Originally posted by Nadia

Lineage was an exception in popularity, prewow,  with millions of subs but not in US/EU

True, it's too bad that style of game never caught on here or we may have a very different game library today.

I started playing MMOs with UO, and I played MUDs before that.  I would be happy if there was never a game developed again with an EQ-style mob grind built into the game.

I do, however, miss having an actual virtual world to explore.  AC was the closest game to UO that I could find but it was still lightyears behind what UO accomplished. 

It's really pathetic how the MMO genre has devolved into what we have today. 

UO had so much content that you could spend months playing the game many hours every day and each day would be a different experience.  The content built into the game was expanded indefinitely by the fact that you had to interact with other players.  There just aren't games like that any more.

EvE may have some superficial similarities with UO, but the gameplay has nothing in common.

If you had asked me 13 years ago, when I spent more time playing UO than going to school, what I thought MMO games would be like today; I would have undoubetely described a game that combined the engine of the Uncharted games, mixed with the voxel aspects of Minecraft, combined with the content found in UO and GW2. 

And I, of course, would have been a fool to think that the majority of gamers wanted depth to their game and not just a mediocare single player game with a chat box.

Originally posted by Jesterftk

@fony OKAY this didnt happen realy did it ?!?!

The minute i would see a LINE infornt of a mob i would just jump in and try to get a 1st shot at it. Holy shit i would NEVER wait in a freaking LINE in a game for a quest mob *smack head* this screen must have been posed.

...

My wife just droped laughing at this Pic, realy so hillarious to wait in a line for Veken.

/sigh

If you form a group everyone gets credit for killing quest mobs in TERA.

The picture and your comment both are a disappointing reminder of the current attitude of MMO gamers.  While the picture is going to one extreme of the solo-MMO gamer (so set in their ways they would rather wait in a line than group with other people);  your statement goes to the other extreme, the douchebag solo-gamer who doesn't take any other player's time into consideration and is all about finishing their own quest as quickly as possible because MMO-god forbid you actually stop to help another player.  That would cost you precious minutes in your race to max level.

I can only guess you never played EQ.  People spent days of even weeks waiting for their turn to kill some of the rare mobs in that game.

Originally posted by Shivam

It is like DC universe online. 

And yes it is gear based.

I'm sorry, but I don't think DCUO's combat is anything like TSW.

Originally posted by AdamTM

Like AoC, not as much as WoW.

Its a hybrid system, its less reliant on tab targeting.

Hotkey-based though.

Oh yea, I forgot that you don't need to have a target for a lot of skills.  That actually does make the combat feel a tiny bit less generic.  Those skills use a cone or PBAoE damage arch.  Unlike AoC the AoE damage is built into the skills as there are no AoC-style combos.

Combat is generic hotkey MMO style with some minor AoE damage inspired by AoC.

Originally posted by Skuldin

Originally posted by Dameonk

Originally posted by Skuldin

This.

I played beta and I was advertised Ilum (which was NOT available to play in beta) and I pictured in my mind Warhammer only improved because you know they designed warhammer and long ago the game I loved the most (DAOC).

I'm not really sure what you mean by this.  The original Mythic team created DAOC.   Warhammer was nothing like DAOC. I'm not even sure the same designers worked on both games. In fact, I would be surprised if they did.

Bioware made SWTOR.  Mythic had minimal (if any) input on the design decisions of the game.

They merged Mythic and Bioware (EA that is) and EA made Warhammer using the Mythic team (what was left of it) including Mark Jacobs while he was still there.

You may want to check your development timeline for this.  WAR was already far into development when Mythic became EA Mythic.  The game had been in closed beta for quite a while.  The only thing that changed after the acquisition was that Mythic added objectives to the open world PvP.  There were no plans for keeps or other objectives in the original game design and would not have been if EA had not provided money to Mythic to extend development time. 

The original PvP design for WAR was completely based around Scenarios.

 Mark Jacobs made the best RvR game in history with DAoC and so people flocked to Warhammer expecting DAOC2, instead they got two factions and a crap load of problems from the game engine (sound familiar with SWTOR?).

While it's true that WAR was not the spiritial successor to DAOC; SWTOR was never supposed to be.

So since Bioware and Mythic are essentially the same department one would have thought they could have at LEAST improved upon the PVP in Warhammer and my vain/silly dream was that they might have logged back into their old DAOC game, taken a look at their map layouts, objectives, Darkness Falls Dungeons, relic bonuses etc or HELL EVEN their non-timed leveling Battlegrounds like Leirvik and borrowed some ideas and improved upon them.

At the time SWTOR was being developed the Bioware and Mythic development teams were completely seperate.  As far as I know they still are.  I would like to see a cited refrence that they are "essentially the same department".

SWTOR was too far into development to make any major changes to PvP by the time Mythic was around, even if Bioware had wanted to.  It's obvious by playing the game that their main focus was getting the class storylines complete while everything else was secondary to that goal.  PvP in the game just seems like an afterthought.

Instead it plays about like Warhammer did, lag fest with horrible population imbalances that EVERY ONE saw coming. PvP needs 3 factions, period. 

I agree with your statement completely here.  But SWTOR was never touted as the next great PvP game.  The main focus of all discussions up until relase was on the story "pillar".  SWTOR is exactly what Bioware advertised it as.  I'm not sure where gamers got the idea SWTOR would have a fully fleshed out, deep PvP experience.

Everyone's playing space combat, duh.

Originally posted by Skuldin

This.

I played beta and I was advertised Ilum (which was NOT available to play in beta) and I pictured in my mind Warhammer only improved because you know they designed warhammer and long ago the game I loved the most (DAOC).

I'm not really sure what you mean by this.  The original Mythic team created DAOC.   Warhammer was nothing like DAOC. I'm not even sure the same designers worked on both games. In fact, I would be surprised if they did.

Bioware made SWTOR.  Mythic had minimal (if any) input on the design decisions of the game.

Originally posted by GMan3

Originally posted by Terranah

I've had it happen lots of times.  You click an ability and nothing.  Or there is a delay.  I don't know why some people experience it and others do not.

    Strangely enough, my son and I, playing on two different rigs and from Hawaii no less, still are having absolutely no problem with this.  Not saying it is not a problem, just can't see it myself to say it is either.

Oddly enough, My wife and I play from Ewa Beach as well and have not experienced this issue either, lol.

Originally posted by ladyattis

Originally posted by nikoliath

Originally posted by travamars

Things will not change in the mmo market until people start buying games for what they are and not buying them because of who the publisher, developers, and IP are.

If people see bioware they run and buy it. People see gw2 and cant wait to buy it. People are just sucker to marketing these days.

There is a logic, and that is people buy something from a company or source that they trust, enjoy or respect in some way. If you bought a Ford and found it to be a great car, why wouldnt you buy another Ford?

 

Your logic is a bit faulty here. When I buy a car, its feature list is fixed for the most part. I can use to drive from place a to place b. It has some features which make the drive comfortable or more fruitful (radios, GPS, etc). But the core of the product remains the same: personal conveyance. Lets compare that to the evolution of MMORPGs. They started out mostly as graphical copies of MUDs with some key differences: large populations over continuous game spaces (little or no instancing/sharding) and open ended gameplay (or metagaming whichever best fits here). Now, MMOs are heavily instanced, game spaces are not continous anymore, and even the core rulesets from MUDs have been dumbed down (rather than clarified or re-rationalized). So, no MMORPGs are not even the Fords of games. Instead, we started with cars for MMORPGs, and then the manufacturer (game devs) decided to par everything down to where we just have a bicycle retro-fitted with a mower engine. Sorry, I don't want a massively single player game where I have to pay month to month or buy in-game currency/items from a cashshop to keep playing. I'll just buy games like Skyrim, Saints Row, or the latest GTA where I know I get the same core features and then some (as added value) instead.

I completely agree.  Honestly, when you compare the the current MMO design to a game like Ultima Online (back in 2000) the difference in complexity is staggering.  Back then we had a living world to participate in with each day of gameplay holding something completely new.  Today we have a straight line to run our character's solo through until we get to the end and then group with a dozen or so people to do the same content repeatedly.

We really only have ourselves to blame though.  MMO consumers apparently like paying $15 a month for a shallow linear single player game that just so happens to share the same server with other people.

I won't even get started on raiding, one of the worst ideas for any game ever, in my opinion.

Edit: I'd just like to note that it's really sad that that the only game to come out in the last decade to encompass everything the early MMO gaming fans would have loved to see in an MMO is a single player game.

Meowhead,

I'm not sure how you did it, but somehow you got inside my brain and pulled out my exact feelings about GW2 and then put them in a brilliant post.

Kudos.

Absurd, indeed.

Apparently if you level too fast, have too much money, or in any other way out-perform other players you will be investigated and possibly banned.

Everyone has to have an equal chance at every single aspect of the game or it's not fun!  Right?

Hey, I've been playing since day 1 of head start and I just reached level 25 last night, when is Bioware going to ban everyone who got to 50 already!?

Originally posted by mgilbrtsn

Originally posted by JeroKane

They made a deliberate and significant design decision that has lowered the overal quality of graphics in the game and didn't communicate this decision with their playerbase, unitl now AFTER release when everyone has PAID for their retail box!

This is going to create such a Back Lash at them like there is no tomorrow! And really... they now rightfully deserve the s-shit storm coming at them!

This is so shady and a low blow underhand decision and hiding it from the playerbase till after release, when people started screaming where the High Resultion Textures were missing!

/utterly disgusted by this!

People on this forum seem to love claiming false advertising delibertaly lying to customers and otherwise nefarious activities.  If you really believe this and have the evidence, don't post it hear, take them to court.  You should have no trouble in winning a lawsuite.   Otherwise, feel free to complain, gripe, and otherwise make you opinion known on these forums, but keep the criminal allegations to a minimum.

I have to admit, I didn't read the whole thread.  But as someone who really enjoys SWTOR and is having a lot of fun going through my character's storyline I just have one thing to say.

I never noticed the transition to high resolution textures in cinematics.  Know why?  Because I don't care.  In or out of cinematics the game looks like something a 10 year old would play on the XBox. 

If you're seriously upset about the game's graphics going from looking like crap, to looking less like crap well I don't really know what to say to you.

Now to log in to continue my adventure!

One of two things is going on here.

1. This is a completely made up story.  No one was banned, there was no email, just someone trying to start a controversy.

2. The person was banned, but they edited the email that they received omitting the parts where it says they used some type of exploit to get to said area of the game.

There is no way they actually got banned for ONLY looting a high level chest.

Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by tixylix

Well how do you skip cutscenes then? You can tap on space bar but that isn't skipping them, just making them go faster.

 Also (as mentioned in the Gamepro video) the issue is that if you skip cutscenes, you won't know how to respond.  The branching dialogue makes it feel like you kind of do have to listen to the story so that you won't do something you'll regret.  

But if you don't care about the story, why would you regret a decision?  The light/dark side choices are color coded.  Just skip the dialogue and press the red number, over in 3 seconds.

Anyway, I don't understand why someone who would want to skip all of the story would even bother playing SWTOR. That's the only thing the game has going for it.

Originally posted by Martinmas

One of the reviewers said that she has been testing since the "Friends and Family" beta started but later in the article she says that she has not been able to experience the companions yet.

 

It would seem that someone who has been testing the game since last August or longer would have gottten to something that happens within the first few hours of the game.

I was going to say the same thing.

There are some other issues I had with the video as well. 

These are supposed to be "professional" game reviewers but they didn't know you can press the spacebar to skip the cut-scenes?  In my profession, that's like not knowing how to boot into safe mode.

Spending most of the video complaining about the #1 feature of the game is like complaining that you have to drive cars in Gran Turismo.

I definiltey do not think SWTOR is a great MMO game, but I question if any of the people in the video even played it.

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by Madimorga

Originally posted by Warjin

Originally posted by mrshroom89

^^^

The reason we have boys wearing girl pants and eyeliner

 

Grow a pair imo every child should gut a deer at the age of 10 

And get drunk and slap a women... no really lol 

 

Of course.  That way the kid is assured a lifetime of staggering around the trailer park in a wifebeater, with his man-pregnant beer gut leading the way!

 

 

so all this will happen just because a teen plays empire in Swtor?

Re-read the posts you quoted.  They are not talking about SWTOR.

.... i wonder how they would react when a thief beat / kill their parents in front of them in real life......

If you really want to know.  They would go into a deep depression where they spend time traveling around the world experiencing life.  They would try to look for a reason, a meaning behind the murder, but they would be unable to find one. 

After years of self reflection they would come back to the city where their parents were killed and see that the crime rate is at an even higher level than when they left.  They would use their family's money to pursue legal avenues trying to find a way to ease their mind and help their broken city.

After a while they would realize that it's not working and would then take matters into their own hands.  They would use funds from the technology company their family owns to develop advanced weapons never before seen on the planet.  After that they would begin a life as a vigilante, single handedly taking down criminal orginizations one by one.

Every day this person would stop crimes from happening but they would never be able to obtain peace.  The memory of their parents' murder would haunt them for the rest of their life, like a shadow cast over every part of their existance.  In the end, they would die unhappy, never being able to find the peace they so rightfully deserved.

Originally posted by gimmekey

I see a guy that played and reviewed a game he knew he was going to dislike from the start, closing off with his initial intention of playing the game he's been waiting for. 

It's like me trying to review my experience in an Italian restaurant when I dislike the theme and cuisine, and concluding with my intention to go eat some Mexican food instead. Not 100% credible.

I dunno. Best taken with a grain of salt I suppose, as usual.

The OP already qualified all of this but felt like sharing his opinion.  I guess I don't see the problem.

You need Steam to play the game.  Skyrim communiates with the Steam servers in order to authenticate the game.  Without Steam the game will not work.  I suppose there could be a bug that would allow you to somehow play without having Steam installed but it's designed to be necessary.