SW:TOR

[sea]

Nobody caught about it? There were hundreds of pages about it. It's one of the main complaints and you didn't even see anything yet. Starter zones are miniatures compared to later ones, the mounts are slow as fuck, there are quests that could be grouped together and aren't so you need to go back to the quest giver 3-5 times, going from planet A to B is a fucking chore each and every time with the useless spaceports and stupid hangars, there are pointless quests between story chapters that just send you to the fleet and back just for the sake of it. (and at least when I played it if you used the fleet pass the quest wouldn't trigger...)
And the best part, whenever you complained about it, in every single fucking thread about this issue, there were a bunch of morons telling people to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.

Fair enough, I searched the forum but didn't see anything. Maybe those posts were deleted.

Funny thing is a lot of people actually seem to think the game world is too small. That... that boggles my mind. 10 minutes running around doing absolutely nothing, and it's too small? I understand that adding more interesting things to do and find, like more quests on the way to others, could be fun, but... even so, once you exhaust that content getting from A to B is still a bitch.

 

[markec]

Nobody caught about it? There were hundreds of pages about it. It's one of the main complaints and you didn't even see anything yet. Starter zones are miniatures compared to later ones, the mounts are slow as fuck, there are quests that could be grouped together and aren't so you need to go back to the quest giver 3-5 times, going from planet A to B is a fucking chore each and every time with the useless spaceports and stupid hangars, there are pointless quests between story chapters that just send you to the fleet and back just for the sake of it. (and at least when I played it if you used the fleet pass the quest wouldn't trigger...)
And the best part, whenever you complained about it, in every single fucking thread about this issue, there were a bunch of morons telling people to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.

Fair enough, I searched the forum but didn't see anything. Maybe those posts were deleted.

Funny thing is a lot of people actually seem to think the game world is too small. That... that boggles my mind. 10 minutes running around doing absolutely nothing, and it's too small? I understand that adding more interesting things to do and find, like more quests on the way to others, could be fun, but... even so, once you exhaust that content getting from A to B is still a bitch.

You are lucky you tried the game now, when the game was launched and for a good few months you could only walk anywhere not sprint. Why, because sprint was lvl 14 skill which you needed to buy to be able to run, I kid you not.

 

[sea]

You are lucky you tried the game now, when the game was launched and for a good few months you could only walk anywhere not sprint. Why, because sprint was lvl 14 skill which you needed to buy to be able to run, I kid you not.

 

[Syril]

Is tortanic worth a go when it goes f2p ?
It's just WoW with lightsabers, amirite?

 

[sea]

Is tortanic worth a go when it goes f2p ?
It's just WoW with lightsabers, amirite?

It's already F2P, just until level 15. It's also like 25 GB, so that might not be worth downloading.

Installers that download the game content as you play? Nah, never heard of those.

 

[Condiments]

Nobody caught about it? There were hundreds of pages about it. It's one of the main complaints and you didn't even see anything yet. Starter zones are miniatures compared to later ones, the mounts are slow as fuck, there are quests that could be grouped together and aren't so you need to go back to the quest giver 3-5 times, going from planet A to B is a fucking chore each and every time with the useless spaceports and stupid hangars, there are pointless quests between story chapters that just send you to the fleet and back just for the sake of it. (and at least when I played it if you used the fleet pass the quest wouldn't trigger...)
And the best part, whenever you complained about it, in every single fucking thread about this issue, there were a bunch of morons telling people to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.

Fair enough, I searched the forum but didn't see anything. Maybe those posts were deleted.

Funny thing is a lot of people actually seem to think the game world is too small. That... that boggles my mind. 10 minutes running around doing absolutely nothing, and it's too small? I understand that adding more interesting things to do and find, like more quests on the way to others, could be fun, but... even so, once you exhaust that content getting from A to B is still a bitch.

I think it has to do more with how the game was constructed more than anything. The game world felt very small and artificial, and I would be frustrated out of my mind because of contrivances that blocked my path. There is little reason to explore the game whatsoever due to how streamlined and linear the game's quest structure and transportation is. All experience and rewards for the game come from shuffling one spot to the next, and the game goes out of its way to keep player interaction to a minimum. I was on a PvP server, and maybe saw an enemy player once or twice. Some of my greatest MMO memories come from the impromptu PvP that would occur during the course of leveling. It adds a layer of tension when exploring the wilderness, but I guess player agency is not something they wanted to promote.

Even when the game asks you to deviate from "The Path", you have wade through the boredom of jumping on your ship, leaving the hangar, and then sitting through multiple loading screens just to listen to one conversation just so the game universe can maintain some form of consistency. It just feels like some really terrible single player game grafted onto the MMO format, and both suffer greatly because of the decision.

I will never go back to this game even if its free.

 

[Oriebam]

Exploration? In a MMO?

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/08/02/lucasarts-president-steps-down.aspx

Problem with your shitty Star Wars MMO Lucas Arts?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Exploration? In a MMO?

I once read that Tibia's gameworld hasn't been completely explored yet because people are scared of dying and losing a ton of XP and all their equipment.

 

[Whisper]

Sea, you should try Secret world if you want good content.

First MMO where i've actually read quest descriptions with interest (!)

 

[fizzelopeguss]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/08/02/lucasarts-president-steps-down.aspx

Problem with your shitty Star Wars MMO Lucas Arts?

not sure really, he hasn't been there long. The MMO wouldn't have been pencilled in on his watch. And even then i doubt Lucasarts lost a penny on this, EA probably got nailed in the ass for the licensing rights.

 

[Syril]

I get 'unable to retrieve data patch' when loading launcher and cannot update, search eashit forums but all there is, is smoke and mirrors and 'we are looking into it'. Anyone got a solution?

 

[DraQ]

I get 'unable to retrieve data patch' when loading launcher and cannot update, search eashit forums but all there is, is smoke and mirrors and 'we are looking into it'. Anyone got a solution?

Not trying to play TOR is expected to be 100% effective solution to this problem.

 

[Syril]

Incredible, first game in PC history with apparent launcher issues 9 months after release and support in majority blaims people for having a bad connection/firewall setting etc.
Is having a competent programmers such a big thing for ea/bioware?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

My take on SWTOR, now that I have quit the game (will try out F2P to see how the Cartel store works, but I'm not going to resub unless they make an awesome C&C heavy expansion).

SWTOR is a classic case of a developer (Lucasarts/Bioware, originally) ignoring what players say they want and instead putting millions of dollars into making something the developer THINKS the player wants. Before this game was announced, and Lucasarts/Bioware said they were working on a new project together, everyone was hoping they were making KOTOR 3 and not a KOTOR MMO. When the MMO was announced, response was pretty much negative. People like the flashy CGI trailers and all, but can you remember anyone getting really excited about the gameplay footage? People can nitpick about the boring planets, awful art direction, but really the whole thing was a crappy idea to begin with.

Still, there's millions of gamers out there who LOVE crappy ideas. It is the reason why the Call of Duty games keep selling in stupidly large amounts, and Activision can charge extortionate prices for them because they know gamers will pay. But for fucks sake, you don't charge £40 on release for a pay-monthly MMO. That was another fatal misstep in my view. It was so fucking expensive to buy the game in the first place.

There's no incentive to keep paying for the game once you've bought it. Remember the marketing guy who said people who want KOTOR 3, should buy SWTOR, because it is KOTOR 3, 4, 5 and 6? Well, SWTOR isn't anything like KOTOR. Your choices and the way you interact with your companions DON'T impact the storyline, EA/Bioware say they do but they are lying. The storyline was the most important thing about KOTOR and KOTOR 2, but the most important thing about TOR is grinding planets. Each world is about 5-10% story quests, 90% kill x-enemies, collect x-boxes generic quests. That is what the game is. You can change a few things about how your story quests end, but they count for fuck all when you realise there's millions thousands hundreds of other people who have made their own choices too, and the game can't recognise them all. So everything is a stalemate. Of course it is - it is an MMO, not a singleplayer game.

