Thankfully I've learned to put hype in my rear view mirror, the bottom line is there are still tons of games I enjoy playing both on my console and mmorpg's like lotro so I'll be fine until the wait is over especially if part of the reason I'm waiting is because they need to polish the game up I just don't want them releasing a buggy broken game like AOC or Vanguard or missing tons of promised release content like AOC and WAR did.

Playing WOW I think really helped me with hype they take so long to develop expansions and such but when they release there is barely a hiccup and for me that's much more important than the instant gratification of a too soon release.

I know I dont go to the offical forums anymore, just got tired of waiting.  I bought my CE and will play other games until ToR launches.  Way too many good games out there to play rather than sit and wait for a drop of news about ToR.

Its 3 years since swtor was announced, not 2.

Same with me, i canceled all my MMO  subscription because of that game, only what holds me to play on pc are games like Mass Effect. I cant even play Eve online anymore because when i see planets down there i think on SWTOR

I would be hyped if it was Star Wars.

Couldn't care less about Commercial..ähem, Clone Wars.

Yes, the fatigue is setting in for most players, myself included.  I have the CE ordered, and will stay that way no matter the release date, but, I'm getting tired of the wait with mere scraps of info being leaked.  The main problem I see is Bioware and EA's handling of their PR and release of info.  We're supposedly not far from release, yet we are still not very well informed of the game, beta weekends have been cancelled indefintely, and still no release date listed, with a pushback to 2012 "not off the table".

At this point, they need to be prioritizing getting the game released while the hype level is still high.  As MMO players, we expect there to be bugs at launch, and that they can get handled pretty quickly once the game is launched, so there is less development time and more fix time.  They have a LOT of great looking games coming out this holiday to compete with, so they need to capitalize on the hype level while it's high.

I could care less if it takes another 3 years. My life won t end because it s not released or possibly releasing soon. I m still hyped for it, as I am for Skyrim, GW2, BF3, Sorcery(PS3), PS2, and still enjoying eq2, which soon has another x pac coming. In the end they re all going to come out eventually, so when they do great, but until then I have enough to keep me busy, in and out of real life.

Originally posted by Khaine007

Yes, the fatigue is setting in for most players, myself included.

Agreed.  If it weren't for the dilligent trolling from certain fans of other games, I think the TOR forum would grow spooky quiet.

Originally posted by Cik_Asalin

 

So, in support of my personal excitement terminology shift, fast-forward to today, shallow whack-a-mole asian online games show up like cockroaches in the  mmorpg market, Diablo 3, a single player lobby-system action rpg is considered a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the term Massively as devolved into meaning 100’s of players having access to the same chat channel simultaneously, rather than gaming, cooperating or competing in the same persistent world simultaneously, not to mention there is nothing organic or persistent about the worlds other than their lobby-esque existence.

 

 

So all this nonsense begs the question, aren’t you really looking forward to the next single-player lobby-system heavily sharded and instanced cooperative multiplayer online game?

My first MMORPG, even before playing an UO which I tried later on, was EQ. It didn't have an organic changing world, it was separated into zones in contrast to a LotrO or WoW. Yet it didn't feel like less of an MMORPG to me, I went back to it this year when the progression servers opened up, and again I had that exact same feeling.

When I played AoC, even if it was separated into zones/instances, it didn't feel like not being an MMORPG, there were people everywhere I went, from the wildly raging PvP in areas like White Sands and Kheshatta, to a lot of people traveling and roaming around in city areas like Tarantia and Khemi, all this time the game never felt like a single-player lobby-system game but a full MMORPG, a fact that I was reminded of constantly when I traveled through the open world areas and had to be alert because of the constant chance of getting ganked and attacked by other players, something that doesn't happen in singleplayer games.

So no, they're all MMORPG's to me, just different ones, but then again, I don't consider only sandbox type MMO's to be MMORPG's, I guess it's all a matter of someone's personal perspective.

