As far as I know Origin isn't required.

I could've sworn that Origin was required for all of EA's games. If not, it still doesn't change anything for me so long as EA's name is still on it. I won't buy anything with their name and I won't suggest anyone to buy anything with their name.

From what I heard and saw, its just another wow clone with gimmick cartoonish graphics with star wars slapped on.

It started out very fun and addicting. It was the only game I played from launch through January. I have a 50 Operative and leveling a 40 Jugg, but now I'm bored of the game. That Jugg has been ~40 for 2 or 3 weeks now, just can't get myself to finish. I now find myself only logging on because my friend is playing.

I agree with everything that Titan said. Maybe wait for a couple patches then check it out.

Origin is the only way to purchase digital copies, boxed copies don't require Origin.

And that's okay, you are, of course, welcome to your own opinion concerning EA... As long as you realize you're wrong.

... What ?

We are talking about Massive, multiplayer, online games right ?

Unfortunately as many have commented people wanted a KOTOR 3 instead of an MMO experience. The game pretty much adopts the adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" for the MMO combat scheme. Sadly this also means "if it ain't broke don't improve upon it" with mechanics as they really just tweaked things around. Having played varying classes the best story experience and gameplay experience comes from the Imperial Agent. Going the sniper route I had a completely blast always choosing it when I had the chance.

Pros:

1. Single Hero Story - This is where the game really shines because it takes story telling to a whole new level. You are the single #1 badass for your story be it a sith warrior/imperial agent or jedi consular/trooper. There's no "hey you're another adventurer like me" it's "You're that elite I heard about can you help me?" Find this to be refreshing from other games where you just make your adventurer and you're pretty much crap like everyone else.

2. Over Arching Story - The Galactic war comes into full swing when you hit 50 and start participating in Warzones + PvP planets like ilum. Only just got into this myself and it's been thoroughly enjoyable with events leading up to this main problem being fun as well.

3. PvE vs PvP - In any MMO this is tricky to deal with, but SWTOR does a decent job of isolating it. I will say that there are some abilities that dishearten me because they could have much greater potential. However, it is ultimately par for the course as a PvE ability may completely dominate in PvP matches.

Cons

1. Story Mode - Have to be a hypocrite here because once you finish the story...that's kind of it and you are left with fragments to toy around with. Flashpoints are indeed fun, but at the moment with fluctuating player populations its hard to find a group to do them with.

2. PvP - Warzones are great, but open world PvP is horrible at the moment with the planet ilum being a nightmare. Playing on the Port Nowhere server with a group I hooked up with and imperial players are the dominant faction. They'll sit outside the base and just AoE the crap out of everything hoping to snag some poor fish. Sometimes they just run in and Harpoon/Grapple a Republic player towards them then gank him to death.

3. Mechanics - "If it ain't broke don't fix it" works, but as said "if it ain't broke don't improve upon it" kind of svcks...well royally svcks to put it. Personally I blame this whole debacle on WoW because casual players latched onto it and refuse to let go of it. Only now am I seeing players that loved that mechanic growing weary of it. Would have to say the absolute worst thing I hate are "Global Cooldowns" for abilities. EQ2 was awesome where you chained abilities together to achieve high dps, but with Global Cooldowns it feels like i'm playing a freakin RTS.


On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give the game a 7 because it is still fresh out of the box. No MMO that I have played is ever 100% perfect out of the box and takes time to work out the kinks. Main reason i'm staying with the game is due to its potential with SWG gone. Developers know that there is A LOT of pressure on them and are doing their best. Even now they are talking about update 1.2 and we're up to version 1.1.3c I believe so we are getting there quite rapidly.

Current things on the agenda:

1. Guild Banks & Capital Warships for guilds - The GBs weren't put in at the start which is a no no, but it's forgivable since they are working on them. Believe GBs are supposed to be introduced with version 1.2 and the capital ships are on the books.

2. More Flashpoints and Operations (Raids) - Developers introduced a new one and I can't wait for some new Operations to play with.

3. PvP Upgrades - They are putting out a new warzone and will be introducing cross server warzone queuing. Some players see this cross server thing as a troubled sign, but in all honest I believe it to be necessary. There are servers that have players who are on their 3rd to 4th alt and with some wanting to just play with their 50 it makes it hard to get stuff together. Developers are also adding in a tournament setup which will help to sedate/quell others who are hardcoe PvPers.


Would say the final gripe of mine against players badmouthing the game are ones that burn as fast as they can to level 50. It was probably the 2nd week into the game that I saw a bunch of level 50s. These are the players that just sat there pressing spacebar as fast as possible to burn through cinematics.


