Why do people consider TOR a single player experience? I don't understand.

[Popcorned]

its a single player game because none of the main quest line makes you group up.

 

sure there MIGHT be 1 or 2 times you need help killing something but thats it. theres no flashpoints you need to complete with other people. or say when you get like lvl 49 you dont need help from people or guildies to finish your "epic" quest.

 

its just mindless mission quest after another, move on to another planet. sure theres heroics, but i stopped doing them after corusant or that 3rd planet, b something.

[Gruug]

SWTOR is no different then any other MMO. You CAN play solo or you CAN group. It is the CHOICE that some people seem not to like. Seems they wish to force themselves upon everyone and anyone.

 

I play solo. I play grouped. Depends upon the time of day and how I feel. NO GAME should force grouping or socialising when someone does not wish it.

 

SWTOR is not a single player game. Don't believe what some are screaming about.

[Mackuss]

My take on this is:

 

All the planets are 100's of instances, so you might bump in to one person and never again in your gaming life. You cannot therefore build up a casual relationship of just bumping into someone while questing every day.

 

This.

 

Though, that's pretty frickin exaggerated but basically that.

[Mackuss]

Strange, my friend and i finished both of our act 1 story missions together... since we started on different planets we've been grouping since lvl 10... im a trooper and shes a jedi ( the kind with 2 light sabers)

 

Ive made quite a few friends on my friends list.. a few tanks and some dps from running various flash points... we've all cruised on the tatooine baloon together.. and helped each other figure out how to get that darned datacron on the side of the sand crawler...

 

Among many many other things..

 

your lack of friends is why you cant interact with other players.. or mayhaps its your general attitude.. no one wants to group with a sour-sack or a mean-jean

 

That certainly doesn't sound "Massive Multi-Player" to me.

 

That sounds like a game that uses Peer to Peer.

[Mackuss]

in that case, wow is a single player game to.

 

It's more than that though. Even if you solo'd everything from 1 to 85, you'd have to visit the main city every once and a while, and when you do, you'd see ****loads of players. On my heavily populated server I'd be lucky to see 3 people on major cities. Also in WoW you level up so fast in dungeons that's all people play.

[EternalFinality]

Because, for the most part, it's story driven. And that story does not include other players.

[Mackuss]

World of Warcraft is the pre-emminent sandbox MMO.

 

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Boxcar]

I don't agree that this game doesn't feel like an MMO...it does. It's just a boring MMO, I had a lot more fun questing in WoW and I skip through most of the boring VO.

 

I would trade all the VO in this game for server forums. I don't know anything about my server and Bioware insists that if they can't overmoderate it, like they do everything else, they aren't going to implement it.

 

I bought the CE and everything, waited years for it...and I want to like it so bad, but it feels WAY more grindy than WoW ever did.

[Tahana]

Lol don't be silly. Whichever end you pulled that definition out of, put it back. I've never heard of such a stupid idea for sandbox definition. The whole point of levels and expanding the areas you can play in is that you expand the sandbox and the things you can do with it. Wherever you got this polymorphing thing where every area has to be level 1 or level 10 or level 30 or whatever your level is just doesn't exist in any form of practicality. Learn the industry, don't try to make up whole new definitions for it.

 

Good you 'got' the humor then.. My definition of a sandbox was as egregious as him calling WoW a Sandbox MMO.

[Daedalin]

My take on this is:

 

All the planets are 100's of instances, so you might bump in to one person and never again in your gaming life. You cannot therefore build up a casual relationship of just bumping into someone while questing every day.

 

Not true. I have several people on my friend's list that I grouped with and have seen constantly in pvp or general chat.

 

I never see anybody and nobody is talking on chat, partly due to faction imbalance.

 

Maybe it's different on each server, but the general chats are generally very lively on mine. Yes, some of the side planets might not be as exciting in terms of chitter chatter, but it's more active and more productive that in WoW. I've seen several people ask questions, and get a response from usually 5-6 people. A helpful response at that. Instead of wow, where people tell you to go google it.

 

Can't you get to 50 by yourself in any MMO, just by grinding mobs though?

 

Yes. In MOST MMO's you don't need to group. But because most people are trying to find "imperfections" usually this one will get brought up.

 

It's not hate, it's called opinion. Don't be a saddam hussain and dictate the public's decision to like this game. You have to be a blind goat to not see this game is a single player game that offers literally nothing. I'm level 36 and hating my life. If I wanted to play an RPG, I would go play skyrim. Because of Star Wars and me loving the history, I'm stuck playing htis piece of crap.

