Does an MMO need a story?

I think 1.2 will be make or break for SWTOR.

There's no such thing as a 'make or break' patch. MMORPGs go through constant churn. People come and go. Some of these same people whining will be back a year or so. This game would have to lose more than 70% of it's 1.7 million subs to stop making money. As they recoup development costs, it becomes even less likely for the game to fail.

There's a reason these games run for years on inertia.

Personally, I think this thread has some good discussion without fanbois or haters in it.

That's where the good advice comes from-- gamers who look at it objectively rather than point out glaring flaws and say "I quit"

For instance the space game is a blast at first, but then you find the advanced missions are just the basic missions with more crap to shoot at. Nothing wrong with pointing out those flaws-- that's where development people can read it and say 'wow we missed that one, lets fix it'

Despite the OP's efforts to make this into a hate thread I agree with you, it turned out a lot better than I thought. Making a thread saying 'I told you the game would fail' while it hasnt...it doesnt get more silly than that.

Anyway, no a MMO does not need story. But it makes this game SO much better. Like I stated before, this is the first MMO where I am not busy leveling.

Anyway, no a MMO does not need story. But it makes this game SO much better. Like I stated before, this is the first MMO where I am not busy leveling.

Sadly today/tomorrow is going to be a very dark time in the life of SWTOR as a huge amount of subs will be due, these are the people who got into the game just before launch.

We are three months down the road and it's fair to say it's been a total disaster for Bioware and EA. The more experienced gamers like myself predicted this back in December with uncanny accuracy http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=89529 but am not here to gloat.

I just think that this whole game is a great example of what a well oiled PR machine is capable of doing. Now that the game has been played and reviewed it's clear that the PR hype was a load of rubbish as usual.

So why has it failed then?

I get a shivver when I think of how amazing this game could have been if the voice and story telling budget had been spent on actual gameplay. It's the story that has killed this game as an MMO, it just cost too much of the budget. That money could have funded so much more MMOness to the game such as LFG tools, more warzones, better planets, no server instancing, more flashpoints, guild banks, beter space combat, smooth gameplay without ability delays, the list could go on and on.

I played WOW for 6 years and have no idea who any of the NPC characters are except that I know Thrall is leader of the Orcs and some woman is leader of Undercity, that is all I know. You see in a good MMO you can make your own stories up if you are provided with the tools, WOW gave me the tools: A thriving world, great world pvp (I could attack anywhere with my guild and have a chance), it had cross server pvp, LFG tools, excellent crafting...it had IMMERSION!

My first ever computer game adventure was called twin kingdom valley, it was a basic text adventure, then I got lords of Midnight and played it for years It had no moving graphics at all but the gameplay was amazing, games back then had to have good gameplay. I think game designers now focus far to much on story, gloss and other asthetics and forget about having fun. Hopefully this games failure will be the kick up the arse the gaming industry needs.

There's no such thing as a 'make or break' patch. MMORPGs go through constant churn. People come and go. Some of these same people whining will be back a year or so. This game would have to lose more than 70% of it's 1.7 million subs to stop making money. As they recoup development costs, it becomes even less likely for the game to fail.

There's a reason these games run for years on inertia.