As a first post, here is the premise of my MMO idea.
The Premise
On Earth 619, the Civil War between those in support of and
those against the Superhero Registration Act, have laid down their arms and a
truce has been negotiated between Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Steve Rogers
(Captain America). There would be an
all-volunteer force created that spanned all groups of superheroes. This force,
known as “The Initiative” would work in conjunction with all the governments of
the world and be headed by Iron Man, Captain America, Professor Xavier, Dr.
Strange, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Reed Richards, Namor, and Maria Hill as a SHIELD
representative and liaison between the superhuman community and world
governments.
The Initiatives first act was to establish training
facilities, based on a hero’s origin type, to help guide them in the
use of their abilities, coordination in forming groups, and all the threats
that they may encounter . These
facilities are as follows:
The Xavier Institute for Mutant Studies – Mutant
The Sanctum of Mystical Mastery – Magic
The Enclave - Technology
Camp Hammond Field Training Institute – Natural
The Four Freedoms Foundation – Science
Heroes who join one of the five institutes are granted
access to a network of resources from all facilities as well as S.H.I.E.L.D.
While performing hero work outside the Initiative is not prohibited, doing so
outside the law may get you branded a vigilante.
Upon hearing of the
formation of the Initiative and fearing a unified hero front, villain
organizations and key players gathered to form their own version, The
Cabal. Like the Initiative, the Cabal
would seek out new super powered beings twist their perceptions and turn them
to a life of crime whose profits would funnel up to the founding members, Dr.
Doom, The Mandarin, Mr. Sinister, Baron Zemo, the High Evolutionary, Magneto
and Taskmaster acting as the head of training and representative of the Cabal
to all the other gangs and organizations set to profit from their
involvement. The Cabal too established
special facilities across the globe to funnel resources to create an endless
stream of super villains of all types, but like the Initiative, separated into four
facilities:
The Latverian Metahuman Acadamy – Technology, Magic
New Genosha School for Mutant Excellence – Mutant
The Hydra Advanced Combat Institute – Natural
A.I.M. Facility One - Science
In this world,
players start of neither as heroes or villains until they chose an affiliation
either through one of the institutes or through their actions in the open
world. If you stop a mugging, your
affinity will lean toward hero, but rob a bank and you lean toward villainy.
Through your career, your affinity can change as is oft to happen in actual
comics, but redemption or a fall from grace has a cost. In the case of an MMO, the cost is a level decrease,
the notion being you may have been a good hero, but you still have something to
learn about being a villain and vice-versa. Players who chose a particular
training facility will have the ability to call upon known Marvel characters
affiliated with each facility at a cost of influence (in-game currency)
depending on how prestigious the character. If you decide to go freelance, you
can call upon unaffiliated characters through contacts or unlocking them
through team-up missions.
How about an MMORPG where you play as monster and raid the human village , town , city ? Catch human , elf , orc or dwarf and turn them to pet . Create a nest as guild base and then raid other nest for good stuff . Become stronger kind monster out of many kind of monsters . The evolution require materials that drop from human an other monster .
Play first person view with virtual reality aiming support , dress up your pet with the loot and let them help you .
You could certainly make a game like that work, evil races like drow are hugely popular and don't mind slaving. But you couldn't really sell that game to any publisher, the PC (politically corrrect, not personal computer) would eat the game alive.
Could possibly work in Europe and Asia but you would get sued in the US for everything you own.
As you said , evil races are hugely popular . Even without "making pet" (slaving ?) i think a game about monster vs human will gain a big pie compare to the mostly be eaten human vs monster pie .
Video games based on other 3rd party IPs tend to suck more times than not. For the rare ones that don't, it's still far too risky IMO.
Yeah, the reason for that is that the devs tend to basically merge the IP with the standard EQ/WoW mechanics. Those worlds were customized together with the mechanics for them (even if Blizzard took what lore Warcraft already had.
But when we play a Game of thrones game, a Star trek game or a Star wars one we kinda want it to feel like you actually are in the world of the IP and standard MMO mechanics works badly for that.
If you want to turn an IP into a MMO you can't just slap basic mechanics on it, you must customize specific mechanics that fits into the IP. You don't add healers and magic to an IP that only have a handful Istari that can use magic. You don't add tanking into a game that are based on movies that doesn't have anything like that at all in the movies and so on.
If you must use the same old mechanics as everyone else you either create a world where that works or you find an IP that actually works with it (Forgotten realms for instance works far better with the whole thing then Westeros, even if certain MMO features feel a bit off there as well).
Dont just add 2 things that don't work together. That never ends well, the only question is how badly you fail.
The problem as I have seen it, is that in the IPs, they are typically based on exceptional individuals....The "heroes" They can do things better than everyone else. This just doesn't work well in a massively multiplayer setting where lots of people need to be balanced. This is where SWTOR fell apart imo. The game is fun, but to me, it's not really Star Wars. In the game. Jedi wasn't supposed to be just another set of skills. In the IP, they are super human. IMO, what they should have done was make no one a Jedi but allow certain archetypes to be force sensitive and use abilities that are toned down from fully fledged Jedi. If yo uever played the Pen and Paper Star Wars RPG from West End Games, that's how they did it.
I've made the comparrison before. During SWTOR's development, they released a video showcasing the Sith Warrior vs. The Smuggler and of course there was balance. But in the IP, we already know how the encounter went with Han Solo facing off against Vader in Bespin.
SWTOR sacrificed so much of the IP's philosophy, to me the game ceased being related. Jedi shouldn't need big armored shoulder pads to use the force.
Just a random thought, but is anyone else surprised that there are no MMORPG/MOBA mash-up games? like one that would somehow combine the two together. Maybe have an avatar that can explore the world, complete quests, earn items that may somehow benefit you in matches , etc, while also being able to choose between multiple characters when it comes to fighting other players(like league, or smite). Or say, a game where each champ must be progressed in the MMORPG aspect open world part of the game in order to unlock skills and progress further. Obviously, i do see the drawback in creating a game like this, such as uniqueness of items ( or lack thereof ) how to make an item unique to certain achievements, while not giving them too OP aspects in the MOBA aspect of the game, but i still feel like it would be a unique concept , that if done right, could combine the two different genres in a way that re-defines the gaming community maybe? just curious to know peoples thoughts. Since i wasn't sure how to make a threat i kind of felt this thread would be appropriate to ask the question. Sorry if I'm intruding haha.
I'm not surprised at all, they're complete opposites.
On one hand you have small scale, short duration gameplay designed from the ground up as something that can be picked up and put down as and when you feel the urge.
On the other you have (hopefully) a much deeper, complex game that requires hundreds of hours of play developing a character in a multitude of different ways while exploring a large, open world full of other players you can interact with, along with thousands of NPC's/MOBS.
Once you introduce the core elements of the second (MMO) into the first (MOBA) it stops being a MOBA. The people that play these games don't neccessarily play both. I play MMORPG's, I don't play MOBA's. I wouldn't play a MOBA that had some features borrowed from an RPG, if it was still a MOBA at it's core.
Reading many posts from others it would seem that quite a few of the people that like MOBA's tend to frown on the open world aspect of MMO's.
I don't see the two game types mixing well and I don't see much audience cross over.
I've made the comparrison before. During SWTOR's development, they released a video showcasing the Sith Warrior vs. The Smuggler and of course there was balance. But in the IP, we already know how the encounter went with Han Solo facing off against Vader in Bespin.
Their mistake is to include too many classes, as opposed to focus just on different types of Jedi.
TOR will work a lot better as a single player Jedi centric single player RPG. Not every successful IP needs a MMO.
I've made the comparrison before. During SWTOR's development, they released a video showcasing the Sith Warrior vs. The Smuggler and of course there was balance. But in the IP, we already know how the encounter went with Han Solo facing off against Vader in Bespin.
Their mistake is to include too many classes, as opposed to focus just on different types of Jedi.
TOR will work a lot better as a single player Jedi centric single player RPG. Not every successful IP needs a MMO.
Why bothering using the Matrix setting? It isn't popular anymore to give you enough players to actually be worth buying a license.
Netrunner, Shadowrun or Willian Gibsons "Neuromancer" would all give you more players today and probably cheaper. Or you could make a similar but legally different world yourself (like most MMOs do, usually from Forgotten realms).
Using a slightly famous IP only have advantages if people still enjoy it. Matrix sadly remind most of us of sequels that make "The phantom menace" look like a masterpiece.
The Matrix Reloaded was my favorite of the trilogy. The whole movie plays out like a video game plot would, the tone is that of an expanding yet unresolved world, the stunts and wire-fu are even more impressive, and Monica Bellucci.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Authored 139 missions in VendettaOnline and 6 tracks in Distance
You could certainly make a game like that work, evil races like drow are hugely popular and don't mind slaving. But you couldn't really sell that game to any publisher, the PC (politically corrrect, not personal computer) would eat the game alive.
Could possibly work in Europe and Asia but you would get sued in the US for everything you own.
I think it's a lot less about being politically correct, and mostly just that it's an unpopular theme.
There are a lot of evil-only games with rather limited success (Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius, Overlord.)
Then there are more successful games where evil is optional (KOTOR, Elder Scrolls)
Then there's GTA, the only game that manages to be rather focused on evil (Grand Theft Auto, an overtly criminal activity) and also quite successful. So while evil seems to be a pretty big limiter on game success, it's not impossible to overcome -- but you'd have to sell that notion to risk-adverse publishers which would be difficult.
I think GTA was the only game here to be attacked legally in any serious way related to its content, but it doesn't seem like the cost of those attacks (none of which had much merit) cost the company more than the value of continuing to sell that type of game.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Why bothering using the Matrix setting? It isn't popular anymore to give you enough players to actually be worth buying a license.
Netrunner, Shadowrun or Willian Gibsons "Neuromancer" would all give you more players today and probably cheaper. Or you could make a similar but legally different world yourself (like most MMOs do, usually from Forgotten realms).
Using a slightly famous IP only have advantages if people still enjoy it. Matrix sadly remind most of us of sequels that make "The phantom menace" look like a masterpiece.
The Matrix Reloaded was my favorite of the trilogy. The whole movie plays out like a video game plot would, the tone is that of an expanding yet unresolved world, the stunts and wire-fu are even more impressive, and Monica Bellucci.
I liked the first one the best. Everything after that seemed like it was just a martial arts movie. The first one was more about programming and how Neo could see the code that makes up the Matrix. I'm not certain how it went from that to elaborate martial arts scenes. The last two really had nothing to do with computers and programming at all.
There are plenty of cinema worlds rich with lore still not being implemented into gaming. Or are, but not to extent that they could.
Think Matrix yes, but also ,
Harry potter(Magic, weapons, rich lore already there),
Game of Thrones(medieval setting, think castles ,sieges, swords and housing),
Vampires(self-explanatory)
So yeah, if someone would make a proper open-world, balanced gameplay, fun online games to play out of any of these, it would make a BOOM on the online gaming market and quite possibly a huge success
There are plenty of cinema worlds rich with lore still not being implemented into gaming. Or are, but not to extent that they could.
Think Matrix yes, but also ,
Harry potter(Magic, weapons, rich lore already there),
Game of Thrones(medieval setting, think castles ,sieges, swords and housing),
Vampires(self-explanatory)
So yeah, if someone would make a proper open-world, balanced gameplay, fun online games to play out of any of these, it would make a BOOM on the online gaming market and quite possibly a huge success
I'm surprised there aren't more Harry Potter games in general.
Game of Thrones already exists as ESO.
Vampires are almost as tired as zombies.
In the midst of it all, though, an idea. Maybe a well written Mage the Ascension, but more toward the latter Victorian era, to keep the technology low. Something of a wilder, slightly higher fantasy Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Melee classes, ranged classes, cc classes and heals would all be on relative spectra based on schools of magic chosen, of which there would need to be more than the tired MtG 5. Maybe 16 different schools and a toon gets 2 primary and 1 secondary. Throw in umpteen little mini-games, as "crafting", "research", "rituals", "summonings", "evokings", "projections", etc, and people would log on just to play your "candy crushes", "pac mans", "tempests", "tetrises" and "dig dugs", while they chat it up with the people who actually want to play an mmorpg.
Oh, also, I still think a fantasy, medieval era Bollywood style mmo would be a hit, maybe not with a strong western following, but India has over a billion people with a growing middle class, and I bet, while they don't know it yet, they're just itching for a culturally relevant, immersive time and money sink.
It already exists. It's called knights of the old Republic 1 and 2.
and who wouldn't want KoTOR 3, instead of TOR?