 

Just because you feel it offers nothing, does not mean that others don't. Right now I've just hit 31 on my sage, and I love it! I actually wasted my whole day playing away. From grouping, to pvp, to flash points, to solo questing, I've had tons of fun. Just because you hate the way the game is going, doesn't mean it's solo/crap/boring.

 

Protip: Maybe try playing another class? I have two characters I'm playing, a goodie-too-shoes, and a super evil chick. Sometimes it's nice to switch up making all good or all evil choices.

 

And if it's really that bad for you, then just go play another game.

 

BTW, most people choose to warzone to 50 because questing is annoying. There are mobs everywhere you go, LITERALLY. You can't mount on the road and ride for scenery and get to a safe location without having to fight silver heads that take forever to kill even though they are weak. Everyone tries to avoid the hassle of that crap.

 

Most of the time you can just ride along the road I've found. Maybe not in cities, but it's not difficult to avoid mobs. I will agree that some parts of the cities I've run into is a bit over crowded with mobs, otherwise I've no issues just mounting up and going if need be. In fact, I can almost ride along the whole industrial sector of Nar Shadaa (until you get to the Imp side) before it gets tricky avoiding mobs.

 

Does PVP'ing to 50 really give that decent amount of experience compared to questing? I imagine it's got to be a lot slower though, right?

 

Right now I get about 11k experience per win. 6-8k per loss. So it's very good experience considering it takes all of 10 minutes maybe?

 

Dont be fooled, WoW was a bit challenging for a few classes. Some quests required the assistance of another player.

 

Swtor is a bit challenging for some classes as well. It's very hard to solo champions on my vanguard (mainly because she hasn't gotten the decent healing companion yet.) Whereas soloing most things on my heal spec'd sage is not as difficult. Whereas in a single player game I can go out and fight ANYTHING with no trouble at all. Because in most single player RPG's you get groups and your own party to dictate how you want to. You don't get that in Swtor, well besides the one companion which really doesn't make EVERYTHING soloable.

 

@Enistre

 

let me give you a good example. I'm level 36 and I chose to do standard and class quests with a few heroics here and there when general chat asks for grouping. Because of the slow leveling, I find myself killing things more than turning in quests. I was in Taris for 3 days because that place had more quests than a white chick with herpes. Bottom line is, Warzone gives more experience because you are constantly queuing up and getting experience as with questing, you are either avoiding mobs because the planets are over populated with them including on the roads or fighting through to get to point B from A.

 

Fighting from point A to point B is still a constant stream of experience. I recently had done a Taral V run where not only did we get experience for all the mobs killed in there, but I received 19k exp for the daily and about another 10k exp for the side quest I had in there. Questing isn't as bad experience as what people are trying to make it out to be.

 

In fact, when I log on I usually do my space mission dailies, pvp dailies, flash point dailies, and then I start questing. Because of this I'm already level 31 (literally 10% away from 32) heading to Tattooine (A level 24 planet.) I would almost argue that there is TOO much to do to earn experience and needs to have some lower level dailies removed.

 

The heavy instancing, no open world feel, no reason at all to explore (every planet is a straight path to the next quest) super linear questing and a B movie story. Also no one else has any effect on what happens in my main story. It feels like a modded single player RPG to host a few players in a LAN.

 

Every planet has a reason to explore. Not only is there datacrons that give you permanent stat increases, but chests! Yes, chests are actually worth something in this game. I've actually discovered quite a bit a useful blue gear from chests. Plus champions/elite mobs are hidden everywhere. Generally they all drop extremely good gear useful for leveling, or a hefty amount of credits.

 

If BW allowed other players to affect your main story, you and I know there would endless amounts of complaints. I LIKE the fact that no one can alter my main story besides me.

 

Crafting requires no interdependence on other players skill sets. I can craft everything in my list from 0 to 400 without having to barter or trade or set up a partnership with other trade skills.

 

And you can do this in most MMO's. Not to mention your statement is false. Cybertech requires items from Scavenging, Underworld trading, AND slicing. Yes you can make an alt to satisfy the requirements, but then can't you do that on every other MMO?

 

Not to mention you don't HAVE to have a crafting skill. Just the only one of them can be a crafting skill. If you wanted you can tell someone that you will help gather mats for them for cost of the missions (or base line flat rate)+ bonus if there is a crit on a mission+ commission. Trust me, crafting greens>blues>purple>oranges, you go through a lot of mats.