As for the hype, personally I think it's better when hype and expectations come closer to down-to-earth expectations but that's me. I'm pretty sure that when a release date is announced and it's only a little more time waiting, that people's personal excitement will flare up in their anticipation for the game to be released. That is, the people for whom SWTOR is a game they want to play, of course.

Thanks Bill for the article. It made me feel less alone in my feeling here, teh. ;-)

I mean, what a ride these three years were. THREE YEARS. Whoa. There were so many times when we thought, how would be close to release. I recall Bioware was speculating about a summer 2010 window sometimes. Or so rumor was spread back then. Then for a spring 2011 release. Then autumn 2011. Now spring 2012 some EA folks say. I mean, I won't yell vaporware, but it is very difficult to follow something that is continually delayed again and again. And the WEIRDEST thing is: you can preorder the game and STILL they say "we can't talk about this" and they don't even have a frigging release date.

This, and *some other* things just tell me that Bioware got quite lofty and away from the average player. I have this strong feeling they just lost connection to us "normal folks" down here, and all this PR and suit-talk took over. I mean... well look at the history of EA. The bought dozens of small companies, milked them dry and then absorbed them. What mades EA "great"? Sims and FIFA with 2351 expansions and EA shop goodies to by for bucks. Cheap mainstream mass ware with maximum of item selling profit margins. EVERY SINGLE creative studio thing was destroyed. Now Bioware remains, but how long. And we can SEE the mainstream massification in Bioware single player RPGs already. ENDLESS DLC shop stuff, just like with Sims! Now you can even buy armor pieces for Dragon Age. ARMOUR PIECES! In an online shop! For a friggin single player RPG!

All this makes me wonder where this is heading. Yes, I am still excited. Yes I know playing the stories will be fun. But so much always breathed mediocrity in SWTOR, no matter how many times fans deny this, it is just what I see here. Yes, it will be fun, but it is SO MUCH less than a Star Wars MMO COULD and SHOULD have been. So much less ANY MMO in 2012 SHOULD be! In every single aspect they went the save way, they walked the path of the known and proven. And sorry, for a AAA title this is too less visionary. And if the no doubt cool stories really can turn it all over... I guess we have to see.

I am just tired of "we can't talk about this" and all that after so many years, it is just silly. And then with so many issues still on the mysterious "wall of thing to come in the future", I am definitely waiting after release. Some of these must come before I am going to sub this game anyway. And as you said, with so many cool games coming in holiday season 2011, I have a plethora of games higher on my list now. Skyrim, Arkham City, ANNO 2070, to name just a few. And these three alone can keep me busy for months, months Bye O'Ware can proof they really add promised features. The reality is, in the last years every day one gamer of a MMO has been fooled. People who start later always get a more polished and complete experience. The first 2-3 months are usualy paid beta anyway.

Over and out.

Originally posted by Elikal

People who start later always get a more polished and complete experience. The first 2-3 months are usualy paid beta anyway.

 Over and out.

Shrug. Didn't feel like paid beta when I played WoW, LotrO, Aion, GW and Rift the first few months when they launched. Nor do I expect SWTOR to be any less polished.

But hey, you're entitled to your waiting around of course and even avoiding the game for months after launch until you feel the features you're looking for are ingame, to each their own

As for SWTOR's features, pretty much all the features they have talked about right now, only on the times they wanted to talk about them, not when you were clamoring for them, but over the course of time all the things people were whining about that BW wasn't talking about have been talked about and/or shown in gameplay this past year. Except for a more detailed elaboration of the open world PvP aspects and a release date, but even regarding the release date they have stated several times the past few months that they'd base their release date upon the outcome of the stress test beta sessions, which haven't finished yet.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

Originally posted by Elikal

People who start later always get a more polished and complete experience. The first 2-3 months are usualy paid beta anyway.

 Over and out.

Shrug. Didn't feel like paid beta when I played WoW, LotrO, Aion, GW and Rift the first few months when they launched. Nor do I expect SWTOR to be any less polished.

 

But hey, you're entitled to your waiting around of course and even avoiding the game for months after launch until you feel the features you're looking for are ingame, to each their own

Sometimes it's the many small things which matter. And many are usually added after a few months, also balancing asf. I never could shake the feeling of being a guinnipig having been a first day gamer in virtually every MMO of the last years. AoC, WAR, VG, TR, Aion. Heck, it took them often a YEAR to be really well rounded. There is only one downside to come later. I usually sit 30+ minutes with this message over and over:

NAME TAKEN

NAME TAKEN

NAME TAKEN

... *throws keyboard out of the window*

Esp. with TOR having no surnames, as it seems. >.<

Im not fatigued as more annoyed. I can understand why they wont give a release date as they want the game as bug-free as possible.

***Darth Rabbid engages Darth malgus in plunger to lightsaber combat! Darth malgus is defeated as the plunger is mightier than the lightsaber!****

Originally posted by Elikal

Sometimes it's the many small things which matter. And many are usually added after a few months, also balancing asf. I never could shake the feeling of being a guinnipig having been a first day gamer in virtually every MMO of the last years. AoC, WAR, VG, TR, Aion. Heck, it took them often a YEAR to be really well rounded.

To me, the excitement and rush of the "first few weeks" of a new MMO is a magical, once in a life time experience that I would not want to miss out on - so that trumps any rough edges the game might have at release.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

Shrug. Didn't feel like paid beta when I played WoW, LotrO, Aion, GW and Rift the first few months when they launched. Nor do I expect SWTOR to be any less polished.

WoW's first few months were actually a pretty painful experience (not too bad when the servers were actually up).  The rest of the games you mentioned had pretty smooth starts though.

Originally posted by Elikal

Sometimes it's the many small things which matter. And many are usually added after a few months, also balancing asf. I never could shake the feeling of being a guinnipig having been a first day gamer in virtually every MMO of the last years.

For some MMO's like AoC or VG or TR, maybe, but for other MMO's like LotrO, Aion and Rift I definitely disagree. The fact that they didn't finish with all those little handy things that were added over the years after their launch, doesn't mean that those MMO's didn't launch as a fully fledged MMORPG, those games certainly didn't launch with the feel of a beta.

Besides, MMO's are never really finished but always added and tweaked upon even years after their launch.

Originally posted by Icewhite

WoW's first few months were actually a pretty painful experience (not too bad when the servers were actually up).  The rest of the games you mentioned had pretty smooth starts though.

That wasn't so much because the game was a bug and crashfest due to instability of the flaky coding, like for example AoC and SWG or VG at launch could have those moments. WoW's gameplay was smooth and fairly bug free especially compared with other MMO's right from the start.

IIRC a lot of the problems arose from the huge influx of gamers that filled the servers up to bursting and beyond.

I do not understand this naming thing. Even in  a game I am late for I generally never get the message the name is taken. Probably because I do not use popular names. If you desire a popular name that is like a fantasy novel one or a Star Wars sound alike you might have that problem.

I have a shiny fat big 8 quid/15 dollars sitting in my piggy bank for a game worth the sub. Sadly I dont think a game where: being shot in the face 10 times with molten hot laser bolts has no effect on your fleshy mug; Consulars repeatedly pull the same identical ship engine out of the ground to bash peoples faces in or npcs can be clobbered over and over on the noggin with promethian lightsabres that have been presented from childhood to cut through reinforced ship hulls with little effort is not going to be it. 

So let's look at Bioware's options:

Set a release date - Fail to meet release date - move date back = community upset

Set a release date - Launch - game not up to standards (it will never meet this community's expectations) = community upset

Don't set a release date - game launches well = community upset (because it took too long)

Don't set a release date - game launches poorly = community upset (because it wasn't finished)

-----

Point is, Bioware cannot win. So Bioware does what they need too - launch when its ready. People will still play it and nothing will change that. People, I do not think, are not running out canceling their pre-orders.

At this point, the game better launch well or their will be a lot of anger and rightfully so. Most people will tolerate the time it takes to release the game if it releases well. if not, it could get ugly for sure.