At one point I thought a WoW version of Star Wars would be fun, but after trying it I definitely would rather play the single player variants. I also thought the Elder Scrolls would be a great MMO, but it turned out they just made it similar WoW with a Elder Scrolls skin. If it had been the single player variant with multiplayer I think I would have enjoyed it more. Star Wars is a good single player IP.
It already exists. It's called knights of the old Republic 1 and 2.
and who wouldn't want KoTOR 3, instead of TOR?
As I said, I like TOR as a game. But as "Star Wars"? Sorry, it just does not stay true to the IP. But that comes from trying to balance classes in a game based on an IP where certain people had super human abilities where others didn't.
Something's got to give and so with TOR, We got Big Shoulder Pads to make Jedi's light sabers do more DEEPS, And Smugglers Blasters as well.
It already exists. It's called knights of the old Republic 1 and 2.
and who wouldn't want KoTOR 3, instead of TOR?
As I said, I like TOR as a game. But as "Star Wars"? Sorry, it just does not stay true to the IP.
Well I think the "perfect" Star Wars MMO would be like KOTOR + SWG + EVE + TOR + Jedi Knight + Battlefront...
Did anyone else play the Star Wars PnP RPG? Like the Star Wars version of D&D?
That, to me, is the only way to do a TRUE Star Wars MMORPG.
Your character, your story, in the Star Wars universe...
But that has always been the dream of the MMORPG - a game that would play like it was being hand-crafted by an amazing DM just for you and your friends (and for everyone else and their friends) etc. all at once.
I want to LIVE in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to be Han Solo, I want to be a smuggler in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to be Luke Skywalker, I want to be a Jedi in the New Republic...
I don't want to be Finn, I want to be a Stormtrooper in the First Order.
Well since we're talking theoretical games (KOTOR3), the better theoretical option would be a slightly modified TOR which actually provides fun group play. It would still have nearly all the existing solo content, but it'd remove cutscenes and dialog from group play (which would be cheaper and result in slightly more group instance content). They could even reduce the amount of solo content a bit for the sake of having a little mob variety (virtually all PVE mobs in TOR played exactly the same way, which contributes to repetition.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I have an idea for a "newbie school" in an mmo. After learning the tutorial through quests you go into a cavern and fight an undead npc that has the ability to take your soul. During the fight he will charge up and start siphoning your soul. If you don't interrupt his attacks or fall in combat or while someone else doesn't kill or interrupt he steals your soul and you have to do the tutorial again. All the way from character creation. If you defeat the monster your character is saved in the world and you can begin your journey into said new mmo. I believe this advent is for the first 5 levels of the game. (At a later stage you fight some of these mobs again near the end game and once again they can steal your soul but this time only putting you through soul prison. Until then, you are a ghost and have to use chat to convince other players to break you out of said soul prison in which you are free to roam the countryside once more. By then you would be a veteran player unless you fell asleep at the keyboard say its a 30 second cast time for that and only interruptable with stun spells or cc but the scramble by group members would make this a fun experience.)
Well since we're talking theoretical games (KOTOR3), the better theoretical option would be a slightly modified TOR which actually provides fun group play. It would still have nearly all the existing solo content, but it'd remove cutscenes and dialog from group play (which would be cheaper and result in slightly more group instance content). They could even reduce the amount of solo content a bit for the sake of having a little mob variety (virtually all PVE mobs in TOR played exactly the same way, which contributes to repetition.)
I am thinking the opposite.
The problem with TOR is that the single player content is not up to par to modern single player games. For example, most events are just straight talking with no (at least the way i remember it) scripted interacting events (like the assassination in the beginning of Dishonored, or the kidnapping in Fallout 4.
The best way (for me) to structure MP in story heavy games like this ... is the borderland/D3 type approach. You simply can let others to "help you" in your game. So you retain all the story and scripting events, and the other person acts as a NPC helper (which actually is available in Fallout 4 and D3).
And you also get rid of repetition. There is NO repetition (in terms of stories and state of the world) in games like this (KOTOR, fallout ....).
The problem with TOR is that the single player content is not up to par to modern single player games. For example, most events are just straight talking with no (at least the way i remember it) scripted interacting events (like the assassination in the beginning of Dishonored, or the kidnapping in Fallout 4.
The best way (for me) to structure MP in story heavy games like this ... is the borderland/D3 type approach. You simply can let others to "help you" in your game. So you retain all the story and scripting events, and the other person acts as a NPC helper (which actually is available in Fallout 4 and D3).
