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Makeb shows why continuing class stories are necessary


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For the first time since beta, I'm finding myself not wanting to play. It's all started fo feel fairly pointless. From the beginning, I made characters of each class--more than one if there were different choices I wanted for which I hoped there'd be repercussions in later chapters. I have 4 50s and another 4 close to it. I kept all geared in the best possible gear, ready to continue, ready for all those who threatened to remember them for the quests they refused to do and the choices they made.

 

Don't get me wrong, Makeb was fun. It was a good story on both the imperial and republic sides. I really enjoyed it with both my knight and my juggernaut. Yes, the interactions were fairly shallow compared to the initial chapters and the lack of any interaction or character development with the companions was a disappointment, but it was fun. It was pretty much a great big DLC that would have been awesome as such had it been an extra to give us some fun while waiting for the next chapter, but was less so as a replacement. It points out just what we're losing.

 

Trying to do it with my 3rd and 4th 50s is a whole lot less fun. There's nothing new to discover, no insights into the characters or their companions. There's no consequences from anything we've done in the past. Yes, Different choices could be made, but why will that matter when it appears that nothing we do will significantly impact any future story given that they're shared? Why do it when the end result is the same, not only in terms of light and dark, but for all classes? There's really no reason to do it again at all except that it's the only way to get to 55. But why bother to get to 55 on more than 2 characters if there aren't class stories on the horizon?

 

And that's not even touching on the fact that if my trooper, smuggler, bounty hunter, and even agent can do the task, why the heck is my knight, juggernaut, consular or inquisitor wasting his/her time?

 

I'm just not as interested as I once was. Combat is less challenging (and for me, less fun) and increasingly plagued by effects guaranteed to make sure a gerbil could figure it out, the game is less immersive as a whole (I'm looking at you, fade to black travel on Makeb), crafting has been virtually replaced by the cartel market and it seems we're never going to see the kind of storytelling we saw in the first 3 chapters again.

 

This isn't a flounce or a ragequit. Nothing has happened here that isn't fixable and I still like the game, but the change in how I feel about it and how much I want to play is so significant and such a dramatic shift, I though it bore mentioning. This just isn't the game I fell in love with anymore and I don't know how long the game that it's become will hold my interest. I really don't know. Yesterday I did yardwork instead of playing and that kind of says somthing.

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The storytelling nosedive with Makeb has definitely brick-walled the enthusiasm I had when I first found this game back in January. I was really excited with 1-50 content; I'm not sure I'll be motivated to linger past 55 if they continue this storytelling approach, because leveling feels a lot more like a generic MMO now.

 

For the most part, the game is still fun, but without having that exciting promise of seeing things from 8 different (well-crafted) perspectives, it's just... not the same. Now it feels like every other generic MMO with 1 repetitive leveling plot. Part of what made SWTOR so cool was that leveling itself felt rewarding and motivated; the "leveling game" feels important and cared for 1-50, rather than disposed of and tread-milled in games like WoW.

 

So, rather than leveling being fun and rewarding because you get a new story each time tailored to your class' personality, it's starting to just turn into the standard MMO chore you just want over with because you've seen this mission 62 times already and you know what happens and you know that nothing you do will have any point whatsoever.

 

At least with class stories, you know you're going to reach the same general point, but there's a bit of an unpredictability about whether small details or events will change based on what you do. That dies in generic planetary missions, where you pretty much know from the start that all the "choices" are just there so you have something to click.

 

I wish they would reconsider this new storytelling policy. :(

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Yeah, I enjoyed Makeb on my first Rep toon, and my first Imp toon, but trying to go through it on my second Imp toon is just... boring. It's all the same, nothing really changes besides some stuff IE: "The Emperor's Wrath is here!" -> "Oh, you're that intelligence agent. With you around there's no way we can lose!"
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Gonna be a tightrope for the devs for sure.

 

As they move away from class stories the re-playability of the game will plummet to the ground.

 

Endgame, both pve and pvp, will require substantial beefing up to compensate. New ways to play and beefier/more regular updates. Ops need to come in tiers wow style and be tuned so they take even the best guild a decent amount of time to down them. PvP needs to stop being the one trick(wz) pony it is now. Etc. etc.

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Gonna be a tightrope for the devs for sure.

 

As they move away from class stories the re-playability of the game will plummet to the ground.

 

Endgame, both pve and pvp, will require substantial beefing up to compensate. New ways to play and beefier/more regular updates. Ops need to come in tiers wow style and be tuned so they take even the best guild a decent amount of time to down them. PvP needs to stop being the one trick(wz) pony it is now. Etc. etc.

 

Indeed, I could not agree more. EAware needs to listen to this one and start moving back to the story aspect… I know it cost more money, but if you want this title to live PLEASE LISTEN>. Makeb was great but I feel the same, went through with my Jugg and Sage, but then was dreading running it with my Agent. Lawls

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/Signed

 

With the huge success of f2p, at least according to BW, there is no reason to scrap class stories altogether. I would pay a full expansion price for 10 more levels and a new chapter with proper class stories.

 

I don't have much hope for this however, no matter much I would love more class stories. The game is a lost cause to EA and history has shown that they will keep it going at minimal crew and minimal updates to keep people interested but any extra money it generates will be funneled to other projects.

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Gonna be a tightrope for the devs for sure.

 

As they move away from class stories the re-playability of the game will plummet to the ground.

