Swtor= dog on a chain?

I'd say it easily had twice the content SWTOR has, at release.

I think you're missing the point. Since everybody loves to compare new MMOs to WoW, I'll also use that comparison (I haven't played WoW since I killed Heroic Lich King).

As an Imperial character in TOR, when you are leveling you go from your starter planet (there are only 2) to Dromund Kaas to Balmorra to Nar Shadaa to Tatoine to Alderaan to Taris to Quesh to Hoth to Belsavis to Voss to Correlia to Ilum (and Belsavis for dailies). And that never changes. If you roll Republic, you follow the same path only you get a new starter and instead of Dromund Kaas you go to Coruscant


As a Horde character in WoW, when you're leveling you start in your starter area (there are 6) and if you don't want to level there you can choose to go to one of the others. Once you're out of your starter you have multiple zones spread over 2 continents you could choose per level range. If I remember correctly, you get something like 35-40 zones to explore up to level 60. The most linear progression path starts in Outland and continues (though lessens a bit) in Northrend. But even then, you usually have at least 2 zones per level range to choose from. If you decide to roll an Alliance character you have 6 new starter zones to choose from and dozens of Alliance only zones and then the contested zones.

There are quite a few more options for your path of progression in WoW than SWTOR. Some people really don't like that they see the same zones in the same order with every character. You may be fine with it, but there's no reason to attack those that aren't.

Yeah, they are. There is not one MMO that doesn't follow the definition the OP has used for "linear".

All MMOs are linear, in the way it's being used.

For example: FFXI

I start off in Ronfaure, then I either go to La Theine or Valkurm Dunes (depending if I get a party or not, though I have to go through La Theine to get to Dunes). Mind you, this is a straight line progression, just like the different areas of the Starter planets in TOR.

Then I go to Qufim Island. Then I go to Mandys. Then I go to Beetles. And so on, and so on.

Being Linear doesn't automatically mean bad.

Eve.

The only thing linear about Eve are the tutorial missions and maybe the Sisters of Eve arc. After that you're on your own.

Even Galaxies after NGE wasn't linear. They eventually added the legacy quest line in order to make leveling easy, but it only got you to about level 50. After that you were expected to find you own way to 90.

Now if you want to say Theme park MMOs are linear then I don't think anyone could disagree with you, but to say that All MMOs are linear is just patently false.

Sounds like you haven't played WoW, you can go anywhere in that game and find quests. Travel off the beaten path next time you play it, there's tons of quests all over the gameworld.

LOLOL

No, no it didn't.

The worst part is the WoW fanboys treating each planet as a single zone. That makes me rofl