Lack of races...or should i say lack of Non-Near human subspecies...

This is coming from a Man who played a twi'lek in SWG but generally lieks to play human-like races in MMOs

but this is different my friends...this is Star Wars and i know Bioware's excuse "people can not relate to non-humans" which in my opinion is BullS**t. Ask how people loved Chewbacca or have poor opinions of Gungans (with Jar Jar in particular). How may people think Ackbar is great just for saying "its a trap" or enjoy referning to Sullustans as Pancake face.

Star Wars was great becuase we had all these races that were Unique and complex and great looking. The Magic of Star Wars is simply dying the those who wish to profit off it are trying everything they can think of (which is not the correct way) and destroying this beautiful IP.

Bio Ware has already messed up hard on this game. the VO was not needed to this extent. the lack of creativity in throwing together a great looking but poor content full Space game shows that they truly do not know how to build a star Wars MMO...A single player game company is one thing. but breaking into a MMO like this is bad. The lack of information in a business where info is key to selling the game and keeping hype is shows the lack of courage by the company. To this game i can not tell you what will happen day to day in the game. Story will not alone sell this game. 

will this game sell...yes. will it retain subs to the extent at which EA and BIoware/mythic need it to in order to turn a profit on this three hundred million dollar project...As of now...No.

my rant for the night. now to time to study for midterms.

We don't really know what races will actually be in game, but I for one will be extremely upset if i can't play as a Kel Dor Jedi

/signed

Surely my personal grude No.1 as well. I don't care about space or crafting on a personal level. But an all-humans club in a Star Wars MMO nontheless is really my main "drive away" just as well. I love to be someone more freaky than a human with face paint.

well, to me it seems like BW is trying to cut a few corners by only including humans. Adding other species to the mix may well open them up to further criticism if they don't adjust the story lines to affect cultural/racial backgrounds etc. Then there is also the fact that it would require additional work on the character creator, lore, etc. But for a game with this type of budget this is not really a valid excuse in my book. 

I still have no strong opinion about the game one way or the other, but I am at least a little confused by some of the decisions they made - the one brought up by the OP being one of them. The fact that there hasn't been a whole lot of information on how group play will be encouraged, or what the social layers in the game design are going to be etc...

"The lack of information in a business where info is key to selling the game and keeping hype is shows the lack of courage by the company."

The problem in the game industry is you gotta come out with some new first otherwise your rehashing what someone else did. Keeping some secrets is key in this field, hence the lack of information is not so much the idea of not letting the public know so much as not letting the other companies know. Hence reasons for NDAs and the like when you enter a beta.  They don't want people leaking videos then another company gets ahold of it and incorporates into their game.

I understand the want for info but what also needs to be understood is this business is a rather cutthroat one as well. The point behind success is to be the first to come out with something new and make the people want to play it. Thus some surprise and some secrecies is needed.

It's not really a lack of courage is just good business sense.

As for races: well theres also expansions i suppose and content expansion.  Nothing is certain at the moment. But i can understand if you want to play another race and are disappointed by this fact.

Originally posted by needalife214

Lack of races...or should i say lack of Non-Near human subspecies...

 

This is coming from a Man who played a twi'lek in SWG but generally lieks to play human-like races in MMOs

 

but this is different my friends...this is Star Wars and i know Bioware's excuse "people can not relate to non-humans" which in my opinion is BullS**t. Ask how people loved Chewbacca or have poor opinions of Gungans (with Jar Jar in particular). How may people think Ackbar is great just for saying "its a trap" or enjoy referning to Sullustans as Pancake face.

 

Star Wars was great becuase we had all these races that were Unique and complex and great looking. The Magic of Star Wars is simply dying the those who wish to profit off it are trying everything they can think of (which is not the correct way) and destroying this beautiful IP.

 

Bio Ware has already messed up hard on this game. the VO was not needed to this extent. the lack of creativity in throwing together a great looking but poor content full Space game shows that they truly do not know how to build a star Wars MMO...A single player game company is one thing. but breaking into a MMO like this is bad. The lack of information in a business where info is key to selling the game and keeping hype is shows the lack of courage by the company. To this game i can not tell you what will happen day to day in the game. Story will not alone sell this game. 

