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Apsylum
Member Posts: 202
I've pretty much exhausted WoW... and all the other MMORPGs out there. I have NEVER gotten around to try SWG though.
Compared to other MMORPGs, how would you guys say SWG fairs?
- Is there some sort of free trial?
- What's the community like?
- Price per month?
- "High" population servers.
- And lastly, how fun is it to play? For those that have played WoW, do you like SWG more or less and why?
Sorry for all the questions, but thanks in advance 
-Aps
Comments
1. No free trial yet.
2. The community is probably the best aspect of the game.
3. Subscriptions start at $15/month, but can be a little cheaper with 3 and 6 month subscriptions. Since you're new to the game, I'd advise starting with a montly sub.
4. There are a number of High population servers, such as Bria'.
5. I play both WoW and SWG. I prefer WoW for the PvP, but I prefer SWG for character depth and customization.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
What do you consider 'high end'? I played it just fine on a P4 1.8ghz w/512mb of RAM and a GeForce 3/64mb card.
While a "high end" system IS nice (I have a 3.2 now myself) it's hardly 'needed'.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
No, not likely to be one anytime soon either. It's a best seller right now.
Best community of any MMO currently out in my opinion (and I've played all the major players and some of the minor ones). The primary reason the community is so nice is because players are limited to one character per server which means they have to live with the consequences of their actions, they can't just go hide on an 'alt' to get away from their reputation.
$14.95 a month if you pay month-to-month. If you buy 3 month, 6 month, or annually the price is lower.
Right now all the servers have good sized populations. Bria and Ahazi are two of the largest, but if you start on a 'high pop server' don't come crying if you hit a lot of lag. There's a reason they're flagged as "extremely heavy population". Best to choose a light or medium pop server.
Very fun. Tons of variety.WoW doesn't even compare to SWG.
WoW: Linear Level Based Progression.
SWG: Non-Linear, Skill-Based Progression
WoW: PVP is ok.
SWG: PVP is at the core of the game's ultimate purpose. You can play and never join in PVP if you so desire but PVP is very fun, rewarding and well balanced. This wasn't true about 6 months ago but a bunch of improvements were made in November/December and even more with the CU.
WoW: Locked into 1 class unless you start a new character.
SWG: You can re-invent yourself anytime you want to just by learning new skills and dropping old ones.
WoW: Crafting system is 'adequate'.
SWG: Crafting system is the most in-depth of any MMO on the market.
WoW: Economy is somewhat player driven.
SWG: Economy is 100% player driven.
WoW: Player Housing? What's that?
SWG: Best player housing system available. To include Player owned Cities, Hospitals, Cantinas, Theatres, etc.
WoW: Non combat classes? What?
SWG: Lots of classes you can play that have NOTHING to do with combat.
WoW: Lots of Quests, shallow, short, boring.
SWG: Lots of Quests. Many are multi-part, multi-planet, involve both space and ground and affect how you interact with the game in multipe ways.
WoW: Doesn't have drugs
Need I say more? 
SWG: Has drugs
No problem, glad to be of help!
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Unfortunately, SWG limits you into one account per server unless you unlock your force-sensative slot or buy another account. Since SOE allows players multiple characters per server in EQ2, I've never understood why they limit them in SWG.
Elnator, I'll disagree with you about quest comparisons. For example, imo there's nothing in SWG that compares to the Onyxia quest line.
I really only have two issues with PvP in SWG: 1. Finding it, and 2. Jedi. Not to characterize finding pvp overly difficult each night, but I've spent more then a few going around the galaxy fighting more npcs then players. The CU did wonders balancing out the majority of combat professions, but jedi still stand out. Think Shaman times a couple of orders of magnitude.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Sorry, yes there is Ico... you haven't played since ROTW came out obviously. They added numerous very detailed and rewarding quests to the game. Some of the best weapons in the game you can get from missions now. I got my heavy X-Wing Starfighter (180k Mass) from a multi-part mission (quest). The Grevious Starfighter is dropped by Necrosis (mob that's part of a quest). The Mining ship is a quest reward. The newest Privateer vessel is part of a multi-phase mission. The new Jedi Starfighter is part of a multi-part mission. The proton Carbine is a reward that you get about halfway through a multipart mission. Range boosting arms, Medical Enhancement Arms, throw distance enhancement arms (cybernetics) are part of multipart multi-area missions.
As to the 1 character per server (not 1 account) issue: I think of that as a GOOD thing. It makes people take responsibility for their actions. Being banned from a city starts to hurt when more and more of them do it. Just ask the guy who robbed his guildmates of a barc speeder and a set of faction armor on Lowca and scammed noobs out of countless valuable items they were given by older players.... almost nobody will talk to him now and he's already banned from several cities owned by PA's friendly to the people he screwed.
Finding PVP? Errr... did you ever join the PVP channels on your server? I never have trouble finding PVP on Lowca. As to Jedi: They're still annoying but much less so now than they were before CU.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
The major difference you're going to find between WoW and SWG, is in WoW you're handed quest after quest after quest. SWG doesn't do this. There is a lot to do but you have to find it.
The Devs have provided you all the tools you need for an awesome experiance, you just have to use the tools
I have, albeit not for long. Waiting on my new machine to come in next week to reload.
I'm disagreeing with your opinion that WoW quests are 'shallow,short,boring'. The Onyxia quest line is a good example of dissproving that imo.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Gimme more than 1 Ico
When I tried it they didn't have any decent ones.
SWG has far more quests that have more depth. Sure WoW may have 1 or 2 decent ones but c'mon now. To say it compares at all to SWG in depth of the quest/mision system? Please
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Lol, I only mentioned Onyxia becuase it's one of my favorites. I'm waiting for the new Blackwing quests to come out as well. Almost all of the instances have their own quest lines to follow, like Deadmines and Gnomergorean for lower levels. I'm still working on the Epic Quest for my Hunter. I certainly wouldn't say there's only 1 or 2.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Sounds like they're finally adding some content then. Do the quests in WoW still hand-hold you the whole way through? That was one of the things I hated. There was never any real need to figure things out like you do for Geo Caves or Corvette or Avatar platform or any of those style areas in SWG. The puzzle aspects of the missions and zones make them VERY fun. (for me anyway. I know some people hate them and just go find the answers for the puzzles and the access codes for the doors on websites but I really enjoy the mental challenge of figuring them out myself.) Heck, even taking down an enemy base is fun because you have to go through logic puzzles to hack each section of the base so you can destroy it.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Granted the starter level quests aren't that hard to solve, but even they only give generalized tips like 'in the northeast there's a cave'. You're still required to find the cave yourself. The only hand holding I'm aware of is if you ran the quest with someone that already did it, constantly ask questions in chat, or if you've used sites like Thottbot.com.
Most of what I would label the harder multi-faceted quests are in the upper levels, around 54. Dire Maul has some cool linked quests that you can go through for example.
Although there's usually some persistent bug(s) involved with them, I've always like bases in SWG. My guild had a small base complex on Talus. Very fun to defend ^_^
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Awesome responses guys, I didn't expect this many or for them to be this thorough. Thanks a ton. From what I've seen, I think I'll give it a shot.
-Aps
sincerely, as a newbie, the WoW experience was much better.
What quests? are they there? i know about Kashyyk. i know about the theme parks, i know about the Corvette. But that i know as external informations. Nobody in game told me about them. nobody directed me, even shadowy, to a certain direction.
There was a tutorial, then a series of basic missions on tattoine testing the various professions... and then? nothing?
I'm doing now the Rebel theme park and the first 4 quests i did were "go there give this to that guy" or "go there and escort guy X here" guy X WALKS all the way so it takes a good while to do it. Quest number 2 and 4 where also "go there and give this to that guy".
I tried the Jabba theme park, sadly nobody tells you is for level 30+ so first quest "Go there, kill that pesky tusken" i go there and the tusken tried to smoke me. escaped but no way i can do it at level 17.
The space part is better. MUCH better. it kinda shows, but as far as basic SWG goes, sorry. WoW quests are Light years forward, both in storyline and rewards (what rewards? 50 credits? is that an insult?)
I do not doubt your words, elnator, but if what you say is true for advanced characters, certainly it isn't so for beginners.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Volkmar
I'd suggest trying Kashyyk if you want quests to be easy to find or to be guided towards them. The older SWG content (Tatooine and other planets) requires some effort to find. It was designed in a much more 'self motivated' mindset. Kashyyk uses similar questing systems to EQ2/WoW but better than WoW's in many cases.
SWG was intended to be an online community more than a solo game that you just wander from quest to quest in originally.
That's why many of the vets will advise anyone coming back to go ahead and get Total Experience or buy ROTW even though they may not want to. That 1 expansion added tons and tons of content that more 'normal' MMO's have and players seem to expect/want.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Yeah, I plan on buying the total experience package for 29.99. Sadly, it isn't in stock until the 11th, so I'll have to wait
I know it. I know SWG is intended as a virtual society and not as a online theme park (as are EQ and WoW for example). So i wasn't surprised at all of the situation as it was the same as before.
But maybe some new guiy doesn't and that is why i pointed out the differences between them.
You speak of kashyyk and you speak true being designed for that, questing, but is it possible for a NEWBIE to do the kashyyk quests? i am speaking of novice elite combat guys. CL 15-17.
thanks
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
1.no
2.has its fair level of jerks.Just start at mos eisley(all new chars start there) and listen to the spam scammers trying to get your BARC speeder for 100k
.But i think its a major point of meeting for scammers and afterwards you run into a very nice commmunity .If you come from WoW you be amazed.
3.$15 a month
4.loads of high population servers bria,eclipse etc.You will see it on load up
5.pvp is junk in both SWG and WoW IMHO.But i think the gameplay in SWG seems to last longer in terms of fun and there is so much to do with so many different professions that SWG seems be more fun in the long run.
Definately worth getting and seems there is so many new players running around too atm(revenge of the sith responisble maybe?).
They are geared for CL20 and up but a 17 could probably do some of the lower end ones without too much trouble. At least parts of it. I wouldn't go on the trails or into the caverns yet but the surface stuff you could do more than likely. Best way to find out for sure is to try. I don't have any "alts" in SWG so it's been a VERY long time since I was a real 'newbie'. I can't speak much to the newbie experience.
I do remember that when I was a 'newbie' I found that the best money to be had (at the time) was to do Factional missions off the rebel/imperial mission terminals (pick one not both, lol) for decent cash reward, fast cycle time and decent loot items on the npc's you kill. For better money do space now. Space is a great way to go to build up a nest egg (and have a lot of fun in the process) to fund your equipment as a new player.
Also: Once you have a little cash try to find bio engineered clothing that gives + ranged and +melee defenses. That will help a lot until you can get armor.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Come over to lowca and join up with FPA. Not only do we have guild hunts almost every night we also have a bunch of new players who hunt together fairly regularly so you'd have folks working on novice professions to group with.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas