I am really not sure what I am going to do here. I loved SWG because it was a "day in the life of star wars". What I mean by this, is that the game let you be a normal person in the star wars reality. You were not some plot-centric hero whom the entire universe revolved around. I can't remember where, but I remember reading that TOR is not going to do this. It will be intensily story driven, and I think that while good in an RPG, it is really constraining in an MMO.
My hope for STO is that it is a star trek game. This is not to say that I will be playing it because it is star trek, but that the fact that it is star trek might force them to break from the WoW model which has been so devastating on the MMO industry so far.
i'll be trying STO first, star wars is okay but with lucas involved it'll get destroyed somehow just like he does with all his IP's, bioware may be making it but i'm sure lucas calls the final shots.
and for the record both franchises have been going down hill /frown.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
BC's alright as far as single player games with multi-options are concerned but I don't want my MMORPG designed with lumbering cruisers as the primary space experience and ground tossed in as an afterthought later in development.
As far as Lucas ruining every title of their IP is concerned, I'd hesitate to agree. Sure, some specific titles have failed to please a bulk of the market-share...but for the most part LFL and Lucas proper have the financial reserves they have and the market impact they do because of overwhelming overall success in regards to treating their IP.
Still a lil up in the air...but we, like them, have time to see for ourselves.
BTW, ST took a HORRIBLE nose dive as evidenced by the fact that M.Roddenberry ripped the rug out from under what's his name (producer) after the debacle of Enterprise and the overall direction he helped to drag the IP into. It's so bad that re-imagining the beginning point of the saga-line is the only way to pull out of the tailspin...which they're doing with Star Trek XI.
Honestly, I've never seen an IP treated worse.
Star Wars, on the other hand, is still doing what it does best. And being rather successful at it. I'd wager that a great deal of the "issue" some seem to have is related to the fact that newer visions within the IP aren't related to or designed along the same lines as the experience any given fan (regardless of level of fandom) got initially. Just because I'm not a prequels fan doesn't mean that if it's not representative of the OT it's objectively crap.
But....meh...whatta I know. ESB 4 LYFE!
/shrug
Yes, I have anger issues. They taste like chocolate bunnies.
I honestly hope TOR will do well, but If you read the FAQ regarding the direction and focus of the game, I seriously doubt it will be successful. As soon as I read that most of the game can be completed by a single player, it made me cringe and shake my head in disgust. I don't want to see another AoC. If Bioware wanted to go this route, why make it a MMORPG?? TOR sounds more of a single player, structured platform RPG with the option of playing with a few friends only during the few epic proportioned battles just so they can call it an MMO to make ppl actually pay a monthly fee to play it. I hope Bioware doesn't continue on this route, If they do then the game will fail. When was the last time there was a successful cult hit MMORPG that focused on a single player's story throughout their gaming life? NONE! One game that tried this, "AoC" failed miserably..
Bioware doesn't understand MMO's are about interacting with thousands of people online living in a fantasy virtual reality universe. You take that away, then what your left with is just a glorifed structured platform RPG.I love a great storyline as much as anyone, but to create an MMO that focuses on just your character's story within the universe is not what an MMORPG is all about.
As for STO, I believe you'll see many EVE Online Vets jump Ship moreso than SWG fans.. But once when most of the SWG fans realize TOR isn't what they all envisioned as a successor to SWG, I think alot of them will try STO or Stargate Worlds.
Personally, I believe STO will turn out to be the next big SCI FI MMO.
Rallithon Oakthornn (Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
Originally posted by oakthornn Personally, I believe STO will turn out to be the next big SCI FI MMO.
At this point, it's pretty hard to say, there's a possibility it'll be available only for console, and secondly, how many different companies has STO been passed around to the past several years?
Personally, I believe STO will turn out to be the next big SCI FI MMO.
At this point, it's pretty hard to say, there's a possibility it'll be available only for console, and secondly, how many different companies has STO been passed around to the past several years?
naw, STO is definitely being made for the PC. Any mention of a port to console is speculation. Cryptic like many other dev teams always mentions possible plans to port to console but it never happens. I can think of at least 5 MMOs that said they were looking at a console release and it never happened.
