What do the MMO veterans think?

[Meridith]

Been playing MMOs for the past 14 years and here's my take on SWTOR......

 

 

Graphics 7/10 (Environment graphics are far superior to character graphics)

Aesthetics 8/10

Story 9/10 (Some class stories are better than others)

Environment Design 8/10

Music 10/10

PvP 6/10

Instance Design 8/10

Game play 9/10 (Replayability may give this a lower score in the future)

[Rikalonius]

I played EQ, EQ2, Star Wars Galaxies, WoW, and Rift. I'm loving the game. Do I think its 10/10? Absolutely not. Is it a really good game, well, I've never wanted to keep playing a game this bad in a long time.

 

Graphics: Graphics are good. I don't understand the issues with anti-aliasing. I think that’s a big hit on the development team for not including that option in the graphics setting. Other than that, things are very pretty. Some notable moments were Tatooine, I love the varying desert terrain types. Even though some don't I love the emptiness of the dune sea. That's the way it should feel, empty. I applaud bioware for making it instead of immediately going to "fatigue". Taris. This has been my favorite planet, visually, thus far. Looking up at the towers of twisted steel that used to be skyscrapers; running under these 300 year old derelict structure was a bit haunting. I think they did a good job of making a post apocalyptic city that is just starting to see the return of life.

 

Gameplay: I'm enjoying it, but it can be a bit redundant, though it might be redundant to call MMO leveling redundant. I don't know anyone who has bypassed that seemingly permanent feature of the genre. Already there are complaints of leveling being too fast. I'm all for a short leveling process if there is adequate content at the end. I think leveling is overrated. I'm pretty satisfied with the RPG aspect, though I would have liked to see a better system than the "three tree" systems that also seems to be a staple MMOs.

 

Story: Some of the story is really good and other parts are cheesy and childish. I really wish BioWare hadn't tried so hard to make your character the ersatz of a particular Star Wars character. I don't have a problem with everyone being "The" [insert class here], but I did have some issues with the attempt to re-tell the OT within the game. KOTOR didn't do that and it broke ground in Star Wars lore because of it. Hoth was my biggest concern pre-release and my criticism has only been validated by the game. How can this planet how so much infrastructure 3000 years before it is a desolate world that Empire needed to send probe droid too, rather than just call up the outpost and say "Hey, are the rebels building a giant ion gun there?"

 

Overall I'll give the game 8/10

Edited December 24, 2011 by Rikalonius

[RpTheHotrod]

This isn't a standard MMO. This is more like a singleplayer game with some COOP functions.

 

That being said

 

Graphics: 6/10

Sound: 9/10 (voice acting is amazing, the other sounds are mostly re-used from other titles)

Gameplay: 6/10 (Generic gameplay, but fun enough to play. A LOT of poor design decisions, however).

Story 10/10 (Excellent excellent!)

[wixxkruppel]

Story 10/10- best story of any game i've ever played

 

Then your list of games must only conclude the likes of Counter-Strike.

 

For an MMO the story is excellent, but pales in comparison to pure single player RPGs.

Edited December 24, 2011 by wixxkruppel

[Red_Vs_Blue]

Graphics: 8/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Story: 10/10 (just play a SW, endless murder, i like that)

Voices: 10/10

UI: 6/10 Kinda lacking abit

This game is my perfect game, minus the graphics which could be a bit more polished and what not and the UI. All this game needs is a few more polishes, fixing of all bugs it may have and addon support. I mean really you get so many abilities in the end that you just need addons to be able to manage them if you wan't to be top tier.

 

 

Other thoughts: Let the haters hate, i know for a fact they won't be able to go back to their old mmo and not feel disgusted by it.

[DukSaber]

10+ years for me. Swg and WOW mostly though. UI and graphics i give a failing grade..,,maybe 4/10. Combat is ok for me although bh has a bug right now with tracer missles. so maybe 6/10. My biggest problem with the game is that there is just so much Fluff. All the story conversations are just too tedious and its painfully obviously that this considerable amount of time could have been used in other areas.

