lostluna Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Or maybe I am just not into MMO's? I don't know what it is about this game that dissatisfies me. I like the story lines and the characters alright, and the game play is enjoyable if a bit mediocre, but it still leaves a lot to be desired for some reason. I have played RPG's since I was a small child. Dozens and dozens of them, mostly console RPGs, but also stuff like Oblivion and Baldur's Gate. I also roleplayed in chat rooms as a teenager. However, I am not very experienced with MMO's. I played WoW for 3 months and canceled my subscription due to the immense boredom I experienced. Same thing for Ragnarok online. I simply didn't see the point of endless leveling with no incentive to do so. I never played PvP, raided or anything like that. I really , really want to like this game but there are things that are killing my enjoyment. I am not sure if its me or the game though. Several things that bother me about SWTOR: 1. the game makes it hard to socialize with people. There is a chat box in the top corner of course, but the general chat is the entire planet that you are on. This makes it hard to make friends. It's also rather intimidating to someone who is rather shy like me. Not to mention that this limits roleplaying experiences. 2. No one's character is truly unique. While I enjoy the stories, its very jarring to see every other agent around me also hanging out with a bald chick named Kaliyo. (and yes... I know that I can turn off the text over the companion's heads, but still...).Everyone goes through the same story in the same way and ends up as pretty much the same person. This kind of kills my ideas for creating characters. Not to mention the fact that if I want another character of the same class I must go through the same exact story all over again to create what is basically the same character with maybe a change in gender or race. 3. A lot of the reason for buying this game is my interest in exploring the Star Wars universe. The game limits your ability to explore. All there is to planets seems to be endless war zones that you travel through in a linear fashion. You can't really interact with the environment exept to kill things and talk to quest givers and NPC's involved in the storyline. 4. Most of the community in this game seem to have come from WoW. Many people already have met each other on WoW and exclusively play with one another. A lot of MMO lingo is used which is pretty meaningless to me. Maybe I don't fit in here??? A lot of players also really don't care anything about Star Wars cannon or the setting. To them its just a way they can spend more time grinding. This game almost feels like I am playing an inferior version of Mass Effect or KoToR that forces me to pay a monthly fee because there is a chat box in the corner. So does anyone else feel the same way as me? Is my problem my lack of familiarity with MMO's? I really don't like complaining about games like a lot of people who rage on the Bioware forums or something. I'm just wondering if the problem is me or if it is the game. I do like a lot of aspects like the characters and the fact that i get to be a duel-wielding sith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom_BiC Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I've seen this thread somewhere before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiningriver Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Maybe you need to be exposed more to MMOs. My suggestion is to have a real life friend play with you. That's what I'm doing right now. While I enjoy playing with people I do not know personally and helping them, recent events had changed my mind when they're being rude (not really offensive, but rude still). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMornard Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I **LIKE** the fact that it's essentially a single player RPG. I play it like KOTOR that they're going to keep adding new stuff to. Also, I usually play with my wife. In the game, that is. Well, outside the game, too. Um. Never mind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Eminok Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I sortta feel like this is a single-player game. It makes me feel weird. Sometimes I regard players as humanly-coordinated npcs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scionfall Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Hello Lost Luna, I'm going to try to answer some of your questions as I feel that MMORPGs are good in some ways and kinda crappy in others. Like you, I mostly played RPGs on Consoles or back in the days of DOS even . I remember my first foray into an MMO and looking back on it I see that I really didn't get nearly as much out of it as I could have: even on a basic level. I feel like that's where you're at and so I'll try to help you by relying on my experiences along with answering your questions. First, understand that this is a multi-player game so going in thinking it's going to be like a single-player rpg is not the way to go. Sure Star Wars plays out like one a lot more than WoW but it's still a massive MULTIPLAYER Online RPG. Going through this game by yourself can be a bit daunting, very repetitive and dull (i.e. fetch quests and grinding) by neglecting the social aspect you're missing out on one of the key components of the game. My first time playing an MMO I didn't get this either. I never joined a guild and just went around with a friend of mine and it was very hard and grueling. So to rectify this I recommend joining a guild. I understand you're shy but you can still do it even if you are. I recommend checking out the forums here on