My view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwtLh9AxlR8&feature=plcp

Slightly less optimistic but fair :P

I will never play a game that forces you to PAY to unlock UI elements. THEY DIDNT EVEN HAVE them when the game launched. Now theyre charging for it. What next? Charge to open the map? Charge money each time you recall?

EA/Bioware is full of stupid.

Originally posted by saxifr

The estimated 1.5 million who have dropped this piece of trash disagree with the author's opinion that this is a solid game.

 

 

It is most definitely a solid game, you guys are confusing the failure to live up to the hype with the game being rubbish. Most major mmo' that did not live up to the hype are in fact solid games, and most reviewers and gamers would agree. Most people that played SWTOR enjoyed it for the time they played it, but like all other games, they also moved on, but that doesn't mean that the game is trash. 

But let's not stop short of the hyperboles that these forums are so prone to, afterall everything that doesn't put out WOW sub numbers is a miserable failure. I often wonder if its the same sandbox crowd that keeps propeling these hyperboles, they can't attack WOW because of its enormous success, but SWTOR's failure is like a band of starving hyenas coming upon a limping gazelle.

Great article. I totally agree with the comment about it being a "solid" game. I've been playing the Imperial Agent storyline and it's extremely well written and enjoyable. Warzones are also a lot of fun. Personally, I think "solid" is an understatement, but that's just my opinion based on my experience of playing it. :)

Five reasons NOT to play SWTOR?

1 - It's SWTOR

2 - It's SWTOR

3 - it's SWTOR

4 - it's SWTOR

5 - it was full of lies from the beginning, more lies to come.

PS I still can't believe that it went f2p even sooner than most people here predicted...

My problem with TOR wasn't the subscription fee. My wife, my friends, and I decided to pay that when it first came out. We left within a month for reasons other than the cost, and the game isn't about to get a massive overhaul, so it going f2p is a moot point.

Thanks EA/BioWare, but no thanks.

I will log back and check it, maybe stick long enough to finish my class lines, but I don't think it has a high chance...

A few corrections, if you don't mind. Since you listed reasons for check out the f2p :)

- it comes with update 1.5. Too bad, f2p's won't see any of that.

- integrated cartel market items, again f2p's cannot trade, so it's not a reason to them.

- class content is free, with mostly average f2p restrictions, and a few very unnoying ones. I'll go back for the story, but even I can't say for sure, that I will be staying.

- solid game. khm... nah, I skip this one, it would be too easy :)

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

It's not written by Bill, it's written by Mike.  I have no idea why they make it confusing by never letting the authors post their own articles.

 

It's a limitation of the content management system, Frodo.  Usually Suzie enters articles, or me, or Mike.  Whoever touches it last before it goes live the first time is who gets stamped on the forum post associated with the feature.  In this case, I touched it last.

The author's definition of a solid game is this,

One that the devs predicted would be a WoW competitor in sub numbers , in fact "MORE" than compete , as in surpass,

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/306437/bioware-old-republic-will-more-than-compete-with-world-of-warcraft/

that now is F2P less than a year after launch , and is do desparate for every nickel , they have gone beyone what any other mmorpg company has done , and is charging for UI toolbards.

That my friends , is the author's definition of a "solid game".

I don't really understand why so many are harping on the "solid game" quote. 

It has amazing story based content.  It has interesting combat that was unfortunately plagued with responsiveness issues on release.  It had better dungeons than GW2.  It had fun albeit flawed PVP.  It simply offered the most enjoyable leveling I've experienced in a themepark MMO.  The problem was that leveling twice on the same faction wasn't nearly so fun.

To me it was a game I knew I'd come back to eventually.  It just wasn't, and still isn't, worth a subscription relative to what's on the market.  But I think the only games worthy of a sub are WOW, Rift and I assume EVE.

SWTOR will easily be the best F2P MMO on the market.  They just need to fix their nickle and dime payment model and unrestrict essentials to leveling like the 3rd and 4th action bars.  They should probably add an extra character slot or two to preferred accounts.

Just remove voice acting from free™ version and it will be perfect f2p SWTOR,no other restrictions.

Everything else in that product is a mess anyways.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

It's not written by Bill, it's written by Mike.  I have no idea why they make it confusing by never letting the authors post their own articles.

