Sounds like mmorpg.com wants to make sure EA throws some of that "come play for free" advertising money their way once those ads are up after it goes completely F2P.
I'm sure this has been said at least 50 times before as I haven't read through every page but honestly if you cannot see the glaring difference between how swtor can be viewed as more of a srpg than a game like wow, rift, tera, ect I honestly don't know what to say. The obviously glaring difference swtor MAIN focus was a fully voiced SINGLE player story all those other games this was part of the game but far from the main focus of the game. Yes you have PLENTY of options to group up in swtor and play with others but that doesn't change the fact it was obvious the most time and effort was put into the srpg story aspect. It's fine if that doesn't bother you or you enjoy the game but to deny that this wasn't the main focus of swtor and how you can't see why people say it can feel more like an srpg than most other MMOs is ridiculous imho.
What people view a game as and what they choose to go on the mmorpg forums and debate it as are not the same thing, just because you can't see the fork in the road yet doesn't mean it isn't there.
The article as clearly stated is about those of you/us who choose to come on here and debate whether SWTOR is an mmorpg not what it feels like to you or me.
I'm not sure if you play SWTOR or not but I can tell you that if you counted out the quests (since the entire game is voiced over) you would find how wrong your statement is in that your characters story is the "main" or even the biggest part of the game, the world arcs outnumber the number of story quests on each world something like ten to one and even then there is nothing restricting or even discouraging people from grouping while doing class quests either.
I find it so funny that the people here who have trashed this game any which way they could have now gotten all defensive with pproclamations of "we see it like this" when for months many of these same posters in denial tried to present witty arguments of how SWTOR WAS/IS NOT an mmorpg not that it doesn't play like one or doesn't feel like one to them.
Mike B. comes along and somehow it seems because he get's paid for writing about games his opinion is deserving of more respect than the rest of us lol.
Never did I think I'd see the day when a bunch of people would admit that a game had become so immersive that they didn't even feel like they were playing an mmorpg.
For me I just wonder how people end up in these situations as I group in SWTOR every single day and it has been a very long time since I could say that about an mmorpg, people are always looking for a group to various quests and I have gotten in a pug within a half an hour of using the lfg tool.
I really think alot of these people who have a problem with grouping in SWTOR are looking for a game designed like SWG when players had a balance of reliance that nudged people into grouping no matter what it was they were doing.
I'm sorry but those days seem to be gone and now if you want to group you are going to have to put a little bit of effort into it (though trust me if you play TOR it won't take much).
I'm sure this has been said at least 50 times before as I haven't read through every page but honestly if you cannot see the glaring difference between how swtor can be viewed as more of a srpg than a game like wow, rift, tera, ect I honestly don't know what to say. The obviously glaring difference swtor MAIN focus was a fully voiced SINGLE player story all those other games this was part of the game but far from the main focus of the game. Yes you have PLENTY of options to group up in swtor and play with others but that doesn't change the fact it was obvious the most time and effort was put into the srpg story aspect. It's fine if that doesn't bother you or you enjoy the game but to deny that this wasn't the main focus of swtor and how you can't see why people say it can feel more like an srpg than most other MMOs is ridiculous imho.
What people view a game as and what they choose to go on the mmorpg forums and debate it as are not the same thing, just because you can't see the fork in the road yet doesn't mean it isn't there.
The article as clearly stated is about those of you/us who choose to come on here and debate whether SWTOR is an mmorpg not what it feels like to you or me.
I'm not sure if you play SWTOR or not but I can tell you that if you counted out the quests (since the entire game is voiced over) you would find how wrong your statement is in that your characters story is the "main" or even the biggest part of the game, the world arcs outnumber the number of story quests on each world something like ten to one and even then there is nothing restricting or even discouraging people from grouping while doing class quests either.
I find it so funny that the people here who have trashed this game any which way they could have now gotten all defensive with pproclamations of "we see it like this" when for months many of these same posters in denial tried to present witty arguments of how SWTOR WAS/IS NOT an mmorpg not that it doesn't play like one or doesn't feel like one to them.
Mike B. comes along and somehow it seems because he get's paid for writing about games his opinion is deserving of more respect than the rest of us lol.
Never did I think I'd see the day when a bunch of people would admit that a game had become so immersive that they didn't even feel like they were playing an mmorpg.
For me I just wonder how people end up in these situations as I group in SWTOR every single day and it has been a very long time since I could say that about an mmorpg, people are always looking for a group to various quests and I have gotten in a pug within a half an hour of using the lfg tool.
I really think alot of these people who have a problem with grouping in SWTOR are looking for a game designed like SWG when players had a balance of reliance that nudged people into grouping no matter what it was they were doing.
I'm sorry but those days seem to be gone and now if you want to group you are going to have to put a little bit of effort into it (though trust me if you play TOR it won't take much).
swtor actually tries to make itself as unimmersive as possible in many ways but again it's all perspective. I try to stay away from these arguments because like always they just become a pissing match back and forth. I'm sure I'm 100% wrong swtor is growing and will be a massive force in the MMO world for years to come with its great MMO features... i honestly don't care anymore i actually have lost all hopes to ever play a decent star wars MMO in my lifetime and just hope star wars 1313 is as fun as the E3 footage made it look so i can get my star wars fix somewhere.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
SWTOR has more single player content than most single player games. There are 8 personal stories one for each class archtype. Space is single player. Everyone has a companion.
Name a MMORPG that has more single player content/focus.
"You CAN'T buy ships for RL money." - MaxBacon
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
I think the author blows it when he uses heroic's as an example of group content. First of all you can solo a bunch of them if you keep your companion geared, but more importantly the entire design of heroic quests made folks skip them entirely because it took more time to form a group to do the heroic, then it took doing the heroic itself. They were to small, to fast to do, and frankly the rewards didnt make it worth your time. Flashpoints are only slighly better.
The reality is if the game is super fast to level in there is no point in running instances to get better gear for level 25 out of instances if you will be getting better green drops in a few hours by advancing your level.
Having group content and having worthwhile group content that rewards people for doing it are entirely different things.
In the end your fancy piece of writing means squat. Because the players made that claim and no journalist can deconstruct this and change it's legacy. It's here to stay, better make your peace with that fact!
SWTOR is an awesome single player MMO'ish, The END!
The game gets called a SPRPG because of the lack of challenge and depth. It's an easy summation of the design failings that have resulted in the geometric reduction in subs since launch. You can parse descriptions if you want, but the objective state of this game is on display for anyone who cares enough to log in.
Why does the OP only talk about SWTOR combat ? What about the boring crafting, the anemic auctions/economy, the limited guild options, the non existing diplomaty, the lack of chat bubbles, the phasing and the general fact that there's nothing for players to interract with each others beside combat ?
Alright. This game is playable single player if you wish, as it essentially every other mmo out there. it is what you make of it. Personally I play with others all the time. The social aspect of the game certainly comes out if you join a good guild or create a good friends list. You can wander around alone all you want in any of these games, including SWG if you had wanted. The problem here is that so many people have grown so accustomed to playing with their guilds/friends on their other games they are lost without them. If you come from an active guild with 100 people or however many and everyone is talking, of course it's going to seem like you are alone when you start on a new game without them. For these people, it's also rather natural to not want to put yourself out there again. There is a vulnerability in doing so. As for instances in the game, yes they are yours, however you can have a group join you and enjoy your story as well. I have done it many times, it's fun to pick up pieces of another story to get your attention and see how it might differ from your own. The funny thing is that less emersion seems to make it less single player, and more massive in many peoples eyes.
I have found the game becoming more and more social on a regular basis lately because the majority of people that just wanted to try the "next" thing are leaving and this is when the real community starts. More going on with the PVP worlds, more teaming up.
Guild Wars 2 has done a great thing with the social aspect though. The area group tasks or whatever they are called gives a great group feeling of doing something big, but it generally is short lived. The great thing is that you can go help out a newbie and drop to their level and help them, instead of just walking them through it making it slightly sandboxish.
The worst thing to happen to MMO's though is levels. Gathering skills is one thing, but gaining levels is another entirely, with that you get more hp, more skills and better stats. If everyone were left with base primary stats but gained levels and skills then every person is viable from from the get go, instead of having the elitest stature of a higher level and you must meet that requirement before being able to do something with the rest of your friends. It makes it much harder for casual gamers or new gamers to jump into.
As for complaning about the economy, loot is the problem with "theme park" mmo economies. The drop rates are far too high, easy to attain, plus when you get something you have it forever, there is no time limit or ability to loose it for good unless you accidently sell it. Dropping crafting materials is one thing, but dropping the best armor sets every time you run something destroys the economy, especially since nothing even close to that is craftable. I am mostly speaking of SWTOR at the moment, but I have found this is a general flaw in most mmo's now days.
Sorry rambling. Late at night and the servers just went down.
