ZeroMachine said:
I played a little bit of the beta. Got sidetracked by Skyrim too much to really get into it, but what I saw, I liked, as long as it gets some major polish before release (which it will, being a beta and all).
But the thing is, even with the story, it had the same old MMO gameplay, but WITHOUT auto attack (something I prefer).
I'll get into it eventually.
But, all that being said, I have an important question for you, OP.
How, exactly, is SWTOR technically better than Skyrim? I saw someone else ask this, and you didn't answer. Until I get that answer, I can't pay any attention to anything else you say. This is not meant to offend you at all, mind you. It's just that it's a very, very bold statement. Explain the technical reasons as to why it's better, and I'll believe you.
Mind you, although I'm sure the SWTOR has more content, better VA, and a (most likely) overall better written story, these things alone a good game does not make. What I saw of the game, graphically, it looks like shit (and I'm not talking about the art style, though I do question a lot of their choices in that regard as well).
So, if you can answer your question, I can fully take part in this discussion. So, if you wouldn't mind backing up your claim?
Because you asked politely, sure.
Here are the primary reasons:
The Old Republic, being an MMO with a 100 million + budget and thus having huge server maintenance fees and other upkeep costs, already has a huge lead on Skyrim, primarily because it has the funding for universally more content than Skyrim can hope to achieve with their limited budget and their limited engine. But before you counter that, let me point out that I am aware the TOR engine while a new one, has some of the older engines of BioWare underneath it; however, this doesn't really matter that much because that huge budget and the additional subscription profits will allow for that engine to be expanded, developed, and further fleshed out much like other MMO's from their release to their period of maturity. World of Warcraft and the like can be mentioned as examples if you like, but they show how profit can truly develop something into something much better when you leave it open to change. The Skyrim engine is an optimization but it really has no new factors and without that huge income coming from subscription costs and the like, they don't have a chance to compete with a game that can consistently update its engine and which can stream new content and engine patches on a quarterly basis. True, they have a modding community, but can a community of modders truly compete with a hundred million backed programming and development team? I like to think modders are good, but I know they aren't THAT GOOD. Yes, they upgraded Skyrim already with their engine patches made by the community and other mods but that says more about the team that made Skyrim than it does the game itself.
In short, funding opens doors and lack of funding even if you're an AAA game (and I argue they are because Bethesda has ALWAYS had the same problems and many game-breaking bugs always make it in) closes them just as quick.
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An MMO has an inherent advantage over any other type of game so long as that MMO can rake in what you would call "extraneous profits" these are profits beyond the profits they want, that are necessary, and that they like to hold for cashing in on the product. These are the profits that quite honesty, they don't actually need, but they realize won't keep being made if they don't continue the product via expansion and development. If the MMO succeeds in a great way (and uh we're talking Star Wars and BioWare here so let's not be naive) then it will have more money flowing from it than the company knows what to do with, because that's what an MMO does, and that's the ONLY REASON a company is willing to spend 100 million dollars on making one, because if it works (and let's be honest, this will) then they've got at least 10x that in a very very quick fashion. MMO's that are successes (and I mean REAL successes like WoW, despite what we think of the quality of that game) literally PRINT MONEY just like the Nintendo DS did for Nintendo, or the Wii. But all this money helps the community of the game quite well because much like a greedy company will try to give the consumer what they want as much as they can so to rake in the profit, a greedy development company will try to keep that game up as much as possible and eventually they'll make some ridiculous decisions, but these can all be patched out (as WoW, EQ II, and Guild Wars have shown) but they will also result in a lot of additional content.
Now, many people won't argue with me on this game I'll mention, but I should state that no protocol, policy, procedure, or analysis of how things work is perfect. Sony killed off PlanetSide their money printing MMOFPS quite a few years back, in fact, that was the game that made me get into computer building and having upgraded computers that ARE NOT spouting "Emachines" on their front. It was a great game and while Core Combat was "teh suck", the Aftermath content expansion brought forth the worst possible decision to add to a game--GIANT ROBOTS. BFR --- Battle Frame Robotics, or whatever else you think BFR stands for (and it did) ruined that game, and it was not something they could just patch out because the damage was done quite quickly. So quickly in fact that Sony trashed their greatly intricate and developed site that looked nice in favor of --- www.planetside.com --- which is... a laughable abomination of a website that used to be AAA. Oh, it's free now, which is what happens to all bad MMO's these days. Stay away from MMO's that USED to cost money, they will still be whatever made the game so bad because it costs money to change things.
That entire voice-acting feature is a big thing to be quite honest, and the compression of that so it doesn't just have huge options of text that you click one and voice comes out... that's really done well. I want to argue that it is a big thing. Because if they can get that to be a standard thing? That's a major benefit for games. That could be the thing that revitalizes the story feature of games that is slowly dying off. I play games for SP and for story, not for MP... I am playing SWTOR for the story, WITH OTHER people. That's a new idea, to have a hugely popular MMO give a story that others can add in on, and that's the entire focus. Some people call it the "leveling" part of the game, but I really think they're going to make it content additions.
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So in all truth, the reason it can't compete is primarily a monetary reason, but also, let's be honest, Bethesda has a horrible reputation when it comes to bugs and repetition (they make okay or great games if you ignore that though), but BioWare is known for... trying new things, great story, and breaking the mold (let's accept that Dragon Age 2 is the ugly step child most people don't really like but they feel sorry for and make themselves like) and Bethesda doesn't have that.
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I can name a few other reasons but the monetary reason is something that honestly can't accurately be argued with. We've already seen what happens to BioWare when their budget is lowered and they are forced to rush something, and we've seen how all of Bethesda's 4 recent games are considered AAA but use the same engine with minor optimization's and literally play the same. Add some more money to either of them and something new might occur, but Bethesda isn't known for innovation and trying new things, BioWare is. That alone shows where the extra money should go. The dinosaur companies and mentalities always end up dying a very sad and lonely death.
