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Love Star Wars…Love Bioware…Love MMO’s…not sure I love SW+BIO+MMO


Zodiacrat

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Let me preface this by saying, I am a fan of this game; not sure how big a fan yet, but I think it has some serious potential, but it misses some key things that I fail to understand the directions taken.

Also to preface, I have over 16 years MMO experience as both a consumer and tester. I won’t name all the names, but that should give you some perspective.

So lets get to it.

 

I want to love this game, I really do. I’ve been following it for many years and was very excited to begin my beta testing so long ago. As I’ve tested, commented, suggested, and documented many things; I feel there are some fundamental inequalities about this game that baffles me as to why the choices made were made.

 

Game Mechanics

 

At its core, this is a single player RPG game with some grouping options, no way around this. It is a VERY GOOD single player game, but single player non-the-less. The need to group for anything is completely non-existent. You can group if you want, but from level 1 to max, it is not needed at all.

The instancing and sharding of map areas is completely out of hand. It makes everywhere you go seem very empty and very quiet. It’s like this; say you have a planet with 100 players on it, but you segregate them into 10 different instances, be it a city, spaceport, ship, building or whatever.

When you adventure around, you may only ever see 2 people out of the “maybe” 10 people in your entire instance area, making everywhere you go seem very empty. Now that is just a small sampling example, but you get the picture.

 

The chat system is very archaic for an MMO whos purpose should be to bring people together. Along the lines of instancing, your ability to speak to other people is crippled by the instance you happen to be in. You cannot chat to anyone on another planet or in a flashpoint or anything for that matter unless you speak to someone directly (/whisper) or you are in their current guild. This again makes the worlds seem empty and too quiet.

 

It’s very surprising to me to see such old or completely left out features like UI adjustment, LFD tools, trade-skill disparity (or usefulness), GTN (auction house) interface and sorting; there are many others people have mentioned, so no need to list them all again.

Now some people don’t care for some of these things, but that doesn’t excuse the absence of them for a game of modern MMO production. These things are meant to bring people together, but as they stand, they only further separate them.

 

Space. What can be said here? Although I sometimes enjoy the little arcade shooter they’ve come up with, it quickly becomes boring and predictable to the point of taking little to no interest in it. I really wish they went with a better system for open space combat (maybe in future expansions). I also wish they went with the idea that your personal spaceship was like your home, with the ability to design and decorate the interior, display personal trophies earned in the game and things like that.

Although housing is not necessary in a game, it does add a lot of personal satisfaction for people and keeps people coming back for more, even if only to decorate.

 

The dynamics of the game world vs the story don’t seem to matter at all. For example, you can complete a mission that has you take over a facility or re-arrange the aspects of an area, but as soon as you exit that instance, everything is set back to the way it was before you ever got there; as if nothing your character just did made any impact on the story. I don’t understand why the use of phasing technology was not employed here to actually change the story to your perspective but leave it alone to others.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Replay-ability

 

I think this game has a massive vacuum in replay-ability as its designed; here’s why.

The 8 stories as presented are great and do a good job in getting the player involved in the character. The problem is, once you’ve experienced the grand story, your character is basically done. There is nothing left to do but enter in the raid or pvp game.

Now this is inevitable for high level characters, they will eventually run out of content to immerse themselves in, so to alleviate this, making alts should be a fun experience to see something different.

You won’t.

Aside from the one story line of the new alt, you will experience exactly the same missions and planets as any other character. There is no alternate route to take, no different plants with same-level content to see. You will follow the same linear path and do all the same things you just did.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Game Production

 

I cannot believe how much money this game cost to make, time involved to make it, and state it is currently in.

Now I know the plan here is to make money, that’s what a company is for. What I can’t perceive is why the direction of this game was taken to such a single-player experience when it was released as an MMO. Let me explain.

It seems to me like way too much money was invested in voice acting and story. Now I love the story lines and think they are very engaging, but I feel having full cut-scenes and voice over for every single mission interaction was a waste of time and money.

Since your are forced to go through the exact same content for every character, I feel the main story arc and possibly the heroic missions (flashpoints included) should have had the full production value of cut-scenes and voice over, but not the standard missions that basically have you kill “x” amount of creatures, push “x” amount of buttons, etc..

 

This brings an interesting problem to future content because of the current design. Because it takes so much money and time to populate a planet with voice acting and cut-scenes, it’s going to take an extremely long time to add new content; and I don’t mean a new flashpoint or pvp arena, I’m talking entire planets or anything of that magnitude.

Now because your characters story basically ends at 50, in order to keep sending you on more missions to exceed the 50 level limit (talking future here), you need to create entire new story lines for 8 classes simultaneously.

I believe real content is going to come very slowly. Unfortunately for many players, it will be too slow for them to wait around and they’ll quickly become bored.

 

 

My worries are many, I know, but justified. I really want to love this game, but I feel my interest in it may only be temporary. Because of the direction the core mechanics of this game has chosen, I feel it may quickly fall into the “niche” market and not go too far into the competitive MMO market. It’s a wonderful single-player game, but it may never get out of that state.

Here’s hoping SWTOR can turn things around and really dominate in this market. I’ll be watching closely, but probably from the side-lines.

 

Happy adventuring to you all. :D

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I didn't post it to compare it to many other threads. I posted it to show "my" view and how I see it. Other people may see the same, different, or just have something to elaborate. Also, for any devs that may be reading these boards, feedback is always helpful. They may take from all these posts an insight to what the players are seeing and feeling.

Let's just see where it goes. :)

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Let me preface this by saying, I am a fan of this game; not sure how big a fan yet, but I think it has some serious potential, but it misses some key things that I fail to understand the directions taken.

Also to preface, I have over 16 years MMO experience as both a consumer and tester. I won’t name all the names, but that should give you some perspective.

So lets get to it.

 

I want to love this game, I really do. I’ve been following it for many years and was very excited to begin my beta testing so long ago. As I’ve tested, commented, suggested, and documented many things; I feel there are some fundamental inequalities about this game that baffles me as to why the choices made were made.

 

Game Mechanics

 

At its core, this is a single player RPG game with some grouping options, no way around this. It is a VERY GOOD single player game, but single player non-the-less. The need to group for anything is completely non-existent. You can group if you want, but from level 1 to max, it is not needed at all.

The instancing and sharding of map areas is completely out of hand. It makes everywhere you go seem very empty and very quiet. It’s like this; say you have a planet with 100 players on it, but you segregate them into 10 different instances, be it a city, spaceport, ship, building or whatever.

When you adventure around, you may only ever see 2 people out of the “maybe” 10 people in your entire instance area, making everywhere you go seem very empty. Now that is just a small sampling example, but you get the picture.

 

The chat system is very archaic for an MMO whos purpose should be to bring people together. Along the lines of instancing, your ability to speak to other people is crippled by the instance you happen to be in. You cannot chat to anyone on another planet or in a flashpoint or anything for that matter unless you speak to someone directly (/whisper) or you are in their current guild. This again makes the worlds seem empty and too quiet.

 

It’s very surprising to me to see such old or completely left out features like UI adjustment, LFD tools, trade-skill disparity (or usefulness), GTN (auction house) interface and sorting; there are many others people have mentioned, so no need to list them all again.

Now some people don’t care for some of these things, but that doesn’t excuse the absence of them for a game of modern MMO production. These things are meant to bring people together, but as they stand, they only further separate them.

 

Space. What can be said here? Although I sometimes enjoy the little arcade shooter they’ve come up with, it quickly becomes boring and predictable to the point of taking little to no interest in it. I really wish they went with a better system for open space combat (maybe in future expansions). I also wish they went with the idea that your personal spaceship was like your home, with the ability to design and decorate the interior, display personal trophies earned in the game and things like that.

Although housing is not necessary in a game, it does add a lot of personal satisfaction for people and keeps people coming back for more, even if only to decorate.

