The 4th Pillar and Story: Did SWTOR lose direction?

[lordhelmos]

As per the discussion on the Flashpoint/Operations and PvP threads, the direction of 1.2 has started to worry me.

 

I came from the background of a hardcore tournament player in Guildwars 1 (top 100 rated guild, played mesmer and was yelled at on vent for missing .5 second casts). I also went to wow and RIFT, which were both excellent and raidcentric experiences. Out of all the games I came to before trying TOR, I enjoyed RIFT the most due to it's dynamic class system, world events that involved large numbers of people, and well crafted raiding. The competitive raiding in RIFT was extremely difficult to the point where our guild was pushing 4 days a week 4 hrs a day and barely progressing.

 

So then TOR comes along with this idea of the "4th pillar" of story. I am a big fan of the Starwars universe and decided to give this a try.

 

Many people come to this game from places like Starwars Galaxies. Some people are traders, entertainers, or immersion RPers who never touched combat or a raid. In my experience the competitive raiders and pvp community tend to be the loudest, especially on the forums.

 

What I'm generally saying is that alot of people have come to SWTOR to become immersed in the starwars universe and enjoy the promised story driven "4th pillar" promised by the game.

 

The class stories are good, the planet quests are ok as well. The companions and their subjective stories were decent (while some were excellent).

 

I kind of game to this game almost expecting it to be handled as a television show where we would constantly be getting updates on the direction of the galaxy, our personal stories, companion dialogue expansions, more RP-friendly abilities that help expand the feeling of being in a starwars universe.

 

With 1.2 and the direction of the patch the game seems to be headed in the direction of wow. With corellia and 1.2, instead of a deep and immersive story, we were handed a box filled with dailies.

 

We got a plague event that was almost an exact copy of the lich king expansion opening (although the newscasters were well done).

 

We are still in the dark as to the direction of our class stories, as to the future of the war, as to the unfinished cliff-hangers left off by the end of some of our companion quests. Key characters like Malgus and Revan feel like they are almost forgotten to pave the way for raids, progression, and pvp.

 

We have received no updates on same sex relationships and character/companion customization improvements for the RP community.

 

The planets are still bland and arid without any ambience, passive wildlife, or even atmospheric sounds.

 

So 1.2 comes out and we get a new raid and flashpoint with a difficulty rating so high it bars out the majority of the casual players. Most casual immersion players dont get to see the inside of denova or the story there. The new flashpoint and operation create a gear differential that is so great between casuals and "raiders" that the community has effectively split into a raiding "upper class." The only option that casual players have for keeping up is subjecting themselves to a terrible daily grind in corellia for a limited number of black hole commendations. So while progression players enjoy new content and vistas, the majority of the playerbase spends weeks in a crammed rehash blackhole district made up of corellia zone rebuilds -doing the same quests over and over.

 

The majority of the casual players gated from entering new content stand around bored in fleet or are stuck doing illum/belsavis dailies (which are equally boring). With the advent of corellia now the average players has THREE planet fulls of boring dailies to do just to keep up with the "upper class" raiders.

 

All the while we have had no huge impacts on story, no personal story progression, no companion story progression, no alternate leveling zones and low level story sequences to save people rolling alts for legacy from seeing the SAME story conversations they saw on 3 other toons over again (let's face it, the class stories are great but they only comprise a % of the leveling process. People alting are liable to spacebar everything but the 3-4 class quests on each planet).

 

People are bored. Bored people leave.

 

1.2 has effectively moved SWTOR into a raid progression and gear carrot direction without even touching on the "4th pillar" of story that the game promised. Since launch the amount of "story" content that is relevant to individual players and their companions is little to none.

 

Instead we have rated warzones and a new raid with an absurd difficulty level for casual players to appeal to COMPETITIVE players that make up only a small % of the millions of subs on TOR.

 

I feel like my favorite show was put on a permanent intermission to play highlights from ESPN sportscenter about some football game that I really don't care about with 1.2.

 

I thought TOR was trying to establish an identity as a story driven game and now all the people who left raiding games to come enjoy their personal starwars immersion, all the people that came from starwars galaxies that don't have a competitive cell in their body at all, all the RPers, all the people who are dying to know what their companion is going to next or what is going to happen to their character...

 

All these people are getting left behind for competitive raiders and pvpers, who are now starting to dominate the game with superior gear, exclusive items (like the desler turbo), raid obtainable lightsaber crystals with unique colors, and the list goes on.

 

While the people who alt get race unlocks for material already in the game, a few useless legacy talents like rocket boost, and the honor of suffering through hours of spacebarring through the planet quests that they are sick and tired of, or being stuck in claustrophic boxed in zones like Taris or Coruscant.

 

Right now I'm currently still subbed to both RIFT and TOR. Eventually I will have to choose between the games.

 

If I wanted to raid and be a COMPETITIVE player, there are other games out there that have well established competitive raiding and pvp environments that have had years of polish. If SWTOR is not delivering on the promised 4th pillar and doesn't even have half the features (like addons, macros, support classes, dungeon finders, raid fingers, guild perks, dual specs...) that a full blown competitive raiding game does... I mean what is left?

 

What kind of identity is SWTOR trying to make for itself after 1.2? If it is not going to deliver on the "4 pillar" story driven platform that the community was promised, how is it going to compromise? By delivering us half baked raids that barely hold a candle to raiding games that have already mastered their encounter creation tools? Or will they attempt to compete with PvP driven games like guildwars 2 who have their entire development process dedicated to nothing but pvp combat?

 

SWTOR needs to make up its mind. If it doesn't capitalize on this 4th pillar and make people feel like they are apart of starwars and not just chasing some progression carrot, people will just leave.

Edited April 24, 2012 by lordhelmos

[Drudenfusz]

I also really hope that the quest box for the dailies are not the new direction BioWare will go. The event had also not enough dialogue (basically just the stuff I watch and only one dark/light side choice that comes along with a voice over for my character with wasn't new). Hope that we will get more voice over dialogue in the future, and that this was mostly done to get more content to the players fast.

 

On the gear grind: I am also not too happy with this, but it was pretty clear from the beginning that BioWare will go into that direction, since they were to afraid not to stick to that formula that most MMOs use these days. And somehow I doubt they will change their minds on this (which makes me a lttle sad).

[DalrisThane]

Deleted. No point. Everyone is TLDR these days. +See Sig. Edited March 31, 2013 by DalrisThane

[PendragonPrime]

I think it's too early to suggest that Bioware has abandoned its Story direction. A half dozen dailies, an instance, and an op are far less resource intensive than 8 classes' worth of well-written, voice-acted story content. Let alone the 40 companions in the game. Let alone adding new same-sex romancable companions.

 

These are the kinds of things I expect to see in the first expansion, not a 3-month update.

 

If the first expansion doesn't deliver on many of these items, then we have cause to be alarmed.

[RabidPopcorn]

I hate dailies; I would so much more prefer a greater variety of engaging, deep and extremely long mission chains.

 

Dailies feel like work/chores, it's like the routine for many players is to log on, do dailies, log off.

 

My biggest gripe with dailies however, is that in order to get certain 'end-game' gear (such as earpieces, implants... and now black hole stuff) players have no alternative but to do dailies.

 

Also, I hope we get some epic server event comparable to the scale of the gates of AQ or even grander in scale!

[Kaisernick]

i think for story we will have to wait for an expanshion, bioware dont seem to want it in endgame so eleiteist's dont have to listen.

[DalrisThane]

Deleted. No point. Everyone is TLDR these days. +See Sig. Edited March 31, 2013 by DalrisThane

[erei]

I hate dailies; I would so much more prefer a greater variety of engaging, deep and extremely long mission chains.

