MMO Design flaw

...not sure if serious.

I'd rather see the leveling take longer and them add significant things to do at all levels. There isn't much they can do though. The WoW culture has players racing to the cap so they can enjoy "endgame".

because your so called mmo content of end game content is in reality nothing more the side/niche activities that attratch a minority of hard core players to that game style.

For years (really since around Meridian 59, before that everyone got along and understood the real attraction of their playstyle) players have tried to claim PVP is the main draw in MMORPGs, yet every time a game tried to go all PVP it fell on its face instantly.

For years players have tried to claim raiding is the main draw and its not true. No one has been dumb enough to make a raiding only game like they have tried for PVP so cant say that game(s) have fallen on their faces but you gotta be pretty self satisfoed to not notice that no matter what game, the same 30 Raiders make up the core of 90% of the raidng groups.

MMORPG Design (and TOR is flawed in this big time) is socialization and interaction/community. Thats the big draw. Take that element away and your left with, well TOR. A game where you have pvp, you have raiding, you have leveling, you have crafting, but you dont have a active and enthusiastic community in game.

What its always come down to is this. Your average MMORPG players (the vast vast vast majority of players) They like to:

Level up if its entertaining (TOR replaced socialization with story here rather then adding story to pre existing socialization). No one likes grinding non stop and TOR has NO GRIND.

AFTER LEVELING your average player will dabble in all the other playstyles but not consistantly play any one more then another.

They all are side games, be it PVP, Crafting, Raiding, Space Combat as long as its with in a social enviroment.

This idea that you need to rush to end game and the MMORPG starts at end game is absolutely false and one of the main reasons Post WOW MMORPGs have such huge Subscription turn overs in such short periods of time, unlike many pre WOW designed MMORPGs where a player would spend many more months playing the leveling/growth portion of game in a social enviroment.

Make a Game thats all about Raiding and you go f2P like RIFT
Make a Game thats all PVP focused and you end up like shadowbane and other failures
Make a game that turns crafting into a full time job like SWG and kiss your player base away (though SWG had much more wrong with it then just that to be honest)

These are all side activities the enhance and promote the main game. They are NOT the focus points of a game.

OK, now all the hardcores can come screaming how they know better and matter more.

So tell me the difference between WoW giving a text box about how Farmer Jones needs you to kill 10 ogres plaguing his fields and TOR giving a voiced cutscene about how Farmer Smith needs you to kill 10 pirates plaguing his moisture vaporators.

With a pure gameplay POV, none. In both cases, a NPC ask you to go kill 10 mobs (so you can earn XP to level).

However, for some people (maybe not you it seems), presentation matters.

The thing is if you go even further from a pure gameplay POV, what WoW does serves no purpose either. Just put some mobs of different levels here and there and let people grind them to get XP.

It's been done in the past and some people were happy like that while others weren't. WoW and some others MMO used text quests to lead players to the mobs and give them a sense of purpose. Bioware with TOR is just going a step further in that way, trying to offer a more immersive way.
But in the end, of course, the quests are still just there to lead players to mobs of different levels and difficulties so people can learn to play and earn XP.

The leveling process is there to teach you about your character and class...So you can perform in the end game.

Yes, pvp games never got anywhere, wait doesnt Dark age of camelot still have a player base after 12 or 13 years? how does a mmo stay alive that long? maybe because they had 50+ different classes that all did different things and a pvp system where you advanced your character not your gear?

quit capitalizing the RPG part if i wanted to play a slasher i would go buy dragon age or some crap i play mmo's to enjoy playing with friends in a setting where i can bring my character to new heights, no group of friends wants to run around killing ogres all day, they want to kill ogre gods together, they want to defeat an enemy not 150 5 hittable pointless mobs.

In a story driven MMO that would be like saying: why not only write the final chapter of a book?

Yes I enjoy leveling and I prefer leveling alts to endgame so I guess it isnt a flaw after all, is it?

I would think people playing the same content over and over in swtor is more in lines with the 'completionist' player. This can vary tremendously with some players maxing out every class, but even just one alt would classify you as a completionist imo

We see the same things in single player games with multiple endings/storyline paths. The regular game is only going to play through the game once. It's the completionists that want to see all the content/endings/etc. Aren't they playing the same content over and over again?

I think in an MMO this line is grey.

You can't really blame them for only having 3 warzones though. The game literally just launched. They even admitted PvP was an afterthought and was amazed by the participation in warzones.

I wouldn't be surprised if you started seeing a whole SLEW of warzones added in the years to come.

And yet so many people complain about it being too easy to reach 50 in this game.

So, does it need different "modes" or something? Long mode or short mode? lol