Could not disagree with you more.   I am absolutely loving this game so far.

Well I am not going to write a in depth review because others seem to be doing a great job in that department ;) .  But I will say this, I absolutely love  Star Wars the Old Republic.  It takes all the great story/rpg aspects of The Knights of the Old Republic and combines it with all the best of a modern mmorpg.  The game also ran very smooth for me.  No lag and I only had a slight issue with choppiness once during my entire weekend test period.

Being a huge fan of Star Wars since the original movies first came out. I can honestly say that Bioware has once again nailed the Star Wars feel in this game.  So if you are looking for a mmorpg that has a great compelling storyline and do not mind a theme park type game you will really enjoy this game.

Originally posted by nerovipus32

Failing with an IP as vast and loved as lord of the rings tells me turbine are not a great developement studio, the original lord of the rings game middle earth online was a far superior idea.

 

Not sure where you get the "failing with an IP thing" .  Lotro is thriving and all the servers I play on are always very busy.  As Turbine said, Isengard has been their most successful expansion ever.  Turbine has done quite well with the Lord of the Rings IP.

I will definitely be playing this.  I was a huge fan of the Wizardry series and the developers of this game have a lot of interesting ideas.  Plus with the whole permadeath thing you do have a chance to go to your body within a certain timeframe as a ghost from what I read.  Failing that or if you die a lot then yeah you are permanetely dead.  This does not bother me, just more incentive to be careful ;)  .

I will have to add this to my game list when it goes to a freemium model.   I have a lot of good memories of Lineage 2.  I absolutely love it when a company offers a good hybrid model.  I feel it works the best and offers the most flexibility.

Fantasy mmorpgs will never get old.  But shallow mmorpgs of any genre will ;)

Originally posted by ulpris

Family - Work - Play.

     Just keep your choices in the correct priority and you can certainly play an MMO but like many posters above me have stated, you won't be top dog. The reason is simple, the younger players in school, living at home, and who don't have a full time job just won't have your same priorities. They can devote double or even triple the number of hours you can possibly devote, so don't try to match them. It comes with being an real adult (not just age). Just accept it, your family life will improve because of the increased time your spend with them and you will do better at work if you aren't tired all the time.

    I know a few friends who couldn't come to grip with adulthood. One lost a really cushy job because he was always tired and took days off from work when game expansions launched (Looking at you WoW). He has another job now but it doesn't pay as much so he has to work longer to earn the same amount he would have. Another is still single and living in an apartment because he never spent time trying to actually meet people in RL and MMOs dont teach you valid social skills. They are both almost fourty year olds and watching them both implode over the years was all the incentive I needed to stay my course. 

     So I putter away at an hour or two every night on MMOs and while I certainly won't ever be top tier in any kind of ranking system;I won't be working at wallmart making minimum wage either. I mention this last fact because I met someone in RL who was actually working at WallMart in the Electronics area, he turned out to be a top rank infilitrator in DAOC. Made me feel alot better about the choices I made.

     As I typed this, my little girl came over to help me dress her doll and my wife is upstairs getting ready to have lunch with my folks. Later we are going head off to Disneyland (Season Passes FTW) for the evening to see the fireworks. Let the the little kiddies live in their MMOs, RL is way better.

Beautifully said.  Moderation and keeping track of your priorities are the key.  I myself am a 38 year father of three.  I have played these games since 98.  While my play time is definitely cut back.    You can still play these games,  have a lot of fun and make good progress if you plan things right.

I do not feel that Dan leaving Cryptic says anything bad about Cryptic at all.  Like Dan said, he is taking a job to be near his fiancee.  Family is ALWAYS more important then a job. 

Personally I think PWE is a great thing for Cryptic.  If the way PWE treats Runic(the makers of Torchlight) is any indication of how PWE will treat Cryptic, they are in good hands.

As a matter of fact Cryptic has already said that they are bringing more people on board. 

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Arthineas

The combat feels fine to my wife and I.  It is a traditional mmorpg combat system.   Want "faster combat"?   Go play Age of Conan or a first person shooter.  Or maybe wait for that Tera game that is failing in Korea to release worldwide.

How about you stop assuming you know my playstyle just because it doesnt fit into your current happiness.  I've got a lifetime sub to Lotro, and I do enjoy it...but not as much as I WOULD if it had better combat.  It doesn't have to be fast like an FPS, but fast as in  visceral and realistic as opposed to click and wait, click and wait.

I've got a Hunter, Minstrel and Loremaster at the cap and a few in the wings at lower levels.  Everything else in the game is fine, its the combat though that feels sluggish.  Actually a good example, is how you feel when you character falls from a high place.  When you get that crippled effect, THAT's what combat feels like and its intentional, rofl.

 

Your playstyle has absolutely nothing to do with my happiness lol.  But your comment about the combat  being "like a still frame" was a little moronic.  

Instead of buying a lifetime subscription to a game that you think has combat "like a still frame".  You should have just saved yourself some money and bought yourself a good picture book.

Originally posted by nomss

dude, shouldn't the game itself be presenting it's own story? To find out the GW2 story I won't have to wiki, to find out TOR's story, I won't have to wiki, to find out the story of TSW I won't have to wiki. This is pathetic that we have to read your column to find out Rift's story.

 

Funny I got all this off of Rift's actual site not a wiki http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/history/ .  Plus in the very early part of the game they even have nice CG videos telling the story.  So I am not sure what your complaint is.

Paul Crilley, nice write up.  I look forward to your further adventures.

Originally posted by marcust

Like in most MMO's, Newtons Laws are ignored and it just feels wrong.

Saying that though, 95% of what Lotro does is good and overall I'm happy with it.

I'd love to see a full pvp server, just one, I would roll a toon on it right now and have a great time. I'd love to be able to level up an orc in Isengard, Mordor or Angmar starter areas and eventually end up raiding Moria or Lothlorien as the bad guys.

 

 

Good idea, a full pvp server would be pretty cool.

The combat feels fine to my wife and I.  It is a traditional mmorpg combat system.   Want "faster combat"?   Go play Age of Conan or a first person shooter.  Or maybe wait for that Tera game that is failing in Korea to release worldwide.

If Everquest Next has a good freemium model like Turbine's Lotro, sign me up.  I love having the option to either subscribe or spend money in a reasonable cash shop. 

Hopefully its a game without mounts that look like Harley Davidsons and  without npcs that have names that are parodies of celebrity names.  In short I hope the game takes itself a little more serious.  Blizzard makes good games, but the corny nature of WoW killed that game for me a long time ago.

Originally posted by Ziboo

Glad to see LoTRO still on the list, and do believe we're fortunate to have such a variety of games coming down the pike.  Will they be as good as the hype - I surely hope so.

 

I totally agree.   Personally Lotro is my current favorite mmorpg.  Good for Turbine at their success.   Like you said, the variety of games coming out is great.  I wish all of them luck.

Glad to see SOE concentrate on marketing EQ 2 again.  It is a great game and looks great also after all these years.

Kudos to Runic Games for giving us so much value at a low price.  I will be buying this for sure.

Last I checked Funcom was not registered as a non profit charity.  Of course its going to cost money.   The game cost money to run and people need to get paid.  

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

I just have to chuckle because it reminded me of something from guild chat a few years back (paraphrased)...

 

Him: I can't solo a group dungeon.

Me: That's because it's a group dungeon.

Exactly what I was thinking.  I mean really, what did you expect OP?  It is well known that you need a full group to do any of the dungeons. 

On the bright side however Trion is adding solo dungeons soon ;)

Not tired of them at all.  I really loved Thor and X-Men First class.  I thought that they were both well done.