the ludicrous scores people give games. I wonder if it's just that our expectations are non-existant or wether there is some other problem? It isn't even as if I'm incredibly old and miss the 'good old days'. What I do appreciate though is good game design and implementation of technologies within games (and software/hardware in general of course).
Games should ALWAYS be scored relative to each other and by the level of standard we have come to expect from a game in this day and age. Are we really giving this game better scores just because it is Star Wars? Shouldn't we be doing the opposite given the utterly massive scale and limitless possibilities the IP brings? Fair enough, they didn't want a sandbox game and that's fine.. but comon.. You take one of the biggest and most famous IP's to have ever been created and all you managed is to copy the feature set from other products in your genre?! How did they even manage that??? Story in an MMO I hear you all say... yeah that would be true.. if story was actually the focus. I mean seriously.. the game gives you how many choices in dialogue? Proper story driven games that have had some serious work put into them make Mass Effect/Dragon Age and SW:TOR's story look like a childrens book. You want an example of story in an RPG go play Planescape: Torment and then come back and tell me SW:TOR is story driven. Let's not even get started on the fact that your, already limited, choices hardly effect anything story-wise in the first place then shall we?
Here are some examples of games that deserve a score of 8/9 or above when they were released.
I played SW:TOR beta a lot when I got the chance due to boredom and you know what? It doesn't hold so much as a candle compared to those games I've listed above and that has nothing to do with having fond memories of these games, some of them I hated (Abe's Oddysee being one in particular), but instead I respect what they bring to the table for the format and genre they are within.
So what if SW:TOR is polished? Why is it being marked up for this? We all know that a MMO that isn't polished will do terribly. Polish is expected, not a bonus. Something that is expected of more or less any game in the genre simply can't be marked as something above average unless the level of quality is leaps and bounds above the competition. So what if the combat works.. the combat in Baldur's Gate & Torment 'works' but you wouldn't expect it of an RPG from 2012 would you?! We need to stop giving out ludicrously good marks for stuff like this...
Props to Danny for being sensible and calling it what it is. There are plenty of MMO's out there that match and even surpass the overall quality of SW:TOR, in my honest opinion. SW:TOR most certainly does not match what I would expect from one of the biggest IP's to date and it certainly does not match the quality of overall feel of a game with so much financial backing. I would personally give SW:TOR somewhere in the region of 6.5-7.0 out of 10. Had the game came out in 2007-2008 my score would have been a much better 8.5-9 out of 10. Sadly they completely missed the mark with this one by several years. No doubt it will have a good following, but then pretty much anything labeled Star Wars does.
lol when they hit 50 with nothing to do they can always come back and reduce the score to 7/10 lol.
Apart from raiding , gearing up ,crafting , world and instanced pvp of course . Then theres rolling alts to level up . This should keep people busy for a few months untill theres more content out .
Point being theres probably as much to do in this mmo as any other in terms of the endgame .
So its a bit of a silly comment ,shame really because you thought you were being so clever .
lol when they hit 50 with nothing to do they can always come back and reduce the score to 7/10 lol.
Apart from raiding , gearing up ,crafting , world and instanced pvp of course . Then theres rolling alts to level up . This should keep people busy for a few months untill theres more content out .
Point being theres probably as much to do in this mmo as any other in terms of the endgame .
So its a bit of a silly comment ,shame really because you thought you were being so clever .
Which actually isn't a whole heck of a lot when you come down to it, just the same rehashed raiding gear grind with mostly pointless crafting and meaningless PVP is what you are saying. Let's hope they do better than that in the long run.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
I didn't mean to imply you specifically hated the title, I know that you are critical of it, but I also know that what you are looking for isn't SWTOR, you are looking for a virtual world Teala, SWTOR isn't a great virtual world.. its a great GAME, theres a big difference. Is that a missed opportunity? In comparison with SWG, yes.. because SWG was a virtual universe.. that is not in the scope of SWTOR.
9 is saying the game is near perfect... and it may be unfortunate, but if you want to grade the game on a curve, SWTOR is really the best you're going to get.. relatively low queue times, low instances of crashing or player issues, and as always the most vocal on the forums are always the minority of the population. Really, how many launches have gone better? How many games have had these few issues?