 

Dailies feel like work/chores, it's like the routine for many players is to log on, do dailies, log off.

 

My biggest gripe with dailies however, is that in order to get certain 'end-game' gear (such as earpieces, implants... and now black hole stuff) players have no alternative but to do dailies.

 

Also, I hope we get some epic server event comparable to the scale of the gates of AQ or even grander in scale!

This.

It's boring. It's not story driven (seriously, who is not using spacebar when taking dailies for the 100th time ?). And it's the only/the most easy way to have some dailies stuff.

[RabidPopcorn]

Short Answer = BW caved.

 

Ultra Long Answer = The problem is that BW tried to mesh the KOTOR-3 crowd and the MMO crowd.

 

The thing is that, barring myself and a few select others, KOTOR-3 people, by definition, play alone, go through the planets, roll an alt or 7, and never come to the boards. I never went to the Neverwinter Nights boards, or the Baldur’s Gate boards, etc… I might have hit a spoiler site or 3, but I wouldn’t come to a board, for a single player game.

 

The MMO people, being MMO… are very social, and very intense about what they want in an MMO. PVP people, being PVP, are an exceptionally aggressive bunch (no duh… they FIGHT for fun…) so the subset of MMO people that PVP will exceptionally aggressively make their presence known on the boards, in summits, in e-mail feedbacks, etc…

 

So, boards (barring loud obnoxious French dudes like me) will have an over-representation of MMO. Problem is, only BW knows if the KOTOR crowd is 1% of the population, 5%, 25% (my guess), or 50% of TOR’s subscriber base.

 

Sadly (for me), I’ve seen this happen before… in City of Heroes. The game started with a heavy solo and small group focus. Then, over the years, they’ve progressively added more and more emphasis on raids. When I left, an entire section of the story (I could NOT care less about gear, I can’t emphasize this enough) is gated… if I understand the term right… behind Incarnate Content i.e. raids.

 

Wasn’t enough that there’s dozens, possibly hundreds of MMO out there, the raid/PVP crowd HAD to come into CoH and turn it into raid raid raid just like… every other MMO. I couldn’t keep 1 MMO “my” way, especially considering it was solo centric for YEARS.

 

Now, the same is happening to TOR, just sooner. More FP. More OPs. And, the worse thing is, according to the MMO people, BW is doing the MMO part wrong.

 

-So, TOR is marketed as a Story Driven (fourth pillar) MMO i.e. a hybrid game.

-The fact that BW said “Story Driven” as a focus is ignored by the MMO players that hate the spacebar-VO-waste-of-money…

-The MMO people then complain about the lack of MMO features, which, in all fairness… is pretty lacking (I look over my wife’s shoulder when she raids in EQ, COH, and many others)

-Devs listen to the MMO people, and updates are now about FP and OP (well, and Legacy that, even as a KOTOR-3 fan… I’m VERY disappointed with)

 

PREDICTION (out of the air, of course)

-Story people, as they finish the story, and very little new story (due to raid / pvp focus), will calmly leave. Calmly because, well, many don’t read the boards. They’ll be happy, but “done”.

-This will increase even more the MMO part of this hybrid game.

-Wanting to listen to the ever growing majority of MMO people, devs add more Raids / Group / PVP content with little VO since people hate / spacebar it anyways. Waste of money for MMO people...

 

Option A = BW will continue to upset the MMO people by making sub-par MMO content, and they’ll leave. KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose, because, well, BW will be focusing (badly) on the MMO part.

 

Option B = BW will finally learn, fix it’s mistakes, and the MMO people will be happy. KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose, because, well, BW will be focusing (properly) on the MMO part.

 

Either way, KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose because BW didn’t make KOTOR-3, but misled the KOTOR-3 playerbase that this would be KOTOR-3 through 10, with a story focus.

 

Heck, you can’t read 2 threads (related to the topic or not) without people commenting on how the VO sucks, spacebar sees a lot of attention, money wasted in VO… and those are the people the devs are listening to.

 

The only question now is, will BW salvage the MMO part of this game? Maybe. Maybe not.

 

But, from the direction of the game (1.1, 1.2), the critics of the game, the players here on the board, I would be surprised if BW didn’t ignore the fourth pillar, VO, etc… DESPITE MARKETING FOR IT… and this will become, at best, like every other online game… raids and PVP… at worst… a failed game.

 

But it certainly won’t be KOTOR-3 through 10 as far as any future updates. If there's a new "chapter" it'll be one arc, on one planet, at best, but I doubt we'll even have that.

 

I’m still here because I have alts left to see, but I’d be stunned beyond words if after I’m done classes x8 there would be more chapters. Story, if any, will be put in content with groups and raids. Mechanics wise, makes sense to put resources in repetitive content (dailies, raids, PVP events done multiple times) rather than a quest you do once and never again… doesn’t mean it helps me much.

 

Would I have preferred BW stuck to its guns and kept Story Driven Fourth Pillar as it’s focus? Absolutely.

 

Should I have known that the “MMO trumps all” mantra would have over-ridden this hybrid game? Yes. Totally my fault.

 

If a future game takes my favourite IP (Highlander), and makes it into an MMO, and the devs write the promise in blood, driving to my house personally to say it will be story driven, solo based, and will be KEPT that way… will I believe them and try yet another MMO… ever again…

 

Absolutely not.

 

I’d love to be wrong… but, in short, the fourth pillar we have… is all we’re getting. Any future story will be in raids and groups. I’d be shocked if it was otherwise here in TOR…

 

All of which could have been avoided if BW... had done KOTOR-3 instead of TOR... but hey...I've learned. If the next IP / game system I like is even TOUCHED by the words MMO, I'll know "MMO trumps all" and I'll stay far... far... away...

 

The problem with a solo-centric, story-driven game that ALSO wants to be an MMO is sustainability: can BioWare keep up with the pace of players clearing the story side of SWTOR? Although it's true that quite a number of people like replaying content (e.g. I know there are some of you out there that enjoy replaying single-player games, not once, not twice, but ... many many times) I personally can't bring myself to do it.

 

This again brings me back to a major point I brought up in the Blizzard/WoW gets it thread: anyone notice the major difference between BioWare and Blizzard? I don't think I've played any BioWare game, maybe Baldur's Gate, but let's think about that and the famous ones like Mass Effect and compare them to Blizzard games (mainly 3 I know of: Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft): the main difference I see is that Blizzard has a heavy focus on multi-player (Battle.net), notwithstanding the fact that all it games also come with a story/campaign mode, in the end the proportion of time spent on multi-player far exceeds the single-player time spent.

 

The point is that for some players (like me), playing with other players is less boring than story-mode.. This is not to say I hate story-mode, in fact I always complete it first; and I always find the story-mode experience (in any game) to be really enjoyable and more intense - while it lasts, that is, once I finish the main-arc, that's the end for me.

 

Yet, does having a strong multi-player focus necessarily mean we can't have awesome and sustainable story-mode? SWTOR is probably the closest I've got. Although I can't wait for a game that will do it better - imagine the outcome: cinematic like graphics and lots of cutscenes but in an MMO; like watching a movie but also playing it.

[Drudenfusz]

Short Answer = BW caved.

 

Ultra Long Answer = The problem is that BW tried to mesh the KOTOR-3 crowd and the MMO crowd.

 

The thing is that, barring myself and a few select others, KOTOR-3 people, by definition, play alone, go through the planets, roll an alt or 7, and never come to the boards. I never went to the Neverwinter Nights boards, or the Baldur’s Gate boards, etc… I might have hit a spoiler site or 3, but I wouldn’t come to a board, for a single player game.