TLDR version: fans wanted KOTOR 3. EA/Bioware thought the fans didn't know what they really wanted, and tried to sell them an MMO that wasn't as good as WoW, but way more expensive. And it failed. The funniest thing about it all is that SWTOR was the reason EA bought Bioware in the first place. I'm just counting down the days until EA close Bioware for fucking it all up.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

My take on SWTOR, now that I have quit the game (will try out F2P to see how the Cartel store works, but I'm not going to resub unless they make an awesome C&C heavy expansion).

SWTOR is a classic case of a developer (Lucasarts/Bioware, originally) ignoring what players say they want and instead putting millions of dollars into making something the developer THINKS the player wants. Before this game was announced, and Lucasarts/Bioware said they were working on a new project together, everyone was hoping they were making KOTOR 3 and not a KOTOR MMO. When the MMO was announced, response was pretty much negative. People like the flashy CGI trailers and all, but can you remember anyone getting really excited about the gameplay footage? People can nitpick about the boring planets, awful art direction, but really the whole thing was a crappy idea to begin with.

Still, there's millions of gamers out there who LOVE crappy ideas. It is the reason why the Call of Duty games keep selling in stupidly large amounts, and Activision can charge extortionate prices for them because they know gamers will pay. But for fucks sake, you don't charge £40 on release for a pay-monthly MMO. That was another fatal misstep in my view. It was so fucking expensive to buy the game in the first place.

There's no incentive to keep paying for the game once you've bought it. Remember the marketing guy who said people who want KOTOR 3, should buy SWTOR, because it is KOTOR 3, 4, 5 and 6? Well, SWTOR isn't anything like KOTOR. Your choices and the way you interact with your companions DON'T impact the storyline, EA/Bioware say they do but they are lying. The storyline was the most important thing about KOTOR and KOTOR 2, but the most important thing about TOR is grinding planets. Each world is about 5-10% story quests, 90% kill x-enemies, collect x-boxes generic quests. That is what the game is. You can change a few things about how your story quests end, but they count for fuck all when you realise there's millions thousands hundreds of other people who have made their own choices too, and the game can't recognise them all. So everything is a stalemate. Of course it is - it is an MMO, not a singleplayer game.

TLDR version: fans wanted KOTOR 3. EA/Bioware thought the fans didn't know what they really wanted, and tried to sell them an MMO that wasn't as good as WoW, but way more expensive. And it failed. The funniest thing about it all is that SWTOR was the reason EA bought Bioware in the first place. I'm just counting down the days until EA close Bioware for fucking it all up.

 

[DraQ]

Your choices and the way you interact with your companions DON'T impact the storyline, EA/Bioware say they do but they are lying.

Who could have thought that.

 

[Jaesun]

TLDR version: fans wanted KOTOR 3. Lucas Arts thought the fans didn't know what they really wanted, and tried to sell them an MMO that wasn't as good as WoW, but way more expensive. And it failed. The funniest thing about it all is that SWTOR was the reason EA bought Bioware in the first place. I'm just counting down the days until EA close Bioware for fucking it all up.

fixed.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

I played a for a few hours with about 50 cunts on Illum yesterday, was the most fun I've had with the game... and that was just sporadic PvP in a bit of a glitchy open world.

I'm guessing a game with an actual working open world PvP mechanic will actually blow my mind. Nub city.

 

[Infinitron]

sea article: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Eric...onarrative_Dissonance_in_The_Old_Republic.php

 

[Infinitron]

A final farewell to SWTOR: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=17064

Guild Wars 2 is a visual feast. It is a lovingly crafted masterwork of polygonal artistry. It doesn’t aim for the dead-end of photo-realism, but neither does it chase after the attractive but overused cartoon style of WoW. The world of Guild Wars 2 is charming, whimsical, colorful, and diverse. Those aren’t backdrops you’re seeing in these screenshots. The stuff on the horizon is all part of the playable gameworld. The various regions each have their own tone and style. (I’ve only explored two of the five starting areas. Humans and Norn are wonderful. Chris tells me the Char area is a bit bleh.)
The gameplay is fun and mobile. You know how in WoW, it’s often a grind to kill those ten boars, and you’re just counting the dead pigs until you can move on? In Guild Wars 2, I blew over an hour taking part in a back-and-forth battle between the NPC townspeople and the bandits. The bandits would mount an assault on the water pipes, and it was kind of like a game of Team Fortress 2 payload where you have to stop the guy with the bomb from reaching the water pipes. Then the game would end and you’d defend the workers as they repair the pipes. Then you might mount an assault on the windmill where the bandits were hiding out. The battle swung back and forth, and anyone could come and go as they pleased. Each round awarded XP and the guys dropped lots of loot, so there was always something in it for me. I played because it was fun, not because it was a checkmark on my to-do list required to get to the next area of do-to lists.

​

While SWTOR has a bunch of human-shaped races with different flavors of bumpy forehead, Guild Wars 2 has a world with some significant physiological diversity. Play as an eight-foot monstrous Char. Or as an adorable three-foot Asura. Or as… okay, the other races are basically Humans and “Stop Calling Us Elves!” But still. There’s a lot of visual diversity and cultural flavor in these choices.
Guild Wars 2 is not perfect and I’ll probably gripe about it a bit once it officially launches. But even if I’ve completely misjudged it and the whole thing fails, as least they failed trying.
There’s no monthly fee. You can jump right to the end-game PvP gameplay from the outset without needing to grind out 80 levels first.
The streets aren’t clogged with highlevel mounts. (No mounts.) You can teleport around almost at will without the game pissing away a bunch of time riding the gryphon, or the speeder bike, or the steed, or whatever names people give to their in-game bus. The game lets you level your character in the starting area you enjoy most, not where the designers say you have to.

​

You don’t have to kill ten boars to get to the guy who will give you a quest to kill ten boars. If you kill ten things while you’re near his property, it counts, and he mails you the reward. There’s exploration based gameplay and XP, encouraging and rewarding players who love to run around ,see the sights, and try to figure out how to get on top of that one thing because wouldn’t it be cool if you could? (And yes, you can!)
Remember how I said I wasn’t going to put in any SWTOR screenshots? I lied. Let me give you one from the big cinematic intro for the SWTOR Smuggler storyline:

​

Ah well. What do you expect for a lousy $200 million American dollars?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

"Guild Wars 2 is a visual feast. It is a lovingly crafted masterwork of polygonal artistry"

Bollocks, Swtor is shit but there's no need to go batshit.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

There's a lot you could have done with 200 million Kwabucks.

 

[Mother Russia]

Answer me this: How can Guild Wars 1 + 2 afford to be free? I mean, it's not even f2p is it? It's totally free as long as you purchase the box?

So how to they pay for servers and staff and maintenance, all the things required for MMOs?

 

[Hoaxmetal]

You can buy keys and wedding suits.

 

[Grunker]

Answer me this: How can Guild Wars 1 + 2 afford to be free? I mean, it's not even f2p is it? It's totally free as long as you purchase the box?

So how to they pay for servers and staff and maintenance, all the things required for MMOs?

Same reason LoL does I'm sure. Lower profit margin and making money off of goodwill of fans/people who like buying pretty stuff.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Answer me this: How can Guild Wars 1 + 2 afford to be free? I mean, it's not even f2p is it? It's totally free as long as you purchase the box?

So how to they pay for servers and staff and maintenance, all the things required for MMOs?

Same reason LoL does I'm sure. Lower profit margin and making money off of goodwill of fans/people who like buying pretty stuff.

And sa far as I understand, ArenaNet plays on the fact they can maintain a high rotation in the playerbase. With a game + expansions as the cost, you'll see a lot more new players taking the place that go away, and a lot of people who buy the game and play only for a short time. More importantly, they're tapping to the non-MMO market through this, generally it's subscriptions that drive people away.