Should we have listened? (Anonymous EA employee on a 2 year old article)

[MrLeee]

Which is why so many people say they'll be leaving TOR, a game with supposedly no end game content, for GW2 which is a game that will have.... no end game content.

 

1-80? is the endgame content. Can't think like the normal with GW2. They are changing things because people are bored with the same "WoW" model.

 

I wasn't a huge GW2 fan, only played GW1 for an hour or 2, but I was in GW2 last beta and it was really fun! It's good to explore again! And the area's are all filled with people/npc's! It doesn't feel so damn dead like almost evey planet in SWTOR.

[NinjaApacHe]

This is so old! This game is wonderful and better will be. This article is from some mediocre employee fired to be useless to the job. If you do not like this game go play some korean cartoonish game and live these forums free.

[TheMove]

My issues with swtor is how dead the game feels and how they went out of there way to prevent pvp. I would play Swtor if when I was in quest zones leveling I could pvp and run into lots of the other faction.

[Shaligal]

Considering that at now they have sold like 3 millions copys or about that and plus all the collectors edition, the subscriptions, etc. I cant see where is the panic, probably at now they have recovered all the money they have spent and are wining some nice $.

 

And, anyway, an anonymous employee? We dont have any prove that is an employee, can be everyone else.

[TheMove]

Im over this game now. Doesn't bother me that this game is the biggest MMo bust ever. Since Diablo 3 is 8 days away and I know sometime this year GW2 will be out and thats a heavy focused pvp MMO.

[Shaligal]

Most of the people that says that GW2 or Tera are gonna be a bomb and will kill other MMOs havent ever tested GW2 or Tera. I only would say this: maybe some will get deceived.

[NinjaApacHe]

Im over this game now. Doesn't bother me that this game is the biggest MMo bust ever. Since Diablo 3 is 8 days away and I know sometime this year GW2 will be out and thats a heavy focused pvp MMO.

 

Ohh finally you move from here, we are getting bored of you posting the same thing on every thread: "this game is anti-pvp.......".

 

Bye, bye, have fun on GW2.

[sambeta]

Considering that at now they have sold like 3 millions copys or about that and plus all the collectors edition, the subscriptions, etc. I cant see where is the panic, probably at now they have recovered all the money they have spent and are wining some nice $.

 

And, anyway, an anonymous employee? We dont have any prove that is an employee, can be everyone else.

 

 

It's very easy to sell 3 million copies of a game... To retail outlets. If it had sold 3 million copies of the game to subscribers there would be exactly that. 3 million subs.

[Shaligal]

It's very easy to sell 3 million copies of a game... To retail outlets. If it had sold 3 million copies of the game to subscribers there would be exactly that. 3 million subs.

 

Hell, if it is so easy i dont know what you do here writting in a forum, go make a game and sell 3 million copies.

 

Anyway, 3 millions subs, obviusly, but not at the same time XD Dont make me laugh with nonsenses. Some have stop playing, and some are just begining to play right now. If wow have 10 million subs that means that they have only sold 10 million of copies in all this time? Please, try again.

 

Anyway, i see lot of people here talking that this game is crap and then they say that they have stopped playing weeks or months ago. How can be that after all that time you still come here to post that the game is crap or at least to try to make other people think in the same way? When i get tired of a game i simply stop playing it and forget about it, like everybody else. Looks like you have some special interest on the failure of this game.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Shaligal

[sambeta]

Hell, if it is so easy i dont know what you do here writting in a forum, go make a game and sell 3 million copies.

 

Anyway, 3 millions subs, obviusly, but not at the same time XD Dont make me laugh with nonsenses. Some have stop playing, and some are just begining to play right now. If wow have 10 million subs that means that they have only sold 10 million of copies in all this time? Please, ty again.

 

You're missing my point. Selling 3 million copies of a game that is hyped up and has an IP like Star Wars is very easy. Especially when the wait has been so long and the correct marketing ploy is used. 3 million copies getting sold to a retailer is a simple thing to do when you have the right tools and EA does. Look at Mass Effect 3:

 

6.5 Million on a single platform in the UK and USA alone. Yet these copies aren't sold directly to the consumer (you and me) they're sold to a retailer that then sells these copies on to us. There are still many copies left over but yes EA has sold well over those 6.5 on a single platform but to a retailer. 1.7 subs was the estimated subs that were actually subscribed to the game not who had bought it. Remember you need a sub to play the game after all and that requires registering the product and activating an account thus starting your subscription. If 1.3 million people have unsubbed that is an alarming number.