 

The MMO people, being MMO… are very social, and very intense about what they want in an MMO. PVP people, being PVP, are an exceptionally aggressive bunch (no duh… they FIGHT for fun…) so the subset of MMO people that PVP will exceptionally aggressively make their presence known on the boards, in summits, in e-mail feedbacks, etc…

 

So, boards (barring loud obnoxious French dudes like me) will have an over-representation of MMO. Problem is, only BW knows if the KOTOR crowd is 1% of the population, 5%, 25% (my guess), or 50% of TOR’s subscriber base.

 

Sadly (for me), I’ve seen this happen before… in City of Heroes. The game started with a heavy solo and small group focus. Then, over the years, they’ve progressively added more and more emphasis on raids. When I left, an entire section of the story (I could NOT care less about gear, I can’t emphasize this enough) is gated… if I understand the term right… behind Incarnate Content i.e. raids.

 

Wasn’t enough that there’s dozens, possibly hundreds of MMO out there, the raid/PVP crowd HAD to come into CoH and turn it into raid raid raid just like… every other MMO. I couldn’t keep 1 MMO “my” way, especially considering it was solo centric for YEARS.

 

Now, the same is happening to TOR, just sooner. More FP. More OPs. And, the worse thing is, according to the MMO people, BW is doing the MMO part wrong.

 

-So, TOR is marketed as a Story Driven (fourth pillar) MMO i.e. a hybrid game.

-The fact that BW said “Story Driven” as a focus is ignored by the MMO players that hate the spacebar-VO-waste-of-money…

-The MMO people then complain about the lack of MMO features, which, in all fairness… is pretty lacking (I look over my wife’s shoulder when she raids in EQ, COH, and many others)

-Devs listen to the MMO people, and updates are now about FP and OP (well, and Legacy that, even as a KOTOR-3 fan… I’m VERY disappointed with)

 

PREDICTION (out of the air, of course)

-Story people, as they finish the story, and very little new story (due to raid / pvp focus), will calmly leave. Calmly because, well, many don’t read the boards. They’ll be happy, but “done”.

-This will increase even more the MMO part of this hybrid game.

-Wanting to listen to the ever growing majority of MMO people, devs add more Raids / Group / PVP content with little VO since people hate / spacebar it anyways. Waste of money for MMO people...

 

Option A = BW will continue to upset the MMO people by making sub-par MMO content, and they’ll leave. KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose, because, well, BW will be focusing (badly) on the MMO part.

 

Option B = BW will finally learn, fix it’s mistakes, and the MMO people will be happy. KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose, because, well, BW will be focusing (properly) on the MMO part.

 

Either way, KOTOR-3, Single player, story people will lose because BW didn’t make KOTOR-3, but misled the KOTOR-3 playerbase that this would be KOTOR-3 through 10, with a story focus.

 

Heck, you can’t read 2 threads (related to the topic or not) without people commenting on how the VO sucks, spacebar sees a lot of attention, money wasted in VO… and those are the people the devs are listening to.

 

The only question now is, will BW salvage the MMO part of this game? Maybe. Maybe not.

 

But, from the direction of the game (1.1, 1.2), the critics of the game, the players here on the board, I would be surprised if BW didn’t ignore the fourth pillar, VO, etc… DESPITE MARKETING FOR IT… and this will become, at best, like every other online game… raids and PVP… at worst… a failed game.

 

But it certainly won’t be KOTOR-3 through 10 as far as any future updates. If there's a new "chapter" it'll be one arc, on one planet, at best, but I doubt we'll even have that.

 

I’m still here because I have alts left to see, but I’d be stunned beyond words if after I’m done classes x8 there would be more chapters. Story, if any, will be put in content with groups and raids. Mechanics wise, makes sense to put resources in repetitive content (dailies, raids, PVP events done multiple times) rather than a quest you do once and never again… doesn’t mean it helps me much.

 

Would I have preferred BW stuck to its guns and kept Story Driven Fourth Pillar as it’s focus? Absolutely.

