Star Wars: The Old Republic....thoughts?

[DRes82]

Been reading the forums for a while now, and one of the games I havn't seen mentioned or talked about much is SWTOR. I've been lucky enough to be in the last two phases of beta testing. (which is all I can say about it, at the moment. I will honor the NDA!)I played KOTOR 1 and 2 and was absolutely ecstatic when I heard that Bioware would be producing an MMO.

I plan on playing Republic side at launch, but still debating on what class. Just trying to decide between smuggler or jedi sage.

Anyways, I was just wondering about what everyone thinks about it. Will it be the game that finally drives WoW down to second place? Is anyone besides me super excited about it?

 

[Aris Khandr]

It'll be fun, but die miserably. They've said that they need a million subscribers to turn a profit on the game. There's no way. Maybe for a few months, but certainly not 6+ months down the road.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Been reading the forums for a while now, and one of the games I havn't seen mentioned or talked about much is SWTOR. I've been lucky enough to be in the last two phases of beta testing. (which is all I can say about it, at the moment. I will honor the NDA!)I played KOTOR 1 and 2 and was absolute ecstatic when I heard that Bioware would be producing an MMO.

I plan on playing Republic side at launch, but still debating on what class. Just trying to decide between smuggler or jedi sage.

Anyways, I was just wondering about what everyone thinks about it. Will it be the game that finally drives WoW down to second place? Is anyone besides me super excited about it?

WoW is killing itself....It doesnt need an MMO version of a decent SPRPG to help it


Personally....Im not going to care....I dont see the point...do feel sorry for SWG it should have at least gotten a hope of F2P mercy....


Also...no matter what Bioware says about EA not having a say...they do...you got together...now enjoy the smell of leather and latex you whore make me another best seller game!

 

[MisterShine]

There's actually a TOR user group FYI, and of course the reason why people don't talk much about it is because the NDA is very strict and surprisingly holding quite tightly for a game tested such a long time.

Anyways, I was just wondering about what everyone thinks about it. Will it be the game that finally drives WoW down to second place? Is anyone besides me super excited about it?

I am quite excited about it, though mostly because it seems like I'll be able to play it as an extremely long Bioware game. The MMO parts are fluff I may get into or I may not, depending on if some other friends play and they don't try to bother my solo'ing too much.

As for TOR dethroning WoW... yes and no, I think. WoW's time is coming to an end (and by end I mean it will only have a couple million or so subs), but I don't think another game will properly dethrone it, but rather WoW's individual fan sections will divide off into other games that promise real innovations over what WoW did.

Those looking for a good story and immersion will head to TOR, GW2 for PVP and a more reactive world, Planetfall 2 for the people who want more shooting... etc.

I'm sure TOR will have a huge opening month (probably the highest ever), but if the game will retain more than a million, or sink into a slow, obscure death like Warhammer, we shall have to see.

edit: reposted from the other thread

 

[Stall]

It's going to flop. From what I've read as well as heard, it's basically LITERALLY WoW in the Star Wars universe. From what I understand, combat is going to be bland and forgettable, and it is literally going to "suffer" from every single MMO trope out there. So take WOW, reskin it with Star Wars, and sprinkle in some of Bioware's above average writing in that quest dialogue you never read. BAM. Tor.

Read this if you'd like some more info or a source on my statements.

There are better MMOs coming out. Wait for GW2 if you want something truly innovative and groundbreaking, Tera if you want something Asian and actiony, and Wildstar if you want something different. If you want to see what a Star Wars MMO done right looks like, then go play SWGEmu. Only play TOR if just want more of the same.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

I'm going to play it because my SO preordered it for both of us.

No but really, I'm looking forward to it. As a BioWare game, though, not as an MMO; GW2 will be taking care of all my MMO needs soon enough. I've never been a big fan of the WoW-style MMO, but I love me some BioWare writing.

 

[Fusioncode9]

It'll be fun, but die miserably. They've said that they need a million subscribers to turn a profit on the game. There's no way. Maybe for a few months, but certainly not 6+ months down the road.

Why isn't it possible? If the game has staying power and a huge following then why can't the game keep a million subscribers?

 

[Aris Khandr]

It'll be fun, but die miserably. They've said that they need a million subscribers to turn a profit on the game. There's no way. Maybe for a few months, but certainly not 6+ months down the road.

Why isn't it possible? If the game has staying power and a huge following then why can't the game keep a million subscribers?

WoW was an anomaly. A huge one, but still an anomaly. Most MMOs are lucky to get a million people to sign up for their forums before release. Much less shell out $15 a month to play them. I have never heard of another pay-to-play MMO having a sustained population of over a million. TOR may be another anomaly, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[4173]

I'm excited but not overly so.


It will be decent, I like Star Wars, I need a new MMO (quit WoW, the most recent time, about 6 months ago) and my WoW buddies are switching to TOR. Most of the nuts and bolts don't matter, it was pretty much inevitable.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Meh. It's another subscription MMO. Plenty of free ones to play instead.

I am however looking forward to seeing how well their server capping goes over.

 

[2xDouble]

Short answer: It looks like fun. But I'd rather play Guild Wars 2.

I've only seen one video of The Old Republic, from web-reviewer Totalbiscuit, featuring gameplay that makes the game actually look like something other than "WoW with lasers". The problem is, it also looks fairly buggy. I hear rumors that these bugs are fairly common complaints from beta testers who have broken their NDA (naturally. who breaks their NDA if they liked and respect the game?), but it's pretty disturbing they'd ignore obvious flaws in game mechanics and animation in a public demo scheduled to release in 6 weeks.

Spoiler: Seen here, fairly long.

Before everybody starts slinging accusations of "fanboy" and other ridiculous nonsense, watch this other TB video:

 

[ProtoformX]

Short answer: It looks like fun. But I'd rather play Guild Wars 2.

I've only seen one video of The Old Republic, from web-reviewer Totalbiscuit, featuring gameplay that makes the game actually look like something other than "WoW with lasers". The problem is, it also looks fairly buggy. I hear rumors that these bugs are fairly common complaints from beta testers who have broken their NDA (naturally. who breaks their NDA if they liked and respect the game?), but it's pretty disturbing they'd ignore obvious flaws in game mechanics and animation in a public demo scheduled to release in 6 weeks.

Spoiler: Seen here, fairly long.

Before everybody starts slinging accusations of "fanboy" and other ridiculous nonsense, watch this other TB video:

What... Are you smoking? That looks fun. And incredibly polished for a Beta. Looks more polished than the WoW Beta. Heck, looks more polished than the WoW launch was.

 

[Redryhno]

Been reading the forums for a while now, and one of the games I havn't seen mentioned or talked about much is SWTOR. I've been lucky enough to be in the last two phases of beta testing. (which is all I can say about it, at the moment. I will honor the NDA!)I played KOTOR 1 and 2 and was absolutely ecstatic when I heard that Bioware would be producing an MMO.

I plan on playing Republic side at launch, but still debating on what class. Just trying to decide between smuggler or jedi sage.

Anyways, I was just wondering about what everyone thinks about it. Will it be the game that finally drives WoW down to second place? Is anyone besides me super excited about it?

WoW is killing itself, first of all, I know alot of my friends that were pushing me to play it right form the get-go and then they quit playing about a year ago because they were bored of it's endlessly repeating cycle, and just decided to save their money on the Cataclysm thing that came out last Christmas(?). I never got on the Blizzard wagon after the original Warcraft games, I still play them and all (I love the ork boats, you know what I'm talking about if you've played them) but I just have never felt that any online game based on a pre-existing world in another genre should exist really, that's always been my stand on it. I support anything that might take it's place because, frankly, I'm sick of WoW ads everywhere you look, and I hate the art style in it.

What I'm really wondering is why it's taken them this long to do an MMO on Star Wars, I actually expected one to come out around the time of the prequels myself.

 

[RatRace123]

Meh. I like a lot of things about it, but I just don't like MMORPGs.
It sounds selfish, but when I play an RPG I'd prefer it if other people didn't ruin the immersion for me. Beyond that, the monthly fees are a pain.

If they dropped the MMO part from the MMORPG, I'd be all over it.

 

[Sixcess]

I think it'll have a huge launch then rapidly fall in with the rest of 'the rest' (i.e. every MMO that isn't WoW.) I will also bet on it changing to a hybrid/F2P model by the end of 2012, at the latest.

Subscription MMOs are becoming a thing of the past - with so many good MMOs now running as F2P or hybrid models it's becoming harder and harder to justify a sub fee. But that's not where I truly think TOR will fall. I think it'll fall because a) after 3 years of increasingly insane hype the expectations of the MMO community are simply too high. There's no way it lives up to that, and I don't think it's even trying to live up to that.

And b) It looks like a single player game, and short term at least it's going to attract people who like single player games. People who are going to play the game, finish it, then go play Mass Effect 3. I don't see Bioware's fanbase sticking around to run a couple of endgame instances over and over again for epic loot until the next update comes out.

Oh, and c) If they're planning on sticking to the fully voiced/custscenes/dialogue options going forward then updating the game with new content is going to take far too long and people aren't going to enjoy waiting around for the new stuff to arrive if it takes too long.

So I don't think it'll fail outright, at least judged by the standards of any MMO other than WoW. If however EA are expecting it to be a mega-hit that even comes close to challenging WoW's supremacy then in their eyes it's going to be a flop of epic proportions.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I think it'll have a huge launch then rapidly fall in with the rest of 'the rest' (i.e. every MMO that isn't WoW.) I will also bet on it changing to a hybrid/F2P model by the end of 2012, at the latest.

Subscription MMOs are becoming a thing of the past - with so many good MMOs now running as F2P or hybrid models it's becoming harder and harder to justify a sub fee. But that's not where I truly think TOR will fall. I think it'll fall because a) after 3 years of increasingly insane hype the expectations of the MMO community are simply too high. There's no way it lives up to that, and I don't think it's even trying to live up to that.

And b) It looks like a single player game, and short term at least it's going to attract people who like single player games. People who are going to play the game, finish it, then go play Mass Effect 3. I don't see Bioware's fanbase sticking around to run a couple of endgame instances over and over again for epic loot until the next update comes out.

Oh, and c) If they're planning on sticking to the fully voiced/custscenes/dialogue options going forward then updating the game with new content is going to take far too long and people aren't going to enjoy waiting around for the new stuff to arrive if it takes too long.

So I don't think it'll fail outright, at least judged by the standards of any MMO other than WoW. If however EA are expecting it to be a mega-hit that even comes close to challenging WoW's supremacy then in their eyes it's going to be a flop of epic proportions.

i think you might be the first person to post with legitimate reasons as to why it probably won't succeed to what it's building up to be. so congrats on that.

and your basically right(on me at least), i hate mmo's the very function of it, i'm buying the game and gonna play the hell out of it, solo of course as much as i can, partially because i love bioware games and partially because i love star wars, and after a few months i'll probably stop playing because i hate pvp and mmo's in general. so they'll have me for 3-4 months probably then i'll be done.

 

[drosalion]

It'll be fun, but die miserably. They've said that they need a million subscribers to turn a profit on the game. There's no way. Maybe for a few months, but certainly not 6+ months down the road.

They said they need 500k subs to turn a profit but nothing to write home about, and 1 mill subs to get a really decent profit.

Personally i think they will get significantly more than 1 mill subs sustained over a long period of time.

 

[2xDouble]

What... Are you smoking? That looks fun. And incredibly polished for a Beta. Looks more polished than the WoW Beta. Heck, looks more polished than the WoW launch was.

Yes it does look like fun. That's what I said first, remember? That this is the only video that makes the game look fun. Now look at the bugs, bugs like that are ridiculous for end of beta and 10 weeks till launch.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Those who are in the beta unfortunatly cannot discuss what is in the beta.

Construe from this statement what you will

 

[DRes82]

There's actually a TOR user group FYI

Thanks for this, just joined.

Wish I could be more candid as a beta tester. I guess we'll all just have to see on december 20th. =)