What makes a MMO an MMO and how does SW:TOR stack up in this regard?

I agree, you don't have to be rewarded for everything you do. The point is that rewards provide incentives to do certain things. These incentives encourage players to go out of their way to do activities they might not otherwise have done. A prime example of this is space combat, a system which would be completely pointless without some form of reward as it doesn't relate to the rest of the game at all.

As for you seeing opposing-faction players, you were one of the lucky ones. I'm sure there was a leveling sweet spot where people leveled with a larger group of people than others were privileged to; a new player on my server will see less people around him as he levels than I did as the population has settled toward end game.

Are you arguing that a less rigid delineation of the factions would hurt open-world PvP?

I'm saying that if people weren't so GD lazy, and could think for themselves without having their hands held with rewards, they could find pvp. That was all I was saying.

That's a given.

My point is that the game could do more to encourage open world PvP, namely forcing the factions to come together more often. With healthy open world PvP comes incentives to guild and build community.

I've yet to interact with a "massive" number of people.

define massive..
the game only lets you play with a group of 4 and pvp with groups of 8 currently..

how much more do you need to interact with?

MMO - massively multiplayer online.... the Hero Engine can't handle more than 8 people on-screen at once really. There is NOTHING massive about this game apart from the blind fanbois who can't tell a dead turkey from a golden hen...

A virtual believable world with dynamic NPCs and a high player population, different playstyles, non combat playstyles, meaningful crafting, minigames, housing, world storyline, worlds changing, players able to change the gameworld, secrets and eastereggs.

When I first started playing SW:TOR, I found myself feeling kind of awkward playing through the game. On the one hand, I enjoyed the quests and the single-player aspect of it. But I never felt any encouragement from the NPCs to group with any of the other people around me. They kept telling me that I was the savior of the planet and went on and on about how many great things I had done, and they never mentioned the other people playing the game. So why would I think about them?

Strangely, this simultaneously edged me away from multiplayer just by not putting me in the right mindset, while at the same time it made the single-player less enjoyable, because their accolades rang false. How could I be the singular savior or Balmorra when there's a Bounty Hunter three levels higher than me standing 5 feet away turning in the quest that I'm about to start? When I'm playing Shepherd in Mass Effect, it sounds perfectly natural to be told that I'm the only hope of the galaxy, but should I really be told that when I have four guildmates who have already outlevelled me?

I think the SPRPG writing of BIoware, which is exemplary and I dearly love, has subtly gotten in the way of creating a multiplayer culture. I know that part of their design philosophy was to set this game apart from others by creating a more epic feel for your character... but I just don't think they thought through what feeling this would create in the game world. I'd like to see their considerable writing talent turned into innovative ways to creating more of a multiplayer FEEL to the story as it expands.

For me, I put the game down a few months ago, but I've come back... purely to experience the single player story. I've always loved their writing and aside from some dreary moments on Taris I've not been disappointed with SWTOR. By simply changing my expectations, I feel like I'm getting a good value from the game. I'm hopeful that they will continue to keep up the game and expand it, because I really enjoy it. I honestly don't think, though, that improved LFG tools or server consolidations will do the trick without a change to the NPCs so that they acknowledge that other players exist, and help me as a player to get into the mindset of an MMO player.

In MMO's I tend to solo 90% of the time, yet I want to do that in a MMO world..Doesnt feel that way here. I think its the planets. I think if WoW launched today I would pretty much feel the same way. In UO there were player run areas where PKs ganked night and day. While I hated getting ganked it was fun avoiding those areas or going with others and killing them.
SWG had it right, though I didnt like the game much. And wow had it for a time. With world PVP in TM SS, it felt like a living place. SWTOR just has planets to level on. I cant really say I remember anything from the worlds. I know I would need a map to know where im going every time.

Respectfully disagree.

I do not need BW to hold my hand and take me anywhere I think, but my weekend play-time consisted of finishing what I had left from Hoth last weekend, plus over half of Belsavis, all of it solo-questing, plus a story "interlude" that happened in between the 2 planets, or just enough to get from early 37 to mid-41 iirc. In that time, my weekly playtime:

• I run across a whooping total of 12 different people (accounting for both factions) on the planet's surfaces
• Just travelling to any open world pvp area (if they really existed) would have taken 20 mins away from my playtime between speeders, shuttles and loading screens
• There is no waranty there will be any pvp whatsoever after the long, annoying trip.
• I do not, even by accident, wander into enemy territory (EVER in 17 or so planets...)

Honestly It starts to feel like it is I who has to hold BW's hand so that their game does feel like an MMO...


I love the game, but yeah, in my book it is a design/planification problem:

• Planets way too big. (Oh yeah I love 3-minute rides in my speeder)
• Virtualy separate play areas for each faction throughout the game (boring)
• Too many servers (= lower pop = lower chance to run into others)
• No real need to engage in group content in order to level.
• Solo content (story mode) does not mesh at all with groups (grouping makes this content boring/trivial, and your partner is but a mere spectator of your interactions...)
• Inability to assault enemy true bastions (Capital Planets/Fleets)