Dear BioWare, I am... bored.

[CrackboneFTW]

TL,DR: I am a huge fan of Star Wars & BioWare, and have given the game a solid chance. It needs more content. Please fix.

 

[Reserved for responses to thread]

 

chrisftw: I'm not looking for more Flashpoint grind, although some people may enjoy it.

 

A rare coherent post about what's wrong with TOR. I applaud you for the effort and execution.

 

I too am a "grown up" gamer, and my experiences both past and present mirror yours.

 

There's nothing necessarily "wrong" with SWTOR, there's just nothing that's wonderfully done and worth repeating. At it's core it is a very lackluster MMO at present with very few options, especially at end game.

 

TOR needs about 6 - 12 months more in the oven before it starts to resemble something that's playable long term.

 

Personally, I'd like to find a new home, but I'm afraid that TOR might not be it. I've enjoyed my time here so far, but the fun is rapidly running its course. I hope that the patch in March provides enough interesting things to do to stay.

 

Lastly, I'd like to add that BW needs to do a better job in the communication department. I realize that community management is a tough job, but more communication from the actual developers would go a long way. I'd like to know what the long term vision for the game is. Is it worth staying? If what's coming is just a repeat of what is here already, I'm afraid that's not going to be enough to keep many here.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

[Sunstarr]

I just hit 40 and what is this?

 

Im looking forward to doing all the stories. Im sure that will take a good chunk of time to do, as I have been playing since Dec. 26 2011.

 

By the time Ive done that, I am confident that expansions or updates to the game itself will have been put into place. Far cry from being "bored" at 50 for a short while, over being bored at 60 for 2 years.

 

My plans for 50? A little PVP, a lot more exploration for things, catching up on missed quests, or quests I overlooked, the planetary bonus quests, seeing the sights and roleplaying, making the game a little more social on my end in doing so, helping others.

[Asfrina]

Why does it matter what speed one reaches the max level, if there is content to do at that level? The OP is not about reaching 50 too fast, it is about a lack of content, which I think is rather contentious. Do not confuse "end game" with "reaching the level cap". End game is a state of repetition, the "hamster wheel" in the OP. Reaching the level cap need not entail repetition of content. I agree that there are paths to 50 that may make the game appear short if that is your only goal. However, I disagree that there is a lack of content to explore and several stories to enjoy.

 

There is a severe shortage of content questing wise during the levelling experience, There is 1 levelling path through questing and that does not differ at all. As was pointed to earlier in that other game the had far more variety from class to class giving a greater freedom in questing while levelling up.

 

Yes most of said quests where the same as here in that they where fetch or kill quests but they where in differing zones so much so you could level multiple characters and never see the same questing experience. That isn't a possibility here unless you diverge from the typical questing levelling experience go pvp to max level instead.

[Burzy]

You are a grown up man (obviously from your post), and you can't realize, that the days of theme-park based WoW-ish MMOS are over?

WoW sucked the life off the genre in this form, on top of that BW made a crappy copy of WoW, when ppl were looking for something else than a WoW with Star Wars skin?

Can't you get it?

It's done. This game CAN NOT be fixed, the way you want, because you want a structural change. I doubt they can do that in less than a year time. All they can do at this point is release more of the same - FP/OPS, which is a dead end, cause ppl don't want more of the same, they don't want quantity and to repeat the same they ran away from WoW for, they want quality and the structure of SWTOR have nothing more to offer, sadly.

They can add new class based scenario/story - which is then taking us to the next point - why would i pay monthly for a single player game in a, only by words, MMO. And why would i play a semi decent single player game when i can play so many REALLY good and made to be single player games, that are out there.

I, for myself, as soon as i hit 50 realized it's not what i hoped for, it's just the same old plane WoW-ish boring grind and even the PvP, which could have kept me in for a while, is a big fail with the same old mistakes of both WoW and Warhammer mixed...horrible.

