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

[TrenchWar]

i agree with this post entirely.the whole purpose of a online game is to connect with others and have a blast .....say for instance on the server Cho-Mai the guild "Saints of the Fallen Star" we like to do world bosses together,raids and flashpoints, run warzones together, help with quests, share game info along with non game stories ect.....spent time on our own guild ventrillo and even use that a weapon for awsome organization and success in the warzones......i think you miss out on way too much if you go at it as a lone wolf......i think a PS3 is better built for the solo guy than a computer ran mmorpg.....great thread!

[KindBudhArsh]

Because they play it like a single player game, they dont socialize, they dont group up(Probably because of an elitist attitude), they race to lvl up, they troll.

[kyojinalex]

I don't know about everyone elses servers, but mine is friendly and active with a lot of social people. I have been able to complete every heroic quest so far without any trouble finding a group. The only place I have had any issues is when I was on Alderaan. That planet was dead.

[Bhigtimm]

See I 100% disagree with there being a de-emphasis. They de-emphasize raiding yet the first patch is adding 4 new raid bosses? I do think the high level crew skills need some work but i dont think there is an overall de-emphasis on commerce. Just some poor balance. And I think more people want something like (a much better functioning) Illum than some kind of PvP epeen ranking system (that is far from an MMO staple).

 

I think Bioware's inexperience in a few areas shows, but to me the intent was clearly take a tradtional MMO experience (WoW) and add story to it, which is exactly what they did. they didnt take anything away.

 

I hear what you are saying, I might even be willing to grant your point about raiding if all the raid instances work after the patch.

 

As far as the commerce point, limiting the number of GTN posts, making a GTN that is poorly implimented in terms of user friendliness, i.e. no straight search by name function, etc.) having the top end crafted gear be worse that gear you can get by other means, at the random crit based nature of gaining rare materials in gathering skills, and the restriction of salable items in the crew skills, i.e. the cybertech mounts, feels like a deemphasis to me. Your mileage may vary.

 

The de-emphasis on PVP opinion comes from the lack of mixing between the factions on most planets, the lack of selectable warzones, and the problems with Ilum.

 

Once again I realize these are my opinions only, and someone else may love everything that they have done. I think there are good things in the game but I'm one of the haters because I don't personally feel that I got what was advertised.

[Teakbois]

I hear what you are saying, I might even be willing to grant your point about raiding if all the raid instances work after the patch.

 

As far as the commerce point, limiting the number of GTN posts, making a GTN that is poorly implimented in terms of user friendliness, i.e. no straight search by name function, etc.) having the top end crafted gear be worse that gear you can get by other means, at the random crit based nature of gaining rare materials in gathering skills, and the restriction of salable items in the crew skills, i.e. the cybertech mounts, feels like a deemphasis to me. Your mileage may vary.

 

The de-emphasis on PVP opinion comes from the lack of mixing between the factions on most planets, the lack of selectable warzones, and the problems with Ilum.

 

Once again I realize these are my opinions only, and someone else may love everything that they have done. I think there are good things in the game but I'm one of the haters because I don't personally feel that I got what was advertised.

 

I dont know which AH I hated more, Rifts or SWTORs. While its a pain to search for a particular item, finding gear for your level range with the right stat is handled better than a lot of AHs though. I dont have an issue with the crit based way to gain rares, esecially since you can affect that % to a rather large degree. The other stuff I just think is Boware not being sure what exactly to do and hopefully they listen to constructive feedback like this and address it.

 

The selectabe warzones are being fixed, and Ilum is being worked on. As for the game design where you dont really see other factions until the 30s, yeah I see your point on that. Questionable design there.

[a_Stalker]

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

 

Yes in other games you can reach top level in any way you like. But in SWTOR you will have to do your class quests - without them you will not be able to get your space ship, or companions. That in turn restricts you to be at a certain zone during your levelling with no real choice.

 

This "structured" levelling is something that prompts players to say "single player game" because typical single player games force you on a single levelling path.

[Quillium]

I think the biggest crime of this and some modern games is the lack of a cohesive game world due to mass instancing. One of the reasons why WoW, EQ1 & 2, and even Rift work so well is because you get dropped in common known areas and you can frankly just go exploring if thats your thing. When you take that game world, segment it and shred it into pieces you tend to discount that world in the mind of the player. It isn't seeing people thats the big thing, its seeing SIMILAR people that you make connections with that makes for a good MMO and if everybody is off doing their own thing, that doesn't happen.