 

Should I have known that the “MMO trumps all” mantra would have over-ridden this hybrid game? Yes. Totally my fault.

 

If a future game takes my favourite IP (Highlander), and makes it into an MMO, and the devs write the promise in blood, driving to my house personally to say it will be story driven, solo based, and will be KEPT that way… will I believe them and try yet another MMO… ever again…

 

Absolutely not.

 

I’d love to be wrong… but, in short, the fourth pillar we have… is all we’re getting. Any future story will be in raids and groups. I’d be shocked if it was otherwise here in TOR…

 

All of which could have been avoided if BW... had done KOTOR-3 instead of TOR... but hey...I've learned. If the next IP / game system I like is even TOUCHED by the words MMO, I'll know "MMO trumps all" and I'll stay far... far... away...

You make it sound like one couldn't like both sides, the story aspect and the MMO features.

 

I always enjoyed MMOs more than single player games, or for that matter every game that could be played with each other or against each other (gaming is for me always a social thing). But I like it when the MMO I am playing feels unique and not like all the other MMOs I played, and I mean that not in regard of the setting but mostly for the gameplay. I liked how DDO was doing the quests (which I still think are some of the best I ever seen in MMOs, sure they are all instanced, but even the simple once are mostly more thoughtful than most raids out there). I liked the dynamic events of RIFT (made the leveling experience great, even more than it can be on normal PvP servers, because not just players are there to attack your quest hub but mobs do it as well). So I would like to see SWTOR try to stand on it's own legs, and go with the story and make that their major selling point (sure GW2 and TSW are also said that they will have story, but I don't see that in those games as important as it is in SWTOR).

[Idunhavaname]

So far yes. We've only recieved the typical "LOOK NEW RAID AND DAILIES". When they made a nice post about story continuing I was led to believe that a new class story would be avalaible but instead all we got are Corellia dailies.

[Scerge]

I came from the background of a hardcore tournament player in Guildwars 1 (top 100 rated guild, played mesmer and was yelled at on vent for missing .5 second casts).

 

Woah guys we've got a bad *** over here.

[Rowandiki]

I've thought of this too and to me they need story updates just as much as they need the mmo updates. If they can push out the class story updates every three months and ops every six months they'd have what's needed. Instead of a legacy team (they failed) they need a story companion team that focuses on making companions and storyline stuff that could be released in regular intervals. Major class stuff could be pushed back to the three month update but the companion story lines could be semi monthly.

 

Initially, they could work with existing npc characters in the game that are popular and doesn't disrupt anything. After that new npcs or just crew members that increase effectiveness in space battles. Now that I mentioned it space battles should be much more then what we have ingame. It's more to maintain and update but different aspects of gameplay would give us a lot to explore ingame. Especially those of us not racing to get through everything, it should be paced for those enjoying it.

[Hitomo_x]

dont be such dramaqueens, will ya?

 

I am subbed since december last year,

and I am far away from having experienced all the calss story

 

my highest main is a jedi lvl40 ...

 

this game is so big story wise, i dont see me finishing them all

before the year ends ...

 

the pvp and competetive crowd was always the loudest yes,

no they give content for those people who are already bored

and you start crying about that bioware has abonded the

4th pillar already?

 

they wont add story progression very soon, because they

want you to play every class story before you get something new,

because there is so much content already there you could fill

at least 6 single player games with it ...

 

to me it seems they execute a wonderful plan to offer

the so called kotor-crowd and the pvp 7/24 online crowd a good deal of content

[Masakari_]

I always expected this. With the sheer volume of unique story / VO content for 8 classes, dozens of companions, and relationships, I always expected the next chapters of story to be in the Expansions. It's just too much stuff to be released regularly, plus releasing short amounts of it regularly will dilute them and still won't be enough for the player base.