 

will this game sell...yes. will it retain subs to the extent at which EA and BIoware/mythic need it to in order to turn a profit on this three hundred million dollar project...As of now...No.

 

my rant for the night. now to time to study for midterms.

Please explain why "story is not needed to this extent." There's another post basically explaining my opinion that combat evolved from text to 3d graphics in MMOs years ago. NPC dialog and quest text did not evolve from text to audio in MMOs because it was expensive and complicated. The result is the story in MMOs became the least important part of them.

Is there a fear that if there are fully voiced NPCs and story in an MMO that players won't talk to each other? That Jake won't be talking to Dustin about the basketball game that weekend? Or the earthquake that happened that morning? That stuff is not going to change lol.

If a player doesn't want to pay attention to the voice acting, they can choose to read text. If they don't want to get deep into the story, they don't have to. There is no control being taken away from the player...

Story and voice acting alone, while cool for many that will enjoy it, will not sell this game. But:

-The graphic  style will appeal to a wide range of people and pocketbooks, some even who aren't gamers. Sold.

-The combat will appeal to many who have seen star wars combat in movies, cartoons, etc. Sold.

-The lore will appeal to star wars fans. Sold.

-The planets, ship housing will appeal to sci fi geeks in general. Sold.

-MMO nature of the game will appeal to social gamers. Sold.

-The pets (companions) will appeal to single player fans, even though you need some real players for many dungeons. Sold.

-The popularity of the Star Wars genre will appeal to people how have to be involved the newest best thing out. Sold.

-And finally the jaded veteran MMO gamers who just want to try the new AAA MMO of the season. Sold.

There is a big chance SWTOR will keep some of those groups for the long term.

I'm still looking forward to the game. To at least observe how it does in the long run; just not sold as a consumer just yet that it'd be worth playing for the IP alone but I admit I like some of the ideas.

I understand their reasoning for this, but as a MMO player I often pick the bizzaro / creative / big nasty races my first play through because I find it enjoyable.

There's none of that involved from everything I've seen. All classes either being human or some sort of near-human really bummed me out on the day of that press release.

with all the mmo failures lately i think  a lot  people will skip out on this game and wait for sureshot hit like GW2....

all of the people i game with are skipping out on this game...

I wish I could say I was sold.  I probably will end up getting it but I almost know like all other KOTOR's of the past.  once I get done I probably will not invest time creating another character.  I am one of the folks that can't stand linear stories with choice good, neutral, and bad.  I almost feel like that alone will be the reason I don't end up buying it. 

I like others wished they never showed the space stuff they did.  And as for how I fell they should do space it how they do it in the Battlefront games.  Where players PvP against each other in scenarios.  In ships the buy in game that they can customize.  I don't feel there needs to be space like EvE.  but more like we can PvP in all the great battles from the movies and books.  I don't know I just don't feel at this point I will be getting it.  You never know though. 

Like poster above me all my 4 friends aren't even considering getting it.  sorta sad for me.  :(

Wow that's it?

Originally posted by Swanea

Wow that's it?

No kidding.

OP, it's because of SWG (which you mentioned) that this won't happen in this game. The number of issues that unique player models cause just isn't worth it for Devs. How many Ithorian clothing updates had there been for SWG? How about Wookiees? Twileks had that goofy f'n large helmet issue. Sucks I guess, but I'd rather not hold back eventual content because you wanna play some alien. You're maybe 5% of the populous...and 4.9999% of you will just play another species if forced to.

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by Swanea

Wow that's it?

No kidding.