 

Your hostile defensive attitude isn't warranted. I've NEVER stated that I've stopped playing this game or unsubbed? Or that I hate the game. I've stated I have mixed feelings often but I have the patience to wait and see what's to come.

Edited May 7, 2012 by sambeta

[Bloodstealer]

#1 Why do you assume I am a casual?

 

#2 Your Opinion is your opinion. I have been playing since December 13th, first day of EGA! I am an alter and I see no signs of slowing down. Yes, once I get to 8 level 50s, I won't alt anymore. But that doesn't mean my fun stops! Whos to say that I cant do WZs, master my crew skills, or get into Operations. Why is it that because I enjoy alting, that I cannot enjoy anything else in the game?

 

I thnk, like in other responses you have made.. you are missing the point by a country mile...

 

No one is actually saying your game style is wrong, and I certainly didnt intend to insult you or anyone's gaming profile.. maybe I put it out there wrong, but the point was to say the game lacks any kind of hook long term... you yourself have just said when you reach 8 lvl 50's alting is shelved and other areas take over.. great, but how long does that really take in SWTOR... heck you can grind 400 favor in a few days , you can max out affection in the same time.. the only real grind in pvp valor (if you like pvp) and yes grinding gear from Ops etc.. but that in itself shows that you are not running them much if at all currently, cos getting a group to run them just isnt worth the waiting time.

 

I applaud you for enjoyinh the game, certain things I too enjoy but any MMO worth its salt has alot more hooks to it .. the only reason many of us havent maxed everything already is likely down to the enormous amount of time syncing it uses to pad out players game time soooo much...

If you find that immersive and enjoy queue 20-30 mins a pop for WZ's or groups with no grouping tools other than chat spam, trying to play thro things when your FPS plummets 40-50 FPS to under 10FPS or maybe you enjoy looting endless biometric footlockers around the empty planets, over and over when eveything respawns in the same peg hole, mobs included... if so then a big hell yeah for ya and much kudos to you.

#Expressing ones dislike is a tricksy business and often crosses boundaries.. if I did that then I am man enuff to apologise for it and say it wasnt intended that way but the fact remains a very large contingent of players across the servers, and I also inclde busy servers, are just not looking to be here for the long haul, WHY? because the hooks simply are not there for a larger majority imo. - which is simply suicedal for a game this hyped, so young....

 

Other games that are out there or coming out, may or maynot perform as good asd their hype either but what I have seen of them so far they do offer a much better platform to start from and work with, SWTOR was simply released far too early with poor performance and lacking so many features... all of which is biting them hard at the moment... even a novice gamer can work that one out. Sure some of this will be remedied but the game should never of had such basic features missing in the first place unless the whole idea was to actually create a single player experience rather than an MMO community... Everyone has an opinion rightly or wrongly...

I have supported the game alot since beta, I have stuck up in posts knocking its early days, but there comes a point when it simply becomes...OLD to soon

[Bation]

Most of the people that says that GW2 or Tera are gonna be a bomb and will kill other MMOs havent ever tested GW2 or Tera. I only would say this: maybe some will get deceived.

 

I haven't tested GW2 personally but watched plenty of the Yogscast and some of the *** no _____ videos on youtube and im pretty much in the middle on the game

 

Pros

1. No trinity (tank/heals/dps)

2. WvWvW (nuff said)

3. Weapon swapping

 

Cons

1. No real end game

2. the idea u can only customize like 5 of ur skillz

3. No Energy only CD's

[japorms]

err the article predicted that swtor will be the biggest failure in mmo history.

 

well 6 months later it still has millions of subscriber, the general review from ign , gamerspot, etc are pretty positive, lots of new players are coming in, the forum, even the negative comments are one of the busiest ever.

 

so, the writer definitely is just a disgruntled employee trolling......

[Bloodstealer]

If you couldn't make it through the entire faction story the first time without space barring, you're just bad. Simple as that.

