"...deliver that authentic Star Wars experience first"
I think that is one of the great division amongst potential players. People who want to play in the Star Wars universe, and people who want to play in a Star Wars movie, eh?
Its not a question of right or wrong, but of preference. That being said, my preference is to be in the universe, not the movie and a lot of what has been presented so far has been discouraging.
The idea of MY char (in an MMO especially where its supposed to be MY char, not merely the sole protagonist in a standalone rpg that I happen to be in control of) is voice acted seems off-putting, with how I approach MMO's. Still we'll see. Hope there is a free trial after this game launches.
"...deliver that authentic Star Wars experience first" I think that is one of the great division amongst potential players. People who want to play in the Star Wars universe, and people who want to play in a Star Wars movie, eh? Its not a question of right or wrong, but of preference. ...
I disagree.
It is a matter of right and wrong - from a design perspective.
If you want a game where players get to take part in a movie experience then you really don't want other players screwing that up.
Also, as I said, movies tell a story. Stories have an end (usually with a hero) in the Star Wars case.
And for that - the correct format is a single player game.
If you then wanted to tack on some multi-player arenas (available on line) then no reason why not.
But- that does not make it an MMORPG.
OTOH if you want a universe where players 'live' and interact - perhaps even shaping that universe - then the correct format is an MMO. You can include some stories within that - but if the stories is all that there is then it is not an MMO.
What I wonder is if MMORPG.com gets a better look and finds that the game really is just an instanced story line will they have the balls to pull it from the game list?
Ty for the Hands On Dana! good info. Too bad people are jumping the gun and doom and glooming the game 1 year b4 release.
(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH raises plunger in salute to Dana Massey!)
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care. Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
I will be more than happy to go through the story arc, if I can still go out and explore freely as well. I want to fly around in the world and see others doing the same. I want to find a spot and kill mobs and see what they have, look for hidden loot, etc...
The explorer in me wants a free universe without invisible walls and tiny zones. If I want to walk off a cliff and fall to my death, then I should be allowed. And if I want to roam the planet "looking for trouble" then I should be allowed to do that too.
If they give me that, I will be happy to put up with long dialogues and contrived story plots.
For the love of god I hope they dont kill us with the cut scenes and voice acting every 1 mins, I swera in Dragon age, im finding my self saying "ffs STFU ALREADY, I WANT TO PLAY". Bioware this sint a singleplayer game damit, where u can keep stopping players 24/7. Ive nerv really been a fan of voice acting or cutscenes in games, other than the occasional one for a special event or something.
If it annoys you in Dragon Age, I'd imagine it will annoy you in Star Wars. From the very small chunk I played, it seemed about the same, with the only difference being you got to watch your guy talk too.
Omg thank you for being honest about this Dana. I agree with this poster because I stopped playing DA:Origins for this reason. I love a good story but seriously, STFU already. My head starts spinning trying to listen to the mass amount of crap coming from the NPC's in DA. Not too excited if this is the same formula in SW:TOR. I'm concerned that they will front end load the game witha ton of story and skimp on the things that I truely enjoy about MMO's. Oh well, they're not making the game for me.
"...deliver that authentic Star Wars experience first" I think that is one of the great division amongst potential players. People who want to play in the Star Wars universe, and people who want to play in a Star Wars movie, eh? Its not a question of right or wrong, but of preference. That being said, my preference is to be in the universe, not the movie and a lot of what has been presented so far has been discouraging. The idea of MY char (in an MMO especially where its supposed to be MY char, not merely the sole protagonist in a standalone rpg that I happen to be in control of) is voice acted seems off-putting, with how I approach MMO's. Still we'll see. Hope there is a free trial after this game launches.
Can I be honest, the I idea that I could create a character and actually 'live' in the SW universe is what excited me about SWG back in the day. This also lead me to go buy a new computer and Star Wars Galaxies together and launched my time in MMO's. I can remember getting goose bumps (yeah, I'm that kind of nerd) when I heard the SW theme the first time I booted up SWG. For all the game's faults, they did let me live and carve my niche in the SW universe. Then came the "iconic" rhetoric out of SOE and the game went south for me from there. I understand that the structure, cannon, etc. all comes from the same source but man the idea of being able to actually live in that universe is what I always wanted when I was a kid watching the movies.