How many games in the last 3 years didn't launch with a day 1 patch that was completely counterproductive to the launch cycle... every day 1 patch I've ever seen created more problems then they fixed. SWTOR played very safely here, and one of the benefits of that is the polish and sheen we see on the content. Sure, I've crashed a few times, and I find some aspects of the game frustrating, but overall I'm having a great time. an 8.5 would be my personal score... whats .5 points in that scope?
well considering negative reviews are getting real life threats placed I can see why they are scared
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/27/the-soapbox-adding-story-to-swtor/
^ entire comments deleted threatening the reviewer
Teala you said the squirrels in Rift did not have life like enough animations for you. You want to sit here and tell me this game rates a 8 or 9 seriously? Like I said Bioware gets a free pass because everyone wants KOTOR 3 to succeed.
Understandable. I knew quite a few people that didn’t "get it" that you had to dodge and block to win a fight. To a player that is used to your normal tab target MMO... DCU was like a shock to the system. I can only imagine how TOR would handle the same system.
I don't grade games based solely on a good launch. As for me wanting a virtual world, I play WoW, it is not a sandbox game. I just want a good game. A game that launches with the basic bells and whistles. Bioware had 8 years of work done for them on what makes a good themepark game - its called WoW. All the work was done for them. Bioware claimed they used WoW as their model to make their game...yet I am not seeing it. Couldn't they have at least gave us more robust UI customizable by the players? What about something as simple as adding more "world" to the "worlds" - no wind, no rain, no night and day cycles, no weird creepy crawlies or birds? What about high res graphic textures, not just for cutscenes, but for the whole game(they were in beta when I was testing it), but now they are gone? The list can get longer...and we shouldn't be making a list like this...this is basic stuff.
So do you see my point? I can see people being a little less critical and giving the game a 7 or 8, but a 9 score is not warranted. If you cannot see my point, I guess we're just going to have to agree that we disagree.
Oh hell no...lol...I think you are thinking of a different Teala. I rated the game a 5! Too many basic bells and whistles missing for me, and the worlds are way too linear, lifeless, poor MOB AI,.... OMG, me think the game gets a 8 or 9? LOL...it will take a miracle patch from Bioware to get me to rate this game an 8 - let alone a 9!
You have to actually play the game first extensively to rate it otherwise who would take your review seriously? you haven't even played the game yet have you?
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
opps guess I read that wrong. I vote 6-7 because it is not complete and the pvp is just making people rage. I do not see Mike B's score coming out any higher. The pve side is way more healthy then the pvp side, but by the time Mike B. reviews it has been a month and he is not scared to be critical.
I am not your a-typical reviewer. Sorry, I do not rate grades simply based on fun factor or if they had a good launch or if this one class was fun to play. I grade a whole game - everything....I do not give game companies a free ride.
But you again, miss the point, wind, rain, night and day have no bearing on playability, they are aesthetic. As are high res graphic textures (which they have, but not on everything for some reason). UI customization I agree with, they do need better customization there, but these are very minor, nitpicky things.
Would you rather have wind, rain, birds, and a moon every 4 hours... or 3 warzones to play instead of 2.
In a perfect world, we could have everything in the game that we want, and infinite amounts of time to create said game without people getting frustrated it was taking too long, or investors complaining they have yet to see a return, but this isn't a perfect world. They've already mentioned customizable UI is incoming, as well as AA and graphical enhancements.
The foundation is rock solid, and the game is playable and enjoyable. No game has come close to the amount of content and polish in all aspects as SWTOR has... so why shouldn't it get a high rating? Because we can't watch the sunrise?
And all reviewers i know actually play the game for atleast 2 to 3 weeks before giving the review. How can you review a game without playing it? not that i personally care for your reviews because for me ign.com is last stop for my review/preview needs.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Yes they do matter, to me, and many others it seems, becuase you see post about it on the main forums all the time. It's called immersion. It helps draw me into their game and makes me want to continue to play their game. So yes, things like this does have an impact on my perception of the game and how it plays. Imagine how cool it would be to see Coruscant at night! What about any ofthe worlds at night?
