Star Wars: The Old Republic

Too bad BIOWARE blew it. They had a chance at a large IP - they had a chance at making the perfect mmo - they had a chance to set the industry straight on how to make online roleplaying games.

Instead they produce ... THIS?

Even the website is poorly constructed. The images don't look particular and the little info they did give is all wrong.

They talk about story as if it is more important than gameplay.

Sad thing is that this will probably be just another mmo that people play 1-3 months and get tired of.

What Lucasarts have decided to do is to make their little wow dream once again - re-establish the NGE/CU with a new game. New company, Bioware, so why should Lucasarts owe anything to anyone? Maybe - they ARE right. But what happens now is that all the many MANY people tired of a greedy industry creating cheap little themeparks with linear gameplay - will be even more tired.

SW:TOR offers nothing new. No innovative way to deal with the genre.

People can attack sandbox all they want, but only games with lots of variety, depth, endgame etc. is worth my time.

The Internet, our powerful PCs, the technology of today BEG for a game that is truly EPIC and LARGE with CHOICES. People talk about simulation as if it was a bad thing, I don't.

Why should I pay 20$ a month to play something which is essentially counterstrike online. I mean - sure I don't mind playing a single or multi-player online game - but greedy companies demanding 20$ a month on top of 50-100$ for a game and who even have the audacity to be surprised when players leave after a month or two due to bugs, lack of gameplay, simply don't have my respect.

I mean - take SWG - despite it DID have MANY flaws, bugs and problems - launched too early and could have included a lot of features from day one (and I am still sore about this) - it actually had depth, scope, a vision. It was far from perfect, but it showed the PATH.

SWG had what most mmos forget - a reason to stay online after a month of running through X levels. SWG had community, reasons to communicate. It gave players a break (or even a complete career) away from fighting. You could farm ressources, advanced crafting system - there were classes specializing in other stuff but fighting. I think it attracted some really cool people I never EVER meet in games like AOC, WoW, COH etc.

How I miss hanging out with crafters, discussing prices and tech with people - running around to look at vendors or seeing friends and helping them with harvest missions, placing new harvesters etc. Or how much fun it was to design a guild with player houses spreaded out over your own plot of land. Or all those moments where you were waiting for a shuttle or sitting at the doctors getting a nice chat with people.

There are 1000s of things SWG should and must have done better, but it showed us the light. What SW:TOR is showing us is simply greed.

If they want 20$ a month they should do something to deserve it.

You can agree or disagree but it is plain for all those who dare open their eyes, that this game will cater to the "ohh wow jedis with lightsabers kiddy crowd" - and not to mature players. Bioware stresses their love of story only as an excuse to not make a real full mmo. This saves them money and they hope they get that SW kiddy crowd. Fine. It is a design choice maybe - just don't charge a monthly fee if you just plan on holding a player's hand through X levels through a so-called story..

Make a good game - with awesome gameplay, classes with SKILLs rather than levels - or even classless - make depth, endgame, player housing, a real player economy, make player vendors meaningful and not just an AH - give us a REAL deep crafting system and a hunt and fight for ressources - drop those damn instances that removes the players from the game world - engage us in a large open world -- and don't even THINK on making a Star Wars game where space is a frigging expansion - give us all that, and then ......... and then ................ then...

I WILL MAKE MY OWN FRIGGIN STORY _ THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH !!

Draccan

P.S. November 26th: May I direct your attention to this post I made much further down with elaborations on what I think!?

Another person condemning a game he has no frikkin idea about. Another person ranting about how the game should be, instead of allowing a so far promising company to do their work and at least withhold judgement until there is more to go on than just a few alpha images, a very small FAQ and concept art.

Seems the Internet these days is full of people with magic crystal balls, telling them exactly how a game will play out.

And full of people who know better than anybody else on how to make a successful game.

Cheers, but you won't be missed. ^_^

Edit: Oh...did I mention another of those darn SWg Vets who thinks he has the recipe for success and has a constitutional right to badmouth anything that is not SWG v2.0? Bleh.

Originally posted by singsofdeath

Another person condemning a game he has no frikkin idea about. Another person ranting about how the game should be, instead of allowing a so far promising company to do their work and at least withhold judgement until there is more to go on than just a few alpha images, a very small FAQ and concept art.

 

Seems the Internet these days is full of people with magic crystal balls, telling them exactly how a game will play out.