Sadly, I hear the same "iconic" rhetoric from Bioware and I start getting bummed. Lets say they provide me with the framework to be an actual smuggler. They set down the skills, create the items to be smuggled and the smuggling dynamics etc. and then let me go to work. From there my story and my "renown" as a character is up to me. Same with Jedi etc. I don't want to be told my story, I want to write it myself. *sigh* As I've said in other posts, it's SW and I'm going to play it but I'm not really as excited as I'd hoped I'd be.
... They showed us Xalek, a melee character like Darth Maul, who can dive in and keep the enemies busy hand-to-hand while your Inquisitor sits back and deals damage. ...
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
They showed us Xalek, a melee character like Darth Maul, who can dive in and keep the enemies busy hand-to-hand while your Inquisitor sits back and deals damage.
...
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
Dana Massey Formerly of MMORPG.com Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
Did Bioware say if you could use companions while grouped?
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
Did Bioware say if you could use companions while grouped?
Given you can bring other people into your story missions, I would infer that you can, but I don't know about that for sure to be honest.
Dana Massey Formerly of MMORPG.com Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Originally posted by Dana Originally posted by apocalance ... They showed us Xalek, a melee character like Darth Maul, who can dive in and keep the enemies busy hand-to-hand while your Inquisitor sits back and deals damage. ...
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
I must apologize. I didn't read that correctly. I was thinking Xalek was a character player, not your pet. A pet keeping something busy is fine and expected. Again, my mistake.
Great article and nice look further into the details of this game. I am currently playing LotRO but I have a feeling SW:TOR will become my MMO mainstay for a long time. The only part of the article I disagreed with was where you discussed misgivings about the avatar voice acting. Frankly I feel absolutely the opposite of you Dana, in all RPG games where there is NPC voicing and no player character voicing I have felt this detracts from the roleplaying experience and lessens the immersion. I am psyched about the aspect of having full voice for one's player character...and not the cheesy anime gibberish vocalizations of Aion. But to each their own I guess, but I will be loving the avatar voicing. Thanks for the peak into the workings of SW:TOR I cannot wait for it to be released (but I will have to like everyone else hehe).
Well, nice to know it's really going to be exactly what I said it would be from the start: KotOR 3 with a multiplayer option.
Which works out very well, as I'll just wait 'til the price on the box drops, buy it cheap, play the game just like I would any other singleplayer rpg, beat the game ( get to end level ), and stuff it on a shelf with the rest of my Bioware singleplayer rpgs. Then every 6 months or so, when they've added more content, I'll pay a months sub while calling it an expansion pack, play that content and put it back on the shelf.
All told, bioware might end up making a sum total of three or 4 months "sub" from me over a 3-4 year span.
And the bonus is all the really lifelike NPCs ( these would be you guys ).
lol
They can call it what they want, but this is no more an mmo than Hellgate: London or Diablo.
Has anyone heard whether or not droids are going to be an option for NPC companions?
>
I haven't heard anything...but given that Bioware is not made up of idiots, it seems pretty obvious that this will be an option imho.
Pretty right with the movies too. Artoo was Luke's companion in this sort of a system. I guess Threepio was Leia's and Chewbacca (not a droid) was Han's. Of course, in the game the droids will probably have more combat capability than in the movies.
Dana got say u hit the Nail on the Head. Everything u said is right on the money for me and prolly more then half the ppl i know. I want to be the person not watch some movie. I love cutscane's and movie action But I want to vision my voice talkig back not joe Blow. Hopefully they will have a option to have your person not talk or a Ton of voice's so I can get one that sound's like me not Rough if I'm a bounty hunter or Soft if I'm a Smuggler. At the same rate this scare's me if u are talking back F*** what do u think about Race choice none because a Make your own race like STO is what they need and is alot of unknown pass the outter rim where the sith our coming from but with them talking u can have the same voice fore a Bothen as a Cather WTF.I love KoToR and will play it for 10+ years hell I still find myself going back and plaing KoToR 1&2 every year if not 2 time's through a year one for each side hehe some time given love sometime tell them screw off. lol But if u talk to them again ahhh through in your thott's I know I will go to the fourm and throw my thott's on. I forgot about thes e issue's :-P
Yes and as for all you ppl jumping the gun. I'm sure Dana didn't play in a lv 20 area where there is group quest and PvP area's. Your not going to have a spot where u go into a cutscane in middle of a group mission or a PvP area. It is like other MMO's u get to the end of a instance u kill a boss he might say a few thing's u find something on him to take back hand in. So because Dana was in a starter area or a solo quest maybe even u think the whole game is going to be that. While this is just crazy thinking or u are a troll.
Demonstrating the ways TOR is going to be like everyone else seems counter-productive to the "branding" campaign they're running. They're trying to demonstrate "How we're not like WoW et al."
If you can blow through 80% of the content in a single month, it's a good thing the first month in most MMOs is free with the purchase of the Game Client CD. Who says you have to subscribe to a MMO for more than a month if you feel like there's nothing else to do in it? If they add new content later, get a 30-day time card and play that as it comes out.
I think a lot of what keeps people playing an MMO persistantly is the grouping and meeting other people. Sure, you may have done this group quest/raid/dungeon/whatever several times already but now you're doing it with friends, family, random people in-game that you don't find obnoxious. There are some people who do it for the sake of the grind, but once you hit that perfect build what's the point in continuing to playing the same character?
Things I see them doing right so far:
Class-based story arcs to prevent mindless grinding through the same content
Classes not strictly tied to traditional roles.
Using Pets to fill possible gaps in party composition.
Here's a question I have for the MMO staff: How much of a selection is there in your own character's voice? I could see how two bounty hunters teaming up for the same Flashpoint might be a little strange if they had the same voice yet looked different. Even using a Dragon Age-style character generation system, having a choice of 6 different voices per gender could be problematic.
If you can blow through 80% of the content in a single month, it's a good thing the first month in most MMOs is free with the purchase of the Game Client CD.
K with 8 Classes and each one having a story and diff mission's for each story and then of corse 2-6 differt compan's with there own story it really isn't logical to say that in a (Free) month u can Fisih this game the replay value is Huge for this game. But HOPEFULLY THE SINGLE TOON PLAY VALUE IS THERE ( GREAT CRAFTING SYSTEM, HOUSING, AND OF CORSE SPEACAL HOUSING ITEM'S)
Has anyone heard whether or not droids are going to be an option for NPC companions?
>
I haven't heard anything...but given that Bioware is not made up of idiots, it seems pretty obvious that this will be an option imho.
Pretty right with the movies too. Artoo was Luke's companion in this sort of a system. I guess Threepio was Leia's and Chewbacca (not a droid) was Han's. Of course, in the game the droids will probably have more combat capability than in the movies.
They said one of the classes has a unique droid companion. They never told us which class, they just hinted at it saying it was shown in a older video, the class was pointing to his droid.
I don't relish this game on account of Bioware's (over) use of cutscenes either. They should seriously consider marketing their products as interactive stories with combat minigames.
Good, point, I just wish there was a name for interactive stories with combat minigames... oh wait a sec, I think there is! They're called "Role Playing Games".
Oh crap, you're right. Now my once favourite genre is looking less like a myriad blend of complex game systems and more like two disparate systems awkwardly glued together, like the "camera-phone" of Flight of the Conchords.
Later all, I'm off to immerse myself in Bejeweled.
Ok thanks for the really good preview, it was well balanced both looking at the good and not yet so good.
I guess the story part is what sets TOR apart, and you can like it or not. I am liking the idea, and it sure is something quite new and different, so I am much looking forward to it. To the soloing ability: I guess there is no real alternative to making everything soloable in the main story quests, when you want to make a new MMO. More and more MMO gamers are not as involved in guilds and steady groups of friends as they used to be, and that makes complex interwoven questlines which need grouping quite daunting to make, for a gamer. Now sure you can say, heck, they should not play MMOs, but ultimately when you want to make a new MMO you have to aim for more than just "we make it like all 300 existing MMOs".
I had that problem quite often in my later EQ2 days, that it was nigh to impossible to find people for your quests, when you had not that regular, scheduled gameplay in some guilds, but just wanted to log in and just "have some fun with something". That change of gamers is why LOTRO Book quests are soon made soloable. You CAN group, but you CAN solo as well, and as much as I do miss the glorious days of SWG in my big, organized guild when MMO gaming was a life to me, I understand it can't be for everyone like that these days.
So right away: if you don't like story and if you prefer sandbox, that is wonderful with me, BUT: please save us months and years of whine and hate threads, realize SWTOR is not for you and leave us in peace. Sorry if that sounds blunt, but it would bring just grief to all sides, if you fail to just accept that.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Looks great!! I hope Bioware pulls it off for the Star Wars fans. Personally I'll be watching from the sidelines because I have no interest in a star wars MMO. LOTRO turned me off of MMOs based on books or movies sadly.
Comments
"...deliver that authentic Star Wars experience first"
I think that is one of the great division amongst potential players. People who want to play in the Star Wars universe, and people who want to play in a Star Wars movie, eh?
Its not a question of right or wrong, but of preference. That being said, my preference is to be in the universe, not the movie and a lot of what has been presented so far has been discouraging.
The idea of MY char (in an MMO especially where its supposed to be MY char, not merely the sole protagonist in a standalone rpg that I happen to be in control of) is voice acted seems off-putting, with how I approach MMO's. Still we'll see. Hope there is a free trial after this game launches.
I disagree.
It is a matter of right and wrong - from a design perspective.
If you want a game where players get to take part in a movie experience then you really don't want other players screwing that up.
Also, as I said, movies tell a story. Stories have an end (usually with a hero) in the Star Wars case.
And for that - the correct format is a single player game.
If you then wanted to tack on some multi-player arenas (available on line) then no reason why not.
But- that does not make it an MMORPG.
OTOH if you want a universe where players 'live' and interact - perhaps even shaping that universe - then the correct format is an MMO. You can include some stories within that - but if the stories is all that there is then it is not an MMO.
What I wonder is if MMORPG.com gets a better look and finds that the game really is just an instanced story line will they have the balls to pull it from the game list?
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Far as i know you can do the single player arcs with other people. Still failing to see why others are claiming it to be a single player MMO.
Ty for the Hands On Dana! good info. Too bad people are jumping the gun and doom and glooming the game 1 year b4 release.
(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH raises plunger in salute to Dana Massey!)
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care.
Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
I will be more than happy to go through the story arc, if I can still go out and explore freely as well. I want to fly around in the world and see others doing the same. I want to find a spot and kill mobs and see what they have, look for hidden loot, etc...
The explorer in me wants a free universe without invisible walls and tiny zones. If I want to walk off a cliff and fall to my death, then I should be allowed. And if I want to roam the planet "looking for trouble" then I should be allowed to do that too.
If they give me that, I will be happy to put up with long dialogues and contrived story plots.
If it annoys you in Dragon Age, I'd imagine it will annoy you in Star Wars. From the very small chunk I played, it seemed about the same, with the only difference being you got to watch your guy talk too.
Omg thank you for being honest about this Dana. I agree with this poster because I stopped playing DA:Origins for this reason. I love a good story but seriously, STFU already. My head starts spinning trying to listen to the mass amount of crap coming from the NPC's in DA. Not too excited if this is the same formula in SW:TOR. I'm concerned that they will front end load the game witha ton of story and skimp on the things that I truely enjoy about MMO's. Oh well, they're not making the game for me.
Can I be honest, the I idea that I could create a character and actually 'live' in the SW universe is what excited me about SWG back in the day. This also lead me to go buy a new computer and Star Wars Galaxies together and launched my time in MMO's. I can remember getting goose bumps (yeah, I'm that kind of nerd) when I heard the SW theme the first time I booted up SWG. For all the game's faults, they did let me live and carve my niche in the SW universe. Then came the "iconic" rhetoric out of SOE and the game went south for me from there. I understand that the structure, cannon, etc. all comes from the same source but man the idea of being able to actually live in that universe is what I always wanted when I was a kid watching the movies.
Sadly, I hear the same "iconic" rhetoric from Bioware and I start getting bummed. Lets say they provide me with the framework to be an actual smuggler. They set down the skills, create the items to be smuggled and the smuggling dynamics etc. and then let me go to work. From there my story and my "renown" as a character is up to me. Same with Jedi etc. I don't want to be told my story, I want to write it myself. *sigh* As I've said in other posts, it's SW and I'm going to play it but I'm not really as excited as I'd hoped I'd be.
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
so...
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Did Bioware say if you could use companions while grouped?
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Did Bioware say if you could use companions while grouped?
Given you can bring other people into your story missions, I would infer that you can, but I don't know about that for sure to be honest.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Hopefully this is grossly inaccurate. I'd like to think my Jedi Knight can do more than keep something busy.
Well I was simplifying. The point is there are companions who balance out your class when soloing. So if you want to spec to be a ranged only Jedi Inquisitor (assuming that's possible), Xalek will help you out.
I must apologize. I didn't read that correctly. I was thinking Xalek was a character player, not your pet. A pet keeping something busy is fine and expected. Again, my mistake.
so...
Great article and nice look further into the details of this game. I am currently playing LotRO but I have a feeling SW:TOR will become my MMO mainstay for a long time. The only part of the article I disagreed with was where you discussed misgivings about the avatar voice acting. Frankly I feel absolutely the opposite of you Dana, in all RPG games where there is NPC voicing and no player character voicing I have felt this detracts from the roleplaying experience and lessens the immersion. I am psyched about the aspect of having full voice for one's player character...and not the cheesy anime gibberish vocalizations of Aion. But to each their own I guess, but I will be loving the avatar voicing. Thanks for the peak into the workings of SW:TOR I cannot wait for it to be released (but I will have to like everyone else hehe).
Has anyone heard whether or not droids are going to be an option for NPC companions?
>
Well, nice to know it's really going to be exactly what I said it would be from the start: KotOR 3 with a multiplayer option.
Which works out very well, as I'll just wait 'til the price on the box drops, buy it cheap, play the game just like I would any other singleplayer rpg, beat the game ( get to end level ), and stuff it on a shelf with the rest of my Bioware singleplayer rpgs. Then every 6 months or so, when they've added more content, I'll pay a months sub while calling it an expansion pack, play that content and put it back on the shelf.
All told, bioware might end up making a sum total of three or 4 months "sub" from me over a 3-4 year span.
And the bonus is all the really lifelike NPCs ( these would be you guys ).
lol
They can call it what they want, but this is no more an mmo than Hellgate: London or Diablo.
I haven't heard anything...but given that Bioware is not made up of idiots, it seems pretty obvious that this will be an option imho.
Pretty right with the movies too. Artoo was Luke's companion in this sort of a system. I guess Threepio was Leia's and Chewbacca (not a droid) was Han's. Of course, in the game the droids will probably have more combat capability than in the movies.
Dana got say u hit the Nail on the Head. Everything u said is right on the money for me and prolly more then half the ppl i know. I want to be the person not watch some movie. I love cutscane's and movie action But I want to vision my voice talkig back not joe Blow. Hopefully they will have a option to have your person not talk or a Ton of voice's so I can get one that sound's like me not Rough if I'm a bounty hunter or Soft if I'm a Smuggler. At the same rate this scare's me if u are talking back F*** what do u think about Race choice none because a Make your own race like STO is what they need and is alot of unknown pass the outter rim where the sith our coming from but with them talking u can have the same voice fore a Bothen as a Cather WTF.I love KoToR and will play it for 10+ years hell I still find myself going back and plaing KoToR 1&2 every year if not 2 time's through a year one for each side hehe some time given love sometime tell them screw off. lol But if u talk to them again ahhh through in your thott's I know I will go to the fourm and throw my thott's on. I forgot about thes e issue's :-P
Yes and as for all you ppl jumping the gun. I'm sure Dana didn't play in a lv 20 area where there is group quest and PvP area's. Your not going to have a spot where u go into a cutscane in middle of a group mission or a PvP area. It is like other MMO's u get to the end of a instance u kill a boss he might say a few thing's u find something on him to take back hand in. So because Dana was in a starter area or a solo quest maybe even u think the whole game is going to be that. While this is just crazy thinking or u are a troll.
Demonstrating the ways TOR is going to be like everyone else seems counter-productive to the "branding" campaign they're running. They're trying to demonstrate "How we're not like WoW et al."
If you can blow through 80% of the content in a single month, it's a good thing the first month in most MMOs is free with the purchase of the Game Client CD. Who says you have to subscribe to a MMO for more than a month if you feel like there's nothing else to do in it? If they add new content later, get a 30-day time card and play that as it comes out.
I think a lot of what keeps people playing an MMO persistantly is the grouping and meeting other people. Sure, you may have done this group quest/raid/dungeon/whatever several times already but now you're doing it with friends, family, random people in-game that you don't find obnoxious. There are some people who do it for the sake of the grind, but once you hit that perfect build what's the point in continuing to playing the same character?
Things I see them doing right so far:
Class-based story arcs to prevent mindless grinding through the same content
Classes not strictly tied to traditional roles.
Using Pets to fill possible gaps in party composition.
Here's a question I have for the MMO staff: How much of a selection is there in your own character's voice? I could see how two bounty hunters teaming up for the same Flashpoint might be a little strange if they had the same voice yet looked different. Even using a Dragon Age-style character generation system, having a choice of 6 different voices per gender could be problematic.
If you can blow through 80% of the content in a single month, it's a good thing the first month in most MMOs is free with the purchase of the Game Client CD.
K with 8 Classes and each one having a story and diff mission's for each story and then of corse 2-6 differt compan's with there own story it really isn't logical to say that in a (Free) month u can Fisih this game the replay value is Huge for this game. But HOPEFULLY THE SINGLE TOON PLAY VALUE IS THERE ( GREAT CRAFTING SYSTEM, HOUSING, AND OF CORSE SPEACAL HOUSING ITEM'S)
I haven't heard anything...but given that Bioware is not made up of idiots, it seems pretty obvious that this will be an option imho.
Pretty right with the movies too. Artoo was Luke's companion in this sort of a system. I guess Threepio was Leia's and Chewbacca (not a droid) was Han's. Of course, in the game the droids will probably have more combat capability than in the movies.
They said one of the classes has a unique droid companion. They never told us which class, they just hinted at it saying it was shown in a older video, the class was pointing to his droid.
Oh crap, you're right. Now my once favourite genre is looking less like a myriad blend of complex game systems and more like two disparate systems awkwardly glued together, like the "camera-phone" of Flight of the Conchords.
Later all, I'm off to immerse myself in Bejeweled.
What the hell is wrong with the dude's arms? http://images.mmorpg.com/features/3794/images/3794_9.jpg
Ok thanks for the really good preview, it was well balanced both looking at the good and not yet so good.
I guess the story part is what sets TOR apart, and you can like it or not. I am liking the idea, and it sure is something quite new and different, so I am much looking forward to it. To the soloing ability: I guess there is no real alternative to making everything soloable in the main story quests, when you want to make a new MMO. More and more MMO gamers are not as involved in guilds and steady groups of friends as they used to be, and that makes complex interwoven questlines which need grouping quite daunting to make, for a gamer. Now sure you can say, heck, they should not play MMOs, but ultimately when you want to make a new MMO you have to aim for more than just "we make it like all 300 existing MMOs".
I had that problem quite often in my later EQ2 days, that it was nigh to impossible to find people for your quests, when you had not that regular, scheduled gameplay in some guilds, but just wanted to log in and just "have some fun with something". That change of gamers is why LOTRO Book quests are soon made soloable. You CAN group, but you CAN solo as well, and as much as I do miss the glorious days of SWG in my big, organized guild when MMO gaming was a life to me, I understand it can't be for everyone like that these days.
So right away: if you don't like story and if you prefer sandbox, that is wonderful with me, BUT: please save us months and years of whine and hate threads, realize SWTOR is not for you and leave us in peace. Sorry if that sounds blunt, but it would bring just grief to all sides, if you fail to just accept that.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Looks great!! I hope Bioware pulls it off for the Star Wars fans. Personally I'll be watching from the sidelines because I have no interest in a star wars MMO. LOTRO turned me off of MMOs based on books or movies sadly.
Can't wait to see how launch plays out!!
"I play Tera for the gameplay"