 

Not that I'm defending the game, because at this point it's falling apart from their caving in to nerfs to satisfy the crybabies.

 

Lol I am bad cos I began to fall asleep listening to the same cinematics over and over... I never said it was the first time... ... but to say I was busy playing BETA and have been here since launch.. suggests I may have seen those cinematics more than say once.... maybe stop guessing but ok, your entitled to say that, I can live with it... perhaps try to add something in which to back-up your assumptions of my ability to play the game in future, or trying finishing pre-school first before trying to make big

 

My comments are from personal observation... I have played MMO's for many many moons... this one looked pretty darn great when it came out... but then things began to spiral downwards almost immediately.. much to be expected with a new MMO... bugs, performace etc etc.. thats a gimme imo... but that's not the issue for me.. its the shear emptyness that is further compounded by performance that is my main bugbear... Sure I can keep rerolling to other servers as one begins to die and then just keep rinse and repeating time and time again, but of course there is also the strong possiblity that you hit a reverse issue of far too many congregating to one place and server queues occupy your time .. nothing differnt to waiting 20-30mins on an empty planet and then see FPS drops even worse than before due to the game not handling large amounts of people in same area doing a multitude of things... unless of course you wanna be a butterfly counter all day long in VIP lounge on fleet... YES I have alts across other servers and yes that is the effect I have seen.... again from a personal perspective, you may not and all greatness to you.

Nerfs.. I have really only seen one wave of nerfs currently that haS hit players.. healers, much to my dissapointment have I think taken the brunt, but hardly gamebreaking.. other MMO's have been much more harsh in comparison but then again if you have played the MMO cirucuit, you will of course understand that nerfs are normally intended to alleviate imbalance across the skills, classes etc.. otherwise you tend to get a heavy loading on one side of the coin... does that sound at all familiar to you cos I see that almost every single day I log into SWTOR.. Sith out numbere Rep considerably imo... and still do.. why??... Certain classes OP others imo.. and still do but this only really becomes noticable in the PVP arena... FOR ME that's not really my key interest, but I can see how it could annoy others that take it more seriously than just a quick route to topping off that next XP lvl.

Unless of course your referring to nerfs in PVE that are probably more definable by bug fixes... difficult to say as you were soooo vague.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[MikelGoff]

I've asked this in a different thread, but nobody answered.

 

How is GW2 innovating?

[Szadek]

Facts!

 

Server population is going down, even Tomb of Freedom Naad EU Bigest Server doesn't have any ques any more, not even at prime time!

 

Rest are dead empty! This are the Facts the rest its pure speculation.

 

Regards,

[BJWyler]

the game is great as play through one time experience. as far as mmo and long term playability, you have to be truly ignorant of reality to argue this game has it. List all the content for endgame players below please. There simply is nothing besides a handful of dailies, 3 raids - one of wich is pretty much for children with downs (EV), one wich is I must say pretty good and fabricator fight was original, and the 3rd is the exact repeat of "the sunwell" from WoW - few guilds raiding it and over tuned for the sake of being over tuned. Now you can also play huttball nonstop with the occasional alderan, nova, and void star. And? well that's it isnt it? Alts? ya cool for the first one to 50, then? If this amount of content keeps your mind stimulated and intrigued enough to log in regularly, well more power to you, keep chasing your own tail in circles and enjoy yourself. I actualy kinda envy the simple minded sometimes.

 

And yet conveniently forgetting the fact that MMOs are in a constant state of change and the SOP for sub based models is to roll content out over time. If there are other games out there that have "end games" different than the type we have here (essentially dungeon grinding, which has been the end game for every other MMO I have played), and are within the first 5-6 months of their existence, please let us know what they are so we can all go enjoy them as well.

 

I've asked this in a different thread, but nobody answered.

 

How is GW2 innovating?

 

They aren't. They are pulling a Microsoft by taking the best of everyone else's ideas and tossing them into their product. Anet's product is much better than MS' to be certain, and they have done a better job marketing the product, but it is by no means innovative, simply iterative, or derivitive depending on how you look at it.

 

BJ

Edited May 7, 2012 by BJWyler

[Bloodstealer]

I've played GW2. The PvE in that game is terrible. Polished, but very grindy.