 

There are other things, that just make the game feel solo instead of mulitplayer. Sure, the game is built on an MMO engine, and you CAN group up...but it does not encourage that style of play, in fact just the opposite, which makes it a single player game to me.

 

Everyone says it doesn't encourage group play, but I'm curious as to how? I know I've done a lot of heroic+2,+4, and flashpoints for the sake of a quest/daily. The social points which unlock gear or vanity items is also a side bonus. Plus once you hit 50 there are hardmode flashpoints, and OPs to be done.

 

Everyone who says this game doesn't promote group play obviously doesn't realize that this game does a way better job at promoting it than most major MMO's. Look at Wow for example. You usually get a group quest about every 10 levels. Once you hit outlands you might get two about every 10 levels. I'm getting a group quest at least every zone, if not multiple group quests. Yes they are skippable, but so are the group quests in every other MMO.

 

I know...like I say, you CAN group if you want. The game does not encourage group though. You dont level faster, you don't really get better rewards, it's not needed to progress your character.

 

You DO level faster. I've been in groups where we complete a quest, and ONE person runs back to turn in the quests and the others just holocall in. Only one person needs to run back, and therefore the group can continue moving on just rotating who runs back. Most other MMO's require the whole group to run back to turn in.

 

And you do get better rewards. Whether it's from pvp boxes for completing dailies, gear from flash points, gear from quests turn ins from completing heroics, or gear off a champion that took two people to kill it. The rewards are there if you choose to seek them.

 

 

The flashpoints are nice, but not required by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Of course they aren't. They are the equivalent of dungeons in other MMO's, which aren't required to level either. But that's not the other source of grouping.

 

All in all, I personally believe this game is as multi-player or single player as a person makes it out to be. If you don't go and do the group related events, then obviously you will never group with anyone. If you do follow the quests and do the dailies that are available, not only do you end up with an abundance of items (I can already purchase 2 champion bags, have 32 Tattooine commendations, a planet I haven't even been too, and several other commendations for other planets I didn't even know existed on my level 31) but you end up with an abundance of relationships/friendships. Just from running into people and friending them for groups later on, my friends list is 3 times longer than in any other MMO.

 

Yes this one has it's flaws. But I feel it is far from being single player.

[Foho]

If you play republic it's a single player experience with a lot of ganking. If you play empire, it totaly is a mmo...

 

9 rep vs 55 imps in voss atm on my server!

[Dannyj_]

Cause the whole server is instanced

[Fyrejedi]

This game is a single player experience if that's what you want it to be. Disable the chat window and bam, single player. However I will say that there isn't much of a community anywhere from what I have seen. Thankfully I am playing with a bunch of friends I knew from a different game so my experience is far from single player.

[Kajar]

its not so much that you can solo to level 50 every mmo out you can solo to max. it the fact that the game lack a social element. meaning there really no reason to group or gather some place to role play ect.

 

i have played mmo since they started. in all honesty there more reason to group and have gathering with other players for your own adventurers in a sand box mmo not a theme park mmo. i mean with swg before the nge my guild wold get together for rancor hunts or to search ot imps and not have to worry about levels just make up our adventure as we went or to harvest stuff off the critter for a very robust crafting system since every thing was made by the players. or yo can sit in a Catina for entrainment provided by other player that wanted to entertain other players. sand box mmo are just plain more conductive to promote rpg play as well as promoting player to play together.

 

This. OMG, this... My very first MMO was PRE-NGE, vanilla-as-hell SWG, and it was the best MMO I've ever played. Everything you speak of is something I miss so much. It also spoiled me for every MMO since. My buddy and I have spent hours discussing how sad it is that MMO's have gotten so simplistic in execution. We yearn for the mysticism and adventure associated with sandboxes. SWG had so much to do, in such an expansive galaxy that you always stumbled upon stuff that felt so special and personal. Themeparks are so linear and small that everyone talks about everything all the time and the mystery and adventure is non-existant. The first jedi didn't pop up until what, a year after launch, because no one knew how to get there or how much work it would take? so much depth and reliance on others. The idea of required grouping gave the game a sense of realism and enhanced the immersion greatly. Example: Death Watch Bunker - A bunker hidden deep in the forest on a high level planet that took a good chunk of time navigating to, even on a (player made) speeder, that was so tough, it required a full group that was buffed, fully armored, and strictly organized to clear and reap the benefits (materials needed to create Mandalorian armor, by a player whose a crafter). In reality that is the same as requiring a team of seals to infiltrate a compound on the other side of the planet to take out a terrorist leader. you wouldn't roll up on that all alone with your pea shooter and kick 'em in the junk (scoundrel). its impossible, and as such has a humbling aspect that commands respect to those who've accomplished it. That type of experience is non-existent in SWTOR, because everyone has the same exact chances and ability to do the same exact instances, and for the most part are required to. SWG was covered with random goodies like DWB. they were never required, and even for some, were never even known about because they were so obscure. Not everyone wants Mandalorian armor, but the fact that they could get through this extremely hard legendary adventurous quest was amazing. Where's the immersion in SWTOR that even compares?

