Topic: Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO

[Pugnate]

Everything I've seen makes this game look terrible. The character customization sucks, and the visuals/interface seem to be from a decade ago. Compared to Guild Wars 2, this game looks really DOA. If there is one thing that will save this title, it is the narrative, which Bioware are tremendous at. Let's see.

GW2 looks fantastic on the other hand.

[W7RE]

The character customization isn't that bad. It has all the same character creation options as WoW, but also has scars, eye color, body size, and complexion. (complexion has styles covering things like dusty face with goggle lines around the eyes, wrinkles, beard stubble, dark side corruption) The only real lacking thing is that there are no races that are distant from human looking. The most non-human race is Twi'leks.

The interface works about as well as WoW's default interface, which I've played with most of my time in WoW. (I've done high end arena and raid content in WoW with mostly default. I was suing mostly default when I got gladiator, and for every raid from Molten Core through Blackwing Descent/Bastion of Twilight.) It's not moddable, which means no gearscore, and no damage meter bragging/whoring.


Yes, Guild Wars 2 looks better in almost every way. But Guild Wars 2 is probably still at least 6 months away (if not longer). I like having an MMO to play, and refuse to go back to WoW again. Star Wars does just enough new things to feel fresh, and I'm hoping it will last me until GW2.

[Ghandi]

Bought it, cracked out on it for a month, got to 50 and geared up, got bored and quit.

The questing from 1-50 is fantastic, definitely the best MMO experience that I've ever had. It's essentially a Mass Effect style thrown into an MMO, and questing with friends was a blast. I found myself caring about the story, as opposed to, say, WoW where you didn't give two shits. The endgame content is pretty weak at the moment, though, and it's clear that Bioware is in a little over their heads.

[W7RE]

Bought it, cracked out on it for a month, got to 50 and geared up, got bored and quit.

The questing from 1-50 is fantastic, definitely the best MMO experience that I've ever had. It's essentially a Mass Effect style thrown into an MMO, and questing with friends was a blast. I found myself caring about the story, as opposed to, say, WoW where you didn't give two shits. The endgame content is pretty weak at the moment, though, and it's clear that Bioware is in a little over their heads.

I did the same. Actually I didn't even last the full month, only 2-3 weeks. The headstart was a week long, and I was 50 before the second week of playing. There was no incentive for any pvp other than battlegrounds, which didn't run very well (and caused massive ability delay). There was no one to run any pve instances with either. I really felt like I wasted a lot of time trying to slow down my leveling process, but I just really wanted to keep playing and see if my story was going to get better. I'm sure if there had been more people around my level and I could have run some instances it would have been better, but there were  just too many little issues that piled up and made me not want to continue for a second month.

Also, my class story was terrible. My class gear was also terrible. I was a jedi consular, so all the story was political stuff, and most of my gear looked like something queen amidala would wear.

[Xessive]

That's the main reason I don't really enjoy MMOs, I usually end up playing alone anyway. With the monthly subscription commitment in the picture I'm even further repelled. I understand the reason for the subscription fee (services, server maintenance, etc.) but it's just not for me since I'll be playing by myself.

God, I sound like a loner douchebag. I'm a team player but I have a hard time finding people to play MMOs with. By contrast playing multiplayer games like Battlefield everyone is compelled to play together. It might have to do with the pace of the games and the fact that rank/level is irrelevant (a skilled low-ranking player can actually take down a high-ranking player), it all boils down to player skill and.. well.. lag.

[W7RE]

I usually end up playing with people who chew through leveling content pretty fast, then consider max level content to be the main experience. So the only time level disparity is an issue is right when a new game/expansion hits or when you get someone new to come play.

With SWTOR, I just felt like the max level content wasn't there because all the development time was spent on the leveling portion.

It's cool, I've got a new MMO to obsess over until release, then level to the cap and quit: Tera Online. As with them all, I have high hopes and think this will be one to stick with for a while. I even found a guild to join and have been playing the beta with them.



EDIT: Tera only lasted me 2 weeks lol

[MysterD]

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO = Free Trial up to Level 15 now; more details here.

[MysterD]

SW:TOR (MMO) goes F2P this Fall - more details HERE.

[sirean_syan]

The news folks were expecting finally comes. With all the development time and costs, I wonder if the effort was really worth it. Maybe Bioware should have just made another single player RPG.

[Xessive]

Nice, I've been playing the "Free till level 15" so far, just reached level 13.

Meh, either way this is just to tide me off until Guild Wars 2 is out. That said, SWTOR is actually a petty decent game but it is clear that it was built with several time-consuming game mechanics in place.

[Pugnate]

The news folks were expecting finally comes. With all the development time and costs, I wonder if the effort was really worth it. Maybe Bioware should have just made another single player RPG.

Dragon Age 1's expansion, Dragon Age 2, and this. Bioware have fallen for various reasons. Some of the MMO's faults are excusable, but the rest is pure EA directed greed.

[MysterD]

RPGWatch -> RUMORS: The two lead doctors from BioWare Zeschuck and Muzyka might have left BioWare; BioWare Austin might become EA Austin.

If any of this is true...HOLY CRAP.

[Pugnate]

Holy shit. Holy shit. Well, they sold their souls to the devil. I am wondering how it feels to leave the company you built. Then again, at this moment, it is probably not the company they built and can identify with.

[Pugnate]

BioWare wanted everything to be a huge mass-market console title long before EA came along. It's funny how people retrofit reality; it's the BioDocs that first wanted big, AAA games and embraced consoles and the desire to make a WoW-killer MMO.

Fair enough from the comments. But even when they were doing console AAA games, they were doing quality titles.

From another user... also very very true:

IMO the biodocs have appeared to be in over their heads for quite some time. This is particularly true for Muzyka who was given the task of running multiple studios. (Consider, for example, how multiple times he has said the company was taken by surprise by various negative events — even though the number one rule of corporate management is "no surprises".)

It's actually quite common for entrepreneurs to build excellent start up companies and then find themselves incapable of managing the company. As it turns out, management skills that are needed to successfully run and grow a relatively large size enterprise, are quite different from entrepreneurial skills that are needed to build a company from scratch. It's rare for anyone to have both sets of skills (Bill Gates being a very notable exception to the rule). In the normal course of events the entrepreneurs simply can't make things work after a company reaches a certain size.

IMO the biodocs were good entrepreneurs and hands-on game directors. But managing large numbers of people in a large enterprise likely wasn't/isn't a good match for their skill sets, and probably didn't/doesn't "turn them on" in turns of personal satisfaction. Simply put, different people are blessed with different capabilities and are driven to accomplish different tasks.

[MysterD]

Holy shit. Holy shit. Well, they sold their souls to the devil. I am wondering how it feels to leave the company you built. Then again, at this moment, it is probably not the company they built and can identify with.

Granted, this is still a rumor, right now...until EA; any of the BioWare studios; or any of the BioWare doctors themselves do confirm this.
But given the disaster that SW:TOR was (in terms of supposedly how much has been spent to develop it) and how the subscriber-rates has dropped, it's probably likely this is true.

We'll have to wait and see, how it turns out.

But, man - so many studios (Westwood, Bullfrog, Origin Studios) and IP's (System Shock, Ultima) have gotten lost to EA...
It'd suck if again, another one's bitten the dust - BioWare Austin.
I also wonder - what's going to happen w/ BioWare Edmonton?

[MysterD]

GameSpot -> BioWare's founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have officially retired.

EDIT #1 -- 10-4-2012 -> GameBanshee -> Daniel Erickson (SW:TOR Lead Designer & Creative Director) has left BioWare.
EDIT #2 -- 10-7-2012 -> GameTrailers -> Michael Pachter discusses The Doctors leaving BioWare & the closing of Pandemic.

[MysterD]

PC Gamer -> SW:TOR goes F2P today.

[W7RE]

I could see this game doing alright as F2P, except I hate the model they're using. They went with the setup where your account is hobbled unless you pay for the monthly sub. If I decided I wanted to get the most out of the game, instead of periodic micro transactions, it's back to the $15/month thing again.

[MysterD]

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO -- Get 2 expansions for free!
1. Info on getting 2 Expansions for free on SW:TOR MMO - https://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20181018
2. Expansions offered for free are Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Revan's Shadow.
3. Sign up for F2P game [if you haven't] over here - https://account.swtor.com/user/login?destination=redeem-code
4. Redeem code REVANSFATE over here before Nov. 1 - http://www.swtor.com/redeem-code
5. Download the file, save it, run it & install the game from this link over here - http://www.swtor.com/game/download