Story-based themepark MMO can only fail

You do realise this game is completely new, right? They focus on leveling aspects now because that's where 99% of their players will be playing in.
They will work on end-game as well, just you wait. Don't be so impatient, other MMO's had terrible end-game too when they got released. That;s how it's been and how it always will be.

Just be patient, it will come.

$15 a month? Pff, it's just money.

I like this post, maybe because I came in expecting another rant, but it's actually a good read. And you have some good points. However I disagree about the alts. For me at least, it's more than possible to invest in a different way on every character, and have a completely different experience playing them.

I would actually like to see some sandbox elements in TOR... But Bioware has always been a theme park RPG company (or at least since KOTOR, I don't remember their previous games too well as I wasn't into RPGs at the time). You would essentially be asking them to become Bethesda... And I don't think they'd really succeed in that department.

I would at least love to see class stories expanded, with special max level class specific quest chains and high difficulty...

I hit 50, spent half a week feeling that "woot lets get epic'd out!" vibe, now is when the fun starts!!" Ive been a hardcore raider for years and was looking forward to it. How very wrong I was about everything this game would be. I hoped it would be kotor while levelling them the new raiding game. Pretty foolish I suppose.

I did all the hardmodes with a throw together piece of commendation gear. Which is funny because most hardmode fights are "get the strat and fight is easy, mess it up and instant death" No real room for gear scaling there which kinda makes the fact the pve gear is pvp gear ><

Seen all the story in the flashpoints so was was just doing it for the challange and the feeling of success / gear.

Then suddenly it hit me, gearing was pointless, pvp was pointles, trades where pointless, dailies where pointless. Collecting mounts? pointless. There is no oggrimar, there is no massive hangout place, the server are full with 80 people at the fleet. The social interaction is minimal further shown by the fact simply travelling to meet someone is really annoying with all the space stations and what not.

I am used to games pulling me in and me struggling to escape its alluring can't stop clutches. This hasn't happened for me with tor, which is a shame


1-49 was it, and even then there where grindy boring bits the story failed to compensate for because a lot of the quests became "taxi taxi taxi" With the same voice actors at every vendor.







This game needs an open world with an open neutral city. Atm its soooo cramped and lonely to be in this game, even with a guild.

I already unsubbed. Disappointed but don't regret giving it a go.

That was the elephant in the room during most of the development time, the fact that the initial launch is like a band's first album, it consists of material created over a long period of time whereas now they'll need to start creating content to keep up the level of story people have grown accustomed to.

Personally, I find companions to be very badly done in comparison with KOTOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2 (never played DA:O). Where my companions would add value in the formerly mentioned titles, I find that companions detract in a sense because they keep repeating the same dialogue the few times they do speak.

They also add very little outside of in-ship/cantina dialogue, especially when compared with DA2 where I'd bring certain companions along because of their funny dialogue. Hearing Kaliyo scream "I'll show you my gun" or Khem Val muttering something that sounds like a dog growling is only entertaining for about 2 levels before I felt like duct-taping their mouth shut.

Much of the story consists of poorly written clichés and 2-dimensional characters. The morality system is as always idiotic. Pretty much:

Darkside choice: Kill people.
Lightside choice : Keep people alive but force them to work with you.

So, not only are darkside users too dumb to understand building a powerbase and gaining allies, they are so "corrupted" that their only way of life is short-sighted sadism?

Add to it that the inquisitor story is just outright bad and gives none of the feeling I was expecting due to the "cloak and dagger, Machiavellian manipulation and so on" that seem to be implicit in every piece of lore about the class. Apparently my Sith Lord is the kind of leader that doesn't delegate but do even the most mundane tasks himself.

Furthermore, the entire Sith Inquisitor story more or less consists of my character being the personal assistant of a Darth, followed by being the whipping boy of another Darth.

It seems like non of the writers on staff understands the role of character and setting congruency in regards to suspension of disbelief. Lets say you are a powerful king, can you believe that if your tasks consist of sweeping floors and emptying trash bins? Lets say that on the other hand, your character is a Janitor, does it make sense that he sits in on takeover meetings and conspire to become the leader of the free world?

The game just lacks congruency overall.

I 100% agree with that. I actually think that the story bases is a big chance for this game to set itself apart.

But it is a great challenge for Bioware. The can't just ride the "we have story" train. They need to deliver an mmo as well.

To bad you need a lot of people to play this game or EA will pull the plug, if subs drop a ton expect a weaker showing in the expansion market as well, why pay for those voice actors if your MMO doesn't generate 1million+ subs. but only time will tell.

I get your point but look at the way this game is structured. Instancing, sharding, 100% theme park all the way. There is no possible way of turning this into a sandbox. And sandboxes with modern requirements for MMOs, even if all the resources were directed to it from the start, is an extremely difficult task. There have been many that attempted it in recent years and many that failed. There's a good reason why the "biggest" MMOs recently have been theme parks modeled on the WoW formula.

A reasoned and well thought out post. Hits the nail on the head for me.

Honestly... only thing that will save it is what they have now is nothing more then a bridge to the real MMO located in a just found galaxy with open worlds and a neutral city.

I am not even remotely kidding to say the 150 odd million they spent making this be nothing more then a levelling gateway. Because lets be honest, thats all it is.