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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Work in Progress
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
When a game is as keenly anticipated as Star Wars: The Old Republic, it generates a lot of discussion. Sometimes it seems difficult to remember that the game is, as MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton says, "a work in progress" and that what seems to be finalized content or a finished feature probably really isn't. It's all about maintaining perspective during development. Check out Mike's latest SWTOR column and leave your impressions in the comments below.
Despite being the triple AAA MMO from beloved RPG developer Bioware, Star Wars: The Old Republic Is still a work-in-progress. The game is still in development people, and I think with all the hype surrounding it fans are certainly scrutinizing every bit they see of the game probably more than any other MMO I’ve seen followed throughout development.
Read more of Mike Bitton's SWTOR: Work in Progress.
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Comments
After the disappoint that I've experienced with Rift (good luck and godspeed!), I've dug out the copy of Dragon Age: Origins. After being reintroduced to an immersive story, I'm now anticipating even more what Bioware will offer with SWTOR.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Yeah, it's crazy to see so many people talking about the game as if they'd knew how the final product is, and on top of that are dissapointed. We dont even know when the game is coming out. Obviously not during the spring, we're lucky if we even see it untill the end of this year. Yes, time flies by.
Then again, people will be positively surprised if they judge the game now. To me it seems like many of the screens and footage are based on "low detail" settings, on a basic version of the game. We've been seeing better and better screens and videos, which only means they add up fluff and detail for better settings and I'm positive we've yet to see the cranked up to maximum settings, not even near.
Whatever the case, one thing is a fact, and that is: No one knows at this point how the game turns out when it is released. We can start talking about that when we hear something about an open beta.
It's their own fault for hyping a game 3-4 years before release. SWTOR is an extreme example of the new trend toward multi-year buzz, and I'm guessing it does more harm than good. I was so excited about this game when I first heard about it, back in 2008, but it's easy for anticipation to turn into skepticism, criticism, and eventually indefference, when you've been waiting for so long. IMO a game shouldn't really be announced or previewed more than a year before closed beta testing.
I would love to know what the advertising budget EA/ Bioware put into this..
This game better be good considering GW2 has been stealing hype from ToR.
For me I think i'm more looking fowrard to GW2. Haven't seen anything from ToR to make me change my mind, yet.
WoW is a disease that will infect your brain and your computer.
I think everything bioware does is a work in progress. Take DA:O and compair it to the recently released DAII demo. DA:O's characters were not as pretty, their teeth look funny, and the armor moved wrong in some parts. The demo for dragon age two is beautiful, and with the free weapon that is added to your account for playing it I suggest anyone that is going to play DAII to pop over and download it.
I say this manly to hit the 1 million demo player mark so we all can get the books, I won't lie about that. Now I do have problems though. Bioware is constantly making things pretty in their games, and part of me doesn't like that. Don't get me wrong I like things that look awsome, but Some things should be ugly. As far as I've seen of ToR even huta looks nice, but then again we haven't seen much of those worlds so I expect their will be ugly in places to balance out the pretty and make it feel real.
this demo means nothing, because it shows nothing important and hopefully not, how the game really is. so it means nothing for SWTOR, too.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
That's not true, though. Set the vitriol aside for a minute and think about how you stated that. The demo for Dragon Age 2 shows ALOT that's important. This is Bioware taking the time to say: "Here, let us show you what all our development has done. Let us show you the final graphics. Let us show you how the combat feels. Go ahead, test it out. This is only a very small taste of what we did for the enviroments. Listen to the sounds. Hear how crisp they are? Oh, and you can test out to see what works well on your system at certain settings."
Yes, you're right. THIS demo is not meant to show you the real game. Why ruin a good book by showing you the ending already? They want to save that part for a suprise. But Bioware goes out of their way to show you what they've done. To give you a small appetizer to hold you off until they bring out the main course and give you a chance to see how to set things up your way. The same can be said for SWTOR. Bioware has a certain reputation that says: "We will give you something that will make you happy. Something that shows we do care. We may not be able to put it in right away. But this is only a rough draft."
Give the developers a little credit. In my personal opinion, they have yet to show me they don't deliver quality.
here here
Dis' gon be good.
To the best of my knowledge Bioware has never canned a game in development. They are without a doubt one of the most solid well respected gaming companies in the world. I've played nearly every game they've made since starting out in 96.
You may not like what they release, when it's done, but I don't think there is any chance of it not coming out. My strategy is to just ignore the TOR forums for the moment because endless speculation about elements which are clearly placeholders seems like a total waste of time, that I could use playing Rift. :-)
You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks
~ WC
Heh, the game is going to get a lot better, we promise at release. Where have we heard that before... Cryptic, Stardock, EA...
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
The years of hype on this game is clearly grinding on some people, but hey... Diablo III isn't out yet either so other companies do the same thing.
That said... until you play the release version everything is subject to change. I will be at PAX East and I plan to enjoy my game time just like I did at PAX in Seattle so if you really can't wait to play it and /or you want to complain about the place holder mobs you will face and say the game looks all the same come to PAX so I can listen to your wawa cries.
I wholeheartedly agree. I am sick to death of waiting 3, 4 or even more years for a game from announcement to release. Not only can no one sustain enthusiasm for that long, there is also the fact I'm not getting any younger. I might be dead before some of these games launch( Diablo 3 I am looking at you).
Enough with announcing games waaay too early.
The graphics for SWTOR have improved greatly since the initial release of screenshots and in game footage. I'm quite impressed and I think the game looks less cartoony all the time.
The problem was it wasn't actually Biowares choice to release info this soon. At first it was just talk. Then somehow info leaked out on a game they were doing that was suppose to be really big.
After a while it got to the point where Bioware simply couldn't hide it anymore. It got to the point where it was show your hand, Do you have a game like this in development or don't you?
Now they had two choices, either say no we don't (which keeps the secret) but then they would eventually come out to be lying as people would find out when the game is finally announced that they had a game in development at the time. Thus would kill any kind of credibility they had built up. Last thing a consumer wants is to see a company lieing to them, kinda makes it hard to trust em, if you know what i mean
Or
They could just come out and say, Yeah we have a game in development but its several years off. Commit to that and give out updates in hopes of keeping the people around
Obviously they went with the second route. This keeps their credibility in line, and they can talk about it. I don't think BW wanted to release anything about the game until about 2010 last year. But their hand got forced and they couldn't keep it a secret anymore.
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.
Heh, for me its Mass Effect. Picked up a cheap copy of that and having a blast
Im also looking forward to SW:TOR for the immersion. KOTOR and Dragon Age are among the best games Ive played and Mass Effect is very good so far too.
Dont know why people fuss so much, game is not even in full beta yet. They have yet to discolse what end game will be like. Graphics are never really polished well till about 3-6 months before release and we dont even have a release date for the game yet. Nay sayers are as foolish as fan boys.
/signed
Let them work in peace. When the game goes to CBT then we can get some info.
But only when it releases, can we judge its quality.
Will state this about their game testing program which started summer of 2010
Game Testing for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is underway! Those selected to test will gain access to the game and be able to provide valuable feedback to help us tune particular areas of gameplay and begin the process of balancing and tweaking our content.
Game Testing is an on-going process being rolled out in several phases. These phases began with smaller, more focused tests with community members from North America, and later will expand to other territories. Users selected for the test program will be notified via email with more information on accessing the Game Testing Portal. If you’ve not been chosen yet, you may be selected in the next wave!
Why did i link that? because that sounds like beta to me. Could be wrong, But as you need to sign up for it to get access to this, i'm going with that sounds like beta to me.
Granted it's not open to everyeone but you can sign up for it and they will send you an email if they select you.
Can be found here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=165645&highlight=gametesting
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 want to play this game, can I haz pwease?
In Bioware we trust!