The first to make the really next gen MMO with new breaking features will be a success, BW failed, they are going down and they are going down fast, because they used a wrong model, wrong design and failed at too many points.

With total 500 mil invested and over 5 years and so many examples, a studio like BW should have realized the simple truth - the only game that was and can be successful with the WoW model is...WoW.

 

 

 

This guy has it spot on. People were hoping this game was going to deliver something different ( i know i was ). I hit 50 about 2 weeks ago, the game is a poor man's version of WoW. You can put across the argument " its a new mmo give it time " but i think we can all predict the future of this game.

 

I personally think they have made a massive flop, initial sales might be high but they are going to bleed subscribers. The MMO genre is very stale and I can safely say the only new MMO that's going to change the genre will probably be Blizzards new one.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Burzy

[Lunazen]

To: The SWTOR Development Team...

 

You are an outstanding game company. You have the resources you need for a variety of content at your disposal. You have the largest science fiction / fantasy IP in the history of human media to work with. Please give us different things to do. Let us have houses, or decorate ships, or make crafting worthwhile or... anything other than that same, sad grind.

(emphasis mine)

 

It's become my MMO mantra: it's better a player spend downtime within the game than outside of it.

 

Excellent post OP

Edited February 8, 2012 by Lunazen

[Aaluria]

The problem with levelling alts is besides the individual class stories it is the same generic kill or fetch quests that are so tiresome to do yet again. Game has no replayability to it in my opinion. While the levelling curve in this game is retardely simple and the levelling speed is ultra fast it is still boring to go back do all the same quests again.

 

I got my first character to 50 in 2 days 8 hours of playtime. My second was a pure drag to level up as I was bumping into the same content I had just done and besides the class quests it was a borefest.

 

This whole thing people are banding about pointing at people for rushing to level cap is silly, If you have even the slightest amount of experience in MMO's or any gaming skill at all this game should never take more than 4 days played time tops to reach max level which is no time at all. It's far too easy to level up.

 

Sorry quoted the wrong post, I do think people need to slow down and smell the roses in MMO's though.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Aaluria

[Snibb]

Where did I state you lived in your basement? Where did I state you didn't hold a full time job? Touchy a bit there, what I was referring to is the title of your thread mostly, it sounds pretty childish to me. So what conclusion do I draw from the title and then the tone of your post? You set up your post for failure by making a title called "i am bored" If you gathered anything from my post it was to say to you have some patience we are not even two months after release and you are comparing this to a game that has had 7 years to polish itself. MMO's have been around longer than 15 years btw. I am sure they have plans to add content to this game.

 

Sure, when people get personal, what kind of reaction do you expect? I actually didn't set that title, you're thinking of the OP. But to attack the people because of an opinion on a personal level, was that necessary or productive?

In fact, since Bioware has more than 15 years of examples to learn from, one might think that things would be better.

Also, I realize other games have had time to polish, and that's why I've been comparing it to other games at launch.

But hey, I'm sick of talking to people who only attack what I'm saying (or attack things I'm not even saying) without trying to understand what I mean first. I let myself get pulled into it, and now I'm out.

 

PS. I do not want this game to fail. Ignoring concerns, or telling people that their concern is not warranted is not going to do this game any justice.

[Jalliah]

There is a severe shortage of content questing wise during the levelling experience, There is 1 levelling path through questing and that does not differ at all. As was pointed to earlier in that other game the had far more variety from class to class giving a greater freedom in questing while levelling up.

 

Yes most of said quests where the same as here in that they where fetch or kill quests but they where in differing zones so much so you could level multiple characters and never see the same questing experience. That isn't a possibility here unless you diverge from the typical questing levelling experience go pvp to max level instead.

 

I'm not sure what I'm doing different. I don't PVP so that's not it. Beyond the starting worlds and the first planet I'm just not repeating quests that much. Sure there are a few but at least on the IMP side there are large swatches of the planet maps that I have yet to uncover after taking two characters through them. For my third I'm specifically planning to hit those parts because I haven't seen them yet. As well there are numerous heroics I haven't touched.

 

I'm finding the opposite of a shortage. There's been too much for any one character to do every quest unless I want to completely out level the next planet.

[Razyr]

Your last paragraph is the telling point, you are looking at an MMO differently than a lot of other people. You have been conditioned with some MMO's to think that the game begins at level cap when in fact it has always been the journey in an MMO's since these games were created to mirror the kind of journey you experienced in D&D. You have to rethink your perception of what a MMO is, relax and enjoy the ride.

 

I agree with this to an extent. I have always enjoyed both the leveling experience and the end game experience, with all enjoyable content being pretty much equal. The replay value of SWTOR, as it applies to alts, has been very discouraging so far.

 

This will most likely change with the release of new planets. Let's see how quickly BioWare pushes them out to the players.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Razyr

[Asfrina]

Your last paragraph is the telling point, you are looking at an MMO differently than a lot of other people. You have been conditioned with some MMO's to think that the game begins at level cap when in fact it has always been the journey in an MMO's since these games were created to mirror the kind of journey you experienced in D&D. You have to rethink your perception of what a MMO is, relax and enjoy the ride.

 

It isn't symptomatic of conditioning at all. This games levelling experience is too short, I sat through all the cut scenes for my class quests, Never space bar'd my way through any conversation from level 1 to 50 played attention to the whole story as I did find the class quests very enthralling story wise.

 

I completed every quest in every zone and followed them according to their set level requirements and over levelled every planet by doing this. Yet I still hit 50 in under 3 days play time. I also took the time outside of this to try my hand at a few PvP matches and did the first 5 flashpoints as well. I enjoyed my first play through till I hit Ilum and then the scope for things to do post level cap to progress on took a massive nose dive.

 

At that point I went back to start a new character and the boredom kicked in very fast as I was going through the exact same content besides the class quests again, There is no replayability in the questing experience apart from the class stories which are insanely fun. That for me is where the problem lies in this game though, Far too much attention was given over to the building of a very single layer-esque story mode and not enough time or thought given over to the rest of the play through experience.

 

Of course this is just my opinion.

[CrackboneFTW]

I agree with this to an extent. I have always enjoyed both the leveling experience and the end game experience, with all enjoyable content being pretty much equal.

 

This game does have a more enjoyable leveling experience, but that being said, the game shouldn't end when you hit 50.

 

I'd argue that a couple of weeks after you max level a character, you are pretty much done with it. I wish this weren't the case, and I am presently leveling an alt, but I'd like to be able to spend more time doing FUN things with my main.... It's why I rolled it in the first place, to play it.

[Dumpiduke]

I'm not sure what I'm doing different. I don't PVP so that's not it. Beyond the starting worlds and the first planet I'm just not repeating quests that much. Sure there are a few but at least on the IMP side there are large swatches of the planet maps that I have yet to uncover after taking two characters through them. For my third I'm specifically planning to hit those parts because I haven't seen them yet. As well there are numerous heroics I haven't touched.

 

I'm finding the opposite of a shortage. There's been too much for any one character to do every quest unless I want to completely out level the next planet.

 

I've had the same experience. The people that say that there are absolutely 0 options for leveling variation aren't looking hard enough.

 

I skipped the following with my current level 50 during the leveling process: All of Nar Shaddaa, nearly every space mission, Alderran bonus series, half of Belsavis, Voss bonus series, the majority of Corellia, and every single flashpoint (except Black Talon) How are people leveling and consuming every single quest on their way to 50?

 

Furthermore, why aren't people rolling a character on the opposite faction? Every quest is different on that side. I don't get it...

[TheOuroborus]

we need 100 more flashpoints by tomorrow bioware

 

get on it!!

 

Oh please, really? Are you mostly a console player? An MMO's longevity will depend on it's PvE play expansion and Guild community. Just hanging out in Fleet and playing PvP... might as well just be an XBox360 title then.

[Dyvid]

Ok OP, what would you like to see added for end game content?

[Robocaspar]

I think this is seeing other games through rose colored glasses.

 

even in wow, which everyone likes to use as their examples, outside of some very rare class specific quests you are going along the same linear path doing the same thing as the next guy, and making an alt wont change a single thing.

 

especially once you hit outlands or any of the WoW areas developed in the last say 5 years. there is 1 linear path to progress down and thats it.

 

the only exploration is learning the new characters skills... which isnt really hard in an mmo where the most complicated things you tend to have to worry about are "dont stand in the bad stuff" and "mash 1-2-3"

 

 

Actually the fact that wow doesnt have "class specific" quest lines but rather faction based quests makes leveling less linear than swtor.

 

Between zones, dungeons, pvp u aren't "required" to visit every zone in a level range to progress. Hell blizzard allows you to level up gathering ores/herbs. On top of that blizzard increased experience for previous content because they understand the real wow starts at max level.

 

I find it ironic that bioware sold swtor as the next mmo evolution with "story" as their major selling point, yet they made it so easy to solo your way to max level. If anything they should of increased the difficulty of reaching level 50 and increased the rewards/gratification of completing a class quest lines, ie the traditional end of movie ceremony, maybe delayed the granting of arch type class names till you reach 50.

 

Currently max level is just another grind and standing around in fleet stations, and he grind isn't even enjoyable.

 

 

P.S I'd also like to add that "story" is virtually non-existent at max level. Hell even the loading screen for my trooper storyline says "now marshalling at carrack station awaiting their next mission". Reaaaaaally immersive storyline right there.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Robocaspar

[Marlaine]

Welcome to the lack of content outside of raids in a raid focused mmo.

 

I've gotten to the point where I don't even believe a raid focused mmo is a mmo. It's more of a group-oriented game with an online component. Not much different than a rts or fps, at least once you hit 50. Only real difference is more players to have to deal with.

 

Really, when you think about it, 1-50 is nothing more than window dressing. The gameplay you enjoyed while leveling is gone at level 50. It's no longer even close to the same game.

 

Yep, I really think that raids completely destroy mmos, at least when raiding is the sole focus of end-game.

[alanhurst]

Every single one besides WoW and EvE.

 

No really what do I win.

 

EQ1 would like a word with you.

[DarthMeerkat]

EQ1 would like a word with you.

 

And EQ1.

[Xallionn]

There is a severe shortage of content questing wise during the levelling experience, There is 1 levelling path through questing and that does not differ at all. As was pointed to earlier in that other game the had far more variety from class to class giving a greater freedom in questing while levelling up.

 

Yes most of said quests where the same as here in that they where fetch or kill quests but they where in differing zones so much so you could level multiple characters and never see the same questing experience. That isn't a possibility here unless you diverge from the typical questing levelling experience go pvp to max level instead.

 

I agree that the 1 leveling path can make multiple play throughs repetitive. But, try to understand the reasoning behind why Bioware designed it like this.

• 
  The questing is all based around the class quests which in and of itself is a linear progression. This forces all classes to follow a linear progression. However the class quests are extremely well done and make the leveling process quite enjoyable.

• The class quests all follow the same route. This makes it possible for 2 or more people to level up together throughout the entire leveling experience. I've already done this with a friend. Whenever we were to do class quests they were always close and the rest of the quests were of course the same which is good design as this makes leveling with someone actually doable.

Taken that into account, how would you suggest they change the questing scheme? This is assuming they want to keep class quests and keep the ability for people to quest together.

[Robocaspar]

And EQ1.