While the games will be judged based on their fun factor and replayability AS GAMES, I just wanted to to throw in my two cents about the two IP's. Star Trek and Star Wars each have lore which for true fans is only partially defined by the screen versions. In each case, the novels offer a much broader canvas, and generally more vivid and deep characterizations. And in each case, some of the novels are brilliant, some are garbage. Star Trek fiction is largely about careers and relationships, with the crises and enemies almost mere scaffolding on which to hang the recurring characters evolution with each other. Star Wars fiction is sloppier but juicier... more willing to veer into space opera, which is good and bad. Again, these generalizations only hold if you put aside the truly bad examples of each set of novels.
For either game, there will be people who want to play because of the shows/movies, and many of them may be uninterested in what makes the fiction lore great, and possibly lacking commitment to any kind of challenge in a game. But the potential for a great, rich world exists in either IP, given the ability of the developers to balance the need for a playable, learnable game with the judicious, intelligent inclusion of the unique aspects of the lore. In Star Trek, for example, Guinan is just one member of a very interesting species. Then there are the Travelers. Or it could be focused on rising in the ranks. I think it will be hard for Cryptic to find the right mix of adventure and achievement.
Star Wars is so open ended that Bioware may have a better shot at creating something satisfying for fans and gamers. it can be focused on adventure and fighting; there are plenty of factions a la WoW, etc. (Cryptic is talking about new places and new races, but frankly the lore doesn't seem that flexible to me). There is little need in the SW universe to "make sense" in terms of career or bureaucracy. In fact, that aspect can become very tedious in ST (though some find it endlessly absorbing).
Just my random thoughts... my prediction is that Bioware will succeed, due to a larger fan base and a more suitable IP - plus Bioware's obvious skill and commitment to quality - and STO will be a moderate draw for a couple years, with a fun character creation aspect, and then go away. The video interview with Cryptic 's head developer seemed... odd. Vague and casual, as if he was talking about a school science project. Did not inspire confidence, but could certainly be the style of the speaker.
Im not going to delve deep into this, but I think each will be thier own and stand out in certain ways to each fanboi. I personally am a Starwars boi! However, I will play STO too. Running a large MMO site takes this kind of responsibility. I like to know what im talking about and the content my team provides to all mmo fans.
Comments
Star Wars without a doubt. Star Trek is well........a little retarded.
I am really not sure what I am going to do here. I loved SWG because it was a "day in the life of star wars". What I mean by this, is that the game let you be a normal person in the star wars reality. You were not some plot-centric hero whom the entire universe revolved around. I can't remember where, but I remember reading that TOR is not going to do this. It will be intensily story driven, and I think that while good in an RPG, it is really constraining in an MMO.
My hope for STO is that it is a star trek game. This is not to say that I will be playing it because it is star trek, but that the fact that it is star trek might force them to break from the WoW model which has been so devastating on the MMO industry so far.
i'll be trying STO first, star wars is okay but with lucas involved it'll get destroyed somehow just like he does with all his IP's, bioware may be making it but i'm sure lucas calls the final shots.
and for the record both franchises have been going down hill /frown.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
BC's alright as far as single player games with multi-options are concerned but I don't want my MMORPG designed with lumbering cruisers as the primary space experience and ground tossed in as an afterthought later in development.
As far as Lucas ruining every title of their IP is concerned, I'd hesitate to agree. Sure, some specific titles have failed to please a bulk of the market-share...but for the most part LFL and Lucas proper have the financial reserves they have and the market impact they do because of overwhelming overall success in regards to treating their IP.
Still a lil up in the air...but we, like them, have time to see for ourselves.
BTW, ST took a HORRIBLE nose dive as evidenced by the fact that M.Roddenberry ripped the rug out from under what's his name (producer) after the debacle of Enterprise and the overall direction he helped to drag the IP into. It's so bad that re-imagining the beginning point of the saga-line is the only way to pull out of the tailspin...which they're doing with Star Trek XI.
Honestly, I've never seen an IP treated worse.
Star Wars, on the other hand, is still doing what it does best. And being rather successful at it. I'd wager that a great deal of the "issue" some seem to have is related to the fact that newer visions within the IP aren't related to or designed along the same lines as the experience any given fan (regardless of level of fandom) got initially. Just because I'm not a prequels fan doesn't mean that if it's not representative of the OT it's objectively crap.
But....meh...whatta I know. ESB 4 LYFE!
/shrug
Yes, I have anger issues. They taste like chocolate bunnies.
I honestly hope TOR will do well, but If you read the FAQ regarding the direction and focus of the game, I seriously doubt it will be successful. As soon as I read that most of the game can be completed by a single player, it made me cringe and shake my head in disgust. I don't want to see another AoC. If Bioware wanted to go this route, why make it a MMORPG?? TOR sounds more of a single player, structured platform RPG with the option of playing with a few friends only during the few epic proportioned battles just so they can call it an MMO to make ppl actually pay a monthly fee to play it. I hope Bioware doesn't continue on this route, If they do then the game will fail. When was the last time there was a successful cult hit MMORPG that focused on a single player's story throughout their gaming life? NONE! One game that tried this, "AoC" failed miserably..
Bioware doesn't understand MMO's are about interacting with thousands of people online living in a fantasy virtual reality universe. You take that away, then what your left with is just a glorifed structured platform RPG.I love a great storyline as much as anyone, but to create an MMO that focuses on just your character's story within the universe is not what an MMORPG is all about.
As for STO, I believe you'll see many EVE Online Vets jump Ship moreso than SWG fans.. But once when most of the SWG fans realize TOR isn't what they all envisioned as a successor to SWG, I think alot of them will try STO or Stargate Worlds.
Personally, I believe STO will turn out to be the next big SCI FI MMO.
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
naw, STO is definitely being made for the PC. Any mention of a port to console is speculation. Cryptic like many other dev teams always mentions possible plans to port to console but it never happens. I can think of at least 5 MMOs that said they were looking at a console release and it never happened.
While the games will be judged based on their fun factor and replayability AS GAMES, I just wanted to to throw in my two cents about the two IP's. Star Trek and Star Wars each have lore which for true fans is only partially defined by the screen versions. In each case, the novels offer a much broader canvas, and generally more vivid and deep characterizations. And in each case, some of the novels are brilliant, some are garbage. Star Trek fiction is largely about careers and relationships, with the crises and enemies almost mere scaffolding on which to hang the recurring characters evolution with each other. Star Wars fiction is sloppier but juicier... more willing to veer into space opera, which is good and bad. Again, these generalizations only hold if you put aside the truly bad examples of each set of novels.
For either game, there will be people who want to play because of the shows/movies, and many of them may be uninterested in what makes the fiction lore great, and possibly lacking commitment to any kind of challenge in a game. But the potential for a great, rich world exists in either IP, given the ability of the developers to balance the need for a playable, learnable game with the judicious, intelligent inclusion of the unique aspects of the lore. In Star Trek, for example, Guinan is just one member of a very interesting species. Then there are the Travelers. Or it could be focused on rising in the ranks. I think it will be hard for Cryptic to find the right mix of adventure and achievement.
Star Wars is so open ended that Bioware may have a better shot at creating something satisfying for fans and gamers. it can be focused on adventure and fighting; there are plenty of factions a la WoW, etc. (Cryptic is talking about new places and new races, but frankly the lore doesn't seem that flexible to me). There is little need in the SW universe to "make sense" in terms of career or bureaucracy. In fact, that aspect can become very tedious in ST (though some find it endlessly absorbing).
Just my random thoughts... my prediction is that Bioware will succeed, due to a larger fan base and a more suitable IP - plus Bioware's obvious skill and commitment to quality - and STO will be a moderate draw for a couple years, with a fun character creation aspect, and then go away. The video interview with Cryptic 's head developer seemed... odd. Vague and casual, as if he was talking about a school science project. Did not inspire confidence, but could certainly be the style of the speaker.
Im not going to delve deep into this, but I think each will be thier own and stand out in certain ways to each fanboi. I personally am a Starwars boi! However, I will play STO too. Running a large MMO site takes this kind of responsibility. I like to know what im talking about and the content my team provides to all mmo fans.
-----------------------
...I'm in your panties
trying both, will stay in whatever MMO I find most enjoyable.
SWG Veteran and Refugee, Intrepid server
NGE free as of Nov. 22, 2005
Now Playing: World of Warcrack
Forum Terrorist