Okay "Star Wars: The Old Republic" looks like shit. Now what?

[danintexas]

Anyone who thought any MMO with today's tech would look like the original trailer FMV is an idiot.

This still looks good. But I won't touch it.

I have EvE Online and EQ 2 - I don't see this bringing anything new to the table.

But this thread is my first validation of me thinking this game was going to let alot of people down.

 

[Ghostkai]

Speaking as someone who's actually been playing SW:TOR... It's actually pretty damn pretty.
And it's not even done...
On a side note... Any graphical shortcomings (and why the frick does a MMO have to look like Crysis?!) are MORE than made up for by the story and the gameplay.

I don't quite get the gripe.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Anyone who thinks a fully voiced MMO is a good idea hasn't played an actual MMO and doesn't know how much content an MMO needs to be constantly releasing to be successful, or they do not understand how expensive and time consuming it is to be constantly churning out fully voice acted content.

Pretty much what I'm thinking as well.

You really think Bioware would be that stupid? What reasons have they given you to think that?

I don't know how it's going to work, but they're gonna find a way. If this game fails, it's not gonna be because they couldn't put out enough content quickly enough after the game's release.

 

[proghead]

and why the frick does a MMO have to look like Crysis?!

Why shouldn't it? Why should I cut MMOs some slack? If I got the hardware, I'd like to see it being used. So if my box doesn't break a sweat on highest details, I'm disappointed.

 

[Joshimodo]

Guildwars 2, noobs. Not sci-fi, but who cares? It's great.

 

[Icehearted]

The game still need to be visually stimulating. A game has to switch environment about once every 15 minutes for people to stay "stimulated" a good example of this is diablo 2 and a very bad example of this is Hellgate london where you just went from one subway station to another with very little change.

Well said. To desire a better looking game in this day and age, considering what's possible with the right talent and tools, isn't exactly demanding much, especially when they're charging for a game and a monthly fee. As far as I know, unlike World of Warcraft, this cartoony style was a deliberate choice, and not merely the result of bad design.

Human beings are 95% visual, we interpret most of our world through our eyes, stands to reason then that better graphics would leave a better impression.

 

[bob1052]

Anyone who thinks a fully voiced MMO is a good idea hasn't played an actual MMO and doesn't know how much content an MMO needs to be constantly releasing to be successful, or they do not understand how expensive and time consuming it is to be constantly churning out fully voice acted content.

Pretty much what I'm thinking as well.

You really think Bioware would be that stupid? What reasons have they given you to think that?

I don't know how it's going to work, but they're gonna find a way. If this game fails, it's not gonna be because they couldn't put out enough content quickly enough after the game's release.

Are you aware how much money studio time costs?

On top of an already huge development cost so far, with rumors of being far more, there is no way they will be able to afford to continue to voice all the content they will need to put out in order to stay competitive in the MMO market.

That whole "profitable with 500,000 after 10 years" very obviously does not take into account the cost of studio time from constant production of content over those 10 years.

 

[Jegsimmons]

actually...this game looks pretty badass! i might consider forking over 15 bucks a month to play...and you'll never hear me say something like that again...

 

[BarbaricGoose]

and why the frick does a MMO have to look like Crysis?!

Why shouldn't it? Why should I cut MMOs some slack? If I got the hardware, I'd like to see it being used. So if my box doesn't break a sweat on highest details, I'm disappointed.

Are you joking, or do you not understand how MMOs work?

Are you aware how much money studio time costs?

On top of an already huge development cost so far, with rumors of being far more, there is no way they will be able to afford to continue to voice all the content they will need to put out in order to stay competitive in the MMO market.

That whole "profitable with 500,000 after 10 years" very obviously does not take into account the cost of studio time from constant production of content over those 10 years.

Bioware's goal is to make money. You think they'd release an MMO that is marketed about being fully voiced, and then release content that is not fully voiced, or very little bits of fully voiced content? They'd be a joke, and no one would take them seriously. Their players would abandon them, and it would be a colossal failure/huge waste of money.

Lack of fully voiced content will not be the thing that wrecks this game.

 

[proghead]

because you play mmo's for the other people to play with and not everyone has monster rigs.
If thats not a good enough reason for you, then play crysis instead.

We're talking PC here, and we've had graphics detail settings for years. If your machine can't handle the max setting, turn it down.

 

[Nomanslander]

Anyone who thinks a fully voiced MMO is a good idea hasn't played an actual MMO and doesn't know how much content an MMO needs to be constantly releasing to be successful, or they do not understand how expensive and time consuming it is to be constantly churning out fully voice acted content.

Pretty much what I'm thinking as well.

You really think Bioware would be that stupid? What reasons have they given you to think that?

I don't know how it's going to work, but they're gonna find a way. If this game fails, it's not gonna be because they couldn't put out enough content quickly enough after the game's release.

Look at it this way, Mass Effect was a huge game full of dialogue and story, but in the end it all surmounted to only 25 hours of gameplay at average.

Now as for MMO, people tend to play these games for months going on years sometimes. Probably in a numbers like 1000 hours and plus. In order to fill in that much time you need grind, you need an addicting gameplay, not story, because story can only take you so far.

