BioWare - What went wrong with SWTOR?

SWTOR did a lot of things good, but alas also a lot of things mediocre and bad. Worst of all, SWG had shown many subsystems and stuff people loved. Why did they not take up a SINGLE thing from what SWG made right? I understand they wanted a theme park. But what about housing, creature handling, really vast planets, full crafting, entertainers, alien playable races? There was so much GOOD in SWG and they learned NOTHING from it.

No story can ever be so long and good that it keeps people in a MMO, it needs sandbox elements additionally. And then SWTOR was so... cold, in a sense. Where was the funny and weird, the animated city life, the cute and the bizzare? They focussed WAY too much on heroic story and NOTHING else. That is just wrong and sad.

Well you certainly don't NEED sand box elements to survive, WoW obviously did just fine without them, and the goal of SWTOR (for better or worse) was to emulate WoW, but with more story.

SWG was more of a niche game, many of the things that you may have loved were things that other people hated. There's definitely a market for that type of game, but that's clearly not the market that SWTOR was going for.

elikal said:

SWTOR did a lot of things good, but alas also a lot of things mediocre and bad. Worst of all, SWG had shown many subsystems and stuff people loved. Why did they not take up a SINGLE thing from what SWG made right? I understand they wanted a theme park. But what about housing, creature handling, really vast planets, full crafting, entertainers, alien playable races? There was so much GOOD in SWG and they learned NOTHING from it.

No story can ever be so long and good that it keeps people in a MMO, it needs sandbox elements additionally. And then SWTOR was so… cold, in a sense. Where was the funny and weird, the animated city life, the cute and the bizzare? They focussed WAY too much on heroic story and NOTHING else. That is just wrong and sad.

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CountChocula said:

This is exactly the same experience I've had with the MMOs I tried. Everyone is rushing to try to get the "good stuff" and become as overpowered as possible, but in my case I just want a half decent world to explore, with interesting NPCs and factions, etc. I even got kicked out of the first guild I ever joined because they said I was leveling too slowly.

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You two should play Fallen Arth. It recently turned F2P I hear, but it seems like the perfect game for you guys. I had a blast playing it when it came out and a couple times since. I can't play an MMO for too long without getting bored, but this is one I keep going back to.

Impregnator said:

You two should play Fallen Arth. It recently turned F2P I hear, but it seems like the perfect game for you guys. I had a blast playing it when it came out and a couple times since. I can't play an MMO for too long without getting bored, but this is one I keep going back to.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I checked out the basics on the site and Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Earth). I am not a big fan of apocalyptic style games (Fallout being the only exception so far). Also I suck at any type of FPS so that would make it harder.

Right now I am completely enthralled with The Secret World so that has my attention. I also plan on playing GW2 when it comes out. I solo mainly in those but more because I just don't enjoy the rat race for gear and doing end-game ... which means I seldom find anyone to play with. Note that I don't really hold that against anyone either! Who wants some low-geared weak-team skilled player in a hard core dungeon? The only time I do an instance is with a group of casual folks who have basic skill and items and a laid back attitude ... which also rules out a lot of the harder end-game content in MMO's in general. Probably why I focus more on the journey and leveling in these games.

Impregnator said:

You two should play Fallen Arth. It recently turned F2P I hear, but it seems like the perfect game for you guys. I had a blast playing it when it came out and a couple times since. I can't play an MMO for too long without getting bored, but this is one I keep going back to.

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Sounds really interesting, thanks for the tip. Six different factions seems like a great feature, and I do like apocalyptic settings. But is this the kind of F2P where there are some people who spend money and kill everybody else with overpowered gear?