I’m new totally new to MMORPGs, like never having played even a demo. I’ve played almost every kind of game imaginable other than the MMORPG mainly because I was reluctant to pay a subscription fee. But because of my love for all things Star Wars, I took the proverbial “plunge” and tried this game. So, to BioWare and LucasArts, that is one calculation you got quite right – noob gamers who love Star Wars will give this game a try. But you promised something epic and this isn’t it—yet. And though I’m basically hooked on this game right now, mostly for the story (leveling both a Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin), I won’t spend time talking about the many good things here. That’s because, in my opinion, the following are mostly correctable issues, which if not corrected soon, will alienate or fail to attract/retain all but the most diehard MMORPGers (who are also SW fans) over time and thus limit the long-term playability. This is long so please bear with me:
1. NO TUTORIAL: I mean seriously, WTH? How is someone who is brand new to this genre--the very people BioWare is ostensibly trying to recruit--going to have a clue what they are doing here? From chat, to leveling, to cooldowns, to range vs. melee vs. tank vs. healing, and all the other stuff I’ve spent hours trying to learn? How will a noob understand the jargon like “PvP, Proc, DPS, GC,” etc.? I’m not asking for a graduate studies class, just a basic tutorial that intros you, through a generic character, to MMOs. I’ve spent numerous hours on the net looking up terms and trying to figure things out that should be spent playing. Not good.
One approach would be to let a player pick a general side first, Sith vs. Republic, then work through a few quests with low-level members (e.g. Level 10s) of a class to get a sense of what the classes bring to the table and whether the player likes to be more melee or more range or tank. After 4 short quests, which also introduce game mechanics and other things, THEN have the player pick a class. For example, tutorial quest 1 could be with a Imperial Agent, tutorial quest 2 would be with a Sith Inquisitor, etc. You could make this optional and limit this to noobs as “prequel” to the game so that experienced players could jump right in. I’ve been a gamer my whole life and I cannot figure out many basic things here, such has how to integrate chatting into my play, why I should guild or how to, or when to group or not, or what types of benefits/weaknesses the tanks, healers, etc. bring to the table, and lots of other stuff such as PvP. It’s frustrating, but I press on for the story—IMHO, that’s not enough to keep me around. This should be a moderately easy fix with a tutorial content update. I’m afraid that without something like this, you will see burnout from noobs after the trial period because it will be hard to enjoy the later part of the game, or to understand why it’s a great idea to keep playing after completing the endgame.
2. STORY: Again, I’m not going to talk about the numerous great and engaging things BioWare got right. Also, I know these things evolve over time-- that’s part of the $15/mo charge right? I’m focusing mostly on some bizarre, but correctable, decision choices by the designers. The first and most perplexing to me is the hurling of pebbles of the Jedi Consular (not sure about any analogous issues in other classes). As some have discussed, not only is this totally wrong for light-sided Jedi (I’m just flabbergasted this was even allowed to happen with such a big production but anyway), it’s poorly implemented (e.g. pebbles on ships-which I’m sure will be fixed) and aesthetically displeasing. Compared to the Sith Inquisitor, which is right on lore and right on aesthetics, this *little* thing really hurts the “epic” feeling of the Jedi Consular class. It’s kind of demoralizing actually and I imagine that any Star Wars fan would agree. It may sound petty, but it makes me not want to continue the JC class. But I’ve also read (but cannot confirm/deny since I have no understanding of how these things work) that this also has some effect on PvP. This too seems like an “easy” fix because the animation code seems to be the same code across instances. So simply change the code to remove the pebbles, add another animation (e.g. pulse wave), and voila.
Related to this, and this may be because I’m just relatively early in my leveling, is the fact that the Jedi story, though engaging, is kind of bland and linear-–needlessly so. I would imagine that at this time, during what is essentially a “cold war” that there would have been a lot of dissention amongst the Jedi as to the right “path” as it were w/r/t dealing with the Sith. In other words, there would have been Jedi who would have advocated a more “aggressive” approach to the stalemate, but--and this is key--without being “dark” (e.g. kill a few to save a million, etc.). Good Jedi would have struggle with with such dilemmas. This is a nuanced point, so I don’t want other SW fans pouncing on this and saying that I’m changing the story. But 3000 years or so before the movies during a cold war following a war the Jedi lost, there would have been being more “variety” in the Jedi Order. That is, at least until (after the Sith were all but wiped out before the movies) the “defender/peacekeeper” philosophy won out. Such would be true with the Sith/dark Jedi as well. You would have Sith who think that tapping into the dark side of the force could have a greater good on society, without being “evil.” They may have shunned the Jedi way because it was too limiting, not because they were evil per se. The Jedi choices (at least for consular) are quite black and white as dark/light and the “light” path feels purely goodie two-shoes while the “dark” path seems unnecessarily evil. This makes the Jedi seem less interesting, and frankly, hoaky. The Sith Inquisitor story line seems more balanced in that the alignment is clearly darker overall, but one can make “light” choices without feeling like a goodie goodie, yet also choose the dark choices without seeming out of character. Plus, because it appears (from what I’ve read) that there is no gear options for neutral paths, and because of the linearity, I’m making my Sith dark and my Jedi light. This is meh if you ask me. Not sure how to fix this, or even if this is even an issue across other classes or later in the game.
Another big story problem generally is that there is no spaceship combat. Boy, what a gigantic let down. I mean, how is this even “Star Wars” without space combat? Again, I understand the time pressures (I work right next to EA and know a lot of these folks) but this really should have been woven into the story from the ground up. Imagine quests where you have to learn how to pilot your ship rather than go kill 10 this or light 5 that. A series of “pilot qual” quests would have been awesome and I could see this for every class, but with different ships. Then in addition to the regular MMORPG PvP, we could have gigantic star fights b/w fleets. This would make this game truly distinct from anything else out there and it would be a totally fresh addition to the genre. Piloting skills should be a separate leveling tree, but your class skills and level should impact your effectiveness in air combat. For example, a Jedi Shadow could fly stealth bomber or recon craft. Maybe healers could fly refueling aircraft or some other type of maintenance aircraft. Sith Assassins and Warriors would fly fighters. Imperial Agents would fly attack aircraft. Etc. I could come up with countless possibilities that would be part of the game. Hopefully, I pray, this comes later as an expansion since it will be a decent sized undertaking. THAT alone would be a reason to stick around. Without some form of this, isn’t this game, well…that other dreaded MMORPG that I dare not name, but with SW themes?
My other issues with the story are more generic. Why so few companion options? I understand the voice acting requirement plays a role here, so this isn’t an "eas"y fix. But since companions are so vital to the game, BioWare needs to go all in or all out with them. Over time, I hope that more companions, especially females, are added. At a minimum, there should be a male/female companion tank, healer, DPSer (if that makes sense).
Another minor story issue is why would non-force users garner light/dark force scores? Makes no sense. Simple fix is change their light/dark to “good/bad” – minor tweak, but it irks me nonetheless.
3. THE MMORPG CONCEPT ITSELF: This one may get significant pushback here, so I toss it out as a suggestion more than a “fix.” But does anyone else find the traditional tank, DPS, healer/rock, paper, scissors approach unnecessarily limiting? Who is the scissors to Darth Vader’s paper or the rock to Master Yoda’s scissors? Arguably they have mastered essentially ALL aspects of the force. In other words, some characters just are more ****** than all others, so why limit them here with the r/p/s approach and why have a level cap? GASP! I know this is fundamentally a part of MMORPGs (I imagine for PvP purposes perhapas) but this limitation seems unnecessary. On a console, I can understand this b/c there is a limit to how much content can be added to a game. But with an MMORPG that is constantly evolving, you should continuously (however long you were committed to learning the “craft”) be able to level up. Of course, later levels, such as levels of black belts in karate, should take much longer to earn, but it should be possible. Perhaps this would limit PvP, but perhaps not. For one, you could have PvP by level which would have its own value. Or, you could have integrated levels, and this would just make it that much more desirable to become/befriend a Level 60. I, for one, would continue to play if this was possible. As you level past 50, you SHOULD be able to round out your weaknesses. But even staying r/p/s, you should at least be able to become an uber-specialist.
My other issue with MMORPGs vs. regular RPGs is quite obvious to me, but I haven’t seen it discussed. In a regular RPG, I am the ONLY chosen one; makes you feel special no?. But here, I am the “special, chosen one” but every other Jedi Consular running around me in the game being told the EXACT same thing in my same game space right? Isn't that a problem? Hard to feel “epic” if that’s the case (and that’s not getting into the very generic character customizations which are quite inadequate, especially if this is a character I’m supposed to “role” for months/years). Some of this is unavoidable. But why can’t we have content that embraces the fact that that we are ALL chosen as having potential, but then allow us to rise above, or fall below, that potential, either in PvE or PvP? For example, when we start our story lines, we should be in a room with numerous other chosen “candidates,” all being told that we have been chosen, but that we have a lot to prove—likely getting into Naval Aviator school. As we level, we can be told that we are more “select” but still not “the one” or whatever. Then over time, we should have to *earn* the right to be considered uniquely “special” and this should happen through various, nearly impossible trials. Like, you’d have to perfectly execute a nearly impossible set of challenges to earn “Master” or “Darth” and be a level 50 before being eligible. There should be a limit of say 1% who can attain this “rank.” Perhaps have groups of 50 or 100 real Level-50 players compete in a series of tournaments for certain titles where only the winner of each group gets the title—talk about epic. Then perhaps even have a tournament of champions. If it was me, I’d add in a bunch of “study” and “exams” too on the history of the force and other stuff—real “role” type stuff --but I can see that option being frowned on:D. What if Masters really took on apprentices, e.g. new players, in the game and “trained” them throughout their leveling, but in this case with additional accolades going to the Master when the apprentice does well. How cool would that be? I’d stay for that. And none of this seems that hard for a gigantic company with tons of resources.
4. CLOSING THOUGHTS: Anyway, for what it’s worth, I will stick around, maybe level up a couple classes. But right now, I cannot see what the long-term potential is unless some of these issues are addressed, or implemented. For my tastes, the further BioWare strays for the shackles of the traditional MMORPG the better. Give us space combat, let us become totally dominant. I thought hard about even writing this because it seems negative, but I desperately want this to be an epic game. Anyway, as a noob to this genre, that’s what I’d like to see.
This. I think this is the point many are missing. The "complaints" are because we want the game to be better, not because we hate the game.