 

Right now, this game is frankly on the level of Age of Conan or WAR honestly and its probably headed for the exact same fate. Enormous interest followed by a rather large collapse in subs leading to a scramble for a F2P model to stop the bleeding. Even more issue than the fragmenting of the game world is the extreme lack of fidelity when it comes to the actual gameplay. Do I hit the mob with my stick light (1) or harder with a better attack (2). Its like a story seperated by killing random mobs here and there and once people work through that, it does not make for great replayability.

 

Replayability comes from mastery of classes in conjunction with having very well defined roles within groups. Only then does the adding of content really mean something because you're taking what you've learned and applying it in conjunction with others towards overcoming an obstacle. If your fidelity of gameplay and what you have control over as a player is minimal, the obstacles will be minimal because they can only ever test you on those actions you can perform in game.

[xioix]

it's single-player in the sense that outside of fleets and town markets, you rarely see anybody

[Mhorgrimm]

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.

 

IMO this is the best massive multiplayer online game that I have played in the last 20 years. If you really think this game is a piece of crap please just stop playing it and move to a galaxy far far away...

[Quillium]

IMO this is the best massive multiplayer online game that I have played in the last 20 years. If you really think this game is a piece of crap please just stop playing it and move to a galaxy far far away...

 

People can and will take you up on that. There were plenty of people who thought WAR and AoC were the greatest thing since tater chips for the first week and by the first month they were gone.

[jimthegray]

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

 

End game is non existant.

 

can't speak about end game yet , though never met an mmo that started iff with decent end game.

But your 1st point is simply incoreect I interact with other players often

[Bladedakoda]

They consider it so cause you can solo all the game ( i mean you can get to 50) , ... that is what makes a single player game dont considered if it is a good game or not.

I like the story im playing , actually the story i found cool ... doing all the side quests is what i find boring like hell.

 

Funny cause you can get to lvl 85 in 3 days without talking to anyone in wow, so that point is mute.

[gregordunbar]

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?

 

Because even in a barely MMORPG type game like Guild Wars you can go to a city hub and see 100s of players hanging out.

 

In this game I can play for an hour, run around town and see practically no players at all. The only reason to interact with anyone else is to try to do a flashpoint or elite quest, maybe PvP.

 

This is why it feels like a single player game with online capabilities.

 

Bioware did not provide a single reason for players to create a community, they forgot about the RPers, they gave a generic crafting system, no actual vanity items, only a few sets of costumes and made those all light armor which most players cannot use...the amount of fail for an MMORPG is staggering...hell, we cant even use /follow for more than a few seconds before it breaks!

[DeathDiciple]

You can hit cap solo in most today's games, that does not make it single player. Single-player friendly more than usual, yes, you don't need a guild of 100s of decked out people to the teeth to have fun. But it's what you make out of it.

 

As for people not interacting and/or not chatting outside of heroics, my exp is the exact opposite, ingame community is still on way higher lvl than common sewer system general chat in mmo's. Forum trolls are completely different matter tho, beware of triple-crits.

[DeathDiciple]

Because even in a barely MMORPG type game like Guild Wars you can go to a city hub and see 100s of players hanging out.

 

In this game I can play for an hour, run around town and see practically no players at all. The only reason to interact with anyone else is to try to do a flashpoint or elite quest, maybe PvP.

 

This is why it feels like a single player game with online capabilities.

 

Bioware did not provide a single reason for players to create a community, they forgot about the RPers, they gave a generic crafting system, no actual vanity items, only a few sets of costumes and made those all light armor which most players cannot use...the amount of fail for an MMORPG is staggering...hell, we cant even use /follow for more than a few seconds before it breaks!

 

How exactly did they forget about RPers? It has the highest level of immersion of any mmo on the market. As for /follow not working, so you cant afk powerlevel, cry me a river.

[Schnerf]

Oops, wrong thread, my bad gangsters. Edited January 7, 2012 by Schnerf

[Uruare]

The fact that I don't have to group just to function inclines me to group much more often, and I don't suffer from idiot-tolerance burnout on a dialy basis.

 

My idiot-tolerance, for at least my own experience, is very small. TOR delivers to me a game wherein which I can experience planet and class story content without having to put up with Lord KleeneXXX and his inexplicable tendency to go AFK mid-flashpoint for a half hour, BOBDOBSON that rolls Need on everything and goes 'lol u mad?' whenever anyone goes '***?' at him and so on.