 

The dynamics of the game world vs the story don’t seem to matter at all. For example, you can complete a mission that has you take over a facility or re-arrange the aspects of an area, but as soon as you exit that instance, everything is set back to the way it was before you ever got there; as if nothing your character just did made any impact on the story. I don’t understand why the use of phasing technology was not employed here to actually change the story to your perspective but leave it alone to others.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Replay-ability

 

I think this game has a massive vacuum in replay-ability as its designed; here’s why.

The 8 stories as presented are great and do a good job in getting the player involved in the character. The problem is, once you’ve experienced the grand story, your character is basically done. There is nothing left to do but enter in the raid or pvp game.

Now this is inevitable for high level characters, they will eventually run out of content to immerse themselves in, so to alleviate this, making alts should be a fun experience to see something different.

You won’t.

Aside from the one story line of the new alt, you will experience exactly the same missions and planets as any other character. There is no alternate route to take, no different plants with same-level content to see. You will follow the same linear path and do all the same things you just did.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Game Production

 

I cannot believe how much money this game cost to make, time involved to make it, and state it is currently in.

Now I know the plan here is to make money, that’s what a company is for. What I can’t perceive is why the direction of this game was taken to such a single-player experience when it was released as an MMO. Let me explain.

It seems to me like way too much money was invested in voice acting and story. Now I love the story lines and think they are very engaging, but I feel having full cut-scenes and voice over for every single mission interaction was a waste of time and money.

Since your are forced to go through the exact same content for every character, I feel the main story arc and possibly the heroic missions (flashpoints included) should have had the full production value of cut-scenes and voice over, but not the standard missions that basically have you kill “x” amount of creatures, push “x” amount of buttons, etc..

 

This brings an interesting problem to future content because of the current design. Because it takes so much money and time to populate a planet with voice acting and cut-scenes, it’s going to take an extremely long time to add new content; and I don’t mean a new flashpoint or pvp arena, I’m talking entire planets or anything of that magnitude.

Now because your characters story basically ends at 50, in order to keep sending you on more missions to exceed the 50 level limit (talking future here), you need to create entire new story lines for 8 classes simultaneously.

I believe real content is going to come very slowly. Unfortunately for many players, it will be too slow for them to wait around and they’ll quickly become bored.

 

 

My worries are many, I know, but justified. I really want to love this game, but I feel my interest in it may only be temporary. Because of the direction the core mechanics of this game has chosen, I feel it may quickly fall into the “niche” market and not go too far into the competitive MMO market. It’s a wonderful single-player game, but it may never get out of that state.

Here’s hoping SWTOR can turn things around and really dominate in this market. I’ll be watching closely, but probably from the side-lines.

 

Happy adventuring to you all. :D

 

 

One of the better written descriptions of the disappointment I think many are feeling in SWTOR.

 

I pretty much agree with everything you said.

 

Honestly,I think if BW had made SWTOR a single player game from the start (i.e KOTOR 3) and put the amount of $$ and time into it as they did we would be talking about one of the greatest PC games ever. Instead the great work they did with the story elements is being overshadowed by the weak MMO they tried to wrap it in.

Edited by Draylore
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What I can’t perceive is why the direction of this game was taken to such a single-player experience when it was released as an MMO. Let me explain.

 

Nobody knows.

 

I feel that the MMO industry is casting around for ways to make a product that differentiates from WoW, but no-one is quite sure how to proceed. While I personally love Bioware games (and I am enjoying this one) I don't think their approach is workable. But, as Bioware, it was the only one they were ever going to take.

 

It seems to me like way too much money was invested in voice acting and story. Now I love the story lines and think they are very engaging, but I feel having full cut-scenes and voice over for every single mission interaction was a waste of time and money.

Since your are forced to go through the exact same content for every character, I feel the main story arc and possibly the heroic missions (flashpoints included) should have had the full production value of cut-scenes and voice over, but not the standard missions that basically have you kill “x” amount of creatures, push “x” amount of buttons, etc..

 

This is a good point.

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Replay-ability

 

I think this game has a massive vacuum in replay-ability as its designed; here’s why.

