I miss my Powertech. The issue with SWTOR is too much theme park. You play through it once and your done. I agree with Mike on the point that Bioware needs to constantly add expansions. If SWTOR had more of a open world/worlds the need for a expansion would be less.
Would be nice to see Bioware expand on PVP. PVP in SWTOR is quite fun! It is SWTOR's real strong point. Towards my end of my SWTOR experience I only logged in to pvp.
While I don't agree that SWTOR could own any year without anything short of a miracle. I do however agree with Mike B. for once on his points in that those ideas would go a long ways to helping SWTOR get on the right track.
Thanks Mike. Good article. Completely agree. SWTOR isn't the best game, but contrary to popular belief it does have some redeeming qualities which are fun. Whats missing are side systems to flesh out the main story. Give us housing or hell, make the cantina a social spot to congregate. Give us other things to do than just quest that adds to the Star Wars universe.
Also believe space combat was a missed opportunity. Adding something of greater depth and exploration here (dare I say travel to planets manually) would be a plus.
Not convinced Bioware has the manpower to deliver this year. But will see what happens. I'm currently playing my Bounty Hunter story in F2P and cant say its not fun.
I personally don't believe there's any hope left for this game. I wanted Pazaak, swoop racing, and a great space game at launch, and they could have delivered if holding to a stringent release date wasn't such a priority. Truth be told, it probably would have been better for the overall reception if they had managed to spend more time on the details, rather than releasing in a state of unfinishedness, turning F2P, and hoping they could fill in the gaps as they proceed.
Man, it still gets me. I wanted to like it so much, but there's relatively nothing to do aside from questing and instanced PvP, which I think we can all recognize as important core features in a themepark, but that there needs to be more for players to justify subscription, or long term activity.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
I doubt very much that TOR can afford to even rent 2013.
A few years ago the people in charge of the purse strings should have had the common sense to say no. Sadly they didn't and this game turned into the shambling frankenstein's monster we know today that eats money and creative resources like candy. I fail to see how they can turn the game around now that they have far less money resources and time to utlize the same ridiculous framework they've created.
The creative team had some big dreams. Unfortunately they were the same kind of dreams that built Mad King Ludwig's castle.
If you dont do stupid things while youre young, youll have nothing to smile about when youre old.
I miss my Powertech. The issue with SWTOR is too much theme park. You play through it once and your done. I agree with Mike on the point that Bioware needs to constantly add expansions. If SWTOR had more of a open world/worlds the need for a expansion would be less.
Would be nice to see Bioware expand on PVP. PVP in SWTOR is quite fun! It is SWTOR's real strong point. Towards my end of my SWTOR experience I only logged in to pvp.
CRIMSON ELITE
Class balance is about as bad as I've seen it in any MMO. Huttball is a ton of fun though.
I'm sort of confused by the themepark remarks I've seen in this thread. What exactly were people expecting from Bioware? They make linear story-driven games. They gave us a linear story-driven MMO. They were never going to make a game with depth and complexity like SWG. They need some more fluff features like ship customization, guild ships, mini-games etc. but I don't see where SWTOR, a one year old game, is lacking realative to other themepark styled MMOs.
The game does have some redeeming qualities, and they can take the punch and roll with it well enough if they try. However i think there is too much to do in a year for them to introduce for it to be 2013. 2014 if its alive maybe but they gotta pull up their socks NOW.
Because i can. I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out. Logic every gamers worst enemy.
I would be willing to pay for a decent space expansion like SWG had, but I doubt very much they have enough staff left to do such. I won't even play that ridiculous joke of a space on rails.
seems very overly optimistic to me, but I can agree with the suggestions that a boxed xpac, new space game, continued class story and maybe minigames would be the best things they could do. But the developers statements seem pretty clear to me- they aren't doing class exclusive story going forward, and they don't have the people, resources, or time to do it anyway. It don't see a real xpac being possible for the same reasons, but it would be nice.
1) You cannot have large scale open world PvP with the current Hero engine. It reduces too many players to unacceptably low FPS, creating a slide-show and it's not fun for anyone. Furthermore, they have to have objectives to fight over that can't be done by 1 person in 10 seconds and finally they would have to address the swapping of kills that was common. It's way too much for this slimmed down development team to tackle.
2) They've added faction grinding and same-gender romances on a new planet for $10 charge. Color me unimpressed. Expanding the class stories would require MASSIVE expenditures because of the voice acting. They bet the farm on voice acting, and it's proving not to be worth it in a theme-park setting. Perhaps in a sandbox version it might have paid off.
3) The game is, and will remain, a single-player theme-park game that has some multi-player aspects such as warzones and some raids.
Finally, when was the last time a game closed about 90% of its servers, suffered this much reduction in players, gone F2P within 6 months of launch, and came back to "win"?
I'll just wait for a decent sand-box game to come around. I think developers have learned that WoW was a 1-time kind of thing and that the best models are something similar to EvE because they require much less on-going funding and players stick around longer.
Sorry but the "Resolve Bar" issue has to be addressed by BW. Class fixes aside, how many f2p's and subs will continue to play when they can't control their character?
Unless Bioware releases an expansion the size of the original game consisting of all the things the original is lacking in...they still wont have a game that is an MMORPG, just a RPG with online capabilities...there is just too much missing from the game to own anything genre related other than most dissapointing game of the decade...then again, TESO may take that title in a year so try harder to retain it Bioware!
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Comments
These are the things I would love to see:
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I miss my Powertech. The issue with SWTOR is too much theme park. You play through it once and your done. I agree with Mike on the point that Bioware needs to constantly add expansions. If SWTOR had more of a open world/worlds the need for a expansion would be less.
Would be nice to see Bioware expand on PVP. PVP in SWTOR is quite fun! It is SWTOR's real strong point. Towards my end of my SWTOR experience I only logged in to pvp.
CRIMSON ELITE
lolz
Thanks Mike. Good article. Completely agree. SWTOR isn't the best game, but contrary to popular belief it does have some redeeming qualities which are fun. Whats missing are side systems to flesh out the main story. Give us housing or hell, make the cantina a social spot to congregate. Give us other things to do than just quest that adds to the Star Wars universe.
Also believe space combat was a missed opportunity. Adding something of greater depth and exploration here (dare I say travel to planets manually) would be a plus.
Not convinced Bioware has the manpower to deliver this year. But will see what happens. I'm currently playing my Bounty Hunter story in F2P and cant say its not fun.
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Playing - FFXIV, ESO
Played - FFXI, WoW, Lineage 2, Guild Wars, Aion, SWToR, LotRO, GW2, TERA, Rift, ArcheAge, TSW
I personally don't believe there's any hope left for this game. I wanted Pazaak, swoop racing, and a great space game at launch, and they could have delivered if holding to a stringent release date wasn't such a priority. Truth be told, it probably would have been better for the overall reception if they had managed to spend more time on the details, rather than releasing in a state of unfinishedness, turning F2P, and hoping they could fill in the gaps as they proceed.
Man, it still gets me. I wanted to like it so much, but there's relatively nothing to do aside from questing and instanced PvP, which I think we can all recognize as important core features in a themepark, but that there needs to be more for players to justify subscription, or long term activity.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
To make this game matter in 2013 it needs
- housing system, housing zones
- space combat revamp, add a space sim/trading/mining part with customizable ships
- get rid of exhaustion zomes and corridor/maze design, game lacks open world feeling
- revamp textures and engine features
- add minigames
- open world pvp objectives
- better. quests.
- revamp mob A.I.
- add day/night changes on planets
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
I doubt very much that TOR can afford to even rent 2013.
A few years ago the people in charge of the purse strings should have had the common sense to say no. Sadly they didn't and this game turned into the shambling frankenstein's monster we know today that eats money and creative resources like candy. I fail to see how they can turn the game around now that they have far less money resources and time to utlize the same ridiculous framework they've created.
The creative team had some big dreams. Unfortunately they were the same kind of dreams that built Mad King Ludwig's castle.
If you dont do stupid things while youre young, youll have nothing to smile about when youre old.
Class balance is about as bad as I've seen it in any MMO. Huttball is a ton of fun though.
I'm sort of confused by the themepark remarks I've seen in this thread. What exactly were people expecting from Bioware? They make linear story-driven games. They gave us a linear story-driven MMO. They were never going to make a game with depth and complexity like SWG. They need some more fluff features like ship customization, guild ships, mini-games etc. but I don't see where SWTOR, a one year old game, is lacking realative to other themepark styled MMOs.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Or maybe MikeB is just one of the people who likes SWTOR. Even mediocre games usually have their fans.
Several problems with your column.
1) You cannot have large scale open world PvP with the current Hero engine. It reduces too many players to unacceptably low FPS, creating a slide-show and it's not fun for anyone. Furthermore, they have to have objectives to fight over that can't be done by 1 person in 10 seconds and finally they would have to address the swapping of kills that was common. It's way too much for this slimmed down development team to tackle.
2) They've added faction grinding and same-gender romances on a new planet for $10 charge. Color me unimpressed. Expanding the class stories would require MASSIVE expenditures because of the voice acting. They bet the farm on voice acting, and it's proving not to be worth it in a theme-park setting. Perhaps in a sandbox version it might have paid off.
3) The game is, and will remain, a single-player theme-park game that has some multi-player aspects such as warzones and some raids.
Finally, when was the last time a game closed about 90% of its servers, suffered this much reduction in players, gone F2P within 6 months of launch, and came back to "win"?
I'll just wait for a decent sand-box game to come around. I think developers have learned that WoW was a 1-time kind of thing and that the best models are something similar to EvE because they require much less on-going funding and players stick around longer.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson