Too Linear?

[ElAmigo]

Once I get to Taris any sense of linearity I had pretty much went away plus that planet is BEAUTIFUL

[philefluxx]

Ive never really understood why people argue that game X is too linear....


MMORPGs are all linear now at days accept a few titles i.e. EvE

If your not playing EvE or some other sandbox game then your playing a Linear game, enough said. Most people here have played or play WoW, that game hasnt had anything linear about it since TBC and no one seemed to care. But every time a new game comes out its always a complaint. The truth is only hardcore gamers can handle sandbox and true non-linear games and the majority of people gaming these days are not that type of person. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

[nyoan]

I had 14 level 85s in wow. You don't get any more linear than leveling from 60-85 in wow anywhere else. I was sick to the back teeth and knew every zone like the back of my hand and was able to pick up and do quests without even bothering to look at the quest text.

TOR has linear experiences, you're following your very own class quest and progressing on with it. The low level areas are small and don't give you much freedom because you're learning about the game, experiencing new things. Once you complete your class quest, get your own spaceship and fly off to the new planets you will be amazed at how big they really are.

Very true about WoW. Anything from BC onward is very linear, with Cata being one of the worst offenders. (Where linear is defined as the same zones, same quests, no variation).

I think SWTOR does escape this a bit by the class quests and dialogue options. You are in the same space but can make different decisions and class quests let you see different parts of the world as you go through with different folks.

I think its important to realize that a planet based MMO that isn't all sandboxy like SWG has to commit to either a handful of huge planets with lots of content or more planets with less content per planet. Yes some of the planets are small, but that is a side effect of having more of them (and the developers catering to a lack of fast travel until Tatooine).

Finally, I think its VERY important to realize that a Space-based MMO is going to feel more linear in some ways simply because you have to get on a spaceship to travel from planet to planet. In WoW, every major continent was seamless from zone to zone. You could walk from the top of Kalimdor to the Bottom if you followed the right zone paths (or flew). In TOR, you aren't going to have that same level of free because you have to swap planets.

Now, if they wanted a more expansive effect like WoW they could have stuck to around three planets and made the content on each roughly the size of the content of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, but by doing that they'd lose out on giving us the variety of planets they have and we'd be missing out on a lot of what the Star Wars universe has to offer: varied locales and aliens species and cultures.

I'm kinda glad they didn't go that way. I'd hate to spend 20 levels on Tatooine

[philefluxx]

Now, if they wanted a more expansive effect like WoW they could have stuck to around three planets and made the content on each roughly the size of the content of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, but by doing that they'd lose out on giving us the variety of planets they have and we'd be missing out on a lot of what the Star Wars universe has to offer: varied locales and aliens species and cultures.

I'm kinda glad they didn't go that way. I'd hate to spend 20 levels on Tatooine

And to elaborate a bit on that, SWG didnt have as many planets as SWTOR and all the planets were essentially identical. It was the player housing that made them unique and the farther away from civilization (think Tatooine) the harder the mobs were outside of the cities. So sure you could go to Tatooine before you had proper skills but you will have one hell of a time doing much without dying consistently.

[Valeron]

Once I got to Taris it seemed to open up. Before that though the play area was pretty confined. I do wish we had a lot more freedom in Coruscant. The background of all of the space cars zooming by made me really want to join them.

[Teriz]

I thought the game was linear too, until I got my spaceship.

I think a lot of people are basing the ENTIRE game off of levels 1-20. That's a big mistake.

I'm very excited about where the game goes from here with expansions and patches. I can see them adding areas to Corusant(sp?), Drumond Kass, and your starter planet, making you return to them at later levels, or for side quests. Or heck, they could add new planets that are even bigger than Tatoonie. This game has the potential to be absolutely massive.

[Deleted]

People think SWTOR is linear because there are borders.
They maybe just don't realize that action takes place on several planets.

[Shrubbery]

TOR is just like any other MMORPG. Except, in TOR, story is a vital part of the experience. Because you follow a story along and it is essentially forced on you, it creates the perception that TOR is much more linear than any of its competition.

Imagine if WoW had an in depth story that you had to watch cut scenes for from 1-85 and that ushered you from zone to zone. It would seem linear. Instead, WoW's lore dialogue is in quest text, which no one reads, thereby removing much of the story and making it seem more open.

[Encarn]

I have a friend who said the same thing. He uses Zygor's guide to level in WoW. I lol'ed.

[Uncle Julian]

I have a strange feeling that all these people saying "linear" don't actually know what it means - they just saw it on some shitty review and ran with it.

@OP, you're entitled to your opinion. You should know that yours is ignorant to the big picture, though. The reality is the game hasn't even launched and there's already a TON of explorable space, it's just not all on 1-3 continents like it is with WoW so yeah, you can't just "walk" for hours.

Instead, you get on your spaceship and fly to other planets...

Thankyou for the information, but as you stated I am not ignorant, because I didn't know what later levels/planets were like which was the point of this post. Many responses are referring to questing which I have no problem with, but rather the feeling of being on a huge planet verses a little instanced version of it. Most are saying the planets get bigger though, so no more responses are needed

---------- Post added 2011-11-30 at 04:20 PM ----------

I thought the game was linear too, until I got my spaceship.

I think a lot of people are basing the ENTIRE game off of levels 1-20. That's a big mistake.

I'm very excited about where the game goes from here with expansions and patches. I can see them adding areas to Corusant(sp?), Drumond Kass, and your starter planet, making you return to them at later levels, or for side quests. Or heck, they could add new planets that are even bigger than Tatoonie. This game has the potential to be absolutely massive.

I wasn't trying to base the whole game off my 1-15 leveling experience, which is why I came here on the forums to ask more experienced people. Just a simple question if each planet was going to feel confined as the one's I was able to enjoy, or not.

[Prag]

Thankyou for the information, but as you stated I am not ignorant, because I didn't know what later levels/planets were like which was the point of this post. Many responses are referring to questing which I have no problem with, but rather the feeling of being on a huge planet verses a little instanced version of it. Most are saying the planets get bigger though, so no more responses are needed

Just to clarify, you aren't ignorant (as in dumb), your assessment was just ignorant (missing) information.

My apologies if that came off rude. It was not intended.

[nerfducken]

get to 50 then say the game is linear. /endthread