Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Delsana]

Funny thing. I got an email saying I got invited to the beta. And on it said they would send me another email with information to get into it. I never got the second email. I am a bit bummed about that.

SWTOR.com/tester

Usually.

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I'm not sure if the codes work anymore, else I'd give you one if you were that interested. Maybe they'll throw more to the crowds.

---

To the person so vehemently against it, I must respectfully disagree. The IP is not a pile of poodoo and I definitely don't think other games have anything on this, not in the MMO category at least.

---

About the crate comment; sometimes a little personal satisfaction is better than a visual satisfaction.

 

[DrgoFx]

First off, insulting the prequels because you weren't their target is just wrong. They were to get the younger generations interested in it, as was the Clone Wars series, and it made a massive amount of money and spoke to a further audience, which allowed the EU to continue its expansion and for this game as well to be made through such continuations and lore-build up. The people who are insulting the prequels are really just looking for something to complain about in my opinion.

I would say that if it wasn't Star Wars and wasn't BioWare then the features would be entirely different, though if it somehow maintained everything but had a different story I'm pretty sure it'd still be appealing. But the "well if it didn't have this or them making it" argument is just a poor excuse when you can't really give a real reason, at least in my perspective, as that can be used about anything in the world.

To each their own, though.

For the prequels, I say that from a movie critic stand point, not a star wars fan stand point. They weren't that great of movies and the CGI was terrible in my opinion.

To settle this civilized, yes to each their own opinion. In my experiences with video games, movies and just media in general, if a large franchise has it's name slapped on a mediocre product, that product will sell way better than it would as a brand new title. To give just a basic example. Modern Warfare 2 comes out, it's a huge hit, it gets a lot of new fans and players. Black Ops comes out, the new fans will buy that just because they liked the previous one, unaware it's by a completely different team.

In today's modern day, names are sold more often than content. The iPhone currently out sells the Droid. The Droid, in comparison to the iPhone is way better in specs and software, and with it's growing App Store, it will soon surpass the iPhone entirely. But no one will buy it...why? Because it's not an iPhone.

You want a truly amazing MMO that's breaking all grounds of the MMO genre? Check out The Secret World. No leveling system at all. No classes. It's all just a big game of fun. The closest thing that this game is breaking ground with is changing the quest dialog and that's as far as I can see. All the typical cookie cutter MMO factors are there in a Star Wars cosplay suit.

 

[Delsana]

First off, insulting the prequels because you weren't their target is just wrong. They were to get the younger generations interested in it, as was the Clone Wars series, and it made a massive amount of money and spoke to a further audience, which allowed the EU to continue its expansion and for this game as well to be made through such continuations and lore-build up. The people who are insulting the prequels are really just looking for something to complain about in my opinion.

I would say that if it wasn't Star Wars and wasn't BioWare then the features would be entirely different, though if it somehow maintained everything but had a different story I'm pretty sure it'd still be appealing. But the "well if it didn't have this or them making it" argument is just a poor excuse when you can't really give a real reason, at least in my perspective, as that can be used about anything in the world.

To each their own, though.

For the prequels, I say that from a movie critic stand point, not a star wars fan stand point. They weren't that great of movies and the CGI was terrible in my opinion.

To settle this civilized, yes to each their own opinion. In my experiences with video games, movies and just media in general, if a large franchise has it's name slapped on a mediocre product, that product will sell way better than it would as a brand new title. To give just a basic example. Modern Warfare 2 comes out, it's a huge hit, it gets a lot of new fans and players. Black Ops comes out, the new fans will buy that just because they liked the previous one, unaware it's by a completely different team.

In today's modern day, names are sold more often than content. The iPhone currently out sells the Droid. The Droid, in comparison to the iPhone is way better in specs and software, and with it's growing App Store, it will soon surpass the iPhone entirely. But no one will buy it...why? Because it's not an iPhone.

You want a truly amazing MMO that's breaking all grounds of the MMO genre? Check out The Secret World. No leveling system at all. No classes. It's all just a big game of fun. The closest thing that this game is breaking ground with is changing the quest dialog and that's as far as I can see. All the typical cookie cutter MMO factors are there in a Star Wars cosplay suit.

Well, I like them to be quite honest. I enjoy some parts of them more than others, like I don't like the final battle in Revenge of the Sith, and don't enjoy a small part of Attack of the Clones, and I like the battles in Phantom Menace, but even things like Jar Jar don't bother me. He's chewbacca, for the kids, with a dif style.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Funny thing. I got an email saying I got invited to the beta. And on it said they would send me another email with information to get into it. I never got the second email. I am a bit bummed about that.

