Does an MMO need a story?

Sounds like SIMS STAR WARS then a mmo RPG I will admit the PVP in SWTOR is just a QUAKEFEST DEATHMATCH. Maybey thats why i dont pvp..

Disappointment, mostly.

Rail-shooter space missions.
Appalling cookie-cutter missions on-world.
Frustration built in at every opportunity (itemisation in crafting, balance between gift and gather missions in mission skills, space stations and speeder restrictions, inflexible UI, lack of Guild features; the list goes on).

Nah. It's the presentation of the story. The story itself is hardly expensive. Or if it was, they were ripped off.

That's pretty darn oblivious. Really. It also points up that you're missing half of the genre name, and why. SWTOR isn't an MMO, it's an MMORPG. Role Playing Game. You see how language, misused, can alter people's perceptions and expectations of the world.


Had a story too. It was just the same story for every character you made, and any story you created for yourself.


Only a consequence of other factors.

Very server-dependent that one.

Only eventually.

ORLY? "Excellent" wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe WoW's crafting systems. The concepts behind SWTOR's systems are vastly superior; they just need to sort out the balance of crafted vs drop.


You aren't using that word to describe what I'd recognise as "Immersion".

How can they not when the first thing that will get complained about is the aesthetics?

These days an MMORPG needs a story. A story-free world will never be get the level of subs that SWTOR has. Story builds immersion, drags you into the game and creates emotional investment. EVE, for example, lacks that aspect of the game, and that's one of the reasons I dropped my sub: I don't have time to drive my own story in that sort of environment; I'm playing (and paying) to be entertained. Unfortunately for SWTOR, the story and continuity is pretty low calibre, on average, and the entertainment is waning pretty fast.


So do players.

It won't be. The gaming industry isn't run by people who understand it, unfortunately. It's run by MBAs who couldn't imagine their way out of a mostrously boring wait.

I don't think that your reasons for disappointment are all invalid, but I do think you're wearing somewhat rose tinted specs when you look back at WoW. I do think that my, differing, reasons for disappointment show that SWTOR has failed from both directions. Computer-mediated gaming can't, yet, handle the sort of player-generated story creation we both want, in an environment that will be comfortable for lightweights like myself who read of the atrocity that was UO noobcamping and kept well away from MMORPGs for years.

I had a brief look at Tera yesterday, and their "endgame" political system looks like it might actually be an environment where players and Guilds can generate their own story. Or it could be swamped by Goon Squad.

Another thing, one thing I do miss in MMO's is the random stat generated loot. Nowadays, MMO's have loot 'tables' and you know what loot drops from what mob-- therefore people who are looking for the best gear have to either farm instances or PVP Bg's.

SWG had a random loot generator in it, as did most older MMO's , so that each item was potentially unique in stats. A lance might drop for one person and have 100 damage, another might get 1000. The same applied to crafting as well, with modifiers built in for the quality of the resources.

I miss that because that sort of a system allows for harder working players to achieve something no one else had before them and kept you motivated to keep working toward a better toon, and everyone looked different.

Now, one person's ruby red lightsaber of doom is the same as another person's ruby red lightsaber of doom.

It's hard to feel heroic about that.

What? They're holding 1.7 million subs well over the initial free month. You call that a disaster? What do you call a success?


Also, in my opinion, yes the story is an amazing addition. I didn't even look at my xp-bar while leveling, it made leveling fun and that's something I don't think any mmorpg has managed to do before.

What "massive multiplayer online" functionaly has Bioware provided more of? This game has no massive multiplayer feel.

The worlds are isolated areas, most of your quest hubs are the same, people are always disappearing behind barriers rarely to be seen again because you disappear behind your own shortly afterwards.

Please, explain what this game brings in the actual literal definition of "MMO" that surpasses others of this genre. You can cheerlead for this game all you want, you can claim it's the best MMO you've ever played and blah blah blah. But to claim it does more 'MMO stuff' than other games without providing a single example is baseless.

I approve of this first page comment. Game is great, yes it needs a story. I'm keeping my sub. Even pvp focused mmos like WAR had a great story. It's a real damn pity wow BUTCHERED it's rich Warcraft universe which started off as a warhammer rip-off and had evolved to a nice fulfilling alternate reality by warcraft 3 is now unfortunately pretty **** in most aspects... Very little of what was great remains. But it's all valid in the spirit of entertaining the masses I guess...

PS - Does anyone who played Warcraft 3 remembers the awesome feeling of visiting the plaguelands on Azeroth(undercity). Seeing the same scenarios you saw in the original game, passing through the same places. It gives me a fuzzy feeling and makes me want to play Warcraft still today but this was lost in the latest expansions.

Skipping fact that it's just another "I quit" disguised as discussion...

Does MMO need story:
No, there are plenty of those without any, even in quests.

Does any game need story:
Aside from adventure games, where whole point is to tell story, no, you can even make game that will pass as RPG that don't have story.

Does game need graphics:
No, lot of good games didn't have those and did just fine.

Does MMORPG need clases, crafting, endgame?
As above, no, there were ones that did just fine without them.

Does MMO need LFG, Arenas, or pandas?
I know of only one where players can't imagine life without them, so also no.


But then
Does Elder Scrolls game need Argonians? Does FPS need shooting? Does game advertised by cute alien pigs need cute alien pigs? Does story based MMO by BioWare need story?
Absolutely.

If I didn't want story in my MMO, i would go play something else.

Yes, the 'grind' is now no longer a snoozefest, and the crafting is a big improvement over WOW's. The story and immersion is excellent in SWTOR.

It's also a guild killer as people are now discovering. Instead of chatting with your mates in Ventrilo, you are paying attention to the cinematics and what the NPC's are saying. People are off in their own little world until it comes time to raid. Not the best thing for developing freindships with guildmates. The social point system was a good idea that went horribly wrong as the gear wasn't of much use to 75% of the player base, since it was strictly only for RP purposes.

Space IS a letdown, as is the PVP. What's the point of a PVP server when you get nothing for killing a player open world, and in some cases banned or your toon locked for doing so? BG's whiule fun at first, are a whole lot less fun when you realize you'll have do them for weeks on end to get some decent gear out of them.

Ilum fast become a joke as they took any potential of a territorial element out of the game. Flashpoints are fun, but again-- when the MMO becomes about loot, people will only want to do the endgame raid.

SWTOR is a fun game, and I daresay a great game for many. But honestly, it's WOW with lightsabers for the most part and I'm beginning to rethink being in a subscription based MMO as a leisure activity anymore as a result.

Agreed. 1.7 million, not including the Australian/Asian servers, is pretty good in my opinion.

I know what you mean, level ups sneak up on me in this game since I'm too busy with the story and just playing the game. 9 times out of 10 I level up without even realising I was about to, this doesn't/hasn't happened to me in other MMOs.

Well MAYBEY just MAYBEY they didnt want KILL STEALING.

I remember trying to do that WARRIOR epic weapon quest in EQ our guild waited for a whole week till the Dragon spawned for the GREEN SCALES. We were prepping to start when another guild swooped in and stole the mob and I was FUBARED for another week. This doesnt happen in SWTOR did you think about that before bashing the instances?

I can see it now J/K 1 isfixing to attack the emperor and J/K 2 swoops in with 10 out of group buddies and kills it before you can blink. Imagine how the boards would be set on fire for that BS.