OP, it's because of SWG (which you mentioned) that this won't happen in this game. The number of issues that unique player models cause just isn't worth it for Devs. How many Ithorian clothing updates had there been for SWG? How about Wookiees? Twileks had that goofy f'n large helmet issue. Sucks I guess, but I'd rather not hold back eventual content because you wanna play some alien. You're maybe 5% of the populous...and 4.9999% of you will just play another species if forced to.

wookiees in pre-cu werent supposed to use armor because they had much more inate strength compared to the rest of the species. 

then they got rid of that in the nge and they said: ooops. wookiees are like the rest now and we don't have armors for them!

the rest of the species the main issue was the head. the body could cope with all other types of armor and clothing. 

and whilst i agree that it can cause "unnecessary" problems for the devs, the case in SWG was that they were just too lazy to get armor designs to fit these species, because in its history it has been the game that most released all sorts of fluff items like paintings, decoration stuff, monuments, chairs, rugs; as well as utility stuff like new armor but never bothered to create 1 or 2 helmets for a moncal. 

Originally posted by Troneas

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by Swanea

Wow that's it?

No kidding.

OP, it's because of SWG (which you mentioned) that this won't happen in this game. The number of issues that unique player models cause just isn't worth it for Devs. How many Ithorian clothing updates had there been for SWG? How about Wookiees? Twileks had that goofy f'n large helmet issue. Sucks I guess, but I'd rather not hold back eventual content because you wanna play some alien. You're maybe 5% of the populous...and 4.9999% of you will just play another species if forced to.

wookiees in pre-cu werent supposed to use armor because they had much more inate strength compared to the rest of the species. 

 

then they got rid of that in the nge and they said: ooops. wookiees are like the rest now and we don't have armors for them!

 

the rest of the species the main issue was the head. the body could cope with all other types of armor and clothing. 

 

and whilst i agree that it can cause "unnecessary" problems for the devs, the case in SWG was that they were just too lazy to get armor designs to fit these species, because in its history it has been the game that most released all sorts of fluff items like paintings, decoration stuff, monuments, chairs, rugs; as well as utility stuff like new armor but never bothered to create 1 or 2 helmets for a moncal. 

If they couldn't work out an issue here and there related to an item, they wouldn't bother to fix it....example Capes. They were were on the vendor as an item, but they weren't in the game for players. I think I've only seen one person have one, this was pre-cu, and I'm not sure how he got it.

Bioware hates aliens.  You know who else hates aliens?  Emperor Palpatine.  Therefore, Bioware is Emperor Palpatine.  

You have to remember, Bioware is not so much about giving players options but are more focused on making you sit there and watch dialog. I agree with an earlier poster, just wait for Guild Wars 2 since it will be a guranteed success.

Originally posted by mysticalspam

with all the mmo failures lately i think  a lot  people will skip out on this game and wait for sureshot hit like GW2....

 

all of the people i game with are skipping out on this game...

GW2 is far from a sureshot. They have a bigger chance of failing more than bioware in my opinion, considering all the hype they are gathering.

Races? Really? Ah well, to each their own.

This is something they will likely add in future development anyway. I guess if you are as big a fan of Star Wars as you say you are, you could always come back in the future and check it out.

Originally posted by drumchannell

You have to remember, Bioware is not so much about giving players options but are more focused on making you sit there and watch dialog. I agree with an earlier poster, just wait for Guild Wars 2 since it will be a guranteed success.

I really do not understand this, how is GW2 a guaranteed success? It's attitudes like this that create the lashing out we see when a game doesn't release perfect. We've seen it time and time again. Nothing is a guaranteed success, so many things can cause too many to view a product as a failure, that chance doubles when there are outlooks like this. IF you expect perfection, be ready to be disappointed.

I agree with what someone said earlier, this if nothing else (over-expectation) may lead GW2 down the road most traveled in this genre. Games failing to meet expectations, regardless of whether they're truly decent or not.

@OP, I'd say your best bet is to wait and see what's added down the road, I personally doubt we'll see many non humanoid races added later on, but you never know.

I'm all for BioWare making a solid base game that is limited in scope and perhaps even content as long as it is solid and plays as intended.

Expansion Packs could change all that.

To get upset or not want to play without even trying it first or having it even released is a bit irritating. Everyone wants to be spoon fed exactly what they want, without even knowing everything.

Who's to say that other races are not to be released later, or even on the ship date?

I played a Twi' too in SWG, and am happy that they are in there. Do I wish there were more races? Sure. But seeing as the game isn't released yet and we still have a bit of time until it is, I will wait patiently to see.