Originally posted by VikingGamer

As for innovation being low, I think it is important to remember that you don't usually want to change to many things at once. With very few exceptions you don't ever add more than about two huge changes into a new game. The only recent game that I can think of that breaks this mold is GW2 but then they are basically running on a platform of completely changing how mmos are done. So changing combat and adding a political system seems a pretty reasonably amount of major change.

Generally I'd agree but with MMOs we've seen games that "don't ever add more than about two huge changes into a new game" for 8 years or so, and none of them have done all that well in the long run.

I think with MMOs, unless it IS different, why leave your already established game that you know for a fact will have more content and less bugs?

Because of one or two changes?

If those changes are significant enough, sure, I can see that.

But I don't think "gimmick" changes like we saw/see in WAR/AoC/RIFT/TOR/TERA are enough to keep people playing in the long run (generally speaking, of course)

And you always have to factor in burn out.

Same thing in a shiny new coat, well the shine wears off and what is left?

I'd say it's explaination #1 as to why all these MMOs post 2004 have had massive releases and mass exodus after a month or two.

Whenever the discrepancy between a reviewer score and average user score is too wide I tend to raise a eyebrow and say: nope. Next one.

I realize the difficulty of writing a review for a huge game like an MMO and I like the idea of the partial updates with a summary review at the end. It's still a bit short of what I think ideally a review should cover for a game, any game, but it's a good step forward.

However, living through the decline of TOR as an active player, I think a few things should have been considered more in the review:

Social - talking about the current community in the game is VERY misleading. TOR is a much better game if you have folks to play with. But now that numbers on a lot of servers are dropping the game gets a bit boring and you can't even do a lot of the content without other players. This review item should really only focus on the tools provided by the game, e.g. LFG tool, can you move your toons between servers, or is the game architected in a way that everyone plays on basically one server. Guild tools should also way heavily in this score. The people making up the community is not something the game can control. Just by rolling on a "bad" server you may end up stuck with a horde of trolls.

Longevity - for this review item it would be good to know how the quests will affect rolling alts, which is a major thing providing longevity for a lot of people. Again, looking at TOR, the class quests are different between the base classes, but you cannot progress through the game by only completing those. Aside from PvP, all other ways of gaining XPs are the exact same for all your alts - space missions, side quests, FPs, ops, heroics. This does get old by the third time through, and if your server has a dwindling population, you may not even be able to do the group content.

Similarly, roadmaps and promises of future content are just words. Even granting the best of intentions at the time of utterance, stuff happens. It's nobody's fault. While it might be worthwhile to mention them, promised features shouldn't contribute any points to a game's score. If a game delivers a lot of new and exciting content that would have justified a higher score than originally given just update the initial review, or re-review the game.

Meh. THis review is on key with some and completely off key with others.

Combat is a blast. PvP is a blast. TERA IS NOT MEANT TO BE A PVE GAME. If your looking at TERA for just PvE you will be sadly disappoint when you reach endgame. It has 4 or 5 dungeons. Couple normal mode dungeons and 2 hardmode dungeons.

That being said TERA makes up for its lack in PVE with its amazing PvP. This game doesn't need instanced PVP. Traditional (emphasis on that word) Battlegrounds will destroy this game.

Gripe: The UI is extremely customizeable in TERA. Ever piece of the UI can be moved around or resized to exactly how you want it. The only UI I have issues with is the Guild UI like he said, it doesnt have a lot of functionality. But that is one piece of the UI, not the whole UI like he is showing in the cons.

All I got to say is, if you call TERA uninnovative because it used some things from a single player game with online capability, then every game in the MMO market is uninovative.

I am seriously going to doubt any review you guys ever do if you call GW2 innovative as well. Because GW2 is doing exactly that. Taking great idea's from other games and just bringing them together in one.

RvR done. Dynamic Events Done. Instanced PVP....yea... Player Story done. Weapon Swapping done.

Originally posted by n3v3rriv3r

Whenever the discrepancy between a reviewer score and average user score is too wide I tend to raise a eyebrow and say: nope. Next one.

uh and what do I mean by average user score? well metacritic, this sites metric. I wonder why popular sites tend to review this game so low, hmmm..

 Not sure how half a point is too wide of a difference.

Originally posted by xposeidon

Originally posted by n3v3rriv3r

Whenever the discrepancy between a reviewer score and average user score is too wide I tend to raise a eyebrow and say: nope. Next one.

 Not sure how half a point is too wide of a difference.

Hmm Iam  trying to find a game on this site that has the same review score. Can you help? Just ... to compare.

Originally posted by Darth-Ninja

[mod edit]

 The fact you think it "screams" F2P makes your opinion entirely invalid and not worth considering.

Wow dude, if you didn't find the Guild system, the combat system  and the political system innovative, and yet gave SWTOR a +8, you are firmly not an unbiased reviewer and would ask that you stop making reviews.

Tera is easily a 8.5 or better.

If you go off on D3 with a bunch of bullshit and give it a 9+ you can expect that no one will take you serious ever again.

[mod edit]

I'm not sure how you do math in your area. but that should come out to 8.0

[mod edit]

9/10  /  6/10 =cancel each other

8/10 / 7/10 = cancel each other

8/10 / 7/10 = cancel each other

8/10 = score

leaving you with 8.0

[mod edit]

 

The unfortunate side of 'reviewers' is they will more often than not recommend games they give low scores to and not recommend games they give high scores to.  This is all because they're doing their reviews with a format.  If a great game is weak somewhere in the format that will tank the rating.

What tanked TERA's rating might be "innovation" in this review.  Innovation isn't really a requirement for a great game.  WoW, the most successful MMORPG is notably the least innovative game as they tend to just rip off good ideas from everyone else.

Calm down he likes the game. It is just that for higher score we need something more than to like the game.

Seems to be a very fair review. And people, ... 7.7 is NOT bad!

I hope mmorpg.com will keep up this realistic scoring habbit. All gaming sites that ride the waves of player anticipation and accomodate fans in reafirming their hype with very high scores lost much of their credibility in my eyes.

In that sense some of mmorpg.com's scores of the past might have been a tad on the high side compared to what Tera gets now but this a good precedent.

We should stop expecting scores only in the 8.5 - 10 bracket.

TERA does very well at being an extremely mediocre game.

7.7 is perfect.

"We could bemoan the fact that there’s a bit of sexism here in TERA (male and female alike), but the truth is that there’s nary a game in the MMO industry that looks and performs incredibly well on the Unreal 3 engine."

Seriously?  You slide from the sexism question directly to the Unreal engine's performance?  There is no connection there and you're glossing over the main, most disquieting element of TERA.  For all it's glossy game play, even if it's fun ... no discussion at ALL of the string bikini armor, separately animated boobs, and ridiculous character models?   Good grief.

Waitaminute! I just did the average myself and it comes out to 7.6 (rounded) NOT 7.7.

Aha!!!!!! Bill you should be ashamed of yourself for deceiving the masses!

Ashamed!

Finito, doesn't quite end the conversation for the lack of depth in the review. So much missing in most mmo reviews and readers never get any information in a review about the end game. Doing a mid level raid is nothing like end game raids, mid level pvp is nothing like end level pvp, ect and so on.

I think your review is incomplete, and it has failed your audience, in my opinion. I personally am not going to be overly excited about the score, cause I'm not playing the game, but  fans will. That is where the trouble lies, cause once that bond is broken between reviewer and fan or readers, it is never resealed.

I don't even play the game and can easily see from here that is is an 8.0 or higher. The ammount of detail and respect to character development makes SWTOR look like a board game.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Seems to be a very fair review. And people, ... 7.7 is NOT bad!

I hope mmorpg.com will keep up this realistic scoring habbit. All gaming sites that ride the waves of player anticipation and accomodate fans in reafirming their hype with very high scores lost much of their credibility in my eyes.

In that sense some of mmorpg.com's scores of the past might have been a tad on the high side compared to what Tera gets now but this a good precedent.

We should stop expecting scores only in the 8.5 - 10 bracket.

heh. Hillaroius You know what you are suggesting? This is like changing game rules on the fly:

Ok 1:0 for red team. Well 1 is kinda a big number how about from now on we sign only 0.5 for a score.

7.7 is super ... only all games have 8 and higher XD