Anyway...we can discuss this till we're old and grey. We see things differently. I wish to see a better game. You are OK with what you got. Well you got what you wanted. Enjoy it. I'll be waiting for the better game to arrive before I play it.
IGN?... they gave Dragon Age II 8.5/10
Their other reviews seem ok though..
..Cake..
Good for you.
I rated the game in the Games Rating Menu and had 7.8 as outcome.
Which is already a rather low rating - i really dont see a 6 or lower justified and believe such a rating is coloured by personal preference, especially as any rating below 7 means a game is utter crap and SWTOR is very far from being crap.
In fact its a good game that has some averages and some outstanding parts.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
"In short, SWTOR is great for Star Wars fans, but mediocre for everyone else."
I have to wholly disagree with this comment. Although I can respect that he has his own opinion of the game, I can't say that he should make a broad statement such as this one, that seems to speak for all the other mmo players. I say this with this to back up my opinion: I am really far from a Star Wars fan whatsoever. Although I enjoyed the movies at least once, I never was a big fan beyond the respectful nod to its success. Yet in spite of this, I found SWTOR (which I played in the beta so far) to be outstanding from an MMO perspective. It was immersive, and enjoyable for the entire 25 + hours I played over the weekend I got to play... And when I get the chance you can rest assured that I'll be buying the game too.
So as one of the "everyone else" group, I say that statement was an exaggerated one based on his own lack of enjoyment.
Personally, I'd sit on this review for at least several weeks.
Like it or hate it, you're going to get a message board firestorm either way. Let people relax, give your mods a rest.
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.
TOR is the most content rich MMO game in history and one of the most polished and technically sound MMORPGs ever released.
Is it the most feature rich?
Nope. Not even close.
But as the game stands RIGHT NOW, the 8/10 reviews are 100% correct. For what it is, it is brilliant.
That's what a review is, a good one anyway, a "REVIEW" of what the game is and how well it does what it does.
WIsh lists and "I wish it had X" are all fine and dandy, but every MMO ever made has had and will always have a wish list 10 miles long. Even the holy SWG had massive complaining from players and non-players alike in regards to their "wish lists" for the game.
Hell, even the 6/10 review was accurate because the reviewer described what THEY felt about what currently exists in the game and how they felt about it.
Wish list reviews should all be a 10/10 because a wish list review is "the" recipe for a perfect game.
They are also 100% total and complete crap.
It depends on how you look at the grading system. If the grading system is based on 1-10, that means a 9 is on the threshold of perfect. If someone rates that game say 5, that means they think it is average. Nothing special, just average. A rating of 1 would mean the game is far below average and I would stay as far away from that game as you can.
Too many games get ratings that are wonky. I myself have never played a game I can rate a 9 - ever. 8 yes...a 9. LOL!
"Better" is subjective, and night and day doesn't change the actual game, but if thats what works for you, then great. I don't like the premise of playing a game and grading it on the potential it didn't reach, thats counter productive. Skyrim would have been so much better if they kept all the spells and schools of magic from the prior games, right? But why knock it?
Whether you decide to play it now, or later, or not at all, at the end of the day we're left with our perception which is made up of our experiences plus our personal tastes. In my experience, I have never been part of a launch that had this much content, with this much polish, ever. My personal taste likes the story based content and can easily overlook minor annoyances in favor of a bigger vision with a truly immense amount of content.
I hope whatever you decide to do, you end up happy, I don't think we'll ever see day/night cycles. Probably not very many birds either, though you will get to see plenty of roaming bantha later on.
I'm with Teala. The key issue with Immersion and Playability is without rain, night cycles and various life the game feels like a static stage. A lot of the same mechanics apply to movies, tv and even broadway. The passage of time is especially important. Say for instance you see one scene in a movie and a character passes on to a new time period in the scene of the movie but the environment stays exactly the same, even after prolonged time has passed. You end up feeling the lack of scale and time passage. It makes it feel.... futile.
