Thoughts on GameSpy's Article on SWTOR

Good point. I do know of cases of movies which recieved high praises, but in my opinion once I watched them, they sucked. Same for bad reviews. After I watched them, I thought they rocked. Same goes for video games. However in this thread topic article, he made some good points about TOR's failings because I have experenced the same downfalls he mentioned. Now on his good points in reference to GW2, I cannot relate to those and at this time, have no plans on playing it.

You may have a point here, but I think that because the NDA was lifted for GW2 and people have had every opportunity to pick apart its workings, the comparison is a fair one. SWTOR is already having to compete with GW2--despite the latter not having launched--and the competition is fierce.

This without saying anything about the very fair comparisons made in the article posted here; you may disagree with them on their merits, but the comparisons are valid--these are features that both games tout to be integral to the experience. I think the author could better explain why he thinks story gets in the way of his experience in TOR (though I sometimes feel the same), but he otherwise lays it out evenly that on these very specific points, SWTOR fails to meet or exceed what GW2 will be delivering.

If the author states that story gets in the way of his game when it comes to swtor i do wonder if they have ever played a bioware game before.

You just quoted them.

I think we just disagree on the level of criticism (tone) needed for a criticism to be valid.

"This pie is stale, but I'll still eat it" is not praise.

So - after 2 Beta weekends - people are able to fairly comment on how the lack of real endgame will impact GW2? GW2's one major flaw in it's appeal to traditional gamers can't yet be tested.

One thing going for GW is that they they don't have to post sub numbers =)

After investing a significant amount of time in TOR and playing in both BWE's for GW2, both games have their pluses and minuses.

Character Customization: GW2 crushes swtor in every possible aspect here.

Story: SWTOR has a much more immersive and visual story. The cut-scene aspect of it greatly enhances the story telling. However the stories themselves are very often cliche and predictable (not all of them, so far i'm finding the IA story to be quite good, but JC, JK, and Trooper were all pretty bland to me). On the other hand, GW2 has a story that is not visually represented nearly as well, but I can't comment on the content of said story because I don't think it's fair to judge by the <25% of the story available so far.

The World: TOR is dull, lifeless and there are soooo many instances that I always feel like i'm in a box. The only instance of life i've seen is with republic and imperials blasting each other on Ilum... but if you kill one side the other side just keeps blasting, it's a completely static animation with no impact on the world. GW2 on the other hand has an extremely alive world. The higher the level zones you get to the more alive it seems to become. I made it to the new zone in the latest BWE and since there weren't a lot of players there pirates managed to take over 75% of the map and completely change it. Once our numbers started increasing we started changing the landscape back, opening up new vendors, merchants, changing the DE's offered, etc. But the best part was it didn't matter if there weren't enough players because there was still plenty to do solo, only a small fraction of the DE's are for "groups" the rest of them scale to the number of players quite well.

Cooperation: Every time I see a player in SWTOR I cringe... is he going to steal my resource node? is he going to ninja that chest i'm fighting for? is he going to tag the mob before I get there? is that group going to kill that world boss and waste the last hour my group spent preparing? Outside of ops, I live in fear of encountering another player, and that's just sad. On the slip side you gain bonuses and rewards for helping other players in GW2, there is never any penalty or discouragement for working with another player, which is exactly what I want in an MMO. If I wanted to stand around and chat i'd go join a chatroom or call my friends, what I want is other players to PLAY with.

Endgame. I like SWTOR's ops, I find them fun and like the coordination that goes into clearing them. I unfortunately did not make it to a high enough level to try out the dungeons in GW2, which is the only form of traditional "group" play they have so I can't comment on what that's like. I am a little hesitant about no raids in GW2, but the level scaling and the great rewards for exploring offer a lot of relevant content.

I probably won't continue my subscription to TOR once GW2 launches. After playing it for over 72 hours I just find it overall much more enjoyable then TOR where I just stand on the fleet for $15 a month. Once I finish up the rest of the class stories I don't see myself playing anymore just to raid once a week.

To be fair, the level of quality in storytelling found in BioWare's other games is leaps and bounds above the quality found in SWTOR. Ohlen admitted this just yesterday...

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/v...7/videoId/2485

Boom. In a nutshell

Care to provide me with some professional reviews that basically say GW2 is lackluster? Otherwise, I will assume you are just trolling, because everything I have read are overwhelmingly positive.

There is no NDA and vast amounts of players have played GW2 quite a bit over the two BWEs and so far the feedback is that people are quite impressed.

Now who's twisting the author's words? He never once said, "This pie is stale." He said, "This pie isn't stale, and if you think it is, here's why you're wrong."