Why you love The Old Republic

[Flightsaber]

Please post reasons why you love The Old Republic here, to boost developer and staff morale at Bioware and EA.

 

I'm a dedicated MMO gamer, having played Dungeons and Dragons Online, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 1 & 2, and even non-traditional MMOs such as Age of Empires Online and Need for Speed World. That said, I've been playing SWTOR since beta, and TOR is, hands down, the most fun I've ever had playing an MMO.

 

The leveling process is second to none. Storytelling in TOR is handled in an expert Bioware fashion, involving decisions with consequences, characters that are easy to fall in love with or hate due to pristine voice acting, and the provision of solo-environments that allow these sequences to become extremely atmospheric.

 

The community is also incredibly friendly. In World of Warcraft, chat is reserved for loot disputes and spamming other players with reasons why they should stop playing their class. In SWTOR, even in random groups players I've met have focused on building each other up - even fighting for responsibility for a wipe rather than blaming it on someone else. On our server (Jung Ma), players have gone out of their way to supply low-level characters with gear; organized server-wide events involving multiple guilds in cinematic RP, and generally been ready to offer new or clueless players everything needed to have fun and be successful.

 

Huttball, for me, is what initially convinced me that TOR was a game-changer in the genre. There's nothing else like it, really. WoW set the standard for having objective-based PVP that was more than just 'kill the other faction.' TOR perfected objective-based PVP with Huttball.

 

And speaking of innovation, the profession system is the first I've ever heard of in an MMO that's not essentially a grand collect-athon process. The companion characters even allow the leveling process to be enjoyable for healers when they want to play without entering a dungeon (flashpoint).

 

When TOR was initially released, players had limited end-game content to chew on. The Legacy system changed that. While most MMOs end their progression with raiding content, TOR provides a legacy experience bar that has profound effects on rolling alts with real rewards. The hundreds of hours spent at max level translate into a more streamlined and individualized experience for the next character, rather than simply translating to a grind for gear.

 

I could go on...The TOR launch, despite the queues, was the smoothest I've ever experienced in terms of lag and bugs. TOR dares to retain traditional talent trees at a time when most companies (*cough* Blizzard, Arenet) prefer to dumb-down the characterization options to cater because they don't believe casual players could understand it. The mini-games are excellent. The graphics manage to strike a rare balance between artistic style that should give the game longevity and believable locales and architecture. The developers have listened to fan feedback and included options such as a dungeon finder utility and companion customization options.

 

So thank you, Bioware. For making a great game at a time when the Star Wars license has largely been used for shovel-ware products.

[hardrive]

The Imperial Agent storyline.

 

 

I love you Bioware. I love you.

[arunav]

I really enjoy the leveling experience. It is some of the most fun I've had in MMOs/RPGs in general, even with the repeated side quests. WZs at 50 are a highlight too. It's fun to try new builds and learn to counter the various other classes.

 

The legacy system is convenient for leveling up alts, as companions begin to rip through mobs as the presence unlocks stack up.

 

All in all, I think if one doesn't play through the content at breakneck speed, there is a lot to see and do in TOR. EA doesn't seem to be backing the game all that much at the moment, and Jeff Hickman has me a little skeptical of TOR's leadership. Hopefully the F2P transition will bring in enough revenue for a renewed interest in its further development.

Edited October 2, 2012 by arunav

[chuixupu]

The Imperial Agent storyline.

 

^ This

[Qarran]

Thanks OP. You have covered a great deal and I agree with most of it.

 

I will add a few personal items that really stood out. First and foremost the guilds, not unique to TOR, but they are friendlier and more inclusive. This game seems to have more social guilds. Not hell bent on finishing content, but more about playing with friends online. I have run into less gear snobs and meter kings here. Love that.

 

The attention to detail. Have you ever just looked up while you are on the fleet or looked around the different vistas while visiting a planet. Wow... great detail and outstanding views. Love it. Nice work there.

 

And of course, the content. I think what we have here, and I consider it a benefit as opposed to other players, is the melding of a single player experience and an MMO. It works very well for me. When I want some focused single player action, I hop on one of my alts and work through the storylines which are great. When I want to spend some time with guildies and run HMs or Ops, I hop on one of my 50s and go tackle what ever is next on the agenda. And what's more, if I need to help a guildy out, I just hop from alt to alt and jump in wherever needed. Best of both worlds IMO and it is keeping me around for the foreseeable future.