 

And full of people who know better than anybody else on how to make a successful game.

 

Cheers, but you won't be missed. ^_^

Aren't you the same dude who has defended Funcom and their lies over and over??

I mean - I am pretty sure I saw your name there a lot..

If you followed their own press information - it is clear what their direction is - in fact even the CEO has stated in so many words that he wants a WoW clone -- everything points to what I say is right.

It is always easier dissing other people's point of view than actually trying to engage those arguments..

You leave and you won't be missed..

OP, you seem upset that the new game won't be SWG.  It was never going to be.  Bioware has its own vision of what sort of game it plans on making (big selling, just like WOW) and followning the path of SWG was never on the table. (I recall early interviews with their CEO)

They tell stories and do it better than anyone else.  People used to play their single player games for the stories, not the inspiring combat mechanics.

Like you, I'd love to see another world simulation game, but you'll have to hope a smallet development house takes the leap and creates it.  The big boys are all going for mass market appeal.  Besides, they'll probably want to put it on a console.

I have defended Funcom in much the same way I will do BioWare, though with a purer intent this time, since BioWare has so far only delivered games that I have enjoyed.

And if I had to go back and knew what I knew today, I would still call out all youpeople who condemn programmers who work hard before they get a chance to prove things to you. NOW you can talk big, now you can be oh so mighty about a game that has failed because they screwed up, but before that, you have no frikkin leg to stand on.

The direction of this game was clear when it became common knowledge that BioWare is making this game. What you call an "excuse", the STORY, is what BioWare games have always been about. If you had looked at the evidence you would have realized that from the start and wouldn't need to frikkin whine on this forum now that the game has been announced.

You say they want to save money? It has been told they are investing roughly 100M$ into this game. WHERE is that saving money, hm? They are hiring 13, read THIRTEEN full time story writers just to come up with the stories that are supposed to take place in this game. MORE content than in all BioWare games prior combined.

I do not have to dis you. I am just pointing out your obvious inability to accept another sort of game over your own chosen one. You want SWG 2.0, it was clear from the get-go that BioWare would not be making it. And you and your crowd are the ones filling up the official forums over there DEMANDING that the game be made to YOUR liking, that is what ticks me off.

No one of your camp is prepared to give BioWare a chance. And as far as I am concerned, that is OK. You can go and continue moping about your lost paradise. And you have Earthrise, Darkfall, Mortal Online and so on to look forward to as far as Skill-based, Open World games go.

But don#t take your frustration out on a company that has been known to produce quality games and is obviously sinking some major effort into this, even if that effort is not for YOU. Nobody promised you SWG 2.0. The chance wasn't even there. And you act like you have the divine right to blame BioWare for it. You haven't. There are people out here who LIKE the sound of the game's concept.

People who LIKE the stories BioWare has told so far and are looking forward to seeing what they can come up with here, if they can actually make a story in an MMO matter unlike any company before. If they can pull off the choreographed fighting instead of the lame hack and slash moves in every other game. If the companions are actually interesting as they were in the KOTOR game. And so on and so forth.

You diss these people by dissing the company. And that's what ticks me off...big time.

Edit: Edited for spelling. And removed some hot-headed insults that came while I was rather angry. My apologies. I should control myself better. -.-

I wonder if Bioware knows that you can't pause an MMO?

Originally posted by Kyleran

OP, you seem upset that the new game won't be SWG.  It was never going to be.  Bioware has its own vision of what sort of game it plans on making (big selling, just like WOW) and followning the path of SWG was never on the table. (I recall early interviews with their CEO)

They tell stories and do it better than anyone else.  People used to play their single player games for the stories, not the inspiring combat mechanics.

Like you, I'd love to see another world simulation game, but you'll have to hope a smallet development house takes the leap and creates it.  The big boys are all going for mass market appeal.  Besides, they'll probably want to put it on a console. 

If you read what I wrote you would understand that it is not about whether or not they re-make SWG but whether or not they charge 20$ for a lazy production which is not a real open world. Why pay many $ for essentially single/multiplayer online games that are not massive? Or even roleplaying..?

By the way - console is no argument. The consoles of today are advanced enough that you could create open worlds like I describe on them ...

Bioware with SW:TOR went the lazy / greedy way..

Originally posted by Draccan

Originally posted by Kyleran