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SWTOR- Getting way overhyped..
Kramerica
Member Posts: 47
I certainly hope the game does well and all, but....
This game is getting way too overhyped by Bioware, fans, etc. and stands to repeat the same mistakes made by companies that displayed the same behavior prior to releasing their products. Consider that companies such as Funcom, Cryptic, Mythic as examples, all shelled out big bucks to advertise & hype their respective games well before the respective release dates and ended up falling way short of expectations.
Bioware has divulged little to no viable information regarding the most important aspects of an MMO which always comes down to the fundamentals- game stability, mechanics & gameplay, economy, player interaction and replay factor. Epic movies, voiceovers, storyline, dazzling special effects, etc are only good for so long before they get old & rehashed and will do little to keep large amounts of players subscribed long term.
It would be nice if Bioware does well since the sci-fi MMO genre desperately needs a shot in the arm (everything but EvE stinks), but I don't subscribe to the mentality people are utilizing with "Dude, relax.. its Bioware!". Bioware has released 0 MMO products to date and has to prove themselves before I will consider them in the same regard as successful MMO developers like Blizzard, CCP, etc.
Up to this point all Bioware has done is guarantee that they are going to make a killing in box sales....
Comments
On the contrary, I'd say there's ample cynicism directed towards this game. For a game taking this much media space, a lot of people seem to have decided it's a hopeless project. Such attitude could be premature but what I mean to say is it's more than enough to balance the blind faith any amount of fans will have.
So I'll say it's moderately hyped.
I wouldn't say that it is Bioware that has overhyped Star Wars: ToR but instead the fans. I don't even think Bioware wanted to release the information when they did but because of people releasing information here and there it was only a matter of time, beyond their control I fully believe.
Here's the thing, I think Bioware has earned the reputation for making Roleplaying games better than pretty much all others out there, to this day some people are replaying games well over 10 years old because of the story line and their enjoyment in the product Bioware released. No matter how you see it, Bioware has stated ever since the release of information on this game that it was story driven, anything beyond that is extra for the players that enjoy the products that this developer creates. I'm not sure you can compare Bioware to Funcom, Cryptic, or Mythic because they have released MMO's in the past. I personally have high hopes for Star Wars:ToR, ever since the information has been released I've been excited but not allowing myself to fall into either side of the love/hate for this game.
If you go back and look blizzard didn't release their first MMO until WoW. The vanilla version of the game was very much only a small portion of what it is today. Heck, I remember there weren't any raids in WoW until almost 3 months after release. My point, every company starts somewhere and sometimes I feel that's a good thing because it's a fresh pair of eyes coming into the scene of overdone, rehashed WoW/EQ clones. Also remember this game hasn't even hit the alpha stage yet so in a sense you are falling into the same area of people that are "overhyping" it, instead you fall into the one that attempts to kill it before it's even been given a chance to live.
i disagree....i am psyched about playing this. Can't wait...the hype is just right for me :P
unfortunately i want more info
Game will be a success despite a few bitter anti mainstream people.
Overhyped? yes very much so, but only by people like me and others, Bioware them selves have not said much on it, and what has been said has been taken out of context by tabloidish websites that pretend intellect to fool the masses into believing they are a cut above the norm for reading the stuff they put out.
The only place worth taking any notice of for "news" of this game, is Biowares site, anything else is conjecture unless it references that place. Remove the conjecture, and you will see the hype from Bio, Lucasarts or EA is actually pretty low for a title this big. Its the fans doing the work, doing the hyping, this is what you want in ANY sales based environment, your customer base to be your advertising and marketing department. Now with the size of Biowares customer base, they can bank on box sales in the millions, if they can convert 25% of them to subscribers game will be a success and grow. (Note figures are plucked from the deepest recess of my arse and are at best a subjective opinion based on my own logic).
Its only overhyped if its a failure. If its an awesome game, then its not overhyped, imo.
ya i think it's pretty overhyped. not a lot though, not as much as APB is imo.
When a company like Bioware puts the time and money investment of this scale into one game, it is going to get hype.
If Rockstar announced they were creating a MMO based on Teletubbies, I'd pre-order it tonight pending its release in 2015. There are just some companies you have faith in and some that you dont, and there is a reason Blizzard's Blizzcon is as big if not bigger than E3.
I guess no one really gets it. The main point of MMOs today is to get as hyped as humanly possible before launch....Maximum box sales at launch to make back as much development cost as possible.