 

Thanks to all involved and keep working on content and issues. This is a young MMO and despite the pundits and the armchair trolls this game has the potential to the be greater still. Just keep on keeping on BW!

[Evensong]

Story. It grows on you and makes you expand it in all possible ways limited only by your imagination.

Combat. For me it's so intuitive. I love it. I played many MMOs but this one feels so... like created just for me.

Lightsabers LOL. Love my lightsaber The Truethseeker with light red crystal looks awesome.

 

OK. main reason I love Quinn:) I know lots of you don't but you will all love him, like him better after you read This

 

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=516919

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=514775

 

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=530198

Edited October 2, 2012 by Evensong

[Sultrus]

Being new to the game, I haven't seen that much of what it has to offer but I must say I am amazingly impressed. I used to come from STO and this game is so superior, I cannot even count all the ways. This game is just really WoW in Space with some excellent add-ons... I absolutely love all the voice acting and voice scripting quests and the conversation options in a "Mass Effect" Style have really sold this game to me.

 

I have not really encountered any problems yet and I just hope this game stays popular because I could see myself getting into it. I love the depth of the storylines, especially the Sith Inquisitor Storyline and all the lore expanded from Knights of the Old Republic.

 

Thank you Bioware, I was a big fan of Kotor I and II and this has the feel of Kotor III which is what I always wanted.

[DanteDeLaRocha]

I've played MMOs since the first Everquest. In many ways, SWTOR is the MMO I've been waiting for my whole life. I did try SWG but got bored with it very quickly. It just wasn't ready for prime time at release. I really enjoy questing in MMOs the most (more so than raiding and pvp) and SWTOR was clearly built around questing. For some reason I enjoy being told what to do and then running out and collecting 12 rakghoul samples and coming back for a prize. It can play like a single-player game but also has the social MMO side to it when you want it. I've grown tired of spears and swords and horses and traded them all in for LIGHT SABERS!

 

I've made a pledge to myself that as soon as we have a child that I would quit MMOs for good. Even with all of its faults I'm pretty sure that SWTOR will be my last MMO.

[Skodan]

2 words. Star. Wars.

 

 

 

But really i enjoy playing through the story, i enjoy utilizing all my alts to help gear each one up, i enjoy just chatting with guildies.

[Toweleeeie]

Its Star Wars

 

Thats it

[thedeathoflove]

everything about this game makes me so addicted to it! great job bioware!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jetronin]

Its fun. I love the PvE and PvP(hated PvP on wow). I think of going back to wow... and .. well no I just couldn't now, and GW2 bored me within about 2 days.

 

I do like the setting, but if the game was bad that would not be enough to keep me. I just love the game play and the feel of the game in general, its a pleasure to play unlike others to me.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Jetronin

[Talimar]

It has lightsabers.

 

I love the art style, it's amazing, just like the amount of story and lore.

 

I'm sold. Yeah there are loads of things that annoy me but the two above factors keep me playing. That and I haven't finish all the stories yet.

[errant_knight]

I've never played another mmo that held my interest. I need story, and swtor has that in abundance. I've been playing of what? A year? And still haven't done all the stories. Until you reach endgame, this game is perfect. Even then, no one is stopping you from making new characters and there's plenty of fun to be had in groups if you're social and not the 'race through everything as fast as possible' type. Apart from Dragon Age: Origins, I've never had so much fun playing a game, and this has the additional advantage of other humans, some of whom don't suck.

[Vhaegrant]

It has lightsabers.

 

I love the art style, it's amazing, just like the amount of story and lore.

 

I'm sold. Yeah there are loads of things that annoy me but the two above factors keep me playing. That and I haven't finish all the stories yet.

 

+1

I'm not a PvPer or an end game raider, I'm here for the story and still enjoying it. Quite simply the best levelling experience I've ever had in an MMO.

[Knockerz]

Female characters are some what normal looking in this game. I dislike games like Tera where females are made to like streetwalkers and the provocative gear for female characters. Also the female characters don't have their pelvic bone sticking out the side like female blood elves in WoW.

 

No ridiculous large shoulder gear like in WoW.

 

We get three dances.

 

Sci-fi mmorpg

 

Blaster weapons and lightsabers

 

Huttball

 

We have Andryah and Yogol on the forums.

 

Better graphics than WoW

 

No crazy rep grind like current MoP for WoW

 

VO especially female imperial agent match perfect with story

 

The trolling on swtor forums isn't as bad like in WoW.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Knockerz

[Lavariusstar]

I enjoy The old republic because it's different from the other games I've played,it keeps me entertained,the voice acting is SUPERB,and the pvp and planets are great and fun to explore.Plus in the end: it's Star Wars at heart,and I love Star Wars.It has it's flaws but everything does.It's just fun to play for hours on end questing and leveling with all sorts of people and my companions

[Kikilicious]

It is what I was looking for. Custom character (except the voice, but come on, it's Grey DeLise!) with an immersive storyline. Romancable companions as well. It's odd, BioWare like to emotionally attatch you to your companions, even if they're jsut pixel dollies :3

[Lunafox]

How do I love thee SWTOR, let me count the ways...

 

Mostly, the story lines, especially Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight.

 

I love that we have companions, especially Malavai, Vector, Doc and Scourge.

 

 

Things I'd love to see in the future is more customizations and story for companions...and the ability to have/craft furniture, rugs, art, etc for ships, or even player housing in the form of CONDOS on Dromund Kass or Coruscant. Surely something could be arranged...

Edited October 2, 2012 by Lunafox

[DahrenJex]

Thanks for posting this, OP! I've been hoping to see an increase in positive threads about this game which, to echo someone else from this thread, is the game that I have been waiting for. I will confess that I have unsubbed twice (both times with much regret) and will probably make that switch to F2P when it happens, but strictly for financial reasons and certainly not because I dislike the game.

 

I love the random in-game encounters that leads to an unexpected epic group, I love the stories (haven't finished any of them yet but am working on all four Pub side...love 'em all!) and I am blown away by the attention to detail. Someone mentioned the vistas, which I wholeheartedly agree with, but I think the storytelling and how the developers had to focus on thousands of dialog options and player choices is genuinely mind-blowing. (I'm a software developer and was trying to think of how many nested IF statements must have gone into these conversations.)

 

I was playing the Smuggler campaign in a group with a trooper and another smuggler when we entered a smuggler story zone. Because there three of us in the group, only I had my companion, Corso Riggs. We had to do the zone twice and I went first. I'll try to be vague to avoid spoilers but the end of the zone had Corso threatening to killing someone. Light side points if you stop him, dark side points if you don't. However, Corso wasn't there when we ran the zone again for the other smuggler. There were very different conversation options where now the other smuggler got to threaten the guy with death. Everything was so seamless that I would not have noticed anything had we not just done it with different variables.

 

Between details like that, group conversations, the outstanding voice-over work, and how my decisions actually do impact my game, I have not been able to play any other MMO. Or single player games, for that matter. ME1, ME2, DA:O, and DA2 are all on my computer, but only ME1 is finished and that was to see how it impacted ME2. Maybe someday they'll get done but not until well after I've played SW:TOR out. I'm no fanboy but I am glad to have the "Founder" title after my name in this game.

 

Thanks, BW!

[BlueRahja]

Just a quick one off listing of the reasons I love this game (I got rez scrolled in wow for a week and I am back with a HUGE appreciation)

 

-The Challenge 2 and 4 man heroics that are actually challenging. My wife and I duo all of them, and some can be INSANELY hard. As in harder than HM raiding. Duoing the 4 man quest on Tatooine to save prisoners. Some of those groups have up to 5 gold star mobs in them. Having to push my healing to the limit while she does her best to burn the mobs down before I can't keep up anymore, its a BLAST! We leveled 80-85 in wow, no risk of death even once, no challenge at all, bored to tears.

 

-The community. At least on Rubat Crystal and to a slightly lesser degree now that we are on ebon hawk, the community is great. We were honored to be a part of the best guild on Rubat Crystal, and we are in the process of doing the same again on republic side after the move, and we just keep meeting amazing people, not only that, but I think we have a far better mix of the sexes than most games. Our guild was almost 50:50.

 

-The stories. Not all of them are created equaly, BUT there's something there for everyone. Admittedly, I wasnt into the smuggler storyline, chasing my ship around like a dog after his tail, but the BH story, the SW one, the agent and now the trooper and consular stories, all pretty gripping. I feel like I am actually a part of my OWN story, instead of caught up in the flow of something I am barely a part of (wow...).

 

-Legacy. I love that I am encouraged to try out new classes, or dabble on the other factions. I like that some of the things I have bought, carry over to other characters, even if its little things like ship mailboxes and droids to sell my crap too. I like that leveling a human to 50 makes it so all the characters I roll start with these crazy superbuffed companions because of the presence bonuses. Some of it feels like the achievement system, only with tangible rewards. Level a Zabrak to 50, open up both versions on both sides on all classes? Thats awesome. I am leveling a chiss consular, and although I am not a unique snowflake, its interesting to be able to remove myself from the crowd a little. In wow, not so much. I really only liked playing a dwarf, and all my lame *** friends wanted to play horde...if I could have legacy unlocked dwarf and rolled up on the other side....man.

 

-The exception And the race unlocks brings up my final point. We are the exception in swtor, not the rule. In wow, all the exceptional people are NPCS. Cataclysm was the story of thrall, and you are just some cog in the machine of that story. You cant play a maghar orc, or a Mok'nathal half ogre, because they are the exception, and you are not exceptional. But in swtor, the story is about you. You are the main character. Eternity vault isnt about you and 7 faceless nobodies helping someone else get to SoA for their epic battle. (tirion and the lich king) That was you and your friends doing it. You want to be the Miralian sith lord? Well, if you are willing to put in the time, you can be the exception. And thats a HUGE difference. These are our escapist fantasies, and we are able at least to some degree to shape them. Thats a big deal in an mmo.

 

Oops...that wasnt quick at all.

Edited October 2, 2012 by BlueRahja

[Aelrail]

TFB is a very well done instance and tons of fun. same with the other Ops.

 

I love my SWTOR characters,

I have tried probably every other MMO out there, played a couple of them for years and to be honest, SWTOR is the best MMO I have ever played.

[Blackweb]

Being new to the game, I haven't seen that much of what it has to offer but I must say I am amazingly impressed. I used to come from STO and this game is so superior, I cannot even count all the ways. This game is just really WoW in Space with some excellent add-ons... I absolutely love all the voice acting and voice scripting quests and the conversation options in a "Mass Effect" Style have really sold this game to me.

 

I have not really encountered any problems yet and I just hope this game stays popular because I could see myself getting into it. I love the depth of the storylines, especially the Sith Inquisitor Storyline and all the lore expanded from Knights of the Old Republic.

 

Thank you Bioware, I was a big fan of Kotor I and II and this has the feel of Kotor III which is what I always wanted.

 

That's strange I have the same level of enjoyment, but I don't feel like the game is anything at all like WoW. I mean it has an MMO build, like most mmo's do, but that's pretty much the likeness to wow besides some simple features that has nothing to do with the visual experience or the game mechanics.

 

But to contribute, I loved the original KOTOR game and I enjoy this game mostly because of that also cuz it's Star Wars. As an MMO I never really felt space mmo's felt as realistic as games like WoW or Guild Wars, since it's much easier to simulate a realistic feel when your on a "world" with a surface and buildings etc.

 

In sci-fi games your constantly on ships and usually pretty socially barren planets that are only for questing etc. which makes it hard to get that "everyday life" kinda feeling.

 

But as a coop with friends or single player experience and abit of light weight mmo'ing this game is pretty sweet. I am saddened at how things turned out with Bioware because of the pressure from negative fans, people are (un)fortunately very passioned when it comes to things they hold dear, like Star Wars and when things don't end they way they liked they tend to exaggerate.

[melodylane]

I never make alts I was a one toon player untill SWTOR. This game MAKES you want to have alts and in turn provides you with months of new game play to enjoy. The legacy system is a true innovation in MMO games, really rewarding and encouraging the creation of alts. Making people like me who usually play only one character expand their game play and experiance all class stories and fightiing styles.

Great Job on the Legacy System Devs!

[Kelleth]

The game has many things I enjoy.

 

A complete set of quests, with story behind them

Customization of a character(Though, that barber shop you promised us at release is still lacking)

Challanging, but not overly challanging gameplay.

Nice Warzone layouts and great flashpoints.

 

Now, I do have a few suggestions on how to increase enjoy of the game(Who doesn't?)

We need more useless items, like an active showing achievement list(The *DING* When you get one is satisfying)

We need a lot more pets, mounts/speeders and warzones(They can still hold the same capture/defend systems, but varying maps are a good thing).

The Fleets needs to be made a lot bigger with more of the same vendors and quest terminals to avoid masses of players standing in 1 location(Or remove them and make new areas on the factions Capital cities), they also need a dueling area.

A whole new pve type, PvE survival mode, healing not allowed, constantly in combat to avoid self healing, and depending on how long you survive you get something(I like survival modes in games), 1 life per player, when you die you are out and the rest have to survive for as long as possible.

 

Just a few things I have thought about that could improve the game, in my opinion anyway.

Overall, I like the game, and I look forward to seeing what they continue to do with it.