The weather and animals are important as well because a empty stage is hard to synch with as a actor. The same with games in many cases. The oddest part, there is the capacity for weather in the game. Ive seen it rain in a few locations... Not sure whats going on with that. Is there just a issue with timing or rendering?
At this point albiet all those problems I give the game a solid 6.5
So you still didn't answer my question..how do you plan to review the game without playing it?
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Forum PVP - how original and innovative. Google the names of the reviewers and see if anybody has any published cred if individual critiques are that important to you. I pre-ordered SWTOR, played a couple of betas, subbed and I am now playing and enjoying the game. Doubt anyone cares if I like/dislike any or all of the game - except Bioware. So Bioware, I like your game. Well done!
I'm getting really disheartened these days by the ludicrous scores people give games. I wonder if it's just that our expectations are non-existant or wether there is some other problem? It isn't even as if I'm incredibly old and miss the 'good old days'. What I do appreciate though is good game design and implementation of technologies within games (and software/hardware in general of course).
Games should ALWAYS be scored relative to each other and by the level of standard we have come to expect from a game in this day and age. Are we really giving this game better scores just because it is Star Wars? Shouldn't we be doing the opposite given the utterly massive scale and limitless possibilities the IP brings? Fair enough, they didn't want a sandbox game and that's fine.. but comon.. You take one of the biggest and most famous IP's to have ever been created and all you managed is to copy the feature set from other products in your genre?! How did they even manage that??? Story in an MMO I hear you all say... yeah that would be true.. if story was actually the focus. I mean seriously.. the game gives you how many choices in dialogue? Proper story driven games that have had some serious work put into them make Mass Effect/Dragon Age and SW:TOR's story look like a childrens book. You want an example of story in an RPG go play Planescape: Torment and then come back and tell me SW:TOR is story driven. Let's not even get started on the fact that your, already limited, choices hardly effect anything story-wise in the first place then shall we?
Here are some examples of games that deserve a score of 8/9 or above when they were released.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/planescape-torment
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/neverwinter-nights
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation/oddworld-abes-oddysee
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/counter-strike-source
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/battlefield-3
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mechwarrior-4-vengeance
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/command-conquer
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/frozen-synapse
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sid-meiers-civilization-iii
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/age-of-empires
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-jedi-knight-jedi-academy
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare
I played SW:TOR beta a lot when I got the chance due to boredom and you know what? It doesn't hold so much as a candle compared to those games I've listed above and that has nothing to do with having fond memories of these games, some of them I hated (Abe's Oddysee being one in particular), but instead I respect what they bring to the table for the format and genre they are within.
So what if SW:TOR is polished? Why is it being marked up for this? We all know that a MMO that isn't polished will do terribly. Polish is expected, not a bonus. Something that is expected of more or less any game in the genre simply can't be marked as something above average unless the level of quality is leaps and bounds above the competition. So what if the combat works.. the combat in Baldur's Gate & Torment 'works' but you wouldn't expect it of an RPG from 2012 would you?! We need to stop giving out ludicrously good marks for stuff like this...
Props to Danny for being sensible and calling it what it is. There are plenty of MMO's out there that match and even surpass the overall quality of SW:TOR, in my honest opinion. SW:TOR most certainly does not match what I would expect from one of the biggest IP's to date and it certainly does not match the quality of overall feel of a game with so much financial backing. I would personally give SW:TOR somewhere in the region of 6.5-7.0 out of 10. Had the game came out in 2007-2008 my score would have been a much better 8.5-9 out of 10. Sadly they completely missed the mark with this one by several years. No doubt it will have a good following, but then pretty much anything labeled Star Wars does.
Apart from raiding , gearing up ,crafting , world and instanced pvp of course . Then theres rolling alts to level up . This should keep people busy for a few months untill theres more content out .
Point being theres probably as much to do in this mmo as any other in terms of the endgame .
So its a bit of a silly comment ,shame really because you thought you were being so clever .
Which actually isn't a whole heck of a lot when you come down to it, just the same rehashed raiding gear grind with mostly pointless crafting and meaningless PVP is what you are saying. Let's hope they do better than that in the long run.
Pity, and yes, I am being clever.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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