This game has me still pondering if I should buy it or not, it has never before happened to me with Bioware games, I loved em all. So this simple fact just nails it - its not that good/addictive.
I am really dissapointed that they used WoW as the mold, because it is also a very average game with zero/no innovation, and didn't try a new innovative one.
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
I think the majority of the people who are really addicted to SWTOR right now are your usual MMO hoppers and this is their current "Flavour of the month" which means as usual it will not last, the buzz for them will fade and they will move on to fresh new pastures when something new launches or return to familiar old ones until the next big MMO launch.
First of I would like to say that what Bioware has produced is not bad. It is a solid game with responsive controls, good UI, well done gfx and sound, interesting storylines etc but every time when I think of this game I feel this game could have been so much more.
Imagine for example looking up and seeing an X-Wing fly through the sky and you would know that this ship is controlled by another person. Then imagine the same X-Wing going into space and docking with a nebulon frigate (name?), which is owned by a mega player run corporation.
In that ship you would have real quarters, no instanced, which player could own and have other visit. You can continue with this thought experiment but I feel, well I know, that Bioware did not at all tried to re-create the SW universe in an MMORPG but just focus on ground combat, instances etc.
Really dont understand why companies aren't thinking big when they have such an IP on their hands. It was similar with Star Trek Online, a stupid space shooter instead of trying to create a persistant Star Trek World which can be about so much more than just instanced combat.
For example, what if Bioware took all the money they spent on voice acting and instead tried to create an interesting persistant world. I for one think the game would be much better as a result, a much better MMORPG that is. After all, what do I care about voice acting? I can watch a real movie if I want some acting.
Well this sound neat and very nice BUT
This never was intended imo. What vision you're creating is fitting sandbox game or at least sandpark.
SWTOR is very themeparkish game, experience is polished but very railed and directed by creators.
It is about feeding single / co-op experience to players and providing usual instance running. Nothing more - nothing less.
Clearly targetted at playerbase that enjoy WoW, Lotro, Rift, etc
SW IP is just used cause it is very well known IP + since biggest mmo's are fantasy themed SW IP is very handy cause it provide Sc-FI ths giving small competiton leverage and differentation (bait for those that are tired with dwarves & elves).
Could company as big as EA-Bioware create diffrent and more unique experience with spending so much money and having aquired SW IP ? Sure.
It never was intended though.
It will never imho be expended in direction you would like to as well. "Player run-mega corporations", "open world without instancing", etc would require massive CORE changes to game + propably massive changes to HERO engine implementation used in Swtor.
Basically alot of time & resources spent on changing Swtor in diffrent KIND of game.
Effect of this kind of changes(that change core mechanics and style of game) is known through industry (SWG, diffrence between AC1 -> AC2, FFXI -> FFXIV ) - noone will risk.
Only changes that MIGHT be implemented later will focus on making Swtor even more accesible and streamlined that it is atm (cross-server LFG, auto-teleport to instances, nerfing content, paid faction / race /server changes-transfers, more instant travel options, etc).
Imho it is very clear what kind of game Swtor is.
If someone like this kind of mmorpg then he'll love it, if someone is looking for diffrent kind of mmorpg experience then imo best thing that can be done is to stop fooling him/herself and just look for diffrent game.
IMHO no point in paying for a game in hope for unrealistic future changes to it.
Less hype following and more conscious consumer decisions is what mmorpg playerbase and genre need imo.
I am really dissapointed that they used WoW as the mold, because it is also a very average game with zero/no innovation, and didn't try a new innovative one.
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
Isn't that what WoW did? Tor is more innovative than people think. It's just not obvious in anything other than the voiceovers.
I wasnt trying to compare them. Yes WoW (which I only played a few months of back in the vanilla days) took varions aspects of other MMO's at the time, rolled them into 1 and gave them a spit shine and refinement.
My point was there is such a thing as over refining, they took something already very refined and refined it even further, seemingly to the point where fun was removed as an impurity.