 

The general feel of the game is that MMO part of this was an afterthought. Maybe its a bioware thing but this feels like i should be playing it on a playstation or something. This may change with the end-game content but its not lookin good right now.

 

 

and companions? Whats the point really? The only purpose that i can see is to take the game further away from the genre of MMO. Id say more players could play totally SOLO than in any other MMO to date because of companions. Grinding a proffession too difficult?, ok lets just have companions do that for ya. Really?

 

 

For me its about the next 6months. If they seriously put some work into the game and make some great patches i think they could save it. If they dont listen to people that know and do nothing like swg,,it will be dead soon enough/

[Dajunka]

Graphics: 9/10

Sound 9/10

Game play 9/10

Story 10/10

Content 9/10

Immersion 10/10

 

Space combat 1/10

[Malefactor]

15 years MMO experience here.

 

Graphics (MMO) 8/10

Sound 10/10

Gameplay 9/10

Story 9/10

 

Haven't lagged, crashed or encountered a single major issue so far. Have found my new MMO home for a long time to come.

[SithZigg]

It is a solid game, and the voice over work adds to the experience, and gives NPCs character that one would never get with just a wall of text. It is not a perfect game, and I patiently wait for BW to improve upon its weak points.

[Malefactor]

It is a solid game, and the voice over work adds to the experience, and gives NPCs character that one would never get with just a wall of text. It is not a perfect game, and I patiently wait for BW to improve upon its weak points.

 

Agreed, but then, nothing is ever perfect.

 

What we have atm is an excellent foundation for BioWare to build upon, and it looks like they aren't planning on slacking anytime soon (see James Olen's post about upcoming content).

[Regil]

Warning: Wall of text

 

Been playing MMOs since ~ 2002, mostly f2ps until FFXI, then WoW, Rift, the new FF (14? It was... lame) Age of Conan, Hellgate: London (Not really an MMORPG, more like a would-be Diablo 3) and several others. While I'm not *quite* at 10 years.... oh well.

 

Music 9/10: Great. Absolutely fantastic, adds great ambience to certain scenes and makes the game very entertaining. The occasional odd sounds, though. When I assembled my lightsaber on my first Jedi, and my absolute FAVORITE Star Wars tune kicked in it made chills ran down my spine. I don't know the name, exactly, but it's typically played during sad/emotional scenes involving a Jedi; played a lot with Luke in 6. The one scene off the top of my head is when Luke tells Leia he's her sister on Endor.

 

Graphics 5/10: The worlds I've seen so far are nice, but the character models are *absolutely awful* Every single character model between the races is the EXACT same, with a few added features and a few removed features, with different skin colors and whatever makes them alien from human.

 

The male body types range from 12 year old boy, oddly skinny guy, barrel chested 7 foot monster, or really really fat/muscular dude with rolls everywhere. There's a LOT of clipping with certain facial hair and head combinations, most hair choices are awful, and every beard looks terrible except the full beard. The awfulness of the character models is border-line game breaking to me. I finally found *one* combination I can live with, as a human, and is so far the exact same combination I use on every character (with different eye/skin/hair colors and scars) I seriously cannot stand the lack of differences between races.

 

Gameplay 8/10: I don't mind the lack of dual spec, but the astronomical cost of respeccing is outrageous and severely hinders gameplay. Maybe this is WoW and Rift experience talking, but I've grown accustomed to being able to swap easily. In WoW it was just a quality of life thing, but a reasonable cap to respeccing fees would be welcome, if not out-right dual spec. I'd like to be able to have a solo spec and group spec. I like performing needed group roles (tanking/healing) but I also enjoy being able to see the other facets of my chosen class whilst soloing. As I said it's a quality of life thing, but a reasonable cap to respeccing fees is fine with me.

 

The galaxy really feels huge, and the player owned housing via your own personal ship and the companion system is quite possibly the best thing about this game so far. I love how the game feels very *very* RPGish while giving nice group-play features. It doesn't feel like your typical MMORPG of read quest text, go kill stuff, return, repeat. There's a great sense of immersion here. I'm a closet RPer, and I like that I get conversational choices that allow me to immerse myself in my character. I can be a rougish womanizer out for credits on my Smuggler, while being a selfless bastion of good and protector of the weak and innocent on my Jedis.

 

Story: 7/10 While not being the greatest, it's certainly good for the classes I've played for it so far. There's a few things that just make me say "Yeah.... that makes absolutely no sense" but I do that with most things. Some of the writing is a little dry, but it's above average for MMOs and nearly on par with most single-player RPGs.

 

TLDR;

 

Music: 9/10

Graphics: 5/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Story: 7/10

[aarowill]

i'd like to know where the got the 10 year mark as being an mmo vet. im sure someone who has been playing for 8 years would consider themselves a veteran.

 

Im not bitter, I qualify for your 10 year measurement, but that number seems.. I dunno... like you are being elitist because you have also hit that mark.

[nflstar]

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 10/10

Gameplay: 6/10

Story: 10/10

 

 

With some gameplay fixes this could be a very good MMO

[Rialth]

Started playing MMO's in 1999 with EQ, been playing one game or another since then.

 

Graphics: 7/10

Lack of AA (even basic) draw distance bugs me no end.

 

Sound: 8/10

Lack of ambient background world noises and crowd chatter.

 

Gameplay: 6/10

UI needs work and GTN is a mess.

 

Story: 9/10

Love the stories, Empire seems better but maybe that's just me.

 

Really like the game over all and will be around for a while.

[The_lizard]

love the immersion

[Salvaticus]

Graphics: 7/10 (animations are somewhat jerky and poor / performance is substandard at times).

 

Sound: 8/10 (it's alright... nothing to really cheer about).

 

Gameplay: 7/10 (It started out really neat, due to this title's particular gimmicks. I'm on my fourth planet now, however, and I'm discovering that this game is, in fact, just another treadmill gear grind which is no longer fun for me. There's a difference between 'gimmicks' and 'gameplay innovations.' This title has the former, not the latter).

 

Story: 7/10 (How many times can 'teh baddies' make life miserable for the Republic? The story is 'just okay.' It's nothing fabulous and, as with the gameplay mechanics, it's already starting to feel stale. Continuous, repetitive melodrama does not equate to excellent story).

 

The other night I rated the game something like an 8.9. After more play time I have to say it's about a high seven something. They really didn't innovate very much at all. They copied the WoW formula (rather poorly) and slapped the Star Wars I.P. on it.

 

TL;DR - It was a fun diversion at first but its weaknesses show much more prominently after a couple days of /played time. I should still be blown away by its newness and at this point it honestly just feels like I'm playing a gimmicky World of Warcraft without a proper interface. 95% chance I will not resubscribe, which is unfortunate because I expected so much more from this effort.

 

Best wishes to the Bioware staff and the SW:TOR team and fans. I hope the game improves down the line and I hope it continues to do well, even though it's not my cup of tea. I got about 50 hours of gameplay out of it, which let's be honest, is pretty good given the quality of today's titles.

 

May the force be with you everybody and all that stuff.

 

Also, Happy Life Day XD

[Skrewloose]

Let us customize the UI, and I might give SWTOR a 9.

 

As is, it's sitting around a 7.

 

A lot of my daily complaints really boil down to the clumsy UI. And the maps are near useless sometimes.

 

I really think a lot of peoples apparent in game unsocial behavior is because it's difficult to read the chat box way up in the left corner. When your health bar and important stuff is all down at the bottom of the screen.

[Rikalonius]

Let us customize the UI, and I might give SWTOR a 9.

 

As is, it's sitting around a 7.

 

A lot of my daily complaints really boil down to the clumsy UI. And the maps are near useless sometimes.

 

I really think a lot of peoples apparent in game unsocial behavior is because it's difficult to read the chat box way up in the left corner. When your health bar and important stuff is all down at the bottom of the screen.

 

The UI is probably the weakest part at the moment, and without mods, I have to constantly stare at it to see when proc abilities proc. Also, the enemy cast bar is ridiculously small. Please Bioware, just allow UI modding, please.

[TempestDelan]

If it weren't for the story lines this would be a huge failure. The graphics are poor compared to SWG, that was my 10 year old son's assessment. The PvP will get tired very quick, the only thing to achieve is on a personal level, great like any MMO needs chalky fat adults pwning anything! The GUI is hands off for customization, game gods know what we want better than the people playing the game. The chat system is crap/useless unless you are constantly checking it!

 

I beta'd this game as an ongoing tester, I'm not sure if I'll stick around purely because the chat and GUI. I enjoy the PVP, but it was a hell of a lot better in SWG where it didn't take a sanctioned bus trip to kill someone. I remember days of going overt and running around just to stir things up.

 

I have to say that the story lines are compelling and fun to 'choose your own adventure' But I see real problems a couple months down the road.

[P-Funk]

Story 10/10- best story of any game i've ever played

 

You must spend too much time playing MMOs. XD

[P-Funk]

Im not bitter, I qualify for your 10 year measurement, but that number seems.. I dunno... like you are being elitist because you have also hit that mark.

 

I think the OP wants to avoid people who only know MMOs through WoW.

[Krovan]

played every mmo under the sun it feels like, and I can honestly say none of them made me feel closer to my character and like I was a part of the world as well as SWOTOR has.

 

My only hope is to get a real space game out of this as well, space combat looks gorgeous, and is fun, but taking it off rails and making it more fleshed out would pretty much make this the most impressive MMO ever created.

[Grammarye]

Not that you're actually going to know if any of us have played MMOs for more than ten years, but hey ho.

 

I like the game; I think it's got great potential, if they clean up a few of the unpolished edges. There's clearly work required around PvP, and the 'feel' of the game feels like they need a little more oomph on the hardware, but overall, hmm...

 

Overall: 7.5/10. Good solid game, pretty good launch, little light on a few areas, still in need of some bug-fixing, but then, what isn't.

 

Graphics: 7/10, would go up to 8 or 9 if we had the high-res issue fixed.

 

Sound: 8/10, would go up to 10/10 if we can have a little more consistency in technical handling (things like sounds instantly fading feel like 'we ran out of audio channels')

 

Story: 10/10, never had an MMO before where I emotively responded at all, nor one where I felt that making a new character could yield an entirely different feeling of play. That includes WoW where I'm actually a complete sucker for the backstory for some reason.

 

Scaling: 7/10, I'd like to see the instances (capacity-wise) get a touch bigger so that the blind players actually do see the other 100 or so people around in their same instance, like the number up top left says. This may alleviate some other PvP complaints too.

 

I can see this game actually eating up my time and making me want to keep playing, which is rare enough these days.

My only hope is to get a real space game out of this as well, space combat looks gorgeous, and is fun, but taking it off rails and making it more fleshed out would pretty much make this the most impressive MMO ever created.

Agreed. I would like at least something where I see other players' ships even if I can't shoot at them . However, baby steps. I think everyone knew they'd not be able to achieve that for launch.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Grammarye

[Tonychet]

graphics 9/10

gameplay 9/10

sound 9/10

story 10/10

[Teloss]

EQ1 2001-2003, Planetisde 2003-2006, SWG 2003-2005, FFXI 2005 - 2006, GW 2005-2007, WoW 2005 - 2007, Aion 2008 - 2009

 

Enjoying it greatly. Don't fool yourself into thinking this is supposed to be a sandbox game or something, because the only "sandbox" here is tatooine. Have realistic expectations, and don't be looking for every personal negative just so you can justify a reason to hate the game.

 

When you've been to the top of just about every major mountain like I have. The view is much clearer. This mmorpg is nothing like what us vets used to play, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless you absolutely can't handle competition from a design philosophy you could never come to accept. <------ (Most of the hate you will see)

 

If the game's not your cup of tea, move along. Nothing to see here.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Teloss