It does look unique, depending on how you look at it.. it's good that story is finally brought to mainstream MMO's, I think that's a pretty good unique factor right there.
But sadly I've already experienced in depth story in MMO, so to me it's nothing new anymore..
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
For starters, I don't mind the Asian visuals from Aion, I played WoW from beta until about a year ago, and TOR is going to be amazing.
Aion's graphics are creatively genuine, and since graphics are a determining factor in one's ability to immerse their self into the game, it may appeal to many people. I, on the other hand, PREFER games to look realistic but with some sense of cartoonish nature if you could even call it that. I mean, WoW is heavily cartoony imho. And they lack the love and respect for their community in that they're content never really gets any better. If you played vanilla then you know what I'm talking about. Once upon a time, it was good, and then... POOF! Too many casual gamers complaining about this and that. Since the majority is the voice in most MMOs, and the majority of WoW is casual gamers, their voice screamed loudly. Don't get me wrong, I have NOTHING against casual gamers. I'm a mix between the two... if that makes sense.
Back on point though. While WoW is cartoony, SW:TOR gives some sense of realism throughout, and they're not even far along in beta. I can tell you that in the beginning of WoW's beta, the graphics looked like crap. Then they began tweaking the engine, and the graphics STILL looked like crap. Not only that, but after engine tweaks, almost EVERYTHING in game would become buggy. Now given, this was during beta, and that's where my point comes in: during all of this, the gameplay was at it's peak! I tested the rogue, mage, and shaman during beta and they were fun in any direction you took them. I LOVED the idea that they gave you the option (as a shaman or pally) to be a hybrid class. They made it work! Then they stripped it away. Boo.
Furthermore, while WoW OBVIOUSLY didn't lack immersion during vanilla, it as eaten up following the release of TBC, which was eh to say the least. Knowing and SEEING what BioWare has produced over the years, I don't believe for one second that they'll repeat ANY mistakes Blizz has made and continues to make.
I mean, when upon reaching level cap you're wearing a different colored version of the armor that you wore at the end of the first game, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!!! Blizz doesn't care for it's community. All they care about is the dough. They haven't run out of ideas for new armor. They're just hording them up for a new MMO. They don't want to give up all their ideas on one MMO, which to me means that they really need some more creative hands.
I hope you guys enjoy WoW, and my apologies for my rant, but ugh... enough's enough Blizz. Give people better content or get bent. And as for TOR: I truly hope they crush Blizz.
I seen that Guild Wars players can get wings from the Aion promotion and that's all it took for me to not like the game. If there is a trial for the game I will give it a try, other than that, I doubt it. World of Warcraft is too old and I just never got into it. However, The Old Republic sounds amazing because I have played the KoTOR series and loved them.
Aion is polished, gotta admit that :P. i'm also waiting for the old republics PvP gameplay, i've played WoW for nearly 5 years and throughout that time i loved both PVP and PVE equally, so Aion might also be a bit too much pvp-centered for me
Aion was a bit too pvp oriented for me too. A shame because the game actually seemed decent to me. I really don't know why they just can't add pve servers like WoW has implemented. It would bring in more players (probably myself included) and wouldn't phase the pvp players at all. Although this likely wouldn't be the answer for someone like yourself who enjoys both equally.
****
FFXIV is unmistakeably asian (which I actually enjoy).
*****
WoW has been a great game. It really did a lot of things right and was able to please a huge percentage of the MMO population. I really look forward to Blizzard's next MMO, hoping they include everything that makes WoW successful as well as eliminate anything that may have failed in WoW at any point.
On that note, i am also interested in following the progression of FFXIV. I played FFXI for a year and a half before WoW and again recently for a month just to reminisce, and, as much as I love watching my character stand there and auto attack for 5 hours, the gameplay truly is excruciatingly boring compared to WoW or aion or most other modern MMOs. There's a reason WoW eventually won over 10 million players and FFXI only retained around 500,000. And that was with the final fantasy series being slightly more popular than the warcraft series prior to the release of both MMOs. I really hope SE learns from the deficiencies of FFXI and makes big changes for FFXIV. It's already a little disappointing to see a very similar looking world and the same exact races (what a cop-out imo). What is the point of this? It retains the interest of a small portion of MMO players who are currently playing FFXI as much as it retains the dislike of many more MMO players who are not currently playing FFXI. I remain loyal to the Final Fantasy series for now though, and I am hopeful.
*****
Old Republic: I have never liked the outer space setting much at all. I'd take Lord of the Rings over Star Wars, or Wheel of Time over Dune, or Warcraft over Starcraft any day of the week. However, this game does look like it's doing a lot of things right. I love how a lot of it seems to play like it's a multiplayer console game (where HAVE all such games gone btw?). I like participating in dialogue and storyline while fighting your way through an instance (been wishing WoW would do this for years). I like the cutscenes, I like the full voice acting, and I like the in-game decision making and how it affects events (I hope it really does affect many many events and other characters you're grouping with, unlike, say, Fable, which advertised complete freedom but was actually very linear.) This game might actually get me off my anti-outer-space kick, although it might also require a better computer to do so
Comments
It does look unique, depending on how you look at it.. it's good that story is finally brought to mainstream MMO's, I think that's a pretty good unique factor right there.
But sadly I've already experienced in depth story in MMO, so to me it's nothing new anymore..
For starters, I don't mind the Asian visuals from Aion, I played WoW from beta until about a year ago, and TOR is going to be amazing.
Aion's graphics are creatively genuine, and since graphics are a determining factor in one's ability to immerse their self into the game, it may appeal to many people. I, on the other hand, PREFER games to look realistic but with some sense of cartoonish nature if you could even call it that. I mean, WoW is heavily cartoony imho. And they lack the love and respect for their community in that they're content never really gets any better. If you played vanilla then you know what I'm talking about. Once upon a time, it was good, and then... POOF! Too many casual gamers complaining about this and that. Since the majority is the voice in most MMOs, and the majority of WoW is casual gamers, their voice screamed loudly. Don't get me wrong, I have NOTHING against casual gamers. I'm a mix between the two... if that makes sense.
Back on point though. While WoW is cartoony, SW:TOR gives some sense of realism throughout, and they're not even far along in beta. I can tell you that in the beginning of WoW's beta, the graphics looked like crap. Then they began tweaking the engine, and the graphics STILL looked like crap. Not only that, but after engine tweaks, almost EVERYTHING in game would become buggy. Now given, this was during beta, and that's where my point comes in: during all of this, the gameplay was at it's peak! I tested the rogue, mage, and shaman during beta and they were fun in any direction you took them. I LOVED the idea that they gave you the option (as a shaman or pally) to be a hybrid class. They made it work! Then they stripped it away. Boo.
Furthermore, while WoW OBVIOUSLY didn't lack immersion during vanilla, it as eaten up following the release of TBC, which was eh to say the least. Knowing and SEEING what BioWare has produced over the years, I don't believe for one second that they'll repeat ANY mistakes Blizz has made and continues to make.
I mean, when upon reaching level cap you're wearing a different colored version of the armor that you wore at the end of the first game, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!!! Blizz doesn't care for it's community. All they care about is the dough. They haven't run out of ideas for new armor. They're just hording them up for a new MMO. They don't want to give up all their ideas on one MMO, which to me means that they really need some more creative hands.
I hope you guys enjoy WoW, and my apologies for my rant, but ugh... enough's enough Blizz. Give people better content or get bent. And as for TOR: I truly hope they crush Blizz.
THE Rooster Nash
I seen that Guild Wars players can get wings from the Aion promotion and that's all it took for me to not like the game. If there is a trial for the game I will give it a try, other than that, I doubt it. World of Warcraft is too old and I just never got into it. However, The Old Republic sounds amazing because I have played the KoTOR series and loved them.
Aion was a bit too pvp oriented for me too. A shame because the game actually seemed decent to me. I really don't know why they just can't add pve servers like WoW has implemented. It would bring in more players (probably myself included) and wouldn't phase the pvp players at all. Although this likely wouldn't be the answer for someone like yourself who enjoys both equally.
****
FFXIV is unmistakeably asian (which I actually enjoy).
*****
WoW has been a great game. It really did a lot of things right and was able to please a huge percentage of the MMO population. I really look forward to Blizzard's next MMO, hoping they include everything that makes WoW successful as well as eliminate anything that may have failed in WoW at any point.
On that note, i am also interested in following the progression of FFXIV. I played FFXI for a year and a half before WoW and again recently for a month just to reminisce, and, as much as I love watching my character stand there and auto attack for 5 hours, the gameplay truly is excruciatingly boring compared to WoW or aion or most other modern MMOs. There's a reason WoW eventually won over 10 million players and FFXI only retained around 500,000. And that was with the final fantasy series being slightly more popular than the warcraft series prior to the release of both MMOs. I really hope SE learns from the deficiencies of FFXI and makes big changes for FFXIV. It's already a little disappointing to see a very similar looking world and the same exact races (what a cop-out imo). What is the point of this? It retains the interest of a small portion of MMO players who are currently playing FFXI as much as it retains the dislike of many more MMO players who are not currently playing FFXI. I remain loyal to the Final Fantasy series for now though, and I am hopeful.
*****
Old Republic: I have never liked the outer space setting much at all. I'd take Lord of the Rings over Star Wars, or Wheel of Time over Dune, or Warcraft over Starcraft any day of the week. However, this game does look like it's doing a lot of things right. I love how a lot of it seems to play like it's a multiplayer console game (where HAVE all such games gone btw?). I like participating in dialogue and storyline while fighting your way through an instance (been wishing WoW would do this for years). I like the cutscenes, I like the full voice acting, and I like the in-game decision making and how it affects events (I hope it really does affect many many events and other characters you're grouping with, unlike, say, Fable, which advertised complete freedom but was actually very linear.) This game might actually get me off my anti-outer-space kick, although it might also require a better computer to do so
STO and SW:TOR are the next ones I am looking for.
Aion was like a super model.. great chassis, but nothing under the hood.