Now I'm not saying a fully voiced MMO can't be done, but 95% of the game will still be just grind, farming, leveling, gear grinding, etc....etc

 

[bob1052]

Are you aware how much money studio time costs?

On top of an already huge development cost so far, with rumors of being far more, there is no way they will be able to afford to continue to voice all the content they will need to put out in order to stay competitive in the MMO market.

That whole "profitable with 500,000 after 10 years" very obviously does not take into account the cost of studio time from constant production of content over those 10 years.

Bioware's goal is to make money. You think they'd release an MMO that is marketed about being fully voiced, and then release content that is not fully voiced, or very little bits of fully voiced content? They'd be a joke, and no one would take them seriously. It would be a colossal failure/huge waste of money.

I'm still curious, are you aware how much money studio time costs?

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Now as for MMO, people tend to play these games for months going on years sometimes. Probably in a numbers like 1000 hours and plus. In order to fill in that much time you need grind, you need an addicting gameplay, not story, because story can only take you so far.

Now I'm not saying a fully voiced MMO can't be done, but 95% of the game will still be just grind, farming, leveling, gear grinding, etc....etc

The gameplay looks like WoW, and I play and enjoy WoW. Also, I'm not arguing that the game will be mostly combat. I never said it wouldn't be.

I don't know why people think that a fully voiced game can't have fun combat. Using your own example of Mass Effect, how much fun do you think the combat was? You think it would've been as successful if its combat was atrocious? No. It wouldn't have. Bioware knows they can't neglect gameplay. Why would they start neglecting gameplay now, on their most expensive porject?

 

[Raesvelg]

You target the enemy, you hit the ability on your action bar. Just like a million other already bug free (MMO launches are a fun thing if you have never experienced them), fully loaded with content MMOs out there.

First off, you realize that "Target the enemy, press buttons" covers probably on the order of 50-60% of all games in existence, right?

Secondly, I believe I already covered the apparent non-event nature of SW:TOR in my post already.

And finally, while as I said I'm not expecting much out of TOR, it's a little premature to base my impression of a game that's not out yet on alpha footage that's more than a year old.

What am I expecting? A reasonably solid MMO, without too many of the usual launch headaches that plague the genre, coupled with a well-developed single-player storyline, and an overall experience that is something on the order of a slightly more involving WoW with significantly less total content. It won't be setting the world on fire, it won't be breaking 10 million subs, but it will probably survive and settle in to a comfortable top 5 ranking and make money in the long run.

 

[Hawgh]

I think it looks pretty darn good by MMO standards, still not sure that I'll be getting it.

 

[w00tage]

Have you seen these trailers? It looks like bloody quake 2.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/bounty-hunter

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/space-combat (even lags a bit)

And its not even been released yet!

These are the best looking things they could come up with. This is what's supposed to sell us on this game

Oh well Maybe dark millennium or Titan will be any good. Seems the people looking for a sci-fi mmo will just have to hold our another half decade.

Have you seen what WoW looks like today on highest graphics? The point is to ensure the most possible computers can play it, thereby directly increasing the size of the market for the game. IMO, the biggest reason that WoW is the size it is today is because they made the game so low-requirement that high school kids could play it on their non-gaming laptops.

 

[kane.malakos]

You target the enemy, you hit the ability on your action bar. Just like a million other already bug free (MMO launches are a fun thing if you have never experienced them), fully loaded with content MMOs out there.

First off, you realize that "Target the enemy, press buttons" covers probably on the order of 50-60% of all games in existence, right?

Secondly, I believe I already covered the apparent non-event nature of SW:TOR in my post already.

And finally, while as I said I'm not expecting much out of TOR, it's a little premature to base my impression of a game that's not out yet on alpha footage that's more than a year old.

What am I expecting? A reasonably solid MMO, without too many of the usual launch headaches that plague the genre, coupled with a well-developed single-player storyline, and an overall experience that is something on the order of a slightly more involving WoW with significantly less total content. It won't be setting the world on fire, it won't be breaking 10 million subs, but it will probably survive and settle in to a comfortable top 5 ranking and make money in the long run.

Pretty much this. If anything the gameplay footage has heightened my expectations for the game.

 

[Rayne870]

MMO's aren't know for their stunning graphics, they're made for any body with a PC to use. Plus, they can't be made to look like a AAA single player title.

I mean, if graphics mattered in MMOs, then why is this game such a massive money eating juggernaut?

Because Draenei and blood elf females and their higher polygon count are hawt.

Have you seen these trailers? It looks like bloody quake 2.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/bounty-hunter

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/space-combat (even lags a bit)

And its not even been released yet!

These are the best looking things they could come up with. This is what's supposed to sell us on this game

Oh well Maybe dark millennium or Titan will be any good. Seems the people looking for a sci-fi mmo will just have to hold our another half decade.

It's really not that bad, and generally high end graphics are very bad for MMO's it severely limits your potential customer base and limits how much can be put into boss fights and large scale pvp events. Given that WoW has 25 man raids with up to equal numbers of trash mobs at times, plus all the spell effects, that would be a huge overload to PCs if it had say the graphics of Oblivion.