We need variety

[kehatch]

This is my third time trying to come back to this game. I really want to love it. After a break I do love it. But the game sticks so rigorously to its formula it is tough to stay engaged.

 

All theme park based MMOs follow the same hub based treadmill formula to some extent. But in TOR it is way to transparent and they make zero attempt to let you deviate from it.

 

 

• In EQ the down time and difficulty forced the community to interact. They also gave you different ways to progress your player such as AA. There were also other forms of character development by looking for specific equipment or spells.
  
• EQ2 gave you a bunch of different quest types such as heritage quests. They also provided you incentive to explore as well as a robust crafting path to spend your time.
  
• WoW was the ultimate treadmill. But at least they tried to vary the types of quests you were doing so it didn't feel like you were doing the same thing over and over again. They also had factions that mattered, etc.
  
• LOTRO had quest variety and the incentive to open up traits

 

 

I could go on with a list of other games that make an effort to give you more to do when you got tired with the same old. For the record I am not saying those games are better, or that TOR needs to become harder, or that they need to add grind like traits etc. I am just making the point that other games give you options.

 

TOR misses the point in few alternate options they give you. Space missions are pointless as they give you nothing. Achievements are the same thing. The crafting system is mindless. The legacy system is novel but it comes automatically and is now dominated by micro transactions. They have war zones and flashpoints but every theme park game has those (most are done better).

 

TOR needs to introduce some variety to their missions. And they need to give you meaningful things to do when you are bored of leveling characters or doing dailies. I mean their single players games don't follow a transparent "go here and complete all the quests, then go there and complete all the quests" formula. Or at least when they do it disguises it better. TOR can be better.

 

What about a BG like strong hold? Or give us more optional companion quests? Or make achievements worth something? Or give us alternate character advancement? Something to keep us from getting bored.

Edited May 31, 2013 by kehatch

[Vikassi]

whenever you feel like coming back to the game, just remember why you left in the first place .. not much has changed except for new ways for bioware to make a quick buck from the cartel market. pvp has been obliterated and pve is plain boring.

[ELRunninW]

I have been playing for few months only and I still have a long way before I can call this game boring. I think no one is expecting anyone to be playing this game for 'ever' Edited May 31, 2013 by ELRunninW

[Superman_AZ]

As someone who has played other MMOs, I can understand your concern. The other poster was right when saying "When you think about coming back, remember why you left". Odds are, you didn't just "take a break". I've recently unsubbed, uninstalled, and permanently deleted my account with WoW. I have no desire to ever return. To insure I don't, I made certain to get myself banned from both the game, and the forums. I was beyond done with them and their game. I remember enjoying my time in SWTOR but being lured back to a game where I had 10 lvl 85 characters waiting for me. So I played from just after launch til April 2012, and left.

 

Now, I am glad to be back. I enjoyed the interactive quest lines and stories. This game impressed me in ways that others just could not live up to. I have seen what "variety" can do to a game. True fact: no matter how much you get, you are never completely satisfied, and no matter how much you lose, you are never really lost. Even though variety may seem like a good idea on the surface, it ultimately leads to boredom and high expectations. If the game is not enough as it stands, as for new features, but know that they can only do so much before you eventually get bored again, and unsub once more.

[MSchuyler]

I have been playing for few months only and I still have a long way before I can call this game boring. I think no one is expecting anyone to be playing this game for 'ever'

 

That's exactly right. At the rate I'm playing I figure it will take me a couple of years before I'm "to done" at which point I will move on. Some players are so fast that they finish the game sooner, and that's okay, but they don't seem to realize it. They beg or whine about new content and don't realize there IS NOT GOING TO BE ANY SIGNIFICANT NEW CONTENT any time soon. The new stuff that drops in decimal patches will be minor and will never satisfy anyone. That's why they call them "patches." And 2.1.1? It's a minor tweak to 2.1. Nothing special.

 

The thing is, Bioware PR flaks and the player community have differing definitions on what constitutes "new content." We think big. To us "new content" means a dozen new planets and 50 more levels. To Bioware, "new content" means a new armor set that looks suspiciously like an old one with different coloring. We're never going to see eye-to-eye on this and Bioware is never going to meet our expectations. If we want to "be happy" here, we have to lower our expectations.

 

Also, there will NEVER be any significant change in the way the game is played, ever. It's built into the code. You don't just start over from scratch; you can't. And some of the things we think ought to be "simple" to change really are not. What we think is a "tweak" could involve a significant re-write.

[Andryah]

This is my third time trying to come back to this game. I really want to love it. After a break I do love it. But the game sticks so rigorously to its formula it is tough to stay engaged.

 

All theme park based MMOs follow the same hub based treadmill formula to some extent. But in TOR it is way to transparent and they make zero attempt to let you deviate from it.

 

• In EQ the down time and difficulty forced the community to interact. They also gave you different ways to progress your player such as AA. There were also other forms of character development by looking for specific equipment or spells.
  
• EQ2 gave you a bunch of different quest types such as heritage quests. They also provided you incentive to explore as well as a robust crafting path to spend your time.
  
• WoW was the ultimate treadmill. But at least they tried to vary the types of quests you were doing so it didn't feel like you were doing the same thing over and over again. They also had factions that mattered, etc.
  
• LOTRO had quest variety and the incentive to open up traits

 

I could go on with a list of other games that make an effort to give you more to do when you got tired with the same old. For the record I am not saying those games are better, or that TOR needs to become harder, or that they need to add grind like traits etc. I am just making the point that other games give you options.

 

TOR misses the point in few alternate options they give you. Space missions are pointless as they give you nothing. Achievements are the same thing. The crafting system is mindless. The legacy system is novel but it comes automatically and is now dominated by micro transactions. They have war zones and flashpoints but every theme park game has those (most are done better).

 

TOR needs to introduce some variety to their missions. And they need to give you meaningful things to do when you are bored of leveling characters or doing dailies. I mean their single players games don't follow a transparent "go here and complete all the quests, then go there and complete all the quests" formula. Or at least when they do it disguises it better. TOR can be better.

 

What about a BG like strong hold? Or give us more optional companion quests? Or make achievements worth something? Or give us alternate character advancement? Something to keep us from getting bored.

 

This MMO clearly does not meet your personal requirements. Find and play one that does IMO. You stating your personal requirements and disaffections and demanding they do things your way is not going to make the game better for you personally. Why? Because the game is designed for broad player base, not for you personally.

 

It's OK if SWTOR is not for you. No MMO is right for everyone, not even WoW. Play what is fun for you.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Andryah

[Repman]

Variety would be good! I mean minus the class story missions all the other quests are the same...from 1-55...the same boring "Could you do my job for me" missions.

[Shrikestalker]

What about a BG like strong hold? Or give us more optional companion quests? Or make achievements worth something? Or give us alternate character advancement? Something to keep us from getting bored.

I find this post incorrect at the least, dishonest or as if someone played this game as a blind person.

 

Let's look at where the OP says there needs more 'variety' in TOR:

 

Space missions. Whether you like them or not, that's variety. They are a viable way to accent leveling and provide decent exp.

 

PvP. That's variety. A stronghold addition (note: addition) would be nice to the other content here. There are already quests they had that are a mix of PvE objectives within PvP areas.

 

Special events and questing. Raghoul event. Gree event. Macrobinocular questing. Dreadseed questing. Those are examples of variety in questing.

 

Achievements are already worth something. Many of them offer Cartel coins as a reward for finishing them. I don't know any other mmos that let you earn coins to spend in their cash shop simply from doing Achievements. Hell, I spend six boring months in Rift, collected tons of 'shinies' and at the end I got a stupid turtle mount for all that. That's it. Many other achievements give titles like Master Craftsman and such so I'm not sure you're doing them right if you say they aren't 'worth anything'. Every single one doesn't have to give you something you know.

 

Really? You don't see enough variety?

 

This game is barely a year and a half old, and they've had some good events thus far. They are already planning more and if you're bored, you could stop subbing and do F2P until they brought new ones in or old ones back.

 

The game has much variety, but I seriously think you focused on the things YOU like, finished those and want more of the things YOU like, mistakenly believing everyone likes what YOU like.

[kehatch]

First, to those saying this just isn't my cup of tea. I disagree. I have been playing MMOs since The Realm. I have seen MMOs transformed through a few minor additions or tweaks.

 

Second, all MMOs getting boring after some time and require a break. This one just gets boring much quicker because you have no option but to rinse and repeat. These are games you are supposed to play for hours a day for years on end. Asking for a bit of variety isn't unreasonable.

 

Third, I am not the only one getting bored. I am glad there are many who like the game. But it is nowhere near as successful as it should be. A combination of Star Wars and Bioware should make this game a slam dunk. For many players it just isn't.

 

If I didn't like the game I wouldn't bother to post. I don't see a point in posts that cry doom and gloom and express how much a player hates the game. Time for that person to move on. But this game is great at times and has a lot of potential. There just needs to be more to do. And not more of the same (another 50 levels) but an alternative way to spend your time.

[Levity]

This MMO clearly does not meet your personal requirements. Find and play one that does IMO. You stating your personal requirements and disaffections and demanding they do things your way is not going to make the game better for you personally. Why? Because the game is designed for broad player base, not for you personally.

 

It's OK if SWTOR is not for you. No MMO is right for everyone, not even WoW. Play what is fun for you.

 

He's not demanding. He was pointing out what other games did well, and stated it might be good for SWTOR as well. Not everyone "demands" things when they post. You just seem to be stuck on that mindset ^^.

[Shrikestalker]

He's not demanding. He was pointing out what other games did well, and stated it might be good for SWTOR as well. Not everyone "demands" things when they post. You just seem to be stuck on that mindset ^^.

Agree he's not 'demanding'. But he is committing the sin of assuming because he's bored, we all are. (Give us more variety so WE aren't bored).

 

He's not knocking the game but he's only thinking about what he wants and trying to frame it as what everyone wants. Variety is good but this game already has plenty of it. That he's exhausted some/most/all of it just speaks to the amount of time he's spent here, which may be too much.

 

The game is only 1.5 years old (sometimes people forget that) and then then they compare it to "Well, WoW has THIS type of quest that shoots you from trampolines. Why don't we do that here?" Why?

 

1. This isn't "WoW". WoW is a lighthearted game. It's not really set around a story so much as the story is set around little unconnected things. This game wouldn't look good shooting Sith Lords and Bounty Hunters from trampolines so just because X game does it as 'variety', doesn't mean TOR needs that too.

 

2. WoW didn't have trampolines in the first 1.5 years I don't think. Or breakable BG's where you could smash walls. Or Sparkle Ponies. Or Choppers. Or Pandas. All the 'variety' took time, had to be researched, failed, and re-implemented while they built the base of their game. This is where TOR is now.. still building the base. To keep harping on 'X game does this, why can't TOR do that?' is not feasible.

[StaticSilence]

You shouldn't expect one game to be all and end all of all your gaming entertainment needs. Take a break play something else. I iust recently started playing company of heroes again for that reason. Step away and get a breather to stop yourself from squeezing swtor dry.

 

You CAN play a game too much to the point you get no more satisfaction. Before CoH i took a break from swtor for xCom. Before that, i was alternating between bf3 and swtor. Every time i return to swtor i am excited to play again.

Edited May 31, 2013 by StaticSilence

[CosmicKat]

...

 

Also, there will NEVER be any significant change in the way the game is played, ever. It's built into the code. You don't just start over from scratch; you can't. And some of the things we think ought to be "simple" to change really are not. What we think is a "tweak" could involve a significant re-write.

 

That's not true.

 

Other MMO's that have been in similar situations, ie. underperforming and losing mass quantities of customers, have made everything from minor to major overhauls of their game. And it has worked. CoH, DnD Online, Champions Online, etc.

 

TOR has seen zero tweaks and changes to any PvE levelling content that existed at launch. The difference here appears to just be arrogance, whereas those other games realized they made mistakes and tweaked to cater to customer wants, EA seems to take the same position that many of the posters here do... "If you don't like it, leave." And many have.

[Shrikestalker]

TOR has seen zero tweaks and changes to any PvE levelling content that existed at launch. The difference here appears to just be arrogance, whereas those other games realized they made mistakes and tweaked to cater to customer wants, EA seems to take the same position that many of the posters here do... "If you don't like it, leave." And many have.

When you start a game with this many starting zones and amount of quests as a baseline, what else do you expect?

 

For that matter, what do posters like you expect? Most games have to 'tweak code' because they've been out too long or (like Rift) started with such small starting/leveling content at launch that they had no choice but to later interject 'variety', lol. Look at those games you just listed above: Dinosaurs. One is dead the others dying. This game still has 500k actual paying subs.

 

TOR's leveling content is so huge, that many times people outlevel the planets they are on before they even see if there's any 'variety' to be had at all.

 

I will remind you because just like you say EA and many posters here take a position, you and a few have no sense of history. This game is one and one half years old. 1.5 years. That's it.

 

Now you are seriously going to be saying with a straight face they haven't added a ton of variety in this game since it launched that already rivals many mmos older than it is, which perhaps the exception of WoW.... because they're resting on their laurels and saying 'lump it or leave it'?

 

Really?

Edited May 31, 2013 by Shrikestalker

[kehatch]

Agree he's not 'demanding'. But he is committing the sin of assuming because he's bored, we all are. (Give us more variety so WE aren't bored).

 

He's not knocking the game but he's only thinking about what he wants and trying to frame it as what everyone wants. Variety is good but this game already has plenty of it. That he's exhausted some/most/all of it just speaks to the amount of time he's spent here, which may be too much.

 

The game is only 1.5 years old (sometimes people forget that) and then then they compare it to "Well, WoW has THIS type of quest that shoots you from trampolines. Why don't we do that here?" Why?

 

1. This isn't "WoW". WoW is a lighthearted game. It's not really set around a story so much as the story is set around little unconnected things. This game wouldn't look good shooting Sith Lords and Bounty Hunters from trampolines so just because X game does it as 'variety', doesn't mean TOR needs that too.

 

2. WoW didn't have trampolines in the first 1.5 years I don't think. Or breakable BG's where you could smash walls. Or Sparkle Ponies. Or Choppers. Or Pandas. All the 'variety' took time, had to be researched, failed, and re-implemented while they built the base of their game. This is where TOR is now.. still building the base. To keep harping on 'X game does this, why can't TOR do that?' is not feasible.

 

Are you saying before making a suggestion on a discussion bored I should complete an interactive survey or somehow else query the community to make sure that it has support? Or should I just check with you? Don't want to commit any 'sins'.

 

Are you not committing the opposite 'sin' and assuming that because you are enjoying yourself that everyone else must be? Maybe you are the only one that can make suggestions. Are you the voice of the community?

 

I would think that for a game that is underachieving (numbers wise) that constructive suggestions from players that are almost on board and that almost love the game would be a welcome thing. But I have been part of enough MMO communities to know that they are full of nimrods in their underwear acting like psychological, sociological, technological, and game designing experts who are more then happy to talk tough in their little window and tell the world why they are wrong.

 

Bottom line is when I played EQ2 (yes, before it was 1.5 years old) and I got bored of the core game and I asked myself "what else can I do" there were answers. I could do a heritage quest, decorate my house, upgrade my spells, level my crafting, go to another zone, or whatever. And it all had a meaningful impact on my character.

 

Before you give me the predictable response of "well then go play EQ2" I could give you a similar answer in most other MMOs. But in TOR when I am bored of the core game the answers are mostly not there. It is almost a constant grind of go to quest hub, complete quests, go to next quest hub. That is especially true after you have leveled one character and are spacing through the side quests on your second play through. The few things they do have (i.e. datacrons, space) are under developed or generally not fun (to most people).

 

I am not assuming that everyone is bored because I am. It is great you aren't. But there are a LOT of people that are bored. They aren't playing. We have done it in TOR and we have done it in other games before TOR. Give me something to break up the monotony when I am sick of the hub quest grind.

[Shrikestalker]

Are you saying before making a suggestion on a discussion bored I should complete an interactive survey or somehow else query the community to make sure that it has support? Or should I just check with you? Don't want to commit any 'sins'.

Did you read me writing that or do you hyperbolize often? You aren't speaking for everyone. You are speaking for 'some', not all. Everyone isn't 'bored'. If you are, take a break.

Are you not committing the opposite 'sin' and assuming that because you are enjoying yourself that everyone else must be? Maybe you are the only one that can make suggestions. Are you the voice of the community?

I'm assuming that people paying for a game are having fun in it, or they wouldn't keep paying. Yeah, that's a sin.

I would think that for a game that is underachieving (numbers wise) that constructive suggestions from players that are almost on board and that almost love the game would be a welcome thing.

And this is where you show you are out of touch. This game isn't underperforming. It has under 500k subs. Are they supposed to pull in 1 million? 2 million before it 'performs' where you think it should be.. profitable?

But I have been part of enough MMO communities to know that they are full of nimrods in their underwear acting like psychological, sociological, technological, and game designing experts who are more then happy to talk tough in their little window and tell the world why they are wrong.

You probably should go back to those games. I'm sure they wonder where you went off to.

 

Bottom line is when I played EQ2 (yes, before it was 1.5 years old) and I got bored of the core game and I asked myself "what else can I do" there were answers. I could do a heritage quest, decorate my house, upgrade my spells, level my crafting, go to another zone, or whatever. And it all had a meaningful impact on my character.

 

Before you give me the predictable response of "well then go play EQ2" I could give you a similar answer in most other MMOs. But in TOR when I am bored of the core game the answers are mostly not there. It is almost a constant grind of go to quest hub, complete quests, go to next quest hub. That is especially true after you have leveled one character and are spacing through the side quests on your second play through. The few things they do have (i.e. datacrons, space) are under developed or generally not fun (to most people).

Again, don't know how to say it other than others did nicer; if you are 'bored'.. unsub. Come back later when they add more things. I did that. I was here at launch.. six month sub. Did everything, got bored... left. Played Rift. Played FFXIV. Played.. God knows what else. Came back couple months ago and you know what? Yep.. I'm NOT bored. There is variety. You my friend, need a break.

 

I am not assuming that everyone is bored because I am. It is great you aren't. But there are a LOT of people that are bored. They aren't playing. We have done it in TOR and we have done it in other games before TOR. Give me something to break up the monotony when I am sick of the hub quest grind.

When you say "us" and 'we' you are implying a 'lot'. What do you mean by 'a lot'? 5? 100? 1000? 10,000? See again, this is where you are failing with your post. You assume some number that no one knows and say they are bored. Variety is good and we all like that, but you implying there isn't any or not enough is just funky. For a 1.5 year old game, you'd be hard pressed to find more variety.

 

People who are bored vote with their wallet, or vote with their attendance or lack of it. Servers seem to be doing well, SWTOR has the third highest amount of subs behind WoW and Eve.. and you say it's not doing well because people are bored. Oy.

 

You really need a break as vet. You're burned out.

[kehatch]

^^

 

That object that went buzzing by your head was the point. Thanks god it missed you. But thank you for the lecture and the demonstration on irony. In the future I will refrain from providing my constructive opinions on how I (in my opinion) think that the game could get better so that when it is older then "1.5 years" it could be improved. I see how those suggestions so bother you. Thank you for showing me that the game is perfect and that after my last 2-weeks of play I am just burned out and after a break it will be all better. SMRT like stick some people.

Edited May 31, 2013 by kehatch

[Shrikestalker]

^^

 

That object that went buzzing by your head was the point. Thanks god it missed you. But thank you for the lecture and the demonstration on irony. In the future I will refrain from providing my constructive opinions on how I (in my opinion) think that the game could get better so that when it is older then "1.5 years" it could be improved. I see how those suggestions so bother you. Thank you for showing me that the game is perfect and that after my last 2-weeks of play I am just burned out and after a break it will be all better. SMRT like stick some people.

Meh. Suit yourself if your butt feels singed. /shrug

 

But speaking of buzzing objects...

 

Pointing out that you're burned out was already said to you (suggestions of taking a break), but much nicer I guess? You really didn't have to respond to me other than to belabor the point you were already told earlier which shows you got offended.

 

Buzzing objects notwithstanding.

 

Anyway, may I suggest Defiance.. or Neverwinter, or Marvel Heroes? Variety?

[kehatch]

I have the opportunity to manage many technology based projects including software development. If I was receiving feedback from someone saying "I am bored, but here are some things that would keep me from being bored" and some moron on the team responded with "if your bored unsubscribe and stop paying me money" that team member would be off the team in a rapid fashion.

 

Constructive suggestions are not a bad thing. You policing the message board to stop people from providing constructive suggestions is. Hopefully the point has been written clearly enough for you.

[Suromir]

see. BioWare KNEW best.

 

Even though WE TOLD THEM in BETA...we needed more variety...linearity will kill the game (like it did Champions Online to name an example)...you NEED multiple leveling paths/planets/zones.......the crappy non-SW armor deigns..the bugs...etc..etc.

 

but they KNEW best.

 

So they didn't care. They continued to cut corners.

 

And they got what they deserved. A failure.

 

The only thing BioWare knew best was how to create a monumental MMO failure, based off one of if not the most popular IP, that went from p2p to f2p in record time.

[Shrikestalker]

I have the opportunity to manage many technology based projects including software development. If I was receiving feedback from someone saying "I am bored, but here are some things that would keep me from being bored" and some moron on the team responded with "if your bored unsubscribe and stop paying me money" that team member would be off the team in a rapid fashion.

 

Constructive suggestions are not a bad thing. You policing the message board to stop people from providing constructive suggestions is. Hopefully the point has been written clearly enough for you.

Firstly, I'm not on 'the team'. I'm a customer like you. I'm not a Star Wars groupie either. I like the game but as I showed before, I will leave the minute I get bored.. you know, like anyone with sense would do instead of whining about it?

 

You are as free to post now as you have been when you made this thread.

 

I didn't say you were stupid for posting this.

 

I didn't say you didn't have the right to post it.

 

I didn't say you shouldn't be expressing your opinion.

 

Bioware can worry about you being bored. Or they can simply look at their subs, their servers, and gauge for themselves how things are going and what content people are doing, what they have planned and continue on.. with or without you.

 

They would never suggest you should leave when you are bored. But since I don't work for them I can. So in that spirit, you probably should take a break. I highly doubt they'll whip up some new content right away because you are bored since there already is a lot of variety here already.. and more on the way.

[JimG]

Or give us alternate character advancement? Something to keep us from getting bored.

If you're bored, then move onto a new game. It's not their job or goal to satisfy everyone's particular desires and level of boredom. There are people that play the game for 20 hours a day and they'll never be able to generate enough new content to keep these people from getting "bored". Yet another thread complaining about how a themepark MMO plays like a themepark MMO. Here's a thought, don't play themepartk MMOs if you don't like them.

[Andryah]

He's not demanding. He was pointing out what other games did well, and stated it might be good for SWTOR as well. Not everyone "demands" things when they post. You just seem to be stuck on that mindset ^^.

 

Anytime a forum member posts strictly on their own self-interests and state what Bioware needs to do about it, they ARE making demands.. albeit in a passive aggressive manner (in an attempt to avoid being confronted about it, usually).

 

His subsequent posts have pretty well validated this IMO.

 

Back on topic: OP, if you like the game but find yourself bored, yet want to remain active in the game....rather then dictate to Bioware what they must do to fix YOUR issue with the game....consider playing 2 or more MMOs at the same time. Play which ever one suits your mood for the day or week. In other words, be part of the solution to YOUR boredom. I have done this for years. You know why? so I don't get bored with any particular MMO. In the era of F2P/Freemium... this is incredibly easy to do... so there is no excuse really.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Andryah

[CosmicKat]

When you start a game with this many starting zones and amount of quests as a baseline, what else do you expect?

 

For that matter, what do posters like you expect? Most games have to 'tweak code' because they've been out too long or (like Rift) started with such small starting/leveling content at launch that they had no choice but to later interject 'variety', lol. Look at those games you just listed above: Dinosaurs. One is dead the others dying. This game still has 500k actual paying subs.