swtor.com. I believe there's a guild recruitment forum. Also you can do a google search as well. I recommend taking note of what server you log into (Guilds don't cross servers so you'll want to find one on the same server as you) so for example if you were on the Rubat Crystal server, and you play on the side of the Empire I would do a google search for "Swtor, Guild, Rubat Crystal". This will bring up results of guilds on your server. Most of the bigger ones even have their own webpage where they talk about what kind of players they are. As you are new you're going to want to look for a guild with "casual" players. These are people who embrace a more relaxed playstyle. Once you find a gulid you're interested in joining look out for other characters who are a part of it. (the name of their guild will be written under their name when you click on them). Running around the Imperial Fleet will be your best bet at finding someone from any guild. Once you do, whisper them and explain that you heard about their guild and were wondering if you could join. Assuming they say yes you'll be welcomed into your new "family" and now you have a bunch of people online that can help you get the most out of the game and explain anything you're interested in learning about to you. As for the chat box with the general chat you can go into the chat options and choose not to see general chat. I do as I agree that general chat really makes it hard to chat with the people you really want to or even see what's happened recently . Concerning the issue of no "unique" characters you are right and this is an issue you will encounter in all MMORPGs. Where characters become more unique is their set of skills they choose to equip/engage in but even this is somewhat limited. You will find that across all MMORPGs that things are done a bit more generically because to program unique looks and stats for millions of people simply isn't feasable. As far as learning more abou the star wars universe again you're right. There isn't too much to learn here but you like the lore and the backstories check out the Codex pages (found by opening your quest log and clicking on the Codex tab at the bottom) while you're not really looking around and checking things out, here is where you'll find a lot of backstory and other such information. Sure there are a lot of players coming from WoW and yes MMORPGs do have their own lingo. Like any hobby out there there's the lingo that, if you learn it, can help you understand and enjoy the game even more. Just as Console and Pen-and-Paper RPGs have their own lingo, so, too do MMORPGs. There's a bit of a learning curve there as there are with all hobbies and it's up to you if you want to learn it or not. Comparing ME3 and KOTOR to this is not really all that great a comparison. Sure they're both RPGs but they're very different, too and cater to a different style of play. With an experience like KOTOR 1 and 2 along with ME and Dragon Age and whatnot these are experiences crafted for one person. One person goes through a world where they're in control and they're number 1. In MMORPGs you do lose a bit of that because instead of catering to one person, they need to cater to millions. When you increase the scope like that, the game changes and you're not going to get as personal an experience as you can with ME or KOTOR. If you're interested in meeting people who are more into the SW Cannon or who are into the setting I recommend joining an RP server. RP servers are servers where people will talk in character (in certain places) so that might be a bit more to your liking. Once you get all this down you might want to ask yourself what it is you want to get out of the game? If you want story you might want to get in on some flashpoints (these are missions done with your guild or with a group of random players in general) and are those quests where you're on the Imperial fleet and see the holo of Darth Malgus asking you to fight for him over here and over there. Flashpoints and Operations contain story and choices and are generally of higher quality than the quests you take on as you hop from planet to planet. If you're a more competitive player then you might want to try to try out some PVP (Player vs. Player) combat. So to answer your question about whether it's your problem or not I'd say it's a bit of both. MMORPGs are another genre of game so despite being labeled an "RPG" it's still played differently than your typical Console or PnP RPG. To close I found this video that uses SWTOR and is meant as a beginner guide for MMORPGs in general as well =). Hope all that helps! Scionfall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tkara Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I've been feeling pretty much the same way about this game. My guild came here from SWG and that was an mmorpg unlike any other. This game is fun but it's more of a single player type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loseriticus Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Yeah, I play this game as if it were a RPG as well, and I like it that way. In fact, when they first announced this game, I wasn't even interested in it because I did not see how they could ever make it work as a story based MMO because as soon as someone opens his mouth with "LOL", the immersion aspect is ruined for me. So I play with the chat window off. Still, it's sometimes nice to group up with a random stranger. I've done that a few times, and they stayed in character, which was really nice. As far as being shy goes, I'm not sure how Bioware is supposed to help you with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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