I've seen the complaint threads. I've read a few of them.
Just like with any franchise there are those that like it just because it's a franchise they love (ALL Star Wars is great!). Then there are others who love that franchise and know when it was used for its namesake alone. Finally, there are the MMO lifers -- who may or may not have loyalty to this particular franchise. But, they're definitely loyal to the MMO.
I don't much care for Star Wars. So, I can't judge the game on lore, or how goofy the story lines are. I just don't care. I do, however, care about MMO. I've beem playing MMORPG since EverQuest launched in March of 1999. This isn't really relevant for this post, except to establish that I've seen an industry from its birth to now.
I played EverQuest, then every game after was supposed to be the "EverQuest killer". None came. In fact, the EverQuest killer was EverQuest itself. A haughty development team closed off from their players by choice led to very poor advancement decisions later in the game. They lost sight of what was enjoyable.
World of Warcraft came along and the playerbase was ripe for the picking. They didn't "steal" EverQuest players. That implies they had to actually pursue these players. No, the EverQuest players left of their own accord having tired of the game. Pretty simple, really. World of Warcraft was appealing because it addressed some of the least appealing parts of EverQuest -- namely, content competition is NOT FUN. In fact, it was just aggravating. Well, once everyone left EverQuest, the EQ developers decided they'd violate "The Vision" and they added instanced dungeons. But it was too late.
EverQuest was just as successful as WoW -- remembering that the number of people with computers that could actually do 3D was much, much lower when EQ was released. But EverQuest did something very important.
EverQuest set the bar. Then, they continually raised the bar, even before WoW was released this happened over several iterations.
World of Warcraft came and one-upped EverQuest with instanced dungeons AND an AddOn API. This improved the gaming experience beyond simple button mashing. People could focus on playing the game, rather than the minutiae of doing things in the right order or when certain other events had occurred.
So, the bottom line is that we are now into 2012. WoW is still on top, and is not losing players to other games. I suspect they're losing players to pure boredom with the same old formula in a new expansion. Pretty dull. The same thing that led to EverQuest's demise is now occurring to WoW -- it's just plain old burnout.
But WoW IS the standard by which all MMORPG games are measured -- it became the standard bearer.
That being recognized, Star Wars: The Old Republic should, at the very least, have the basics of what makes WoW great. At the very least the UI shouldn't be so aggravating. At the very least they should have allowed binding actions to mouseover so that healing and targeting could be easier.
Heck, we've had draggable windows in games since EverQuest... SW:TOR? Nope. They didn't even manage that. Not to mention that EQ had UI customization before WoW was even launched. Those are OLD and EXPECTED staples by this point.
If you think everyone is whining mercilessly and needlessly because SW:TOR is still in its infancy, you're sorely misguided and would probably defend the game even if it literally stunk your basement up like a landfill. Junk is junk. And SW:TOR is junk.
The industry is mature now. SW:TOR has NO excuse for this travesty to MMORPG. They have more than enough examples of how to do it right, or wrong. They have mounds of failed games to learn from, and the fates they suffered. For that reason alone, what they've presented us is inexcusable. If measured against the 1999 release of EverQuest, I would say that SW:TOR is on-par with the original release of EQ.
But, then, the bar isn't there anymore, is it?
Nearly 13 years later...
The game is horrid, to believe otherwise is misleading yourself. That is the worst person to mislead.
~Lin~
