What is wrong with some of you people? Seriously? The game isn't even in OPen Beta let alone near launch and stupid blog posts or opinions about the game right now are complete and utter BULL #$#$@#$@#@#$. Man, sometimes I wonder. It's bad enough I have to listen to liberal BS about real life issues, but now the same crap is starting to infiltrate my gaming space. It's like, people out there create drama over things that havent' even happened yet JUST to create drama.
I want off this rock! I thought I was crazy, but it seems the world has made a new definition for the word.
Starting? When was the last time an upcoming game, especially a high profile one, wasn't either mercilless picked apart or embarrassingly fawned over, well before it's release?
Enhance your calm, John Spartan.
True, I suppose it's all coming to a head with 3 Big games coming, GW2, Rift, and SWTOR and all I see are these assinine posts about games that aren't even in Open Beta yet and it just makes the vein in my temple expand a thousand fold.
there that's better. Sparta is quiet for the moment. ;D
When was the last time you seen GW2 be bashed as much as Rift or SWTOR? It's pretty sad that nearly this entire MMORPG.com community are under some delusion that GW2 is the perfect game and will have NO flaws, but they will turn around and say that Rift or SWTOR have already failed.
Don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to GW2 as much as anyone else but I'm not as ignorant as most of the people in this community, you won't see any posts from me saying GW2 or any other games will fail, because I don't want any of these games to fail, I would like to have a variety of great games to play.
It seems that there are now questions being asked about the fitness of the game in one particular area - the developers own take of the game. Specifically, after five years of complex construction, have they become so close to TOR that they themselves can no longer distinguish between what is good and what is not?
I personally have been a little unhappy about the way some developers, like Daniel Erickson for example, have been contemptuously dismissive of players' wants and reactions, insisting that their own take on the game is unquestionably right. And yet, little things like this are now coming to light:
"At Penny-Arcade Expo 2010 in Seattle, I went with a SW:KOTOR guild to a panel dedicated to showing some of the game off. Not being a SW MMO guy myself, I was just their with my friends. We waited, they had a glitch with the game right there in front of us, so some dudes kept talking while they tried to fix and reset the game.
"They had some pre-selected people from the audience come play a situation in the game. They touted the situation as probably one of the hardest in the game and that the 4 selected gamers were going to get routed by the computer. They had employees ( I think a producer or two and a gorgeous community manager play the situation first, and they had a hard time with it, but beat it ), the 4 selected players then played it… and easily beat it. It was funny to watch. The 2 guys leading the panel looked at each other and jokingly played it off, “… wow… well I guess it wasn’t as hard as we thought.” and their faces were priceless.
"They didn’t know what to do/say, it was if they were showing off what they thought to be a Ferrari and someone opened the hood up and said, “Dude, you got a f***ing ford taurus here bro!”
"They played it off well though and since everyone in the room was there just for SWTOR, they all more than likely stayed in their trance. But not being a fan, I saw on their faces how surprised they were (not to mention embarassed by the 20 minute wait period because of a bug)."
So, is this just one mildly embarrassing bug that might happen to any game developer presenting their new product to an audience - or is this little episode symptomatic of much larger problems within the game do you think?'
Unfortunately, I think that the piece in red was written by someone with an axe to grind. That means I can't take it too seriously. However, if it did happen that way it would mean that Bioware needs to go back and do a lot more testing. I am no overtly concerned about the mentioning of the bug as I am about the why the developers reacted to the beating of a "hard" level within the game. This COULD indicate that they don't have a clue on how to make a good MMO. OR, it could mean that they haven't tested it properly yet. OR, it could mean that this guy writing about the incident made it up to try to sabotage the game's launch.
"They had some pre-selected people from the audience come play a situation in the game. They touted the situation as probably one of the hardest in the game and that the 4 selected gamers were going to get routed by the computer. They had employees ( I think a producer or two and a gorgeous community manager play the situation first, and they had a hard time with it, but beat it ), the 4 selected players then played it… and easily beat it
This seems odd to me, why would "One of the hardest bosses in the game" only require 4 people to beat him? Bioware has already said that SWTOR has "raids" so I doubt this boss that requires 4 people is "one of the hardest in the game". So I call Bullsh** on this one.
"They had some pre-selected people from the audience come play a situation in the game. They touted the situation as probably one of the hardest in the game and that the 4 selected gamers were going to get routed by the computer. They had employees ( I think a producer or two and a gorgeous community manager play the situation first, and they had a hard time with it, but beat it ), the 4 selected players then played it… and easily beat it
This seems odd to me, why would "One of the hardest bosses in the game" only require 4 people to beat him? Bioware has already said that SWTOR has "raids" so I doubt this boss that requires 4 people is "one of the hardest in the game". So I call Bullsh** on this one.
Great point. The OP should have questioned it's source and content before starting the thread.
What is wrong with some of you people? Seriously? The game isn't even in OPen Beta let alone near launch and stupid blog posts or opinions about the game right now are complete and utter BULL #$#$@#$@#@#$. Man, sometimes I wonder. It's bad enough I have to listen to liberal BS about real life issues, but now the same crap is starting to infiltrate my gaming space. It's like, people out there create drama over things that havent' even happened yet JUST to create drama.
I want off this rock! I thought I was crazy, but it seems the world has made a new definition for the word.
Starting? When was the last time an upcoming game, especially a high profile one, wasn't either mercilless picked apart or embarrassingly fawned over, well before it's release?
Enhance your calm, John Spartan.
True, I suppose it's all coming to a head with 3 Big games coming, GW2, Rift, and SWTOR and all I see are these assinine posts about games that aren't even in Open Beta yet and it just makes the vein in my temple expand a thousand fold.
there that's better. Sparta is quiet for the moment. ;D
When was the last time you seen GW2 be bashed as much as Rift or SWTOR? It's pretty sad that nearly this entire MMORPG.com community are under some delusion that GW2 is the perfect game and will have NO flaws, but they will turn around and say that Rift or SWTOR have already failed.
Don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to GW2 as much as anyone else but I'm not as ignorant as most of the people in this community, you won't see any posts from me saying GW2 or any other games will fail, because I don't want any of these games to fail, I would like to have a variety of great games to play.
Totally agree with you. I am so looking forward to this and GW2, but then we get these pointless threads whose only real intention is to troll prematurely based on a nonesense premise.
True, I suppose it's all coming to a head with 3 Big games coming, GW2, Rift, and SWTOR and all I see are these assinine posts about games that aren't even in Open Beta yet and it just makes the vein in my temple expand a thousand fold.
Did the OP just miss the point of his own post? :P Joking aside, the lack of difficulty mentioned here really wouldn't be a suprize, not what I like to hear though.
I'm not hating on the game but the more I hear, the more I think they are just designing this game to go after the masses, without looking very far outside the box and moreless just taking que's from some other pre-existing game(s), just to make it accessible to everyone. Would only be natural that the difficulty followed the same route.
Did anyone actually see the videos in question where they brought up the players? Understand that the healing portion of that encounter was still done by one of the original ::developer selected players::. I wonder how different it would have been with an ::impromptu:: player healer. Secondly, how difficult do you think it would have really had to be to run this mission in a demo environment?
I don't know about you but many of the toughest missions ::in other games:: I've played previously took well over 10 minutes to go through, even on some of the easier encounters. While this mission may have been a minor group mission or beginning of a story arc, its doubtful they wanted to make it tough enough for it to take more then an allotted time to keep players interested in the battle mechanics. Alternatively, they most likely didn't want to increase the difficulty so much as to not be able to complete it in front of an audience.
Lastly, perhaps they did undershoot the experience of the players they chose to play the game, but this doesn't bother me at all. Chances are, if you watched someone go through an encounter the first time and saw how they played each role and what was coming next, it would be pretty tough not to emulate that.
As for the glitch... a minor glitch in a test demo? NO WAY. Unheard of.
Originally posted by TUX426 Originally posted by elocke True, I suppose it's all coming to a head with 3 Big games coming, GW2, Rift, and SWTOR and all I see are these assinine posts about games that aren't even in Open Beta yet and it just makes the vein in my temple expand a thousand fold.
3? Only one game in that list appeals to me.
So. That doesn't change the fact that there are 3 big games coming, whether you like one , none or all. It is what it is. I should say, 3 triple A games actually, as that is what they are.
So. That doesn't change the fact that there are 3 big games coming, whether you like one , none or all. It is what it is. I should say, 3 triple A games actually, as that is what they are.
So. Since this is the SW:ToR forum, I don't see what GW2 or RIFT have to do with anything. If I cared about either of those games, I'd be in their forums posting. I also don't see either one as a serious "competitor" to SW:ToR because they're completely different settings. RIFT is simply another D&D MMO and GW2 is only interesting in the least to me because it's B2P. Sure, 3 "big" games I guess, but only one that I feel has all the hype behind it.
And since gameplay and individual enjoyment/taste are what determine if a game is "AAA", I have a hard time accepting ANY of them will be "AAA" because not one has been released yet. The funny thing is, YOU have been the one telling people to wait because none are even in open beta yet.
Originally posted by TUX426 Originally posted by elocke
So. That doesn't change the fact that there are 3 big games coming, whether you like one , none or all. It is what it is. I should say, 3 triple A games actually, as that is what they are.
So. Since this is the SW:ToR forum, I don't see what GW2 or RIFT have to do with anything. If I cared about either of those games, I'd be in their forums posting. I also don't see either one as a serious "competitor" to SW:ToR because they're completely different settings. RIFT is simply another D&D MMO and GW2 is only interesting in the least to me because it's B2P. Sure, 3 "big" games I guess, but only one that I feel has all the hype behind it. And since gameplay and individual enjoyment/taste are what determine if a game is "AAA", I have a hard time accepting ANY of them will be "AAA" because not one has been released yet. The funny thing is, YOU have been the one telling people to wait because none are even in open beta yet.
Actually, financial spenditure on a game's development is what determine's whether a game is AAA. But whatever, you obviously are one of THOSE gamers who doesn't like having competition or even the idea that another game can be played at the same time as your own precious choice.
For me, I will play all 3 because I love MMOs and I truly hope all 3 bring down the house next year and make my wallet short 30 bucks every month(cuz GW2 has no sub, ;D). I have NO problems with playing more than one MMO.
Anyway, I only mentioned those games because one can't conceivably just say they aren't competition when in fact they are, especially if they launch around the same window. Granted GW2 might not be as much competition due to the no sub option, but it's an MMO none the less.
Sorry. OP's argument is about as effective as a flopping fish out of water. He can slap people with it, but at worst, it'd be a little awkward and he'd think of something new.
, financial spenditure on a game's development is what determine's whether a game is AAA. But whatever, you obviously are one of THOSE gamers who doesn't like having competition or even the idea that another game can be played at the same time as your own precious choice.
That may be how YOU define it, but there is no industry standard for what defines a AAA title mate. I couldn't care less if there's competition either, the more the merrier tbh because in theory it keeps companies honest. And please, go ahead and play all 3, if there's a 4th, pick it up. Why on Earth do you think I care what game(s) you play?!?!?!
I'm with you too. I hope GW2 is a MEGA hit next year, variety FTW! Please stop pretending to know my views when you're so mistaken on them.
I still maintain that if all 3 games are released on the same day, SW:ToR wins hands down and those 2 will struggle, not SW:ToR.
It's not the bug that's important - that can happen to any one.
It's the fact that they thought their highest level raid boss (or close) was so tough and ingenious that it would be very hard to beat - and yet four randoms from the game floor were able to beat it without any trouble.
