Does an MMO need a story?

It is pretty much why open ended games tend to do worse than ones with a strict story line to follow.
You probably will like mass effect 3 a lot more than skyrim too.

And yes, SWG dropped you out of character creation and into the world with a 'you're on your own now and you might want to speak to that box over there if you're looking for something to do'.

Nothing was lost. The game is still a lore-rich experience, and even more-so now than before. The zones after the cataclysm were redone with a lot of story added to each one. Everything flows better from 1-60 now than ever before. The outlands are still the same but there was never really an issue with those quest areas for the most part. They're interesting enough to capture what Blizzard was doing in that expansion. Northrend is still amazing as it ever was, especially "Icecrown" itself and the incredible story arc that plays there.

The cataclysm zones are all well done, minus Vashj'ir which is largely considered a horrible zone to level in. But there are some people that really like being under water all the time.

Seems to me you've fallen prey to the typical WoW-hater forum user. Or perhaps you're incapable of understanding a story unless there's voice acting to keep you entertained. Either way, you're dismissing what's actually there for unqualified reasons.

True, but 1.2 will introduce medium and heavy armor which can be gotten with social levels, looking forward to that.

You can accomplish that without going to instancing by simply opening up loot from the tables. If one silver elite drops the same item as another silver elite, there's no need to camp a boss. That's a major problem these days-- you are channelled into gaming a certain way in a storyline, like a mouse in a maze after a hunk of cheese.

I hate that.

You haven't played anything other than WoW correct?

WoW has by far the most brain dead crafting system I've ever seen. At least here you have to concern yourself if your minions like you or not. The sad part of your post and so many others here is that you think that boring, easy, Skinner box is the pinnacle of MMOs.

It's a cartoon that gives you pretty clothes for following predetermined scripts. And like every other loot grinding game, has broken PvP.

Yes, but you only get one chance to impress a new audience in this cutthroat gaming world and SWTOR muffed that one bigtime and it was an obvious miss to anyone who was a gamer. Hard to say how many people walked away because of things like that, and moved onto other games. Time will tell if they come back.

IMHO the reason PVP is a bit of a bore is twofold

1. No strategic territorial PVP because a percentage of the population will claim its 'griefing'

and

2. An insistence on development to put things like expertise or presence into a statistic that only has relevance to PVP thus a new player that jumps into some light PVP gets mauled by the guy that's been doing it every day.


It's no wonder lots of people hate PVP when then are their guild's best raiding DPS and then hit like a wet jellyfish in a BG or get jumped on a PVP server and get one shot.

Some people claim this to be the case, still it's usual for a lot of players to come back when a major update is released, in order to see if they like it better this time around. People aren't as unforgiving as you make them out to be, they are just hard to please, rightly or wrongly.

Perhaps but its not a good business model and its certainly not fun for server's regular players when the game's population is entirely dependent upon when the next patch comes out.

That's a game killer and its a path toward the eventual and horrifying free to play existence.

I had the opposite experience. In WoW I was just stuck trying to level asap, it was just a hassle. I actually avoided grouping while leveling as it tended to slow me down. In this game I leveled to 50 with a guildie and get to experience two awesome stories while doing it. Though of course this is just my experience and will of course differ. I think it's a bit odd to say, "this game is holding my attention too much so I can't do other stuff." As a negative.

About your other points, I actually like space combat but I didn't expect it to be anything more then a fun little addition for when you get bored to start with. I do agree that world PvP is broken at the moment. But I think you have to look at the mentality Bioware had to deal with. Players who would rather trade objectives with the enemy instead of trying to have fun. I actually got a few rude whispers early in the game for PvPing in the PvP zone. Regardless they should fix Illum asap, it has such potential.