Story diversity is a lie

Baldur's gate 2 is not a mmo game. Btw it is funny that you mention it. Although you could replay bg2 with a different class the story remains exactly the same. Every time. And yet people weren't complaining about diversity and replay value. The quests in bg2 weren't any more interesting than swtor. In fact I would say they were much more primitive. You reach a new map, you explore it and kill everything there. Sometimes you meet an npc and he tells you to go kill someone and take something. And that's all there was. Yes, the story was immersive but that's because it's a single-player game. It is designed solely for you and it funnels you through it without allowing you to do anything else. Not to mention you don't have to worry about balance or op skills and weapons. And you could save/reload at any point.

Bottom line is - there isn't an mmorpg that comes even close to swtor as far as story is concerned. Forget about voice over. In this game I care about my character. I think about the decisions I'm doing (as superficial as they actually are). In every other mmorpg I've played I've never thought about anything but what is the most efficient way to level my character and find the best possible gear. Which is why I've always preferred single-player games.

Having now a 50 Jedi Guardian (with some 30 toons) and played a lot of MMO and other games, I'm experiencing the same feeling as the OP, but I do see parallels to other games.

The reasons are:
- Side quests are only taken as side tasks, not quests. Players don't live the quests but simply take them as other actions needed as long as they need to travel to a certain location. (Make better use of the travel time). This makes the side quest loose a lot of their feeling and let the player not enjoy each quest on its own.

- Massive time spent in the game. It's like everything. You're fascinated first, spend as much time on it as possible and loose interest after a while. If you play through a whole planet or even two in one constant session, you will feel the quest repetition massively. If you play only short-periods, you will feel less repetitive.

- Player Guides, Wikis, Skill/Class/Equipment list etc. All these are great for advanced and end-level players to achieve more. But they are the death of level-Games. In early times, MMOs lived from player explorations, discovering new thing and learning the game from guldies or self-exporing. With internet pages available telling you every trick and location, you will use it, but loose the joy of exploring it yourself.
The more you read, inform yourself about a game in the internet, the less interesting you'll find the game itself.


Honestly, these are the reasons why no other MMO will get the success of WOW again. WoW made MMOs available to a wider public. With it the information available about MMOs grew and also the expectations on them. The players got convenient and don't want to spend hours investigating and exploring the game. They simply want to consume it with as small effort as possible.

Books and movies are 2 very separate things, because they take place in 2 separate mediums, the obvious difference is that a movie is only 1.5-2 hours long, while the book they're based upon has a lot more material and reading hours in it than 1.5-2 hours.
Text based quests and VO/cutscene story quests with dialogue options take both place in the same medium, MMORPG's and games.

I enjoyed my quests in all MMO's I played since EQ and UO, but just like with single player games, VO/cinematic representation is overall the more immersive and entertaining way to deliver quests than textbased click-ok-or-cancel way of delivering them.

the objective might be the same or variations of the same thing, but the story is different. i think that is the point

lol this argument is starting to crop up more and more every time someone legitimately complains. Fanboys are awesome.

the anticlimactic companion quests that take you to some random house in the middle of nowhere with zero motivation and before it starts its over?

This.

To me story and questing in SWTOR are far superior to anything the competition has to offer.
With 8 story lines and different faction side quests the game offers more than enough quality content in that department.

you must not have rolled those alts yet...

the redundancy really begins to set in on Taris as Republic, and Balmorra as Empire

then it is a case of a weeks worth of casserole in varying states of decay

zones after the above mentioned begin to feel empty, quests are spaced and paced with an actuaries sense of gameplay

i'm giving the game a chance until i get a few 50s on either realm, but i can tell already that the spacebar will have a groove worn into it sooner or later

Interesting opinion.

I don't find your message to be true though. I have found uniqueness in the story lines and it also helps to rotate your new characters empire > republic > empire > republic or vice-versa.

Point is, if you really think they are the same, you have got some serious case of the 'spacebar mashers'. After I got 50 Bounty Hunter, I rotated over to Smuggler(which is now 40,) they are nothing alike. I also had rolled a 36 Consular and a Sith Juggernaut/assassin both 20+ and I can honestly say I have no idea what you are talking about.

If you find them too predictable, perhaps you should be writing books as it seems to come naturally to you. These are great story lines, very unique with very different play styles. If you find it all to reminiscent of the other classes, and you've already maxed out 4 50's without putting any effort into gearing them, I'd say this game isn't for you.