Will the SP-RPG crowd hurt this game?

[Ogretron]

My younger sister and a former coworker of mine both play the game, but they are not MMO players. They both despise WoW, and are playing SW:TOR to see different story classes fleshed out and could care less about the MMO part of the game.

What exactly do you think the real MMO part is? Is it doing group activities like heroics and flashpoints? Is it getting to end game and running operations? Seems like they are doing exactly what MMOs set out to accomplish.

[Crookers]

My understanding is that one of the primary reasons World Of Warcraft was such a huge success coming out of the EQ era was because it allowrf you to do things as a single player and not be ENTIRELY reliant on a party. SWTOR is a continuation of this but at the same time its also WILDLY entertaining with a couple of friends around.

Indeed, like SWTOR, wow was criticised by EQ era players for being a single player game because you could reach cap without grouping and was derided for being too 'casual' because you didn't lose levels when you died.

[mistuhbull]

exactly, this is why i quit wow. when activision took over blizzard, wow simply becomes a little bitch, because they don't have to care about it when they have a franchise like COD.

now EA also has BF, but the difference is, EA is using the resources from BF to MAKE swtor, whereas activision used the resources from COD to BUYOUT wow.

so i'll play swtor now, since the company seems to have more sincerity.

Which is funny because Vivendi Games, the ones who actually owned Blizzard, are the ones who bought out Activision and maintain as majority shareholders.

[Cakka]

Which is funny because Vivendi Games, the ones who actually owned Blizzard, are the ones who bought out Activision and maintain as majority shareholders.

Yea, it seems hard for some people to grasp that Activision doesn't own Blizzard. Both Activision and Blizzard Entertainment are actually subsidiaries of the holding company Activision Blizzard, and Vivendi AS is the main shareholder of that holding company. In case you didn't know Vivendi is the company that has been Blizzards majority shareholder for over 10 years now.

[Deleted]

I recently created a character in my partner's copy of SW:TOR having not really played the game to any real extent before due to BioWare proclaiming gaming on a Mac as heresy. Going for my usual manner of selecting a class in an MMO, picking which one looks the best in style and ideology and working it out from there (it served me well enough in WoW) I decided to role a Sith Imperial Agent.

And it sucked. The combat was, in my opinion, cumbersome with my lovely lass rolling 10-15 metres to the wrong piece of cover and pulling a whole swathe of mobs followed by some very hesitant and lagging sniping at close range. Even when I could convince her to go to the nearest piece of combat and get off a shot, attempting to chain that with a grenade throw to a different mob often proved to be maddeningly futile. With such basic mechanics in total disarray and the environment of shiny brown, shiny yellow, shiny grey and more shiny brown starting to take it's toll I really began to wonder just what sort of substances the reviewers who awarded SW:TOR a 9/10 must have been imbibing.

Though I stuck with it for a bit and it started to pay off and it was all due to the story. This was the largest factor in the small contemplation I had of somehow finding a way to continue playing the game. I wanted to find out what would happen to my surprisingly human cyborg lady (mind you, all the races seemed to be human, human with metal, human with head tails or confused-pigment colouration human). Then I decided that if I wanted to experience it as an MMO I would end up in fits of rage stomping on whatever computer had the misfortune of being used to explore just to what lengths my Imperial Agent would go to to avoid paying up credits.

If anything, those single players are a boon to SW:TOR, inflating subscription numbers and encouraging more development from BioWare. I personally feel that without a mechanics overhaul, SW:TOR isn't strong enough to stand as an MMO but coupled with those story elements it may very well find a place for itself.

[Deleted]

This is the most single player oriented MMO I have ever experienced. As I posted about companions, its so obvious this games roots were an unfinished KOTOR sequel its painful how much they missed when converting it to a MMO. You have at most eight unique class quest lines, four per side, to play through, however their value is greatly diminished as your still on rails as to which worlds you visit and in which order which means going through the same exact quests to flush out the experience points needed to level.

Frankly, without dual spec, a clean UI, and some other fixes, I see little point continuing after I get all four archetypes on one side to 50, hell I am leaning towards taking a break after the second. There just really isn't anything fun for me at 50... you can only do the same things over and over - so alting is a way of life to extend game play

Oh look it's this guy complaining about swtor... again...

