CHOICE IS AN ILLUSION - not an RPG - MMO on rails

My first ~15 levels or so I made choices made as if I were roleplaying (something I hardly EVER do in games). I wanted to feel connected to my character.

I killed a few NPCs who were real a-holes, and I saved some other people who didn't deserve a grisly fate. Then went to the light/dark side vendors and saw all of the relics were based on your light/dark points.

I had accrued 1200 light side and 1050 dark side. I could use exactly zero relics in the game.

Worst game design.

Ever.

Kaliyo threatened to kill me, directly, during the course of the IA storyline. Later on, she reappears and her threats are totally forgotten. You dont get a chance to mention it, and -GOD FORBID- tell her to get bent and leave your party or be shot.

But thankfully, it was all voice acted!

You were expecting perhaps the option to say whatever you wanted and for Kaliyo to respond intelligently in real time? No themepark game is going to have true freedom in regards to choices and how it pans out. It's one big massive decision true, where if-else statements are piled on upon yet more if-else statements.

If you want to tell an NPC to get bent and have it react realistically, then you need another person on the other end somewhere. For what the game is, I'm fine with it. If I wanted something beyond that, I'd be playing pen & paper.

I really love Star Wars and in the beginning, I thought everyone on the forums was WRONG and SWTOR was the best thing ever. I've been trying to love SWTOR but the problem is the story and linearity, plus BORING QUEST COMBAT. You simply must do story quests in order, and EVERY non-story quest is too easy at the level you can do it, and you can't simply take on higher level (non-story) quests for a challenge because they are "greyed out".

Honestly, I want to die sometimes from a big challenge. Or I want to take on a challenge and succeed and get some item that's powerful for my level. I want to be able to CHOOSE what challenges I take on, not forced into quest lines that are easy and boring.

In the end, I feel like I'm watching a movie where I'm forced to move the main character without freedom of choice...."I HAVE to run him here"....and I have to choose dialogue that makes NO difference to the plot... HENCE IT'S BORING.

What I've found myself doing is following a story I have no impact on - in the order prescribed - and the experience is dull.

Even the lightside/darkside choices are not a true CHOICE in that you're forced to follow one path or the other for corresponding items.

No two ways about it, this is an MMO on rails - instead of the "rail driven shooter" it's a rail driven MMO. These rails even hamper grouping while leveling because other friends / players will either be behind you or ahead of you in the prescribed order you can do quests. It's been difficult to find someone on the exact quest I'm on, so that we can group together and complete the story line and side quests together - frankly it's happened about once in 25 levels.

I must compare it to WoW in that, in WoW, you had different ways to level and different zones etc. You could choose where to go and when, with whom, and how to level... you could grind, or you could quest, or even just PVP, or do some combination thereof. You could choose the zones to go to... bored with helping the elves Ashenvale? Head to another zone of your choice. DO WHATEVER YOU FEEL LIKE.

That's the difference. You can't do whatever you feel like in SWTOR, you're confined.

In the endgame of WoW, you had a character who saved X Village, who rescued the damsel XXX and defeated the evil Zs. I never even killed the Lich King, nor was I forced to, in order to advance. The point is, not everyone had the same experience or story! You could skip whole areas to level in another of your preference. You created your own story and your own adventure. In SWTOR, everyone of your class has the SAME experience and story. And this is a huge negative.

Sorry, but simply choosing abilities does not make a game an RPG. In an RPG, you need freedom of choice so your character has his own background and story that's not the same as everyone else.

Last night I completed the Nar Shadaa quests for my Sith Inquisitor, and I was given the option to go to Tatooine or Alderaan for my next series of quests. The choice was false. I figured I'll go to the higher level planet of Alderaan because thus far I've been bored by going to the planet for my corresponding level, and thus I know I'd be bored by the quests on Tatooine. Well, here's the problem, instead of letting me make this choice, in Alderaan the quests were greyed out, so my only "choice" is to go to Tatooine - which I have no interest in doing because the quests are sure to be BORING because the designers are dictating that I can only do such and such at this level - it's easy and boring mind you - so that's just a terrible decision in how the quests (and corresponding character adventure) are forced upon you.

For the record, I will keep playing SWTOR but in smaller increments, and enjoying it for what it is, instead of what it should have been/ could be / what I wished it to be.

"You can change paths..."

Oh, so instead of picking every light side option, I can now pick every dark side option?

You can't have an "impact" on the world if it's going to undercut someone else's opportunity to experience the same content. They're paying the same as you; why shouldn't they get to kill the same bosses as you?

Or, just a thought... you could just pick the options that appeal to you, or for that matter you could pick the options that you imagine your character would pick. People call that "roleplaying". It doesn't appeal to everyone but some people quite enjoy it.

You're deliberately putting blinders on yourself then complaining about tunnel vision.

Why? Why do they have to be on the other end? She's a pre-written NPC, she could be pre-written to reply to you telling her to go f*ck herself. Instead, you're given the 3 choices of "Grrr im so mad welcome back" "Welcome back" and "I missed ya welcome back"

Why no "Go away"?