I am really dissapointed that they used WoW as the mold, because it is also a very average game with zero/no innovation, and didn't try a new innovative one.
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
Isn't that what WoW did? Tor is more innovative than people think. It's just not obvious in anything other than the voiceovers.
IMO Vindictus is more innovative then SWTOR. SWTOR doesn't impress me, especially when you comapre how much it cost to make. It has the feeling of a basic WoW clone with cutscenes and voice overs. It maybe more innovative deep down but it doesn't show enough to seperate it from any other MMO. Also, other MMOs didn't cost 150 bucks for the CE. So, yeah, it's overpriced mediocrity.
Well I don't think there is anything wrong with guild ships, in fact Bioware has talked about adding them to the game.
To me when you start saying player controlled corporations owning ships and things like that, i immediately thought of Eve. If that's not what you intended then I'm sorry I misunderstood.
I think open space travel and guild ships and whatnot might be cool. I can live without them but I don't really think the ships need to be anything more than travel tools. I don't want to see the sandbox stuff in this game and I seriously doubt I ever will.
The ships in this game are what I expected. They are basically the exact same as the Normandy in ME only smaller. I'm not playing this game forthe space stuff, so it doesn't bother me that it is not a heavy focus of the game. In fact, if they started focusing more on space and less on the core ground game, I would be upset.
You'd be upset if a Star Wars game had more space stuff?
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
I think the basic problem is that we're looking at two audiences here.
Old guys, critical, played the hell out of MMOs for years. They're looking for flaws, picking things apart to find more to dislike. "Creativity" is a good line of attack, because it's subjective enough that its impossible to directly refute.
And the rest of the audience, not completely jaded and disgusted with everything (yet), given a solid and servicable game with just as much room to grow, and the same growing pains coming soon, as any new MMO.
Oh, there's a third audience, of course, the people who just want a completely different sub-genre. Not much you can do with them except "this game obviously is not ever going to be what you want".
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.
Sigh cdestey, for the third or fourth time, I would NOT be upset if they added more space stuff. I WOULD be upset if the game focus leaned towards space gameplay over ground gameplay. As in, I want to play the ground game, the space stuff is just extra. If it was the orbs way around I wouldnt like it.
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
I think the basic problem is that we're looking at two audiences here.
Old guys, critical, played the hell out of MMOs for years. They're looking for flaws, picking things apart to find more to dislike. "Creativity" is a good line of attack, because it's subjective enough that its impossible to directly refute.
And the rest of the audience, not completely jaded and disgusted with everything (yet), given a solid and servicable game with just as much room to grow, and the same growing pains coming soon, as any new MMO.
So, we can't expect a company to give us a better product then what is already currently available for the same price without being "jaded" and "disgusted"? Interesting way to look at our economics system. If a company can't match a product in quality then it shouldn't be the same price. That is how economics works but apparently the game industry thinks that throwing AAA on a title makes it worth max value which people who have been following MMOs should know that is not true.
First of I would like to say that what Bioware has produced is not bad. It is a solid game with responsive controls, good UI, well done gfx and sound, interesting storylines etc but every time when I think of this game I feel this game could have been so much more.
...
Well this sound neat and very nice BUT
This never was intended imo. What vision you're creating is fitting sandbox game or at least sandpark.
SWTOR is very themeparkish game, experience is polished but very railed and directed by creators.
It is about feeding single / co-op experience to players and providing usual instance running. Nothing more - nothing less.
Clearly targetted at playerbase that enjoy WoW, Lotro, Rift, etc
SW IP is just used cause it is very well known IP + since biggest mmo's are fantasy themed SW IP is very handy cause it provide Sc-FI ths giving small competiton leverage and differentation (bait for those that are tired with dwarves & elves).
Could company as big as EA-Bioware create diffrent and more unique experience with spending so much money and having aquired SW IP ? Sure.
It never was intended though.
