I am very tierd if the constant bashing on game that is not even out and people havent played them yet. But they can still tell us all how shit the game is gonna be what they dont like.
The only way a theme-park game (and let's face it, with the story focus, this game is more theme-park than any other MMO) can keep me captivated is if the end-game is worth it, specifically if it allows for some kind of sand-box PvP experience. If the PvP fights can somehow effect the world/galaxy/server, then I have some hope for the game. If this game is simply about the story, and the replayability involves creating multiple alts to get different stories, I think this game will fail for me. I'm sure plenty of people will enjoy different stories for different characters, but it's not the kind of game I would want to play. I just pray that when the game comes out, the reviews of this game make it clear what kind of replayability factor is involved. I suspect it will just be making alts to experience different stories, but I hope I'm wrong.
You cant compare old republic to the movies crazy freaks kotor although has the starwar logo its a COMPLETE diffrent storyline and has its own lore compared to the original storylines of empire vs republic this game is like thousands of years before the current starwar setting.
With all the financial backing behind SWTOR (EA/LA/BioWare), we have absolutely no innovation via PvP.
I mean, really... Battlegrounds (Warzones)? It's a joke and I cannot believe the community endorses such a lack-luster form of PvP. There is absolutely no depth to their system. It's a mere side mini-game with massive gear incentive; thus, forcing me to play it.
I don't get why "are you forced to play it".
PvP is for people who enjoy pvp. If you do it for the gears only, then obviously you don't enjoy pvp. If that's the case, stick to getting gears in PvE.
In my opinion though Bioware is taking it's 1st steps into the MMO industry and even though i'm not 100% sure this will be a sucessfull game, i have faith in them considering the previous sucesses they had and even more so since they were one of the few companies to make decent SW based games
Yep good read. About the only way to approach any MMO these days.
I will say this, the more I read about this game the more I feel it is Wow in space. Bioware has not done anything new here, just used what has been successful for others in this genre. Of course they are focusing on storying telling far more than any other MMO if that is in your mindset, but I know a lot of players just skip over the quest text hence won't mean much to them.
TOR is coming off as a overly large online game... I can't believe they missed the chance to make an online world.
The almost 4hrs of video showing game play I've saw shows the game to be linear, very very themepark and on rails.
There was nothing a sandbox gamer would want in TOR.
I'm really wondering what in the hell they have for endgame content and how they plan on retaining subscribers for an extended period of time with such linear and on rails themepark game that TOR is turning out to be.
I will keep my eye on TOR but as it stands I'm pretty disgusted with what I've saw.
PS:
The upcoming mmo ArcheAge looks like a true mmo and will have an online world for players with many social elements that won't involve just fighting mobs and running dungeons. A true mmo should have other things for it's players do to now, and cater not just the themepark, the sandbox elements are what keep the players subscribed and hanging around.
Played: MCO - EQ/EQ2 - WoW - VG - WAR - AoC - LoTRO - DDO - GW/GW2 - Eve - Rift - FE - TSW - TSO - WS - ESO - AA - BD Playing: Sims 3 & 4, Diablo3 and PoE Waiting on: Lost Ark Who's going to make a Cyberpunk MMO?
TOR is coming off as a overly large online game... I can't believe they missed the chance to make an online world.
The almost 4hrs of video showing game play I've saw shows the game to be linear, very very themepark and on rails.
There was nothing a sandbox gamer would want in TOR.
I'm really wondering what in the hell they have for endgame content and how they plan on retaining subscribers for an extended period of time with such linear and on rails themepark game that TOR is turning out to be.
I will keep my eye on TOR but as it stands I'm pretty disgusted with what I've saw.
PS:
The upcoming mmo ArcheAge looks like a true mmo and will have an online world for players with many social elements that won't involve just fighting mobs and running dungeons. A true mmo should have other things for it's players do to now, and cater not just the themepark, the sandbox elements are what keep the players subscribed and hanging around.
I don't recall any sandbox features in WoW yet that has kept its subscribers.
Interesting content will keep players. Not random featues you think are cool.
I agree that most of us MMO vets approach new MMOs with this light, but Bioware's doing this "fourth-pillar" bit that's gotten a lot of us concerned. We've actually had this pillar for ages for those of us who played sandbox MMOs (Asheron's Call's Shard Defense on Thistledown ring many bells?). When a dev essentially tells me that they can perfect it where I failed, after dealing with developer lead content for years, I'm obviously a skeptic, to say the least.
However, I've spoken to MMO vets, WoWheads, and beta testers, I think the one thing we can all say is "Go into this as if it were KotOR with some multiplayer features, not a new Star Wars MMO." If we get a good play through or two, fine. If there's, *gasp*, a new type of end-game at the end of that, AWESOME! Less chance of getting strung out when you go in expecting little and end up getting a lot then the heartbreak that comes from doing it the other way around ;P
TOR is coming off as a overly large online game... I can't believe they missed the chance to make an online world.
The almost 4hrs of video showing game play I've saw shows the game to be linear, very very themepark and on rails.
There was nothing a sandbox gamer would want in TOR.
I'm really wondering what in the hell they have for endgame content and how they plan on retaining subscribers for an extended period of time with such linear and on rails themepark game that TOR is turning out to be.
I will keep my eye on TOR but as it stands I'm pretty disgusted with what I've saw.
PS:
The upcoming mmo ArcheAge looks like a true mmo and will have an online world for players with many social elements that won't involve just fighting mobs and running dungeons. A true mmo should have other things for it's players do to now, and cater not just the themepark, the sandbox elements are what keep the players subscribed and hanging around.
I don't recall any sandbox features in WoW yet that has kept its subscribers.
Interesting content will keep players. Not random featues you think are cool.
Yep, if you like playing an MMO with kids then WoW is for you.
And I do mean kids... not teenagers or young adults... WoW was alright MMO before BC came out.
Played: MCO - EQ/EQ2 - WoW - VG - WAR - AoC - LoTRO - DDO - GW/GW2 - Eve - Rift - FE - TSW - TSO - WS - ESO - AA - BD Playing: Sims 3 & 4, Diablo3 and PoE Waiting on: Lost Ark Who's going to make a Cyberpunk MMO?
Yep, if you like playing an MMO with kids then WoW is for you.
And I do mean kids... not teenagers or young adults... WoW was alright MMO before BC came out.
Do you have proof of that? If so, link please.
The average age of WoW gamers reported by news items and surveys was iirc 28 years. Sure, they may still be kids in mind, many, but then kids with a job, a gf/wife and even kids of their own.
As for sandbox features: sure, sandbox features combined with themepark features are nice, but sandbox features in itself is no guarantee for success at all as the past years have shown, it's just what a number of people would like to see in the MMO they play, a personal preference, nothing more than that.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Alot of people compare this to Dragon Age and Mass Effect because of how choices are done but tell me how many actually played those games more than twice before moving onto another game ? Besides it being in the Star Wars universe, I don't know what is so exciting about it ? As a kid I grew up loving Star Wars to pieces but somehow the way Bioware is making it doesn't get gamer inside me pumped up for this as much as I want to be. We'll see how it goes.
i am on my 3rd playthrough of DA:O, 2 nd of ME and havent started ME2 but bought it.
There is always someone out there that hates you, or the game that is created..
They lack self realism and are at odds with themselves, only to find them in the game complaining about everything. Not sure what's worse, the spammers or the haters in game..
@SaintViktor you have your points, but you fail to see the true problem with mmo's..
1. Copyright
2. Originality
3. Making something different for both the Storyliners and SandBox players
BioWare make games the best way they can, would you have said different if they made a perfect copy of World of Warcraft and have Trolls with LightSabers? Excitment comes in many forms, for you it seems the old ways of StarWars made reality the perfect dream. Now it seems you lost your inner child and need to find it all over again.. Just join the flow and become one with the Force, SaintViktor.. 8)
might as well add my 2 tin to the sea of comments.
I think the most intriguing thing about the game is the multitude of people who I hear who don't have much good to say about the game, but still will buy it. To me that's sorta amazing if you think of it, but again that might just be the power of the Star Wars IP. For me the name Bioware does absolutely nothing for me. Sure KotOR was a good game when it came out, but also consider that I enjoyed the heck out of masters of tera-kasi (hey, i enjoy star wars games period).
As an MMO player not with my rose colored SW IP glasses on, I just have some serious doubts about this style or game working as an MMO. In MMO's I just flat out don't care about the stories, never had, never will. I'm fairly certain some of those MMO's actually contained decent stories. So the story heavy approach for me is a turn off, because when it comes down to it in an MMO time really is money, my money. If I'm paying to play a game monthly then I want to get the most out of my money and spend as much time actually playing and not being forced to endure some story I don't care about to begin with. 300 hour play time sounds like a great number, but really is it 300 hours of play time, or 100 hours of play time and 200 hours of cutscenes and dialog. That kinda story heavy stuff works for KotOR,DA,ME because you're not constantly paying for them, how many people honestly would continue playing ME if they got charged $15 to continue their story each month. Eh maybe for a month or three tops I just personally don't see paying long for a game where the story takes precedent over the actual gameplay.
But to go back to my original point, i'm still gonna buy it and try it out lol.
Bill, I don't think that people over at SWTOR think the staff at mmorpg.com "hates" SWTOR. I think that the people over at SWTOR think that your community "hates" SWTOR. Or at least that's the expected reaction. And it's somewhat evidenced in a some of the responses to this article.
Plus, the industry has always viewed mmorpg.com as the gathing point for the disgruntled simulation society that feels that the industry has forsaken them and gather here to post their hate and discontent for the direction the industry has gone.
Add in the outside world also see this as the gathering spot fot disgruntled fans of the original SWG fans that were infact looking for SWG2.
And then on top of all that, this is also viewed by the outside world as a gathing spot for people looking for innovation, and anything evolution rather than revolution is not seen as actual advancing of the industry.
And there you can see why the outside world sees this place (again, not the mmorpg.com staff) as not very accepting of TOR. It's not a simulation. It's not SWG2. It's not massivie innovation. It's evolution rather than revolution. It's entertainment provided in a game rather than a living world. All the hot button items that may not coinside with the ideals that people think of when they think of people in the mmorpg.com community.
As you can see from this thread, haters are going to hate. Doesn't matter if you're praising something they hate or detracting from something they like, they're going to hate because they can only think subjectively, and of course subjective thought is selfish thought. It's sad that people cant view things objectively and realize that "This might not be my cup of tea, but maybe others will enjoy it". These are the same people that are still holding a grudge for 7 years against SOE for the CE patch and have decided that they're going to punish the entire community of star wars adherents and Bioware who haven't done them any harm and aren't even a part of SoE but that type of right and wrong morality doesn't play into their minds. There's no arguing with that level of obsessiveness. Believe me when I say this, If you're working in a mental hospital and a patient grabs a blunt object and says he's Jose Canseco, you praise his ERA and get backup. You're just not going to get anywhere with a plea for rationality when the thought process has become so fixated that they can't see beyond the distorted bubble of reality that they've wrapped themselves and their intrinsic worth in. That tiny bubble leaves no room for growth or the ability to appreciate different tastes. Don't waste your time trying to placate them. They will never be happy. Keep doing what you do best and realize that most of us just want an honest opinion and to have fun, It's not about SWG kicking our puppy 7 years ago.
Comments
I am very tierd if the constant bashing on game that is not even out and people havent played them yet. But they can still tell us all how shit the game is gonna be what they dont like.
The only way a theme-park game (and let's face it, with the story focus, this game is more theme-park than any other MMO) can keep me captivated is if the end-game is worth it, specifically if it allows for some kind of sand-box PvP experience. If the PvP fights can somehow effect the world/galaxy/server, then I have some hope for the game. If this game is simply about the story, and the replayability involves creating multiple alts to get different stories, I think this game will fail for me. I'm sure plenty of people will enjoy different stories for different characters, but it's not the kind of game I would want to play. I just pray that when the game comes out, the reviews of this game make it clear what kind of replayability factor is involved. I suspect it will just be making alts to experience different stories, but I hope I'm wrong.
You cant compare old republic to the movies crazy freaks kotor although has the starwar logo its a COMPLETE diffrent storyline and has its own lore compared to the original storylines of empire vs republic this game is like thousands of years before the current starwar setting.
I don't get why "are you forced to play it".
PvP is for people who enjoy pvp. If you do it for the gears only, then obviously you don't enjoy pvp. If that's the case, stick to getting gears in PvE.
This is a great article.
In my opinion though Bioware is taking it's 1st steps into the MMO industry and even though i'm not 100% sure this will be a sucessfull game, i have faith in them considering the previous sucesses they had and even more so since they were one of the few companies to make decent SW based games
Best article covering TOR on MMORPG.com to date.
Yep good read. About the only way to approach any MMO these days.
I will say this, the more I read about this game the more I feel it is Wow in space. Bioware has not done anything new here, just used what has been successful for others in this genre. Of course they are focusing on storying telling far more than any other MMO if that is in your mindset, but I know a lot of players just skip over the quest text hence won't mean much to them.
TOR is coming off as a overly large online game... I can't believe they missed the chance to make an online world.
The almost 4hrs of video showing game play I've saw shows the game to be linear, very very themepark and on rails.
There was nothing a sandbox gamer would want in TOR.
I'm really wondering what in the hell they have for endgame content and how they plan on retaining subscribers for an extended period of time with such linear and on rails themepark game that TOR is turning out to be.
I will keep my eye on TOR but as it stands I'm pretty disgusted with what I've saw.
PS:
The upcoming mmo ArcheAge looks like a true mmo and will have an online world for players with many social elements that won't involve just fighting mobs and running dungeons. A true mmo should have other things for it's players do to now, and cater not just the themepark, the sandbox elements are what keep the players subscribed and hanging around.
Played: MCO - EQ/EQ2 - WoW - VG - WAR - AoC - LoTRO - DDO - GW/GW2 - Eve - Rift - FE - TSW - TSO - WS - ESO - AA - BD
Playing: Sims 3 & 4, Diablo3 and PoE
Waiting on: Lost Ark
Who's going to make a Cyberpunk MMO?
I don't recall any sandbox features in WoW yet that has kept its subscribers.
Interesting content will keep players. Not random featues you think are cool.
I agree that most of us MMO vets approach new MMOs with this light, but Bioware's doing this "fourth-pillar" bit that's gotten a lot of us concerned. We've actually had this pillar for ages for those of us who played sandbox MMOs (Asheron's Call's Shard Defense on Thistledown ring many bells?). When a dev essentially tells me that they can perfect it where I failed, after dealing with developer lead content for years, I'm obviously a skeptic, to say the least.
However, I've spoken to MMO vets, WoWheads, and beta testers, I think the one thing we can all say is "Go into this as if it were KotOR with some multiplayer features, not a new Star Wars MMO." If we get a good play through or two, fine. If there's, *gasp*, a new type of end-game at the end of that, AWESOME! Less chance of getting strung out when you go in expecting little and end up getting a lot then the heartbreak that comes from doing it the other way around ;P
Yep, if you like playing an MMO with kids then WoW is for you.
And I do mean kids... not teenagers or young adults... WoW was alright MMO before BC came out.
Played: MCO - EQ/EQ2 - WoW - VG - WAR - AoC - LoTRO - DDO - GW/GW2 - Eve - Rift - FE - TSW - TSO - WS - ESO - AA - BD
Playing: Sims 3 & 4, Diablo3 and PoE
Waiting on: Lost Ark
Who's going to make a Cyberpunk MMO?
Do you have proof of that? If so, link please.
The average age of WoW gamers reported by news items and surveys was iirc 28 years. Sure, they may still be kids in mind, many, but then kids with a job, a gf/wife and even kids of their own.
As for sandbox features: sure, sandbox features combined with themepark features are nice, but sandbox features in itself is no guarantee for success at all as the past years have shown, it's just what a number of people would like to see in the MMO they play, a personal preference, nothing more than that.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
i am on my 3rd playthrough of DA:O, 2 nd of ME and havent started ME2 but bought it.
There is always someone out there that hates you, or the game that is created..
They lack self realism and are at odds with themselves, only to find them in the game complaining about everything. Not sure what's worse, the spammers or the haters in game..
What's your voice say?
@SaintViktor you have your points, but you fail to see the true problem with mmo's..
1. Copyright
2. Originality
3. Making something different for both the Storyliners and SandBox players
BioWare make games the best way they can, would you have said different if they made a perfect copy of World of Warcraft and have Trolls with LightSabers? Excitment comes in many forms, for you it seems the old ways of StarWars made reality the perfect dream. Now it seems you lost your inner child and need to find it all over again.. Just join the flow and become one with the Force, SaintViktor.. 8)
Very good read; the points will be lost on those who merely want to go from beginning to end as fast as possible, and then grind gear.
This is Basically how I feel about this game also.
might as well add my 2 tin to the sea of comments.
I think the most intriguing thing about the game is the multitude of people who I hear who don't have much good to say about the game, but still will buy it. To me that's sorta amazing if you think of it, but again that might just be the power of the Star Wars IP. For me the name Bioware does absolutely nothing for me. Sure KotOR was a good game when it came out, but also consider that I enjoyed the heck out of masters of tera-kasi (hey, i enjoy star wars games period).
As an MMO player not with my rose colored SW IP glasses on, I just have some serious doubts about this style or game working as an MMO. In MMO's I just flat out don't care about the stories, never had, never will. I'm fairly certain some of those MMO's actually contained decent stories. So the story heavy approach for me is a turn off, because when it comes down to it in an MMO time really is money, my money. If I'm paying to play a game monthly then I want to get the most out of my money and spend as much time actually playing and not being forced to endure some story I don't care about to begin with. 300 hour play time sounds like a great number, but really is it 300 hours of play time, or 100 hours of play time and 200 hours of cutscenes and dialog. That kinda story heavy stuff works for KotOR,DA,ME because you're not constantly paying for them, how many people honestly would continue playing ME if they got charged $15 to continue their story each month. Eh maybe for a month or three tops I just personally don't see paying long for a game where the story takes precedent over the actual gameplay.
But to go back to my original point, i'm still gonna buy it and try it out lol.
Bill, I don't think that people over at SWTOR think the staff at mmorpg.com "hates" SWTOR. I think that the people over at SWTOR think that your community "hates" SWTOR. Or at least that's the expected reaction. And it's somewhat evidenced in a some of the responses to this article.
Plus, the industry has always viewed mmorpg.com as the gathing point for the disgruntled simulation society that feels that the industry has forsaken them and gather here to post their hate and discontent for the direction the industry has gone.
Add in the outside world also see this as the gathering spot fot disgruntled fans of the original SWG fans that were infact looking for SWG2.
And then on top of all that, this is also viewed by the outside world as a gathing spot for people looking for innovation, and anything evolution rather than revolution is not seen as actual advancing of the industry.
And there you can see why the outside world sees this place (again, not the mmorpg.com staff) as not very accepting of TOR. It's not a simulation. It's not SWG2. It's not massivie innovation. It's evolution rather than revolution. It's entertainment provided in a game rather than a living world. All the hot button items that may not coinside with the ideals that people think of when they think of people in the mmorpg.com community.
Bill,
As you can see from this thread, haters are going to hate. Doesn't matter if you're praising something they hate or detracting from something they like, they're going to hate because they can only think subjectively, and of course subjective thought is selfish thought. It's sad that people cant view things objectively and realize that "This might not be my cup of tea, but maybe others will enjoy it". These are the same people that are still holding a grudge for 7 years against SOE for the CE patch and have decided that they're going to punish the entire community of star wars adherents and Bioware who haven't done them any harm and aren't even a part of SoE but that type of right and wrong morality doesn't play into their minds. There's no arguing with that level of obsessiveness. Believe me when I say this, If you're working in a mental hospital and a patient grabs a blunt object and says he's Jose Canseco, you praise his ERA and get backup. You're just not going to get anywhere with a plea for rationality when the thought process has become so fixated that they can't see beyond the distorted bubble of reality that they've wrapped themselves and their intrinsic worth in. That tiny bubble leaves no room for growth or the ability to appreciate different tastes. Don't waste your time trying to placate them. They will never be happy. Keep doing what you do best and realize that most of us just want an honest opinion and to have fun, It's not about SWG kicking our puppy 7 years ago.
Nice article. Sounds about right. I'm approaching this the same way. I just hope that its not all a copy of everything that came before it.