How about this? If they had actually tried to release a game with SOME vision, instead of trying to capitalize on another game's audience, subs wouldn't be dropping at this rate. EA and BioWare have only themselves to blame for releasing a game like it's 2004. For companies of this magnitude people and MMO players expect so much more. And they should. True, they won't have a problem keeping the game alive with 500.000 subs. But that is not the point. The point is that the audience expected more and they got a rehash of an older game AND with less features. There is no vision in this game, nothing. And with Guild Wars 2, The Secret World and ArchAge coming, WoW reigning supreme still, it's simple logic that this game will never be the megaton EA and BioWare hoped. They wanted the big number subs but they had no idea how to do it.

People must compare in order to choose, it's human. And developers should do better to listen to the community instead of their own misplaced pride.

No, you are wrong. TOR is being criticized because it misses VITAL MMO tools and MMO gameplay. TOR is being criticized because it has copied WoW in almost all ways BUT it hasn't perfected/improved anything. The new and exciting things it offers are mainly single player. Besides, things evolve. TOR seems like it has missed the last 7 MMO years in MANY areas. And that is why it's being criticized and fairly so. No vision at all.

Yeah, the same magazine that awarded Dragon Age 2 a 93%, lol. It's one of the most publisher *** licking magazines in all the known universe. It's sad because it used to be better.

I have heard many crazy things in my life, but someone waiting the verdict of the laughing stock of videogames journalism is a new experience for me.

Oh, I am aware of that. My response was specifically targeted.

WoW did a fine job immersing me in the world. It had great aesthetic tools and RP social tools. That's why its world felt so alive. In TOR the world is silent and static...

Because of lack of RP play or the ability to be immersed, some people will leave. There are people who are not crazy children spaming the pvp buttons all the time.

TOR was laucnhed with no RP in mind (there's not even speech bubbles or sitting on chairs or an RP forum), and that's the reason many will leave. Disregarding a major part of people who actually help creat a community is another idiotic move by BW/EA. Fortunately, they won't get away with it. Also, don't forget that this game is badly optimized. There's not even AA. Imagine if there were day/night cycles or weather. In general though, all MMOs should have 24h day/night cycles, like WoW. It enhances the experience and binds the player with the digital world in an amazing way, as Blizzard's title showed.

What an ignorant and fanboystic drivel...

For the love of God, don't buy anything yet. The game is unoptimized for high end systems. Wait for this BW/EA farse to end before you do what you do.

In order for all of this to make sense TOR must best WoW. This will not happen in a million years because BioWare's title is a much lesser game. And don't forget that Blizzard is already hard at work in a new MMO. Imagine releasing a space themed MMO, where players can fly their ships and explore planets at the same time. Imagine how stupid TOR will look then.

I meant freedom in the open world. TOR areas are small, size and player wise. I'm not claiming that WoW didn't rip off ideas from others, but claiming that TOR tries new things in the MMO market (when it doesn't even have speech bubbles!) is completely false. I was excited about the game as well, but it's really restrictive, especially on social tools and exploration. If, for example, you could take other people with you in your speceship, if you could actually fly your speceship, if there was actually smuggling you could do, etc then YES, that would trying NEW things. Even classes have nothing to do with Jedis as we've come to know them. There's no Jedi class that can actually force push AND force throw. It's ridiculous. It's like they took all the classes from WoW (where warrior can't do magic) and tailored them to the SW universe.

It didn't try anything new in the MMO industry. Adding a story is promotion of single player in the MMO. It's not some new MMO mechanic because it can only be experienced solo. Everything this game offers MMO wise is ripped off from WoW, one way or another. It doesn't promote exploration, freedom or even have the open world of Blizzard's title. In fact, I think it's sad that a company like BioWare or EA showed such little vision in the MMO part of TOR. And because of that, their game won't be the success they intend. I'd rather pay a monthly sub to a game like GW2, where it's going to try a new ground than a WoW clone dressed in SW clothes.

I depends on what people mean by story. WoW has a great story but it doesn't represent it like TOR does, which is the right things to do. BioWare and EA have spent all their money in creating cutscenes and offering dialogue to promote the story and sacrificed important aspects of the MMO-social-RP mechanic which makes WoW such an astonishing success. TOR feels and is older than WoW in a lot of ways, which is why it won't be a success. There's no vision behind the game, unless you want to play a single player game with other people running around. The fact that this game doesn't offer an expansive open world is really one of the major problems and one of the reason this feels like so restrictive. Having a story and representing it this way is great, but not when it detracts from the main MMO mechanics. Do you think that story will keep on coming in this game? In the same quality, voice over and custscenes? And how long will that take each time? There are not even speech bubbles in this game for God's sake...

The graphics are only marginally better, which is no achievement at all. Don't forget that TOR is not open world and it's certainly smaller than WoW, so graphics should be better and optimization should be REALLY better. The completely crazy thing is how on earth the animation is worse. WoW's animation is so much better and more expressive that it's not even funny. The money in this game went to all the wrong areas.

You knew though in your gut that WoW would be amazing. The feeling of the world, the openess, the characters laughing and dancing, RPing, the tools were there. And it was Blizzard. TOR simply doesn't have any kind of proper vision. It's fine now but it's just too old to compete. If GW2 does HALF of what it promises, it will sweep everything. If TOR offered some great SW moments or some actual vision with its mechanics, it would have a chance. Hell, they can't even offer us speech bubbles...

PC Gamer gave DA2 a 93%. You should know by now not to trust mainstream media.

BioWare and EA had a chance here to make a difference, yet they failed. I can imagine that meeting" EA unqualified executive: "Let's make a SW MMO to make money. Call our strongest studio here" BW: "Eh, hello." EA U. Ex: "You are best. Make us SW MMO." BW: "We only know how to make good stories." EA U. Ex: "Put them in this new game!" BW: "But what about the mechanics?" EA U. Ex:"Just use WoWs" BW: "But WoW is very last gen, although with the new expansions it has some great ideas. Have you seen Guild Wars 2?" EA U. Ex:"Don't care! Make story, make money, make game like 2004." End of meeting.

What's missing? The world is silenced. There's no people talking (no speech bubbles), players are not encouraged to do humorous things a la WoW, the RP tools are not there, there's too much solo content, which would be great if there wasn't so few multi content. The MMO part is not there as it should and the communication tools are woeful. It's also really old design wise. In fact, as far as mechanics go, it feels older than WoW, which is ridiculous.

So does anyone actually RP without chat bubbles? The world is just so silent... I can't believe BioWare made such a stupid choice.

That is the reality. It's a disgrace that BioWare left such an important and simple communication tool out of the game. I hope many people will leave this game as a reaction to all the stupid design decisions. That's the only way they will listen.

Exactly. How can they ever hope to create a dynamic community when people can't actually talk in the game world? When they can't roleplay? The lack of speech bubbles is unforgivable and shows the stupidity behind the whole design. This is for now a silent world. WoW was/is full of magic. You saw people talking, yelling, doing things, right there, IN THE GAME WORLD.

There's no proper incentive to play it as an MMO, especially at first. There's not even speech bubbles to properly communicate with people. There's no point to play with a friend when you are doing the solo quests because they don't count for both people. One of them would have to do them all over again. It's boring and it makes no sense. You can play with a friend or group, but there's not even a LFG function. This game was designed as a single player and so many things are SO behind times it's not even funny.

Me and many of my friends won't be staying. This is simply too last gen design and with no proper communication tools (there's not even speech bubbles). I'll play the free month as a single player campaign as it was meant to be played and that's it.