 

 

The list could go on into multiple posts, so I'll just let it stand right there.

[angrYdog]

cause they have no friends to play with...thats why..

[Aisar]

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?

 

I understand that people are considering it a single player because the game I guess, is linear? But, I don't really think that. If you do every quest in an area, your space missions and a pvp daily, you'll out level your planet, letting you hop to different ones.

 

I guess it's because the planets are one after another though?

 

The questing doesn't feel single player, either... Take Skyrim. Skyrim is an awesome single player game, I love it. When I compare that to TOR, I don't see a comparison.

 

I've never seen a single player game where you're given a quest to kill 20 guys, or collect 20 things... for every single quest as the side quests go.

 

The main story quests are really cool and interesting, but otherwise - the side quests feel like, aside from the voice acting lore, repetitive and redundant. This makes me think of a normal MMO grind that doesn't give it a single player feel.

 

Could some one explain it to me, please?

 

play kotor and you will understand. otherwise you have absolutely no idea what is going on ^^

[Krashh]

Funny cause you can get to lvl 85 in 3 days without talking to anyone in wow, so that point is mute.

 

+1

 

I've got 6 x 85's in that game and a majority of them got that way through solo content.

[Caramel_Ham]

Because the game is so instanced you can get to 50 without ever see'ing anyone or barely(outside of city) it feel like a coop RPG more than a mmo

 

This.

 

In fact, it was designed this way.

 

Few examples i can think of-

 

-Heavily instanced play: makes sure you do NOT see many people while you play. Im not talking about the green instances you can enter, im talking about having instances for the same area.

 

-Low cap on servers: Think about it...you enter the game during peak hours, ok you wait a couple of minutes in queue. Then while questing on different planets, you see the average players on any planet is only around 100 for the low level planets, around 60 for the mid level planets and like 30 for the high level planets. Imperial Fleet at peak times around 150 players.

 

-Companions: self explanatory.

 

-Map design: Its so constrained and never was made for a lot of people at the same time, hence the heavily instanced and low cap servers.

 

The only time this game feels like a true MMO is when you are at the Imperial fleet.

 

Anyone who says otherwise, who has played another MMO, is just a Biodrone.

 

I DO enjoy the game though...for what it is.

[Tetrablade]

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

 

End game is non existant.

 

Yes, sorry for preferring to play with a roof over my head. I'll just tell my patients to take care of themselves so I can catch up with all the kids who don't have jobs.

 

For the love of, the game has only been officially out for 2 1/2 weeks! Give it a rest!

 

Anyways, yes the game is very solo friendly. But if you never do instances you don't get to see the little side plots to fruition. Suffice to say without spoiling to much, one of the baddies from the first few instances shows up in later ones to make your life difficult. Which leads to other stories and plot points.

 

Even without that the solo nature makes it easier to level up alts or just level up if you play odd hours like me.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Tetrablade

[jimthegray]

This.

 

In fact, it was designed this way.

 

Few examples i can think of-

 

-Heavily instanced play: makes sure you do NOT see many people while you play. Im not talking about the green instances you can enter, im talking about having instances for the same area.

 

-Low cap on servers: Think about it...you enter the game during peak hours, ok you wait a couple of minutes in queue. Then while questing on different planets, you see the average players on any planet is only around 100 for the low level planets, around 60 for the mid level planets and like 30 for the high level planets. Imperial Fleet at peak times around 150 players.

 

-Companions: self explanatory.

 

-Map design: Its so constrained and never was made for a lot of people at the same time, hence the heavily instanced and low cap servers.

 

The only time this game feels like a true MMO is when you are at the Imperial fleet.

 

Anyone who says otherwise, who has played another MMO, is just a Biodrone.

 

I DO enjoy the game though...for what it is.

 

or you know simply disagree with you

[Aleryan]

+1

 

I've got 6 x 85's in that game and a majority of them got that way through solo content.

 

 

This. In fact, in Cata there aren't any group quests at all...or I don't remember a single one. Here, there are tons of group quests and General is constantly full of people trying to form groups. Serious, serious disconnect in logic here.

 

I will say the instancing idea might be an issue, but then again, people would probably complain about too many people, lag, and not enough mobs to kill because they're all being camped.

[itekazzawrrlic]

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.

 

 

 

Thats why they added a friends list.

Edited January 8, 2012 by itekazzawrrlic