It will never imho be expended in direction you would like to as well. "Player run-mega corporations", "open world without instancing", etc would require massive CORE changes to game + propably massive changes to HERO engine implementation used in Swtor.
Basically alot of time & resources spent on changing Swtor in diffrent KIND of game.
Effect of this kind of changes(that change core mechanics and style of game) is known through industry (SWG, diffrence between AC1 -> AC2, FFXI -> FFXIV ) - noone will risk.
Only changes that MIGHT be implemented later will focus on making Swtor even more accesible and streamlined that it is atm (cross-server LFG, auto-teleport to instances, nerfing content, paid faction / race /server changes-transfers, more instant travel options, etc).
Imho it is very clear what kind of game Swtor is.
If someone like this kind of mmorpg then he'll love it, if someone is looking for diffrent kind of mmorpg experience then imo best thing that can be done is to stop fooling him/herself and just look for diffrent game.
IMHO no point in paying for a game in hope for unrealistic future changes to it.
Less hype following and more conscious consumer decisions is what mmorpg playerbase and genre need imo.
I am not so much bothered about what it intended or not to be. I see the Star Wars IP used in an MMORPG setting and I see a company that used to create really competent games and then I see the result. And the results simply does not live up to my expectations, regardless of what it did or did not intended to do.
And I am well aware that this game will never become what I hoped it would, this was clear to me atleast a year ago. But that does not change the fact that this game could have been so much better. I mean with the time, talent and money invested I am sure they could have done a much better MMORPG.
I would think it's worth whatever people will pay for it. It's priced at what the market will bear. from the number of preorders, I'd say it's safe to say the market will bear $60.
Sigh cdestey, for the third or fourth time, I would NOT be upset if they added more space stuff. I WOULD be upset if the game focus leaned towards space gameplay over ground gameplay. As in, I want to play the ground game, the space stuff is just extra. If it was the orbs way around I wouldnt like it.
I thought I made myself pretty clear.
I don't think that's even a remote possibility, so you don't have anything to worry about. Even when they added space combat to SWG, it was just an add-on and didn't change the fact that it was a ground game.
For example, what if Bioware took all the money they spent on voice acting and instead tried to create an interesting persistant world. I for one think the game would be much better as a result, a much better MMORPG that is. After all, what do I care about voice acting? I can watch a real movie if I want some acting.
This - exactly.
The industry is trying to package easy solutions and sell it as games for us.
Voice and acting is something industry was doing for 100 years now (cinema) , its easy and they know how to do it.
It's a good game. but it's not for everyone. if you play sandbox games and play this, you will be sad you even tried it. now if you like themparks or don't really care..then your going to be fine.
For me it was a personal choice to not coninue my early access and not to purchase anything beyond release other then sit on my CE and sell it for more money later.
It felt like something was msissing from the game. it was like a stripper. all pretty on the outside but dead inside. it felt allot like Wow to be honest.
Thst just my personal view sorry if offends fans. it's a good game, but something's not right to me. maybe i'm jaded old fart since i played MMOs that had more soul and it seems we have lost something with game companys trying to beat Wow all these years.. I think it's the actuall fun of earning something that is missing these days. people don't want to work for anything. they want it all handed to them. they don't want to discover new things they just want automation and knowing how it ends.
There's No more journey only the the beginning and the end. TOR lacks all three. it's just another premade dev controlled themepark ride thats wants all the ex wow players. thats why it's not to unlike Wow. sadly BW won't stray far from the Wow money tree. and who can blame them really.
The main problem is the way these game corporations are run. You get all these business and marketing people that come up through the ranks and get put in charge of designing the game...and you get a shallow and unimaginitive POS concealed behind awesome graphics and fancy interface gimmicks that make the idiots drool.
Someday the majority of the WoW generation of MMO players will get jaded enough to see through the BS before they get sucked in, but not yet.
WoW perfected and polished the themepark back in 2004. It can't be replicated.
A game today that offers what WoW has been delivering for almost the last decade just isn't enough anymore.
Well this is so clear that a blind and deaf person would see it. However, the issue is that we the customers keep buying this regurgitated games and alot. AoC sold over a million copies, same with WAR, Rift, Aion etc. So companies keep making money on them and thus keep re-creating them.
The fact that they have no lasting appeal is irrelevant, aslong as the profit is there. And that is a sad state to be imo. Completely profit driven genre without much thought and risk put in innovation.
I'm not worried about it happening cdestey. I know it won't. This is a hypothetical discussion. It was hypothetical from the very beginning. Even the OP knows he is posing a "what if" question.
I'm just taking the idea to it's logical conclusion. I wouldn't want a space game, I want the ground game we have.
I am not so much bothered about what it intended or not to be. I see the Star Wars IP used in an MMORPG setting and I see a company that used to create really competent games and then I see the result. And the results simply does not live up to my expectations, regardless of what it did or did not intended to do.
And I am well aware that this game will never become what I hoped it would, this was clear to me atleast a year ago. But that does not change the fact that this game could have been so much better. I mean with the time, talent and money invested I am sure they could have done a much better MMORPG.
Sure it could be much more.
As for Bioware creating 'competent' games. Not sure what you mean by competent, but remember Bioware now is diffrent company and create diffrent kind of games it used to.
Baldur's Gate series and Neverwinter nights althrough sharing some similarities with Bioware newer games are at same time very diffrent games than their more recent products like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2 and now Swtor.
If you'll read some interviews with decision makers in EA-Bioware you'll know that it is their conscious decision to create more mainstream and streamlined games than they used to. They do and plan to futher concentrate on VO and very clear and simple to grasp decisions to provide easy and very streamlined games cause that kind of games have potentially biggest audience.
More p&p inspired features, more complex choices & dialogues are beign cut off and will continue to be.
I really I am of opinion that you should not expect Bioware to produce games in style they used to years ago.
I was hoping for a long time they'll but I finally understood that it is not their intention to do so.
One of reasons I am not planning to buy ME3 & DA3.
Well I don't think there is anything wrong with guild ships, in fact Bioware has talked about adding them to the game.
To me when you start saying player controlled corporations owning ships and things like that, i immediately thought of Eve. If that's not what you intended then I'm sorry I misunderstood.
I think open space travel and guild ships and whatnot might be cool. I can live without them but I don't really think the ships need to be anything more than travel tools. I don't want to see the sandbox stuff in this game and I seriously doubt I ever will.
The ships in this game are what I expected. They are basically the exact same as the Normandy in ME only smaller. I'm not playing this game forthe space stuff, so it doesn't bother me that it is not a heavy focus of the game. In fact, if they started focusing more on space and less on the core ground game, I would be upset.
You'd be upset if a Star Wars game had more space stuff?
Seriously?
Pretty sure what they're saying is that if BW devoted a crapload of resources to build up the space game, then the ACTUAL game would suffer, and thus they would be upset. And I'm in agreement.
You can choose to either make a great ground game, a great space game, or a mediocre ground/space game(see STO). You only ever have so many resources to work with.
That said, I'd like it if they expanded your ship's role in the game, and offered some physical personalization options. It is, in every essence, your home, and people like to decorate their homes as they see fit.
But I don't think we'll ever see a free flying Xwing/Tie Fighter type space game. All those games required years of development, and so would a new one. And having recently played JtL and XW:A, let me tell you, gameplay-wise, JtL was slow moving and weak in comparison. The Art and customization was cool, but the actual gameplay was sluggish and the AI pathetic.
'You could have been so much more son' my parents tell me all that time. But that is life.
How many servers SWTOR will launch with on release?
ShredderSE - Umm how many do they need? Maybe 6. US, EU, Asian, France, German and Russian. Subs will be so low there is no need for more Snoocky-How many servers? The first 3 months a lot...after that 2 i guess, one for PVE and 1 for PVP...
Thorbrand - SWTOR doesn't have longevity at all. Might be one of the shortest lived MMOs.
A few games have tried to be cutting edge, different or otherwise risky have not been rewarded in the MMO world. The 12-15 people who continually post here whining about how bad the game is will not be missed. A vast majority of players will enjoy the story of their players and play this game not just for a few months but long term. I think Bioware got their vanilla game right and will add to it going forward.
Combat is fun and challenging without being over the top hard
Instances are interesting, focused and can be run in about 1 or 1.5 hrs depending.
Space game is rudimentery but the missions themselves are fun minigame that you can do in a short amount of time.
My only beef with this game is the bad interface but it is not enough to interfere with my enjoying the game.
So, we can't expect a company to give us a better product then what is already currently available for the same price
Gosh, I don't know, why can't we squeeze a decade or more of development into four years, deliver it all in one box, and for the same price?
That's Baffling.
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.
A few games have tried to be cutting edge, different or otherwise risky have not been rewarded in the MMO world. The 12-15 people who continually post here whining about how bad the game is will not be missed. A vast majority of players will enjoy the story of their players and play this game not just for a few months but long term. I think Bioware got their vanilla game right and will add to it going forward.
Combat is fun and challenging without being over the top hard
Instances are interesting, focused and can be run in about 1 or 1.5 hrs depending.
Space game is rudimentery but the missions themselves are fun minigame that you can do in a short amount of time.
My only beef with this game is the bad interface but it is not enough to interfere with my enjoying the game.
Vocal minority, that are doing nothing but advertise the game with their constant threads of nothing. I guess they don t realize, indirectly they re helping the game, but, whatever. If thats what they want to do, let them, it s quite entertaining to read.
Comments
Yup, agree with OP.
This game has me still pondering if I should buy it or not, it has never before happened to me with Bioware games, I loved em all. So this simple fact just nails it - its not that good/addictive.
Its like they took an already heavily refined product in WoW and tried to refine it even further to the point its so homogynised that you are barely playing in a game world and are more just strapped into a themepark ride.
I think the majority of the people who are really addicted to SWTOR right now are your usual MMO hoppers and this is their current "Flavour of the month" which means as usual it will not last, the buzz for them will fade and they will move on to fresh new pastures when something new launches or return to familiar old ones until the next big MMO launch.
Well this sound neat and very nice BUT
This never was intended imo. What vision you're creating is fitting sandbox game or at least sandpark.
SWTOR is very themeparkish game, experience is polished but very railed and directed by creators.
It is about feeding single / co-op experience to players and providing usual instance running. Nothing more - nothing less.
Clearly targetted at playerbase that enjoy WoW, Lotro, Rift, etc
SW IP is just used cause it is very well known IP + since biggest mmo's are fantasy themed SW IP is very handy cause it provide Sc-FI ths giving small competiton leverage and differentation (bait for those that are tired with dwarves & elves).
Could company as big as EA-Bioware create diffrent and more unique experience with spending so much money and having aquired SW IP ? Sure.
It never was intended though.
It will never imho be expended in direction you would like to as well. "Player run-mega corporations", "open world without instancing", etc would require massive CORE changes to game + propably massive changes to HERO engine implementation used in Swtor.
Basically alot of time & resources spent on changing Swtor in diffrent KIND of game.
Effect of this kind of changes(that change core mechanics and style of game) is known through industry (SWG, diffrence between AC1 -> AC2, FFXI -> FFXIV ) - noone will risk.
Only changes that MIGHT be implemented later will focus on making Swtor even more accesible and streamlined that it is atm (cross-server LFG, auto-teleport to instances, nerfing content, paid faction / race /server changes-transfers, more instant travel options, etc).
Imho it is very clear what kind of game Swtor is.
If someone like this kind of mmorpg then he'll love it, if someone is looking for diffrent kind of mmorpg experience then imo best thing that can be done is to stop fooling him/herself and just look for diffrent game.
IMHO no point in paying for a game in hope for unrealistic future changes to it.
Less hype following and more conscious consumer decisions is what mmorpg playerbase and genre need imo.
I wasnt trying to compare them. Yes WoW (which I only played a few months of back in the vanilla days) took varions aspects of other MMO's at the time, rolled them into 1 and gave them a spit shine and refinement.
My point was there is such a thing as over refining, they took something already very refined and refined it even further, seemingly to the point where fun was removed as an impurity.
IMO Vindictus is more innovative then SWTOR. SWTOR doesn't impress me, especially when you comapre how much it cost to make. It has the feeling of a basic WoW clone with cutscenes and voice overs. It maybe more innovative deep down but it doesn't show enough to seperate it from any other MMO. Also, other MMOs didn't cost 150 bucks for the CE. So, yeah, it's overpriced mediocrity.
You'd be upset if a Star Wars game had more space stuff?
Seriously?
I think the basic problem is that we're looking at two audiences here.
Old guys, critical, played the hell out of MMOs for years. They're looking for flaws, picking things apart to find more to dislike. "Creativity" is a good line of attack, because it's subjective enough that its impossible to directly refute.
And the rest of the audience, not completely jaded and disgusted with everything (yet), given a solid and servicable game with just as much room to grow, and the same growing pains coming soon, as any new MMO.
Oh, there's a third audience, of course, the people who just want a completely different sub-genre. Not much you can do with them except "this game obviously is not ever going to be what you want".
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.
I just think SW:TOR is 8 years too late.
WoW perfected and polished the themepark back in 2004. It can't be replicated.
A game today that offers what WoW has been delivering for almost the last decade just isn't enough anymore.
I thought I made myself pretty clear.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
So, we can't expect a company to give us a better product then what is already currently available for the same price without being "jaded" and "disgusted"? Interesting way to look at our economics system. If a company can't match a product in quality then it shouldn't be the same price. That is how economics works but apparently the game industry thinks that throwing AAA on a title makes it worth max value which people who have been following MMOs should know that is not true.
I am not so much bothered about what it intended or not to be. I see the Star Wars IP used in an MMORPG setting and I see a company that used to create really competent games and then I see the result. And the results simply does not live up to my expectations, regardless of what it did or did not intended to do.
And I am well aware that this game will never become what I hoped it would, this was clear to me atleast a year ago. But that does not change the fact that this game could have been so much better. I mean with the time, talent and money invested I am sure they could have done a much better MMORPG.
My gaming blog
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 think that's even a remote possibility, so you don't have anything to worry about. Even when they added space combat to SWG, it was just an add-on and didn't change the fact that it was a ground game.
This - exactly.
The industry is trying to package easy solutions and sell it as games for us.
Voice and acting is something industry was doing for 100 years now (cinema) , its easy and they know how to do it.
Virtual world, well .... oh well...
Never done that before. Big RISK
It's a good game. but it's not for everyone. if you play sandbox games and play this, you will be sad you even tried it. now if you like themparks or don't really care..then your going to be fine.
For me it was a personal choice to not coninue my early access and not to purchase anything beyond release other then sit on my CE and sell it for more money later.
It felt like something was msissing from the game. it was like a stripper. all pretty on the outside but dead inside. it felt allot like Wow to be honest.
Thst just my personal view sorry if offends fans. it's a good game, but something's not right to me. maybe i'm jaded old fart since i played MMOs that had more soul and it seems we have lost something with game companys trying to beat Wow all these years.. I think it's the actuall fun of earning something that is missing these days. people don't want to work for anything. they want it all handed to them. they don't want to discover new things they just want automation and knowing how it ends.
There's No more journey only the the beginning and the end. TOR lacks all three. it's just another premade dev controlled themepark ride thats wants all the ex wow players. thats why it's not to unlike Wow. sadly BW won't stray far from the Wow money tree. and who can blame them really.
The main problem is the way these game corporations are run. You get all these business and marketing people that come up through the ranks and get put in charge of designing the game...and you get a shallow and unimaginitive POS concealed behind awesome graphics and fancy interface gimmicks that make the idiots drool.
Someday the majority of the WoW generation of MMO players will get jaded enough to see through the BS before they get sucked in, but not yet.
Well this is so clear that a blind and deaf person would see it. However, the issue is that we the customers keep buying this regurgitated games and alot. AoC sold over a million copies, same with WAR, Rift, Aion etc. So companies keep making money on them and thus keep re-creating them.
The fact that they have no lasting appeal is irrelevant, aslong as the profit is there. And that is a sad state to be imo. Completely profit driven genre without much thought and risk put in innovation.
My gaming blog
I'm just taking the idea to it's logical conclusion. I wouldn't want a space game, I want the ground game we have.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
Sure it could be much more.
As for Bioware creating 'competent' games. Not sure what you mean by competent, but remember Bioware now is diffrent company and create diffrent kind of games it used to.
Baldur's Gate series and Neverwinter nights althrough sharing some similarities with Bioware newer games are at same time very diffrent games than their more recent products like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2 and now Swtor.
If you'll read some interviews with decision makers in EA-Bioware you'll know that it is their conscious decision to create more mainstream and streamlined games than they used to. They do and plan to futher concentrate on VO and very clear and simple to grasp decisions to provide easy and very streamlined games cause that kind of games have potentially biggest audience.
More p&p inspired features, more complex choices & dialogues are beign cut off and will continue to be.
I really I am of opinion that you should not expect Bioware to produce games in style they used to years ago.
I was hoping for a long time they'll but I finally understood that it is not their intention to do so.
One of reasons I am not planning to buy ME3 & DA3.
Pretty sure what they're saying is that if BW devoted a crapload of resources to build up the space game, then the ACTUAL game would suffer, and thus they would be upset. And I'm in agreement.
You can choose to either make a great ground game, a great space game, or a mediocre ground/space game(see STO). You only ever have so many resources to work with.
That said, I'd like it if they expanded your ship's role in the game, and offered some physical personalization options. It is, in every essence, your home, and people like to decorate their homes as they see fit.
But I don't think we'll ever see a free flying Xwing/Tie Fighter type space game. All those games required years of development, and so would a new one. And having recently played JtL and XW:A, let me tell you, gameplay-wise, JtL was slow moving and weak in comparison. The Art and customization was cool, but the actual gameplay was sluggish and the AI pathetic.
'You could have been so much more son' my parents tell me all that time. But that is life.
How many servers SWTOR will launch with on release?
ShredderSE - Umm how many do they need? Maybe 6.
US, EU, Asian, France, German and Russian.
Subs will be so low there is no need for more
Snoocky-How many servers?
The first 3 months a lot...after that 2 i guess, one for PVE and 1 for PVP...
Thorbrand - SWTOR doesn't have longevity at all. Might be one of the shortest lived MMOs.
A few games have tried to be cutting edge, different or otherwise risky have not been rewarded in the MMO world. The 12-15 people who continually post here whining about how bad the game is will not be missed. A vast majority of players will enjoy the story of their players and play this game not just for a few months but long term. I think Bioware got their vanilla game right and will add to it going forward.
Combat is fun and challenging without being over the top hard
Instances are interesting, focused and can be run in about 1 or 1.5 hrs depending.
Space game is rudimentery but the missions themselves are fun minigame that you can do in a short amount of time.
My only beef with this game is the bad interface but it is not enough to interfere with my enjoying the game.
Gosh, I don't know, why can't we squeeze a decade or more of development into four years, deliver it all in one box, and for the same price?
That's Baffling.
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.
Vocal minority, that are doing nothing but advertise the game with their constant threads of nothing. I guess they don t realize, indirectly they re helping the game, but, whatever. If thats what they want to do, let them, it s quite entertaining to read.
THey just need to buy and then update Jump to Lightspeed from SWG and the game will be damn near perfect.