The 8 stories as presented are great and do a good job in getting the player involved in the character. The problem is, once you’ve experienced the grand story, your character is basically done. There is nothing left to do but enter in the raid or pvp game.

Now this is inevitable for high level characters, they will eventually run out of content to immerse themselves in, so to alleviate this, making alts should be a fun experience to see something different.

You won’t.

Aside from the one story line of the new alt, you will experience exactly the same missions and planets as any other character. There is no alternate route to take, no different plants with same-level content to see. You will follow the same linear path and do all the same things you just did.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Here's the thing - you have a dialogue with each quest. Although it's not perfect and doesn't have much of a consequence it makes a world of difference. My first character is a male sith inquisitor. I did the quests with mainly goody light-side options. I'm leveling a female sith warrior and choosing the darker and more...aahhh what's the word...basically her main objective is getting paid. Although most of the quests are exactly the same I feel them to be a very different story. I'm imagining how her character would respond and what she'll do. And this makes for a completely different experience compared to my inquisitor.

 

Obviously not everyone finds this kind of...role-playing?, fun but...that's why I'm so happy with this game - it offers me something no other mmo had.

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Very well written post, and I have to say that I - unfortunately - agree with everything stated.

 

It's been said many times that if this game did not have Star Wars and/or Bioware associated with it, it would already be old news and forgotten. I think that is true.

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Trilling because he points out an error in OP thread? I also disagree with everything the OP said minus the crafting desparity. Basically the OP wants 7 years worth of development at launch. It's completely unrealistic and very bad for business. Youd end up wuth lack of content later on in a massive scale. I libed the part about the story ending at 50. Uhhh what else should it do? Has to end somewhere until the next lvl raise... The game will be fine tuned over time. Although the OP stated he was just looking to submit feedback (this is the wrong place by the way), the others saying they're cancelling their subs... Cool you felt the need to share, but don't let the door hit your *** on the way out.
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Here's the thing - you have a dialogue with each quest. Although it's not perfect and doesn't have much of a consequence it makes a world of difference. My first character is a male sith inquisitor. I did the quests with mainly goody light-side options. I'm leveling a female sith warrior and choosing the darker and more...aahhh what's the word...basically her main objective is getting paid. Although most of the quests are exactly the same I feel them to be a very different story. I'm imagining how her character would respond and what she'll do. And this makes for a completely different experience compared to my inquisitor.

 

Obviously not everyone finds this kind of...role-playing?, fun but...that's why I'm so happy with this game - it offers me something no other mmo had.

 

I understand what you're saying here, but from what I see, this is a short-term perspective. What happens a year from now when you've tried all the different class/race/sex options just to see what they say?

What you're left with is the EXACT same gameplay from start to finish and I think even you would get bored of that pretty quick.

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It's a bioware style sp game that can be played with friends.

 

If that's worth a subscription, time will tell.

 

The mmo hooks themselves are dated and appropriated directly from industry leaders. Theirs nothing t suggest so far they are going to be doing anything here more.

 

In fact, the one ambitious thing to look forward to right now seems to be the legacy system. And unfortunately, that is looking like some kind of incentivized system to just keep playing the single player parts all over again.

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I agree with everything said in the original post, but I don't know why you left out their strict adherence to the standard MMO combat system. Bioware showed us they can push the envelope with fun and engaging combat mechanics in Mass Effect 2, yet they gave us the same rehashed MMO gameplay that we've been playing since the original everquest. I don't feel like a Jedi when I'm out there swinging my lightsaber, I feel like a warrior from WoW or a tank from WAR.
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I agree with everything said in the original post, but I don't know why you left out their strict adherence to the standard MMO combat system. Bioware showed us they can push the envelope with fun and engaging combat mechanics in Mass Effect 2, yet they gave us the same rehashed MMO gameplay that we've been playing since the original everquest. I don't feel like a Jedi when I'm out there swinging my lightsaber, I feel like a warrior from WoW or a tank from WAR.

 

I'm pretty sure I left out all kinds of things, but I was writing from memory and trying to put together a cohesive summary that made sense and wasn't too long; although it may have gotten long. :)

But yes, I agree with you here.

