Originally posted by Supersoups

Ok that is not offensive at all. LOL

I bet if they had used other accents say asian, middle eastern or french, german..there would be people still complaining about it. You just can not make everyone happy no matter what you do.

Hehe, clearly I'm being slightly theatrical.

The point is, if I am staring at a cut-scene full of drama, intrigue and evil Dark Side twists, and the actor sounds like Simon Cowell or Thomas the Tank Engine's narrator, well ya know.. kinda kills the immersion. :)

I should be feeling awed by the dramatic story events, not stuck between laughing my ass off and feeling insulted for my nationality being so badly steroytyped. :)

Originally posted by Novaseeker

Originally posted by korvass

 While I do find a large portion of the voice acting in TOR to be hideous (Scottish, Welsh and posh British accents on the Empire side piss me off to no end),...

4. Like everything, the voice acting is subjective. I find some of it hilarious, a lot of it so bad I'm not sure if I should laugh or feel racially insulted, and some of it just too bland to be anything but spacebar-worthy.

 

Just curious, is it that the British Isles accents are poorly done, or that the Empire has too many of them?

In my opinion, most of them are just poorly done. One of the Imp vendors sounds like Simon Cowell for f*cks sake.. Obviously it was a conscious design decision (Republic =Team America, Empire/Sith=James Bond villains), but it's so overly done and cheesy, that I'm starting to just roll my eyes when the dialogue starts. I have yet to experience the whole game, so I can't say if it's like this all the way, but I would have liked to have seen some other European accents thrown in, some asian or middle eastern.. or just plain old un-accented vocals.

But when you're standing infront of an Imperial captain who is desparately trying to stop the attacks on his outpost, and he sounds more like he should be selling you raisin bread and mead in the Shire, it bugs me..

Edit: or to make my point more relative to the game at hand, it breaks my suspension of disbelief. I stop feeling immersed in the Star Wars universe, and feel more like I am listening to some weird 'trekkie' at a sci-f con in Wales..

1- "Oh the game is not innovative" or "it didn't bring anything new": The game added many subtle and obvious important features to the MMO genre including, fast travels, creative modding for gear and weapons, toon progression path based on choices, companion affection opening new Quests, etc. Wait any see how many MMOs will adopt some of these features. 

2- The game is a time sink: Which MMO isn't? WOW? Korean MMOs? Aion? Rift? And if that was the case then how come we can send our companions to gather or produce while we are doing something else like running dungeons? Also, check easy travels above. 

3-the game is 95% cut scenes and 5% fighting: not true. It is balanced. Cut scenes are perfectly proportionate to the story line. This is a game were you actually care about your toon and it's progression path. And it is not on easy mode like wow either. 

4-Voice acting is unnecessary and it is annoying after a while: IMHO any feature that helps me get more involved with my toon is welcomed. I remember when DA 1 was out, people were complaining because our toons didn't speak (only NPCs did), and now in swtor our toons speak and still they complain. Jeez. 

5-the graphics resemble wow graphics: really? Do I even need to comment on this?

Take a deep breath guys, the game has not been out for a week already, ok? Lots of things will improve given time. This release is not set in stone, and it is not end all, this is just the beginning. Wait at least for the next coming phase (or phases) to judge. 

And stop hiding behind "we are entitled to our opinions" and "respect what we say". Well, the fact is, I would if you had anything constructive to say, but the majority don't, or they are just rewording what other whiners said. Heck, some even have the audacity to whine when all they played was the beta which is not an accurate representation of the current game. 

I'm going to politely disagree and debate some of your points:

1. Most of those features have been present in many games prior to TOR. Items were moddable at creation in SWG, then further moddable via slicing afterwards, adding a whole new layer of crafting and modification. Fast travel has existed for aeons. While I do find a large portion of the voice acting in TOR to be hideous (Scottish, Welsh and posh British accents on the Empire side piss me off to no end), I do agree that Bioware have raised the bar for story-based questing in a MMO.

Example: would you rather have a half dozen moddable smuggler jackets, so every smuggler still looks the same, or would your rather simply have an appearance tab. (I'd rather have both right now.)

2. Agree with the main point. However TOR offers nothing else other than combat/questing. There are no downtime systems (yet). Whereas, in other games, you might take time out to craft (for example), TOR's - still imaginative - system of crafting actually exacerbates the problem of no down-time, because your crew does everything for you, leaving you free to continue shooting small critters and listening to bad Mary Poppins accents.

(Oh, and don't say 'roleplay'. Roleplaying is an activity added into the game environment by players, not by the game system. TOR currently offers ZERO RP features.)

3. Agreed. It's 50% cut-scenes, 50% combat. And there in lies the problem. Where's the rest of the game? Where are the speeder races, lively cantinas, chairs to sit in, pazaak, Galactic News Network bulletins, the EXPLORATION, etc etc etc... Perhaps I am an older, more cynical gamer nowadays, but I'm sorry to say that the game feels a lot like 150 million dollars worth of bad acting, with a sort of half-assed WoW tacked on to the end. And such limited functionlity in a modern AAA MMO of this caliber and budget SHOULD BE unacceptable.

4. Like everything, the voice acting is subjective. I find some of it hilarious, a lot of it so bad I'm not sure if I should laugh or feel racially insulted, and some of it just too bland to be anything but spacebar-worthy. But as I said, Bioware did raise the bar for story-telling in a MMO. Although, I played some Red Dead Redemption last night, and the voice acting quality blows the crap out of TOR's.

5. Agreed. TOR looks nothing like WoW.

However, just as the game's critics need to stop hiding behind their personal opinions (which is a rediculous thing to demand), TOR diehards need to stop hiding behind such statements as, "lol, game just came out, give it a chance!". That's equally as harmful to our gaming genre. When did we all start blindly accepting mediocrity, half-finished games, sub-par sytems, and features that simply should be there?

And finally, the disclaimer: all opinions are equally valid and equally useless. I don't hate you because of yours.

Personally, I will subscribe to the game for a while, because it is enjoyable, despite it's lack of features that I desire, because I appreciate that MMOs need time to grow, and I am curious to see what Bioware will make of TOR in the future.

I kinda want to disagree on the 'lots of content' statement at the beginning of the article.

Depending on how fast you play, there's really only about 2 days to 2 months of content in the game right now.

It's all relative, of course, but if I - as a very casual gamer - was able to hit 15 in a weekend, playing at a normal pace, then reaching 50 isn't too far away..

Also, considering how there are zero down-time activities in the game, all you'll be doing is combat, combat and more combat, while your crew makes stuff for you. Well, if you're like me, you'll be trying to squeeze some roleplaying in there too. I'm not even going to get started on that issue though.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Originally posted by korvass

Looking at this preview alone, and having seen the current state of SWTOR, Funcom may just pull off the story-based questing better than Bioware. Added to that, the classless system, and level of customisation.. I think we might have a winner here.

I Beg to differ, One must take a look at there track record on other games Funcom has put forward. Not a very steller record in my opion.

 

Yeah, I feel ya. I'm an AoC subscriber, and am fully aware of it's issues. But, to be fair, it's still going strong, still gorgeous, and still fun.

Also, from what I've experienced so far, Bioware aren't doing terribly well at their MMO attempt either. Compared to what has been touted and advertised, TOR is turning into an exceptionally disappointing, half-assed, tacked on MMO experience thus far...

I give credit to Funcom for thinking a little outside the box, and not being afraid to take chances. AoC  combat, though not revolutionary, was different. The had the stones to go with the hgh-end graphics engine. They took a different approach to classes. They are set to take even more chances with Secret World. And these chances look really interesting to me.

Bioware, on the other hand, have - and let's be honest - created a beautifully-crafted, fully-voiced quest experienced, and then tacked on WoW to the backend. Rather poorly, I might add. And I still intend to stick it out and keep my pre-order open.

Looking at this preview alone, and having seen the current state of SWTOR, Funcom may just pull off the story-based questing better than Bioware. Added to that, the classless system, and level of customisation.. I think we might have a winner here.

Nevermind, I forgot to level my reading comprehension skill..

"Just how these three will influence the story remains to be seen, but once chosen a player cannot leave or default to another."

So, if I choose Templar, I can't leave London, nor join my friends who might have chosen a different faction? Ouch! Not sure I like that.

Yeah, even though it was a simple opinion, it probably breaks some NDA rule or another which I'm bound to. So I don't really care nor mind if it gets deleted.

..questing zone, not question zone..

In my opinion, using words like 'enormous', and 'massive' to describe the planet zones is a bit of an overstatement.

[User edited due to NDA]

I think the explorative aspects of the game are somewhat mis-represented and overstated.

That being said, it's not going to detract from the overall enjoyment of the game, and I'll be there drooling at release like everyone else. I just feel that things are getting a little over-hyped, and not being looked at realistically.

I have no desire to recreate SWG in SWTOR, but for an example of 'massive' planets, then SWG would be a good one.

There are also a lot of valid concerns that are not being addressed. For one: long term content. I don't mean end-game. [User edited due to NDA]

I am hoping for a MMO experience that will last me a few years, and I am greatly concerned that TOR is going to run out of tricks and content very, very fast...

It would be nice, and useful to see some objective negative criticism as well, to balance things out a little.

The DCUO appearance system would have been absolutely perfect for SWTOR. Sadly...

Originally posted by dpcollier128

I'm hopeful that SWTOR will innovate, not for its combat or other aspects, but for its stories. Look at the things that are an innovation! Ignore the rest... hell the game isn't even released yet; not even in open beta!

Let's just get over the bashing and over-hype this game brings up... at least until the thing gets released. 0.o
 (futility... thy name is dpcollier128)

From my own personal experience and point of view, I can definitely tell you that it sets the bar for storytelling in MMOs.

Got those e-mails too. *Sad panda* :(

The lessons of this thread:

1. The only thing that matters is that you can enjoy the game. If it's something you want to play and enjoy, forget everything else.

2. If you're going to call something a debacle, learn how to spell it first.

"a Skaven (think Gnoll)"

Er, more like 'think ratmen'.

I was there at the start of this game, and while it as beautiful, huge and open, some things just didn't entertain me:

1. Dull character models and armour.

2. The world itself seemed unpopulated, sparse, and bereft of soul. NPCs would just stand around doing nothing - or in the case of dark elves, would do rediculous crap like stand around and fart or burp - or would just walk a dull, monotonous set path down a corridor and back again.

@above: haven't they been adding missions,  episodes and story arcs and other content every month or two?

I felt there could have been a few other pertinent (to me) questions asked, such as, 'will FTP players be able to use the Foundry?'.

Originally posted by jahwarrior28

Just a heads up to everyone to check their inbox and spam boxes!  I recieved my invite and am downloading the client now.

I think you just became Public Internet Enemy #1 ;)

Shit happens, stuff gets delayed. Nobody needs to get their knickers in a twist about this.