CORPG vs MMORPG

The OP is completely correct regarding SWTORs genre identify issues, just not really for the right reasons IMO.

MMORPGs require multiplayer experiences on a massive scale, otherwise they are just CORPGs. Player interactions on a massive scale and impact within a persistent world is the core of the genre.

It is the scale of the multiplayer and the ability to influence the world that defines the MMORPG.

Everything about SWTOR is designed to segregate players into their own small rooms where they can watch a story. Even the group sizes are the smallest that I remember seeing in any "supposed" MMO.

There is no event of consequence in SWTOR that happens outside of an instance.

Server populations are too damn small to support enough concurrent users to support large scale PVP or PVE. Even if there were enough people the engine can't deal with that many people on screen.

The fleets are literal matchmaking hubs by design, and none of the group content relates at all to the world at large. They are literal short stories in a vacuum.

If you want to see a real MMO, you need only look at TERA. Player defined factions and alliances with open world GvG on a scale you can't find in SWTOR. Guilds numbering in the hundreds of members hunting each other in every zone in the game. Competing and cooperating over control of provinces and territories through politics or conquest.

Server vs server battles atop flying fortresses are coming this year too. Those devs have a year long plan they have already shared with the community. BioWare devs don't share anything.

SWTOR should have been marketed the same way as GW1, which also had NPC companions to help you quest. A story based RPG with coop multiplayer.

Even WoW started as a true MMORPG then slowly devolved more and more into instanced and phased content, but at least in endeavored to keep group sizes large-ish in BGs and raids for that massive feel. Reducing group sizes in every generation of multiplayer is a step backwards from what should be happening.

what i was saying was,there is really no difference between tor and say mass effect or dragon age...this game is a single player rpg with co op capabilities. this game could have easily been made just like borderlands,with jump in,jump out co op.

MMO simply means a game where a "massive" amount of people share the same online world. Nothing more. It doesn't require grouping of any sort nor PvP.

Wouldn't it just be easier to say what you want in a MMO instead of trying to make of definitions for words that are different than the rest of the world is using?

many people in this game do not have a sense of pride for its faction.

But before I just start repeating myself, let me get to the point. I do speak from experience, and I would honestly say that SWTOR is misbranded and misleading.

I really don't understand how people keep calling this a single-player game. Sure, there are elements of the game that are for you alone, but the majority of the game involves activities that can easily be grouped up with others for, including the basic progression of planets (which occur in a similar sequence, so people leveling together wind up on the same planets), planet missions that all players get, Heroics and Flashpoints, grouping for PVP and other activities, etc.

Core class missions are instanced, but those are also a small portion of the missions you'll find on a planet.

Community interaction is the responsibility of players, not the developers. Developers cannot program a game that FORCES people to be friendly with each other. That isn't how psychology works. If players want to keep to themselves, they will do so.

Plenty of opportunities abound for engaging in community activities. Chatting with other players, for one. Helping newer players out with questions and missions they need assistance with. Trading activities. Strategizing about game mechanics.

And they have mentioned their desire to add things like social gaming into the game, if I'm not mistaken. Sure it isn't in there now, but this has already been covered. If this is another post that says, "Everything should have been included in launch," then forget it.

There is a lot more personalization to your appearance now than before in the game along with the "Unify Colors" ability. There are all kinds of armor sets that can now be created that look very much different than the next player.

They've discussed adding more customization into the ship interiors, but this is also something that will have to come later. We're still 5 months into the game. You yourself said you were wishing for this game to be just like SWG, even though I am unaware of ANY developer at BioWare EVER claiming that this would be anything like SWG, yet SWG didn't even have player ships for a YEAR or more after launch.

Just an honest question, OP: are you really giving this game the same chances for improvement that you gave SWG?

It would help if people criticizing the game's "single player" qualities would begin referring to their own examples of what these other "multiplayer" MMORPGs are that CANNOT be classified as "single player games". It's really easy to say "This is a single player game", but where are the examples of "multiplayer games" that have you do things that you can't do here? What happens in those other games when you need to have a group to complete some task, but you can't find anyone to group with? Just wait? Just stop progressing and forget that you wanted to play?

I agree with you on some points. We do need some social gaming like card games and some casino games would be nice to get players into some social zones. I think ship customization and some changes to ship mechanics so that players can run their special class missions with friends along for the ride without it doing weird things like splitting you back up to your own ships once you leave that zone. I think it would be awesome to have new ships ot upgrade to, and if enough players ask for it, we just might get it.

Ultimately, this is only the beginning. BioWare has done some fantastic work responding to the community and adding in features that were requested (and many times demanded). UI customization and overhaul, LFG tool, server transfers, crafting changes, transferrable armorings that carry set bonuses to customized gear, social gear that scales up with your character, etc. They've talked about adding in some customization features like a "barber shop" and hopefully some appearance changes, and numerous other things that they want to add. We already know of a big space project that's underway already, and now it looks like we'll be getting 3D space combat as well. Guild capital ships as you mentioned, look like they're headed into the game.

I can name one other MMORPG that has capital ships where other players can get on board your ship and help out by taking command of a gunnery station or a repair station. It took that game almost 13 years to get that added functionality into the game. What others are there?

And the greatest danger to the game I think is really this apparent change in player psychology where everything has to be available all at once or else it's deemed a "failure" and people leave and don't come back.

If that's the kinds of players we have today, I'm afraid most online games just aren't going to cut it anymore at all. We may be witnessing the last dying breath of the entire MMORPG genre, even the F2P flavors as hideous as those are. The entire genre is built on the idea of releasing a core game that is fun to play and then adding more things in over time. If players are no longer willing to wait over time and enjoy the game that's there to be had, looks like lights out across the board.

I sure hope that isn't the case.

not FFXI

At about lvl 15 monsters that give you exp will kill you. From that point on you must group up with people to get exp. This forced grouping and comradeship is what I expect from an MMO.


Imagine if in SWTOR every mob after the the capital world was a Champion difficulty. Imagine if you needed a 4 person group to do every quest from that point on. imagine how tight nit the community would be.

All have been brought up in the suggestion box (I actually agree with you, gasp!) and all are off topic with regards to whether or not the game is best suited as a co-op rpg or the mmorpg format.

Just like every MMO i've ever played. Oh and you of course don't mean play through it all as in all the fps and ops, right? Cause that would be absurd.

CORPG, not Co-op RPG. Please familiarize yourself with the title and definition of CORPG.

I have to disagree. From the beginning I felt that this game was being advertised as a "new breed": a heavily story centric MMORPG. Pretty much the only reason I even tried the game in the first place. I don't typically LIKE MMO's. I do, however, like story centric single player games.

And that's precisely what I feel I've gotten, and is one of the primary reasons why I'm still playing. So, while I agree that there are a lot of people that appear to be dissapointed with the game, I'd argue it isn't because it's misbranded and misleading, but rather because they willfully chose to ignore the writing on the wall and apparently bought something that made no pretense at being what it was they wanted.

('Course, I'd actually argue that even more classical MMORPG's aren't what most of the people dissapointed with SWTOR on these boards are really looking for... the PvP'ers would probably be better satisfied by a league of legends or sci-fi themed FPS (with more modes than just "death match), and the "End game" PvE'ers would probably vastly prefer some game that WAS just "end game" style treadmill running. (heh, probably diablo III? The Diablos have always struck me as nothing but upgrade treadmills... except that diablo isn't really designed around group encounters, afaik.)

Oh, and PS, I've never actually heard CORPG before this post, I assume cooperative RPG? Or possibly Cooperative Online RPG?

Fixed that for you.

I can tell from your tone that getting angry defends your ego from admitting you're mistaken. It's ok.

Your response is totally off topic but in the interest of promoting discussion as to why legacy or (1.2) is not solely for solo content:

Taken from the page itself.:


I highlighted the portions that apply to group play and more than one person involvement in general.

If anything that you disagree with can be willfully dismissed (as "useless stuff") without reason then you truly have no reason at all.