I've liked all the Empire stories, so far. I've got my main, a sith warrior, up to 44. I had a BH up to 30. The BH is my favorite voice actor. Looking forward to going on with my other two imp classes.

The Republic stories were so bland and boring to me. I tried to play a Jedi Knight, but I just got so bored. 

The Empire stories I've gone through so far include betrayal and a nemesis. The Republic stories (made it to the 30s on the Jedi Knight) don't so far, except for the trooper (to the 20s) which included a kind of betrayal but it was early, so it wasn't very bitter.

Theory: In storycrafting, there is the dictum: A story is only as good as its villain. 

The Republic stories don't have that strong villian who has a close relationship with the main character, so the betrayal factor is missing. That may come later in the stories, but it seems like there is no sweet spot early enough but not too early in the Republic story lines.  Republic stories need to be spiced up quite a bit. They need a strong villlain closer to the main character along with  sex/seduction, lies, betrayal, lust for power, greed, that kind of stuff you find on the Empire side. It doesn't mean you have to be a corrupt Jedi Knight, but it would make fighting for the light side  of the force more meaningful and dramatic, I would think.

If you are a Jedi Knight, since there is no neutral alignment, you would either be corrupted to the darkside, in which case, story tension should come from not getting found out and needing to be secretive and stealthy. If you are playing the light side, then there should be strong temptations which you would have to overcome, to drive the tension. There would then be consequences of spurning seductive offers, etc. That's the price of being the good guy.

Originally posted by Zorgo

Originally posted by jpnz

SWTOR stays very true to Star Wars actually.

Which is why it is a good Star Wars story. Whether you like Star Wars story or not is personal preference.

There are huge differences between being true to Star Wars and good story telling.

These were stories, true to Star Wars lore, told badly.

Your statement reads like, 'if you don't like these stories, you don't like star wars' and I  have one response to that;

Do you love star wars stories?

How did you feel about the Phantom Menace?

Sometimes Star Wars stories can be told badly.

Considering the prequels are actual SW stories, yes I liked them.

Course I loved EP4-6 more but I like all SW stories.

If you don't like the prequels, you don't like SW stories since the prequels are actual official SW stories. This isn't rocket science.

Originally posted by asmkm22

The stories are one of the few good things about the game, honestly.  But sure, I guess if you're expecting Oscar-winning scripts or something, then you're in for some disappointment. 

This.

You get some funny lines, a lot of predictable plot twists, and a lot of jibber jabber, most of it designed to try and make all the "Kill 10 rats" missions feel like something really important and world-changing.

So yeah, the stories are probably the best thing about SWTOR, but they're a lot worse than most AAA single player RPGs. Nobody would be even talking about the storylines if SWTOR wasn't the only MMO to hype them to such an extent.

Originally posted by DamonVile
Yeah it's not you playing the wrong class, it's the game.

"Its not the right class" is not really a good excuse for a bad story. And lets face it, this game is all about the story (well, 90% at least).

That Jedis are knights that helps out people in need and revere life doesnt mean they must stay and help every stranger with all small crap that gets their way.

TORs story do have some really good parts but they should have made the crap quests at least optional and focused more on the epic stuff.

Yeah, a Jedi might stop by and help a farmer with small problems if shes in a nice mode but that doesnt mean I should have to play through that part. We skip other boring parts like sleep and visiting the toilet after all.

MMOs with a story should focus the story on good stuff, there are plenty of other things you can grind in them if you like grinding.

It is not a huge surprise that some classes have better story than others though, there is just too much for a single writer to handle and some writers are better than others but I still feel Bioware should have had a shorter and more epic story and then put most of the work on the side quests on multiplaying and spacecombat instead.

I know that Luke was a moisture farmer but I wouldnt want to watch a movie about that and neither do I want to simulate that in quests (well, it is fine to set the mode in the tutorial).

It seems to me that this game was meant to be played via: class stories, PVP and heroic (group) quests. Get to 50, rinse and repeat. Everything else is just extremely sub-par. Side quests are a space-bar grind, flashpoints are uninspiring and unrewarding while space combat, well, you know.

Originally posted by Aviggin

True, OP.  I played Jedi at first, and got bored of the story incredibly quickly. I played all the classes to level 10-20 at least, and Jedi to 38 or so, but it never really got any better. Sith Inquisitor was the only story that was actually any good, in my opinion, but by the time I started playing it, I was pretty burnt out.

Personally, it's not the stories though, that got me annoyed, it was the voices of the characters. I hated having my character in cutscenes with voices/accents I didn't like, which of course, made their stories even worse. I put up with the Inquisitors shitty accent, 'cause the story was decent, but meh.

SWTOR needs a complete overhaul to be worth playing, though. There's a couple good stories, but aside from that, it's beyond mindless, copy-pasted boring bullshit.

It's probably the one time in my life I actually WISHED a game was shut down, and hopefully never spoken of again.

That's the problem with so much voiceover, that you can't chose a voice. Some voices really fit the idea; personally I liked the Sith Inquisitor. The sarcasm really echoed my feeling towards the story. But the two Jedi are so NOT "my voice".

Originally posted by Fendel84M

Originally posted by Corehaven

The Jedi storyline is known for being bland and pretty bad as far as I know. 

 

Agreed, they were bland in the prequels too.  Which is why I busted out laughing at "Order 66" in the theater.  Ahhhh...good times.  Also hilarious?  When Anakin was burned nearly in half.  It was like watching Justin Beiber catch fire.  If only. 

I almost cried when they issued Order 66 you heartless monster! The pain that Yoda felt...you're cold.

Hehe, ahh yeah me too. Order 66 was painful. :(

The point is... I said a long time ago, ALWAYS being heroic simply doesn't work in a MMO! And that is the end of the "story" for me. I love heroic characters, I love heroic stories. But there is no believable counterweight. They try to pump up every hoopscotch's story to heroic proportions and fall flat on their faces with that, because if EVERY NPC highlights DRAAAAMAAA, it ends up as a mockery that NOTHING feels dramatic and it more has an unintentionally funny moment. At least it felt for me that way with them trying so forceful to be always heroic and dramatic. That is just overextension of the dramatic idea, and sorry even I know that THAT is shitty storytelling usually made on teenage fanfic levels, because young and inexperienced writers know little of how a real dramatic storytelling works.

The OLD Trilogy was ideal in dramatic story arcs. From simple to grand and back, witty and funny, serious and gruesome - it was one wonderful ride and a real dramatic arc, classic storytelling. But SWTOR much like the New Trilogy just tries to be dramatic ALL the time, and that is not how good storytelling works!

It would have been much better for instance, if the planet quests were just mindless text. Nothing where you have the feeling an artificially pumped up story was forced down your throat. And I am sorry to say, WOW normal-quests were often MUCH MUCH better, especially the content since WotLK and CATA. The stories behind many of these average simple quests were fun enough, sometimes gloomy, sometimes funny, sometimes mysterious. Never the same tone. And often what you did was SO creative. I recall I flew as an Owl to spy on enemies. I did so many weird and wonderful things in WOW in the later added quests. THAT was creative! THAT was diverse! Or about 50% of the LOTRO content, especially in the middle level area and the early levels, especially the Book Quests, THAT was creative, diverse and cool! It balanced the funny drinking contests or Mail Delivery and escape curious Hobbits from intercepting you to the drama of Angmar area! THAT was diverse in tone, setting and storytelling, and behind the super diverse and creative quests of LOTRO and WOW I am afraid SWTOR falls LEAGUES behind, mostly.

One possibility would have also been at least SOME sandbox elements to lighten it up. Having a house and player city, having a goddamn farm or shop as in UO days, to break the heroic monotony. And WHY on earth did they NOT add alien characters? I have a red faced Sith Jedi. And no NPC ever reacts to that. Why was it so bloody important not to add Alien playables? For all the NPCs say I could just as well be a hairy Bothan or a Nautolan, because they never care ANYWAY. For a game which SO MUCH touted out story and consequences, sorry that is just very very little in their own aspirations.

Originally posted by Elikal

Out of boredom and curiosity I went back to one sub months. I made my peace with lots of things, like the barren worlds and stuff. But many of the stories... so they are just SO bad.

Agent, Inquisitor and Smuggler, those were good stories. But Jedi... good grief, it's like a fanfic! So so so stereotype. Not a cent of humor. It's like what Mark Hammill said, when he first saw the New Trilogy, that it was so damn serious and no humor. Indeed. That was the big difference between Old and good and the mediocre New Trilogy. WAAAAY too serious. It's always noble Jedi, selfless bla blah... do those Jedi EVER get tired of their calender-wisdom? I mean, their sayings could be right outside a cheap horoscope!

And many, many of the planetary quests are just as awful. Sorry, but for a company claiming to take STORY so important, most of the stories SUCK. I mean, ok  they don't suck, but they are on a level like a fanfic! Save the sick master, get the princess... bla bla. God, can a story get anymore stereotype and lame?

 

EVERY NPC: "Oh save my farm/shop/family from the evil XYZ. And to do that you must take the Y from the END of the cave and wade through all mobs."

JEDI: "Verily, honorable stranger to whom I owe nothing,  it is my duty as Jedi to work for free! It was the will of the Force I came here to save your precious cake/diary/daughter/waffle collection."

 

Yeah. VERY creative writing. NOT!

Zzzzzzzzz....

If you want creative writing play the secret world. Dam them quest givers twisted my mind!! lol 

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/375157

Well the sith warior storries had some bad writing.  The time when you medic dude tries to kill you.  That entire story line about robots being your weakest link., then he begs for his life.  Most sith would have made an example out of him. 

Sith inquisitor story from start to finish, you got to wonder about why you are a vampire.

Then some of the side quests.  LIke the one daily on bellsaviv.  The 3 sith brother ones, talk about borring and you hit the space bar on it. 

There are so many others, too many to fill a page with.  However there were some good stories, like bounty hunter at least it made a lot of sence. 

Originally posted by Fendel84M

Originally posted by Corehaven

The Jedi storyline is known for being bland and pretty bad as far as I know. 

 

Agreed, they were bland in the prequels too.  Which is why I busted out laughing at "Order 66" in the theater.  Ahhhh...good times.  Also hilarious?  When Anakin was burned nearly in half.  It was like watching Justin Beiber catch fire.  If only. 

I almost cried when they issued Order 66 you heartless monster! The pain that Yoda felt...you're cold.

I laughed as well. I thought Yoda told Anakin to rejoice when someone dies, because they're part of the Force now. Then he gets all sad... hypocrite!

I hated the Jedi in the prequels. Just cold and sterile, and so detached from their own emotions that they couldn't even teach Anakin how to properly deal with missing his mother. And we all saw how THAT turned out...

Purging their corrupt, arrogant order from the galaxy was doing civilization a service.

As far as SWTOR goes, I mostly played the Empire side (finished Agent, other classes to about 30). Agent story was really good, and to me shows exactly why the Sith Empire ultimately loses the war. The others showed a lot of promise as well. I did play a trooper to about 40 and found the story to be mostly just okay.

I will agree that most of the planetary storylines were pretty amateurish and predictable, and at times tough to slog through to get to the good bits. A shame, really.

I liked all SW movie stories, but this is a MMO and I have no idea how the story is because I skipped *ALL OF IT*.

It has no place in this type of game. Maybe if I played it alone (I didn't), I'd listen to the odd dialogue here and there, but with other people?

Such a collosal display of misunderstanding the genre on the developers part. And soooo much money sunk into this aspect, as well. So sad.

Originally posted by Elikal

 

That's the problem with so much voiceover, that you can't chose a voice. Some voices really fit the idea; personally I liked the Sith Inquisitor. The sarcasm really echoed my feeling towards the story. But the two Jedi are so NOT "my voice".

 

The game plays exactly like current bioware games. If you had a problem with other bioware games then this would have been no different.

You've ranted against this game so many times and out of boredeom you went back again? Couldn't you "out of boredom" done anything else? Even played a game you liked?

So some voices were yours and some were not. Kind of like life. Some things are great and some things not.

Originally posted by Fendel84M

Originally posted by Zorgo

Originally posted by jpnz

SWTOR stays very true to Star Wars actually.

Which is why it is a good Star Wars story. Whether you like Star Wars story or not is personal preference.

There are huge differences between being true to Star Wars and good story telling.

These were stories, true to Star Wars lore, told badly.

Your statement reads like, 'if you don't like these stories, you don't like star wars' and I  have one response to that;

Do you love star wars stories?

How did you feel about the Phantom Menace?

Sometimes Star Wars stories can be told badly.

Personally I liked the prequel trilogy. But I don't think there was any way they could have won on those movies. Some fans were gonna hate anything they did. Because lets face it, fans are bitches these days.

Pretty much, the moment a new movie is released people have pretty much already decided that it won't be as good as the original.

Not to mention it's hard to recapture the magic of the original movies because many of us were kids when we first saw them.

And of course the original trilogy didn't have Jar Jar... =P

I know, right?! I tought I was the only one since my friends liked the jedi story soooo much, and I was the only one who hated it.

I find the inquisitor story line kinda the best, it has it all I'd say. Tho, I think you can always be funny with the empire characters (I haven't tried the agent) but they're stuck up and afraid for their life so I couldn't expect humor from them. :D

Originally posted by korent1991

I know, right?! I tought I was the only one since my friends liked the jedi story soooo much, and I was the only one who hated it.

I find the inquisitor story line kinda the best, it has it all I'd say. Tho, I think you can always be funny with the empire characters (I haven't tried the agent) but they're stuck up and afraid for their life so I couldn't expect humor from them. :D

 

Try it! The Agent's widely agreed to be the best storyline in the game!

It does a very good job of conveying the whole "secret agent" feel and has some fun plots.

I hated...LOATHED the trooper story.  Thought it was the corniest story line and responses ever, was a constant /rolleyes thing with it.  Maybe thats just the prior service in me and hate motto talk.

The trooper story was what made me play the smuggler for a while.  I loved the story line there at least what I saw.

But yeah, I found the Jedi very bland and a snoozefest.  Never made past the tutorial palent with em.

Originally posted by Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by Fendel84M

Originally posted by Zorgo

Originally posted by jpnz

SWTOR stays very true to Star Wars actually.

Which is why it is a good Star Wars story. Whether you like Star Wars story or not is personal preference.

There are huge differences between being true to Star Wars and good story telling.

These were stories, true to Star Wars lore, told badly.

Your statement reads like, 'if you don't like these stories, you don't like star wars' and I  have one response to that;

Do you love star wars stories?

How did you feel about the Phantom Menace?

Sometimes Star Wars stories can be told badly.

Personally I liked the prequel trilogy. But I don't think there was any way they could have won on those movies. Some fans were gonna hate anything they did. Because lets face it, fans are bitches these days.

Pretty much, the moment a new movie is released people have pretty much already decided that it won't be as good as the original.

Not to mention it's hard to recapture the magic of the original movies because many of us were kids when we first saw them.

And of course the original trilogy didn't have Jar Jar... =P

But it did have C3P0...which original fans refuse to admit he was just as bad as binks

Originally posted by Ambros123

The trooper story was what made me play the smuggler for a while.  I loved the story line there at least what I saw.

I'm currently playing a Smuggler, his story and dialogues are very cool indeed.

Originally posted by Bossalinie

But it did have C3P0...which original fans refuse to admit he was just as bad as binks

A different breed of idiot.

C3PO is closer to the funny gay butler, compared to the entertainment for five year olds that Jar Jar provides.

Of course they are both bumbling idiots that trip over everything...