And you also get rid of repetition. There is NO repetition (in terms of stories and state of the world) in games like this (KOTOR, fallout ....).
There was never a MMORPG where single player content was at the same quality level of a contemporary single player RPG.
And yet WOW clearly built a gigantic user base with that type of gameplay. The reason is that people enjoy playing around others, even if they're not playing directly with them.
If this type of gameplay wasn't desired then WOW (which represents the biggest step towards supporting soloing) would have been less successful. Instead, it was dramatically more successful.
There's exactly as much repetition in KOTOR or Fallout as the better MMORPGs' quests. You repeat things only when you reroll a fresh character. Otherwise, there's not much repetition apart from particularly bad designs (L2's grinding) or apart from task repetition (kill quests repeat quite a lot in both MMORPG questing and SRPG questing.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Comments
The Premise
On Earth 619, the Civil War between those in support of and those against the Superhero Registration Act, have laid down their arms and a truce has been negotiated between Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Steve Rogers (Captain America). There would be an all-volunteer force created that spanned all groups of superheroes. This force, known as “The Initiative” would work in conjunction with all the governments of the world and be headed by Iron Man, Captain America, Professor Xavier, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Reed Richards, Namor, and Maria Hill as a SHIELD representative and liaison between the superhuman community and world governments.
The Initiatives first act was to establish training facilities, based on a hero’s origin type, to help guide them in the use of their abilities, coordination in forming groups, and all the threats that they may encounter . These facilities are as follows:
The Xavier Institute for Mutant Studies – Mutant
The Sanctum of Mystical Mastery – Magic
The Enclave - Technology
Camp Hammond Field Training Institute – Natural
The Four Freedoms Foundation – Science
Heroes who join one of the five institutes are granted access to a network of resources from all facilities as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. While performing hero work outside the Initiative is not prohibited, doing so outside the law may get you branded a vigilante.
Upon hearing of the formation of the Initiative and fearing a unified hero front, villain organizations and key players gathered to form their own version, The Cabal. Like the Initiative, the Cabal would seek out new super powered beings twist their perceptions and turn them to a life of crime whose profits would funnel up to the founding members, Dr. Doom, The Mandarin, Mr. Sinister, Baron Zemo, the High Evolutionary, Magneto and Taskmaster acting as the head of training and representative of the Cabal to all the other gangs and organizations set to profit from their involvement. The Cabal too established special facilities across the globe to funnel resources to create an endless stream of super villains of all types, but like the Initiative, separated into four facilities:
The Latverian Metahuman Acadamy – Technology, Magic
New Genosha School for Mutant Excellence – Mutant
The Hydra Advanced Combat Institute – Natural
A.I.M. Facility One - Science
In this world, players start of neither as heroes or villains until they chose an affiliation either through one of the institutes or through their actions in the open world. If you stop a mugging, your affinity will lean toward hero, but rob a bank and you lean toward villainy. Through your career, your affinity can change as is oft to happen in actual comics, but redemption or a fall from grace has a cost. In the case of an MMO, the cost is a level decrease, the notion being you may have been a good hero, but you still have something to learn about being a villain and vice-versa. Players who chose a particular training facility will have the ability to call upon known Marvel characters affiliated with each facility at a cost of influence (in-game currency) depending on how prestigious the character. If you decide to go freelance, you can call upon unaffiliated characters through contacts or unlocking them through team-up missions.
Even without "making pet" (slaving ?) i think a game about monster vs human will gain a big pie compare to the mostly be eaten human vs monster pie .
I think a level of Age of Conan is fine
I've made the comparrison before. During SWTOR's development, they released a video showcasing the Sith Warrior vs. The Smuggler and of course there was balance. But in the IP, we already know how the encounter went with Han Solo facing off against Vader in Bespin.
SWTOR sacrificed so much of the IP's philosophy, to me the game ceased being related. Jedi shouldn't need big armored shoulder pads to use the force.
On one hand you have small scale, short duration gameplay designed from the ground up as something that can be picked up and put down as and when you feel the urge.
On the other you have (hopefully) a much deeper, complex game that requires hundreds of hours of play developing a character in a multitude of different ways while exploring a large, open world full of other players you can interact with, along with thousands of NPC's/MOBS.
