Yes/No : Would you still play this game if it wasn't branded Star Wars?

[LoverNoFighter]

In no way shape or form would I defend this game, but, given mankind has been around for roughly 200,000 years, pray tell me how fast mankind was advancing technology wise for the previous 198,000 years?

 

We didn't have UFO tech before the crash in that small town.

[SteveTheCynic]

In no way shape or form would I defend this game, but, given mankind has been around for roughly 200,000 years, pray tell me how fast mankind was advancing technology wise for the previous 198,000 years?

Slowly, of course, but at a non-zero rate. Until six or seven thousand years ago, there was no writing to allow us to record developments, and communication beyond a small group of people was difficult and/or slow (or slower).

 

During the last 3500 years, we see a mostly-accelerating growth of technology (certain things have been lost and/or were lost, such as making concrete - the Romans knew how to do this, but the post-Roman Europeans, not so much for some time). In the documented SW universe, the 3500 years or so from SWTOR to ANH appears to have had next to no technological advances. Holoprojectors still project light-blue semi-transparent images, there are still blasters, light sabres, hyperspace jumps, and so on. What happened?

[Rabenschwinge]

right now Id settle for random mobs that required more then hammer shot from my commando to kill

 

There is NOTHING short of Champion on Rishii or Yavin I can not kill by simply spamming my hammer shot attack

 

Oricon (55) is more challenging then Yavin and Rishii right now

Makeb was but got massively dumbed down that its basically unplayable now as so freaking boring

 

And I NEVER want to see another champion that I can defeat by watching NPCs pound him down until Im required to run globes

 

What I want to see is content that can be solo'd if you are careful but stand a real chance at dieing if you careless and not paying attention.

 

Right now, outside of ops (and bad pug in the new flashpoints or hardmodes), I do not think I have died in PVE in over 3 months time.

 

Content should never be so easy you stand NO CHANCE OF DEATH in MMORPG.

 

Well, that's the curse of end-game dailies, I suppose. They need to be doable with the equipment you pick up along the road. All right, Shadow of Revan spams you with equipment and apart from relics you should have a full set of rating 178 gear.

 

Oricon was in fact an interesting challange. When I first got there I still had a few greens equipped and that tentacle monster in the north took some work - even after I understood the mechanics (interrupt the channel as with the golden enemies outside, apply a single point of damage to any tentacle it spawns before it is done channeling) I died several times with my sentinel (not with my shadow, because she was better equipped to start with).

 

Regarding the weekly solo fight you were referring to: It felt good as part of the story line, fighting alongside all those heroes. I enjoyed it. The fight was not really designed to be a challenge, imho, but as a final glorious moment in the story line for the player. That they made a weekly out of it was probably a mistake, but once you got main hand items for your companions there is little need to do it, anyway.

 

I must admit, the single one challange I enjoyed most in the game was a heroic 4 daily on Belsavis, when 50 was max level. It was relatively easy to stealth it with a shadow, but to figure out how to solo it (with healer companion) without leaving a single one mob alive was fun, while I had only columi, with a bit of tionese here and there and only about a half augmented. Mind Maze mob A (60 seconds), engage by Force Lift mob B (eight seconds), low slash mob C (4 seconds), kill mob D, CC ranged guys first and channel melee enemies using Force Wave. It was like a dance on the edge, but one could keep them under control if you balanced your motions right. That's what I play a shadow for.

[Knorlac]

I would probably still have tried it out when it released, but without the SW bonus, I would've left, like so many others, when the severe mismanagement by the devs led to my server turning into a ghost town and woudn't have given it another thought. Edited April 9, 2015 by Knorlac

[Ghisallo]

Sure I'd play it if it wasn't Star Wars. I almost do play it on that basis anyway. <<== Explanation to follow...

 

Explanation:

 

When we hear Obi-Wan Kenobi tell Luke "For a thousand generations..." the very first time we watch ANH, we think he's being hyperbolic, just really meaning "For a very long time". But no, as we watch and read other material, including some parts of SWTOR, we come to realise that he means it, 100% literally that. Twenty five thousand years.

 

And we are told that SWTOR takes place 3500 or so years before ANH, and yet there is no meaningful difference in the available technology used by characters. That's one hell of a Dark Age (or several hells of Dark Ages, I'm not sure) to arrest technological development. Consider our very own world, and look at the levels of technology 3500 years ago compared to today. (And note that during the European Dark Ages, roughly corresponding to the 1000 years of the mediaeval period (approx 450 AD to 1450 AD), technology advanced significantly. Even if you limit the Dark Ages to pre-1000AD, technology advanced a fair bit.)

 

My mind rejects this timeline, so to resolve the issue, I call it an alternative version of SW, or just a setting which shares some superficial resemblances to SW. And then I can be comfortable playing a Commando, because, um, Assault Cannon.

 

This shows a basic misunderstanding of how science and technology works. We look at the periods of our recorded history, especially the last 100-200 years and say "look at how fast it goes." The problem is the difference between ages is stark. Look at the Iron age in Europe. That started in around 1200 BC. There was only incremental change really over the course of over 2000 years.

 

What happens is this. Until you make that new scientific discovery you simply improve marginally on what came before (if at all) and a collapse can actually make you lose knowledge at take steps back (hello dark ages.)

 

In the Star Wars universe they have defeated the spped of light by entering a parallel dimension. They have created fields of energy that can stop solid objects and energy. They can create blades of plasma that can cut through anything without disturbing the energy fields that contain and give the weapon shape. They have mastered cloning AND created droids...technological marvels that not only think but can feel if so programmed.

 

Advancement is a series of walls. You hit a wall and then try to make that next discovery that let's you get over it. Sometimes it takes a decade other times a millennia or more. Thing is eventually you will hit a wall you can't get over. In essence they have hit a wall. Things can not grow endlessly...at some point they hit a limit, its simply the way of things.

 

Also you miss the lore in the Star Wars Universe. 25000 years ago they did not have hyperdrives. They did not have light sabers. The first light sabers required bulky body worn power packs. When they came up with hyperdrives near suicidal explorers went hunting for hyperspace routes. Hell many of the "hyperdrives" were not even discovered by the races... they figured out how to work around Rakata technology.

 

In the end though I think the main issue is not that as a society they have hit a technological wall and so make incremental improvements....(Dreadnoughts requiring a crew of 16000 being replaced by ships twice the size that can be operated by a crew over half that size. Faster hyperdrives etc.

 

What surprises me about the timeline isn't the tech bit. Its that the Republic lasted as long as they have. See the first line if my Sig. That is they way of everything in history.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Ghisallo

[WorldSmasher]

If it wasn't for the Star wars name, I would not have heard of this game. However, if I had heard of the game, it would have to work a lot harder to convince me of its selling points before I bought it. I was there on launch day. I pre-ordered the game; got the Collector's Edition, and I remember how burned I felt with all of those bugs.

 

It was terrible! I was two shakes away from quitting from disgust, but in those days, bugs were fixed a lot faster than now. So, I settled down. If it wasn't for the fact that it was Star Wars, I would have left without waiting for the bug fixes. With all of them bugs, I was feeling nostalgic for WoW's polish..., but because it was Star Wars, I stuck it out.

 

As a matter of fact, I remember how crowded the servers were on launch day, and over a few weeks they emptied out pretty fast....

Edited April 9, 2015 by WorldSmasher

[TravelersWay]

I would still be happily playing Star Wars Galaxies.

 

Which, ironically enough, wouldn't have made it past the 30 day mark if it wasn't Star Wars.

[Ghisallo]

Which, ironically enough, wouldn't have made it past the 30 day mark if it wasn't Star Wars.

 

I don't know if I would say that. I would say pre-CU/NGE SWG would fail HARD in today's market. That kind of game is a thing of the past.

[Aries_cz]

right now Id settle for random mobs that required more then hammer shot from my commando to kill

 

There is NOTHING short of Champion on Rishii or Yavin I can not kill by simply spamming my hammer shot attack

 

Oricon (55) is more challenging then Yavin and Rishii right now

Makeb was but got massively dumbed down that its basically unplayable now as so freaking boring

 

And I NEVER want to see another champion that I can defeat by watching NPCs pound him down until Im required to run globes

 

What I want to see is content that can be solo'd if you are careful but stand a real chance at dieing if you careless and not paying attention.

 

Right now, outside of ops (and bad pug in the new flashpoints or hardmodes), I do not think I have died in PVE in over 3 months time.

 

Content should never be so easy you stand NO CHANCE OF DEATH in MMORPG.

 

Ok, that I can agree to.

Most stuff on RIshi and Yavin is way too easy (I have yet to try it it a character that has crap gear from leveling)

As to the champion fight, yes, that is a bit weird, but then again, it was a good move to allow even solo players to experience some form of story closure.

[TravelersWay]

I don't know if I would say that. I would say pre-CU/NGE SWG would fail HARD in today's market. That kind of game is a thing of the past.

 

That's the whole thing. It would fail hard, even if it was SW in today's market. The only reason it made it as far as it did was because it was Star Wars. I laugh at how people say this game had a rough launch - SWG's launch was an 8 year mess. Even my friends at the time who were as die-hard fanbois as you can get admitted they wouldn't have touched the game had it not been set in the SW era that it was.

 

Ultimately, SWG was nothing but a poor man's Second Life with Star Wars slapped on top of it. The only thing that the game had going for it (and kept it going for as long as it did), was the community of friends that one played with. And that is just the bread and butter of the MMO genre in and of itself. The game was so buggy, broken, rife with exploiters and RMTS, and mismanaged that even back then, the "Golden Age" of the MMO, players would not have tolerated such crap if it was not the only place they could live in the Star Wars universe.

Edited April 9, 2015 by TravelersWay

[Ghisallo]

I know players though that actually liked the game. There is a base of players out there that want a glorified 2nd life. They don't want levels and all those things games have today that create a "class system", for lack of a better term. They wanted a game where they could bonafidely escape into and if you went no where it didn't matter because you didn't have a number over your head. These people will be the ones who say introducing PvE raids are what, in part, ultimately killed the game.

 

Sadly they are only half right. If those CU/NGE changes had been in game from launch the game would have been more popular. These changes were implemented because the patient was already sick due to SOE and LucasArts' unrealistic belief that simply slapping Star Wars on it would make it a WoW buster. Rather than accept it would be a " modest" they did what they should have done from the beginning.

 

The problem is the players who enjoy these games (without cut throat PvP) have largely aged out. So you either have younger players who want the WoW/EQ2 esque experience from the jump or the older gamer who remembers a game like that fondly but has too many responsibilities to devote the time to it.

[DasVio]

yes i would. Bioware created a mmo. For me it is reason enough.

[DartDaya]

Absolutely not.

 

If it wasn't for the star wars title (and if bioware didnt make this game), this game would have failed even more and it would never have got the numbers like it does now.

Edited April 9, 2015 by DartDaya

[Bromlin]

I would say, I play this game although it's Star Wars. I never was interested in Star Wars, I didn't even watch the movies (only the old ones from the 1970s). I prefer less manichaic lore. And lore that looks less like cheap political propaganda in disguise.

 

What I like about the game is that it's quite rewarding for solo-play, it has nice stories to tell and the companion system is neat. I think it's still potentially the best MMORPG, or at least the one which suits my personal taste best.

 

So for me it's forget SW, but let's play the game anyway.

[Papazmurf]

Very easily no.

 

This is the only MMO I've played where I got a max level character. The only others I've played with some amount of time invested were Final Fantasy XI and Earth and Beyond. I also dabbled in some EvE and Galaxies for like a week. Regardless, the amount of time I've put into this game far exceeds those four combined. I can see by me trends that the only MMO's I played were either because they were spaced themed or because I liked the series it was bases on (FF and SW).

 

Now, that said. I love me some Mass Effect and I loved KOTOR so this game definitely had more than SW going for it. The combination of what I thought BW could do and SW definitely has kept me here. I've been playing on and off since launch with my current stint going well on over a year and a half.

 

I think the main reason I stay is because I haven't leveled and see all the stories yet. I'm 3/8 but rapidly approaching 5/8. Once I've seen all the stories for each class, I'm not sure how much motivation I'll have, but I do enjoy PVP and running OPs with my guild. Without my guild, I probably wouldn't have done anything in endgame and had leveled alts long ago.

[fiercephoenix]

Absolutely not.

 

If it wasn't for the star wars title (and if bioware didn't make this game), this game would have failed even more and it would never have got the numbers like it does now.

 

Having played WOW for 7 years and invested nearly $1,200 bucks in the game, I was waiting for a Star Wars game and eventually here it is, I don't like EA GAMES its no secret. however with Lucas and Bioware on the box you would think it would be better than it is. Expectations for Star Wars is huge and it has a huge universe and i don't think EA Games has the right management to invest 15 years in to SWTOR. Blizzard has invested tons of time into WOW and it has paid off, now that they are literally running out of lore and having to make up new stuff (panda's ffs) Its still hanging on. StarWars has become a money sink hole both on the server side and player side..sadly I won't invest anywhere near $1,200 bucks into this game. Its just not gonna make it past 10 years or 15 years given the franchize killing EA Games reputation. It could, but i doubt it. The lore and the material and story lines are very vast so thats not an issue. But no if it was not called Star wars i would have quit a long time ago.

[Clarian]

I loved DA:O even though I think the Dragon Age IP is mediocre at best. Still, all things being equal, I'd rather play a game with an IP that I like rather than one that I don't, and Star Wars is probably the best IP out there.

 

And to me, the 'Old Republic' era is key. A Star Wars game set in the movie era probably wouldn't interest me as much.

[Raphael_diSanto]

Would I play this game even if it wasn't star wars?

 

Absolutely yes. In fact, I'd probably like it more if it wasn't star wars and full of special snowflake idiots who love prancing around with a glowstick doing space magic.

 

I am not an IP follower. I like Star Wars, but I'm not a huge fan. I'm not a huge fan of any IP. I play this game for 2 reasons:

 

1. Because BioWare made it, and thus for me it has better storytelling than any other MMO in the world, bar none, with immersive cut scenes, companion characters, romances, etc.

2. Because it has multiplayer conversations, where you and your friends can get together and collectively determine the outcome of a quest and no other MMO in the world has this.

 

Are they dumb reasons for playing an MMO? Perhaps to others they might be. But they're -my- reasons. Story, characters, interaction is why I play video games, period. I don't play for gameplay. I abhor combat. It literally puts me to sleep. I wake up for the cutscenes and conversations. And TOR does that better than any other MMO, in a way no other MMO does.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Raphael_diSanto

[bdatt]

Tough question. I wouldn't have tried it if it weren't Star Wars. Now that I'm in and have dinked around in other MMOs the story, combat, and end game are superior to others imo so if it dropped the Star Wars aspect I'd still consider playing.

[TravelersWay]

I know players though that actually liked the game. There is a base of players out there that want a glorified 2nd life. They don't want levels and all those things games have today that create a "class system", for lack of a better term. They wanted a game where they could bonafidely escape into and if you went no where it didn't matter because you didn't have a number over your head. These people will be the ones who say introducing PvE raids are what, in part, ultimately killed the game.

 

Sadly they are only half right. If those CU/NGE changes had been in game from launch the game would have been more popular. These changes were implemented because the patient was already sick due to SOE and LucasArts' unrealistic belief that simply slapping Star Wars on it would make it a WoW buster. Rather than accept it would be a " modest" they did what they should have done from the beginning.

 

The problem is the players who enjoy these games (without cut throat PvP) have largely aged out. So you either have younger players who want the WoW/EQ2 esque experience from the jump or the older gamer who remembers a game like that fondly but has too many responsibilities to devote the time to it.

 

There will always be a place for games of different types. But like you and Kalfear have mentioned, times have changed, and as a result, society along with it. I feel for people like Kalfear - in fact I would be right there with them if not for the realization that the gaming industry as a whole are better off because of the changes. I cut my teeth on the games that gave birth to this industry. That's why I laugh when people call things grind or difficult or what have you. They really have no idea what it was like back in the glory days of gaming. However, as much as I enjoyed that time and those games (and still go back to play them on a regular basis), I sure as hell do not want the industry to ever revert to that type of gaming experience again.

 

There's nothing wrong with players wanting that type of gameplay experience, but what they have to realize is that it cannot come from a AAA title. It will come as a smaller, perhaps indie developed, title ... which of course will be unsatisfactory to many because they want that big budget production and flash to go along with their niche gameplay desires. Unfortunately, in today's market and industry, that is an unsustainable business model.

 

40 man raids that take 4-5 hours to complete, after taking 2 days to plan and prepare, to get some exclusive e-peen loot may sound like a fun time at first, but that experience wears off quickly. Personally, I am lucky if I can sit down for 30-60 minutes to play a game without having to stop to take care of some Real Life business or what have you. As much as I enjoyed those glory days, I am now at the point where I can say "been there done that ain't going back" - just like my party days at college. I am thankful that the gaming industry has matured right along with me so that I can continue to enjoy the experience.

[Raphael_diSanto]

I know players though that actually liked the game. There is a base of players out there that want a glorified 2nd life. They don't want levels and all those things games have today that create a "class system", for lack of a better term. They wanted a game where they could bonafidely escape into and if you went no where it didn't matter because you didn't have a number over your head. These people will be the ones who say introducing PvE raids are what, in part, ultimately killed the game.

 

Sadly they are only half right. If those CU/NGE changes had been in game from launch the game would have been more popular. These changes were implemented because the patient was already sick due to SOE and LucasArts' unrealistic belief that simply slapping Star Wars on it would make it a WoW buster. Rather than accept it would be a " modest" they did what they should have done from the beginning.

 

The bolded part is the key point about SWG for me. A game like pre-NGE SWG is, unfortunately, always going to be a niche game and MMO companies don't want a niche game. I'm one of those players. I loved the fact that it was Second Life-lite. I like second life, but there's a huge overhead when it comes to playing in SL, in terms of getting things "set up" the way you like them. Graphics, your character's look, all that kind of stuff.

 

Sure, SL is almost infinitely customizable, so if you're prepared to put the time in, you absolutely can get things exactly the way you want to, but that takes a time investment that some people - myself included - aren't going to want to do. I've dabbled in SL more than once, and every time I've played I've stopped because I don't want to have to work that hard to get a character that I like in a house that I like, etc etc.

 

SWG didn't have SL's customizability, but almost everything was set up from the get-go, to hang out with one's friends and RP.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Raphael_diSanto

[Suromir]

Depends on what it was instead.

 

They could literally just change the "look" and names of stuff and this could be a Mass Effect MMO..in which case...yes.

 

otherwise...I'd of stuck through the stories (assuming they'd be the same quality) and quit long ago.

 

This game is afloat because of the property. Yes there are those that love the entire thing, but overall I'd bet real money this game woulda been shut down if it wasn't Star Wars

[TheCardinal]

To me that would be a BIG No.

 

I played SWG for alot more years then I should have.

Been around here since far before this game went live, forum account dates back too 2009.

 

Been around more or less since beta testing.

 

But I would never even considered to play if it wasen't for SW.

 

But alas, this game getting less and less what I want from it and RL life is still aorund so.....

[Adovir]

Why wouldn't you? Hit the only reason why you play a game is for the lore and not the actual game play, then you have a problem. Even if this wasn't "starwars" but was a space aged MMO with people who can do some sort of magic through what ever means and had 2 factions fighting then yeah I'd still play it. I love Star Wars but if they changed everything so it wasn't starwars Id still play it

[Kianabamin]

Heck no.

The only reason I play this game is because it's Star Wars.

Otherwise it's just another POS MMO.