 

TOR's leveling content is so huge, that many times people outlevel the planets they are on before they even see if there's any 'variety' to be had at all.

 

I will remind you because just like you say EA and many posters here take a position, you and a few have no sense of history. This game is one and one half years old. 1.5 years. That's it.

 

Now you are seriously going to be saying with a straight face they haven't added a ton of variety in this game since it launched that already rivals many mmos older than it is, which perhaps the exception of WoW.... because they're resting on their laurels and saying 'lump it or leave it'?

 

Really?

 

This many starting zones? Really?

 

There are 2 newbie zones per faction. After those zones there is 1 track per faction. That's it.

 

The two factions are mirrored classes, meaning there is really only half as many classes as it appears. Several of the planets are mirrored, Tatooine and Balmorra (as examples) being near identical between the two factions. The vast majority of mobs are identical, regardless of level. They act the same at level 5 as they do at 45, they just have different skins. In TOR, your PvE options are near zero. You have a set train track to follow and your only options are to farm flashpoints or space battles. The PvE levelling tracks total 2. After the newb zones it's either Pub or Imperial Railway and that is identical for any class, minus the class stories.

 

Compare this to a dinosaur like EQ. It launched with... a newbie zone per race, sometimes 2 similar races were grouped together. These newbie zones led to level 10 zones/dungeons, then to 20, then 30, and so on. Any race could travel to any other race's newbie area if they chose to, even opposing factions. Every level range had options of several large outdoor areas or dungeons. There were always several dungeons per level range. All of this at launch, the options expanded on many times over its life.

 

The amount of content in TOR today is a fraction of what MMO's launched with 10-15 years ago. The pathetic retention rates are the direct result of offering too little content and little replayability in that content.

[Shrikestalker]

This many starting zones? Really?

 

There are 2 newbie zones per faction. After those zones there is 1 track per faction. That's it.

 

The two factions are mirrored classes, meaning there is really only half as many classes as it appears. Several of the planets are mirrored, Tatooine and Balmorra (as examples) being near identical between the two factions. The vast majority of mobs are identical, regardless of level. They act the same at level 5 as they do at 45, they just have different skins. In TOR, your PvE options are near zero. You have a set train track to follow and your only options are to farm flashpoints or space battles. The PvE levelling tracks total 2. After the newb zones it's either Pub or Imperial Railway and that is identical for any class, minus the class stories.

 

Compare this to a dinosaur like EQ. It launched with... a newbie zone per race, sometimes 2 similar races were grouped together. These newbie zones led to level 10 zones/dungeons, then to 20, then 30, and so on. Any race could travel to any other race's newbie area if they chose to, even opposing factions. Every level range had options of several large outdoor areas or dungeons. There were always several dungeons per level range. All of this at launch, the options expanded on many times over its life.

 

The amount of content in TOR today is a fraction of what MMO's launched with 10-15 years ago. The pathetic retention rates are the direct result of offering too little content and little replayability in that content.

In fairness, how much 'variety' was there really in EQ? You really have to think about that.

 

The game was huge but it was based on one thing... grinding. By comparision, today's games tries to give some of that but also much more in different ways. Now again whether people like it or not, there is ship combat. There are several types of PvP. The events that are made held are different and varying. Crafting. (was there even crafting of any type in EQ? idk but I never hear anyone talking lovingly about it if there was) Achievements now being incorporated into a Legacy system that's expanding.

 

EQ didn't have half of that. I didn't play EQ, but from what I hear it was a stand still mobgrind fest with exploration when you got tired of it. There wasn't much 'variety' in that game regardless of starting area because the game ended the same.. grinding for levels.

 

There was no variety. You sat in a party, waiting for a tank or someone to pull ONE mob, then you beat the hell out of it, then waited for his clone to pop. Or you camped bosses that may or may not spawn today. Or tomorrow. Or once a week. You did this day in/ day out. I fail to see the variety in that.

 

If it was anything like FFXI which I played and loved, that was my kind of game because you got to know folks because you were basically 'trapped' with them trying to get EXP for hours on end. But that kind of thing can't happen now and probably 7/10 gamers won't do that again. Why?

 

No variety.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Shrikestalker