 

I throughoutly enjoyed awakening the sleeper in scars of velious to prevent the rest of our server from obtaining primal weapons, and using a wall of ogres to block the portal to emperor sssrahsazzazz's throne room in shadows of luclin after winning the race to get to him. Amongst other douchebag moments of my mmo youth.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Robocaspar

[Razyr]

I've had the same experience. The people that say that there are absolutely 0 options for leveling variation aren't looking hard enough.

 

I skipped the following with my current level 50 during the leveling process: All of Nar Shaddaa, nearly every space mission, Alderran bonus series, half of Belsavis, Voss bonus series, the majority of Corellia, and every single flashpoint (except Black Talon) How are people leveling and consuming every single quest on their way to 50?

 

Furthermore, why aren't people rolling a character on the opposite faction? Every quest is different on that side. I don't get it...

 

 

My main is a Powertech Bounty Hunter, a complete blast* to play. When I was leveling I took my time and explored everywhere I could, found Datacrons along the way, ran Heroics and often times found myself moving on to new planets at the max level for the new planet. It was, for the most part, a great experience.

 

Now due to a bit of silliness, I have rolled far too many Sith based toons in order to see the story lines. I am at the point that I would rather gouge my eyes out and leave them blindly unseeing on the floor than experience Korriban again. Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but I am very tired of that planet. Let's just say it's not fun any longer. The one Sith that survived the Korriban experience is in his low 30's, on Taris facing down the same boring "kill X Rakghouls" quests that I did on the Bounty Hunter. I really can't take him any place else to level, unless I run the same Flashpoints or Warzones I've already run, over and over and over.

 

I rolled a few Republic toons. I even have two that are in the high 20's. Honestly, I don't like the Republic story lines. It seems like the writers weren't very excited writing for the Republic. Trooper story started out strong but then fizzled out, Jedi Knight story simply doesn't seem to go anywhere important... maybe I picked the wrong classes. Maybe I'm too picky, I expected the same depth I found on the Imperial side.

 

(*no pun intended)

[Necrolepsy]

Content doesn't grow on trees, I don't see the point of this thread

[Asfrina]

I agree that the 1 leveling path can make multiple play throughs repetitive. But, try to understand the reasoning behind why Bioware designed it like this.

• 
  The questing is all based around the class quests which in and of itself is a linear progression. This forces all classes to follow a linear progression. However the class quests are extremely well done and make the leveling process quite enjoyable.

• The class quests all follow the same route. This makes it possible for 2 or more people to level up together throughout the entire leveling experience. I've already done this with a friend. Whenever we were to do class quests they were always close and the rest of the quests were of course the same which is good design as this makes leveling with someone actually doable.

Taken that into account, how would you suggest they change the questing scheme? This is assuming they want to keep class quests and keep the ability for people to quest together.

 

It would be a fruitless exercise to attempt to suggest anything in regards to how the levelling experience should be in my opinion revamped to give better replayability as there is not a chance in hell they will change things.

 

This isn't a bug but more a personal preference and games never make what would require sweeping changes for personal preference, They already seem to be set on the path of fixing bugs which is good and in the midst of already designing future content which will add to existing dungeons and raids. I don't see them addressing the level experience as being an issue they need to look at.

[Marlaine]

Content doesn't grow on trees, I don't see the point of this thread

 

Quality repeatable content removes the need to create content all the time. Diablo games are a master at repeatable content by using extensive itemization. MMOs could do worse than to take a page out of Diablo's book.

 

Really think about it. People ran the same 5-6 bosses for YEARS in D2. And they loved every single minute of it. I'm not saying that copying that model is what mmos should do, but it should make you question if the static loot tables of the wow clones is the right method to create compelling long-term gameplay.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Marlaine

[Thorun]

Exactly! Bioware made an absolutely flawless gaming experience and if you don't like it, the problem is obviously with you. How dare you state your support and hope for future success of the game, offer some reasonable criticism, then have the nerve (for shame!) to say you'll stick it out a while longer to give them time to make improvements!

 

The nerve of some people.

 

best reply ever