Could not be more happy that I can SOLO WHOLE content! And when I will have done all questing and leveling all my alts ... will have raids etc. And if I want while leveling, have a looot of group content. So SWTOR is not at all solo RPG, it have all best from both worlds. Best game ever of all kinds ... starting with pacman and original prince of persia to nowadays. :-)
Even if a MMORPG editor explains why it's a ridiculous statement, people will go on "Lalala, I'm not hearing you, lalala, TOR is a singleplayer RPG, lalala."
Heck, I played all 3 beta weekends of GW2 now (+stress tests) and did FAR less grouping and actually chatting to strangers than I did when initially starting out TOR (flame on).
Kettle much? "Lalalala GW2 rewards you for not having to group but still doing things WITH OTHER PEOPLE, LALALALA I'm not listening"
sound familiar? yeah that's what you implied above and you didn't learn a thing from GW2 apparently. Thought i might point out your contradiction to your own argument there. Saying that GW2 is in any way like the solo experience you get in leveling in SWTOR is like saying that the experience you get form the elites in WoW was anywhere near worth while like in EQ2. There's no comparison because they are obviously different. And then you go on the pretend that people who don't NEED to form a group for content in GW2 but get rewarded anyway is somehow the same as the experience in SWTOR. It's not and here's why.
SWTOR WOW both require you to group for dungeons and for raids and make those two things the only way to progress. The content in GW2 is almost all outside the dungeons and with every event, the group forms just by people being there (without pressing a button or asking someone's pernission so you could loot.) yeah it just happens. Top that off with getting your own loot and credit for everything you are doing without someone stealing kills or taking your nodes and you have THE solution for the pve mmo'ers problems we've all seen in the early days of mmos.
Uhh, I'm going to play GW2 and I like it, so no, not kettle much
I made one sentence about the game (of course I knew it was gonna be taken out of context anyhow) and here you go off like I "pretend that the GW2 experience is the same as the one in SW:TOR".
The only thing I said was that I never grouped or talked with / learned to know total strangers as often or as early as I did in TOR. Why? Because while doing events, you are playing besides each other, not necessarily with each other. I didn't "pretend" anything else.
And that's fine, because it's another type of experience, one that fits the game.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
SWTOR doesn't seem as deep or complex as Wow, so I went back to WoW.
WoW also has a sense of humour.
The addons make WoW more interesting as well.
and that has always been a huge glaring issues people trying to beat wow at their own game yet lacking most of what keeps people playing wow to this day and people wonder why these games fall one after another.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
No matter what you say, MikeB. This game felt to my like any singleplayer RPG and not even the best of it. After my mains story was over I even had to force me leveling the rest up to 50. But it felt useless. Due to the massive focus on the story and the voiced movies the common MMO gaming felt wrong to me. After that everything in the game felt like a copy of something I had done or seen before. And in fact massive parts ingame are pure copies of other parts in the game as well. The MMO feeling never got me in this game. (if there is any)
I quit the sub after 5 month, because I felt the game was over. As in the average single player RPG. I won't even buy further Addons, SWTOR did never get my (as I had hoped for a long time)
There's a difference between saying the game can play like a Single Player RPG and saying that the game is a Single Player RPG. One statement is true, the other is not.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I think the major reason for the single player tag, for me at least, is the ease of combat. With the addition of a 'pet' to make it even easier, it just makes it so you never need another person around.
Take TSW for example, you can solo through that game but it's a challenge. Some of the mobs are quite hard and if you're clumsy and get a few adds then you can expect to be respawning soon. Compare that to TOR where you take on multiple mobs at once with no concerns and the single player view is easily seen.
TSW allows you to solo but also makes it easier if you decide to group. TOR just makes it easy with no incentive to leave your private story filled bubble.
I'm not a powergamer like the WoW gamers, I mean raiding, gearing, score on the armory etc. isnt my goal and thats bored me a lot...
SWTOR has many good points for ''casual'' and more than casual gamers, questing, storyline, flashpoint, pvp etc.
You can easy play solo and with a group. Everytime when I was on a planet, I saw someone who asking in the general chat to join a group for a heroic quest, and everytime he found some peeps easily.
Anyway, is my main game since the day one and the game is better after each update, I really like it.
I am still playing the game so obviously I enjoy it as well. I do wish certain features like the group finder would have been in since the beginning. Still, Bioware is moving to address elements that need to be improve and for that I am happy.
What really killed it for me was how insulated I felt while playing. There are 2 factions? Really? REALLY? Well... I don't believe you. So there.
*snip*
For that matter, the planets I was on didn't really exist either. I mean, not really. I kept running into invisible walls everywhere I went. That and I couldn't climb hills or jump properly to boot - that was really annoying.
..... but good luck with telling people that the things that they dislike about a game aren't what they really dislike and people shouldn't really have the preferences that they do. EA/Bioware seem to be having awesome success with that so far.
Might I suggest for your next column you write a piece entitled "Why asparagus ice cream really doesn't taste bad and why you should forget about strawberry, chocolate or vanilla because they are things of the past and just learn to love this green stuff we are trying to force down your throat."
P.S. You didn't ever have to play TOR, let alone wait till launch to see what it's focus was about. The Developers were pretty clear about what thier design intentions were from thier blog and forum posts..... and if it wasn't explicitly spelled out anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together could gather what the results of some of mechanics decisions they made would be (i.e. not whether those would be popular or not but what it spelled for the type of game experience you could expect).
P.P.S. If cooperative/group based isn't a centraly important aspect of game-play rather then some tacked on optional thing...then you can forget about ever seeing a dime from me. If that means I never get to play a AAA MMO again...fine. I like ice cream but if my only options in ice cream are different varieties of asparagus flavor, I'd rather pass entirely, thanks.
My biggest problem with SWTOR was not that it catered to solo play, but how linear it was. Honestly besides personal story, it was the same track to 50 on each planet. Why couldn't they spend a little of budget they had on more than 1 planet for each lvl range? Or why couldn't i take my IA over to koriban to quest? So yeah it felt too much like an old school sprpg, in the sense of start at point A, now go to point b, now point c, etc, etc, etc. The cinematic's were great for class story quest line, but really imo it was not needed for the general quest's you did, aka kill 10 woompa's quest. I have several complaint's about swtor, but i also have several thing's i like about it.
while I do understand your points you are missing a few core issues with the design of SWTOR, that indeed make this game feels like at best a co-op RPG.
First thing, and I played extensively grouped with my first alt, the cinematic experience make it so you have to wait for the others too much. I don't count how many time I was playing with firends and either us or me had to wait till we finish a cutscene or abort and replay it.
I never experienced so long silences in teamspeak in any MMO ever. There were time that noone would speak for dozens of minutes because we were experiencing the VO content.
Thus leaving us with more a feeling of playing alone than anything else. Because the VO isolated you from interacting with other players.
Then the game is way too much instanced and the way the world is designed does not makes you feel you belong to a group or you are playing along others. There's also no incentives for socialization either.
Don't forget traveling in TOR is tedious due to loading times and static screens. And well if you aren't already on the right planet or area, it can take quite some time to meet with others. The nail in the coffin was voluntarily not adding recall back in the group finder tool. (This deserves a /WTH?)
Finally the companion system mostly removes the need to group with anyone but for some (boring?) heroics quests with not even worthy rewards. Meaning apart Flashpoints and OP, players seldom group in TOR.
Let's continue to digg in:
The ranked WZ are made so PUGs are being owned by pre-made without being able not to queue against them. I don't see that seriously encouraging grouping with PUGS.
Contrary to say Rift the system does not check your skills template before allowing you to LFG. So it does bring issues.
Then there's no estimate to know how long you're going to wait. Also if someone drops the group and people goes back to something else, while waiting for a replacement, they can't port back.
Don't forget there's no global LFG chat channel to help populate missing spots.
All in all maybe TOR is a multiplayer game but the core design does not promotes it and the tools does not help that much, this is compared to others AAA MMO.
Comments
Sounds like mmorpg.com wants to make sure EA throws some of that "come play for free" advertising money their way once those ads are up after it goes completely F2P.
Good article. I fully agree with you on all points. Some people just love to be nay sayers----- [mod edit]
What people view a game as and what they choose to go on the mmorpg forums and debate it as are not the same thing, just because you can't see the fork in the road yet doesn't mean it isn't there.
The article as clearly stated is about those of you/us who choose to come on here and debate whether SWTOR is an mmorpg not what it feels like to you or me.
I'm not sure if you play SWTOR or not but I can tell you that if you counted out the quests (since the entire game is voiced over) you would find how wrong your statement is in that your characters story is the "main" or even the biggest part of the game, the world arcs outnumber the number of story quests on each world something like ten to one and even then there is nothing restricting or even discouraging people from grouping while doing class quests either.
I find it so funny that the people here who have trashed this game any which way they could have now gotten all defensive with pproclamations of "we see it like this" when for months many of these same posters in denial tried to present witty arguments of how SWTOR WAS/IS NOT an mmorpg not that it doesn't play like one or doesn't feel like one to them.
Mike B. comes along and somehow it seems because he get's paid for writing about games his opinion is deserving of more respect than the rest of us lol.
Never did I think I'd see the day when a bunch of people would admit that a game had become so immersive that they didn't even feel like they were playing an mmorpg.
For me I just wonder how people end up in these situations as I group in SWTOR every single day and it has been a very long time since I could say that about an mmorpg, people are always looking for a group to various quests and I have gotten in a pug within a half an hour of using the lfg tool.
I really think alot of these people who have a problem with grouping in SWTOR are looking for a game designed like SWG when players had a balance of reliance that nudged people into grouping no matter what it was they were doing.
I'm sorry but those days seem to be gone and now if you want to group you are going to have to put a little bit of effort into it (though trust me if you play TOR it won't take much).
swtor actually tries to make itself as unimmersive as possible in many ways but again it's all perspective. I try to stay away from these arguments because like always they just become a pissing match back and forth. I'm sure I'm 100% wrong swtor is growing and will be a massive force in the MMO world for years to come with its great MMO features... i honestly don't care anymore i actually have lost all hopes to ever play a decent star wars MMO in my lifetime and just hope star wars 1313 is as fun as the E3 footage made it look so i can get my star wars fix somewhere.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
SWTOR has more single player content than most single player games. There are 8 personal stories one for each class archtype. Space is single player. Everyone has a companion.
Name a MMORPG that has more single player content/focus.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I think the author blows it when he uses heroic's as an example of group content. First of all you can solo a bunch of them if you keep your companion geared, but more importantly the entire design of heroic quests made folks skip them entirely because it took more time to form a group to do the heroic, then it took doing the heroic itself. They were to small, to fast to do, and frankly the rewards didnt make it worth your time. Flashpoints are only slighly better.
The reality is if the game is super fast to level in there is no point in running instances to get better gear for level 25 out of instances if you will be getting better green drops in a few hours by advancing your level.
Having group content and having worthwhile group content that rewards people for doing it are entirely different things.
Oh holy sh*t.
He just defended SWTOR
and supported GW2
In the same story.
Did he just commit hater blashpemy?
SWTOR is one the great casual story themed mmo's around and I look forward to keep coming back time and again.
In the end your fancy piece of writing means squat. Because the players made that claim and no journalist can deconstruct this and change it's legacy. It's here to stay, better make your peace with that fact!
SWTOR is an awesome single player MMO'ish, The END!
The Apologia for SWTOR given here is weak.
The game gets called a SPRPG because of the lack of challenge and depth. It's an easy summation of the design failings that have resulted in the geometric reduction in subs since launch. You can parse descriptions if you want, but the objective state of this game is on display for anyone who cares enough to log in.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Could not be more happy that I can SOLO WHOLE content! And when I will have done all questing and leveling all my alts ... will have raids etc. And if I want while leveling, have a looot of group content. So SWTOR is not at all solo RPG, it have all best from both worlds. Best game ever of all kinds ... starting with pacman and original prince of persia to nowadays. :-)
Uhh, I'm going to play GW2 and I like it, so no, not kettle much
I made one sentence about the game (of course I knew it was gonna be taken out of context anyhow) and here you go off like I "pretend that the GW2 experience is the same as the one in SW:TOR".
The only thing I said was that I never grouped or talked with / learned to know total strangers as often or as early as I did in TOR. Why? Because while doing events, you are playing besides each other, not necessarily with each other. I didn't "pretend" anything else.
And that's fine, because it's another type of experience, one that fits the game.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
SWTOR doesn't seem as deep or complex as Wow, so I went back to WoW.
WoW also has a sense of humour.
The addons make WoW more interesting as well.
and that has always been a huge glaring issues people trying to beat wow at their own game yet lacking most of what keeps people playing wow to this day and people wonder why these games fall one after another.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
No matter what you say, MikeB. This game felt to my like any singleplayer RPG and not even the best of it. After my mains story was over I even had to force me leveling the rest up to 50. But it felt useless. Due to the massive focus on the story and the voiced movies the common MMO gaming felt wrong to me. After that everything in the game felt like a copy of something I had done or seen before. And in fact massive parts ingame are pure copies of other parts in the game as well. The MMO feeling never got me in this game. (if there is any)
I quit the sub after 5 month, because I felt the game was over. As in the average single player RPG. I won't even buy further Addons, SWTOR did never get my (as I had hoped for a long time)
There's a difference between saying the game can play like a Single Player RPG and saying that the game is a Single Player RPG. One statement is true, the other is not.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Take TSW for example, you can solo through that game but it's a challenge. Some of the mobs are quite hard and if you're clumsy and get a few adds then you can expect to be respawning soon. Compare that to TOR where you take on multiple mobs at once with no concerns and the single player view is easily seen.
TSW allows you to solo but also makes it easier if you decide to group. TOR just makes it easy with no incentive to leave your private story filled bubble.
Yeah I'd be trying hard to bolster my position too under such overwhelming public opinion, supported by a veritable exodus of subscribers.
This site took a first class ride on the hype train, like just about everyone else.
There's no shame in admitting you were wrong.
I am still playing the game so obviously I enjoy it as well. I do wish certain features like the group finder would have been in since the beginning. Still, Bioware is moving to address elements that need to be improve and for that I am happy.
Nailed it with those...
Methinks the Bitton doth protest too much.....
..... but good luck with telling people that the things that they dislike about a game aren't what they really dislike and people shouldn't really have the preferences that they do. EA/Bioware seem to be having awesome success with that so far.
Might I suggest for your next column you write a piece entitled "Why asparagus ice cream really doesn't taste bad and why you should forget about strawberry, chocolate or vanilla because they are things of the past and just learn to love this green stuff we are trying to force down your throat."
P.S. You didn't ever have to play TOR, let alone wait till launch to see what it's focus was about. The Developers were pretty clear about what thier design intentions were from thier blog and forum posts..... and if it wasn't explicitly spelled out anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together could gather what the results of some of mechanics decisions they made would be (i.e. not whether those would be popular or not but what it spelled for the type of game experience you could expect).
P.P.S. If cooperative/group based isn't a centraly important aspect of game-play rather then some tacked on optional thing...then you can forget about ever seeing a dime from me. If that means I never get to play a AAA MMO again...fine. I like ice cream but if my only options in ice cream are different varieties of asparagus flavor, I'd rather pass entirely, thanks.
My biggest problem with SWTOR was not that it catered to solo play, but how linear it was. Honestly besides personal story, it was the same track to 50 on each planet. Why couldn't they spend a little of budget they had on more than 1 planet for each lvl range? Or why couldn't i take my IA over to koriban to quest? So yeah it felt too much like an old school sprpg, in the sense of start at point A, now go to point b, now point c, etc, etc, etc. The cinematic's were great for class story quest line, but really imo it was not needed for the general quest's you did, aka kill 10 woompa's quest. I have several complaint's about swtor, but i also have several thing's i like about it.
Dear Michael,
while I do understand your points you are missing a few core issues with the design of SWTOR, that indeed make this game feels like at best a co-op RPG.
First thing, and I played extensively grouped with my first alt, the cinematic experience make it so you have to wait for the others too much. I don't count how many time I was playing with firends and either us or me had to wait till we finish a cutscene or abort and replay it.
I never experienced so long silences in teamspeak in any MMO ever. There were time that noone would speak for dozens of minutes because we were experiencing the VO content.
Thus leaving us with more a feeling of playing alone than anything else. Because the VO isolated you from interacting with other players.
Then the game is way too much instanced and the way the world is designed does not makes you feel you belong to a group or you are playing along others. There's also no incentives for socialization either.
Don't forget traveling in TOR is tedious due to loading times and static screens. And well if you aren't already on the right planet or area, it can take quite some time to meet with others. The nail in the coffin was voluntarily not adding recall back in the group finder tool. (This deserves a /WTH?)
Finally the companion system mostly removes the need to group with anyone but for some (boring?) heroics quests with not even worthy rewards. Meaning apart Flashpoints and OP, players seldom group in TOR.
Let's continue to digg in:
The ranked WZ are made so PUGs are being owned by pre-made without being able not to queue against them. I don't see that seriously encouraging grouping with PUGS.
Contrary to say Rift the system does not check your skills template before allowing you to LFG. So it does bring issues.
Then there's no estimate to know how long you're going to wait. Also if someone drops the group and people goes back to something else, while waiting for a replacement, they can't port back.
Don't forget there's no global LFG chat channel to help populate missing spots.
All in all maybe TOR is a multiplayer game but the core design does not promotes it and the tools does not help that much, this is compared to others AAA MMO.