[mistuhbull]

Oh look it's this guy complaining about swtor... again...

How dare someone criticize a game, the nerve of some people...

---------- Post added 2012-01-25 at 11:10 AM ----------

I recently created a character in my partner's copy of SW:TOR having not really played the game to any real extent before due to BioWare proclaiming gaming on a Mac as heresy. Going for my usual manner of selecting a class in an MMO, picking which one looks the best in style and ideology and working it out from there (it served me well enough in WoW) I decided to role a Sith Imperial Agent.

And it sucked. The combat was, in my opinion, cumbersome with my lovely lass rolling 10-15 metres to the wrong piece of cover and pulling a whole swathe of mobs followed by some very hesitant and lagging sniping at close range. Even when I could convince her to go to the nearest piece of combat and get off a shot, attempting to chain that with a grenade throw to a different mob often proved to be maddeningly futile. With such basic mechanics in total disarray and the environment of shiny brown, shiny yellow, shiny grey and more shiny brown starting to take it's toll I really began to wonder just what sort of substances the reviewers who awarded SW:TOR a 9/10 must have been imbibing.

Though I stuck with it for a bit and it started to pay off and it was all due to the story. This was the largest factor in the small contemplation I had of somehow finding a way to continue playing the game. I wanted to find out what would happen to my surprisingly human cyborg lady (mind you, all the races seemed to be human, human with metal, human with head tails or confused-pigment colouration human). Then I decided that if I wanted to experience it as an MMO I would end up in fits of rage stomping on whatever computer had the misfortune of being used to explore just to what lengths my Imperial Agent would go to to avoid paying up credits.

If anything, those single players are a boon to SW:TOR, inflating subscription numbers and encouraging more development from BioWare. I personally feel that without a mechanics overhaul, SW:TOR isn't strong enough to stand as an MMO but coupled with those story elements it may very well find a place for itself.

In the first month? Yes, the people playing it as a SRPG are a boon. It makes it look really good to EA. However, 3 months from now, when the majority of those who played it for KOTOR3 are 50 with their first, second, third characters? Then it will be a detriment, since it will mark a (presumably) large exodus from the game. And that looks bad

[Skippy88]

I had a fellow guildie start complaining he ran out of quests. I gave him some options (flashpoints, heroics, etc.) and he flat out told me he doesn't group with people ever. That absolutely floored me. I've done some flashpoints and done most of the heroics I've come across. The best being trying to heal people with only 2 spells and not specced for it but still beating the encounter.

They can't hurt the game unless Bioware starts catering to them.

[Deleted]

How dare someone criticize a game, the nerve of some people...[COLOR="red"]

It's not that, it's just that he posts negative stuff in almost every thread i see, and I am getting a bit tired of it tbh.

[philefluxx]

My younger sister and a former coworker of mine both play the game, but they are not MMO players.

While I did read your entire post, this first sentence pretty much answers your question. Star Wars brings all types of gamers and many are not MMO'ers. So yes some people will only play through what they want and unsub.

I always said this game wouldn't be for everyone and its not. All I know is the game IS for me.

[Deleted]

In the first month? Yes, the people playing it as a SRPG are a boon. It makes it look really good to EA. However, 3 months from now, when the majority of those who played it for KOTOR3 are 50 with their first, second, third characters? Then it will be a detriment, since it will mark a (presumably) large exodus from the game. And that looks bad

SW:TOR players need to hope that in three months from now, with the revenue from the solo players, that BioWare have been able to fix the clunky, irritating and aggravating combat and have spun a decent end-game out of their regular patches. Regardless of how bad things will eventually look, the bigger issue is how poorly the game handles itself currently.

[Hobb]

Which is funny because Vivendi Games, the ones who actually owned Blizzard, are the ones who bought out Activision and maintain as majority shareholders.

That's only partially correct. Vivendi does own Blizzard and they are a majority shareholder in Activision Blizzard, but they're not the majority controller Activision is the majority controller.

In the merger between Actvision and Blizzard an agreement was reached to let Vivendi be the majority shareholder but Actvision's CEO would be made CEO of the newly formed Actvision Blizzard along with Actvision being the dominate partner.

Sources:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=128252
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bob...ame-activision