 

Endgame, both pve and pvp, will require substantial beefing up to compensate. New ways to play and beefier/more regular updates. Ops need to come in tiers wow style and be tuned so they take even the best guild a decent amount of time to down them. PvP needs to stop being the one trick(wz) pony it is now. Etc. etc.

 

1-50 with class story.

51-55, no class story... everyone racing to cap.

 

I don't really see the problem. I know some people live for the story alone.. but still.. it's 5 levels of content sans class story, and 50 with. I still believe that class story arcs are going to return later.. probably expac 3 is my guess.

 

I don't think anyone would turn down more class story, I am simply pointing out that it's a fraction of the entire level tree where there is no class story right now.

Edited by Andryah
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I just wish, concerning this subject, that Bioware and EA would come clean and state once and for all, if we're ever going to get class storyline content in a near future. I'm fully aware this would contradict their very own notion of business but a bit of honesty nowadays would be just great. I'm just unsure right now to who this game is supposed to cater to, if class storylines are definitely on their way out.
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/signed!! Without class story the game is just dull... I barely made it through Makeb... They need class stories to keep people engaded! I simply do not see them balanceing that out with better PVP or PVE from what I ave seen for now over a year...
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I agree with this wholeheartedly. While Makeb isn't bad story, it's just so incongruent to the 1-50 levelling experience. Almost each and every line that my character says seems unfitting. There were no bounties to be hunted, no ancient artifacts to be uncovered by Darth Nox, no enemies of the Emperor for the Wrath to destroy. Smugglers and Bounty hunters through 1-50 tended to have quick, snappy, and witty responses for nearly everything and are now droning on for 3 or 4 sentences at a time. It doesn't feel like a continuation of "my" story, and Makeb has been removed from my head canon for every class except the Imperial Agent. Edited by Jenzali
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1-50 with class story.

51-55, no class story... everyone racing to cap.

 

I don't really see the problem. I know some people live for the story alone.. but still.. it's 5 levels of content sans class story, and 50 with. I still believe that class story arcs are going to return later.. probably expac 3 is my guess.

 

I don't think anyone would turn down more class story, I am simply pointing out that it's a fraction of the entire level tree where there is no class story right now.

 

The most relevant thing is content consumption.

 

I'm gonna base this off of myself but I bet it holds true for a decent % of player base.

 

Since launch I got 8 toons to 50 just to experience all the class stories. Since Makeb I got 2 to 55 and really have no plans to do any more bar a royal blunder on BWs part that makes one of them insanely OP in PvP.

 

Its simple logic, if they want people to maintain the interest/playtime the effort redirected from class stories will have to be visibly directed into elder game content to compensate for the fact there's precious little motivation to alt now, compared to the vanilla TOR.

 

If that doesn't happen people are gonna pay less. There is really no way around that. Less re-playability and same shallow endgame is not a formula for more hours spent ingame but less.

Edited by aeterno
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Agreed! I can't imagine running Makeb Rep side again, unless I really enjoy the Consular enough to put her ahead of my Smuggler.

 

If the next expansion isn't more class stories, it'll just be more planet stories, which are all the same, which means, why play the game that's supposed to be all about the story, a story that I think many over inflate as being all that, really it's having 8 unique stories that's the plus, the storyline isn't any better than some of the better crafted MMOs (some have bad stories, some have good stories, but it's just one story).

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I don't think anyone would turn down more class story, I am simply pointing out that it's a fraction of the entire level tree where there is no class story right now.

 

True, but 1.5 years is plenty of time for most of us to level through a bunch of class stories. We also don't even have a target in mind of when more are coming. Will it be around the 2 year mark? 3 years in before we continue stories? This mmo has quite a sizeable population of non-end gamers who need the story aspect to justify continuing to invest in the game through subs/coins.

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Gonna be a tightrope for the devs for sure.

 

As they move away from class stories the re-playability of the game will plummet to the ground.

 

Endgame, both pve and pvp, will require substantial beefing up to compensate. New ways to play and beefier/more regular updates. Ops need to come in tiers wow style and be tuned so they take even the best guild a decent amount of time to down them. PvP needs to stop being the one trick(wz) pony it is now. Etc. etc.

 

Beefing up endgame will only help part of the gaming population. There are many people, like myself, who don't do endgame. We play alts and we level. Class stores are the core and joy of leveling in SWtoR, and Makeb has shown that "faction" stories are not a good compromise.

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1-50 with class story.

51-55, no class story... everyone racing to cap.

 

I don't really see the problem. I know some people live for the story alone.. but still.. it's 5 levels of content sans class story, and 50 with. I still believe that class story arcs are going to return later.. probably expac 3 is my guess.

 

I don't think anyone would turn down more class story, I am simply pointing out that it's a fraction of the entire level tree where there is no class story right now.

 

The problem comes when there's another expansion, then another, then another, then you have 20 lvls of all the same boring "just want to hit lvl cap" type of questing. Hopefully they will go back to individual stories, because that is why SWTOR is iconic in the MMO industry. They broke the trend in the genre in that regard and really need to not let it die. That's one of the biggest turn ons for people when they play. Oh ...if I lvl an alt, there will be a whole different story and dialogue! It's unique.

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In all honesty, I would pay for just class story content. No war zones, no flash points. Just the ability to continue the story.

 

But considering its a MMO, I would expect the PvE and PvP content to be part of that package.

 

/signed

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