 

Thats just my opinion though.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Kajar

[Jswizzle]

Oh wow the "linear" argument again. I hate this argument when talking about video games. They are ALL linear. Skyrim is just as linear as this game is. Certain aspects of the design might fool you, but it's so linear.

 

I got bored with Skyrim in less than 20 hours. Nothing I did in the game seemed to matter much in the world. Town A looked just like Town B. I had to follow set skill tree paths to get stronger (just like this game). There really isn't much difference between the two games when you look at the bigger picture. I know it's hard sometimes, but try to use your heads a bit more.

 

Anyway this is one of the best games I've ever played. Bioware did an awesome job, gave me the game of my dreams pretty much. People should show them the respect they deserve.

[Idunhavaname]

It's not a bad thing but think of it this way.

 

The most epic thing in game are the ending to the class missions which are single player. Sure you can team up with someone but their existence wouldn't even be mentioned on your story.

 

The entire story of this game ignored every other players in the world. Saved the Esseles/Black Talon from Imperial/Republic attack with a group? well the NPCs will only mention you being the savior.

 

Again, it's not a bad thing but it feels like a single player RPG with multiplayer additions (similar to what Mass Effect 3 is doing with single player story but multiplayer missions).

[Sephendrine]

Because there is no way that you will interact with other players other than PvP.

 

End game is non existant.

 

This is so true. Interacting with other players by joining a guild, buying and selling things from other players on the trade network, whispering other players that are surrounding you, fighting with and against other players in pvp, joining with other players in flashpoints or to do quests, crafting things for other players, inviting other players to do stuff with you, maybe even rp'ing with other players, and seeing all those other players everywhere you go . . . all this is not allowed. It could happen, but then you'd have to do something yourself. If you see any of this happening, just close your eyes and pretend it doesn't exist.

 

The end game is non-existent, just like you say. When you hit level 50 your character automatically disappears and there is nothing you can do.

 

So true. >.<

[DixonHilltwo]

I dont get it either.

 

TOR is not really more linear then other modern Theme Park MMOs. Ok, WoW offers more zones to choose from, at least in classic content, but here you can skip/"overlevel" certain planets if you wish to, and still get your levelup somehow.

 

You can do all the quests in a group and and you even get rewarded with "extra xp" for doing so. You can also do story missions with your friends if you wish to. Yes, you can solo all the way up to 50, but you can do that also in your other MMOs like you-know-what and Rift.

Its really not that different.

Yes, we have sharding here. But for me it really does not matter if there are 100 or 300 people on Tython.

Due to the cutscenes it may feel very single playerish, but we get encouraged to group basicly for everything, social points, etc.

For me it is a plus, that you can have a very single player like expirience, if you desire that.

And the reason, you dont see that many other players is rather simple: You are leveling too fast and are too high. Yes, most people seem to "still" be in the 20-30 level range, and the population on that planets proves it.

Edited January 8, 2012 by DixonHilltwo

[Loseriticus]

As the title suggests, I don't really understand. I'm a little new to MMOs, but certainly not single players. Am I missing something?

 

Could some one explain it to me, please?

 

Well, it works as a single player RPG if you want to play it that way, and for me, that's a good thing. I have the chat window off and I don't interact with anybody because it would ruin the story immersion for me. I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say they don't see anyone around--I see a lot of people running around, and I recognize many of the names from the starting planets.

 

Sometimes I get invites from people doing the same quest, and I'll accept, but it doesn't add anything to the game for me. I'm on a role playing server, and if everyone would actually role play--that would be very cool. I was in the cantina once and there was a group of players talking in character, and I thought, "how cool is that?"

[Chiricahua]

If it had the elements of a good single player game I'd still be around. It doesn't even have that. It's already minus everything a good MMO should have. Therefore it is hamstrung from the get go.

 

This whole we look at metrics stuff from Bioware is a bunch of hooey. They don't have the inclination to read these forums, nor to pay attention to customer service issues. The only metric that they will eventually care about is when the sub numbers go in the toilet.

[joeragu]

OP, there is a very small number of players that actively seek to get emotional responses from other players on these boards. The single player comment is just one of their many catch phrases they use to incite folks into flaming their threads.

 

Pretty much hit the nail on the head here. They know it's a ridiculous argument and it's just said to set people off.

[spacepuppy]

I think the number one reason it feels like a single player game is because there are so many instances with 50-100 people, most of which you won't bump into. The game really doesn't feel Massively Multiplayer, that's for sure. The other is the focus on duo grouping mostly. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the game needs to do alot more to make the world feel alive and busy besides general chat.

[Tetrablade]

Ok, I got tired of seeing this stupid debate on sandbox gameplay and how Wow or whatever other mmo was more fitting the title then SWTOR. Here is the defintion of 'open world gameplay' as given in wikipedia:

 

An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives. Video games that include such level design often are referred to as "free roam" games.

 

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "sandbox" and "free-roaming"; however, the terms open world and free-roaming describe the game environment itself and allude more to the absence of artificial barriers, in contrast to the invisible walls and loading screens that are common in linear level designs. The term sandbox refers more to the mechanics of a game and how, as in a physical sandbox, the user is entertained by his ability to play creatively and with there being "no right way" of playing the game.

 

Despite their name, many open world games still enforce restrictions at some points in the game environment, either due to absolute game design limitations or temporary in-game limitations (such as locked areas) imposed by a game's linearity.

 

So since the goal of an mmo is to get levels and gear we will call that the main objective. From there how many ways are there to level in other mmos? In TOR you have solo questing, group questing, instances, pvp, and ship combat. I think crafting even gives you xp since my crafting alt dinged while doing nothing but UT and crafting.

 

Wow did not have this and as of only last October still did not have this much flexibility. They only added a smidgen of xp to pvp after years of people complaining of super pvp toons in the lower level brackets. It was never really designed to level with. Nor did it give money. You had questing or instances to level with. If you dedicated to pvp exclusively then you had a third option but would have to stop to find better gear every bracket. Oh and to the guy who said freedom of movement was sanbox? Yes you could go to Outlands at lvl 1 but why would you? What could you do since all the gathering skill have a lvl requirement to unlock the next level?

 

Rift yes had the option of rifts along with questing and dungeons. You also had the option of pvp though getting gear was next to impossible to level with in the same way as wow. There was also the steep gear curve just to be able to play pvp at lvl 50 to the point that it felt there was a massive power dump on players. Rifts were indeed fun for lower levels, but as you go up the number of people participating diminished rapidly. By lvl 30 hardly anyone did anything with the rifts unless it directly affected their questing. Endgame in rift is grinding warzones just to get gear so you can actually compete, grinding rifts for crafting parts, or grinding raids to be ready for the next one when people are still 2 tiers behind.

 

SWTOR has far more options. Conversations, companion quest lines, crafting to get the unique version you want, pvp, dungeon story-lines, raids, and maybe in the future even more. 2 1/2 weeks is barely out the door people! That is like expecting the newborn to be walking already. 6 years is standard development time (wow was 4 and rift was 5 i think) so in six years they crammed more launch content then any mmo to date. THAT is impressive.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Tetrablade

[Mannic]

Ok, I got tired of seeing this stupid debate on sandbox gameplay and how Wow or whatever other mmo was more fitting the title then SWTOR. Here is the defintion of 'open world gameplay' as given in wikipedia:

 

An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives. Video games that include such level design often are referred to as "free roam" games.

 

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "sandbox" and "free-roaming"; however, the terms open world and free-roaming describe the game environment itself and allude more to the absence of artificial barriers, in contrast to the invisible walls and loading screens that are common in linear level designs. The term sandbox refers more to the mechanics of a game and how, as in a physical sandbox, the user is entertained by his ability to play creatively and with there being "no right way" of playing the game.

 

Despite their name, many open world games still enforce restrictions at some points in the game environment, either due to absolute game design limitations or temporary in-game limitations (such as locked areas) imposed by a game's linearity.

 

So since the goal of an mmo is to get levels and gear we will call that the main objective. From there how many ways are there to level in other mmos? In TOR you have solo questing, group questing, instances, pvp, and ship combat. I think crafting even gives you xp since my crafting alt dinged while doing nothing but UT and crafting.

