Analyst Calls The Old Republic a "WoW Clone"

[Logan Westbrook]

Analyst Calls The Old Republic a "WoW Clone"

According to one market analyst, Star Wars' "far far away" galaxy is just Azeroth with a fresh coat of paint.

Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz seems rather disappointed by BioWare's Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. He's says that it's "highly derivative" of Blizzard's massively successful World of Warcraft, and not the "major step forward" that BioWare and EA had promised.

Creutz said that he was "largely unimpressed" with what he had seen of the game and that The Old Republic was essentially a copy of WoW with some Star Wars textures slapped on the top. Not particularly good ones either apparently, at least not from Creutz's point of view, as he said that the visual were "competent but hardly breathtaking." He was similarly unimpressed with the game's conversation system, saying that it had been bolted on to the game - and implying that it didn't really make that much of a difference - and that it was the same "nice/nasty" mechanic that BioWare has done countless times before.

Creutz may have a point; when our own Steve Butts got to see [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110943-E3-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic ] TOR at E3, he noted that some of the mechanics weren't exactly new. He also pointed out, however, that a lot of what BioWare had promised about the game couldn't really be shown off in a E3 demo, and could really only be experienced "in the wild," so to speak. Whether Creutz's impression of the game will improve when the game eventually enters beta testing remains to be seen, but EA - and its stock prices - are undoubtedly hoping that the answer is "yes."

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44865/Old-Republic-a-WoW-clone?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mcvuk%2FoXMK+%28MCV%3A+games+industry+news%29]





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[CommanderKirov]

From what I learned, It's not realy no. Either the guy is talking out of his ass or what I learned about the game so far is complete stupidity.

 

[Sp3ratus]

Not really surprising. The videos does indeed show off combat and mission structure that looks like WoW, but at least it does do something differently; there's a certain degree of choice. How much this is going to affect your game and the world remains to be seen, but at least that's something.

I'm also hoping that some of the promised and unshown features will be good, because if they aren't TOR will be in no position to challenge WoW in any way. Sure, it will get some subscriber, hell, I'll give it a try to see what it's all about, but how many of them remains after the inital month or so is entirely up to Bioware creating interesting mechanics, that will keep people around.

I'm still looking forward to it, even if it might not be groundbreaking. Hunting down those Jedi scum(hopefully) as a bounty hunter, once again, is something I look forward to and have since SOE completely fucked up SWG.

 

[Lacsapix]

every MMO is like WoW in some ways

 

[uppitycracker]

Eh, everything I've heard from my buddies beta testing it have been about the same. Largely unimpressive, pretty similar to WoW in how it plays, and the story driven nature is kinda... well, i guess bolted on is a good way of putting it. All in all, I can't say I'm exactly looking forward to it. Lets hope they can change my mind?

 

[sjrskl]

why does Tor get no love from anyone the game looks promissing even if the mechanics are similar to WoW the feel is completely different. but whatever it's easier to critisize than to praise and with a game of this profile it's bound to get more initial hate. we'll see what it turns out to be i'm causiously optimistic about this game and i hope it's the first mmo i can stick with for longer than 2 months.

 

[Aerowaves]

Disappointing Wish they'd gone with KOTOR 3 (stock answer I know but I really do!)

Roll on Guild Wars 2 then! That actually looks like it could be different (where appropriate)

 

[Zac Smith]

Of course its going to be similar to WoW, WoW have the MMO formula that works. It seems if another MMO comes along and tries to do stuff different, half the people complain its unfamiliar, if its similar, the other half will say its a clone. There's just no pleasing everyone

 

[Woodsey]

He also said of Tatooine (probably the most iconic planet in Star Wars): "I don't get why they went with this desert area to show off the game."

Clearly he was very enthused for the whole thing from the get-go and has a great amount of knowledge around the whole thing.

Anyway, others I've seen who've played it have been largely positive.

 

[iRevanchist]

*sighs* and this is what we get instead of KotOR 3? Bioware, I am disappoint.

 

[AlphaAnt]

WoW is wildly successful. Since when is pulling aspects of WoW into a game a bad thing? It shows that they're making the same conclusions as Blizzard did, instead of trying to be different for the sake of being different from WoW.

Lesson learned, analysts can be trolls too.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

That's sort of like saying "an MMO is like an MMO".

Until Guild Wars 2 that is... then things will be better.

 

[tehroc]

Well derr. All popular MMOs are based off DIKUmud.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Disappointing Wish they'd gone with KOTOR 3 (stock answer I know but I really do!)

If we keep chanting it, it might just happen. I've tried multiple MMO's including WoW and found them all basically the same kind of game: pointless grinding and, fetch-quests with no actual plot or, end point. I prefer single player RPGs. I'd be lying though if I said I won't be trying Old Republic. I probably won't commit to it though, not when I haven't finished the main narrative plots within the megalith that is Morrowind.

 

[snfonseka]

I really don't care about this market analysts. They may be experts about stock market, but with my past experiences their comments about games are totally worthless.

 

[AssassinJoe]

I find his lack of faith, disturbing

 

[nekoali]

Ironically... That review sounds pretty much the same as any other review made for any other MMO released since WoW became a household world. "It's just like WoW but different". Yes, games within the same genre have similarities. Last time I checked though, WoW does have space ship battles, a mobile home/base that is your own space ship, fully voice acted, branching storylines within adventures and all the other things that will make SWTOR different from other MMOs. It's still going to have some nods to the MMO genre though. Quests, kill ten womp rats, raids, all that other stuff that makes up an MMO.

 

[Baresark]

I'm not surprised he said this at all. If anyone was expecting anything truly different, they were expecting far too much. But, doesn't mean it won't be a good game. It will use the same mission style, the same combat system, all of that stuff, because this is the only way an MMORPG is ever to be successful apparently. I'm definitely waiting for reviews on this one.