That raises questions about combat, about boss design, about their analysis of players, about raid/dungeon climaxes etc etc Most importantly, it begs the question - have these designers who, in the past, have mostly designed SRPG games made a mistake in designing MMORPG combat for this game?
That was nowhere even close to their highest level raid boss that was a basic breech droid.
Thats like saying someone easily beat a named gnoll in Blackburrow and because of that eq raiding was in trouble...well not quite but i guess you can fight hyperbole with hyperbole.
It's not the bug that's important - that can happen to any one.
It's the fact that they thought their highest level raid boss (or close) was so tough and ingenious that it would be very hard to beat - and yet four randoms from the game floor were able to beat it without any trouble.
That raises questions about combat, about boss design, about their analysis of players, about raid/dungeon climaxes etc etc Most importantly, it begs the question - have these designers who, in the past, have mostly designed SRPG games made a mistake in designing MMORPG combat for this game?
That was nowhere even close to their highest level raid boss that was a basic breech droid.
Thats like saying someone easily beat a named gnoll in Blackburrow and because of that eq raiding was in trouble...well not quite but i guess you can fight hyperbole with hyperbole.
I have no idea which encounter this is, that's being referred to, but the OP did say that the guys on the panel claimed the it was one of the hardest in the game and that the players were going to get demolished. That, of course, is hearsay, unless someone can corroborate it. On the other hand, I'm not prepared to call the OP a liar either so I'll take it at face value. Which then tells me that the panel had seriously misjudged the difficulty of the encounter.
It doesn't matter what happened in that encounter. What matters is that the the folks who were supposed to be the experts on it, really didn't understand how easily it could be beaten. *That's* the part that's troubling.
BTW, who were those guys on the panel anyway? Were they on the development team or a couple of marketing hacks? That might go a long way towards explaining their lack of understanding of the scenario they were demo-ing.
Thanks to the amazing technology of video recording and youtube storage and streaming we can all go to the darth hater you tube channel and see exactly what the OP is referring to:
As you can see they never say this is the hardest encounter, they say it is a higher level encounter than what people were playing at PAX (which was a level 1-5 playtime). If you watch the whole video and see the toons that people were playing and if you have been following the game you can tell this is a low to mid level instance and the breech droids are just minbosses. They were just trying to build up suspense (as they put it hoping the community players would die).
The OP is a pure strawman the only legitimate thing in the OP was yes they had a 5 minute technical difficulty in getting the demo up for the 3 community members...
Well, the game isn't in beta yet and I guess they havn't checked the difficulty so good in the alpha. But getting the difficulty right is one of the reasons you have a closed beta.
I see no reasons to worry about things like that yet, if they put the game into open beta and everything is too easy things are different and it is time to wonder if they know what they are doing.
Anyways, relax. We wont know if they got it right until the open beta anyways.
Difficulty is not easy to get right. Too hard and you will get few players because the rest can't get anywhere. Or so easy a 4 year old can play it (*notch notch*) and many potential players including me wont feel challenged and play something else instead. But they still have 6 months to get it right and it is the beta time that matters most with things like this.
I plan to try TOR even if I think it is likelier that I will play GW2 or Rift instead but I will choose the best game and I wont know which that is until I actually played all of them. I will keep an eye on TERA too, and WoDO. Deciding which game I will play the next couple of years without even trying it first is pointless.
That may be how YOU define it, but there is no industry standard for what defines a AAA title mate. I couldn't care less if there's competition either, the more the merrier tbh because in theory it keeps companies honest. And please, go ahead and play all 3, if there's a 4th, pick it up. Why on Earth do you think I care what game(s) you play?!?!?!
I'm with you too. I hope GW2 is a MEGA hit next year, variety FTW! Please stop pretending to know my views when you're so mistaken on them.
I still maintain that if all 3 games are released on the same day, SW:ToR wins hands down and those 2 will struggle, not SW:ToR.
True, my personal theory is that a AAA game is well coded and will be a full price game for at least 6 months but others call all games most stores have AAA (we had quite a discussion about that somewhere else). There is no exact definition that I seen of it.
But if Bioware can't make what we all (or at least almost all of us) agree is a AAA MMO for all the money they used they should never make another one.
As for which one of TOR, GW2 and Rift that would sell most if they released the same day, that is something I am not 100% sure of. It depends on if Bioware can get their fans from single player game to play and how much money they put into commercials. With no commercials whatsoever I actually think GW2 could outdo it since the first GW have many fans and GW2 have gotten very good press lately. But I think EA will spend a lot of money on marketing and that will probably sell copies.
But in the end players will stay with the best game, and I for one are looking forward to find out which one that will be.
Balance will be worked on twenty times between now and release, then probably another five times after that.
What this means to me is that the gamers who this was their first experience at the controls of the game, were comfortable enough to beat it so easily. That speaks very highly for the UI.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
"They had some pre-selected people from the audience come play a situation in the game. They touted the situation as probably one of the hardest in the game and that the 4 selected gamers were going to get routed by the computer. They had employees ( I think a producer or two and a gorgeous community manager play the situation first, and they had a hard time with it, but beat it ), the 4 selected players then played it… and easily beat it
This seems odd to me, why would "One of the hardest bosses in the game" only require 4 people to beat him? Bioware has already said that SWTOR has "raids" so I doubt this boss that requires 4 people is "one of the hardest in the game". So I call Bullsh** on this one.
That was the PAX demo presentation I believe. And they had 3 pre-selected players with a dev as the healer. It was a level 7-8 group quest on a starter planet. The players had level 10 characters for the encounter. I would have been surprised if it wasn't easy for 3 avid MMO players and a dev as a healer 2 levels over the encounter.
But if someone did say it would be difficult, they made a mistake. Maybe if a 4th non-dev player was the healer, but not with the dev playing.
I do agree that they need a lot of open beta to adjust the difficulty. It will be hard to judge by the devs or internal testers that play the game constantly vs those who have never player the game. But then any MMO player should have an easy time. Just about all MMO's are easy for those who play all the time.
Edit: Someone answered better than me above. Oh well, moving on.
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
The only encounters that I've struggled with in the countless of MMO I've beta tested are due to broken "mechanics" and/or missing/non-implented "mechanics"... Basically things not working as intended.
I find it more promising that people are able to easily beat encounters right now, which will help them scale the difficulty and behaviours of encounters until release.
A MMORPG is still in it's rather early stages when released aswell. But I have no doubt that people will be pleasantly suprised about this game when it launches.
Comments
This is almost as bad as the Enquirer or the Daily Mirror. Haven't you folks got anything better to do then to pick everything to bits.
If they got it wrong, then I don't want to be right!
In Bioware we trust!
When was the last time you seen GW2 be bashed as much as Rift or SWTOR? It's pretty sad that nearly this entire MMORPG.com community are under some delusion that GW2 is the perfect game and will have NO flaws, but they will turn around and say that Rift or SWTOR have already failed.
Don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to GW2 as much as anyone else but I'm not as ignorant as most of the people in this community, you won't see any posts from me saying GW2 or any other games will fail, because I don't want any of these games to fail, I would like to have a variety of great games to play.
Unfortunately, I think that the piece in red was written by someone with an axe to grind. That means I can't take it too seriously. However, if it did happen that way it would mean that Bioware needs to go back and do a lot more testing. I am no overtly concerned about the mentioning of the bug as I am about the why the developers reacted to the beating of a "hard" level within the game. This COULD indicate that they don't have a clue on how to make a good MMO. OR, it could mean that they haven't tested it properly yet. OR, it could mean that this guy writing about the incident made it up to try to sabotage the game's launch.
Let's party like it is 1863!
This seems odd to me, why would "One of the hardest bosses in the game" only require 4 people to beat him? Bioware has already said that SWTOR has "raids" so I doubt this boss that requires 4 people is "one of the hardest in the game". So I call Bullsh** on this one.
Great point. The OP should have questioned it's source and content before starting the thread.
Totally agree with you. I am so looking forward to this and GW2, but then we get these pointless threads whose only real intention is to troll prematurely based on a nonesense premise.
There Is Always Hope!
3? Only one game in that list appeals to me.
Did the OP just miss the point of his own post? :P Joking aside, the lack of difficulty mentioned here really wouldn't be a suprize, not what I like to hear though.
I'm not hating on the game but the more I hear, the more I think they are just designing this game to go after the masses, without looking very far outside the box and moreless just taking que's from some other pre-existing game(s), just to make it accessible to everyone. Would only be natural that the difficulty followed the same route.
Did anyone actually see the videos in question where they brought up the players? Understand that the healing portion of that encounter was still done by one of the original ::developer selected players::. I wonder how different it would have been with an ::impromptu:: player healer. Secondly, how difficult do you think it would have really had to be to run this mission in a demo environment?
I don't know about you but many of the toughest missions ::in other games:: I've played previously took well over 10 minutes to go through, even on some of the easier encounters. While this mission may have been a minor group mission or beginning of a story arc, its doubtful they wanted to make it tough enough for it to take more then an allotted time to keep players interested in the battle mechanics. Alternatively, they most likely didn't want to increase the difficulty so much as to not be able to complete it in front of an audience.
Lastly, perhaps they did undershoot the experience of the players they chose to play the game, but this doesn't bother me at all. Chances are, if you watched someone go through an encounter the first time and saw how they played each role and what was coming next, it would be pretty tough not to emulate that.
As for the glitch... a minor glitch in a test demo? NO WAY. Unheard of.
So. That doesn't change the fact that there are 3 big games coming, whether you like one , none or all. It is what it is. I should say, 3 triple A games actually, as that is what they are.
So. Since this is the SW:ToR forum, I don't see what GW2 or RIFT have to do with anything. If I cared about either of those games, I'd be in their forums posting. I also don't see either one as a serious "competitor" to SW:ToR because they're completely different settings. RIFT is simply another D&D MMO and GW2 is only interesting in the least to me because it's B2P. Sure, 3 "big" games I guess, but only one that I feel has all the hype behind it.
And since gameplay and individual enjoyment/taste are what determine if a game is "AAA", I have a hard time accepting ANY of them will be "AAA" because not one has been released yet. The funny thing is, YOU have been the one telling people to wait because none are even in open beta yet.
And since gameplay and individual enjoyment/taste are what determine if a game is "AAA", I have a hard time accepting ANY of them will be "AAA" because not one has been released yet. The funny thing is, YOU have been the one telling people to wait because none are even in open beta yet.
Actually, financial spenditure on a game's development is what determine's whether a game is AAA. But whatever, you obviously are one of THOSE gamers who doesn't like having competition or even the idea that another game can be played at the same time as your own precious choice.
For me, I will play all 3 because I love MMOs and I truly hope all 3 bring down the house next year and make my wallet short 30 bucks every month(cuz GW2 has no sub, ;D). I have NO problems with playing more than one MMO.
Anyway, I only mentioned those games because one can't conceivably just say they aren't competition when in fact they are, especially if they launch around the same window. Granted GW2 might not be as much competition due to the no sub option, but it's an MMO none the less.
Sorry. OP's argument is about as effective as a flopping fish out of water. He can slap people with it, but at worst, it'd be a little awkward and he'd think of something new.
That may be how YOU define it, but there is no industry standard for what defines a AAA title mate. I couldn't care less if there's competition either, the more the merrier tbh because in theory it keeps companies honest. And please, go ahead and play all 3, if there's a 4th, pick it up. Why on Earth do you think I care what game(s) you play?!?!?!
I'm with you too. I hope GW2 is a MEGA hit next year, variety FTW! Please stop pretending to know my views when you're so mistaken on them.