 

I do agree, however, that they need to be more dynamic. The game is very static, that's why I liked the Rakghoul Event, small, basic, and contained as it was - it was something different that took place in the middle of regular content, the newscast was a nice touch, the infection mechanic was viral (pun not intended), and gave out some permanent cosmetic rewards.

 

Ideally, this would be a great schedule to keep things a bit more dynamic and fresh:

 

+ more newscast cutscene / announcements stuff about the war, about certain planets, regularly;

 

+ do 1 big event (multi-planet, or single planet but much bigger in scope than the Rakghoul Plague, maybe "The Battle of ...") every 3 or 4 months;

 

+ do 1 small event (ie on one single planet, like the Rakghoul Plague) per month;

 

+ do random, roaming groups of enemy NPCs: it's a war, why shouldn't groups of Republic soldiers randomly attack Imperial cities or just patrol areas, and vice versa? They could have a random level of difficulty, meaning they could be groups of normal soldiers up to bosses who drop great loot and can only be tackled by 4-12 players at once.

This would also promote world PvP, as players could band together with these NPCs to attack enemy cities, giving rewards for both attacking and defending. So, basically, random "micro-events" in random locations, at any time, with any duration.

[DalrisThane]

Deleted. No point. Everyone is TLDR these days. +See Sig. Edited March 31, 2013 by DalrisThane

[DalrisThane]

Deleted. No point. Everyone is TLDR these days. +See Sig. Edited March 31, 2013 by DalrisThane

[StarStray]

I like that this thread has been posted, as this has been a concern of mine for some time now. Despite the good points brought up by the original poster and DalrisThane, I believe that a short bit of time is required before we really start panicking. Being one of the MMO-despising individuals who only joined this game because he refused to let it end at KotOR II, I can safely say that DalrisThane's projection will be correct at some point regardless. A good story has an ending - and I sincerely hope we get there before I lose interest. Once that point has been reached (or prior if feet are dragged), Bioware may attempt to release further story material, but most my fellow not-at-all-interested-in-MMO'ers will have parted ways with the game. Eventually someone will release a comic or novel to encompass anything we miss in the game and we'll be pleasantly surprised as we come across it and further enhance a tale we came to love.

 

Be that as it may, Bioware has done something bold here and I hope they continue to build on this so-called "4th Pillar". To avoid responses such as "Hey! I like both! I'm a competitive MMO'er and I like the story!" allow me to first say: yes, of course you do. No one ever said you had to choose, but some of us don't like MMO's. We happen to see an MMO for what it is: glorified counters facing each other and ticking off sub-counters so that they can gloat: "I am the more efficient conglomerate of numbers, hah!". Some of you do too, and you're the ones I avoid in the game 'cause you're really good at killing me! Ahem, but I digress....

 

Regardless of which you like, MMO or storyline, the original poster has a very valid concern and one I would like to echo. There are some of us who have, despite our intense distaste for this genre, chosen to subscribe to this game so that we can enjoy a rich story (yes, Bioware, this is a shout-out; love your stuff, just sayin') filled with some of the best voice-acting English-speaking countries can produce (if any of you are reading this, from unimportant-imperial-officer-guy to Jennifer Hale, you're all awesome. Never stop doing what you're doing. Please). But those parenthetic comments really do justify the wait, don't they? Granted, a proper voice-over operation doesn't take the production time of a full blown movie, but it certainly takes a bit longer than the few months SWTOR has been out to filter every last word to perfection. In regards to story: I think any writer, aspiring or published, knows that a solid story takes countless drafts and boundless heaps of inspiration to create and refine. My verbosity pinched for a moment I'll sum this up: let's give 'em a bit more time, eh?