 

Wow did not have this and as of only last October still did not have this much flexibility. They only added a smidgen of xp to pvp after years of people complaining of super pvp toons in the lower level brackets. It was never really designed to level with. Nor did it give money. You had questing or instances to level with. If you dedicated to pvp exclusively then you had a third option but would have to stop to find better gear every bracket. Oh and to the guy who said freedom of movement was sanbox? Yes you could go to Outlands at lvl 1 but why would you? What could you do since all the gathering skill have a lvl requirement to unlock the next level?

 

Rift yes had the option of rifts along with questing and dungeons. You also had the option of pvp though getting gear was next to impossible to level with in the same way as wow. There was also the steep gear curve just to be able to play pvp at lvl 50 to the point that it felt there was a massive power dump on players. Rifts were indeed fun for lower levels, but as you go up the number of people participating diminished rapidly. By lvl 30 hardly anyone did anything with the rifts unless it directly affected their questing. Endgame in rift is grinding warzones just to get gear so you can actually compete, grinding rifts for crafting parts, or grinding raids to be ready for the next one when people are still 2 tiers behind.

 

SWTOR has far more options. Conversations, companion quest lines, crafting to get the unique version you want, pvp, dungeon story-lines, raids, and maybe in the future even more. 2 1/2 weeks is barely out the door people! That is like expecting the newborn to be walking already. 6 years is standard development time (wow was 4 and rift was 5 i think) so in six years they crammed more launch content then any mmo to date. THAT is impressive.

 

Okay, so first you bring in what you hope to use as a "definition" of open-world or sandbox.

 

Then you try to justify that SWTOR is more open-world or sandbox than other games, and the reason you give are that you can get XP from multiple sources? Your reason for saying TOR is not linear have nothing to do with the definition you yourself posted. "XP from multiple sources" is cool and everything, but try doing content either significantly above or below your current level. No go. You will get 5 XP for completing a flashpoint outside your level range. You will die repeatedly to the point of being blocked if you go even 3 or 4 levels above your current level range.

 

Come on... sandbox has nothing to do with how the game is allocating or metering out XP. It's about how you MOVE through the world and how much freedom you have in doing so, and your choices in where to go and how to get there. TOR has more walls, both visible and invisible, than any other MMO I've ever even heard of. You are in a rope-line where not only does the game hand-hold you from point A to B to C to D and so on, but then perception of linearity is compounded by the literal WALLS everywhere, the instances, and the frequent loading screens. This is not improved at all by the fact that each planet / zone is discreet and completely isolated from the rest of the game.

 

Compare that with a real sandbox game like Eve online, where you spawn in a starting zone and immediately have three options for which zone to go to next, and each of those has 3-4 ajoining options, until within a few hours of playing you literally have billions of options of how next to progress your character.

 

Stop trying to prove TOR isn't linear by comparing to other extremely linear games like WoW (in its current state) and Rift.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Mannic

[Tetrablade]

I don't remember ever saying it wasn't linier in progression. The term 'open ended' as provided by my definition was multiple ways to the same objective. The objective in a mmo like swtor, wow, rift and ect is to gain levels and gear. Even in Eve this is the case, you just specialize in what ship or role over time with only time you spent paying for a character being the limit to your skills. Only someone who has been paying for years can use battleships and the like.

 

So if the main objective is to gain levels the multiple ways you have to do so makes the game more open ended. With the bonus series you also have the chance to revisit older planets to do new quests at higher levels. Nar Shadaa is a perfect example as the bonus series had me coming back in my early 30s to do more quests. This was optional and a varied way to gain levels.

 

Any game that has you gaining levels as a measurement of progression will be linier. You just won't be able to go to new places until you have the capability to survive there. I didn't play Eve much but i'm willing to put hard money down that the same holds true in that game. Saying there is loading screens between planets and saying you can't walk there is kinda...stupid. The setting demands that you can't walk to the next zone over and be expected to treat it like a different planet. Its a game set in space.

 

Going with the genre of level progression mmos, this game is the most open ended thus far. I don't have to wait weeks in real time to be able to pilot something that can survive in zone x (EvE). I get more varied ways to level then most mmos (wow, rift, ect). The story can be experienced alone or with friends. The leveling of alts feels almost as fresh as leveling the first time with different voices and class story. Top it off with alternate paths through dungeons based on crafting skills or dialog choices.

 

Its not as open world as GTA or other single player sandboxes, but it is the most open ended game thus far in the mmo genre. Freedom to go where you want means nothing if you can't do anything when you get there. If all you want to do is take in the sights then I suggest a game called Second Life.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Tetrablade