I still maintain that if all 3 games are released on the same day, SW:ToR wins hands down and those 2 will struggle, not SW:ToR.
haha nice analogy
Thanks to the amazing technology of video recording and youtube storage and streaming we can all go to the darth hater you tube channel and see exactly what the OP is referring to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/realdarthhater#p/u/7/A8dA4gtvxe8
As you can see they never say this is the hardest encounter, they say it is a higher level encounter than what people were playing at PAX (which was a level 1-5 playtime). If you watch the whole video and see the toons that people were playing and if you have been following the game you can tell this is a low to mid level instance and the breech droids are just minbosses. They were just trying to build up suspense (as they put it hoping the community players would die).
The OP is a pure strawman the only legitimate thing in the OP was yes they had a 5 minute technical difficulty in getting the demo up for the 3 community members...
Nothing to see here feed the troll less.
Well, the game isn't in beta yet and I guess they havn't checked the difficulty so good in the alpha. But getting the difficulty right is one of the reasons you have a closed beta.
I see no reasons to worry about things like that yet, if they put the game into open beta and everything is too easy things are different and it is time to wonder if they know what they are doing.
Anyways, relax. We wont know if they got it right until the open beta anyways.
Difficulty is not easy to get right. Too hard and you will get few players because the rest can't get anywhere. Or so easy a 4 year old can play it (*notch notch*) and many potential players including me wont feel challenged and play something else instead. But they still have 6 months to get it right and it is the beta time that matters most with things like this.
I plan to try TOR even if I think it is likelier that I will play GW2 or Rift instead but I will choose the best game and I wont know which that is until I actually played all of them. I will keep an eye on TERA too, and WoDO. Deciding which game I will play the next couple of years without even trying it first is pointless.
True, my personal theory is that a AAA game is well coded and will be a full price game for at least 6 months but others call all games most stores have AAA (we had quite a discussion about that somewhere else). There is no exact definition that I seen of it.
But if Bioware can't make what we all (or at least almost all of us) agree is a AAA MMO for all the money they used they should never make another one.
As for which one of TOR, GW2 and Rift that would sell most if they released the same day, that is something I am not 100% sure of. It depends on if Bioware can get their fans from single player game to play and how much money they put into commercials. With no commercials whatsoever I actually think GW2 could outdo it since the first GW have many fans and GW2 have gotten very good press lately. But I think EA will spend a lot of money on marketing and that will probably sell copies.
But in the end players will stay with the best game, and I for one are looking forward to find out which one that will be.
Balance will be worked on twenty times between now and release, then probably another five times after that.
What this means to me is that the gamers who this was their first experience at the controls of the game, were comfortable enough to beat it so easily. That speaks very highly for the UI.
That was the PAX demo presentation I believe. And they had 3 pre-selected players with a dev as the healer. It was a level 7-8 group quest on a starter planet. The players had level 10 characters for the encounter. I would have been surprised if it wasn't easy for 3 avid MMO players and a dev as a healer 2 levels over the encounter.
But if someone did say it would be difficult, they made a mistake. Maybe if a 4th non-dev player was the healer, but not with the dev playing.
I do agree that they need a lot of open beta to adjust the difficulty. It will be hard to judge by the devs or internal testers that play the game constantly vs those who have never player the game. But then any MMO player should have an easy time. Just about all MMO's are easy for those who play all the time.
Edit: Someone answered better than me above. Oh well, moving on.
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
The only encounters that I've struggled with in the countless of MMO I've beta tested are due to broken "mechanics" and/or missing/non-implented "mechanics"... Basically things not working as intended.
I find it more promising that people are able to easily beat encounters right now, which will help them scale the difficulty and behaviours of encounters until release.
A MMORPG is still in it's rather early stages when released aswell. But I have no doubt that people will be pleasantly suprised about this game when it launches.
I CREATED MYSELF!
"<Claus|Dev> i r pk"
SW:TOR|War40K:DMO|GW2