 

All-in-all, Bioware has already managed to garner a fanbase that contains not only steady MMO consumers, but also those of an alternate disposition. it has the chance to make ripples in the game genre or it could be a valiant, yet tragic flame. It's up to Bioware and a good bit of luck (oh and our money, that too). I'm hoping their heads are screwed on straight and they're getting down to business. Let's hope for a good expansion to the plot in coming months and save our disillusionment for then (with interest, if that'll get the ball moving). Bioware, if you're reading this I hope you take it to heart, some of us really are sucking up our hatred of this genre because we are genuinely appreciative of the artwork you have created through digital mediums. Don't let us down, pretty please? (I liked the ending to Mass Effect 3 if that helps my plea).

 

PS: Bioware, innovation's great but...next time? Just #$%*! make KotOR III and save me the trouble, would ya?

Edited April 30, 2012 by StarStray

[Vlacke]

For story we will have to wait for an expansion most likely.

[CAMELOTCRUSADE]

If you zoom out enough, every new MMO has the same problem: Once players have consumed the content they want to consum, what will lure them back?

 

IMO for newer games it's less about continuous retention and more about bringing people back while steadily attracting new players. They simply don't have 5+ years of content to keep people busy while they wait for new and exciting things to be released. So people leave. But will they come back? And for what?

[dprijadi]

i played for 3 months ..

 

and dont have a single 50 ( highest is 47 vanguard )

 

still engrossed in the stories , tried and love all class and AC , both faction..

 

dont have much time to play , trying to play at least 1 or 2 hours each day

 

love the game soo much.. wish i got more time to play..

 

this game is casual and alt o holic heaven..

[ChazDoit]

This thread brings a very important point, we had 2 major content updates and no story for our characters, are we gonna have to wait until an expansion?

 

In my opinion every major content update should include at least one or two new missions to your class story, to keep you hooked, like a TV series.

 

Also, I dont mind about the Mission Dropboxes for the grindy daily missions, better save the Voiceover money for the class missions

[Andryah]

I came from the background of a hardcore tournament player in Guildwars 1 (top 100 rated guild, played mesmer and was yelled at on vent for missing .5 second casts). I also went to wow and RIFT, which were both excellent and raidcentric experiences. Out of all the games I came to before trying TOR, I enjoyed RIFT the most due to it's dynamic class system, world events that involved large numbers of people, and well crafted raiding. The competitive raiding in RIFT was extremely difficult to the point where our guild was pushing 4 days a week 4 hrs a day and barely progressing.

 

This statement makes it self-evident that SWTOR is not the right MMO for you. It may be the right Star Wars entertainment for you since you love the IP, but it's not your kind of game. You want hardcore PvP and hardcore PvE and you want it in a brand new MMO. Sorry, wrong product for you.

 

The rest of your long thread is your basis for justifying your lack of satisfaction with the game. Maybe check back again in about 18 months rather then do a wall of text criticism of the game.

[Andryah]

This thread brings a very important point, we had 2 major content updates and no story for our characters, are we gonna have to wait until an expansion?

 

Doing storyline content for 8 different base classes, maybe even 16 if they expand on AC specific story line (which I think they may do), is not a 90 day excercise from storyboard to PTS to release.

 

They have commented on this during the guild summit and have said there will be more storyline in the future and that the production cycle is long for storylines. It's not like banging in a new OP or a new series of quests.

 

FURTHER, while this is speculation on my part, I expect that the expansion of storylines will come via either new planets or major expansions of existing planets. So yeah, it would not surprise me if new chapters to the storylines come via expansion packs (or maybe super major patches on expansion pack time intervals).

 

It is unrealistic to expect new chapters in the storyline every 90 days in a major patch.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Andryah

[JediElf]

This is so depressing to read...

 

If SW:TOR ever looses it's soul, it's story, what makes it's so special and so much fun. Then I think I'll just quit MMOs for good....I don't want to...but what would be the point of playing yet another gear grind, raid hell, math frenzy, epeen strutting snore fest.

 

Story is what gives this game it's life, and makes it a small beacon of good, floating on a sea of cold statistics, and theorycrafting.

 

Please Bioware....keep the Story in SW:TOR.