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Star Wars: The Old Republic Interviews: PAX Interview
At last weekend's PAX convention in Seattle, Washington, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy had the chance to chat with Star Wars: The Old Republic Lead Writer Daniel Erickson about cinematics and the overall experience that Bioware is trying to create for players in the game. Check it out!
By William Murphy on September 06, 2010
This year at PAX, out in the glorious Emerald City of Seattle, we had the chance to see Star Wars: The Old Republic game in action on the show floor. What was on display was essentially the same content we explored at E3, only this time it was a real treat to see how the general public reacted to the game since this was the first time in the US the players could get their hands on the title (outside of beta). Eventually we caught up with the Lead Writer, Daniel Erickson and chatted about the game and the cinematic experience BioWare is aiming to achieve with their first MMORPG.
Dan opened by letting us know that what people were playing on the show floor was not a traditional “demo”. Instead, what BioWare brought to the show was just the game itself. And while character creation was not available, players began playing right at the beginning of the game in a live environment with each other. It was plain to see that the level of polish was high, grouping was fully integrated, and players could band together or go their separate ways.
We did probe Dan about character creation, but all he could tell us was that they were constantly tweaking it, and that they had just recently pushed through a new iteration internally. He was also able to tell us that TOR’s character creation would be less about tweaking different parts of the face and body and more about picking from a wide variety of different features. He believes players will be plenty happy with the amount of visual customization available, even if they can’t tweak their nose length one centimeter at a time.
Once it was clear that Dan couldn’t talk too much about character creation just yet, we moved on to his role on the team: containing the massive winding monster that is the game’s script. We asked him how big the script was actually getting, or perhaps tome would be a better word. Dan said they’d recently hired a new writer and his “initiation” was to catch up to where they are with the story by reading a 1,000 page summary text. Yeah… that’s a lot of Star Wars fiction.
We asked Dan what exactly being the lead writer on such massive project is all about. There are so many lines of dialog, so many quests, so many classes to write for… not to mention all the different choices players have when it comes to each quest and the resulting paths opened with each choice. It’s plain to see that managing such a project would be a nightmare of continuity. That’s what Daniel Erickson is tasked with. He’s the task master when it comes to keeping it all together, and more than that finding a way to make each section of the game somehow interconnected and not feeling like just a bunch of pointless exercises in killing womp rats.
When asked whether the choices players made effect the world as a whole, Dan explained that TOR isn’t really aiming for that kind of world simulation. BioWare wants to do what they know best, and that’s telling a story. TOR’s goal is to be a cinematic and story-driven MMO. He explained that there are basically two ways the team achieves this: One is through the class specific quests and the adventure that’s catered to your character through quests, companions, etc. The other is a more universal storyline that everyone experiences together. Different planets will have huge overarching stories to experience, and it’s here where much of the more group oriented content will take place. On top of all of the different stories there are there to be experienced (which are each accompanied by full voiceover that can be skipped if you’re in a hurry), Dan brought up a good point that just as it is in all BioWare games there is a real emphasis on replayability. Play through once with your Jedi Consular, and then it might interest you to play through again trying the opposite path with a different Consular character. That isn’t, however, to say that there won’t be some kind of endgame experience, but so far we haven’t been ale to get anyone to talk about it.
On the choices that players make, Dan had quite a bit to share. TOR is an MMO with a lot of NPC interaction. The conversational choices you make affect what happens for you and even your party. Dan gave us an example where two players who grouped together approached an NPC for a potential quest. One player took a particularly hostile route, while the other had to play good cop and calm the NPC down so that they might progress the quest. So you might want to be careful with who you group within TOR, lest they get you into some trouble with the locals.
We asked Dan about the possibility of light side players allying with dark side players, and he gave us an example straight from the original trilogy. When Han Solo first met up with Luke and Ben, he was clearly messing around on the dark side of things. But as the story progressed, his more righteous side came about and slowly but surely Han found himself far on the light side of the battle. This was Dan’s example, but he quickly added that players will be able to behave in much the same way. The Star Wars universe has plenty of examples of characters who move from light to dark and vice versa. Just because you may be born into one side, doesn’t mean you need to let it dictate all of your actions. Much like KOTOR before it, players will be able to walk the line between good and evil, and though they may be a Sith Warrior they can make choices that echo the light side.
Lastly we asked Dan about the recently revealed space combat and why the developers decided to make it more like Star Fox and less like EVE. The main reasoning, while some folks might not like to hear it, is that it doesn’t fit the type of game BioWare is striving to make. That is, the sort of tunnel-esque battles they’re injecting into TOR are about the story. They’re not about exploration and discovery. They’re about driving a narrative and giving you bursts of action… little concentrated bits of awesome. Sure you can still customize your ship, but don’t go into TOR expecting a world/universe/space simulator. Rather BioWare is bent on giving you the most cinematic and story-driven MMO out there. And it looks like they’re well on their way.
This game sounds so fanatically themeparkish it atually hurts my eyes!! (even tho Im terrible sandbox player and I do prefer themeparks)..
and the vaporware they gave about...well everything, was very very...dissappointing at least :((
yeah yeah yeah story story story...
Why can't someone ask them a real question?
Like why no demos over level2? Or why is space an arcade game and not like Rogue Squad / BF2 / X-wing?
There is something bewteen Eve and tube shooter...
You do know there is a PAX Demo of Characters around level 10 [ they all have a advanced Class ] and its played by both Bioware and the Community.
Yeah 3 guys playing for 5 minutes isn't really a deep demo. They need to let a reported or fans play a demo like GW's advance level one.
Maybe they are not as ready yet. Those are two different companies you are talking about. No one even knows when SW:TOR is going to released, so there is no basis for expecting anything at these shows. Comparing it with GW2's development progress makes no sense.
At least the interviewed writer is honest about what you can expect from the spacepart. Their goal isnt SWG JTL or EVE like spacecombat. This means that SW:TOR spacecombat doesnt seem interesting to me at all, but I was going to play it for the story anyway.
They seemed to have put alot of work into this game. It's a shame people are gonna whine regardless of what a company does.
People who don't know that people have been playing SW:TOR demos at E3, Gamescom and PAX haven't really been paying attention.
I hear that is all we will be hearing from Gw2... pretty much what they showed at gamescom is what you get until release. Kind of worrisome if you ask me.
Bioware has a reason they don't show as much... The reason for that is because they don't like to spoil the story for people. They put together some scenes and did what they could without giving away too much of the story.
You may not think story is important in an MMO, but it is to me, and up until now almost every MMO has had a weak assed story.
AOC was ok... but it was weak, and once you got passed tortage that was pretty much it.
Everyone who complains about a game deep in development makes me want to open an MMOHater website and make money off their tears.
Thats the new money maker in this genre, not a fan site but a hater site.
I agree with your argument. It's a demo people, they can show whatever they want to show. This should in no way reflect the games capacity in its totality.
However, we do actually know when it's going to be released. it was announced at E3 that they will release Spring of 2011. Take the MMORPG.com "estimated release" numbers with 8 or 9 grains of salt. =P
set that up on paypal and your sitting on gold.
unless some one ends up making a mmohaterhater website to exploit the naive and uninformed,
and then people will clone the hell out of it and make mmohaterhateronhater website.. convolution ensues.
TBF people don't care about finding about the story so spoiling it isn't the problem. People just want a playable demo that is beyond the tutorial. There is a shockingly low amount from TOR consider PAX will more than likely be the last convention. W don't even know what the average gameplay for swtor is is like and what it consists of.
Anyway PAX is far from the end of the information we'll be seeing from gw2. They've already confirmed they'll be going to Paris games week, and PAX East and probably so others as well as details on crafting which they'll be releasing "soon".
TBH, we know alot more about TOR than we do anything about gw2 . IT wil have dymanic events, a warhammer like PQ system. That is their selling point along with the graphics. It bothers me that you can play that game on a minimal machine with graphics like that, it makes me wander how is it possible.
We don't know more about SWTOR than GW2 that's a blatant lie. I can give pages of articles detailing gw2 mechanics and multiple 40 min gameplay video's of the game, most of the information on swtor doesn't detail anything, it mosly consists of we have this and that but we can't talk about it yet. The answer to the vast majority of Bioware interviews is "we can't talk about it yet", which fine as you don't want to reveal stuff that isn't finished or not actually in the game yet but surely for a game that's being released early next year they should have more to talk about.
Apparently you don't go to the SWTOR site very often. They have listed planet after planet, advanced classes, classes, Races, plenty of game mechanics. Space combat, housing. multiple things. The only thing that really needs to be addressed now is the crafting and the pvp. Then a few minor releases.
There is a wealth of information about the game. GW2 used gamescom to pretty much sell their game. Bioware releases info when they want to. Another thing that worries me, we already know too much about gw2. Does that show how much is in the game?
There's a difference between stating something and describing something. Tell me some of the content that occurs in those planets, tell what skills those advanced classes have as well as the mechanics, Give me some examples of space combat mission and what it entails, tell me exactly how the housing is customised and what it entails, tell me how the gameplay is like past level 10. They never DESCRIBE anything relating to gameplay only state. Give me some information on how pvp occurs and what it entails, tell me how players craft and what it entails. They always state we have all the usual mmo things but don't explain how they're implememnted/
Over a third of the fanbase over at swtor forums are annoyed at the lack of detailed gameplay information Bioware provides.
We could ask the same questions for gw2... Any rate, I plan to buy tor... I was gonna buy gw2, but with all the hype that game is getting I think I may save the money, they obviously wont be needing it.
We do have a lot of detailed information on the skills used, we also have a lot of information on what happens on certain planets, but no, we don't know everything. We know what the starting planets are for certain classes. We know the first planet where all classes come together. We know some of the planets that are contested. We don't know everything about them, we don't know what different kinds of end game they will have, as they've mentioned raids, world PvP, arena style PvP, and a 4th kind of "new" end game thats completely under wraps. They have not spoken about crafting much at all. We've seen plenty of missions and have heard about walkthroughs of many different mission choices that are available. We have multiple hours of in game footage not counting leaked gameplay. We have all advanced classes and all the main classes revealed. We have information on space combat, some information on customization of your ships and housing. A good deal of information on companions.... We do have a lot of information. We don't have ALL of the information. Neither does GW2, I don't even think they've released the names of all their classes yet.
TOR are full of plenty of posts of gamers who were hoping for MORE information about these things they haven't spoken about, and its well overdue. I think the major part of why they aren't releasing all of the information is because so much of it is subject to change. They released the advanced class names and already they're changing the Wizard class based on community disapproval. It was pretty much widespread. BioWare has always said they won't talk about something unless it is already in game and decided upon. That leads me to believe everything they haven't spoken about is still being worked out in true detail before they can confirm it.
With at least 8 months out from a release we still have a lot of time for them to release information. It does get frustrating though.
Everything we know about GW2 is pretty self explanatory, basic explanation of all the things we KNOW in details have cca 11pages of text (with detailed explanation of everything including character screen etc...show me something similar with TOR) and GW2 DONT EVEN HAVE ESTIMATED RELEASE DATE!
Admit it info about TOR is just some random vaporware most of the time...
..tho I must admit they certainly improved the animation (not the combat, seems still very static) and the group dialogues do seem interesting...I hope it'll be B2P becaouse it still aint worth of 15$/month but I seriously doupt it...
They have at minimum 8 months to tell us how everything is implements and how it works. If they say they have the features then i'm happy because at some point they WILL explain. Just because GW unloaded information at gamescom to create quick cheers doesn't mean TOR should take the same approach.
I don't want to see 40 min gameplay demos for TOR because in my honest opinion TOR's story is far to important and the developers don't want to give away to much because it is a major point to the game.
We will learn about the other features in due time. They don't have to rush information out, if they did we wouldn't be asking for more detail, we would be complaining as to why it looks so god damn awful and rushed.
I was happy with the PAX presentation. Can't wait till this thing is released.
My point is we have a fair few things things about gw2 that have been explained in detail as well as things we know about in game but haven't been explained yet. With ToR there is virtually nothing that has been explained in detail but a lot of things we know are in the game but know nothing about their implementation.
I know a lot of things are subect to change and have a lot of tweeking to occur before release but surely they must of have some core things that they are pretty certain are not going to change that they can explain in detail. The game has been in development long enough for them to be able to mostly explain a few things.
It's just annoying that when you actually think about it we know few hard facts about any of swtor;s features
As much as I love a good story, I fear Bioware makes a huge mistake focusing entirely on it. It is a known fact, that MMO players rarely read the quest text, and skip voice talk, especially in a group (its simply impossible). The concept Bioware seems to use for TOR souds like a linear adventure model, RPG on railtracks, which will hurt it badly in the end, because it is not flexible. MMO's are all about flexibility. Players want freedom, and they want to explore the Galaxy, as they see fit, without being taken by hand like in a movie. A sandbox system with added story lines would be much mroe flexible and offer somethign for everyone. It is something I think ArenaNet is doing in Guild Wars 2.
in game, basically KOTOR with friends, endgame = contested world PvP, dpending on how they do it should be fun, as long as its empir vs rpublic and some dcent battlegrounds, not some half ased thing like allods
The continual use of the false dichotomy of EVE or the 1983 Star Wars Arcade game is disgusting, since it completely ignores the elephant in the center of the room. Or elephants: X-Wing, BF2, Rogue Squadron. Those weren't about exploration, or flying forever. Those put you in the middle of it and were "cinematic" without sacrificing interactivity.
This fundamental dishonesty on Bioware's AND the press' part is shameful.
They're focusing the design squarely on SPRPG Bioware fans. Fans that they hope will spring for the box sale and then subscribe.
Just because you don't like it, does not mean everyone doesn't like it....
Story is skipped in most MMO's because the story is not worth a damn in most MMOs, including AOC, while some of it was interesting alot of it was not worth listening to, especially since the choices did, not matter.
In TOR your choices do matter, so you really have to listen to the story, and I am sure people will see that they like listening to the story. I think you are wrong about most of what you just said. I think TOR will bring out more people that like MMO's and alot of people that love games with good story. It will probably even bring new people to the MMO genre, just based on the fact that the story is so appealing.
There are several ways to explain something: you could say they're flipflopping and not confident in their game when they would change the class name 'wizard' or you could say that they listened to their community when the disapproval was heard.
It often depends upon the eye of the beholder.
Right. Let's be aware that 4 months ago we knew very, very little about GW2 as well, only the recent months the floodgates have opened. Rift and DCUO that will be released sooner, and we know less about these than than of GW2 and SW:TOR; each game company has another trajectory for their information releases, nothing more to it than that.
I'd call that blatantly untrue, or at least uninformed.
You might not like the information revealed about SW:TOR and what's not revealed compared to other companies where you do like their info reveals; it doesn't mean though that there hasn't been elaborated a lot upon SW:TOR in a great many aspects.
For those people who're genuinely interested in information about SW:TOR, I'd suggest looking here:
Information gathered on The Old Republic so far
A wealth of information for anyone looking for it.
It is like KOTOR, but you miss the point that it is is MASSIVE Multiplayer RPG. Yea , you will have friends around, along with people you do not know from adam, and enemies, and folks you don't like. In this aspect it is alot like other MMO's out there. Worlds are 90 percent open up, they don't have "hub cities" they said that traveling in between cities is ALL open world where you can meet other players.
I've read through all of that and it's not very detailed. There's a lot of feature's we know about that are in game but we don't know how it's being implemented or what it entails. It's true that until 4 months ago we knew nothing about gw2 but when they spoke they spoke in great detail and within the time when the community could voice their opinions, provide feedback and listened carefully to community questions and provided detailed feedack. The blog Q & A's are proof of this
I'm afraid Bioware will tell us nothing until a month before release and then when they speak cause another fiasco like "space combat" of which by then it would be far too late to change anything or that the game is different to what many expected because the information was so around for such a short amount of time that very few read it and that if they had known it maybe wouldn't have bought the game.
I'm not saying Rift is doing it right either, for a game that's so close to release it's surprisingly hard to find information about it and that'll probably bite them in the ass come release time.
Of course none of this matters if it's an amazing game come release but it won't change the fact that Bioware's PR was far from great. PR works both ways, sure it's supposed to make lots of people buy the game but it also is supposed to act as warning to those that may not like the game. The more dodgy a company is the more likely it'll lean towards the former while ignoring the latter.
i want more information on the game so that I can have a reasonable expectation of what the game will entail to decide how interested I am in what the game is offering. PAX was the last major convention before release if they're not going to release some major information at PAX then it's going to be a looooong time before we get any if we get any.
I know many don't care if they don't get any information about the game before release but many do, this is a competing market I'm not going to buy a game purely on the developer and blind hype. I want to be able to make an informed decision about it. I'm not sure if I'll see enough information to make an informed decision.
I certainly agree with Bioware's PR being underwhelming, I wasn't impressed with how some information was released.
But let's also be real about it, ANet's PR is pretty unique in the tempo and ways they release their information, most MMO companies haven't done it that well.
Besides that, I actually like how both Bioware and ANet release their information, only revealing stuff when they feel they're ready to talk about certain aspects: so, 4 months ago Bioware had released more info than ANet, now it's the other way around, but still both companies are progressing in their own tempo. People forget that we've had a couple of years where MMO company representatives were all kinds of boastful and releasing all kinds of info about the features their games would have where in the end those features were far from ready or even ingame.
That's the main reason many people have grown downright distrusting anything MMO company people are stating; so I prefer ANet's and Bioware's method, only talking when they're fully sure about things, not before.
Agree Bioware's ideology about releasing information when it's ready is fine, it's just consdering how long they've been developing toR for and how far away it is from release they should have more to talk about. Is it a crime to want to know more about the game your interested in buying.
Don't worry, I expect that the open beta will release more than enough info about all kinds of gameplay aspects, plus the way they've released their features I would find it strange if the upcoming months won't see a gradual revealing of more and more game details.
Yep I would look to finding out real info about this game and more hands on experiences coming out next year!
Okay, well, maybe YOU don't care about spoiling the story, but there are most likely a larger amount of people that would care if the story was spoiled, which is probably why the End game hasn't been discussed... it would probably give away too much of what the story will be.
There has been enough information in leaks, hands on previews/reviews of people that have played at E3 and Pax, and Bioware themselves to have an idea of how the game plays beyond the "tutorial", and the most recent review I've read about from I think Pax was that the game just feels right.
As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather not know every little detail that the game is going to have before I start playing it, I'd much rather be, dare I say, *gasp* surprised!! Bioware is giving ME enough info to understand all I need to understand to know that I will be getting this game, and I will enjoy it.
just awesome. replayability and cinematically driven gameplay and story is leaving me one happy camper. :D
If you didn't see it yet, you can watch the 30 minute presentation with quite a bit of new footage here.
As for TOR at PAX, i'm mildly pleased: I would like to know a bit more about the general direction of PvP and PvE endgame, which wasn't revealed, however, as even some of the most notorious critics on the official site went through a 180 degree turn concerning the combat in the game and the story after playing it for a bit; that reassures me they will succeed in those parts.
Concerning that story, that was what they set out to do and so far they seem to hitting it right in the sweetspot, so alls good.
As for crafting, I've never cared about that real much, but we've seen hints in the form of armor being dropped by mobs which needs to be repaired by "skilled craftsmen" etc.
I had some pretty high hopes for this game (still do) but my expectations are slowly meeting reality. This game is going to be more themepark and less engrossing. By that I mean less likely to draw me in on a regular basis. I think I will like to a limited degree what I find but I will eventually find that it is pretty much nothing to see at some point down the line. I will play it at launch but will most likely put it away within the first year and not return. Much like real life themeparks, they will be a nice place to visist but a place I will be glad to get away from in the end.
You are the second person to mention Rogue Squadron as though it was like X-Wing or Tie Fighter. As far as I have seen, how is the space combat in TOR NOT like Rogue Squadron's combat? They both are arcade-like systems that don't allow 100% free movement -- you have movement in the x-y axis of the screen (circular area more or less) and that area moves forward automatically, more or less.
As far as the whole GW2 vs. TOR thing goes, I don't think we can yet compare to the two. As people have said, we don't know much about GW2. We have several broad strokes, and the game certainly does look cool, but there's a lot of information yet to learn about how the story in it will develop and work (as one example). Certainly it has some things I would have liked to have seen in TOR such as dynamic events, group-friendly play without needing to officially group, environmental interaction, and interaction with the abilities of other players. That said, TOR is definitely bringing a very strong story to the field, great IP, space combat (it looks fun to me, frankly, and the interview did make some good points about it), companions (which add a nice story element), housing, etc.
The TOR team has also stated many times there are things off the beaten path to find and explore, so I wouldn't assume it is just a super themepark. They've talked a good bit about how they want to have themepark and sandbox elements in the game, though more importantly they want to have COMMUNITY. Unlike many developers, they realize that community is something you design to encourage and support, rather than something that just magically happens. The fact they know something like that is a big plus in my book.
Overall I think TOR looks pretty promising (I also like how it isn't going to be dependant on the Tank-Healer-DPS Holy Trinity...going by what they've said many, many times anyhow). Yes, it has some elements that I'd be happy without (playing for better gear all the time is one of those), but they are relatively minor compared to everything it is bringing to the table and the apparently quite massive worlds (going by demos people have played).
Now certainly TOR could suck. GW2 could suck too. We can't know 100% at this point. For me TOR looks promising though, and it (and GW2) is a game I am excited about. Of course I'll be careful and make sure the open beta shows it to be a good game (same with GW2). In any case, I think it is premature to declare it is going to suck nine or so months before it is even going to come out.
I liked KotOR. I like MMOs. I think I will probably like this game.
Looking forward to it!
It looks good and all but I'm a bit miffed that all they keep telling us and showing us is story, story and more story. Thats good and all I mean thats the main part of the game and all so cool but I just just a bit more info of other areas of MMO.
I like how they said yes this game has got epic story but we also have all the other facets of MMOs I was like oh cool some info at last...nope more group questing ==". I get it its gonna be friggin sweet in this game!
The only other thing they showed was a short piece of aircraft combat. I want to know more about how PvP will play out and dungeons and other activities that arent so deeply involved in the story. Even a sense of where endgame is going to fit in would be nice. After they do that, which probably they are not ready to do so, so I will give them some time, I'm sure everyone will be a bit more happy I guess about this game.
On the subject of GW2 they have released info on a majority of the game. I know there will be worldvsworld pvp with an arena systemon the side. I know how leveling curve is going to pan out, the dynamic quests. The story, my house, character creation and how they are handling world bosses also day/night cycle with changing armour ect.ect. It just good that I know what direction they are going in and what I am paying for. It also makes me feel confident that these developers have nothing to hide. It's all out there, this is what you guys can expect when you go buy the game. Sweet.
the only real thing that concerned me in the interview was when they mentioned character customisation. while yes they couldnt talk about it, he did say that you cant adjust your nose by a centimetre. character customisation is one of the huge selling points for a mmo these days. i think a lot of us got over the fact of everyone looking the same in WoW. they need to do something that we can all make unique characters and not just a cut/paste job.
This game is looking better and better every time I see or hear something new about it.
Game may not be the next biggest thing since wow, but it is Definately gonna put a huge dent in the MMO industry.
I never expected TOR space combat to be like Eve. What I did not expect is to "NOT" be able to make a 360 degree turn in space. Maybe I am not a trendy?
You keep using this word vaporware. I don't think you know what it means. It doesn't reflect well on you.
Why in the hell are people arguging about GW2 and ToR? GW2 HAS NO SUB. Buy it, play it forever. Jesus....
Funny I read the same thing and understood it would be different customization.
See you in-game, then...lol
Maybe I should be more specific and say "Rogue Squadron 3D" (PC) -- I'm not a console gamer so from my viewpoint Rogue Squadron had 3D controls (even though the mission areas has a ridiculously low flight ceiling). I'm guessing the original console game with that name wasn't?
If story sucks this game is doomed.... and MMO players mostly don't care about story at all.
You haven't done much research yet have you. You obviously have no idea about what a real RPG story is, as in BW's SPG if you have played them. The main difference is choice.
Choice means that the RPG in not linear and is not on railtracks as you put it. You have three choices most of the time as seen in the demos. Usually a light, dark or grey choice. Then your quest changes based on the choice you make. And not only your current quest but future quests as DE has said in interives. In fact in the interview, they brought up a choice a sith made that was a light choice. He gave away items to help a fellow sith that he just killed for in a dungeon. He then found out that he had to go back in and do the quest all over again because he did something nice (light side). The freedom in TOR will be choice. No, you can not chose to be a nurf hearder. But your story and character progression will be based on choice and will change if you level the same class again by making new choices.
Now the open world quests and world story arc quests will be more linear. But the NPC interactions will be different based on your class quest choices. So you are wrong about the ground game experience and linear adventure model. Space, well that is another story.
GW2 on the other hand, I see as a themepark as well. It is not a sandbox by in means. You have events that happen on a timer. You can interact or not. You have quests that are available by just entering an area, but you have no freedom to just explore as in a sandbox. You just go from ride to ride for the action. We don't know much about the RPG side of it within cities and such. But from the big demo, it was just pick a ride and get on. Then have fun. So I will play GW2 for the rides. They do look fun.
Now that i think about it..... where are the sandbox mmos.... i dont think that there are any in development. Thats dissappointing.
Everytime I read a new interview it just sounds like more and more excuses by BW to release the most mediocre mmo possible. I am not talking about the graphics either, I am referring to all the half-thought out mechanics in-game such as race-restricted classes and space combat on rails for example.
Now recently it sounds as if character creation is being added to the list of mediocrity in SWTOR;
(talking about Dan) "He believes players will be "PLENTY HAPPY" with the amount of visual customization available, even if they can’t tweak their nose length one centimeter at a time."
Excuse me, but I thought games were trying to evolve and add more immersion, not de-evolve into cloned character faces with probably 3 to choose from and only the eye colors being different.
http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/07/11/star-wars-the-old-republic-beta-screenshots/
Don't think we'll be seeing clones anytime soon.
That's an...interesting...premise, but I'll have to disagree with you on that. I play MMOs, and in non-sandbox games I most definitely care about the story. In fact, I'm going to be picking up The Old Republic specifically for the story. I'm hoping for something like a multiplayer version of KOTOR, but one that can also be played solo if your friends are busy.
Nice, even though it will get deleted soon. That map of hutta shows squares. The squares are about 2km x 2km per a post on the main swtor forums. Someone made a 3d model of a square on the map from gamescon demos. It was of Ord Mantel, but it is probably the same. And Hutta is the smallest of the starting planets. Ofc, none of the inside of buildings, dungeons or any flashpoints will be on the map to give us any idea of the true area of game play on a starting planet. But we do know that the main planets are at least 4 times larger than the starter planets. I doubt we will get a lot of info until the beta starts. Not the limited testing now, but a true beta when the game is ready in BW's eyes.
If people thought SWG was the disaster of all Star Wars disasters in the MMO genre, guess what, we have the new King of SW MMO disasters.
What percentage of the MMO community actually gives a damn about "Story"? Seriously, am I wrong in thinking the majority of MMO players tend to just skip the storylines in favor of faster leveling?
If I want to read a novel, I will spend 5 bucks at local book store. Not gonna spend 15 bucks per month to read the same novel(only slightly different) over and over again.
The only real information that is good information is the open beta. Any wishing, wanting or crying for more information before then is asinine.
Also, having prejudice towards the game before the open beta without any hands on gameplay is idiotic.
From what I have seen of this game, it looks like all the other mmos that have come along. One major difference is that this one has an actual story that I can engage with. No other mmo that I have played has had something like this. The closest thing I can recall is the Epic quests from Dark Age of Camelot. No game has given a reason to read or listen to quests. There have been no choices up to this point in any mmo. It has been kill x get y. That in its self is worth the money imo
actually some clarification
There will be world stories, stated by the devs already.
There is no switching faction, but they said you can be a light sided sith working from within and vice versa. And guilds will be 1 faction only.
Not sure how many people played the actual 15 or so minute demo they gave you, but i'll give my expierence from playing it for about 15 mins myself.
I was spawned into a room with an npc and one of the tech guys pushed me forward to get the story going. This consisted of him pushing my avatar (it was the bounty hunter) into the green field and then having me right click on the npc to start the dialogue.
The story ran with 3 characters talking about a job they needed done and how i was suppose to go about doing it. Every so often the dialogue circle would show up and give me some choices (ala ME) clicking one of these choices would have my character say something around the context of the line of text i picked. After about 5 minutes of talking i was released back into the world with a quest objective.
After making my way out of the building I saw the building i needed to the right with the doorway (not the archway but the opening) had a green barrier around it. After fighting one of the enemies using a combination of skills such as gernade, shooting my gun, and using my flamethrower. I was able to take the enemy down in about 3 to 5 skills depending on how well the skills hit, there is no auto attack if you were wondering.
After entering the building it was pretty linear to get to the end guy and kill him. Clicking on the datapad on the bed, my quest log was update. Returning back to the quest person started another sequence where i was able to make more changes and see how the people responded.
After which i went around randomly killing some npcs and looting their corpse because by this time my 15 minutes was almost up.
Basic details of the game consist of:
NPC that talk
PCs that talk.
Graphics are about on par with EQ2 and such (closer to this then say WoW which as i was looking at it wow and tor look nothing alike.)
A hud showing both your health and picture on the left and your enemies health and picture on the right.
A map with a magnifying glass that you can get a better look of if you hover over certain areas.
Character animation looked okay in some places and better in others and looked really good in the talking.
Fighting is about what you'd expect from a MMO, skill usage, but i did have one of the enemies hid behind a building once.
The instancing is seamless as they stated. Once i entered the building i noticed one of the "player controlled characters" disappeared but i never saw a loading screen.
Most quest are picked up by talking to an npc and going through the dialogue but a few of these are well hidden.
All in all, it's about what i expected when i thought of a Kotor based game. Nothing in the tutorial levels that blew my mind but i wasn't disappointed either.
I'm still buying this game because i like it. Hopefully i will get to see more of the game and play it longer but 15 minutes will hold me for a while.
I watched all Tortage quests in AoC but didn't bother read most after that, so clearly spoken/acted quests are better than pile of text. And how is Guild Wars 2 sandbox??? I haven't heard single sandboxie feature, player housing? No, dynamic crafting(aka make "unique" items)? No, Area control PvP? No. Only "unique" feature in GW2 seems to be that decided to ditch Healer classes in favor of all can heal system. Sure it's pretty but it's also very generic (serious) middle age fantasy MMO much like Tera, Rift and god knows what other.
Many people seem to drum on this player freedom but you can get lost in freedom and that is not fun.
I think you'd have a stronger point if all other MMOs didn't make story meaningless by giving players zero story choices. How much players care about story has a lot to do with how much they can interact with it, so you can't really judge how players will treat TOR's story based on how they deal with other MMOs.
I'm always surprised when I see a class "Jedi Knight".
Let's see how many thousands Jedai wanabee we will see at launch
My dreams of a new SWG is shattered. Sure it will be an awesome game but no longer sure it belongs in the MMO category.
"That isn’t, however, to say that there won’t be some kind of endgame experience, but so far we haven’t been ale to get anyone to talk about it." - if this fails....
"Sure you can still customize your ship, but don’t go into TOR expecting a world/universe/space simulator." - fail :'(
I'll try and tackle this the best way i understand it, if i fail to understand a point, i apologize in advance.
Okay first off BW never stated this was a sequel or anything related to SWG. SWG is owned by sony and this is BW, so it's two different games with two different companies.
As for it belonging in the MMO category? how does it not fit. It has other players, in a world where you do quests and fight with other players. If this doesn't qualify it as an MMO then they better take down about what 60 percent of the MMOs out there including WoW.
Endgame isn't released yet as that tends to be at the end, so BW/LA haven't released anything therefore there isn't really anything to "talk about"
Finally they did create a world, as for the universe i can't coment but as for space i don't believe they are trying to do a space simulator, never stated they were either.
Final note: this game reacts pretty much like every other MMO out there except it has a story. Which is what BW is trying to sell their game on.
What else would you expect in a game set in this timeline? The old SWG crying about Jedi is over...This is a new game, a new timeline in which Jedi were far from rare...Furthermore they are a HUGE part of this story...So get over it...There still some folks working out of their basements putting something together for those who still want to wail uncontrollably about Jedi population...SWTOR is not that place...
"Final note: this game reacts pretty much like every other MMO out there except it has a story. Which is what BW is trying to sell their game on."
Most games have stories, probably not as extensive as this one, but I think Lotro is a good example of a very good storyline. Wow makes great attempts at storyline, most people just don't notice it.
You can blame Blizzard for the way they are building this game, they are trying to out Blizzard Blizzard. Challenges will be few and you can bet there will be an endgame that is similar to Wow's if not better.
This game is a direct result of Bioware seeing what the vast majority of players want and giving it to them in a better way than what has been done previously.
Don't take that as a negative, there are a lot of people excited about this game and rightly so, it is designed for them.
I agree with this post that the developers seem to be trying to outdo Blizzard and make this fantastic game everyone is going to want to play. I agree the game looks very interesting, but, it just strikes me the developers are getting bogged down with the need to outdo Blizzard. Maybe the best course is to release the game sooner(as I keep seeing the hype on this website continually going down) so all can play. The game can always be tweaked with additional or revised content.
this game is looking terrible =(
lmao isnt that exactly the same as WoW's customization interface? i hope youre being sarcastic. oh man this is looking bad.
and i agree with someone else's post. most MMO'ers couldnt care less about the story. it's all about mechanics, replayability and depth.
They were very clear even a YEAR AGO that this was not going to be SWG2. I don't know why you suddenly have such dreams shattered since it has long been known that was never going to happen. Bioware has been focusing on making a story/experience that is inline with the Star Wars movies/novels, something SWG never did.
I think in SOME ways they've done this, I think. However, they've clearly detoured often into making a game that feels like Star Wars. Early on the combat system didn't have Lightsabers interact with each other at all, and they decided that didn't feel Star Warsy enough so they redid the whole thing. That's certainly an example of something that decided should not be WoW-like (though in fact, this was very similar to many non-WoW MMOs). Some WoW-like vestiges remain (such as loot), but that sort of thing is also a lot older than WoW.
Overall they have a lot of differneces from WoW. You'll never see player Housing in WoW for instance. Nor does it look like WoW will ever have story-based decision-making.
The biggest lift though is probably the interface, but why make something new for the sole reason of being different? The interface in WoW works well.
Aimless wandering is boring, BioWare is making the right decisions to make it all about the story. The game is so huge and there will be so much to do already it makes perfect sense. I'm glad BioWar is staying true to themselves with their RPG background and not cloning the mindless grindy boring MMOs of the day.
For all the "thempark' haters, what the hell did you expect? Star Wars itself is built on the Theme Park concept. Ice World, Desert World, Cloud World. City World. SPACE STATION World. Futhermore, the strong suit of Bioware isn't Open Enviroment Play, and you were fooling yourselves if you thought it was going to be anything like a sandbox game.
Those of us who followed this company for a long time know what kind of game we are getting. Every single preview they reveal shows me EXACTLY the kind of game I was expecting from Bioware. It's EXACTLY what I've wanted, and it's exactly what I have hoped for. The only people who are going to be disappointed by this product just simply have not been paying attention.
It's okay if you like a different kind of game, but don't blame Bioware for not giving it to you. Bioware knows what it does best, and it's just simply going to do it.
story driven mmo's that force the charecters to follow a path of story inorder to reach the neext phase of game play is always bad interms of an mmo.
its not mmo style of play, its kotor and single player and no amount of grouping with other players is going to change that. mmo worlds need to be more free form and free roam inorder for them to qaulify as a traditional mmorpg. too many people have started to lable these games and put them into catogarys. like theme park sandbox story and so on, these are just excuses created by games mags and developers to cover up the obvious flaws in the games lack of mmo desgn and inherant attempt at turning out a product to turn over fast cash with as little effort as possible.
eve and swg are true mmorpg's wow is an mmorpg, i dont realy think having companions and a story driven mmo is actually an mmo, its meerly and extention of a single player game that allows for multiplayer capability. abit like halo. so no its not an mmo ;)
get rid of that damn space combat its lame and rubish and an insult to starwars.
Story and all is fine with me, but it doesn't make this game into a MMO, but rather a CoOp-RPG like Borderlands.
Why should I pay a monthly fee for that kind of gameplay?
If they don't have tons of end-game content like WoW and it's raiding or cool PvP-stuff like territorial and guild-warfare it's not worth paying a monthly fee after you've reached max-level tbh.
$50 and then you can play aslong as you want would be the way to go imho, but that wouldn't cover the 150million they burned in this project.
Traditionally MMOs haven't really had much story and what story they did have didn't give the player any narrative power even over their own character. That sort of thing IS lame. It's why a lot of (most?) WoW players don't care about story (even though WoW has a lot of lore).
You seem to have an innacurate definition of what an MMO is. If "no amount of grouping with other players" can make a massively multiplayer game according to you, then I think you need to revise your terminology. Inherenly an MMO is simply just lots of people playing together in the same world. TOR has that, so it's an MMO. Also, I find it bizarre that you think TOR is a "fast cash" scheme when it is perhaps the most expensive MMO EVER made and will have taken 5 and a half years at least to make when it is released.
Your statements imply a strong bias against TOR, a bias so strong it overwhelms reason and the facts. Given your end comments, I think this is perhaps because TOR isn't SWG2 in some form. If that's the case, then you need to get over it. Bioware has been clear for well over a year that they were never trying to make SWG2.
As for the space combat, Rogue Squadron was a very popular Star Wars game, and TOR's space combat has a very similar playstyle. It's hardly an insult.
Well there is DFO and MO which set themselves up to fail with their hardcore pvp approach. There is also Dawntide in the works but is an independent company and the developement is coming along very slowly.
Much like the music industry where only marketable products are pushed to the populace (independent on if it is good or not), mmo's aren't backed unless they fit a model distributors like. At best we only see low budget games we can only hope actually ever come out and has enough expertise behind them to not suck.
Successful anomalies like AC are from a time when developers and players still made/played mmorpg's with roots to their rpg heritage. Those days are gone. Developers treat mmo's as their own genre and players now have no connection to the rpg base. Few in this industry today understand that why games in the past were so great in our minds was because we actually used our minds to fill in the gaps due to rpg experience and practice. Players no need to be spoon fed everything or wander off to other games like lobotomized monkeys.
The glory days of mmorpg's is over. Even the acronym had to be shortened to keep the attention of todays players.
Tor space combat is not Rogue Squad. Rogue squad is not a tube shooter. Again Tor space combat is not Rogue Squad. Rogue squad is not a tube shooter. Again Tor space comabt is not Rogue Squad. Rogue squad is not a tube shooter. Again Tor space combat is not Rogue Squad. Rogue squad is not a tube shooter.
Okay got it or should I repeat myself again?
Um.... where do you get your info from? Ooooh.. that's right, probably the 11 million people that play WoW is where you got this info from. Well, those are not RPG lovers and enthusiasts, WoW made people not care about story, and only "What can I get next and how fast can I get it?". It's made people push through the world as fast as you possibly can to get to the meat of their game, which is "endgame", a more repititous grind for gear, and spreadsheets of Gear Scores, and "You suck if you don't have a 10k GS".
Well, SWTOR's meat is the interactive story, and actual game up to the End game, and who knows what they have there, but BW's focus isn't just on Endgame, they want people to enjoy the game through all of the leveling, which I've come to realize, leveling up through SWTOR is going to be very seamless.... for me at least. You'll be gaining levels while your going through this involving storyline which you actually have an impact on with your decisions. And instead of watching your xp bar and grinding till that next reset of it, you'll be playing through the quest and looking forward to what happens next, or where it can take you next. I have a very good idea that the game is going to give you choice on how you go through the story, and not have to take a certain path through each Planet, but we'll see.
So, my bottom line here is, there are people who really enjoy story in their RPG's. And WoW was the game the brought about "here and now", and brought people into this genre that don't really care about RPG's, just wanted to be involved in the next big thing, and this next big thing got them hooked on the mechanic of easily getting powerful items to make them better than others.
I'm no hypocrite, I do play WoW, but I haven't conformed to the status quo... I don't Raid, or PvP in BG's, I used to enjoy both, but when the game has become nothing but a gear race of elitest jerks, I stopped taking interest in those 2 HUGE pieces of this game. So I have my fun by leveling different classes to the cap.
Wow the mmo community is full of whiners. When a game like warhammer comes out and reveals a ton of info people complain when the developers are forced to cut content to make release. TOR developers release information when its ready and people still whine about. The game is not out yet kids!!! GW2 can release all the info in the world but it won't matter if some of it sucks or is cut before launch.
All info in mmos should be taken lightly until a games release, cause everything can drastically change before then, for the better or for the worse.
Another person who has never played an mmo before. All mmos worth their weight have some element of story. Just the majority of people ignore it since the story is irrelevant. Bioware is making the story relevant by adding choices that can potentially impact gameplay. Imagine if certain quest chains can be lost since you killed X npc when you were level 10 rather than talk to him.
This doesn't happen in other mmos since none of your choices impact the quests at all so you have no reason to care what the story is about. Adding a story to an mmo doesn't make it less an mmo, just gives you more of a reason to go into a dungeon and do an instance beyond the dragon in there drops the sword i want.
Bioware clearly has always been about the storyline and character interactions. They still have quite awhile before release. At this point they can choose to show what they want. There is enough hype about the game that they don't have to show much of anything. At E3 the demos were extremely limited... at least at PAX the consumers got to play it as well.
Beggars can't really be choosers in this situation. EA can be as hidden or revealing as they want to be.
I played Rogue Squadron. It was pretty much a Tube Shooter. I certainly remember the canyon runs and the game guiding you to runs on the side of a Star Destroyer (those are my most vivid memories of the game). Hmm, unless I am thinking of a different game somehow.
In any case, a Tube Shooter isn't a bad thing at all. Lots of great games have gone that route. Star Fox would be an example in case my memories of Rogue Squadron are too fuzzy.
Edit: Hmm, I could swear it was Rogue Squadron, but looking at vids for the game it doesn't seem to be that despite looking similar. Now I am very confused. I do remember that the first mission was running a trench on Tatooine for training, and that Star Destroyer run thing (down the side, with turrets alonge the top and bottom of the side of the Star Destroyer to destroy).
Edit2: Seems I was confusing it with Rebel Assault (a 94 game, I think). Couldn't have been Rogue Sqadron since that game came out after the destruction of Alderaan...and my family.
"They’re not about exploration and discovery. They’re about driving a narrative and giving you bursts of action… little concentrated bits of awesome."
And this is why I worry about the game. It already seems that Bioware's "4 Pillars" are already slanted. Although it is no secret that Bioware is pretty lame when it comes to exploration, I thought maybe, just maybe they would focus on it a little more this time around. However, it seems that even though we have massive and iconic planets such as Coruscant in the game, it will consist of 3 zones based off what they have already shown.
It amuses me to read the conversations (bordering on arguments) people have here.
Let me boil it down for you all:
BioWare is making a game some of you will like and some of you will hate with features some of you will like and some of you will hate.
It's that simple. If you don't think you're going to like the game, or you don't like the announcements they are making, fine. Let's just move on.
Personally, I care about exploration and game content and could care less about "story". Thus, this game isn't going to be for me.
For those of you who love story? Great! I hope you enjoy the game. What's the sense having a long discussion/debate?
I don't think most of us who are in favor of Bioware's model for the game are the ones causing this argument. We usually are just responding to the relentless negative posts from the haters (mostly SWG veterans) saying that the game will suck because of <insert your favorite unsubstantiated evidence>.
If the SWG veterans would stop whining, this debate would likely not be hapenning.
Where exactly are the 3 zones of Coruscant shown? Not on TOR's website for sure. I'm tired of linking to people the same stuff over and over again. Seek the info for yourselves. Check one of the E3 reports where testers walked for just under 1 hour on a starting planet (the smaller ones) in order to explore it. No loading screens, just a continuous world. Also, check James Ohlen (TOR's creative director) interview on Ten Tons Hammer speaking about TOR's worlds. Here is a quote: " Our game is very open. We’ve developed several worlds, and each of those worlds is wide open, huge worlds with many square kilometers and you’re able to explore those worlds any way you want, just like your standard MMOG"
Hopefully this game doesn't suck sounds like it going to do a lot a thing wrong but we will see...
Because people like you seem to not understand that TOR will have exploration and content wrapped up with a very indepth story.
Please, PLEASE read some information and not look at pictures. Been stated many times that TOR's planets are very large worlds and can be explored for hours.
There was one account when the first beta wave hit, that he wandered across korriban, and it took a very LONG time, and it was one of the smallest planets.
Sadly it looks like Bioware put space combat in as a last minute opps....Trying to make everyone happy. I for one am tired of MMO's trying to doing everything all at once. On the other hand say if they started off with say ground story and then later added in space combat but did it right most folks would go along with that. Well we can only wait and see, I for once wont run out and buy this the first day and will wait until folks try it out and i see some full game reviews. I will no long play games that promise everything and give nothing but hype.
I'm begining to think Daniel Erickson will say anything to justify himself
Now, I;m not one to really refer to "alignments" cause that whole alignment system from D&D was always unclear and people always interpreted things wrong... However Han Solo comes up VERY often in terms of defining an alignment combo, even in Wikipedia where they make him a paragon of neutrality (at the start of A New Hope).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaotic_neutral#Neutral
This is the first time ever that I hear someone talking about Han Solo as evil and I just don't buy it.
Eh, he was running drugs. That's what spice is (highly addictive). That said he wasn't full-on dark, but he certainly didn't want to go much out of his way to help anyone. He had to get talked into it by Chewie, Luke, and others. I'd say he was on the darker side of grey though (and one could call that Dark Side if you wanted). If you consider anything south of neutral to be dark, then the works.
Of course, for purposes of Erickson he was only really making the point Han wasn't on board with doing Light Side stuff. He didn't want to help the helpless. He didn't want to be a hero. He wanted to go a different way than the rest of the party. The fact that Han didn't fit in at first and slowly changed to fit in was Erickson's main point regarding group dynamics.
This is just my personal opinion m8.. knew the /&¤& who ruined that for those of us who loved SWG. Tought me to check whos making a game before i even buy it now
As for this article it sounds like its a solo game (plus minus 1-3 groupmembers now and then) online.
My hopes and dreams for this game is shattered or fractured at least cuz what i hoped for... i still havnt found in any news or articles yet
Most important i'm hoping for endgame, which is a killer in most other MMO's out there.
WoW had 40 man raids (painfull wait but awesome none the less)
SWG pre CU had an openworld and spaceflight PvP and actual flight sim-like (now ruined game but you lived the saga)
Aion has 100s-1000s of people in PvP sieges (laggy but spectacular)
As another replied "who follows stories in an MMO".. RPG heads i guess but honestly.. make a poll out of it and lets see how much it really matters if an MMO has a story, good combat system and open world PvP.
I've only seen "Mass Effect with a friend and a lightsaber" - awesome game + awesome weapon = sweet
I was hoping for a new SWG ..only better
No offence, but from the moment I heard it was BioWare making this MMO in 2008, I knew it wouldn't be anything like SWG at all.
As for being an MMO: it has open world, group content, raids, pvp and so forth; what instancing there is, is mostly seamless.
If this isn't an MMO, 90% of all games listed here aren't.
I'll rephrase .."I was hoping for a good heir" to the SW genre
" it has open world, group content, raids, pvp and so forth"
Where did you find this information? I thought i followed every single article, newsrelease for the past year :(
As for my dissapointment, for me it just sounds like its leaning towards a RPGworld
My definition of MMORPG in plain words is, when YOU "tell" the story, live the game and became a legend (like us old grumphy SWG vets did XD)
We didnt just go to a vendor, recieve a reward or looted a drop, we visited a player mall or 10. Went browsing the stores for our gear.
We didnt stand in a qeue to go to a battleground, we went to war seeking out our enemies. We didnt fly in some tube, we rallied our armada and flew together like in the movies ya know.. wingmen in a chaos of lasers and missiles all around you XD
And at the end of the day we went to our home, dropping off our trophys, maybe went fishing by the stream to get some fish for the chef to cook so we could get some foodbuffs for tomorrows battle. Maybe hang out with the cute girl who loves decorating peoples houses.
Oh and the one thing above it all that made "me" so special... there was only one "me".. could only make ONE character but i could learn everything!
Now it's all gone so please tell me I'm alloved to be grumphy and hope for a better heir so I can be "me" again ^^
I love all this petty squabling over a game that doesnt even have a Pre-Order set up for GameStop(how do i know this cause i asked the Manager at the GameStop I do all of my pre-orders for) Sheesh give it a rest. The reason I like how BioWare is spinning TOR is because of all the games they have made they released the info the same way and every game they have out has won top awards. BioWare can release info how ever they want cause they know will follow it on baited breath either in spite or in love.
Good grief! PLEASE stop quoting entire messages in replies
Looks awful
Really? Pre orders been available in the UK for months
See http://bit.ly/9rkJjT
SW TOR like others have stated are only releasing info they for sure have locked in the game. How many times in the past have MMOs come right out at the start we will have this this this and this but only deliver on maybe half at best when they launch. Frankly I would have only wanted to hear about what was already for sure in the game not what was planned to be in the game. Bioware is going the path so many of us wished the older MMOs would have and only release what they have, but you can't satifiy everyone. You will always have someone saying they need to release more so that they can make an informed choice about the game. Well here are some facts for you, 1 the game is not out yet. 2 you have 8 or more months yet for the release, they can release as much or as little info as they want. 3 its a game with a huge push on the storyline, releasing so much info could hurt they storyline and kill the game for people who actually like that aspect of an MMO. Believe it or not there are those of us who read through the quests the first time we play through an MMO because we want to get invovled in the game. However, what happens so often is the story in the MMO means crap and its all about the end game raid content. I for one hope the story drives you to locations and items and not the items driving you to a location. 4 GW2 and SW TOR are not being release by the same company, stop compairing the 2 on how info is release they are not the same. Each are allowed to release as much or as little game info as they wish. Heck both could release almost nothing about the game if they so chose to do so and people would still buy each game. In the end its not really about the info that is release but how the game is for each player. If it is fun then they will tell their friends to go pick it up and play it, if it sucks then they will tell their friends to avoid it.
Well, that's surprising since this game isn't even scheduled to come out until next year.
The stuff about player decisions not effecting the world and the whole space combat things really sucks. It sounds way too carebear for my liking.
well said! i feel the same and i'm afraid we will be waiting a long time for a better heir to swg. im not trying to take down TOR it may end up being a fine game in the end. but the more i read the more i dont think its the game for me. i only hope this doesnt mean we cant see another star wars mmorpg anytime soon. i really want to play in the universe of the movies.
I know a lot of people are moaning about the fact that space combat is going to be tunnel esque and that they want a sandboxy feel. However this is the first MMO of its kind where story is more important than anything else. With that said I say everyone should calm down and give it a shot, for all we know the next big phase in MMOs will be story dirven, which in the end is what makes a good sandbox a good game period, when players build content that others enjoy... well what happens when the devs do all the hard work for us, whabam! We could very well be seeing our socks blown off in the near future. My only consern for TOR is endgame content, where will that go?
I agree with ya and i AM curious how its gunna be. The story they told with Mass Effects I & II was awesome and set a new standart to the genre. Loved the roaming mixed with a story driven plot, gotta add a BUT.. it can still only take a game so far as to the end credits and MMOs are more than that.
For me personally its allright to grind rats and zombies all the way to level 50 or 80 whatever as long as theres a world to explore and an awesome endgame. Every single MMO out there gets stuck in endgame and thats where all the developers fail. WoW was/is a success cuz theres constantly added new endgame content, drops changed, badges added etc. Allways something new to do when you hit endgame.
Couldnt careless about a story except for the 1st time i see it.. its the time after the credits that counts.. if that makes any sense
The only thing I expect from TOR is a singeplayer/group advanture called story, once its finished, there wont be much replay value (as it seems; WoW-style gameplay with some nice singleplayer and space arcade machine...). As for story I hope there will be something more interesting than that of ME (alpha male being all alpha saves the gay world and screws with crew members, one of them looking like a Michael Jackson (his music is one of the best, but giving him boobs and some plastics = not sexy)), maybe more of kotor, less ME and NWN.
Quoting for fun.
A few things I like. It seems like the know what they want their gaming experience to be. They don't seem like they are rushing, and it doesn't seem like they are trying to say things they are not.
A few questions
End Game? Will there be one? Is the point of the game more or less to journey through each class to see the storyline? This may appeal to some players...but to quite a few who like to not read and rush to the highest possible level...this might not go over.
I enjoy EVE...because I can do whatever I want to do...I like the company...and I have the potential to do some cool things in that game. EvE is nothing like STWOR...however, I will still get it and check it out when it comes out.
http://www.darthhater.com
Ok, so it's not exactly a hater site, but it says hater, so that must count for something. Plus, they specifically focus on SW:TOR. CHEERS!