SWTOR.com/tester

Usually.

I had done that over a year ago. I had gotten an email like I said saying that I would be getting a code and instructions on how to enter the beta for the next weekend test. But never got said email.

 

[Lyri]

I find that whenever someone uses or references a classification of argument, that they have no argument, and I hold them in serious disdain and suspicion.

Regardless, your response was far too trivial to take time gathering evidence when that information has been as common as ever and anyone would really just have to have been in WC3 for its entirety until most of the community died to understand that. Even being there for just a few years and not being obsessed with one style of "map" would have also done it. As such, I figured you were trying to be facetious or sarcastic or joking or dismissive or some such term.

--- That wasn't my intention for the discussion though, it was more a side comment.

Why are you continuing talking about DoTA 2?

I'm asking you to confirm your opinion, if what you say was as common as you suggest then you should have no problem in actually proving so.
To say SW:TOR is technically better than Skyrim, MW3 and BF3 and then have no actual data to say so and pass it off as fact is laughable.

Saying someone has no argument because they asked you to validate yours makes you sound exactly the same.
I don't have an argument to suggest it is or isn't technically better, I want you to present the facts you so claim exist.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Finally got into the beta last week myself, and it surpassed all expectations. Yeah, people who don't like WoW will not like it. A triple-A MMO isn't going after the crowd who don't like MMOs, shocker. It's a great game, it's getting my subscription for at least a while (I'll probably go back to WoW sooner or later) and it's easily enough of a BioWare game to tide me over till Mass Effect 3 or the next Dragon Age.

The thing I especially want to gush about, oddly, is the codex system (the same thing that was in DA and ME, basically). Being set in a totally different time period to the movies, SWTOR is deep in expanded universe territory so people who aren't massive Star Wars nerds like me could've been a bit at sea, but getting little lore snippets to read as you go really helps you ease into the setting and start geeking out over little details (I especially enjoyed finding out the history of the Sith as I levelled my warrior, since I was puzzled as to how they went from a race to an empire to two evil guys).

Actually, I didn't like WoW all that much, they butchered most of the story and most people just skipped right on through it. I enjoy TOR because it is a story-first game with a lot of potential, and because it it Star Wars from BioWare. I have some things I don't like, but I disagree that it's very similar to WoW. To each their own though, I guess. They actually even said WoW wasn't their target.

Well, they're pretty much talking shit then (unless they just meant they're not aiming to take WoW down, which just means they're smart and honest). WoW and SWTOR are damn near identical gameplay wise, and the differences (such as the cool but slightly puzzling cover system) are mostly additions rather than genuine divergences. You seem to be talking more about the story though, in which case, yeah, that's the one isolated area where they are quite different.

 

[Flying Dagger]

I can't work it out...


Is this guy a fanboy, marketing guru or troll?

I feel like I've just read an advert for this game.

 

[Frost27]

I have been in the beta for some time now and I just stopped playing it. Partially because of the new releases for the season coming out and partially because it just didn't do it for me. What I saw of it was great from an early character development angle and it was fun but it started to lose its luster fast.

The problem I have is that they set out to make a WoW killer and in doing so, they made it a LOT like WoW. This isn't a bad thing but I played WoW for 5 years and got tired of it so there is a lot of TOR that triggered that same feeling of been there done that. Not knocking the game by any means but I doubt I will be the only one that felt that way.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I played a bit last beta weekend, but very little. Skyrim pulled me away, and I don't see much sense in fussing with MMO betas anyway. I've already pre-ordered, and I need to know I'm investing in a character who is going to be around a while to have any impetus to play.

PROS - Yep, that's a Bioware game. You could almost convince me I was playing KOTOR 3. Smooth and polished, with only a few glitches here and there. I had fun, messing around. Seems like a very solid game, and, as expected, should pair up with GW2 to be the first real threat to WoW's monolithic subscriber base.

CONS - Not a lot of re-invention of the wheel here, aside from the slick storytelling (which will only be fresh once). Those who are sick of the genre as a whole should be warned that there is a very, very, very, very familiar MMO engine chugging away under the Bioware hood.

 

[walrusaurus]

I'm not sure Dark Souls can be called an RPG... doing that would open a bag of worms that could start labeling almost everything as "RPG" just because of class mechanics... Hello RPG Modern Warfare.

