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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Story's the Thing
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
When you build your corporate game development reputation on high-end storytelling, there shouldn't be much surprise when your fanbase expects the same level of quality out of any subsequent release. BioWare is synonymous with some of the richest stories in all of PC gaming, and with an intellectual property like Star Wars to play with, our expectations are understandably high.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Story's the Thing.
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Comments
sigh..
It wouldn't be an MMORPG article about SWTOR without people coming out of the woodwork to hate on it for not being SWG.
To be honest you can solo a lot of that level 50 group content these days.
It'll take some work gearing up yourself and a companion (preferably with ultimate commendations, though part elite coms might work too), and the flashpoint will be hard, but it is managable.
The only problem would be if you want to finish the HK-51 questline you'll also need to do a hardmode flashpoint, which will be much harder to solo. So you'd have to grit your teeth and just use the groupfinder for one specific flashpoint, or pass on the HK-51 completely.
I do agree with the Forged Alliances storyline though, it should have some solo content too, but I have little doubt that it will get that with the 3.0 expansion. So hopefully this latest tactical flashpoint that's coming later this month (for subs) will be the last "group only" content that leads to it.
And I certainly hope they're not going to do something ridiculous like ending the storyline with an Operation.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Now that's a different argument all together. Even WoW does not do this, if you want group lvl rewards than you have to group for those. Group level rewards should never be on par with solo lvl rewards. To be honest in a sense the group content is still solo, because you can group finder for it and go about your business. The problem with SWTOR is the spacebar crowd, who just wants to rush through the FP. So making the main story arch as group content is just plain stupid imo.
I really woudn't want the world group content of SW:TOR removed. Heck, it's one of the few casual western mmo's that still has this much to group up for.
Yes it's sometimes hard to find a group for Heroic quests, but then again, it's not THAT hard either. Today I actually immediately got invited to two of them by players who were standing around the same questgiver (I didn't ask for one of the invites, but still helped the guy out).
Overall, it just adds a nice challenge to try that Heroic 2 alone or that Heroic 4 with two people and healing companions. A challenge I frankly miss in a lot of other MMO's.
As for dungeons: you have the group finder which still gives you almost instant parties. People can sometimes be asses about skipping dialogue, but its not like every group will kick you for it either.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
it's not about SWTOR not being SWG
it's about SWTOR not having features SWG had, ten years ago
simple things, like day night cycles, open space exploration, ship decoration etc.
at least SWTOR gets the housing soon so maybe more will follow.
Lots of people commenting here using the word "entitled."
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
To start off, I hate the way MMO's are becoming more solo adventures. MMO's, to me, were designed to be played as a multiplayer game, hence the name, it completely defeats the point if you can play the whole thing on your own.
That said, in the case of SWTOR I'd let everything be soloable. It's pretty much a single player game anyway, I played it up to around level 40 before I had enough of playing an online single player RPG. So sure, just make it a single player game that's online, be done with it. What have they got to change? Like, 2% of the content to make it all solo?
Swtor has best ever story telling. Resubbed last month. Have 8 maxed out alts (and close to other 8 combinations; obviously I'm altholic :-)), for every story combination. I never skip scenes or very very rarely when maybe just gone through some with some alt. Love, love, love .... to have choice to answer and npc react differently. Many times does not change outcome, but love to be able to answer submissively or aggressively. :-) And when you have choice to let live some enemy, you will encounter him at some later time. Or will have harshe decision to let him die or let die bunch of innocent people. Incredible feeling. Same apply to instances. Sure, would love to see more impact from this choices in future events in story telling and PVE, but others does not have anything even close to this. In general PVE would be impossible to change global events because my decisions would then affect gameplay of others.
As said many times with Wow and Swtor all my gaming needs are covered for years to come. Have no problem imagine myself to play Wow or Swtor for next 10, 20 years.
I however enjoy to try any game out there in MMO world as long as it is sub based or have at least mixed model. Sorry, but from my experience, stopped long ago to play F2P trash. Guess this happened with Silk Road and mainly Rappelz, where at the end of month have discovered that have been paying for total crap more money with various shops that would spend with any decent game on sub model.
So far quest for any better games was failure. That does not mean have not enjoyed - and a lot many times - various AoC, War, TSW, Wildstar, Rift, ARR, CO, .... I will try any MMO that have 3rd person view, does not enforce WASD, ... and few more rules.
There are games, that I fell in love, are great (despite zillion of bugs), like TSW and Wildstar ... but have that impossible, disgusting, hated, ... BUTTON MASHING 1 toolbar. At some level I did not felt like wanting to continue despite I loved all the rest.
This.
I think the OP is out of touch with reality.
The Bioware studio now maintaining this game was hit with the EA sledgehammer several times over the years, crushing the employee numbers to a bare minimum to maintain this game.
Only recently, now they finally started making a little bit of Money after 2 years, I think they were allowed to hire a few extra personel again. Hence, why you can now finally start looking forward to the housing update.
But they will never ever get the funding again, needed to do an expansion that progresses each individual class story arc.
The OP has no idea how ridiculous expensive that is! Hiring all those writers and voice actors again.
Not going to happen, unless a million people suddenly start returning to the game and paying a subscription again.
Choosing not to group and then crying that group content should still be available and doable is entitlement.
You are free to pick your own way to play, but you should not cry about the consequences afterwards.
The problem with the Story is that it is not MY Story but Bioware's Story. Yes you can influence the Story but only so far. You can only pick from a list of options. The first time I quit SWTOR is was because of this. Bioware kept saying it was my story yet I really had very little impact. Combining that with the almost total lock of an open Star Wars world it was just too much for me. Class quests can be interesting at times but I like much more the building up quests such as The Thing the Czerka Found.
Now I am back (and a subscriber). It is not the Story that brought me back. Ironically it is the things in SWTOR that are more like vanilla WOW that did it - such as adding a Talent point/Ability point every level.
As for the lack of SWTOR future content I believe that this is a combination of free to play and the MMO market malaise. Going free to play may have made SWTOR popular but it is still not making the big bucks that would get investors interested in providing more money for bigger and better expansions. The MMO malaise is just that. As WOW has learned the market for new MMO players has pretty much tapped out. MMO's now vie to attract players from a static if not shrinking environment.
The money is in the mobile games and that is where the investors are.
I too am not happy with the forced grouping trend. I do not care for LFR - I had my fill of it in WOW. I am a solo player. If they lock me out of future expansions then, like the OP, I will find another game, or, more likely, cancel my SWTOR sub and just go FTP.
use group finder and enjoy all the storymode flashpoints you desire - I stopped reading the article when I saw the invalid complaint over this
it seems you do not want to group up, so why play MMO?
why dont you just use the lfg tool, pretend the other 3 people are npc and enjoy the story mode flashpoints? they are so easy its not like you need any real group tactics or coordination!