The end of the arguement. Is SWTOR in decline? Can it be saved?

Why would BioWare fans play this game? The emotional tone of the storytelling is completely flat. It is an empty shell of what Mass Effect is from a storytelling point of view. The companion characters in this game are predictable drones with only token character development. Your decisions don't matter. Every Jedi Knight kills the Emperor, every Sith Warrior is a member of the Dark Council, every Trooper is the leader of Havoc Squad.

People replay ME because their decisions have life and death (or developmental) consequences for the characters that live with you on the ship, and changing how you handle a situation actually changes the outcome of what happens in the future. Nothing like that happens in SWTOR.

It is an inferior BioWare experience. In fact, it reeks of Mythic and EA.

Yeah. Mine always says "Standard", yet I filled a full 24-man ops group TWICE last night within 20 minutes on Tatooine to do the World Event Bosses. Didn't even have to go to the Fleet to try and fill it.

LIES!! Pure lies!!!!!

Everyone knows that the Emperor is off in another galaxy in deep meditation! At least that is what my story told me, and that is the truth!

Ima ignore the flame war attempts and troll posts and skip to this.

It must be true! practically twins! Where have you been all my life? *runs slowly with opened arms across a long-grass sunny field. xD

I play a Trooper as my main, and after only 2 months of being 50, I honestly cannot even remember how the Trooper story ends.

I remember killing the traitors (whose names I don't remember at all), but that was Act 1. After that I went around destroying some Imperial superweapons, and then I don't remember at all who my final villain was (was it Malgus or is that just the Ilum story? I don't know).

That's how memorable the stories in SWTOR are. I'm playing Sith Warrior, which is mildly more interesting, I'm still in Act 1.

I haven't read any class story spoilers but here's my prediction: I find the Jedi Padawan and convert her to the dark side. She becomes my apprentice and I kill my former master (what's his name again?). Then I go on a Jedi hunt to assassinate some high ranking Masters like Vader and get promoted to the Dark Council. How far off am I?

Meanwhile I could tell you ever detail of every Mass Effect.

Though you use a bunch of colorful language, I think this about sums up the reality of the storytelling in SWTOR. What the game lacks--which is fundamental to what made the ME stories so great--are the consequences. SWTOR does not allow you to make mistakes in your story, and it doesn't allow you to make heated spur-of-the-moment decisions that can effect the outcome of your experience.

MMOs require a regurgitation of content by their very nature, and while I applaud BioWare's decision to bring storytelling to the forefront of MMO development, they've completely gutted whatever benefit this could have added to the game. This, without saying anything about re-playability--something BioWare encourages, but doesn't make very easy. Here, again, consequences could have helped immensely.

If by colorful you mean verbose... ok... otherwise I have no idea what's so colorful about it?

The regurgitation of content doesn't really have anything to do with the bland storytelling. The problem is that every player is a superhero - but they don't get to make decisions that carry any weight in the world. The illusion is that you're a big time hero, and the story is telling you you're a big time hero... but actions speak louder than words, and the game doesn't let you do anything of consequence.

Also, it's all hidden behind an instance line.

I suppose that only makes sense. They can't have everybody making conflicting changes to the persistent game world, but that just shoehorns the story into being boring and only reinforces the "single player game with multiplayer elements" description of the game.

Real MMOs are persistent worlds where player actions determine how the world turns.

Before someone jumps all over you, I'd like to expand on your idea by suggesting that perhaps consequences could have been something like you can end up with 5 of a possible 10 companions depending on the decisions you make. I do understand that the very nature of an MMORPG means most companies are unwilling to make it so characters can completely gimp themslves, UO and stat loss notwithstanding

"... the storytelling is completely flat."

"... empty shell..."

"... predictable drones with only token character development."

"It is an inferior BioWare experience. In fact, it reeks of Mythic and EA."

Colorful.

I don't see how "completely flat" is colorful. It refers to the tension in a typical hero story arc. The level of tension is completely flat.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/...9e4d0f06_o.png

I use the word 'inferior' frequently, daily even. In fact all of those words are part of my normal vocabulary. Might be because I frequently employ a thesaurus.

Colorful would probably involve some kind of absurdity or dirty joke.