Opinions of 'The Old Republic': From a serious Star Wars fan

[-Me-]

Canon breaks? You have heard of Mace Windu, right? He had a purple bladed Lightsaber and you know that Adgean crystals are in all the colors of the rainbow, ergo, sabers could be multiple colors. Darth Vader marched on the Jedi Temple with a blue bladed saber when he could have asked Sidious for a Red crystal so that he looked like a Sith. See how hollow your argument is? Color is meaningless in terms of blades. Moving on......

 

You also realize that this game takes place 3,600 years before the movies, so there is no Canon per-se? There certainly isnt any G-Canon. These are the real Sith during this timeframe, both in race and in philosophy. Their Empire stayed around to plunge the galaxy into war for almost 2,000 years.

 

I'm confused here. You mentioned the Imperial insignia becoming the insignia of the Republic. When did this happen again? If you're referring to the insignia for the Republic during the Prequels, that symbol is the family crest of the Valorum family, which had the Republic's last Supreme Chancellor before Palpatine. The Imperial insignia during Palpatine's Empire was a modified version of the Sith Empire's insignia.

 

As far as lightsabers go lets see who can out nerd whom.

 

Per George Lucas Jedi are green, Sith are Red, but he has been forced to accept some changes to that over the years. People are going to be quick to try an point out the blue/white lightsabers in episodes IV and V but all that was done before even Lucas attempted to define his version for the SW universe in general. That did not come about until VI and was challenged most publicly by the whole Mace Windu purple lightsaber issue. Lucas actually said *NO* at first and was angry that someone did not want to hold true to his vision but in the end he gave in because Samuel L Jackson is SLJ and demanded a purple saber. SLJ went public about the debate with Lucas in an interview about his Star Wars role.

 

Inbetween the first trilogy and the start of the prequals the SW universe eploded in to a massive expanded universe in books and comics. Lucas allowed for some fairly loose restrictions in the expanded universe (EU) with a few key things being off limits. For example R2D2, C3PO and Luke are not allowed to be killed. As far as the lightsaber crystals there are actually multiple schools of thought as to how it actually works.

 

Anyone who has read Shadows of The Empire, a book that takes place between Empire and Jedi, will know that one school of thought is that the person building the lightsaber does not know what color it will be until it is turned on for the first time. They do not select a specific crystal to have a specific color. The crystals that are used more like diamonds in that they can be a rainbow of colors when light is passed through. This is reinforced in a later book when Luke builds a lightsaber for Leia and it ends up being red.

 

It was not until later that more Sith lore was established and in that lore it is said that the Sith all use a special crystal, naturally infused with darkside energy, that all Sith use to make their lightsabers and they are all red.

 

As far as TOR is concerned my main beef is with the black core crystals. Where and what did they come from or are they just there because they look cool?

 

As for the insignia you asked exactly what I'm asking. When did it happen that TORs timeline Imperial insignia matches up with the Old Republic insignia from the prequels timeline which then went to the new Empire after the fall of the Old Republic? All you have to do is look. Granted they are all modified versions but they are all of the same still.

 

You didn't mention my mention about capital ships. Notice in TOR they are wedge shape? Notice the Republic capital ships in the prequel time line are wedge shape? Notice that same wedge carried over when the Republic became the new Empire? Same question applies here as does with the insignia.

[bahdasz]

This is a pretty good MMO (for the most part) with enough general references/themes to pass itself off as a Star Wars related-ish product. Star Wars it is not. I, sir, am a serious fan; Star Wars has been a big part of my life since I was 7 years old and saw the original movie in a drive-in with my cousin and my parents right after it was originally released. I know just a wee bit of Star Wars, you see, and this ain't it.

 

Once again, this thing that BW has created.... not Star Wars, but the closest thing we got until the SWG2 comes along.

Edited January 1, 2013 by bahdasz

[AsheraII]

As far as lightsabers go lets see who can out nerd whom.

 

Per George Lucas Jedi are green, Sith are Red, but he has been forced to accept some changes to that over the years. People are going to be quick to try an point out the blue/white lightsabers in episodes IV and V but all that was done before even Lucas attempted to define his version for the SW universe in general.

The Darth Vader concept art for Ep IV already showed Darth Vader wielding a BLUE saber. While shooting the movie however, it was changed to red, because it didn't show properly who was who: two cloaked men with glowsticks, that's all it was.

Luke's green lightsaber was also meant to be blue, but blue didn't show properly against the blue sky, so he had to redo the whole thing.

There was also a comic series of the original trilogy, and one of the pictures in that comic showed Darth Vader activating Lukes' lightsaber. It showed a red beam. That specific image was RETCONNED by GL personally, since it would give people the impression that lightsaber color was affected by which side of the force the wielder was on, and he specifically did not want to give that impression. So a later reprint showed Vader activating Lukes' lightsaber and getting a BLUE beam.

 

That did not come about until VI and was challenged most publicly by the whole Mace Windu purple lightsaber issue. Lucas actually said *NO* at first and was angry that someone did not want to hold true to his vision but in the end he gave in because Samuel L Jackson is SLJ and demanded a purple saber. SLJ went public about the debate with Lucas in an interview about his Star Wars role.

Yes, and according to that interview, Lucas gave in right away and said "It's just a color".

 

Inbetween the first trilogy and the start of the prequals the SW universe eploded in to a massive expanded universe in books and comics. Lucas allowed for some fairly loose restrictions in the expanded universe (EU) with a few key things being off limits. For example R2D2, C3PO and Luke are not allowed to be killed. As far as the lightsaber crystals there are actually multiple schools of thought as to how it actually works.

 

Anyone who has read Shadows of The Empire, a book that takes place between Empire and Jedi, will know that one school of thought is that the person building the lightsaber does not know what color it will be until it is turned on for the first time. They do not select a specific crystal to have a specific color. The crystals that are used more like diamonds in that they can be a rainbow of colors when light is passed through. This is reinforced in a later book when Luke builds a lightsaber for Leia and it ends up being red.

 

It was not until later that more Sith lore was established and in that lore it is said that the Sith all use a special crystal, naturally infused with darkside energy, that all Sith use to make their lightsabers and they are all red.

That piece of lore explains how Sith at some point had to use synthetic crystals, and that to make those work, they had to alter them using the force. For those specific synthetic crystals, the lore does indeed explain that the creators' alignment affects the color of the beam. But it also explains that they later learned how to alter that color.

However, for natural crystals, the color comes with the crystal. Some crystals coming in several shades, other crystals coming in only one shade.

Adegan would be an example of a crystal coming in many shades. It's usually blue, but Darth Vaders' lightsaber uses a red Adegan.

 

As far as TOR is concerned my main beef is with the black core crystals. Where and what did they come from or are they just there because they look cool?

They're for the cool.

 

As for the insignia you asked exactly what I'm asking. When did it happen that TORs timeline Imperial insignia matches up with the Old Republic insignia from the prequels timeline which then went to the new Empire after the fall of the Old Republic? All you have to do is look. Granted they are all modified versions but they are all of the same still.

 

You didn't mention my mention about capital ships. Notice in TOR they are wedge shape? Notice the Republic capital ships in the prequel time line are wedge shape? Notice that same wedge carried over when the Republic became the new Empire? Same question applies here as does with the insignia.

Well, there's a few milennia between TOR and the trilogies, so a lot can happen in that period. While it is considered the height of the old republic, it's also the dark age in public knowledge.

 

Too lazy to look up all the wookieepedia references today ^_^

[sandisrd]

Hi,

 

I completely agree with him, TOR indeed is brilliant SW video game and I will keep supporting them in any way I can!...

 

Thank you,

Best regards!.

[A_nonymous]

There are definitely positive things about the game and nothing wrong with a positive review, but this one just goes way over the line into blatant fanboyism. You honestly found the fleet to be "mind-blowing"? Really? You really think they should sell the game for $200 and it's worth it? Really? Then you follow it up with, "I don’t know of any place that a couple can go and have that much fun and be clean as a whistle, and still be deeply satisfying physically, emotionally, and intellectually". Come on now. How can you think people won't take you as a paid shill? You went on to call TOR, "A miracle of the modern age." Honestly? What is a really person going to think when they read you saying that playing a computer game is, "a lifetime experience that my wife and I will never forget."

[-Me-]

SNIP

 

I knew there had to be fellow card carrying nerdage still around here and not everyone is pulling lore out there arses.

 

/salute

 

Enough nerdage for me today, I'm going to find something redneck to do so I can balance it back out before I catch myself in a Star Wars Jeopardy game the rest of the day.

[overmanwarrior]

So.......which kind of "serious" Star Wars fan are you?

 

A. I liked the Prequel Trilogy and consider it part of the saga.

 

B. I only consider the Original Trilogy to be the Star Wars saga. George Lucas betrayed us!

 

Star Wars is serious business.

 

I'm of the "A" type. I don't think Star Wars is as much of a kid story as Lucas stated. The politics in the prequels is pretty heavy stuff. But there is a swashbuckling zest in the Origional Trilogy that is missing in Episodes One through Three. I think it's on purpose. The Prequels after all are about a culture that failed. The Jedi failed to catch the Sith in their act. So it was meant to be a let down. A New Hope is..............well, a new hope.

[DarknessInLight]

 

You didn't mention my mention about capital ships. Notice in TOR they are wedge shape? Notice the Republic capital ships in the prequel time line are wedge shape? Notice that same wedge carried over when the Republic became the new Empire? Same question applies here as does with the insignia.

 

You're right. The Capital ships of the Republic(during the Clone Wars) and Both Empires were wedge shaped. Here is some interesting points regarding that very connection:

 

1. The Centurion Class Battlecruisers, an example of which is the Ravager, which was used by Darth Nihilus during the First Jedi Purge. These were originally manufactured for and used by the Republic navy during the Mandalorian wars and the Jedi Civil War.

 

2. The Harrower Class Dreadnoughts are the Battlecruisers seen primarily in TOR. These were manufactured presumably by the Sith, perhaps even on Dromund Kaas, although no information is available regarding this, other than the fact that the Empire used this during the Cold War.

 

Flash forward to the Clone Wars....

 

- Kuat Drive Yards manufactured the Venator-class Star Destroyer, which was the primary Battlecruiser of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars and was the direct ancestor of the Imperial Class Star Destroyer, also created by Kuat. The interesting thing to note is that this design may have had Palpatine's/Sidious' influence as a Sith Lord, which explains the wedge shape as a nod to the history of the Sith.

 

- Even the Jedi had starfighters that screamed of Kuat's design planning. The Delta-6 Aethersprite-class, Delta-7 Aethersprite-class and Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor were ALL manufactured by Kuat.

 

Seems to me that there was some kind of general consensus to using the Wedge shaped ships, but for what reason, I'm not sure. Perhaps it was a simplistic design?

[theUndead]

Well as a die hard star wars fan, star wars is a lifestyle not just a interest.

There is alot of things about this game that dont belong in the star wars universe, game

is so off canon wise it's scary.

 

But it's still a good game for a MMO i agree on that.Way better then crap panda etc.

Best MMO on the market is Rift rigth now, but it would be right if bioware could understand how importent

minigames, events, immersion and player freedom is to players.And take this game off rails would be huge.

And belive it or not i'm talking about ground.

 

I'm sorry what? Off cannon you say? Nott to be rude man but please tel me how the game is off cannon, it follows the cannon of KOTOR which is firmly established in the cannon and they even stated that it's "Spiritual successor to KOTOR 2" or something like that. The fact is in my mind the game is actually does well in terms of cannon.

[siegedeluxe]

I have been playing The Old Republic for over 90 hours now, (about a week) and I love it. It is well worth the money I've spent so far, and after I run out of story content, I think it would be worth the subscription just to be in those environments. There are plenty of things to do if you are a Star Wars fan. I don't get many of the negative comments. It costs a lot of money to produce the amount of content that BioWare produced for this game, and it is their right to make all the money they possibly can--because that's why they're in business. There are plenty of options for participation, if a player wants to go all out, they can. If they want to just keep it casual, they can do that too. Choice is good.

 

I put more of my comments at the below link, which is quite lengthy. But in short, I think this is one of the greatest games ever produced, and I've played a lot of them. I hope BioWare and everyone involved with The Old Republic makes a lot of money and enjoys great success from this game as it matures in the months to come. I have enjoyed it enormously, and I don't see any end to that in the near future.

 

 

http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/review-of-the-old-republic-an-amazing-game-produced-in-an-amazing-time/

 

Did you get paid to write this piece?

[Rafaman]

Nice post OP. Thanks. Don't let the haters drive you off. It seems that praise is somehow nefarious propaganda now. Lol! The latest tact where they now believe positive posts are bought and paid for by EA or BW would be comical if it wasn't so damn tragic.

 

In any event, this new year I confident I will keep enjoying SWTOR. Makeb and the Ilum PvP are 2 of the items I am particularly looking forward too. But Makeb will be particularly important as the story continues.

[A_nonymous]

Nice post OP. Thanks. Don't let the haters drive you off. It seems that praise is somehow nefarious propaganda now. Lol! The latest tact where they now believe positive posts are bought and paid for by EA or BW would be comical if it wasn't so damn tragic.

 

In any event, this new year I confident I will keep enjoying SWTOR. Makeb and the Ilum PvP are 2 of the items I am particularly looking forward too. But Makeb will be particularly important as the story continues.

 

You don't think calling TOR a miracle of the modern age goes beyond simple praise?

[internaty]

I have been playing The Old Republic for over 90 hours now, (about a week) and I love it. It is well worth the money I've spent so far, and after I run out of story content, I think it would be worth the subscription just to be in those environments. There are plenty of things to do if you are a Star Wars fan. I don't get many of the negative comments. It costs a lot of money to produce the amount of content that BioWare produced for this game, and it is their right to make all the money they possibly can--because that's why they're in business. There are plenty of options for participation, if a player wants to go all out, they can. If they want to just keep it casual, they can do that too. Choice is good.

 

I put more of my comments at the below link, which is quite lengthy. But in short, I think this is one of the greatest games ever produced, and I've played a lot of them. I hope BioWare and everyone involved with The Old Republic makes a lot of money and enjoys great success from this game as it matures in the months to come. I have enjoyed it enormously, and I don't see any end to that in the near future.

 

 

http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/review-of-the-old-republic-an-amazing-game-produced-in-an-amazing-time/

 

With all possibol respect:

Gamers like my good self dont give a rats *** about the company.

We want to play a good game and swtor is a good game.

Is it worth it's money?

Yes.

Do they deserve money?

NO.

 

Money needs to be earned.

And eagames doesnt earn it it sucks it out of succesfull companies then kills them off.

 

As for bioware:

May it rest in peace*

 

*Bioware is now owned by eagames and for all intends and purposes now part eagames and no longer worth considering a company on there own.

Edited January 1, 2013 by internaty

[Yyrmega]

Yes, it's by far the best mmo on the market. Hopefully it grows even more, and the coming of Makeb is great news and only the beginning! Edited January 1, 2013 by Yyrmega

[Rafaman]

You don't think calling TOR a miracle of the modern age goes beyond simple praise?

 

Nah. As an old time gamer, I remember the days were online gaming was limited to MUDs. Considering where we are now? Yea, it's pretty freaking miraculous. Of course it is not limited to one game or MMO, but SWTOR continued the MMO evolution by adding focus on story.

Edited January 1, 2013 by Rafaman

[dogmaticus]

As a Star Wars fan for 2 decades I couldn't agree more!

[Edzew]

I have been playing The Old Republic for over 90 hours now, (about a week) and I love it. It is well worth the money I've spent so far, and after I run out of story content, I think it would be worth the subscription just to be in those environments. There are plenty of things to do if you are a Star Wars fan. I don't get many of the negative comments. It costs a lot of money to produce the amount of content that BioWare produced for this game, and it is their right to make all the money they possibly can--because that's why they're in business. There are plenty of options for participation, if a player wants to go all out, they can. If they want to just keep it casual, they can do that too. Choice is good.

 

I put more of my comments at the below link, which is quite lengthy. But in short, I think this is one of the greatest games ever produced, and I've played a lot of them. I hope BioWare and everyone involved with The Old Republic makes a lot of money and enjoys great success from this game as it matures in the months to come. I have enjoyed it enormously, and I don't see any end to that in the near future.

 

 

http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/review-of-the-old-republic-an-amazing-game-produced-in-an-amazing-time/

 

 

 

im a huge Star Wars fan as well, i have read every book Post original trillogy and am currently working on pre trilogy novels.... and i for one am completely bored with this game... there is no exploration at all, there hardly is any space battles, the only thing that makes this "Star Wars" is that we are running around with light sabers and we call our selves jedi and or sith. this is one of the worst MMOs i have ever played... mostly because its not a MMO or at least it dont feel like an MMO, its more of a single player game that has online capability. it was a great idea for an MMO but they really dropped the ball and like the other star wars mmo we had in the past it seams like they rushed this out the door before it was ready and have been trying to play catch up ever since... though now it seams more like they dont care about the game and only care about getting just a little bit more out of us.

 

so no this is not worth the monthly subscription, its not a great MMO and i personally have no clue what crack the gaming mags were smoking when they gave it such high reviews!! ( i honestly think they were bought and not earned)

[Grammarye]

Did you get paid to write this piece?

Did you get paid by Blizzard to ask this question?

 

If the question offends, consider your own question. If not, fair game.

Edited January 1, 2013 by Grammarye

[Vyshen]

OP is right on the money! Been playing since release and I am happy to support this game with my subscription and my pocketbook.

[Evil_Dave]

As a huge Star Wars fan, I can say that SWTOR definitely gets the Star Wars fiction part of the equation right. Yes, some of the stories are boring and trite, but by and large the story content is of very good quality, and there's a lot of it to experience. I've enjoyed what I've seen so far, which is the only endorsement that matters to me.

 

That said, SWTOR isn't just a vehicle for delivery of Star Wars content. It happens to be a videogame - one that requires a significant, recurring financial commiment to play with any sense of fulfillment. In that regard, SWTOR is a disaster. We all know the issues that have been simmering for months, so I won't rehash them here, but it's safe to say that there's a reason why this game crashed and burned after one of the most successful MMO launches ever.

 

Bottom line is, if you think the Star Wars stuff is worth your $15/month, then good for you. Most of us, however, are paying for the full package, and I think we would all agree that we don't always get our money's worth.

[Vlacke]

I agree with the OP 100%.