Did you do Deus Ex? That's a type of RPG.

---

No Thanksgiving beta or early access for you?

In what universe is Dark souls not an RPG? What would you call it then? And what crazy definition of RPG do you have?

 

[SyphonX]

Nvm

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

It seems to me that someone can determine what their opinion about this game will be by considering their opinions on the following three things: WoW, Bioware, and Star Wars.

Here is my opinion on all three of those things, and on SWTOR:
1. I really like the idea of MMOs, but I've never been interested in the WoW-style ones. The only MMO I've liked so far has been FFXI because of its world, music, and focus on cooperation, and the only one I'm really looking forward to is GW2 because it's shaping up to be what I always wanted MMOs to be like.
2. I love Dragon Age: Origins because of its wonderful cast, though not so much for the rest of the game, and I would give roughly a B grade to every other Bioware game I've played (KOTOR, ME, ME2).
3. I used to like Star Wars but have begun to hate it for being overly black and white, human-focused, filled with borderline offensive stereotypes, and essentially just the same few stories repeated over and over with increasingly ridiculous aesthetics.

I played SWTOR over the last beta weekend (got a Bounty Hunter and Jedi Consular to 9 and the end of their starter planets' storylines and a Sith Warrior most of the way there). I enjoyed a couple moments of the storyline--mostly what happens when you try bluffing to Darth Baras as a male Sith Warrior (oh, Alistair)--but overall I found it to be fairly dull. I'll be playing the starter planets of a few more classes this weekend.

However my SO, who is extremely psyched for the game, went ahead and preordered it for me and is possibly going to pay for my subscription as well. (If I have to pay for it myself, I likely won't play it for more than a couple months.)

At the very least, I'll be playing an Imperial Agent to max level and then moving on to the rest of the classes if I remain interested, beginning with Smuggler. But I'll be pretty much playing it as a single-player game with a built-in chat feature that I can use to talk to my friends who are also playing it. I might team up with them from time to time to do some flashpoints and whatnot; we'll see. I just don't plan on playing it like an MMO with an endgame and mostly multiplayer content.

 

[Delsana]

Funny thing. I got an email saying I got invited to the beta. And on it said they would send me another email with information to get into it. I never got the second email. I am a bit bummed about that.

SWTOR.com/tester

Usually.

I had done that over a year ago. I had gotten an email like I said saying that I would be getting a code and instructions on how to enter the beta for the next weekend test. But never got said email.

Then sadly, you missed your chance, but perhaps you could go to the forums and ask if there's still a way? Or you could grab a key and just hope it still works.

 

[Delsana]

I'm not sure Dark Souls can be called an RPG... doing that would open a bag of worms that could start labeling almost everything as "RPG" just because of class mechanics... Hello RPG Modern Warfare.

Did you do Deus Ex? That's a type of RPG.

---

No Thanksgiving beta or early access for you?

In what universe is Dark souls not an RPG? What would you call it then? And what crazy definition of RPG do you have?

When I had a year or so at a game-design university just to kind of check it out (and it was a good one too) and see what the hub-bub was about during my younger years, we learned their form of design theorem and how things work or are classified. Dark Souls and its predecessor are NOT considered what would be called an RPG and hence they aren't labeled as such.

 

[Delsana]

I played a bit last beta weekend, but very little. Skyrim pulled me away, and I don't see much sense in fussing with MMO betas anyway. I've already pre-ordered, and I need to know I'm investing in a character who is going to be around a while to have any impetus to play.

PROS - Yep, that's a Bioware game. You could almost convince me I was playing KOTOR 3. Smooth and polished, with only a few glitches here and there. I had fun, messing around. Seems like a very solid game, and, as expected, should pair up with GW2 to be the first real threat to WoW's monolithic subscriber base.

CONS - Not a lot of re-invention of the wheel here, aside from the slick storytelling (which will only be fresh once). Those who are sick of the genre as a whole should be warned that there is a very, very, very, very familiar MMO engine chugging away under the Bioware hood.

See, I tried to get into it, but the terrible lighting in the console version (don't care if it's a console version problem, as that's a SERIOUS problem and also a significant market and so you can't just wash that away and say "well PC this".) pushed me away and made me hate it. As did some of the repetition I quickly faced.

I then went on to the PC version and the customizer for that is ridiculously annoying and low-key not because of option lacking (though it does have that as well) but because rotating to see what it looks like causes you to have to back out of that option and then back in to actually change things. The lighting was better though, but on a GTX 570 I would expect that at the least.

I'm not happy with Skyrim's lack of guidance, not because I want to be "on-rails" as you guys call it, but because a story should draw you into doing something outside of just text popping on a screen.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

See, I tried to get into it, but the terrible lighting in the console version (don't care if it's a console version problem, as that's a SERIOUS problem and also a significant market and so you can't just wash that away and say "well PC this".) pushed me away and made me hate it. As did some of the repetition I quickly faced.

I then went on to the PC version and the customizer for that is ridiculously annoying and low-key not because of option lacking (though it does have that as well) but because rotating to see what it looks like causes you to have to back out of that option and then back in to actually change things. The lighting was better though, but on a GTX 570 I would expect that at the least.

I'm not happy with Skyrim's lack of guidance, not because I want to be "on-rails" as you guys call it, but because a story should draw you into doing something outside of just text popping on a screen.

Courses for horses. You're kind of de-railing your own TOR topic, here, though. 90% of the post you quoted was about TOR, but you're fussing about Skyrim.

I'm not sure why you had so many issues with your PC version of Skyrim though. There's no question the interface is a little ass backwards but it takes all of about one day to learn.

 

[Delsana]

See, I tried to get into it, but the terrible lighting in the console version (don't care if it's a console version problem, as that's a SERIOUS problem and also a significant market and so you can't just wash that away and say "well PC this".) pushed me away and made me hate it. As did some of the repetition I quickly faced.

I then went on to the PC version and the customizer for that is ridiculously annoying and low-key not because of option lacking (though it does have that as well) but because rotating to see what it looks like causes you to have to back out of that option and then back in to actually change things. The lighting was better though, but on a GTX 570 I would expect that at the least.

I'm not happy with Skyrim's lack of guidance, not because I want to be "on-rails" as you guys call it, but because a story should draw you into doing something outside of just text popping on a screen.

Courses for horses. You're kind of de-railing your own TOR topic, here, though. 90% of the post you quoted was about TOR, but you're fussing about Skyrim.

I'm not sure why you had so many issues with your PC version of Skyrim though. There's no question the interface is a little ass backwards but it takes all of about one day to learn.

I never said I had any trouble with the interface. For the PC, I mentioned that the customization options were awful primarily because viewing them by rotating your character or using a limited zoom in feature then required you to go back to the initial option and then back to your option so you could change things again, because rotating the character screwed things up (not a bug, a poor system).

I tend to respond to whatever people respond with. This is about TOR though.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Funny thing. I got an email saying I got invited to the beta. And on it said they would send me another email with information to get into it. I never got the second email. I am a bit bummed about that.

SWTOR.com/tester

Usually.

I had done that over a year ago. I had gotten an email like I said saying that I would be getting a code and instructions on how to enter the beta for the next weekend test. But never got said email.

If you got that email about a week/week and a half ago, then it means you're signed up for this upcoming weekend. Go download it now!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I never said I had any trouble with the interface. For the PC, I mentioned that the customization options were awful primarily because viewing them by rotating your character or using a limited zoom in feature then required you to go back to the initial option and then back to your option so you could change things again, because rotating the character screwed things up (not a bug, a poor system).

I tend to respond to whatever people respond with. This is about TOR though.

Huh. I never had any issue with em. I may just have overlooked it, though. I will say it sounds like you were pretty quick to make your mind up, though.

Dude, again, I had three paragraphs about TOR and mentioned Skyrim in passing. Don't put it on me! You just went off tangent and did some Skyrim bashing for god knows what reason.

 

[Delsana]

I never said I had any trouble with the interface. For the PC, I mentioned that the customization options were awful primarily because viewing them by rotating your character or using a limited zoom in feature then required you to go back to the initial option and then back to your option so you could change things again, because rotating the character screwed things up (not a bug, a poor system).

I tend to respond to whatever people respond with. This is about TOR though.

Huh. I never had any issue with em. I may just have overlooked it, though. I will say it sounds like you were pretty quick to make your mind up, though.

Dude, again, I had three paragraphs about TOR and mentioned Skyrim in passing. Don't put it on me! You just went off tangent and did some Skyrim bashing for god knows what reason.

Not bashing, it's not a bush to say your perspective or opinion politely. I'm still trying to play the game like I said, not that I'm just going to throw it away or something, but I couldn't stop playing TOR during the beta, and I COULD stop Skyrim.