Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMO discussion

[Glelas]

It's a single-player game with instances and a monthly fee.

...And the most hallerious cut scene action graphics ever.

In it's defense, the trailers were more interesting than the actual movies. =D

I can't argue this. The more I play, the more I see that it really is a single player game with options to join some groups if you feel like it. It doesn't make it less fun, however calling it an MMO in the traditional sense might be a stretch.

With that said, I have a hunch, as the game develops and expansions and patches are added in, the game will open up and become a bit more "less restricted" or less linear.

And yes, I thought the same thing about the trailers. They were more captivating than the prequels. The storylines in the game are more interesting as well.

[NickeeCoco]

I can't argue this. The more I play, the more I see that it really is a single player game with options to join some groups if you feel like it.

While I agree that it has a single player feel, I don't with the latter half of your statement. The Heroic 4s and Flashpoints you can't do on your own, unless you wait until you level past it, but then you don't get the XP. Sure, you don't have to do those quests, but even some of the class quests can be challenging to do solo.

[Jon Sprunk]

It's exactly what I like most in an MMO. A game where I can level solo, or play with my friends when the mood strikes me. And the storylines are sensational.

[Loerwyn]

And the storylines are sensational.

You know, rarely do I pay attention to who writes stories in games, but I must confess Drew Karphyshyn's move from BioWare Edmonton to Austin really affected Mass Effect 2. You could feel the drop in story quality, and it sounds like he's once again doing good in TOR.

Well, I'd hope so, he's written enough Star Wars stuff

[DarthV]

Already canceled my sub. Once you hit 30 or so, the flaws in the game really started to get on my nerves. Some of the lowlights for me are:

1. The UI is horribly clunky. Specially for a healer.

2. Voice acting was nice for the first while, but becomes pretty generic.

3. Wide open spaces. That you mostly just travel through on your way to quest.

4. PVP is a broken mess. Might as well /roll a random number on whether you get a team with level 50s or level 15s. Well that's if /roll or /random were implemented WAY too many stuns, interrupts and knockbacks. And it doesn't seem that there are any diminishing returns on any of them.

5. Generic quests. Guess that's hard to avoid.

6. No useful tool to find a group for flashpoints.

I did love the class quest storyline, specially the SI ~ level 30. Laughed pretty hard at what happened. Feels like a single player game with some multiplayer tacked on at the end. A MMO really needs to have solid gameplay @ level cap and this game just seems to have missed the boat. Not paying $15 a month to level alts, definitely not after paying $60 for the game to begin with.

[Luya Sevrein]

There have been a lot of banning scandals recently.

If true, it doesn't seem as if the GMing team were trained very well on how to manage an MMO.

[Loerwyn]

There have been a lot of banning scandals recently.

If true, it doesn't seem as if the GMing team were trained very well on how to manage an MMO.

The bans I've heard of range from logical (i.e. player exploiting part of the game mechanics) through to downright worrying (e.g. players being banned for swearing in whispers). Obviously it's hard to tell, as you rarely have both sides of the story and even rarer do you have all the facts, so some of it has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

What's most bizarre is banning seems to block you from your account page, or so I've heard, which is really not on.

[DailyRich]

The UI does feel pretty limited, especially toolbars. My level 16 Sith Marauder is rapidly running out of space for his abilities, and it's even worse if I open my companions full slate of abilities, which takes over the bottom toolbar. I haven't seen anything regarding modding ability like with WoW, but I'd say we should at least be able to re-scale and add more toolbars.

[DarthV]

You can add more hotbars, an extra row on the bottom + one on each side of the screen. My issues with the UI is due to the fact that it's not customizable. In WoW, I had everything bound to keys, so I only had about 6-8 abilities/macros visible. I like a clean UI, which is just not possible in SWTOR at this time. Guess I can hope GW and D3 will be out sometime soon.

[DailyRich]

I've got those extra bars enabled, and I'm still running out of space.

[Glelas]

I have a 14 sage (healer), and although I am keeping my groups alive, for some reason it is stressful, lol. I haven't played WOW in a few years but I remember not being this manic during a fight.

To DarthV's and DailyRich's point, it must be the UI.

Also, I am chalking up some of the game's short comings, especially the end game to it being a new game and I am hoping Bioware is in this for the long haul so there is a possibility of constant improvements.

[Luya Sevrein]

The UI will improve and add-ons'll come out. I mean, most people who play WOW now use some kind of add-on, like BarTender. There is a lot that will get fixed.

However - I've heard it bars you from payment information, too, and your account. Also exploiting game mechanics is done by EVERYONE, on a daily basis. You create the game and players do what they want within what you've created. Don't want someone to do something? Fix it. Until you can rightfully ban everyone you ever find exploiting your poor worksmanship you really shouldn't be banning anyone. It's pathetic.

Makes me angry. >>

SCREW TOR. WHY DON'T YOU ALL WORK ON ME3?

[Jon Sprunk]

I'm still playing just about every day and loving it. Some of the questing is "been there, done that" but I understand that's just how the MMO genre works.

I've been focusing mostly on my Sith Juggernaut (dark side all the way). I guess I'm living out my childhood fantasy of being Darth Vader.

Force choke ftw.

[Nikolas]

I lasted about two weeks in SWTOR. The first 15 levels or so were fun, and working for Darth Baras as a Sith was awesome...it's a lot of fun running around doing evil stuff on behalf of a powerful Sith lord.

The first group zone was also awesome...it felt like playing through a movie, but with the added bonus of group play.

But the PvP was the worst I've encountered in any MMO and as I progressed into the 20s, level-wise, the polish thinned out and it started to become a repetitive grind. I was excited to land on Nar Shadda and go exploring, but it's not a city so much as it is a track, and way too many quests became "Kill X number of these dudes..."

I'm not cheering the demise of this game, but I think SWTOR and Star Trek Online will be case studies in how not to use a popular intellectual property in an MMO.

[Loerwyn]

Star Trek Online

Hoho, ouch! It's actually been taken on by a different publisher (same developer though) and now it's Free-to-Play. Apparently it's improved massively in a short space of time, and will continue to do so.

TOR is ridiculously expensive. It's one of the pricier games around on the PC at the moment