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What's the "bottom line" on TOR, based on all the expressed tester opinions?
CazNeerg
Member Posts: 2,198
From what I've seen, here, on the TOR forums, and elsewhere across the internet, it seems pretty clear how things are shaping up. Almost all of the negative opinions about the game focus on things which are either true of almost all themeparks, or of almost all BioWare games. When you remove those elements from the list, and look at what negative feedback is still present, there just isn't very much left.
So what is the logical conclusion? I would say it is that if you enjoy themepark MMOs, enjoy BioWare games, and aren't emotionally invested in any MMO that isn't WoW failing, you are probably going to enjoy TOR. If you don't enjoy themeparks or don't enjoy BioWare games, you're probably not going to like it, but I don't think you are going to find many rational arguments for TOR not being a very high quality example of both of those types of game.
Not being a type of game you like =/= being a bad specimen of that type of game.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Comments
i think there are flaws/negatives with Swtor that are not themepark QQ.
there are several issues that suggest that the game is shabby in general. things that point to poor coding, or poor planning, or lack luster game aesthetics. jerky animations, stuttery rail transit, ameteur UI graphics ...things that might be lumped under half assed execution/polish
there's also the more ephemeral gripes about only 4 classes/mirrored classes. and limited races and extremely poor char gen. things like this. that tend to make people feel no real effort was made to make the game exemplary ... that it's a GED game as opposed to a AAA mmo
that being said. some of these are mitigated by it being a Beta still. and in that many of the glitchy things can and will be patched out hopefully in the first 6 mo type of deal every mmo does.
then again. for the hype of this game. the franchise. of star wars and pedigree of BIoware ... it's shaping up to be a weak debut from 2 AAA names.
That is so ridiculous. If u actually pay attention to the pol done or any of the non hater threads which outnumber the postiive ones here 10-1 due to every hater posting 100 posts to rant about he same thing under 55 or more names they created just to bash tor.
truth is 90 pct of peole loved tor. The fact is tor has some minor flaws that arent game breaking . Character creation is the worst part of this game.
It is the lack of body types is just weird but isnt a big deal as far as game play.
The rest of the whines are all subjective. There are no game breaking bugs in fact i had very few if any issues while playing it
the people whining about graphics are the same ones who dont like stylized graphics. so graphics complaints have more to do with taste then an issue with tor.
Truth is if u asked fans to rate the fun factor while playign tor 85 pct or more would rate it an 8-9 in fun factor . Thats just the facdt this game is a fun enjoyable themepark ride that has great story and some cool featuers like companions that make questing feel li9k less of a grind
If u cut out all the bs this is the bottom line for tor.
Some of those are fair, but I would question whether any of them are substantial. There are people who care passionately about character creation options, including species selection, but it seems fairly obvious that it isn't a core issue for most MMO gamers. WoW has had worse character creation and customization than almost every other MMO for years, and is still by far the most successful. And game critics don't seem to place any importance on the issue, look at the score for Rift. On Metacritic it's listed as having 56 positive reviews, 3 mixed, and 0 negative, and it's character creation and racial selection at launch was *far* more limited than TOR's.
As for the technical issues you mention, I didn't notice a single one of them when I was in the last couple weekends of beta. The only technical issues I had were disappearing recipe details in the crafting windows, and getting stuck in place on Taris. Relative to other MMO betas, including Rift's, I found it to be by far the least noticeably buggy and most polished there has ever been.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Only in reference to the title, some like it and some don't... There is no one universal opinion.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This game is in better shape at this stage of its life than any other MMO I have ever seen as far as polish goes. They are usually much worse than this.
I love when people who don't know what they are talking about say a game has "poor coding." Most of the time you don't even know what that means, and trust me, Bioware knows how to write code.
As far as the polish of the game, this game has come leaps and bounds in the past six months. It really has been amazing to watch, most companies would not have been able to accomplish what Bioware did in that time. I have no doubt that very soon all of those issues you experienced will be long gone.
The character creator is kind of lame, but you are lying when you say there are only 4 classes. There are 8 Advanced classes and they all play totally differently. A consular shadow is a huge difference from a consular sage. As far as teh races and the customization, that definitely needs work, but for many people that is a fairly minor issue.
If by "weak debut" you mean the largest mmo launch ever, then yeah that sounds pretty weak.
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Bottom line? They're going to make a bajillion dollars from this title.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Yes, thats why we find polls are survers where 97% of the tester think that the game is great. is a poll with 32000 votes so far, and the number didnt change is still 97%.
I have noticed the TOR fanbase who are determined to like the game no matter what run opinion polls like Fox news runs reality peices. Of course 90 percent of people who are dedicated TOR fans are going to approve of the game 90 percent of the time. Or as you call them the ordained non hater threads omg. Anyone here can simply go on Youtube and check out the TOR beta for themselves and see if they like how it looks. Personally the game feels empty and horribly slow to me. You know how you try out one of those Asian Grinders out of boredom, only the realize there is nothing more to do than simply kill angry mushroom monsters for the rest of your natural life, and the only clothing is funny looking short shorts with dragon helmets. I get that same empty feeling from TOR. That they oversimplified it and made it an organic Themepark to such an extent that there is nothing mysterious or engrossing about the game. Games that do this usually have some specialty to fall back on, like PVP or heavy PVE orientation, I certainly wasn't impressed with the PVP, and the pve is nothing to write home about. So I am really trying to understand Past being a Star Wars mmo what the big deal is supposed to be.
Oops, I forgot to respond to the OP.
As far as I can tell, most people love it. A lot of people don't like it, especially around these forums.
The biggest complaints seem to be from people who are burned out on the themepark genre.
Most people that love the game think it is a welcome evolution of the genre and that the game is extremely immersive and fun.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
I don't agree with this statement at all. Many of us had the experience that the gameplay and general world design was put second to the VO content. I think the VO stuff is neat, but then when they end and I'm back out questing, it just feels dry and uninspiring. I've seen many, many people post this opinion here, so just trying to reduce it to a themepark vs sandbox argument doesn't cover it. If the game being a "Bioware game" means that gameplay suffers in favor of story elements and world design, then maybe that's the key. I don't know.
I play both types of games, and while I do often pine for something more along the lines of a hybrid of the two types, that doesn't mean I hate themeparks. I loved LOTRO until I was done with it, and I had a good time in WoW ages ago. I'm very much looking forward to GW2 which is a themepark.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Anyone you'd ask on this forum is just going to show you their agenda.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
if u take the pulse of those in beta and i did most of them loved tor thats not just a fanboi comment
I know what tor has for issues they are minor and not game breaking. I actually played teh beta
I had not one tech issue in the entier 2 weekends i playd it except for the one quest i got stuck behind the phased thing and oculdnt move but just quick traveled my way out of it.
Im just telling u that the people in beta were head a shoulders more positive then negative. The guys who tired to flame chat where told to go back to wow or rift or to leave and wait for gw2
they didnt get a bunch of people joining in or any of that. Say what u will and u will as all ahters do the single player game lie to other crap to big a list to name them all
But the people who have played tor were ravign about it u dont have to like that fact but its true and i dont care how much u hate it in the end tor willd o great because the players playing it gasp had fun
Yea having fun means more then anything else in an mmo and no matter what u say about tor its a very fun engaging game and thats hwy it will keep more subs then peope expect , its why im right when i say the players in beta loved it
Im also right there are no game breaking bugs that make u quit playing. dont like tor thats fine u dont have to like it i dont care if u do or not but most people who have played tor loved it and had alot of fun thats a fact not some made up crap
Unlke the stuff haters post 99 pct of the time.
"It's (too much) like other games and the voice acting is good (enough)."
Words in (parentheses) optional.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Bottom line is, there is already a poll on this same topic. It suggests that most people here on these forums give it a strong 8 to 9 out of 10 rating. Is the game perfect, nope. No game will ever be perfect for everyone and that holds true for TOR.
You have to ask yourself. Do you find any value in the game and for you is it fun, the answer will either be, yes or no.
That's actually what I expected from TOR as that's what I always expect from Bioware. Take away the story presentation they offer, most of their games would be mediocre. They stick to tried and true mechanics in all of their titles, and most of the time their worlds feel very artificial compared to other studios such as Bethsoft. I was actually suprised by their world presentation this time around, I thought it would be far less immersive than it was.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
bottom line is that the game will sell, as seen from the preorders, those who hate on TOR (these fourms are full of 'em) have their reasons i am sure.
personally i think bioware could have done a lot more with 150 million dollars then they did, I expected more up untill i saw the videos of gameplay. I tested for about 3 months. and that was all i needed. I dislike mirrior classes and they the replayablitiy that Bioware says this game has is not true. The Side quests that you are "required" to do for exp (not really required but you need the exp it is the same as any other game) are too large in number and it takes away from the hero factor, other players do this was well.
I have a list of gripes because i held higher expectations of this company, but they much too heavily invested in their VO and not enough in what could have been done with one of the most expansive IPs in the market.
OPINION: The Voice over is cool, but really nothing that adds to the gameplay because the VOs don't affect me in the way i thought they would. History of me I hated DA:O...because Bioware hailed the game as a Baldurs Gate spirit. It wasnt by a long shot. However I love the Mass Effect Series, and KOTOR as well. I enjoy bioware as a company on the whole and think they produce good games.
Why would you want an MMO game where the stuff you just WATCH takes center stage and the actual interactive part is second (or third, or forth)? Talk about mind-numbingly boring. As someone who loves good movies and reads a lot of books, I don't want my games to become spectator passtimes.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
The people looking for the wheel to be reinvented won't be impressed.
However, to those of us that recognize that it's a game and not a 2nd life, fun will be had.
I'm torn on picking it up because I thought I was done with themeparks, but playing the beta I had an absolute blast so I'm tempted to give it another go.
Well first there are other games, so you have plenty of other options. Second if you find tried and true MMO mechanics to be boring, again there are other games. Third the stories in and of themselves are interactive, so i don't mind them taking center stage. I also enjoyed the combat system as well as PVPing with that combat system. I wasn't bored, I'm sorry if you were.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
All that matters is if I like it. i could give a rats ass about what other ppl think of the game. Do i like everything about the game? Nope, but Its my own opinion that matters.
****Raving Rabbid will have the mandalorians eating out of his ....foot...in no time!****
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
"The bottom line"..? The story is the main focus, and it gots lightsabers and standard themepark components. The rest seems massively subjective really.
Personally I can barely wait for this game to launch: the forums will be a clusterfork of raging back and forth, you can take my word for it.
Well, the "bottom-line" for me was this,after playing the last beta week-end,and looking at all the pros & cons, the pros out-weigh the cons by big enough of a margin that I finally pre-ordered, the 1st time I have done so for a game in years. I know the issues with graphics and a few others,and I really think the game will need a year to be really polished, but it is good enough and fun enough "as is" to satisfy me.
I think the most important feature that can decide if you like or not SWTOR is if you like other Bioware games with the same story system, because the MMO part is not too good, lets face it it's not a good themepark MMO, it's just average for 2011 almost 2012, so saying "if you like thempark MMOs you are going to like SWTOR" is not true.
An honest review of SW:TOR 6/10 (Danny Wojcicki)
"If" you go into the game with the right expectations, it's hard to argue against SW:TOR being a nice game; however, if you have a laundry list of unrealistic expectations, you're bound to be disappointed.
cant wait for the game. going to be the first MMO since wow Pre-BC that i really get invested in i think. feels like a massively COOP single player RPG, which is honestly exactly what i want out of an MMO.
honestly i think SWTOR should not call itself an MMO... it should be called an MCRPG (massively co-op RPG). We could be seeing the dawn of a new type of online RPG here, with an emphasis on a persistant world and singleplayer experience that you can play with friends if you choose to.
i like the idea of having a heavily single player focused storyline, but instead of NPCs making up your party, you can fill your party with friends or just other players. this is why SWTOR is so appealing to me.