 

It's a limitation of the content management system, Frodo.  Usually Suzie enters articles, or me, or Mike.  Whoever touches it last before it goes live the first time is who gets stamped on the forum post associated with the feature.  In this case, I touched it last.

Thanks for the info.  It's not a big deal and I've learned to look at who the author is, but this confusion pops up a lot.

Originally posted by SuperXero89

My view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwtLh9AxlR8&feature=plcp

 

Slightly less optimistic but fair :P

They should hire you!  You actually know the game and genre and can look at it objectively.  You even mentioned the hotbars being a PITA as well as mentioning that their model isn't going to magically fix the issues they had in getting subscribers.

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

 

  It has interesting combat that was unfortunately plagued with responsiveness issues on release. 

Combat is interesting but problems are still there.

 http://www.torhead.com/ability/3oj9LWe/spinning-strike it should be instant,but,theres some animation on it ,and your next attack will stop that animation and nothing happens and you get global cooldown and you must try spinning strike again,with better luck.

Theres no way in hell that anyone can enjoy that kind of lottery.

And in worst case scenario ,that opponent should be dead by now but instead of that its me who is going to die.

And that is not the only attack with problems theres plenty more,those issues are still there no matter what EA says.

SWTOR is a good game checking out.  It gets bashed a lot, mostly by clueless nublets who think it's trendy or cool to bash it.  Was it ever worth $15/mo - that's the problem, IMO it was not.  Of course, I don't think WoW is worth $15/mo but tons of fools pay bliz monthly for next to nothing.   It's WoW's fault that companies like BioWare think they can ship incomplete and unbalanced games and charge a sub just for the honor of playing (on top of full box price).

I'm pretty much sick of most F2P.  F2P is another trendy thing that's way overrated.  Most of F2P is BS, scams, restrictions, and not fun.  GW2 does buy and F2P ok, but you still too often feel steered to the cash shop.

I would much rather pay a sub for ALL access and not deal with nickel, dime, and devs/designers looking for ways to restrict the game to make money off of microtransactions that just become a hassle.  I want to play a full game, not most of a game with financial decisions throughout.

Why do I mention all of this?

Because IMO, the F2P model BioWare is unleashing for SWTOR is utter garbage.  It's a convoluted mess of restrictions and complications.  As someone who bought the box, paid for several months, and ultimately put over $100 into the game, there is no way I could now do F2P and have everything I previously earned stripped away.  That would not be fun.

If you have never played the game before, the F2P is like an extended trial that will ultimately show you that the only way to really enjoy the game without hassles is to sub.

Then you're back to the SWTOR is nowhere near worth $15/mo.

I would much rather have seen BioWare make SWTOR worth $15/mo.

And btw, the ONLY MMORPG worth $15/mo is Rift - because Trion cranks out ungodly amounts of content and features for your sub dollar.  All other subs are paying for the privelidge of logging on with a joke of an amount of content added over time for the money, and are not worth it.  This is why we have so much F2P idiocy - greedy sub-based devs NOT delivering and making it worth it.

i agree that it's a solid game, there's just nothing to do once you do everything.  The bane of all MMOs I suppose, but SWTOR only took me a 3 day weekend to burn through everything at launch.  MMOs are too fast today...bring back the year long struggle to level. 

The only thing I found myself doing for 3 months after launch was making weapons and selling them on my bounty hunter, I was kinda a Cartel on my server.  People would hear from word of mouth and mail me what they wanted, and I'd get it for them...one way or another ;)

Originally posted by Ozmodan
What is your definition of a solid game?  Being lead around by your nose ring everywhere?  Might be a good game to fool around for a month or two.  I personally like to spend more than that in a game.  EA should just write this game off as a really bad investment and move on.

write it off because you don't like it? So the fact that all of us that still sub want to keep playing it doesn't matter, becaus YOU don't like it. We should just have the game we enjoy playing canned because, you don't like it...

Yeah, that makes since. Perhaps you should simply go find a game worthy of your superior opinion.

I wonder if EA Bioware might have made more money selling 8 different single player/co-op games?

A seperate game for each class. No sub fee.

I'm sure more than a few would have bought multiple versions to play each class through. I probably would've been suckered into it...