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I agree with the OP.. the only thing I would like to add is ... whats the deal with the crazy long key rotations? (minus tracer missile tracer missile tracer missile....) and the legacy system is going to give our chars more abilities? where the f am I supposed to place said abilities? (main is juggy tank, alt is operative) I think that i might have 2-3 slots open atm.

 

last gripe... why isnt this game friendly with ventrillo? running in administration mode, and the UI still freezes up on me.... clicking glitches ftw.

 

edit: i have nearly everything keybound, I still need to click on items that arent on my action bars, mission items, need/greed etc.

Edited by Nerfmii
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Trilling because he points out an error in OP thread? I also disagree with everything the OP said minus the crafting desparity. Basically the OP wants 7 years worth of development at launch. It's completely unrealistic and very bad for business. Youd end up wuth lack of content later on in a massive scale. I libed the part about the story ending at 50. Uhhh what else should it do? Has to end somewhere until the next lvl raise... The game will be fine tuned over time. Although the OP stated he was just looking to submit feedback (this is the wrong place by the way), the others saying they're cancelling their subs... Cool you felt the need to share, but don't let the door hit your *** on the way out.

 

Unfortunately, SWTOR has to compete with the big MMOs, or suffer the fate of EQ2 and LOTRO. They're not bad games, but they're not top MMOs.

 

Oh, and you hostility doesn't help SWTOR's cause, btw, it damages it because you're reflecting the community.

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I am not saying I disagree with everything you said but the most important thing to me is this is simply the most fun I have had playing an mmo in a very long time. I am not quite 16 years of experience but I am close to it, 12 or 13, and I do agree that there needs to be some additions but a lot of my complaints look to be addressed in upcoming patches.

 

There is no doubt that what we have now will not be what we have a year from now, that is the way of mmo's. There will be additions to gameplay and content patches to extend the game for max level characters. It is always exciting to be in on the ground floor of an mmo and watch the community help shape the direction of the game.

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I understand what you're saying here, but from what I see, this is a short-term perspective. What happens a year from now when you've tried all the different class/race/sex options just to see what they say?

What you're left with is the EXACT same gameplay from start to finish and I think even you would get bored of that pretty quick.

 

I would certainly hope they'll add more quests, races and even classes by then >< They're adding a new planet in just a couple of months. Hopefully they'll continue with that pace.

 

Besides if the game keeps me playing for a whole year non-stop then it's more than done it's job.

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I have no doubt they'll expand on these things and I look forward to seeing the changes come along to improve the overall game. After all, a game has to expand to compete, it's inevitable.

My concern is the direction the expansions may take.

I hope they branch out more into the open-game environment with things and time-sinks that players enjoy that keep them coming back for more. I hope they don't keep everything single-player story based because that keeps people very independent and very lonely in an online world.

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Let me preface this by saying, I am a fan of this game; not sure how big a fan yet, but I think it has some serious potential, but it misses some key things that I fail to understand the directions taken.

Also to preface, I have over 16 years MMO experience as both a consumer and tester. I won’t name all the names, but that should give you some perspective.

So lets get to it.

 

I want to love this game, I really do. I’ve been following it for many years and was very excited to begin my beta testing so long ago. As I’ve tested, commented, suggested, and documented many things; I feel there are some fundamental inequalities about this game that baffles me as to why the choices made were made.

 

Game Mechanics

 

At its core, this is a single player RPG game with some grouping options, no way around this. It is a VERY GOOD single player game, but single player non-the-less. The need to group for anything is completely non-existent. You can group if you want, but from level 1 to max, it is not needed at all.

The instancing and sharding of map areas is completely out of hand. It makes everywhere you go seem very empty and very quiet. It’s like this; say you have a planet with 100 players on it, but you segregate them into 10 different instances, be it a city, spaceport, ship, building or whatever.

When you adventure around, you may only ever see 2 people out of the “maybe” 10 people in your entire instance area, making everywhere you go seem very empty. Now that is just a small sampling example, but you get the picture.

 

The chat system is very archaic for an MMO whos purpose should be to bring people together. Along the lines of instancing, your ability to speak to other people is crippled by the instance you happen to be in. You cannot chat to anyone on another planet or in a flashpoint or anything for that matter unless you speak to someone directly (/whisper) or you are in their current guild. This again makes the worlds seem empty and too quiet.

 

It’s very surprising to me to see such old or completely left out features like UI adjustment, LFD tools, trade-skill disparity (or usefulness), GTN (auction house) interface and sorting; there are many others people have mentioned, so no need to list them all again.

Now some people don’t care for some of these things, but that doesn’t excuse the absence of them for a game of modern MMO production. These things are meant to bring people together, but as they stand, they only further separate them.

 

Space. What can be said here? Although I sometimes enjoy the little arcade shooter they’ve come up with, it quickly becomes boring and predictable to the point of taking little to no interest in it. I really wish they went with a better system for open space combat (maybe in future expansions). I also wish they went with the idea that your personal spaceship was like your home, with the ability to design and decorate the interior, display personal trophies earned in the game and things like that.

Although housing is not necessary in a game, it does add a lot of personal satisfaction for people and keeps people coming back for more, even if only to decorate.

 

The dynamics of the game world vs the story don’t seem to matter at all. For example, you can complete a mission that has you take over a facility or re-arrange the aspects of an area, but as soon as you exit that instance, everything is set back to the way it was before you ever got there; as if nothing your character just did made any impact on the story. I don’t understand why the use of phasing technology was not employed here to actually change the story to your perspective but leave it alone to others.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Replay-ability

 

I think this game has a massive vacuum in replay-ability as its designed; here’s why.

The 8 stories as presented are great and do a good job in getting the player involved in the character. The problem is, once you’ve experienced the grand story, your character is basically done. There is nothing left to do but enter in the raid or pvp game.

Now this is inevitable for high level characters, they will eventually run out of content to immerse themselves in, so to alleviate this, making alts should be a fun experience to see something different.

You won’t.

Aside from the one story line of the new alt, you will experience exactly the same missions and planets as any other character. There is no alternate route to take, no different plants with same-level content to see. You will follow the same linear path and do all the same things you just did.

 

Which brings me to…

 

Game Production

 

I cannot believe how much money this game cost to make, time involved to make it, and state it is currently in.

Now I know the plan here is to make money, that’s what a company is for. What I can’t perceive is why the direction of this game was taken to such a single-player experience when it was released as an MMO. Let me explain.

It seems to me like way too much money was invested in voice acting and story. Now I love the story lines and think they are very engaging, but I feel having full cut-scenes and voice over for every single mission interaction was a waste of time and money.

Since your are forced to go through the exact same content for every character, I feel the main story arc and possibly the heroic missions (flashpoints included) should have had the full production value of cut-scenes and voice over, but not the standard missions that basically have you kill “x” amount of creatures, push “x” amount of buttons, etc..

 

This brings an interesting problem to future content because of the current design. Because it takes so much money and time to populate a planet with voice acting and cut-scenes, it’s going to take an extremely long time to add new content; and I don’t mean a new flashpoint or pvp arena, I’m talking entire planets or anything of that magnitude.

Now because your characters story basically ends at 50, in order to keep sending you on more missions to exceed the 50 level limit (talking future here), you need to create entire new story lines for 8 classes simultaneously.

I believe real content is going to come very slowly. Unfortunately for many players, it will be too slow for them to wait around and they’ll quickly become bored.

 

 

My worries are many, I know, but justified. I really want to love this game, but I feel my interest in it may only be temporary. Because of the direction the core mechanics of this game has chosen, I feel it may quickly fall into the “niche” market and not go too far into the competitive MMO market. It’s a wonderful single-player game, but it may never get out of that state.

Here’s hoping SWTOR can turn things around and really dominate in this market. I’ll be watching closely, but probably from the side-lines.

 

Happy adventuring to you all. :D

 

Well said.

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