Does an MMO need a story?

I base my claims on fact and the facts are as follows. Star Wars is the largest film licence out there and to make an MMO with a £200 million budget (or whatever it was) on it is like the ultimate MMO. It should be thriving with new servers having to be opened on a regular bases, like in err what's that game called...hmm oh yeah WOW. Now three months down the line well over half the playing population have all left the game.

Oh wait are you one of the people that believe the PR BS that is spewed out by EA every month? I guess you are, no wonder your post was so delusional. How about you forget what people are quoting and simply log into a handful of servers on Sunday evening at peak time and see how empty the game has become.

So I restate my case, this game has been a huge failure, it got 1.7 million box sales due to all the hype and the fact that Star Wars is a AAA title, you should know that even if you have a limited education. Loads left during the free month but many more like myself had a 60 day timecard, they expire today, this is why I predicted a mass exodus over the next few days, I will be right.

Does an MMO need a story? No. No game does.

Bioware has blurred the distinction between games and movies. This is a trend in all Bioware games, not just TOR. Bioware always had games with great stories to tell, but with more recent games the focus has shifted far too much into the story telling direction.

When creating a game the first and most important aspect is gameplay. Story telling always comes second. Bioware seems to have forgotten about this.

Does an MMO need a story? No. No game does.

Bioware has blurred the distinction between games and movies. This is a trend in all Bioware games, not just TOR. Bioware always had games with great stories to tell, but with more recent games the focus has shifted far too much into the story telling direction.

When creating a game the first and most important aspect is gameplay. Story telling always comes second. Bioware seems to have forgotten about this.

I played WOW for 6 years and have no idea who any of the NPC characters are except that I know Thrall is leader of the Orcs and some woman is leader of Undercity, that is all I know.

You see in a good MMO you can make your own stories up if you are provided with the tools, . . .

WOW gave me the tools: A thriving world, great world pvp (I could attack anywhere with my guild and have a chance), it had cross server pvp, LFG tools, excellent crafting...it had IMMERSION!

MMO's need a story (multiple stories) and they need to be told well. Otherwise all you have is combat grinding. It's quite pointless; as pointless as an RPG that has no story and only combat (it becomes an action game only).

The whole point of an MMORPG is that it is an RPG, which means it needs story telling.

However, I agree that the resource given to the cut scenes and dialogues should have been better spent on building out the basic system.

There's no reason at all to take us out of a perpetual world constantly and into cutscene after cutscene. Or, just as bad, loading screen after loading screen. There are signs all over the place that bioware, when they started this project, doesn't understand the essence of what an MMORPG is. They get the RPG but not the MMO and more importantly, the synthesis of MMO-RPG.

Personally I enjoy the stories but I skip everything. I read the text. It's great the first run through, but tedious (more tedious than mob grinding) with the constant cuts and load. There's no reason they couldn't have been a bit more balanced about it; rather than constant cut/dialogue scenes, they could have just voice the NPC and given us transcription ala traditional RPG quests. They also didn't need ALL that verbose dialogue. Frankly, they could cut 20% of each dialogue and still retain the essence of the conversation.

It's overly much and it's apparent that too much of the resources went to just this ONE system.