Quick thoughts on BioWare's direction with this game.

This is a post I left in another thread and realised this is exactly what I think of how the game is going.

I love this game, but I'm really getting the thought and especially with Blomberg(?)'s recent interview, that story is way at the back and group content, the weakest point of the game where it can't compete with other titles in the genre, is being put at the fore-front, as long as BioWare dismisses story as third-rate priority and puts group content on the fore-front, this game is going to keep nose-diving, because as hard as they may try, they are trying to appeal to an audience they never won over and can't win from games like Guild Wars 2, their OP-PVP will always trash anything BiOWare can put out, yet they seem insistent on trying to attract this crowd in a futile attempt to win them over, whilst ignoring the one playerbase they can easily hold onto and grow, the crowd that aren't die-hard MMOers, but RPG fans, Star Wars fans, BioWare fans, the story crowd.

I totally agree, the story is the best part of the game, yet it's what they are giving away for free.

Good points. I agree. But I allready got off the TOR train at the last stop. Because I donot like where it is headed. But once they give me a free ticket, I may get back on it and see where it is and going to next.

I agree. Gameplay wise, they will never be able to compete with GW2. The biggest problem, I think, is that the stories themselves are nowhere near the quality of previous BW games. I'm a big fan of Kotor and Kotor 2, so the Kotor 3 aspect of the game, the Jedi Knight story, is one that I was really anticipating, but it was dreadful. Everything I loved about Revan and the Exile, Kreia, all of that wonder was mauled.

Really, other than the Agent and maybe the Sith Warrior stories, the rest of them are really generic by the books BioWare.

I sort of agree, if that's where it's headed. I think a good balance between features is the way to go, but for me personally the story and the RPG portions in a multiplayer environment are by far the most important features of TOR, and if they're being held back too far then... Well it'll be a lot less appealing.

I agree somewhat, but I feel the story could be less linear. There is not enough tradgedy in the stories for fear of upsetting players. For instance, say you have Mako out and are continuing your story and all of a sudden the main villian justs kills her. Then your bounty hunter begins his revenge quest. He could pick up a new companion along the way to replace mako. That would never happen in this game because there would always be someone who says, "You killed Mako? I hate you bioware!" Whatever. The whole point to a tragedy is to get you to fall in love with a character and then kill them off. Bioware just doesn't have the guts to do that, so I can't really say that the stories are all that great. Too safe and predictable.

I agree. I really enjoy the individual story that was put into this game at launch. My favorite part of the game involves not only the story lines in each class, but also the details put into the interaction with companions. I am still hopeful that we will get much more of this, but worried that it will become less individualized. They say that they are still committed to the story but I wonder if the trends will be to more and more content that is generic in nature. Such as adding a companion that everyone shares with similar interactions.

Personally I want more story with all of my characters but especially my JK. I want each current companion to be expanded and more new dialogue as well as more day-to-day interaction that reflects the status of our relationship with them. For example, my character is married to Kira, but after one last cut scene about the future and a few letters, you would never know it.

I think the way to do it is now that everyone has completed their "personal story," so to speak they should start releasing a "group story," where it no longer is class specific. Everyone does it together and there are multiple steps that require a group, like LOTRO does. I think in the long run it would be great, ESPECIALLY if they don't increase the level cap. Anytime you want to make an alt, make a new class and the entire leveling experience is new for you, but once he is capped you can start doing all the "new stuff" with everyone.

The solo story thing, whatever you want to call it, currently in place could be a great mechanic if balanced properly. One complaint I see a lot of, especially around Rift, is that the leveling experience for alts never changes - not a problem with SWTOR. Now they just need to find ways to encourage people to play together!

Quote: Originally Posted by Rayla_Felana

This is a post I left in another thread and realised this is exactly what I think of how the game is going.

I love this game, but I'm really getting the thought and especially with Blomberg(?)'s recent interview, that story is way at the back and group content, the weakest point of the game where it can't compete with other titles in the genre, is being put at the fore-front, as long as BioWare dismisses story as third-rate priority and puts group content on the fore-front, this game is going to keep nose-diving, because as hard as they may try, they are trying to appeal to an audience they never won over and can't win from games like Guild Wars 2, their OP-PVP will always trash anything BiOWare can put out, yet they seem insistent on trying to attract this crowd in a futile attempt to win them over, whilst ignoring the one playerbase they can easily hold onto and grow, the crowd that aren't die-hard MMOers, but RPG fans, Star Wars fans, BioWare fans, the story crowd.

They can't produce enough story fast and cheaply enough to sell it on the cashshop for it to work in a F2Pcashshop model.

Expect to see P2W because that sells in the short-term before destroying the game.

It actually is a problem with SWTOR as well. The class stories are, what? 10% of the content? Every time you level up an alt, you're going to be playing the exact same stuff for the most part, just like Rift.