SWTOR. Too much theme park?

Yes. I think they should add some more open planets and open space for pvp'ing exploring or pve'ing in. I do like the planets And i think they worked great for leveling. But end game needs to be more open and We need more reasons to go back to the other planets too. Imo.

i feel like the planets need to have some sort of reusable focus to the endgame.. Give us reason to come back to them and congregate there. All these planets and there is hardly ever anyone on them.

with all the planets in this game. it would be nice to have them add more sandbox elements to it.

1. random events
2. planetary control in some form
3. parties

give us some reason to go to other planets. once you hit 50... i honestly never go to any of the old planets anymore.

True. Adding Sandbox style content will not hurt. But if the game is not designed to have Sandbox elements, adding them makes the entire endeavor unsatisfying. If Bioware were to add stuff such as housing and free roaming and the like as the game is now, it would be a complete train wreck as you put it "the champions of the status quo" would object and you "sandboxers"would find the content to feel awkward and forced. It'd take time and subtle retooling to do so. It'd require adding the sandbox in bit by bit, to see where the Themepark should end and the sandbox to begin and how much of content should each side get and if there is enough space or resources for both that makes each side feel happy with feeling like they are being cheated out of certain aspects that they have come to expect from their respective games.

Actually.. I said this before, but exploration and free roaming (the things that both JTL and Open Worlds succeed in) are actually not part of the Star Wars IP at all. Star Trek is all about Exploration, the major Star Wars theme is actually a battle of good vs evil in a heavilly defined, pre-explored and bureaucratic universe.

Now, an MMO needs an open world feel to some extend to give the feeling of a living, breathing world, I agree with that. But to say free roaming is and important part of the Star Wars IP is ridicilous and factually wrong.

You are correct. However, the movies (and any other material patterned after the style of the movies) are fast paced, do not typically have much exposition, and show you environments very quickly before moving on. In an MMO you live in those spaces for long periods of time so that approach does not work.

The space game in SWTOR is very congruent with the movies, but it also does not work as well for MMO players because the scene becomes old too fast (not enough variation, etc.)

There really wasn't any exploration to JTL, there was just an illusion of open space (like the worlds of SWG) but this actually worked as a multiplier for the devs. They got way more mileage out of those big open spaces than SWTOR is getting out of its handcrafted but smaller spaces.

A star wars IP can't be totally true to the feel of the movies because of the huge amount of time you spend in the game universe.

I agree, there is a balance between what the IP actually shows and what is needed to involve people in the MMO world they 'live' in.

I personally enjoy the fact that the game makes shortcuts to make the world less massive, but more inclusive and action packed. The movies have that same feel of dialogue sometimes being nothing more than an introduction to the next action scene, and this game captures that aspect 100%.

I am not saying I want the illusion of a bigger world though, I prefer the current implementation because of the possibility of expansion. Because each planet is very limited in size and the way you travel is pre-defined, this game actually has options other MMO's have not. They can add more content to current planets without being limited by the smaller world they created. As you will see in 1.2 with the new Corellia daily quest area. The choice actually has endless potential because each planet can be continued to be built upon in the future without being limited by earlier bariers on size.

WoW had this problem, because it's main continents were pre-defined. They used the excuse of a dragon ripping up the world to finally fill in the gaps, but now each expansion has to be a different world or continent from now on. TOR can continue on the current themes and keep adding more and more zones to existing planets. This is a good decision in the long run, even if it makes you feel spoon fed and limited at the start.

You don't have freedom, SWTOR is not for everyone obviously. It sucks but there are all sorts of games out there that look cool but when you start playing them a person realizes "this game isn't what I was looking for" ....



I am still enjoying it though which tells me, the game is the type I like =)