Professional reviews might have garnered some form of accurate reviewing, but that was in the past.  So many good magazines have went out of business because games with bad reviews stop advertising with them.  Computer Gaming World, or Massively Online are a couple of examples.

A year or so before Computer Gaming World stopped publication, they even discussed (in the editorial section) about how companies were boycotting them for bad reviews.

I do find it sort of funny when people just say that they will buy the game and judge for themselves.  To an extent anyways.  There are plenty of MMORPGS I would never buy based on user feedback.  This site alone lists hundreds of them, maybe 1000+ (I never counted them).  Will I buy them all just to find out for myself?  No chance in hell.

When I go about deciding if a game is to my tastes, I'll first find out about via hype .. then go to youtube and look for gameplay videos and reviews done, while someone actually plays the game (MMOHUT is good).  Then look at feedback, throw away the extreme fanboy responses, and throw away the extreme "hater" responses, and see what I'm left with.

Just buying a game that the majority of people say sucks is just throwing money at a developer that didn't deserve it.  SWTOR is a moral dilemma though .. do I play to support a genre and theme I love regardless of quality, or do I not play ...  Star Wars is awesome, EA trashed it's reputation ...

The majority of SWTOR purchases did say the game sucks though .. 2.5 million sales .. and uhh 250k still playing (roughly 10% of the servers left).

Even with a hefty margin of error and there are 500k still playing (mostly freemium), still the majority threw this game away like a used tampon.

Things that make you go, Hmmmm ...

Originally posted by Karteli

Professional reviews might have garnered some form of accurate reviewing, but that was in the past.  So many good magazines have went out of business because games with bad reviews stop advertising with them.  Computer Gaming World, or Massively Online are a couple of examples.

A year or so before Computer Gaming World stopped publication, they even discussed (in the editorial section) about how companies were boycotting them for bad reviews.

 

I do find it sort of funny when people just say that they will buy the game and judge for themselves.  To an extent anyways.  There are plenty of MMORPGS I would never buy based on user feedback.  This site alone lists hundreds of them, maybe 1000+ (I never counted them).  Will I buy them all just to find out for myself?  No chance in hell.

 

When I go about deciding if a game is to my tastes, I'll first find out about via hype .. then go to youtube and look for gameplay videos and reviews done, while someone actually plays the game (MMOHUT is good).  Then look at feedback, throw away the extreme fanboy responses, and throw away the extreme "hater" responses, and see what I'm left with.

 

Just buying a game that the majority of people say sucks is just throwing money at a developer that didn't deserve it.  SWTOR is a moral dilemma though .. do I play to support a genre and theme I love regardless of quality, or do I not play ...  Star Wars is awesome, EA trashed it's reputation ...

The majority of SWTOR purchases did say the game sucks though .. 2.5 million sales .. and uhh 250k still playing (roughly 10% of the servers left).

Even with a hefty margin of error and there are 500k still playing (mostly freemium), still the majority threw this game away like a used tampon.

 

Things that make you go, Hmmmm ...

 

Then I must ask, why did you buy the CE for this game? There was PLENTY of negativity for this game all over the forum along with tons of gameplay video on the internet pre-release. 

Originally posted by MurlockDance

Originally posted by ignore_me

@ murlockdance

Well they advertised open world PvP before launch. It was not a feature that had any bearing on anything save for your ability to individually progress in the PvP stat. There is a cold war going on between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but your participation in that is relegated to some dailies and cutscenes.

By systems I mean any of the systems normally associated with MMO world interaction (not just specials). Any system in SWTOR is the most streamlined, inflexible, simplistic form that you could have made. Crafting, character skills, starship upgrade and advancement, weapon upgrades, social interaction, the economy, player housing (It's your ship! yell the anti-housing league), guilds, light side/dark side, gathering resources, etc.

If you were to tell a story in the manner that SWTOR interfaces with its players (via its systems, not the cutscenes) it would be a short, boring summation that gave you the idea the guy telling the story would rather be doing something else. There is no love apparent in the crafting of this game, it seems to have been from the womb untimely ripped, and then left to die.

 

 

They do have open world PvP, I mean it is not like the feature is disabled. There are also some PvP quests in each zone. I have not tried it because my computer has trouble resolving lots of players on my screen at one time (a huge flaw of ToR). The thing is bigger than Bioware though with respect to open world PvP in themeparks and is a big negative issue with them. Outside of AO, I barely know of a themepark MMO that elaborated on doing more than just being able to attack another player outside of a main city. For those who did not play AO, it had tower combat where enemy players could attack guild towers in certain zones at certain times. The towers were interesting to the guild that placed them because they provided certain benefits to everyone in the guild, so it was in the best interest of the guild to defend the towers they put up.  It was not an entirely open system, but it was a step in the right direction for allowing PvP that was more than just killing other people. And yes, guild politics certainly was involved in tower combat.

With respect to your other issues, I agree that things can definitely be improved on pretty much everything outside of the storyline and quest-related stuff, and the class customization which I find to be fine (what I mean by class customization are the talent trees, the legacy system, etc.). About the only thing I think class customization can benefit from is an AA point system like in the EQ series.

The crafting and item system is alright. I still hold the SWG one as the epitome of what a game can do that is not purely crafting oriented. However, to put in an SWG system in ToR is not really that possible. Instead, they can build up on their current one by adding in more recipes that you can discover through the quest crafting, perhaps work orders, and crafting quests. I would love to have more ways to acquire resources too, crafting gear, etc.

I agree a lot with what you say. I still find ToR highly playable, and I think it will take EA time to improve it, perhaps more time than it should because of the issues I brought up already. I hope though that they will improve it, but I do not agree with those who think the game should just be killed off and another 200 mil spent on SWG2 or something like that. But that is a subject for another thread.

I can't really argue with this. It's just a matter of taste I guess. Cheers to you :)

Originally posted by ktanner3

Originally posted by Karteli

Professional reviews might have garnered some form of accurate reviewing, but that was in the past.  So many good magazines have went out of business because games with bad reviews stop advertising with them.  Computer Gaming World, or Massively Online are a couple of examples.

A year or so before Computer Gaming World stopped publication, they even discussed (in the editorial section) about how companies were boycotting them for bad reviews.

 

I do find it sort of funny when people just say that they will buy the game and judge for themselves.  To an extent anyways.  There are plenty of MMORPGS I would never buy based on user feedback.  This site alone lists hundreds of them, maybe 1000+ (I never counted them).  Will I buy them all just to find out for myself?  No chance in hell.

 

When I go about deciding if a game is to my tastes, I'll first find out about via hype .. then go to youtube and look for gameplay videos and reviews done, while someone actually plays the game (MMOHUT is good).  Then look at feedback, throw away the extreme fanboy responses, and throw away the extreme "hater" responses, and see what I'm left with.

 

Just buying a game that the majority of people say sucks is just throwing money at a developer that didn't deserve it.  SWTOR is a moral dilemma though .. do I play to support a genre and theme I love regardless of quality, or do I not play ...  Star Wars is awesome, EA trashed it's reputation ...

The majority of SWTOR purchases did say the game sucks though .. 2.5 million sales .. and uhh 250k still playing (roughly 10% of the servers left).

Even with a hefty margin of error and there are 500k still playing (mostly freemium), still the majority threw this game away like a used tampon.

 

Things that make you go, Hmmmm ...

 

Then I must ask, why did you buy the CE for this game? There was PLENTY of negativity for this game all over the forum along with tons of gameplay video on the internet pre-release. 

It's a Star Wars game, and I want it to suceed.  I still do.

Even just recently I was talking to my buddies about games, and MMORPGS.  I mentioned SWTOR and got some odd faces .. but I explained to them that of all the MMORPG's currently out, I think SWTOR has the most hope.  They didn't give me a second glance.

Forgive me if I just find a shred of hope in a game that is destined for failure.  I'd like to see SWTOR as a great game.  It's no secret, my suggestions are posted.

I bought the (collectors edition) CE because I believe in SWTOR.  Good enough?  If I spent 150 bucks for it, then consider other reasons why I challenge the subscription.  On that note, maybe EA should consider that too.. If a person spends 150 bucks on a CE, then why didn't they renew their sub?

6.6 is fair but a bit generous.

Swtor started off a lot higher (which to be fair was quite fair at the time too) but as time goes on it get less and less worthy as it is delivering against what the people want.

Originally posted by tiefighter25
Murloc, the crafting system is currently borked because of a reverse enginering bug. Said bug ruins itemization by seriously devalueing raid progression. That and gear emphasis is currently on Cartel Shop offerings.

It is Murlock, not Murloc heh heh... Murlock was an old MUSH character of mine.

I do not play the Cartel Shop metagame and I bet a lot of people don't. Why bring it up ? If you don't like it, don't use it ! No one is forcing you to buy pixelated stuff in the CS....

No, it is not harsch at all. The game is a travesty and fundamentally flawed. No amounts of updates or gimmicks is going to change that fact.

SWG was incomplete but fundamentally sound design so updates did improve it alot (and also made it worse with NGE) but since SW:TOR is so fundamentally poorly designed (instances, single player storylines, NPC companions make it so you need other people less, broken open world PvP etc) it can never be a good game, just a F2P cash cow.

Originally posted by BadOrb

Just noticed the user review rating went down over night from 7.2 to 6.6 and I feel that's a bit harsh. Considering the game is picking up and there are some great updates / expansion coming up. What do you guys think ? People really do have it in for this game it seems.

Cheers ,

BadOrb.

People really have it in for this game?  After the voice acting and story - it's a heap of mediocrity.  It deserves every 5 or 6 rating it gets and that's an objective assssment

Originally posted by superniceguy

6.6 is good, as here is a re-review that scores it 4!

The problem is that the updates/expansion is coming and not in game already and the expansion / Makeb was going to be a major free update and expected to be in game before the end of 2012. The game is not picking up, it is slowing down.

Makeb was announced in June 2012 maybe before, with ETA to be in game before end of 2012, but now not due until Spring/June 2013, almost 1 year later, and 6 months after it being classed as an expansion.

EQ2 latest expansion was announced Oct 2012 at SOE live, and in Nov 2012, about 1 month later - Thats the way to do it!

I bet if the game was doing well, Makeb would have been in by the end of 2012, and more content done for an expansion in the Spring, but all they seem to be doing is spreading out content that they have already done, instead of getting on creating more new content.

Ye 4 is a good score for swtor

IMO 6 is about right.

Fairly fun game for a month or two, good to co op or small group play.

Its not a terrible game by any means. Just failed to deliver on so many levels, which seemd compounded by being way way over hyped and advertised from EAware.

Plus their arrogance left alot of people with a bad taste. So yeah 6.6 is pretty much spot on IMO.