Is this the right game for me?

[Darth-Vukster]

I am a big SW fan with a collection of over 300 books.

A couple years ago I played Evony on line. It started with a couple nights a week and grew to the point where I became the head of our alliance (or whatever the heck it was called) of 50-100 players and I was on almost all of the time, before work, after work, in the middle of the night...even during work (a big no-no). It consumed my life and eventually I had to quit cold turkey. It was a huuuuge relief the day I stopped.

Well, here it is a couple years later and I am entertaining the thought of SWTOR because of my love of SW.

Does this game require lots of interaction with others?
Will I need to be on-line a lot to maintain any sort of resources or anything?
Will I have to join forces with others who will expect me to be on regularly to "do stuff"?

I do not want to bother even starting to play if I will be a detriment to others. I just want something I can go on for a couple hours here and there maybe once or twice a week...then maybe not play for a week or two.

I saw one person post this:
Also, my advice to enjoy SWTOR: play it like a single player game. It's awesome as a single player game that you play through for storyline, but most people find the endgame lacking (including myself, but I went into the game expecting to play it like a singe player game anyway).
which seemed to indicate this game would be a good fit for me. I am very interested in the storyline itself, but don't really want to eff someone else's game up if they are relying on me. Plus I do not want to have to rely a lot on others as I will be the idiot "noob" for awhile if not playing a whole lot and I am not really into begging the regulars for help.

Or is this like crack and should I just walk away now before I get massively addicted once again?

[Psychlon]

As long as you can live with having a limited amount of species to choose from, just give the F2P version a try. The "single player experience" aka 1-50 reqires 0 grouping if you don't want to and you can play exactly the way you want.

[Argroth]

The restrictions on F2P (and preferred) can get a bit unbearable. I your going to go that route be prepared for bioware actively hating you.

As a Sub you will probably really enjoy it. Leveling experience is much more enjoyable then a game like Wow.

The game has kinda a crappy engine and it has a pretty big amount of bugs but most are livable if you have a decent computer.

If it wasn't for the switch to F2P and the company making bad move after bad move I wouldn't have many complaints about the game, I just got bored of it after hitting 50 in the summer and left. I'm leveling again because some of my friends wanted to try it but the F2P/preferred status restrictions are driving me crazy.

Bioware/EA is a disappointment, the game is not (story, gameplay visuals), unfortunately they are not helping the game in any way (not fixing bugs, promising things then not delivering, prioritizing crap cartel items instead of content etc) they just keep dragging it down.

[OneSent]

I just want something I can go on for a couple hours here and there maybe once or twice a week...then maybe not play for a week or two.

SWTOR would be absolutely perfect for this. You can take your time with your story quests, go at your own pace and not have to interact with a single person the entire way. That's how I did it. I turned off all general chat channels and leveled my character like it was a single player game.

Or is this like crack and should I just walk away now before I get massively addicted once again?

I think the reason the game has not done so well is because it is not addicting enough. While the story quests are incredible and the amount of voiced dialog is mind-blowing, in the end, there is really nothing to get "addicted" to.

For players like myself who were hoping for a new addicting MMO, we were disappointed. But in your case, I think this game will be just the thing for you. The one thing I never regret is playing the game for the first time.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have not experienced leveling under the F2P model. I was a full-time subscriber at the time so I'm not sure how restrictive things can get. As far as the bare minimum needed for just casual gameplay, I don't think you should have any problems there.

[Deleted]

Have you ever played Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic or the sequel? (If you have not, run to the nearest gamestore now!). If you have, you are well positioned to make a decision because you can play SWTOR almost exactly as if it were KOTOR3: i.e. as a story-driven, dialogue-rich single player RPG. I effectively got to level 50 as a Jedi Knight playing this way and enjoyed it immensely. I did not join a guild, seldom did instances or group quests, although greatly enjoyed those I did as it was hard at that time to find a group without taking time out of the story, and I enjoyed leveling/the story so much. There's a little more "make work" type quests typical of an MMO than in a single player Bioware game, but it's not too bad. And there's actually a lot more content in SWTOR than in most single player RPGs if you take account of the 8 different class stories (in KOTOR1 and 2, you are effectively playing one "class" story). There's a lot of disappointment with SWTOR, but if you regard it as a game you will play for a month or two, it's a very high quality product imo. Great writing and voice acting, solid gameplay and mechanics, lots of things to do.

It could be addictive, but for me it was not. Once I got to 50, I stopped playing the game. What I had enjoyed so much - the story, the character interactions etc - seemed to abruptly stop and I was faced with WoW style gear grinds, which did not appeal to me (being immersed in one such gear grind already was enough!). The fact that the next expansion will not continue the class stories confirms me in my decision to stop.

The best thing about SWTOR now for you is that with F2P, you can do the story based leveling thing without paying a thing. (There are many limitations that chaff with existing players of the game, but as a newcomer you'll probably notice these less and at least, you can't complain about the price!)

[Armourboy]

Honestly, I think its the best way to play SWTOR. Take your time and enjoy the scenery, the quests, and then just play along like its just you. If you don't get in a big hurry just 0-50 once will take you a while and give you lots of enjoyment. For most players, the MMO issues don't really kick in til max level.

The second time through was not nearly as fun for me, but you may find it different. I would advise though that if you have had a gaming addiction in the past that you just keep the F2P option, it will provide you a limiter to help keep those things that could be addicting out of you hands.

[Psychlon]

The second time through was not nearly as fun for me, but you may find it different. I would advise though that if you have had a gaming addiction in the past that you just keep the F2P option, it will provide you a limiter to help keep those things that could be addicting out of you hands.

Some free Iphones Games are more addicting than SWTOR... I don't see that this could be a problem. Raids are very short compared to other games and you don't have to grind 24/7 only to be able to run with an operation. I find it more "casual" than in other games and because of this, the elitism is less present.

[ariakul]

There's another thread similar to this that got locked yesterday.

[LonestarHero]

I think you'll be fine with SWTOR.

EVE Online on the other hand would be the crack you want to stay away from coming from Evony.

[Snorkle]

The quote in the original post might be mine :X if not, it is someone who thinks just like me.

To the OP, I play swtor as a single player where you also have some friends and do some stuff together. It's quite nice. If you are looking for that, this is the game for you. If you are looking for raiding, you might want to try elsewhere... Even though the raiding scene is not bad, it's not the best thing in the game.

[Darth-Vukster]

Sweet! Awesome input! Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. Once these first downloads finish (taking nearly 2 days at my 1mb download speed) I will be starting up.