Once you introduce the core elements of the second (MMO) into the first (MOBA) it stops being a MOBA. The people that play these games don't neccessarily play both. I play MMORPG's, I don't play MOBA's. I wouldn't play a MOBA that had some features borrowed from an RPG, if it was still a MOBA at it's core.
Reading many posts from others it would seem that quite a few of the people that like MOBA's tend to frown on the open world aspect of MMO's.
I don't see the two game types mixing well and I don't see much audience cross over.
TOR will work a lot better as a single player Jedi centric single player RPG. Not every successful IP needs a MMO.
TOR would have made a better SPRPG
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
There are a lot of evil-only games with rather limited success (Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius, Overlord.)
Then there are more successful games where evil is optional (KOTOR, Elder Scrolls)
Then there's GTA, the only game that manages to be rather focused on evil (Grand Theft Auto, an overtly criminal activity) and also quite successful. So while evil seems to be a pretty big limiter on game success, it's not impossible to overcome -- but you'd have to sell that notion to risk-adverse publishers which would be difficult.
I think GTA was the only game here to be attacked legally in any serious way related to its content, but it doesn't seem like the cost of those attacks (none of which had much merit) cost the company more than the value of continuing to sell that type of game.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Or are, but not to extent that they could.
Think Matrix yes, but also ,
Harry potter(Magic, weapons, rich lore already there),
Game of Thrones(medieval setting, think castles ,sieges, swords and housing),
Vampires(self-explanatory)
So yeah, if someone would make a proper open-world, balanced gameplay, fun online games to play out of any of these, it would make a BOOM on the online gaming market and quite possibly a huge success
Game of Thrones already exists as ESO.
Vampires are almost as tired as zombies.
In the midst of it all, though, an idea. Maybe a well written Mage the Ascension, but more toward the latter Victorian era, to keep the technology low. Something of a wilder, slightly higher fantasy Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Melee classes, ranged classes, cc classes and heals would all be on relative spectra based on schools of magic chosen, of which there would need to be more than the tired MtG 5. Maybe 16 different schools and a toon gets 2 primary and 1 secondary. Throw in umpteen little mini-games, as "crafting", "research", "rituals", "summonings", "evokings", "projections", etc, and people would log on just to play your "candy crushes", "pac mans", "tempests", "tetrises" and "dig dugs", while they chat it up with the people who actually want to play an mmorpg.
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/444109/how-would-a-bollywood-mmorpg-look
Something's got to give and so with TOR, We got Big Shoulder Pads to make Jedi's light sabers do more DEEPS, And Smugglers Blasters as well.
Did anyone else play the Star Wars PnP RPG? Like the Star Wars version of D&D?
That, to me, is the only way to do a TRUE Star Wars MMORPG.
Your character, your story, in the Star Wars universe...
But that has always been the dream of the MMORPG - a game that would play like it was being hand-crafted by an amazing DM just for you and your friends (and for everyone else and their friends) etc. all at once.
I want to LIVE in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to be Han Solo, I want to be a smuggler in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to be Luke Skywalker, I want to be a Jedi in the New Republic...
I don't want to be Finn, I want to be a Stormtrooper in the First Order.
etc.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
The problem with TOR is that the single player content is not up to par to modern single player games. For example, most events are just straight talking with no (at least the way i remember it) scripted interacting events (like the assassination in the beginning of Dishonored, or the kidnapping in Fallout 4.
The best way (for me) to structure MP in story heavy games like this ... is the borderland/D3 type approach. You simply can let others to "help you" in your game. So you retain all the story and scripting events, and the other person acts as a NPC helper (which actually is available in Fallout 4 and D3).
And you also get rid of repetition. There is NO repetition (in terms of stories and state of the world) in games like this (KOTOR, fallout ....).
And yet WOW clearly built a gigantic user base with that type of gameplay. The reason is that people enjoy playing around others, even if they're not playing directly with them.
If this type of gameplay wasn't desired then WOW (which represents the biggest step towards supporting soloing) would have been less successful. Instead, it was dramatically more successful.
There's exactly as much repetition in KOTOR or Fallout as the better MMORPGs' quests. You repeat things only when you reroll a fresh character. Otherwise, there's not much repetition apart from particularly bad designs (L2's grinding) or apart from task repetition (kill quests repeat quite a lot in both MMORPG questing and SRPG questing.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver