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Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Legacy System: Journey vs. Destination
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
In this week's Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton discusses the buzzing of the SW:TOR community over the game's oft-rumored about "Legacy System".
The folks over at Star Wars: The Old Republic fansite DarthHater got a chance to pick the brain of SW:TOR Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert at GDC Online recently and the information gleaned from the interview got the SW:TOR community buzzing once more about the oft-rumored “Legacy System” that may or may not be included in the game by launch.
While no one knows what exactly the Legacy System is, rumors of it go so far back they even predate the official announcement of the game!The basic gist of the system, however it may manifest, is that it encourages replay of the game.
Read more SW:TOR: The Legacy System: Journey vs. Destination.
Comments
Great article (short, too, so perhaps more people will read it before commenting!), and I agree. BioWare understands that rerolling can be boring, even with each class having its own story, because most of the World quests will be the same. Over time, you'll do less and less Class Story quests and more and more World quests, so you figure by, say, mid-level, you'll start getting tired of the repeated content. If BioWare can implement something that will push us past such a hurdle and onto end-game, more power to 'em. Those of us who enjoy the journey no matter how many times we repeat it have already won.
I tend to be in the middle. I like reading (listening, in TOR's case) to quest text if it's important, but will probably skip the background of "sidequests" or less vital tasks in order to get that exp faster. I'm always looking at the max level and the endgame, mostly because max-level characters always have the most badass gear and always seem the most awesome, but I also stop to smell the roses. If I don't care about the game's lore at all, I'll blaze through it all, but that won't be the case for TOR.
In before the usual suspects quote selective parts of this article to say SW:TOR has no end game and is a single player game!
the SW:TOR community buzzing link is broken in the article
Link fixed. Thanks!
Nice article. I personally hate re-rolling, but I don't "endgame" either. I take my time with one character and do as much as I can possibly do with that character. If TOR can give me a valid reason to re-roll, that'd be great.
Also, I find it quite humorous that a game element that no one has information on, which may or may not make it into the game, can cause such a ruckus with people. Just wow.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I wish gamers would understand that your last statement can and is very likely to be true.
There's nothing stopping Bioware from delivering a strong endgame offering while still encouraging players to go through the game with different characters to experience the content they've toiled so hard to create.
This is what should make TOR a great game for many different playstyles. The journey is missing in just about all MMO's on the market. Sure some offer stories you can read. And some as in LOTRO have a epic story that moves you through the game. But non of them have a choice involved that can shape your journey and character progression as TOR will.
As far as the legacy system. I don't think it will be stat based legacy. Meaning that min/maxers will not have to roll a new character 4 times to get the best stat for end game. It should be something like a race you can't play a class with. More fluff than substance, but that is just my opinion.
Nice article, and I am in your camp for this one. I want a SPG RPG level of story to enjoy while at the same time, enjoying that journey in the middle of a MMO with all the usuall MMO features. Untill I find out otherwise, I will continue to believe that both the journey and destination can be done with the same care and detail.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
huh?> how do u get that from one short article.... all i have seen def makes it look nothing like a single player game...
I suggest you read other threads ont his game thne read my statement as a whole and understand it...thne get bakc to me.
why do people keep saying there is now endgame? i have yet to read tht anywhere... iv just read they are makeing it more interesting for the "normal" "casual" ganmer to actaully wanna play this game again and again... i mean i love lord of the rings online and i never attempt the end game stuff ... its the experience and the universe that makes the game... nothing against u people who run right to endgame stuff... its just they are marketing the casual star wars fan ....knowing u hardcore guys will be around no matter what to run to the end and see what its like....
As for me...im so excited i cant take it anymore! lol
With WoW, every one I know who plays it, including myself plays MANY characters or alts, hence the reason for replayability to be a HUGE factor in a good MMORPG. The idea that I can start the game as a human whatever, play all the way through and then roll a different race and have completely different starting areas and quest progression is just AWESOME and is usually where other games completely fail. Like AoC and Aion. One starting area and a very tight quest progression path makes for very boring replayability.
I'm SO glad SWTOR is making replayability a caveat and I can't wait to make one of every class and race. I also am one of those who has to do every side quest I come across, but I also like to dabble in what endgame offers as well. So I usually pick one character to be my achievement/completionist and the rest of my alts are just vehicles for exploring the other parts of the game via their own viewpoint.
i have indeed read more then plenty... every single day... and the only people who say it wont have endgame are people posting and posting and posting...
either way we all know darn well everyone posting and reading here will be on that game come day 1 lol
Oh now this is very interesting.
Bioware had a very specific way of dealing with things like expansions and sequels. Meaning, in its most recent games, what your character did has meaning in the next game for you.
I wonder if they also intend for you to create an ancestry of sorts. Meaning... you are descended from people who have meaning. People that you have played in the past. As in... you created a Legacy.
The current era in the Star Wars novels (a setting I actually dislike since it basically says that nothing the Skywalkers and the Rebellion did mattered in any way) is the Legacy Era about Cade Skywalker who is a descendant of Luke Skywalker. Likely its something along the same lines.
I'm with the writer of this article. I prefer the journey, not the end game. In fact, I've never played the end game in any game I've been part of. The journey is just much more fun. Especially if there's so much to do that I only repeat if I want.
Everythign ive read says strong end game conttent. Whats wrong with a game company wanting people to roll alts. Blizzard loves this is actually doing the 10/25 same lockout because they want more alts rolled in my opinion. I have 5 80s in wow. I have a 69 a 73 and a 41 so i love my alts.
I will play tor and i will roll alts i wanna play both the jedi and sith. I wanna play a smuggler and a imperial agent. I have 7 characters above 60 in wow all diffrent classes. I just love to play alts. I love to trya ll classes. I must admit in wow i cant get into dks i hav ea 69 mage but i have issues playing mage also. That said strong endgame and incentive to replay arent mutually exclusive u can have both.
Oh and part of that article for all those this is a single player game was a quote. We want players to run into each other we are after all a massive multiplayer game if players dont run into each othe then u dont really have a mmo which this is. But we dont want to force players to group. Was all part of that. They are making the game soloable yes.
They are given incentives to run groups if u choose but u wont have to group. Forcing players to group in todays mmo world doesnt work. Unfortunatly to many people just perfer to play alone. Games that force u to group dont last or do as well as games that are easily solo able.
i am one of those who reads every quest and does them all. That is one of the things i liked about LOTRO the massive story arc. One of the few issues I had with old EQ was that few of the quests seemed tied into each other. I am looking forward to Bio's every action has a consequnece approach to MMO's. The end game is nice in WoW but to be honest I find raiding every dam night boring.
Magic is impressive, but now Minsc leads! Swords for everyone!
What was this article all about?
Are we trying to subvert people's idea of an MMORPG? SW:TOR does not seem like it has been designed as one, it looks sounds and smells like a Single Player Game with Multiplayer mode and a Subscription.
Even in WoW that I played Since vanilla, I only have 1 80 character (I am older school mmorpger), now you are telling me that SW:TOR actually expects me to reroll and replay the game..an act which I only do with Single Player games, this reinforces even more the view of what it is.
WoW did not implement Heirlooms to intice players to play different classes, it did it to accomodate them, because many players wanted and did make several classes in it to begin with, so Blizzard just made it easyer for those people to level up Alts.
But besides that there is an even deeper message being read in between the lines here, if SW:TOR expects people to reroll, what does that say about its actual world and associated gameplay as an MMORPG?
It sais that there is none, because if there was we would not have to reroll 8 times.
This has nothing to do with people prefering the Journey or the Destination.
Because a true MMORPG is about the Multiple Journeys and Destinations of the same Character.
The two are intrinsically related, every time there is a journey it leads to a destination, and in every destination a new journey begins, this is Adventuring, this is what a true MMORPG should provide, a perpetual series of adventures for one's chosen character, all these experiences constitute that character's (and its player) Progression.
And now, we are asked to play 8 different characters in order to experience the story line 8 different times? Yeah, I would do that in KOTOR or in Dragon Age:Origins..but not in an MMORPG that is not the experience I seek when I commit to a Subscription, sorry but I will not be playing this game if it does not hold up as an MMORPG, offering a virtual world within the SW theme where I as a player have the freedom of choice and action through my character's eyes to experience it in my own terms.
Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
It IS a single player game if the system fills out that party roster for you without other players.
"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)
Tbh... I just don't know what to think. Can be good or bad.
Good: motivate me to reroll and experience something that is related to my previous char, which sounds cool.
Bad: People who make alts get too much advantages and we start to grind alts to unlock stuff.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
link still broken?
(-_-)
Nvm it works, just cannot right click and open in new tab.
(-_-)
Like you said in the article, wow already does this with heirloom items, I see no issue with it and think its a fine idea to add more features and content for people..regardless if it gives you the idea you MUST reroll..well I'm sure they wouldnt do that.
(-_-)
Because morons assume that a game developer can't concentrate on replay and endgame at the same time. Miost stupid people only see in blacks and whites, and that's to say most people are stupid not just most of the stupid people.
I'm not worried, Replay is important to me in TOR because there's more than just a couple classes I want to play. Replay in WoW wasn't so important because not many of teh classes appealed to me. On the other hand Devs have already stated in interviews that there will be endgame, there will be raids, and at the same time there will be a valuable replay experience.
I never really get these MMO players who are interested in just visiting a game once all the way through and then quitting because there's nothing left. My question to these people is why are you here? why bother playing an MMORPG? You could spend less money on a single player title and do the same thing. MMO involves a community as well not just your ability to speed through as much content as quickly as possible. My opinion is these people aren't really the true MMO players to begin with, so who cares what they think.
I'm not sure how to take what you said but if it's what I think it is, apparently you have a distinct lack of information regarding this game as well.
Earlier on, there were tons of people stating this looks more like a single player game or a co-op game then an MMO and that the stories and companions confirm it. Thats what that poster was referring to.
Thats for the most part died down because people know it's an MMO now. But you still get the occasional few who are still somewhat misinformed on this front. Most of the people are now going after the space element and the graphics. They stayed there until they found something new to talk about, which is the "supposed" amount of money BW spent which was stated by one person. They move from topic to topic trying to infiltrate the base or something hoping to get the followers of the game on something. Not sure why they do that though but there you go.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
I too do not understand the resentment toward the simple idea of offering a unique alt experience. The only reason I have stuck with one character in MMO's for the most part, is because the experience really doesn't change the second time through. AT least with TOR this will not be the case. It also doesn't mean they will not have a decent MMO underneath it all.
I used to be a power gamer, play all night, all weekend etc.. All to reach endgame asap. I realized I was wasting my time playing like this, not to mention money. As devs can't keep up with this mentality. Today I play MMO's like you, I simply enjoy the ride as much as possible. That's the bulk of the game after all, endgame even in WOW is just that "endgame". Meaning this is what you get and will always get. End game is repetition and nothing more.
TOR is offering an experience that garners replayability, without the burnout caused by experiencing the same thing over and over.
I am also approaching this game as a KOTOR3, so I think I'll be generally pleased with the end result, at least for a period of time.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson