In SWTOR the "Real" Game starts at level 1

WoW phasing was horribly implemented. it pretty much forces you to complete all the quests, no matter how grinding, or you will be out of phase with everyone else. it was bad enough in Wrath (ok, lets summon people to ICC, 2 people run out... cannot see each other... fun times), but instead of figuring out how to fix it, they phased themselves into oblivion and turned leveling into completely solo endeavor. no longer could your friends come help you out with quests, becasue if you are not on the same leg, in the same phase? OOPS. so to compensate for that, what do they do? make killing mobs so stupid easy that it turns into a completely mindless grind that teaches you nothing about the class you are playing.

phasing is an interesting thing and SWTOR is actually using the technology via shards and story areas, but anything that truly affects the world? WoW didn't do such a god job with that. at all. at least with SWTOR you are not permanently stuck in your shard, you can easily group with people on other shards.

and the choices you make? they affect your character. you may do some diplomatic missions and give gifts to placate your companion, but if for example you have chosen to kill someone instead of helping them? in your story - they are dead. how you act changes how npc's see you. it changes quest progression. you can play the same class twice and still have a different story, side quests included.


so, to OP? I agree, wholeheartedly.

This is YOUR style and preference... but it is NOT everyone's. When I played EQ I turned my xp to 100% AAs well before the level cap to prolong the leveling. It was the journey that I was enjoying. Sure there are a lot that only care about being at cap, but your blanket statement is inaccurate at best.

They do have impact, your companion may hate you. You can get certain gear based on if you are LS/DS. Also just how they change your story.

Also if you've played ME there really aren't some big decisions that you make that changes the gameplay. You get a appearance change, see the story a little differently...it's the same thing here.

Have a system where you didn't get the most awesome looking gear because you chose not to kill Dude A in chapter 1 and now you're lacking evil points. Result: QQ on forums

Have a system where the choices are completely meaningless or there's no choice at all, just auto-accept quest text. Result: QQ on forums

Have a system where there are choices to be made. Most of them cosmetic but all of them pertaining to your character. Bring the voice work and cut scenes together to allow for greater immersion but don't make the game feel like nothing but a point and click movie. Take best of all MMOs and mash it into the soup to create a great game. Result: QQ on forums

I'm not seeing how Bioware made a bad choice here people. Haters gonna hate, children gonna cry and Imma play this game.

+1 for the OP

If you skip the cutscenes for a GTA game you'll enjoy it a lot less also. Then it becomes a "Just shoot things" or "Drive to this point" game.

I find the whole "Without the cutscenes it's just a kill X quest." yeah well...this is why cutscenes are in every major action/adventure game released nowadays. Although some single player games have addictive gameplay the cutscenes usually just add to it.

Really? I always have fun learning mechanics (AoE Prot grinding! Chain pulls! Soloing group quests and elites!) when I level. Keeps it fun.

I do the same in ToR.

totally agree with OP. i haven't such a blast with a MMO since vanilla wow... and am quite sure this will be the only online game i will play for a very long time

I totally agree!

Totally agree with the OP.

Actually that paradigm was popularized by EQ, not WoW...
And you do realize that MMO players who PvP are a numerical minority, right? I understand that you may see PvP as being "the meat of the game", as its probably what you enjoy the most.

You probably cut your teeth on something hardcore pvp like L2, or maybe to a lesser extent, Aion. But 'end game content' has never been the meta-content that pvp offers, not in a classical sense. PvP used to be "what happened on the way to cap". The whole IDEA of end-game content is wholly separate from PvP, even going back to MUDs and whatnot, as there -was- no endgame. You PvP'd to cap and then cycled over to a new level 1 with capped stats. The concept of 'end game content' was when they started adding cooperative bosses, which eventually became raids.

Sorry for the history lesson but your premise is a bit flawed.

Anyway, yes, Bioware has done a great job with pulling us all into the story. Granted I tend to spacebar through some of the sidequest junk, especially the alien language ones. But my class quest and its related spinoffs keep me riveted, and I enjoy the hell out of the group content as well.

Also, datacrons. Nothing like watching your guildies plummet to their deaths over and over.