Yeah, the art direction is certainly "interesting" although they tried to be somehow like the old movie trilogy and put a little twist on the styles, but in my taste not enough. Sith Empire looks like the (Republic) Empire 3000 years in the future! What the hell? "Republic" looks like the "Rebels" 3000 years in the future? They did not have enough balls to go: "Ok, how could the Star Wars universe and factions REALLY look like, 3000 years ago?", let´s create something completely unique, archaic, different, just with a hint on how the future will look like. So overall, the art direction seems scared and not "brave" enough
I did, but that didn´t make the game more diverse either. Only have one char, the other one is stuck somewhere between 20-30
Yes, I dislike GW2, in my opinion SWTOR and GW2 are the worst MMOs I´ve ever played
NPCs which have some sort of activity like populating cities, look around, the NPCs are stuck in 5 second time loops since release, almost no one moves, they are time frozen, like the troopers shooting from behind barriers forever on every planet
Speeders have no feeling of gravity, don´t feel dynamic, no g-forces, no acceleration, no sense of speed, it´s just a faster walk with a speeder mount animation. Completely lame, for Star Wars standards.
SSD and 8-core Xeon, every other MMO I play loads zones in about 5-10 seconds. SWTOR up to 30 seconds or more.
SWG2 is the synonym for a great Star Wars MMO we never got, if adding/fixing the problems mentioned above makes SWTOR SWG2, then so be it, yes I want SWG2
From most of these above replies, it is clear to me that ToR (and incidently GW2) are not your type of MMORPG. That is fine, not every game is likeable by everyone, but to rate ToR down because you expected it to be something that it is not is pretty harsh.
I love love LOVE this sentence, and I have read it two dozen times whenever someone has valid critizims.
So I expected speeders which are in some form similiar to what speeders are like in the movies? Yeah, harsh.
I expected suns setting on Tattooine, like the movies had, like SWG had? Yeah, harsh, different game.
I expected space combat not to be 1992 Starfox? To be at least of equal quality than 10 year old "Jump to Lightspeed", or 20 year old "X-Wing"? Yeah, harsh critizism.
I expected some sort of "life" on the planets, not randomly placed plastic troopers behaving like action figures in a toy park.
and so on. Yeah I want a different 200$ Dollar Star Wars MMO, put this game out of its misery, so another developer can get the license, give it to ANY developer, and do it quick.
It simply fell behind the industry standard, which is disappointing considering its budget. If you examine the game from a broader spectrum you can understand why it was forced to a F2P model in less than a year. After slumping down to a free to play status it lost even more of the player's faith by adopting an awfuly greedy and restrictive free to play model. It also doesn't help them that they are associated with EA, a company that supported SOPA.
If you're looking for online reviews posted on the internet about a company that hates the internet and everything that it stands for, then you should expect that anyone that said company sleeps with will also receive flak. I believe this is called common sense?
*Disclaimer* This is not a /pol/ arguement, this is a simple explanation.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
The ratings on this website means something now? since when?
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.' -Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid." -Luke McKinney
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
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.
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money. I check out the user ratings and reviewer ratings on a host of different sites. I typically put more stock in the user ratings than the reviewer ratings as the reviewers are typically making money by having the big time games running ads on their sites.
This game started off like what WoW became (and has moved away from)- a "MMO" (in quotations because it isn't) in which players sit around a graphic chatroom (the main city) and talk until they do a thing that requires multiple people (Warzone, group content, raid content) which they didn't have to leave the city to do. This is not an MMO. This is a modified version of Diablo.
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money. I check out the user ratings and reviewer ratings on a host of different sites. I typically put more stock in the user ratings than the reviewer ratings as the reviewers are typically making money by having the big time games running ads on their sites.
This game started off like what WoW became (and has moved away from)- a "MMO" (in quotations because it isn't) in which players sit around a graphic chatroom (the main city) and talk until they do a thing that requires multiple people (Warzone, group content, raid content) which they didn't have to leave the city to do. This is not an MMO. This is a modified version of Diablo.
Well, rating matter but from professionals not from users
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money. I check out the user ratings and reviewer ratings on a host of different sites. I typically put more stock in the user ratings than the reviewer ratings as the reviewers are typically making money by having the big time games running ads on their sites.
This game started off like what WoW became (and has moved away from)- a "MMO" (in quotations because it isn't) in which players sit around a graphic chatroom (the main city) and talk until they do a thing that requires multiple people (Warzone, group content, raid content) which they didn't have to leave the city to do. This is not an MMO. This is a modified version of Diablo.
Well, rating matter but from professionals not from users
Hahaha, If anything ratings matter less from "professionals" and more from users.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV Have played: You name it If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games?
Research them and form our own opinions; rather than rely upon the affirmation of the peer group in handy (if somewhat prone to manipulation) Score Shorthand.
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.
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money.
I check it out during development, play beta, and then make up my own mind. If the game has already been released then I check it out on Youtube or play the free download. I don't base my decisions by people on the internet. That makes no sense to me.
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money. I check out the user ratings and reviewer ratings on a host of different sites. I typically put more stock in the user ratings than the reviewer ratings as the reviewers are typically making money by having the big time games running ads on their sites.
This game started off like what WoW became (and has moved away from)- a "MMO" (in quotations because it isn't) in which players sit around a graphic chatroom (the main city) and talk until they do a thing that requires multiple people (Warzone, group content, raid content) which they didn't have to leave the city to do. This is not an MMO. This is a modified version of Diablo.
Well, rating matter but from professionals not from users
Hahaha, If anything ratings matter less from "professionals" and more from users.
of course,,professionals are the most important customer group,,they buy MILLIONS of games
and they play tham all every day too,,of course without pay
"professionals" rated this game at 8 at launch,,now it has dropped a lot
some professionals even gave the mindjack game a 9
I would like it if the hype and rating a user give a game shows up in the user profile for all to see. You could still vote pure 1 or 10 on games but it would be out there for all to see.
Or if the rating tab showed how many user totally voted and statistics in each category "1465 users voted 1 on gameplay" "342 users voted 2 on gameplay" and so on.
And 1-10 are different from user to user. 5 might be average to one and under average for another. 10 in my eyes is a epic groundbreaking game (that I yet have seen) and 1 is a game that wont even start and my computer crash and catch fire. But to another 10 could be having a really good time for 3 months and the 1 = the game CTD three times a month.
EDIT: Oh and after my honest review my average score is 5.1.
What if I expected it to be better? I knew it was going to be a themepark. I knew it had few classes with WoW-like trees for builds. I knew all of that but what I didn't know was how anemic the systems would be, and how stripped down the whole game would be (static lifeless worlds, quick progression to an empty endgame, meaningless open world PvP). None of this has changed either.
I don't think the comparison to Kotor is a good one either. SWTOR does not have any kind of meaningful dark side/ lightside progression resulting in changes to abilities. The D20 system is used in Kotor for skills, giving it a more RPG feel. Every breath you take in SWTOR is on rails, and short ones at that.
I never get the whole "meaningless open world PvP" thing I see over and over again about themepark games where the obvious emphasis is on PvE. It is like me going to Planetside and saying, "omg this game sucks because it has no PvE" ! In WoW, people made the same complaint until Blizzard began adding in some PvP objectives out in the world that affected gameplay and some world PvP zones. And... only a minority of players actually participate in any of it.
Your comment about aenemic systems, I don't really find them worse or better than what similar games have to offer except that each class seems to have more crowd control abilities than in most MMORPGs. Since you kill groups of mobs, and strongs and elites are harder with level in comparison to a game like WoW, fights are slower and require more tactical play. That is not necessarily a bad thing, unless you are keen on action, then I can see why you would hate it.
I do give you that they can certainly improve on what they have. I hope they do. If they don't, I will be disappointed, but people have been flaming this game since release. I don't know of an MMORPG that is new that doesn't have problems. I am worried though that because of the fact that their development cycles are by necessity going to be slow (see my comment about VOs), EA are not going to be able to shape this game up. So far I think they have been slow.
Originally posted by FromHell
So I expected speeders which are in some form similiar to what speeders are like in the movies? Yeah, harsh.