Polished is good and not all to common in early launch MMO's - grindy can be worked on over time... pretty much every MMO I have ever played has some grind attached to it... especially at launch where its about setting yourself up with gear, expereince and economy.. nothing wrong in this... and as I said, experience suggests that will get addressed as the game beds in... SWTOR is no differnt in this respect.. gear grind, credit grind and crafting grind all run alongside the daily grind of running through empty planets killing endless respawns (pegs in holes) ... the fact that GW2 has a level of scaling I actually find useful... why should I be able to hand hold a group of lvl 10's with my 50 through areas they really shouldnt be wandering, a penalty other than XP should exist.. difficulty should be scaled imo.. otherwise you are allowing features of the game to be exploited... seen that anywhere in SWTOR i wonder ( a la credit exploit from launch)....

 

The 'main story' part is uninspired and has very poor voice acting. Some people may mock the dialog choices in TOR, but the lack of any choices in GW2 is very noticeable and very annoying. The non-story portion of GW2 PvE (ie: the vast majority of PvE) feels like you're just wandering from place to place for no real reason, getting 'heart quests' where you just grind away at that area for a while until you move onto the next.

Agree SWTOR has made a good job of the VC work... shame it seems to of taken most of the development and actually gets very old all too quickly... to the point the only sound you eventually hear is the thud and crash of your fingers as it smashes down on the space bar repeatidly.

In terms of the lack of story cohesion in GW2 is probably a good observation, as GW1 was similar. But then SWTOR has an element of this as well.. the endless side quests that dont fit the story ... but it pads out the time spent on planet and aids the XP grind, credit grind and gear at lower lvls.. nothing wrong with that imo and not every gamer wants a single player story line taking presednece over open world grp action, but that's just my take on it... both games could be right and wrong on this one.

 

The dynamic quests are different, but that's both good and bad. Good in that there can be some epic, chaotic fun when there are a lot of people around (pretty much the only fun in PvE) but bad in that they just start randomly and the way scaling works means that if there are people in your area who are trying to do their own thing and are avoiding the event, the people doing it will likely get flattened since the game assumes everyone in the area will participate. It also means don't ever go afk in most areas of the world or you could have an event spawn on you randomly while you're away.

KK - I can see that annoying some players who dislike running the risk and reward side of Open world.. sure if I am engaged doing my own thing or runing with a group intent on completing something else, to see the Open world scale gom up through non-particiapation isnt cool and in the wrong hands could lead to griefing.... personally I love feature/difficulty scaling but not at the expense of griefing others, unless in a dedicated arena, area etc.. not that PVP is really my thing.

However some of the best in game events I have particiapted in, in MMO's have all been based around random spawnings with upscaling based on the level of players around you.. not normally penalising hose that dont actually engage mobs or agree to take part in an open world pvp event.. a simply choice box tended to sort that out so you can go about the business of completing your quest etc.. but if you want to engage a mob in the zone.. then you flag yoursefl/grp.. simples and then the lvl of difficulty is determined by your grp levels not others around you or their respective vicinty to you. - Rakghoul event on SWTOR for me was very well done.. not perfect but certainly a great first stab at random event... just need to take the random one step further and stop pegging mobs to set spwan points.

 

The game also has enormous money sinks. If you die (which happens a *lot* and you can never outlevel an area to make it easier since you automatically scale back down to lower level areas) you not only have to pay to get your armor repaired, you actually have to pay just to rez yourself if no one else is around to rez you. On top of that, they've included a lot of 'incentives' to get people to use their cash shop, like the tiny bank that's shared between all your characters (which is 5 *total*, unless you spend real $$ to buy more slots).

Ahhh the old death penaly.. how I miss that in soo many ways... Death Panalty is the ultimate in bringing about tactics, personal ability increases and learning curves... I see that as a positive hook to a game offering challenge, instead of panda'ing (no pun intended) to 8 yr olds who cry to mama cos they keep getting dissed. Why shouldn't you be penalised for dieing... dieing in SWTOR is just mickey mouse stuff.. you get to respawn where you die without the need of a rezzer, you can instantly use all your skills/poweres erc, you get all your HP back in a heartbeat and can just run rezz thro many of the heroic areas to the end boss.... where is that in anyway challenging.. the worst thing that happens is you have to wait longer between deaths.. or recall to nearest med centre and run back, in many cases without any respwns to wipe you again.. a la flashpoints... death is not meant to be a route to completion its a route to learning....

Costs are nothing if your learn not to die so much, if you are then either you really suck or you havent learned that actually its not meant to be soled or not at that level you or your group is trying it... eventually when you and / your group have mastered certain tactics etc.. then you look back and likely laugh at how others are faillng it now

 

In game micro transactions are becomming more and more a feature of games ... after all they are games that requre a business to turn a profit.. you want the game to grow and evolve.. someone has to pay for it.. GW2 has a F2P business model that will either see it stand on its own two feet or see it fall... that depends on the players and how the view its quality and whether they want to buy the fluff etc.. no one forces you to spend the coin.. its there if you want it.. and its normally aimed at those who want the easy ride to lvl or to gear etc etc... its amatter of choice.

 

DDO offers this and it works for a whole host of reasons, good to some bad to others but no one can really argue that it was a massive instrument change that in itself has helped bring about a reverse in that games fortunes.. I know I have played it since the very first day of early beta and saw the EU side of the game get taken away in a heartbeat cos the subs based side of the game were dieing. Turbine could of washed their hands of it and moved on but they developed a business model that saw a huge influx of new and old players, the revenue has helped bring about much more regular content and new game features and shortly its first large scale expansion....

SWTOR will undoubtably see F2P aspects creep into the game as it goes on.. you think transfers are gunna always be free, you think there isnt going to be fluff that you can eventually buy in game, merchanidse etc etc outside of game.. heck the security key is already a chargeable item if you dont want to use your phone.... its just how things are changing in the industry... shelf sales just aren't enough to support an MMO nowadays really.

 

I will say GW2 did one thing right, and that's the PvP. So much better than the stunfest TOR calls PvP. GW2 has no dedicated healers, everyone has pretty good survivability and the option for some defense skills, and there is very little CC outside of snares. *If* I end up getting GW2 (and that's a big *if*), it'll be to ignore the terrible PvE completely and have it for some occasional PvP, just like with GW1. Either way GW2 will have no impact on whether or not I continue to play TOR, which right now I plan to.

Sounds like it could be good fun for a PVP'er but also a mare for tactical grouping but that's not to everyones tastes i guess.... In regards to impact, I think as its a F2P game it will likely have little impact on subbed games like TOR becuase it becomes very much a casual log in rather than trying to get as much value for money out of this months sub..

I would imagine there will be an initialspiral of lost players when its new but I would hazard a guess that BW and other games will likely try to time something into their own games around the same time.. ie a updates or special events.. to help retian players as much as possible

 

So to all the people to think GW2 is some savior MMO that will destroy everything in its wake, by all means buy it. And when you're disappointed with that game too, they have forums for you to whine on as well. Right now their beta forums are just like the TOR beta forums where: mostly positive with people looking forward to the game. After release, it'll be just like TOR's forums, and WoW's forums before that, and the old IGN DAoC and EQ forums before that all the way back to the beginning of forums. Same as it ever was.

Yip most likely.. its in our DNA... the industry is its own worst enemy in that respect.. we demand choice, we demand features, we demand content... we are given all of this and now we dont really know what we want anymore cos the playing field has become sooo large... but for any game to make it, I think it needs something more than a pretty looking screen, it needs challenge, acheivments, rewards and performance.... for me sadly SWTOR launched with very few of the boxes ticked... its grphics were out stripped by it poor perfomance.. so they came up with so9me story about the high res tecxtures were never meant to be in game its an error.. you should be using low res and very low res ... then players began to see the awesome Voiceover cinematics as nothing more than time syncs and space bar through them. Social points become irrelevant when there is no social side really to the game, certainly not from 1-50.. how many flashpoints, Heroics and World Bosses have you missed out, how many Codex entries are you unable to obtain to achieve current completion, how many times do you find yoursel staring at load screens cos to get anywhere you have to wade through soo many time syncs. How long are you waiting for WZ queues to unravel unless your lucky to be on one of maybe 3 or 4 heavy pop servers. How many Open world PVP instances have you been engaged in on Hoth, Tattoine, Quesh, Alderaan etc etc, how mcuh grind are you seeing to get the gear you want... its all relative to whatever game you play..

 

 

I personally am seeing SWTOR fail in many areas already, which is why I tend to agree with many others here and think the game is on a precipice currently, I dont want it to fail, I want it to be everything it was hyped to be and more... that's why I pay to play it afterall .. for now at least

Edited May 7, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[Blackardin]

I am unimpressed by the lack of professionalism shown by this (ex?) employee.

 

More-or-less the employee just seems to be angry ranting about something, but this is far from any sort of bomb shell whistleblowing. It's just stupid.

 

It was a janitor. ;p

[MikelGoff]

They aren't. They are pulling a Microsoft by taking the best of everyone else's ideas and tossing them into their product. Anet's product is much better than MS' to be certain, and they have done a better job marketing the product, but it is by no means innovative, simply iterative, or derivitive depending on how you look at it.

 

BJ

 

And there's nothing wrong with that, I like a game that works well. I'm just tired of "It's innovative" without any real explanation of how they think it is.

[Blackardin]

And there's nothing wrong with that, I like a game that works well. I'm just tired of "It's innovative" without any real explanation of how they think it is.

 

There very well may not be one. That argument is coupled with the promulgation that this game lacks any at all. However, just off the top of my head, with a modicum of thought, I can come up with a list.

 

Cut scene leveling.

Directed Storyline leveling

The least painful leveling this old veteran has ever experienced

Companions

Companion back stories

No more farming

Housing that does not clog up the environment

Housing in the form of ships

space combat

Diversity in leveling via the space combat scenario

Slotted gear and the ability to maintain it via mods

Duel ACs, each with three trees

Legacy

 

The list goes on an on. Some of their ideas are actually revolutionary. The problem is not in the lack of innovation but the ability, or willingness of some to identify it.

 

I honestly believe that we have an abundance of posters that are more interested in demonstrating that they are "right" then they are discussing the pros and cons of this game. As you will see here, there will shortly be a random poster breaking my list down in an attempt to "prove" that none of it exists. ;p

Edited May 7, 2012 by Blackardin

[Terelius]

Haha, I left this thread for 24 hours and look, its people trying to defend a game that suffers major issues instead of playing it which would prove me wrong. People posting instead of getting "absolutely immersed" in the world of SW:TOR. Is it the long warzone queues which could have been solved by cross server queues for low population servers such as mine? Is it the lack of end game content besides farming warzone commendations and running 3 weekly operations? Is it the lack of a nice area you can play and have genuine fun in?

 

I tried to find a good reason as to why I should have stayed subbed but, couldn't and it is obvious that you guys find a need to defend against a legitimate point (in my eyes) made by a troll/hater?

 

Yes, these threads are popping up everywhere, come on, how much of a percentage do you think negative threads take up in these forums, it is almost depressing for the players who genuinely enjoy the game don't you? I personally make these points because i want a discussion that has good points, not just a simple "get out of here if you aren't subscribed etc etc." Though, it has gotten to a point where other more dominant MMOs are out/coming out.

 

No I did not expect this game to be a WoW-killer by any means because I did not expect it to kill any other MMO. I only wanted it to establish itself as a fun MMO to play. However, it has certainly tested my patience by answering what I see as irrelevant to obvious problems with the game in various Q&As.

 

It wouldn't be fair at all to say they haven't tried but, have they applied their effort in the right areas of concern?

 

My server is dying a horrific death in terms of population of players ( I will not comment on any others) and not much is being shown in terms of progress towards server transfers, cross server queues or even RATED warzones.

 

To those that do still find enjoyment, continue playing the game and if you are sick of seeing these threads, dont you think posting in them is kind of working against yourself (they get bumped back up duhhh).

 

Oh what a TOR-tanic...

[Kubernetic]

In terms of Bias I'm far from it. It's disjointed in some of the stories I've played so far, the pacing feels quite off sometimes the way the story progresses from point A to point B seems... Strange. There are some points during the Jedi Knight story that are utterly boring and feel like they could of been left out (most of the Quesh segment for example).

 

Again with generalizations and no specific info.

 

My lack of faith comes from Biowares failure to deliver on what they promise. They consistently say one thing and do another. (RE and new schemes, warzones etc) This is why I don't have complete faith in what they're bringing to space combat, but I have the patience to wait and see. I don't expect everything now, in fact I would of happily waited another year or so for the release of this game for it to be in a polished state.

 

Some things change during development. And your notion of "waiting an extra year or so" is meaningless. You weren't the one that got to make that decision. If you would have waited a year, then go take a break and wait a year, and then come back.

 

They haven't just tied in stories from the previous games they've explained what happened well after KOTOR with the emperor and other characters. This is a sequel as it continues the story of Revan, explains what happens to the Exile as well as HK-47. The only thing that's changed is that you don't play as these characters any more and you take on a new perspective.

 

It definitely seems to continue some of the lore from the KOTOR stories. But this is a completely different kind of game. KOTOR and KOTOR 2 were stand-alone single player games. This game is not. Just because it's set in the same universe as and references some of the stories from another game doesn't really make it a "sequel". It isn't KOTOR 3, nor was it ever intended to be.

 

In regards to this not being a single player game: The lack of people around whilst questing and the fact that you can just go back and solo most flashpoints (bar 47 plus) speaks against that. I've hardly seen anyone while on my quests and I'm on a high pop server. This is far more like a single player game than it would appear.

 

Once again this is your opinion. I was grouped up running a number of missions yesterday. It's not a single player game. I run into people while questing all the time. I'm sorry if your server is underwhelming at the moment. Server transfers are coming. Or you can re-roll now to a more populated server and rekindle that fun you had when there were other players everywhere.

 

Fluff: Extra padding to extend a story. Another words dialog or actions that slow the story down.

 

The Jedi Stories are cliché in the sense of : Light side "oh look there's a sith lets try and stop them" "I'm a good guy don't worry guys I'll save you all!" Or dark jedi: "You're all going to die" Or "What's in it for me" or... "I'll kill you all if you don't pay me". There's no middle ground and that's what makes the Jedi's story so cliché even by star wars standards.

 

Yes I know what FLUFF means, what I wanted was some kind of example of it. Stories have ebbs and flows. They are not 100% full throttle affairs necessarily. And Star Wars itself was loaded with clichés. The bad guys were Nazis in space. The really bad guys (Sith) wore black. The heroes wore Earth tones.

 

A glorified farm boy just happens to use magic to fire a missile into an exhaust port on a giant space station that arguably took decades to plan and build, yet had a crucial flaw exposed to the outer world and could be demolished with a proton torpedo.

 

Yes, good Jedi go after bad Jedi. And Bad Jedi act like jerks. If you want to write a more shades-of-gray story, start writing and send the stuff to BioWare so they can review it and see if it's worthwhile. If you're so much better at writing, show us how it's done.

 

Originally during the beta you could lose companions. It was changed later. As was the advertised "Choices matter!" Now all that matters is which useless NPC you kill or save for them to come back once. I've only witnessed an NPC that I saved or spared coming back once in the entire story for the sith warrior.

 

Yes, and then what happened? Customer Service had to start fielding calls, "Okay this player has lost their companion, what do they do?"

 

That was a problem. There was no way to get a new companion. And since they were slated to join at certain times, you were screwed until you could get to the next companion point. People complained. They wanted the companions back after they had gone. BioWare fixed it.

 

In terms of what I meant by not capturing the SW feel. Lets take what we've seen of the Jedi for example. No where in the story do you serve the senate. Seeing as the Jedi serve the republic there's none of that to be seen in this games story thus far.

 

Now I'm starting to doubt if you've even played the game. Clearly you didn't play the Jedi Knight story line because I've played that up through level 38 and even I've seen portions where you're serving the Jedi Order based on Tython, who is very much giving out orders in an attempt to help the Republic against the Empire.

 

In the movies the Jedi Council was still in charge of things, until it was destroyed. I don't believe the Senate ever had direct control over individual Jedi. They made requests to the Jedi Council and the Council assigned the Jedi they felt were best suited to the task. Seems to be exactly how things operate in this game based out of the Jedi Council on Tython.

 

While some of the planets feel like they fit straight into the star wars universe there are quite a few that don't. Some like Tython look more like your typical fantasy MMO setting with a few temples stuck in for fun. The only part of this entire map that feels like SW is the Jedi temple itself. Some of the creatures don't really seem like they're part of the universe either especially on Taris. The general design of some of the armor just doesn't fit at all for any period of Star Wars. Yet again some of it looks like it would fit into entirely different games.

 

Now you're really losing me. Who are you to say what is a Star Wars planet and what isn't? They can't all be gloomy with pools of muck or swamp land planets. Your opinions don't make much sense here, and I'm sorry, but I have to deny them as being invalid. And now you're actually contradicting yourself. First you claim this game is a sequel to KOTOR and KOTOR 2, which you said you liked (if I'm not mistaken), but now you're complaining about Rakghouls, who were included in those games and in this one too? Somehow the Rakghouls now in this game make it non-StarWarsy?

 

Armor we agree on. End-game armor and some of the other pieces don't make sense. They're fixing this too. I think part of this was trying to encourage some of the players from other games to come to SWTOR. They felt that having similar armor (even if it was outside the norms for Star Wars) would make a difference. As I said, they're addressing this and learning to make some different appearances going forward.

 

In terms of an MMO it doesn't succeed in bringing people together in a community. Most of the people I've come accross want to solo their story and rarely want to do heroics. It's damn hard to find a dialog on most planets and people rarely talk or interact with each other. It's a very rare occasion you see some one from the opposing faction as well.

 

This isn't realistic. A game doesn't create community. People in the community create community. What have you ever done to bolster the community? Name three things.

 

If people want to solo their stories, so what? Find other players who want to play in groups. Opposing factions appear on planets where you're supposed to bump into them. Are you saying you rarely ever see opposing faction players on Alderaan, or Tatooine, or Quesh? If so, maybe your server is the issue and not the game.

 

I just threw a party on my server on Friday night for Star Wars Day. We gave out about 2 million credits worth of cash and prizes to people who stopped by in various contests held every half hour. Had a bunch of people show up and it was a lot of fun.

 

Again, what have you done for the community, other than sitting on a forum declaring the game a failure? Now I'm curious.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Kubernetic

[Elhanan]

the game is great as play through one time experience. as far as mmo and long term playability, you have to be truly ignorant of reality to argue this game has it. List all the content for endgame players below please. There simply is nothing besides a handful of dailies, 3 raids - one of wich is pretty much for children with downs (EV), one wich is I must say pretty good and fabricator fight was original, and the 3rd is the exact repeat of "the sunwell" from WoW - few guilds raiding it and over tuned for the sake of being over tuned. Now you can also play huttball nonstop with the occasional alderan, nova, and void star. And? well that's it isnt it? Alts? ya cool for the first one to 50, then? If this amount of content keeps your mind stimulated and intrigued enough to log in regularly, well more power to you, keep chasing your own tail in circles and enjoy yourself. I actualy kinda envy the simple minded sometimes.

 

* Daily Space Missions

* Crew Skills

* Crew Storylines

* Flashpoints for storylines (solo or m/p)

* Alts - my legacy family work well together, as opposed to some Groups.

* Events - while I chose not to play the Plague stories, the option was avalable.

* PvP and m/p gatherings some may wish to mention.

 

While this may not be exhaustive, it gives me a good start on not reaching boredom during this re-sub period. And I admire someone that likes themselves; healthy....

[Blackardin]

Haha, I left this thread for 24 hours and look, its people trying to defend a game that suffers major issues instead of playing it which would prove me wrong. People posting instead of getting "absolutely immersed" in the world of SW:TOR. Is it the long warzone queues which could have been solved by cross server queues for low population servers such as mine? Is it the lack of end game content besides farming warzone commendations and running 3 weekly operations? Is it the lack of a nice area you can play and have genuine fun in?

 

What is not complete logical fallacy here, is conjecture and hyperbole. You are basing a thesis on what you personally believe with no evidence to support such. The assumption that "people are posting instead of getting absolutely immersed in the game" is something I would expect from a 12 year old....and your solutions are typical, often parroted, quick fix arguments that have been demonstrated to create further issues without really correcting the issue at hand.

 

I believe that everyone here clearly understands your disdain for this game and can appreciate that as an individual choice, however your reasoning and attempts to promulgate that reasoning as word of law is absurd. The very fact that you continue to return with post after post regarding a game that you detest so is is not at all supporting a vote of confidence in your skills as a game developer. ;p