If anyone sticks around after the first month, thats gravy now.
Look at Star Trek Online, cryptic put in the minimal effort to create a barely stable, content-minimum game....hyped the crap out of it (cuz it's star Trek), kept the details as gauge as possible until the last minute, and book, box sale followed up by content-lite game where played are leaving in droves.
Cryptic doesn't care, the hype got them their money. Hell, I bet people in their company would like it to die so they don't have to maintain it further....if only they could do so without damaging their Rep (hahahaha0 too much....otherwise they can't rape the next franchise.
NOW, as far as SWTOR, i actually to not think this is what Bioware is trying to do at all...I mean, they've simply spent way too much cash for this to not be a long-term investment. That doesn't mean they aren't trying to get as much cash as possible for launch....hence the continuous videos, hype, etc.
BTW, do they have a solid launch date for this title?
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
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The game will do well. They are going to implement many of the popular features that have carried other MMOs and polish it very very well. Then wrap that in a Bioware Star Wars flavouring and you get something that has some staying power if they implement their story telling right.
As that seems to be their trump card, from all their boasting about it, I think that will give the game the added extra ontop of raids,crafting and pvp(Though we know little about any of these systems) that will keep people playing beyond the first few months.
I personally dont like the game. The art style favours the motion pictures too much to be KoToR in my mind. And the talent system borrows to heavily and seems to be little inovation. Toss in the companion system and that bascially kills any interest in me playing the game. But I want the game to succeed so that way maybe BW can be a bit more...original and innovative in their next MMO if they make one.
Spring 2011....meaning anywhere from April to mid June. just a side note release date's are subject to change. I only take a release date as set int stone when i'm able to pre-order it.
Until we play the game, there's really no way to know if it's being 'over' hyped or not.
More importantly, what do you care? What does it hurt you for other people to get excited while anticipating the release of a game?
If you don't want to get excited for it, don't. Don't read the previews, don't keep up on news releases. Sounds pretty easy to me.
And for those of you getting chubbies over this game... keep it up! (pun completely intended!)
It's an awesome IP being produced by Bioware, a company that has NEVER put out crap. What they've released so far looks great, they seem to be on the right track, and I can't wait to see more.
This is going to be the biggest MMORPG release in years, and for the first time an MMORPG will actually take a chunk out of WoW's subscribers.
TOR will be wildly successful, and a few months after release, you will think it wasn't hyped enough, because it is just that awesome.
Or it might be a big flop, and Twileks everywhere will cry. Who knows?
I don't see how this is being way overhyped. I mean come on, it is StarWars, it is insanely popular. Bioware promotes their games the same way every other developer does. I don't see where the problem is unless you specifically hate StarWars.
As said above, most of the hype is from people who intend to play the game - BioWare haven't done that much really, couple of developer vids, hands-on testing for a few select sources - all of which is pretty standard these days for games in development.
There will be an increase in SW:TOR related stuff with E3 right around the corner, after that probably a bit more if game-testing actually starts soon.
Sites like this one are reporting on TOR a lot because they see the amount of chatter about it (here and on the official SW:TOR boards) and they know there's a demand for information....or even just speculation.
To me this cycle of player-perpetuated hype is nothing new, I've seen it happen with countless games in the past, AoC, WAR, AIon (among the more recent ones). It's a fact of life where MMOs are concerned.
End of the day, none of it means anything, we'll see what the game is like at launch. Anything said in the meantime is just hot air
But then....some people really like the hot air, the speculation, the arguments - and there's no harm in letting them have it, is there?
Hyping is like phishing.
Send fake emails to million people and there will be enough morons that will fall for it.
Mission accomplished.
Thats what Cryptic did with STO, a lot of suckers bought lifetime sub.
Older gamers dont fall for it though.
So far we've only seen fluff from Bioware and it really looks like thats all they got for now.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.
Miagisan, I love that quote from family guy lol.
Anyways. People create hype. Sure, the two videos and small info we know about the game helps, but it's mostly the people following it. But on this site, you'd think TOR is the devil. kerazie.
Mass Effect 2 was hyped to the heavens. Fast forward 3 months I decided to buy it and give it a try not expecting much. IMO it was even better than the hype and I'm an old gamer too. So I'm kinda on the fence. On one hand I have bad expectations for all MMOs but on the other hand Bioware has almost never let me down with their games. Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1 + 2. With a track record like that...
TOR pressures kids to do drugs and carve the Devil's name in their skin. It's teh Evil!!!
First thing's first. I love Star Wars.
Secondly is this: I'm very wary about Star Wars games. Star Wars game quality is literally all over the place. For every gem like X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, there's a multitude of garbage like Force Commander, Super Bombad Racing, Clone Wars, etc.
It doesn't help that the last (and as of typing, the only) Star Wars MMO went very sour for me. I was a longtime player but, well... that's a seperate story in itself.
The only gameplay gouge I ever heard about TOR is the classes, and that's about it, and even then, I'm not liking some of the words they use to promote it. Sounded too much like SOE.
Anyways, I'm holding back on it.
AOC - "Revolutionary combat mechanics!" This game was supposed to be PvP central set in a beautiful game world. Ha!... There were tons of people at the start, but we all left for a variety of reasons.
WAR - PvP and RvR warfare! I love the Warhammer / Warhammer 40k franchises, but this was a disappointing experience.
STO - Star Trek!... Federation Online! But I love Klingons. Sorry not the game for me anymore.
And now we have TOR - It's Star Wars! By BioWare!...
I'm a cautious person these days in regards to MMOs. You literally have to wait 6 months when a new MMO hits to really see where it's going to go. Practically all the big name MMOs of recent years have fallen flat on their faces, and there was alot of hype / hope when they were going to come out. Quite a bit of them started out very fast and very strong. Because of that "New Car Smell" it's hard to notice the flaws of the new MMO. But notice it you will eventually, and if strong, proper, and immediate actions aren't being taken, people will leave in droves. That's what happened with AOC, WAR, and still going on with STO. The hype for these games was quite high. STO was more hype at the last minute when the game was in Open Beta. WAR was more steady but not overpowering. AOC was guilty of ridiculous amount of hype about how game changing it's combat mechanics were going to be (that and boobies, which they began to hide... you guys are no fun).
The case for BioWare and SW:TOR is interesting. I give BioWare alot of respect for its past efforts since I bought, played, and thoroughly enjoyed quite a number of their work. Baldur's Gate I & II and all their expansions (their best efforts, IMO, these were made with alot of quality and TLC). Neverwinter Nights. KOTOR. Dragon Age. They know their RPGs.
But I refuse to give them blind faith and money thrown at them right up front, ahead of time, for TOR. They're new to the MMO business. If they're not promoting only 2 of their classes, they're not saying much, if at all of anything else. There's only so much of the sound of a lightsaber's click-hiss and John Williams' score will do to get me excited about the game, Star Wars fan or not. Just because Blizzard hit a grandslam with their first MMO effort doesn't mean BioWare will be fielding the next big king of MMOs (just don't ever say "WoW Killer" please).
As for what I'm looking for in a Star Wars MMO:
* Character skill / class variety - Please, there is more to Star Wars than a Lightsaber.
* Character Customization - Appearances as well as great diversity if I'm forced to play the old Class + Level System.
* Deep and Relevant Crafting and Player Run Economy - SWG used to have, IMO the deepest, and best crafting system ever implemented in a MMORPG. Too bad the devs threw it away in '05. It'd be nice if crafted items supplied all the player needs and not a reliance on drops / rewards.
* Enticing Players to PvP. It **is** Star Wars. Don't just force players into PvP. Give them reasons to join in the fray.
* A good variety of fleshed out planets to explore.
* Different gameplay style between the Republic and Jedi Order compared to the Sith and their followers. I'm asking for alot on this.
* Space Combat - I've seen nothing on this. But I am a fan of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and the crop of space combat games that came out in the few span of years with it. Freespace 2 comes very readily to mind. Space combat games of recent years are laughable at best. Even SWG's lauded "Jump To Lightspeed" was very limited as to where and what you were going to fight. I'm curious to see if BioWare can pull off a proper space fleet engagement, because SWG certainly couldn't, and we're not playing single player space games.
* A good Star Wars story - I'm certian BioWare can do very well in this regard.
* Immersive Star Wars world - The differences between Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and every other sci-fi subject is, if you really get down to it, pretty small. BioWare would do well to remember the theme and setting of Star Wars, especially since they're using their own "Old Republic" setting they themselves made with KOTOR. But don't sacrifice "canon," the themes that make Star Wars what it is (and again, it is more than just the Force and Lightsabers). Otherwise TOR will just be another sci-fi game with a bunch of lasers and laser swords.
Yeah, I know, very demanding. But if they want my money, I need to see if the goods are worth it first. Because other MMOs have tried and failed very miserably in recent years.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I dont know if you watched the threads and dev's blogs of AoC and War ...but they were making "blockbuster" from the start too
Just look at the number of servers they had at launch...
The hype story of TOR is just hauntingly similar with the AoC and War
Only with the difference that I was just much more hyped about War and AoC
AoC offered nice graphics and fatalities
War RvR and great class diversity
TOR offers...story...well..cool..
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
It does feel a lot like there isn't any information on the game play or the UI or Crafting or PvP or what effects species will have or nearly everything to do with the game. But we have 20 videos depicting story or telling us story is in the game or that VO is in the game. While important I wonder if there is anything more to the game. It starts to feel like the marketing people are trying to keep people looking too hard at the game mechanics by offering nice video's but when it comes down to playing all the timeline videos wont make a difference if the UI sucks or the game play is just more of the same. So at the end of the day I would rather a lot less hype and more dicussion on the game play rather than if Revan was working with the Sith Empire or not.
Ahh ambition. The money that EA has thrown into the development of TOR is unprecedented. It would be jaw dropping-ly shocking and funny if this MMO didn't surpass WoW in fun factor. And as much as people like to hate on WoW, it succeeds because it has amazing gameplay features that other MMOs are really bad at implementing. It has amazing gameplay features because it has the massive amounts of dollars needed to fund a large development team years after the game premiered. Hopefully TOR can do the same.
No matter how much money you put into a game, how much ambition SW:TOR will not be able to compete with WoW's polish and content. WA is extremely ambitious and have said at times that TOR will be a direct competitor to WOW, they are poring in a huge amount of money, and also making it 100% voice over based. All in all TOR have some good features, but the amount of ambition is worrying me, EA have delivered some quality stuff, but also they have failed utterly at times. Bioware have delivered game after game that has been quality, but none of these have been MMORPG games. Bioware are good at story, and now they are making a game that needs to deliver also after the story is over.
It's something new for Bioware and the competition on the market is quite strong. I hope they succeed as the more competition on the market the better. But I fear also that the hype by players and EA will be giving them a hard time when they finally launches. Time will show what happens...
All things AoC Fans said before that game. All things WAR fans said before that one. All things STO fans said before that one. Now don't get me wrong, I am super excited about this MMO. However, that does not mean I am just going to check out aand ignore everything. The truth is WoW is an impossible standard to hit and too many MMOs fall into the trap of trying to. Now MMOs can say whatever they want about their gameplay (and no matter what anyone says Bioware has not said much about how different their gameplay will be from WoWs), but in the end that's not the only thing that put WoW up there.
Really it was a perfect storm. It came out during a time when there were very few mainstream MMOs. It also hit just when people were really starting to take off into the online domain. A new generation of players were hitting the right age to begin playing when WoW was released and what we now know as web 2.0 was shifting into gear. WoW did not make the perfect game, it had perfect timing and a good game.
Now EA has said they are expecting 2 million players. Not hoping for or think it might happen. They are expecting it. This shows that they do not care to follow the trend of MMOs and would rather just look at WoW and say, " We can do that." Now maybe they will. I know I am hoping for the best. However, no one should ever expect it in this industry.
As for your second paragraph, almost all of it is guesses and conjecture. I have followed this game since well before day 1 and Bioware has never said anything about system requirements and has said little in regards to raids, dungeons, fast paced combat and flying mounts (where are you even getting that one at all?). It is those kind of statements that riase people's expectations to be shattered. Before STO came out lots of people conjectured on the system requirements and then were upset when they didn't match their expectations. Lot's of people said that the game would certainly have lots of raids and that ended up being a huge bust. Conjectures hurt games and it is best if we stick with facts.
i think people have been taking the hype with a grain of salt after bioware's release of the latest demos, documentaries, footage, etc.
the hype peaked during and after their "cinematic trailer" but it was all downhill from there after people started witnessing the obvious flaws surrounding character and combat animations; as well as bioware's constant insitance to ignore the plea of fans to address game mechanics which concern them such as end-game, down time, content aside from quests, grouping, crafting, etc.
luckily there's still a year of development to go and hopefully more details will be revealed but i don't think anyone can claim with enough certainty at this point that this game won't be just another AoC in a SW skin but with more quests to cover all levels.