Do you know of a smooth-running MMORPG where you have speeders with physics ? I certainly don't. The closest game that had speed + vehicle physics and was, well in a somewhat playable state, was Auto Assault. Don't tell me SWG because speeders were slow and the game ran like crap.
I expected space combat not to be 1992 Starfox? To be at least of equal quality than 10 year old "Jump to Lightspeed", or 20 year old "X-Wing"? Yeah, harsh critizism.
No offense, but devs can try different things in their games from what you expect. And there lies the crux of the matter. Players expect so much and each player is different, so how the hell do you expect devs to keep developing for the genre ? All they can do is develope the game they envision and hope people will enjoy it. If you don't, time to move on.
I expected some sort of "life" on the planets, not randomly placed plastic troopers behaving like action figures in a toy park.
Yes, we could have had more non-military, non-essential NPCs wandering around in the main cities of planets. That is true. Things could be more fleshed out. It is obvious though that Bioware really emphasized the military aspect of the game since the backdrop is the Republic and Sith Empire starting a war. There is very little in the way of civilian contact in the game, or the idea of being in small villages and cities except in a few areas.
and so on. Yeah I want a different 200$ Dollar Star Wars MMO, put this game out of its misery, so another developer can get the license, give it to ANY developer, and do it quick.
I don't see that happening any time soon to be honest. With two MMORPGs that have had only middling at best results, I don't think LA will be throwing anymore money into this genre again soon. It is too risky, and I wouldn't blame them. If I were an investor, knowing what I know about this industry, I certainly wouldn't.
I don't think this game is the greatest since the invention of sliced bread, but I do not understand the sheer hatred it seems to have engendered especially on points that Bioware never said the game would have. That is what I am contesting.
Well they advertised open world PvP before launch. It was not a feature that had any bearing on anything save for your ability to individually progress in the PvP stat. There is a cold war going on between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but your participation in that is relegated to some dailies and cutscenes.
By systems I mean any of the systems normally associated with MMO world interaction (not just specials). Any system in SWTOR is the most streamlined, inflexible, simplistic form that you could have made. Crafting, character skills, starship upgrade and advancement, weapon upgrades, social interaction, the economy, player housing (It's your ship! yell the anti-housing league), guilds, light side/dark side, gathering resources, etc.
If you were to tell a story in the manner that SWTOR interfaces with its players (via its systems, not the cutscenes) it would be a short, boring summation that gave you the idea the guy telling the story would rather be doing something else. There is no love apparent in the crafting of this game, it seems to have been from the womb untimely ripped, and then left to die.
The levelling experience is around 8 for your first playthrough. Even if you choose different class/side the 2nd playthrough isn't even close as much fun.
Everything else in the game is pretty much a 0.
So yeah, I think 6.6 is bit harsh because it should be around 4.
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
It was just the jump from 7.2 down to 6.6 over night that confused me really. Now that iv'e read what people think and know of the rating system , i understand. Anyways it's back up to 7.1 which isn't too bad for a community that mostly doesn't like the game.
Cheers,
BadOrb.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing. "SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13 The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
All ratings are down because of Path of Exile. The ratings are relative to other games and, since PoE is the new top game, it "stole" some points from other games.
It's a weird system and I'm still not entirely sure why MMORPG uses it.
Yup, since POE came back down from such a high schoor, TOR has gone back up to 7.15 which is pretty much where it was before. This happens every single time a new game comes out and the first day or so is at the top. Everytime we have a thread about it too, usually from the perspective of the 2nd place game and how much it dropped.
Well they advertised open world PvP before launch. It was not a feature that had any bearing on anything save for your ability to individually progress in the PvP stat. There is a cold war going on between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but your participation in that is relegated to some dailies and cutscenes.
By systems I mean any of the systems normally associated with MMO world interaction (not just specials). Any system in SWTOR is the most streamlined, inflexible, simplistic form that you could have made. Crafting, character skills, starship upgrade and advancement, weapon upgrades, social interaction, the economy, player housing (It's your ship! yell the anti-housing league), guilds, light side/dark side, gathering resources, etc.
If you were to tell a story in the manner that SWTOR interfaces with its players (via its systems, not the cutscenes) it would be a short, boring summation that gave you the idea the guy telling the story would rather be doing something else. There is no love apparent in the crafting of this game, it seems to have been from the womb untimely ripped, and then left to die.
They do have open world PvP, I mean it is not like the feature is disabled. There are also some PvP quests in each zone. I have not tried it because my computer has trouble resolving lots of players on my screen at one time (a huge flaw of ToR). The thing is bigger than Bioware though with respect to open world PvP in themeparks and is a big negative issue with them. Outside of AO, I barely know of a themepark MMO that elaborated on doing more than just being able to attack another player outside of a main city. For those who did not play AO, it had tower combat where enemy players could attack guild towers in certain zones at certain times. The towers were interesting to the guild that placed them because they provided certain benefits to everyone in the guild, so it was in the best interest of the guild to defend the towers they put up. It was not an entirely open system, but it was a step in the right direction for allowing PvP that was more than just killing other people. And yes, guild politics certainly was involved in tower combat.
With respect to your other issues, I agree that things can definitely be improved on pretty much everything outside of the storyline and quest-related stuff, and the class customization which I find to be fine (what I mean by class customization are the talent trees, the legacy system, etc.). About the only thing I think class customization can benefit from is an AA point system like in the EQ series.
The crafting and item system is alright. I still hold the SWG one as the epitome of what a game can do that is not purely crafting oriented. However, to put in an SWG system in ToR is not really that possible. Instead, they can build up on their current one by adding in more recipes that you can discover through the quest crafting, perhaps work orders, and crafting quests. I would love to have more ways to acquire resources too, crafting gear, etc.
I agree a lot with what you say. I still find ToR highly playable, and I think it will take EA time to improve it, perhaps more time than it should because of the issues I brought up already. I hope though that they will improve it, but I do not agree with those who think the game should just be killed off and another 200 mil spent on SWG2 or something like that. But that is a subject for another thread.
Murloc, the crafting system is currently borked because of a reverse enginering bug. Said bug ruins itemization by seriously devalueing raid progression. That and gear emphasis is currently on Cartel Shop offerings.
Professional reviews might have garnered some form of accurate reviewing, but that was in the past. So many good magazines have went out of business because games with bad reviews stop advertising with them. Computer Gaming World, or Massively Online are a couple of examples.
A year or so before Computer Gaming World stopped publication, they even discussed (in the editorial section) about how companies were boycotting them for bad reviews.
I do find it sort of funny when people just say that they will buy the game and judge for themselves. To an extent anyways. There are plenty of MMORPGS I would never buy based on user feedback. This site alone lists hundreds of them, maybe 1000+ (I never counted them). Will I buy them all just to find out for myself? No chance in hell.
When I go about deciding if a game is to my tastes, I'll first find out about via hype .. then go to youtube and look for gameplay videos and reviews done, while someone actually plays the game (MMOHUT is good). Then look at feedback, throw away the extreme fanboy responses, and throw away the extreme "hater" responses, and see what I'm left with.
Just buying a game that the majority of people say sucks is just throwing money at a developer that didn't deserve it. SWTOR is a moral dilemma though .. do I play to support a genre and theme I love regardless of quality, or do I not play ... Star Wars is awesome, EA trashed it's reputation ...
The majority of SWTOR purchases did say the game sucks though .. 2.5 million sales .. and uhh 250k still playing (roughly 10% of the servers left).
Even with a hefty margin of error and there are 500k still playing (mostly freemium), still the majority threw this game away like a used tampon.
Comments
I love love LOVE this sentence, and I have read it two dozen times whenever someone has valid critizims.
So I expected speeders which are in some form similiar to what speeders are like in the movies? Yeah, harsh.
I expected suns setting on Tattooine, like the movies had, like SWG had? Yeah, harsh, different game.
I expected space combat not to be 1992 Starfox? To be at least of equal quality than 10 year old "Jump to Lightspeed", or 20 year old "X-Wing"? Yeah, harsh critizism.
I expected some sort of "life" on the planets, not randomly placed plastic troopers behaving like action figures in a toy park.
and so on. Yeah I want a different 200$ Dollar Star Wars MMO, put this game out of its misery, so another developer can get the license, give it to ANY developer, and do it quick.
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
.
.
The Return of ELITE !
It simply fell behind the industry standard, which is disappointing considering its budget. If you examine the game from a broader spectrum you can understand why it was forced to a F2P model in less than a year. After slumping down to a free to play status it lost even more of the player's faith by adopting an awfuly greedy and restrictive free to play model. It also doesn't help them that they are associated with EA, a company that supported SOPA.
If you're looking for online reviews posted on the internet about a company that hates the internet and everything that it stands for, then you should expect that anyone that said company sleeps with will also receive flak. I believe this is called common sense?
*Disclaimer* This is not a /pol/ arguement, this is a simple explanation.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Carefully consider why that seems important, to you.
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.
For all the people saying that ratings don't matter, how do you judge games? Buy them and play them? That is a complete and total waste of money. I check out the user ratings and reviewer ratings on a host of different sites. I typically put more stock in the user ratings than the reviewer ratings as the reviewers are typically making money by having the big time games running ads on their sites.
This game started off like what WoW became (and has moved away from)- a "MMO" (in quotations because it isn't) in which players sit around a graphic chatroom (the main city) and talk until they do a thing that requires multiple people (Warzone, group content, raid content) which they didn't have to leave the city to do. This is not an MMO. This is a modified version of Diablo.
Well, rating matter but from professionals not from users
Hahaha, If anything ratings matter less from "professionals" and more from users.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Research them and form our own opinions; rather than rely upon the affirmation of the peer group in handy (if somewhat prone to manipulation) Score Shorthand.
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.
Its probably more of a 7. But I don't understand why you care what rating it has? If you enjoy it then just enjoy it and forget about the haters.
The game disappointed a lot of people, the ratings reflect that. Thats all.
If SWTOR is a 6.6 I would give TSW a 135, GW2 a 250, rift a 1 and TERA a 10 etc.
Everyone has different preferences.
I check it out during development, play beta, and then make up my own mind. If the game has already been released then I check it out on Youtube or play the free download. I don't base my decisions by people on the internet. That makes no sense to me.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
of course,,professionals are the most important customer group,,they buy MILLIONS of games
and they play tham all every day too,,of course without pay
"professionals" rated this game at 8 at launch,,now it has dropped a lot
some professionals even gave the mindjack game a 9
I would like it if the hype and rating a user give a game shows up in the user profile for all to see. You could still vote pure 1 or 10 on games but it would be out there for all to see.
Or if the rating tab showed how many user totally voted and statistics in each category "1465 users voted 1 on gameplay" "342 users voted 2 on gameplay" and so on.
And 1-10 are different from user to user. 5 might be average to one and under average for another. 10 in my eyes is a epic groundbreaking game (that I yet have seen) and 1 is a game that wont even start and my computer crash and catch fire. But to another 10 could be having a really good time for 3 months and the 1 = the game CTD three times a month.
EDIT: Oh and after my honest review my average score is 5.1.
SWG: Astromechs & Friday Features and Guides from SWG O-forums (2003-2005) (Read last post first for clarity)
I don't think this game is the greatest since the invention of sliced bread, but I do not understand the sheer hatred it seems to have engendered especially on points that Bioware never said the game would have. That is what I am contesting.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
@ murlockdance
Well they advertised open world PvP before launch. It was not a feature that had any bearing on anything save for your ability to individually progress in the PvP stat. There is a cold war going on between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but your participation in that is relegated to some dailies and cutscenes.
By systems I mean any of the systems normally associated with MMO world interaction (not just specials). Any system in SWTOR is the most streamlined, inflexible, simplistic form that you could have made. Crafting, character skills, starship upgrade and advancement, weapon upgrades, social interaction, the economy, player housing (It's your ship! yell the anti-housing league), guilds, light side/dark side, gathering resources, etc.
If you were to tell a story in the manner that SWTOR interfaces with its players (via its systems, not the cutscenes) it would be a short, boring summation that gave you the idea the guy telling the story would rather be doing something else. There is no love apparent in the crafting of this game, it seems to have been from the womb untimely ripped, and then left to die.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
The levelling experience is around 8 for your first playthrough. Even if you choose different class/side the 2nd playthrough isn't even close as much fun.
Everything else in the game is pretty much a 0.
So yeah, I think 6.6 is bit harsh because it should be around 4.
It was just the jump from 7.2 down to 6.6 over night that confused me really. Now that iv'e read what people think and know of the rating system , i understand. Anyways it's back up to 7.1 which isn't too bad for a community that mostly doesn't like the game.
Cheers,
BadOrb.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing.
"SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13
The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
Yup, since POE came back down from such a high schoor, TOR has gone back up to 7.15 which is pretty much where it was before. This happens every single time a new game comes out and the first day or so is at the top. Everytime we have a thread about it too, usually from the perspective of the 2nd place game and how much it dropped.
They do have open world PvP, I mean it is not like the feature is disabled. There are also some PvP quests in each zone. I have not tried it because my computer has trouble resolving lots of players on my screen at one time (a huge flaw of ToR). The thing is bigger than Bioware though with respect to open world PvP in themeparks and is a big negative issue with them. Outside of AO, I barely know of a themepark MMO that elaborated on doing more than just being able to attack another player outside of a main city. For those who did not play AO, it had tower combat where enemy players could attack guild towers in certain zones at certain times. The towers were interesting to the guild that placed them because they provided certain benefits to everyone in the guild, so it was in the best interest of the guild to defend the towers they put up. It was not an entirely open system, but it was a step in the right direction for allowing PvP that was more than just killing other people. And yes, guild politics certainly was involved in tower combat.
With respect to your other issues, I agree that things can definitely be improved on pretty much everything outside of the storyline and quest-related stuff, and the class customization which I find to be fine (what I mean by class customization are the talent trees, the legacy system, etc.). About the only thing I think class customization can benefit from is an AA point system like in the EQ series.
The crafting and item system is alright. I still hold the SWG one as the epitome of what a game can do that is not purely crafting oriented. However, to put in an SWG system in ToR is not really that possible. Instead, they can build up on their current one by adding in more recipes that you can discover through the quest crafting, perhaps work orders, and crafting quests. I would love to have more ways to acquire resources too, crafting gear, etc.
I agree a lot with what you say. I still find ToR highly playable, and I think it will take EA time to improve it, perhaps more time than it should because of the issues I brought up already. I hope though that they will improve it, but I do not agree with those who think the game should just be killed off and another 200 mil spent on SWG2 or something like that. But that is a subject for another thread.Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
An honest review of SW:TOR 6/10 (Danny Wojcicki)
Professional reviews might have garnered some form of accurate reviewing, but that was in the past. So many good magazines have went out of business because games with bad reviews stop advertising with them. Computer Gaming World, or Massively Online are a couple of examples.
A year or so before Computer Gaming World stopped publication, they even discussed (in the editorial section) about how companies were boycotting them for bad reviews.
I do find it sort of funny when people just say that they will buy the game and judge for themselves. To an extent anyways. There are plenty of MMORPGS I would never buy based on user feedback. This site alone lists hundreds of them, maybe 1000+ (I never counted them). Will I buy them all just to find out for myself? No chance in hell.
When I go about deciding if a game is to my tastes, I'll first find out about via hype .. then go to youtube and look for gameplay videos and reviews done, while someone actually plays the game (MMOHUT is good). Then look at feedback, throw away the extreme fanboy responses, and throw away the extreme "hater" responses, and see what I'm left with.
Just buying a game that the majority of people say sucks is just throwing money at a developer that didn't deserve it. SWTOR is a moral dilemma though .. do I play to support a genre and theme I love regardless of quality, or do I not play ... Star Wars is awesome, EA trashed it's reputation ...
The majority of SWTOR purchases did say the game sucks though .. 2.5 million sales .. and uhh 250k still playing (roughly 10% of the servers left).
Even with a hefty margin of error and there are 500k still playing (mostly freemium), still the majority threw this game away like a used tampon.
Things that make you go, Hmmmm ...
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.