In short I would give the game a shot or if you can wait for a little bit pick it up probably in April/May. Usually 3 to 4 months into an MMO is a good 80% solid idea of how an MMO will turn out. With SWG dead and buried as of December 15th SWTOR is the only SW related MMO that i've seen up.

And what worlds have you played on exactly? I have been on many worlds with giant swathes of land. I would much rather have a more enclosed space with stuff in it to do than giant plots of land with nothing meant only to make a trip take longer. I found the Sith Inquisitor story engaging. Even if one does want another KOTOR (Which I am one of those people that wanted and still want a KOTOR III) the game just feels like a more beefed up KOTOR. It feels like a single player game with the option of multiplayer.


Yes, you can play it entirely by yourself, no need for friends. Because Bioware wanted to cater to both us KOTOR Fans, and the new MMO fans. I don't care what people say Bioware is one of the greatest developers of all time. In the new Mass Effect they have 3 options, one makes the game into a linear FPS, the next is the traditional ME Experience and the 3rd is all story, the battles are quick and easy so it is like watching a movie. They really are taking a step forward in video game design.

Predator X put it pretty well to.

I got the game last week and I really like it. It's my first MMO, so I had no experience with this type of game. I'm playing an Imperial Agent, Operative specialization.

On of the things I like is Bioware seems to have combined both their old style of stories (go to 4 areas, complete a major objective at each one) with their new style (3 part story). I'm on the fourth planet of the first chapter, so I wonder how much more there is to do.

Frankly, the perspective of people looking for a KOTOR3 is the only perspective that matters, because as a single player story experience is the only way in which the game excels compared to its competitors in the MMO space. It delivers an acceptable experience as a single player game, but being an MMO drags it down with slow, grindy pacing. Level 20 takes at least as many hours for the first time player, and if it doesn't show its stuff by that point, it has failed by a valid measure, even if it [censored] rainbows in the endgame (which by any account it does not.)

I'll chime in my two cents, for what it's worth (probably about a half-penny with the exchange rate nowadays...)

I've levelled two characters to 50 back-to-back now, on different servers, and while they were essentially the same storyline and quests it actually didn't grind as much as I'd feared, and each playthough felt unique in its own way (even though I picked the same class both times, Jedi Knight.) There's only ever one storyline per planet that's necessary to advance the central plot, so if you don't like a particular planet you can usually skip most of the missions and make up the difference in XP by doing warzones, flying space missions, or running flashpoints. Both times I ended up doing all the side-quests anyway, and I hit 50 well before the last planet. I really have to give TOR credit here: WoW always felt very grindy when it came to quests, positively dire when it came to drops, and absolutely assinine about sending you back and forth across enormous swathes of land to get the next quest stages in an obvious attempt at padding; TOR, on the other hand, manages to keep its quest spread quite close in, with a minimum of downtime as you move from place to place (except a few long-winded areas) and any "kill X number of creatures" quests are usually only a bonus to complete as you cut your way to your real objective, rather than being the objective itself.

To cut a long explanation shorter: TOR is a clone of WoW but with upgraded mechanics, and mixed with the gameplay of KOTOR. Force leaping into battle, ordering your companion's abilities, the dueling animations - all that's missing from the classic KOTOR style is the ability to pause the action (which clearly wouldn't work online) and as a result TOR feels like a true spiritual successor. I've been pulled along more by the curiosity of the next plot than just trying to hammer my way to the top - as trite as it is to say, it's a game where the journey is its own reward, and it does a great job of making you feel like the hero in a larger story. It's undermined somewhat by the fact that there are thousands of players all having the same epic adventure as you (although the same could be said of KOTOR, really) but it's essentially a huge single-player game with massive potential for multiplayer camaraderie. Taking on a 4-man dungeon with a scratch group of 3 players, barely scraping through by the skin of your teeth, is a rewarding experience even without the loot and XP.

As a multiplayer game, your enjoyment is proportionate to the amount of socialising you do, and by far the most fun I've had has been with groups, either doing a quick pick-up dash through a dungeon or a multi-hour RP marathon in a Nar Shadaa cantina. It's also what made each of my playthroughs so unique: the players you meet on the way, the scraqes you get into, even the run of luck you have with loot drops - at the end of it all you really feel like you've had an adventure specific to your character (at least, that's how I've felt both times.)

I'll close out with some of the things I wish they would improve, in all fairness: the socialising and grouping tools are basic and functional, but could be a lot better; the players make do with what they have, but there's definite room for refinement. It's clear this is still an MMO in its infancy, far from the years of careful balancing and polish that the likes of WoW have now. TOR has managed to sidestep most of the typical MMO landmines at launch, but not all areas have seen a universal degree of development. Also, the number of bugs, while not game-ending for me, sometimes borders on frustration. I've had to reset quests a couple times to complete them, though so far haven't had any outright stoppages. Ultimately I had more problems with games like STALKER, and that was a brilliant experience despite all the flaws - as such, I find it easy to look past TOR's shortcoming for the time being, provided they are addressed in due course.

No, no they are not. Cutting content, attatching dlc to anything remotely related to mass effect, lies (choices matter), their attitude towards their fans. Bioware is most of the problems of the industry, rolled into one.

I respect activision more then them.

Well, I did say Im only level 18 so any of those worlds. I'm also not the only one that has said that the lands were on rails. Theres another in this thread.

As for "stuff to do".....the stuff to do is just more fetch quests and the like. It's not like theres original stuff in these corridor worlds. Just like any other MMO it's the same quests.....except this one is with worlds that feel like mazes for mentally challenged ppl.

That's not true at all. I had the boxed copy of Battlefield 3 and still needed Origin. The game never worked. Ever. Even with EA's terrible customer support and their terrible techs and with a reissue of the CD key and a different version of the game.

EA is a terrible company.

Well I'll jump on the EA hate wagon, I used to buy Madden every year but they just put out terrible games. I started noticing I was only buying a 'roster update' and not actually anything new when in one year the announcer pronounced a players name wrong and in the next game, they did the same thing. They put hardly any time creating a better game it seems. I loved Mass Effect when it was just Bioware. Then the second one happened with EA all over it and I was completely turned off. The game is inferior to the first. Dragon Age Origins was a great game and it had EA on it! But the second one, well, you could tell where the influences came from...

DA:O was mostly pre-EA Bioware's baby, though. They'd been developing it for four years before EA swooped in for the last stretch. (You can tell where EA butted in, though. The DLC store/advertisemants in the camp, for instance. That was EA.) DA2? Yes, that was all EA.

I beta tested it. I loved it. Now if only I had the cash to play it.

In fact, I got Skyrim during the open beta, and didn't even install it until the beta was over.

That's because you purchased Battlefield 3, NOT The Old Republic. BF3 requires Origin, SWTOR does not.

EA is also not a terrible company imo, as I've had nothing but good experiences with their support and their games.

And what dev doesn't attach DLC and cut content these days? Your argument is invalid. Choices do matter you fool, the whole end of the game will be different depending on what you pick, you can get Sheppard killed at the end of the game for [censored]s sake.


But thats how Bioware's RPG style is, play any of their original games and you will learn they are not the open world sandbox type.

Same here.

Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 had a lot more content than anything they've put out recently. A lot.


Did you see the link I posted on the first page? If you did and you don't care, that's fine -- we all have our priorities. Might be worth a read if you haven't yet, though.

How many of those games were MMOs?

First off that was from 2004, and as such is outdated.

Secondly, how can you be certain the account is accurate? Beyond the article itself, what other information is there on this situation? Citation from reputable sites would be nice as well. Also, where did this take place? As working standards in the U.S. are different from those in other countries.

Is this the letter from the concerned wife we're talking about? I saw a follow up on that. Most of the workers at EA sued, and EA had to change their overtime policy. So, it happened. I can't give you an exact source of all this (I'm sure google would do) but I saw it all on a video game documentary done by CNBC in a Marketing class.

But, yeah, that supports your "outdated" statement.

I'll also point out that I really don't like EA. They squeeze money out of everything (see: $800 to obtain all ME3 pre-order DLC. Not to mention avoiding customer ease and accessbility by trying to compete with Steam). They're just *too* businessy. The sad thing about that, is a company can only turn a profit if they keep their consumers mostly happy. That means most people are happy with the things EA does, or they just don't care (or will do anything to obtain all the content for game X). EA could still make lots of money if they kept to the same business policy as most other developers and producers, but they want to make only more money. Eh, nothing I can do about it. Business is business.

And refusing to buy EA products isn't going to kill EA. They're massive. One of the largest video game companies on the planet right now. Not to mention a lot of their games focus on casual gamers who couldn't care less about "big bad DRM" and the like because games just aren't their lifestyle.

That is 100% irrelevant, especially when you think of the fact they where trying to stick more closely to the original KOTOR's which where also a more linear "on the rails" style. I said that all of Bioware's RPG's are like that it is their style, not all MMO's are like that. I fail to see your point with this.

So it's irrelevant to expand your game world when going from a single player game to an MMO?

B/c thats the very nature of an MMO....to be big.

Yes....it's bigger, but you already agreed with me that it's not the bigness we are both thinking. So lets get that "Dude, the game is huge LOLLMAOBBQ" out of the way.




Thats like Bioware making a FPS - incorporating everyting RPG about Biowares games - and not shooting in first person and then you saying "But thats irrelevant b/c it's true to the Bioware formula".