I've been a fan of Star Wars for many years now and when I heard about this game I was very interested, but is it just me or does this game look like it will play like every other current MMO out there? The only new thing is the total voice acting, which IMO so far has seemed pretty lackluster from what I've seen in the previews. I mean if you're a huge Star Wars fanatic and are planning to roleplay all the time the voice acting might be cool, but it seems to me (except for a pretty limited crowd) everyone will actually be skipping them to get to the combat.

And the combat looked exactly like any other MMO, the only thing that seemed fun was the bright bolts of blaster fire or the twang of the lightsaber. Just seems to me to be pretty one-dimensional. Get on for a few hours, kill a few things in the Star Wars style and then you're bored. Replay value = zero?

I keep hearing stuff like you'll want to play at least once as each class because they all have different storylines, but IMO that's false. If I start a character I'm going to pick my favorite class to play, and when I get bored with him I will say to myself, "Well this is my favorite class, and it sucks. No way any of the other classes are any better." So I might try one of the others, but I'm betting all the stories, while not the same, will all be similar hero/villain stuff where you know what's going to happen 10 steps before it does.

So yeah, what is your opinion? Will the new things like story driven characters and voice acting be enough to get people to play SWTOR? Or is it just the same old MMO with a new Star Wars paint job?

PS: I am a big potential fan (Hope it is good.) of the upcoming MMO Star Trek Online, so feel free to think me bias. I, unlike many other people, have always been a pretty big fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, and see no reason not to like them both. I probably would play this game instead of STO if this offered space combat as well and STO did not.

I'm a big fan of morality in the player, not the game. Too often in the MMO world we run into people with morals different from us, or none at all, who use the excuse, "It's only a game." to justify anything they do. It's only a game is probably one of the most annoying things I ever hear from people. It dismisses all other arguments by simply classifying them as ignorant or not worthy of consideration.

Now I had no real problem with the MW2 mission "No Russian". In fact I thought it was rather good writing, to include that mission to lead the story along the way it did. Now when I first went through the mission I got a little sick watching people die like that, but when I saw the ending and understood what had happened I was alright with it. It drew me into the game story more by bringing to life just how wrong that sort of terrorist attack is. It helped me get good and angry at the enemy and on the whole made the rest of the game more fun.

But since this mission is only a single player mission and no one else was on the other side, actually suffering. Then I've no problem with the "morality" of this. My only worry is that kids will play this mission and then go onto WoW or some other MMO hoping to "gank" and grief players like they did in MW2.

Thankfully most MMOs don't let players run around killing other innocent players who can't defend themselves.

Arrr, I am a pirate!

www.youtube.com/watch

Seriously though, I don't use pirated games because the risk of being banned is not worth it, but my heart goes out to these people. Someday in the future information will be free, created out of love of the art and given freely to everyone. This includes music, movies, books, ect anything that can be turned into data and put on the internet will be free. When that day comes people will look back at these "pirates" with pride in the human spirit to change what should be changed no matter what the "law" is.

I salute you Pirates!

It does sadden me. It leaves a big empty place in my heart where pure unfettered Joy used to be.

My first MMO was Asheron's Call, this was many many years ago when it was just UO/EQ/AC as far as MMOs went. I would spend hours each day playing that game, meeting friends and killing things, standing around the blacksmith waiting for people to sell loot so I could see if they had found anything good. The exploration, stepping through that portal to the unknown...still remember that sort of childish joy I had.

However, we all grow older and our perceptions change, we move on. When we come back it's like revisiting our memory of it, and nothing can ever be as sweet again as it was in our memory. We cherish our good memories and build them up to more than they were, so it's nearly impossible to compare anything with how we remember it.

I still hold hope that someday there will be a new MMO out there that will bring me some part of the joy I felt then, and I've gotten flashes of it sometimes in many MMOs, but they fade away leaving a bitter taste. Sadly as I grow older (nearing 30 now :P) I realize that it isn't the games that have changed, it's me. I've seen so much, done so much, and had so much joy from MMOs that nothing new can ever compare to the memories I have. So I must wander on, hoping some new MMO will pull the rabbit out of the hat and make me feel young again.

Have to agree. This current event is just horrible, and the fact that it's based around perks, costumes, and pets, that you can only get now...ugh. I really enjoyed the Events in CoH where it was just an invasion and all you had to do was stay alive. I was expecting a lot from this event, and hoped it would repay my faith in Cryptic in the last tough two months. But for me it was Strike 3. Game Over.

Strike 1, nerfs on Sep 1st and since then.

Strike 2, all the other non-nerf bad decisions since launch.

Strike 3, coming out with this Blood Moon stuff.

IMO this game was great at pre-launch (Head Start), not WoW-great, but lots of fun. Everything they've done since then to change it has been going in the wrong direction. I don't think they've made one good choice in the last two months.

Thanks for all the info guys. Reason why I wanted to return was I had a lot of good memories of RvR. Of course this was in the months after it went Live so there were plenty of people to fight with. Really is a shame as I haven't had as much fun in a MMO since WAR (in PvP). Might have to try Aion, really miss the seige warfare. Lots of fun while it lasted.

Ugh, if STO fails I might just have to give up the internet.

Ah well, these days it's filled with people I don't want to be around anyway, as most of these forums continually point out. :(

Whatever happened to the optimistic, wonderful, always excitiing internet of a decade ago? Oh yeah... capitalism.

Don't really trust companies like NCSoft, so I don't want to purchase the game before I try it. I do hope they come out with a trial soon.

From what I see, this is just shaping up to be WoW/with/wings, so no rush.

Like some of the other people here, wanted to know a few things before I bother trying to come back.

1. Has there been upgrades to stability? I had an ever increasing problem with crashes back when I played last year. Got so bad I was crashing every 10 minutes, which sucks extremely bad in RvR. People start to think you're a jerk who logs so he won't lose.

2. Any new content in the lower tiers? I really do not want to have to go through all the same stuff again.

3. Is the End Game still based totally around RvR ranks and rewards, with very little community interest in Raids/Dungeons?

4. Did they ever get around to adding the other race cities? I would really probably try the game again just to see these, they did such a good job designing the first two cities. :P

5. Has Open World RvR died out in favor of the instanced matches? (Probably with the side I am fighting against all grouped up.)

6. Has all the loss of players impacted RvR to the point where there are no more really massive Open World battles? This was really the thing I loved about WAR, keep battles. When you're outnumbered greatly, and still stubbornly holding that one keep from the enemy...the doors are down and fighting is at the tank wall. :P

7. Ever get around to balancing classes like Bright Wizard and Warrior Priest?

Geeze, when I started this I only had like 1 or 2 questions in mind, but it bloomed. :P Anyway, I did have a lot of fun in WAR and it pretty much killed WoW in my mind. Since after playing WAR with all the cool RvR I couldn't go back to WoW and it's crappy PvP system/mindless PvE. But, it did(does?) have a lot of problems, biggest one not being able to play because of crashes. And with my current game (Champions Online) taking a hit right now, I'd really like to go have another shot at WAR.

I never understand why people make mistakes like this. Sure I can understand the game having a problem and having to be taken down to get fixed, that's reasonable. What's unreasonable IMO is their website not being stable. How much really does it cost to get a good server for their website? There are thousands of websites on the internet which handle massive influx of hundreds of thousands on a daily basis and yet Cryptic can't handle it when a few thousand players want to look at their website.

What's also unreasonable is this whole nerf, respec deal. You're supposed to iron these things out in beta, not launch the game and then start making major changes. Take a lesson from SWG and stop inflicting unwanted changes on paying customers. 

Aparently it's only free to play while in  "redevelopment". I like many other gave this game a shot but found it lacking. Lots of good things about this game, but the combat system, classes, and powers, all need to be redone. I kind of like the aiming system, but wasn't fond of the rolling deck skills, just made it more complicated. Really they need to rethink their entire approach to players here and probably go with a more wow-like class system, with darkfall-like combat. I'd prolly pay to play that.

Oh and make an equipment system please.

Don't like the idea of micropayments, but I think it would be good to give an extended free trial. Like you can play free as long as you want up to level 150, but then you have to pay to play.

I would love to see them relaunch AC which modern graphics and systems, start the story from the begining as well. Who wouldn't want to go through the Shadow Wars again?

Just like to say there are some good people out there who enjoy roleplaying. Also, I've never, in the decade I've been playing MMORPGs, run into people who only roleplay because they want to be victims, so I don't know where that idea came from. Anyway, I've read a few of your articles Dana and some make sense, but to me this article was just extremely hurtful. Kind of like if you said to a woman who was raped, that most women who get raped enjoy it.

Overall this article was extremely offensive to me.

To everyone saying go play a single player game...

For myself the main reason I play MMOs isn't other people it's the depth of play. You can't spend months playing a single player game without finishing it over and over again. MMOs have so much content that it takes lots of time to enjoy it. Sure I enjoy playing with other players sometimes, but the draw of MMOs for me has always been endless content as the game is continually updated.

There are many single player games out there that I love, but once you reach the ending it becomes boring. You end up trying to find reasons to replay it. Eventually I'll go back and play them, but play single player games over and over again? I'd go insane.

Very well thought out post, except for the title *grin* TOO MANY CAPS!

I agree with most of what you said, and I love the analogy of musicals. MMOGs really do feel like they're in that phase of tried and true. Can't really blame them since it isn't exactly cheap to create an MMO, lots of time and money invested. It's also very dangerous to break a popular trend, you really have to come up with something amazing or people will just ignore it.

Another analogy might not be so good is color films, for longest time everything was black and white, but when the technology came around and color was allowed that changed. Now everything is in color. Which begs the question, is end game content black and white or color?

Really nice column. I never really thought about the level system as the enemy before, but now I realize how much it detracted from my gaming experience. Always worried about getting the next level so I can get the new abilities/equipment that I stop enjoying the game itself. I think I'd love to play a MMO without levels, might bring back my intrerest big time like no other MMO has kept since Asheron's Call.

I have to agree with the OP, MMOs are sadly begining to blend together in my mind. Sure sometimes you'll see a new feature like special combat (Spellborn/Age of Conan) but really these just don't make up for the feeling of familiarity I feel everytime I get a quest or kill a mob or visit a NPC store.

When I first got involved in MMOs (a decade ago) it was like a breath of fresh air, here was a place I could do anything, be anything, but now it's like... Why would I want to be anything again, I've already been this and that. I had a great time doing it, but nothing you've got I haven't seen or done better already. Top of the world, everything else seems like a step down.

After you get that feeling and it passes...well then anything else is pretty bland. We've all been the heroes, been the villians, conquered the world and saved it hundreds of times. So any MMO developer has to look at everything done in the past and say, "What can I show you that will knock your socks off?"

I don't really think there is anything like that I've heard of upcoming. Only thing I'm interested in now is Star Trek Online, which I fear will probably suffer the same flaws.

Hmm, I'd like to be your buddy as well!

arzak@austin.rr.com

For me nothing I've played since Asheron's Call has been the same. From what my memory recalls of when I first started playing AC, there was this huge feeling of wonder at everything. I REALLY felt like I had stepped through a portal from another world into this new fantastical one, where there was danger yes, but beauty as well.

Over the years as I play other games, I've often thought back and compared my feelings for them with my feelings for Asheron's Call. There have been many times in other games where I've had the, "OMG that is awesome!" or "I know I'm going to die but this is too damn fun I don't care!" or even those very rare moments when we're left speechless and thoughtless to how powerfully something effects us. And yet, and yet while there have been many they have been widespread, spaced between with many boring hours of quests, grinds, idiots, and loading...

Perhaps, I say to myself, it's because Asheron's Call broke my metophorical MMO "cherry" and introduced me to a world where...not only is anything possible, but it happens right in front of you with regularity. The first time I encountered a portal...

Or maybe it wasn't me, but Asheron's Call, perhaps it was the greatest MMORPG of all time and it will just be a couple of centuries before people realize it.

Either way I've talked with many people over the years about this, and every MMO gamer out there holds a special place in his/her heart for their very first online game. Be it UO, Asheron's Call, Everquest, or lately for many newcomers WoW. We change on some, perhaps spiritual, level, where these images are etched into our very souls. Yes, we humans are perhaps too easily fooled, because I don't just miss the world of Dereth, I'm homesick for it.

Good journey Ned, may you find many new adventures on your new path.

- Charles Deathstalker (Solclaim) *retired