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I Have To Question Some MMORPG Staffers Objectivity
RobbHood
Member Posts: 58
Some of the articles on SWTOR seem a bit naive. "Slain by the Sith" and "The Droid I was looking for" to name two. And let's not forget Pocke'ts video on the number one reason she is playing SW.......are you ready?.........The questing has been elevated to a new level by Bioware. Really?
Kill x of this and deliver this to that seems to have been around since the original EQ. And I question whether its really Star Wars honestly.
It may be based on Star Wars, but Star Wars was Luke and company. A light saber doth not a Star Wars make.
The game is what it is and all the hype and spin will never change the fact that it is a re-skinned (barely) KOTOR that allows up to 200 players to play a single player game in a single instance along side each other, occsionally banding together to run a flashpoint or operation.
For any progression minded players, it's very weak. For RP'ers, it's terrible. For explorer's it's non-exisitent. For PvPers it's, again, terrible. And for solo players, it's a good story once, maybe twice through.
You really don't "play" SWTOR, it "plays you" and you are basically just along fot the ride.
Where are the critical thinkers amoung the writers? Graphically average, except mayby the fire throught the grate in Hutt Ball, which looks worse then average, like the original Duke Nukem graphically. Questing is as lineiar as all the rest, and maybe wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't hyped as the next gen of questing. The choices you make have no impact, nothing changes but a few dark/light points.
Character customization? poor. With no housing or player cities, keeps, or the like, a player has to fall in love with their avitar. Gear them up, dress them up, show off the spoils of war. The standard players are use to are missing, like a wardrobe option. Even Blizz folded in this department. The companions are all the same. The game should have been called SW: The Clone Wars.
So now, with so many players already at 50, they are asking what do we do now? In the World of Warcraft Southpark episode when the gang power leveled up to kill the uber ganker, and did, they asked "Now what do we do?" The answer..."Now we play the game."
But ya gotta have some kind of game to play at that point, and SWTOR is lacking. I guess we can wait for "Time to take a second look at SWTOR".
Sorry, I call 'em like I see 'em.
Comments
Yes, clearly, if the staff disagrees with you in a review, they must be not objective and incapable of critical thinking.
Not one staffer found anything wrong with this game?
You'll be flamed for this, even though you speak truth. The reality is that the second there was an mmo made by Bioware in the Star Wars universe - it was guaranteed to have a rabid fan base no matter how bad the game was itself. Sure, as time goes on there are more people posting about how the novelty of the story is wearing off and they aren't that happy, but Bioware and Star Wars is both big enough to have a HUGE helping of fanbois and lap dogs.
Of course not everyone falls into that category, there are other reasons also. The hype and the fact that MANY people are just bored and willing to jump on anything new adds to it. Also, people who are totally cool with an extreme theme park model seem ok with it, even though I strongly feel it is lower quality than most of the theme parks released over the last 5 years.
I also STRONGLY feel that if this game was not in a star wars universe and was not made by Bioware - people would say "hey that story thing is kind of cool", but absolutely SHRED the game otherwise.
Read the round table thread.
I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.
You set your expectations too high if you want the staff to be completely objective and logical. See them more like regular forum posters but with a higher requirement on the entertainment value and length of their posts.
Those two articles are not really good examples of what the OP is trying to say regardless.
The droid I was looking for was not a review as was clearly stated. It was an opinion piece and someones opinion is 100% correct for them no matter what someone else thinks. I'm not even sure why that article was mentioned in the OP.
As to the slain by the sith article... I deleted a post I had in there because like the thread starter I didn't read it either. Which it seems obvious to me that they didn't read it... because the article had nothing to do with what the title implied. It was another opinion piece and the title was misleading if you didn't read the article.
Now if someone really did claim that TOR elevated questing to a new level... then I would agree with the statement in the OP about that paticular item. There is nothing new about questing in TOR let alone elevated to another level.
What they used to talk about in those Warhammer Online video's about questing (things that never actually happened) would have been a new level. TOR is just.. a continuation of what we've seen before. That's not good or bad... its simply the same.
Final words from slain by the sith:
The servers could shut down tomorrow and the sun could fade forever on the World of Warcraft yet the embers of its existence would still be felt throughout the industry and culture. That to me proves that WoW isn’t going to really die off for a long, long time.
Although I wouldn’t mind some sort of lightsaber though, if I’m being brutally honest.
And a few first word from The droid I was looking for:
Yep, it’s another Star Wars: The Old Republic column; you’ve been warned. I’ll also state the obvious before I get lambasted for not producing a good review: this is not a review. It is, at best, a short compendium of my initial impressions about the game, and it’s certainly not intended to tell you much about it. There are plenty of other column inches out there with reviews, including an official one coming right here next week. Besides – you shouldn’t be lambasting, you should be playing SW:TOR.
In one of your examples the writer is pretty even handed about dismissing most of the tor hype while admitting the game will likely be big. Your second example clearly states that it's not a review. What was your point exactly?
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
You didn't even read the staff review before posting this thread, did you?
answer: yes, they did.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean someone cannot criticize the choice of writing an opinion piece over a far more objective article. Nonetheless, as I mentioned above, I think he has too high expectations :&.
Did you actually read any of the reviews? The listed things they didn't like as well as things they did like. Is it that hard to believe that maybe...just maybe, they actually liked the fucking game? Considering well over a million people play it, I'd say it's probably a pretty good game for a lot of people.
Also...Pokket isn't part of the mmorpg staff.
You don't have to bring up how much you enjoyed the game until the final part of the article. Rest can definitely be objective. In other words: writing that you enjoyed something is a conclusion, but the reason for why you enjoyed it can very well be presented in an objective manner.
Btw, this thread is kind of ironic since the staffer that gave TOR the lowest grade (6/10) is a die-hard Darkfall player and was over on the Darkfall forums bragging about the fact that he gave it a low grade.
But I'm sure he's not the guy the OP had in mind when questioning objectivity, is he?
Eh, I'm going to be the technical, nit-picky ass who points out that you can objectively review things like chemistry homework. You might say "grade" instead of "review" but "I will objectively review your chemistry homework" is a correct sentence.
But Dude its Starwars cmon its awesome!!!!!
I enjoy reading my newspaper articles every morning even though they tend to be almost purely objective. Furthermore, adverbs and adjectives do not always need to be subjective; information about how a game compares to other games can be brought out without excessive opinions.
Or:
"The reality is that the second an MMO is advertised on this webpage - it was guaranteed to get nothing but hype, praise and high scores by the staff no matter how many issues the game has."
So if their view does not match up to your view we need to question their objectivity?
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
you have to love the so called "objective thinkers" They also tend to be the same ones who say the world is full of conspiracy. And much like those people you should treat these the same way smile and nod and try to nudge them back to thier forums of gw2 and wow.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
It is always amusing to have an opinion piece on an entertainment media critized for 'objectivity'.
Unless they stated that SWTOR is a game about elves and dragons, the MMORPG staff hasn't stated anything objectively wrong.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
im a level 30 inquisitor and ive done 3 quests given to me by quest givers that made me kill x this . if that. most of the kill x or y quests are bonus pop ups.
Sure i have to see this person or find a holocron, i have had to destory med beds or steal medical supplies.
the fact is i do very litte kill x or y quests in this game. Say what u will but when u cant even get the type of quests right thats when u know the person hasnt played the game.
Truth is most of my quests feel more important due to the story, Questing in tor feels less grindy it may not be less grindy but it feels like it matters more.
That is all pokket was saying. Sorry but i have to defend her cause she is right, questing in tor is so much more fun then in the other mmos ive played.
It doesn't sound like you even read the reviews, RobbHood. In addition, reading your post, you sound extremely biased. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's very difficult to not get the impression that you decided you didn't like SWTOR beforehand and then twisted everything into a negative light, to the point of grasping at the tiniest and most brittle of straws, so it would fit with your very biased POV.
It's rather ironic that you accuse the MMORPG staffers of lacking objectivity when you yourself are so unbelievably far out there.
Actually I would say the TOR forums see more trolling from the sandbox/GW2 fans.
I am just going to shake my head at the OP. I really wish the mods would keep this forum clear of non sense like this. This thread is simply an invite for flaming. Much the same as "OMG the game has failed with 350k peak time players", or "firesale on Amazon...no one wants game" threads.
One poster went so far as trying to claim TOR lost 600k preorders, when in reality the site they linked showed TOR with almost 1.7M copies sold. It is much harder to present thier hate if folks cant make up their own "facts" about how bad things are.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
I have got to call BS on the above mate, I really do.
I don't like plain untruths and the above is NOT true and makes me question either how much and how far you have actually played the game or how honest you are capable of being regarding this game.
The quest choices you make very often change the content AND outcome of the quests. I know this because I have played this game to level 39 and have seen it not once or twice, but time and time again.
This is a real innovation.
Saying that it is the same kill x of this and deliver Y with only dark/light side being effected is blatant bullshit and I just cannot take another word you say seriously unless you come clean and admit it.
Regards
Melmoth
p.s. havent read thru the whole thread yet so sorry if I have repeeated what another has said.
Nailed it.
I'm level 48 as of Tuesday night, I had to work the last 2 days. I will hit 50 tomorrow and all I can say from my experience with this game so far is this "bad design decisions"
This game has a sorta of lifeless feel to it. There are so many horrible design decisions it boggles the mind. Too much instancing. Horribly optimized engine. Completely unfinished endgame. Voice over's on every single side quest. RNG for pvp gear. Super fast leveling and pvp leveling. No duel specing, expensive respecing. Ton's of load screens. Phasing the community into tons of fragments. I can go on and on.
Nobody is even talking class balance because the game has so many fundamental problem's right now.
The UI appears as if the UI team have never touched a mmo in their live's.