Post by Morreion on Feb 23, 2010 8:55:31 GMT -5
The Digital Continuum: Fears and opinions (Massively)
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Please Save Us From Ourselves (Gamasutra)
To me, the concerns about SWTOR are fascinating. SWTOR is probably the most-anticipated upcoming title in the MMO world, but there is more anxiety around it than any other unreleased game that I remember. The question has come up- will it even be an MMO? This tells me that the current state of the MMO world is one of near-crisis proportions. So many big titles have failed to live up to their hype in this post-WoW world that players are really worried that the genre as a whole might be a bust. The secret fear may be that it will take years of playing to realize that the genre has been unsatisfying.
I admit that I have that fear myself.
Looking across this entire list, you'll immediately see the big hitters. Most of the people in this thread are worried about Star Wars: The Old Republic making heavy use of instanced zones. A lot of the time, people referenced Cryptic Studios games and Funcom's Age of Conan. This is mostly a matter of preference, but I will mention that not many people were worried about the opposite -- that the game would be too heavily open in zone design.
Close behind the instance issue are the fears of bad PvP, end-game content and solo focus. These are the usual suspects when it comes to worries about an upcoming MMO -- especially the content one. Also high on the list and related to these worries is the fear of invisible walls being littered throughout SWTOR.
Now, I know you see the "Too much like WOW" fear up there but I'm skipping that one, for the moment.
Close behind the instance issue are the fears of bad PvP, end-game content and solo focus. These are the usual suspects when it comes to worries about an upcoming MMO -- especially the content one. Also high on the list and related to these worries is the fear of invisible walls being littered throughout SWTOR.
Now, I know you see the "Too much like WOW" fear up there but I'm skipping that one, for the moment.
5 Won't live up to personal expectations
Hey! Look at that. Some people are openly admitting they think BioWare can't live up to their expectations. If that isn't setting yourself up for disappointment, then I don't know what is. Imagine if all these people had expected from WoW-at-launch what the game is today, or even a couple years after launch? They'd be terribly unsatisfied, just like they're going to be with just about every MMO until they lower expectations a little and embrace the roughness that is an MMO at launch.
Finally, the last fear and easily the winner of that entire thread:
1 "Bioware is catering to everyone and in doing so they end up making a great game to nobody." - DinesanDK
Exactly. Personally, I'm not entirely positive or negative when it comes to SWTOR or any upcoming game for that matter. Right now, it's just best to reserve our fears or hopes in the back of our minds and focus on other things. BioWare shouldn't listen to any of us right now, because they're the ones making the game. If for some reason you don't like what they make, you don't have to buy it. Spend your hard-earned money elsewhere. Perhaps you should buy an online shooter, perhaps not.
My point is this: We all have fears and we all have opinions. The only fact involved in this matter is that none of that really matters. If a developer makes a game we like then we play it and enjoy ourselves. At that point, the developers could listen to their community of people who're enjoy the game as it was designed. They could also try some ideas of their own because, you know, they're videogame designers by profession. But before launch? None of our opinions on what SWTOR should or shouldn't have really matter. Thinking as much would be like emailing J.K. Rowling and informing her how you'd have liked the Harry Potter series to end.
Hey! Look at that. Some people are openly admitting they think BioWare can't live up to their expectations. If that isn't setting yourself up for disappointment, then I don't know what is. Imagine if all these people had expected from WoW-at-launch what the game is today, or even a couple years after launch? They'd be terribly unsatisfied, just like they're going to be with just about every MMO until they lower expectations a little and embrace the roughness that is an MMO at launch.
Finally, the last fear and easily the winner of that entire thread:
1 "Bioware is catering to everyone and in doing so they end up making a great game to nobody." - DinesanDK
Exactly. Personally, I'm not entirely positive or negative when it comes to SWTOR or any upcoming game for that matter. Right now, it's just best to reserve our fears or hopes in the back of our minds and focus on other things. BioWare shouldn't listen to any of us right now, because they're the ones making the game. If for some reason you don't like what they make, you don't have to buy it. Spend your hard-earned money elsewhere. Perhaps you should buy an online shooter, perhaps not.
My point is this: We all have fears and we all have opinions. The only fact involved in this matter is that none of that really matters. If a developer makes a game we like then we play it and enjoy ourselves. At that point, the developers could listen to their community of people who're enjoy the game as it was designed. They could also try some ideas of their own because, you know, they're videogame designers by profession. But before launch? None of our opinions on what SWTOR should or shouldn't have really matter. Thinking as much would be like emailing J.K. Rowling and informing her how you'd have liked the Harry Potter series to end.
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Please Save Us From Ourselves (Gamasutra)
Ray Muzyka said that quests are never about collecting rats' testicles, they're focused in a narration: this is revolutionary. A normal WoW-clone player needs a quest that's sufficiently generic, vague, mindless, because what's important is the equipment at the end. Remember HEllgate:London, made by probably the inventor of the WoW drug-system? Quests are all about collecting kills and objects, that game is scandalous because the "story" in it shamelessly doesn't even try to justify WHY WOULD the character EVER care about doing those errands, the NPCs just see you and ask you to do things... and the tasks are left purposely repetitive and vague so that you may NEVER EVER loose sight of the real meta-goals, which are the one we cited above(gear, power, ever-growing).
Doesn't it sound like a porphiric addicted person, roaming the streets of nightly downtown Paris, doing no matter what to "feel happy" again? Ouch, see, i'm digressing again. Let's rush to the point, i'll write as a junkie plays: If the quest in TOR itself is ruled by narration, and because of its enlightened dispotism(see Communism), you MUSt follow it or you're in trouble, the player's obsessive object of his uncontrolled dribbling dreams is pulverized. What does story do in a game, especially in a MMO?
1) it finally kills meta-gaming. HAVING to follow story means, willing or not, you have to think as the character thinks.
2) Story being paramount now dominates gear&power. You will still enjoy bracing your new penis... i mean rifle... i mean penis, but loot and level-cap obsession will not tyrannize your mind anymore, the usurper of Otranto is being dethroned.
Doesn't it sound like a porphiric addicted person, roaming the streets of nightly downtown Paris, doing no matter what to "feel happy" again? Ouch, see, i'm digressing again. Let's rush to the point, i'll write as a junkie plays: If the quest in TOR itself is ruled by narration, and because of its enlightened dispotism(see Communism), you MUSt follow it or you're in trouble, the player's obsessive object of his uncontrolled dribbling dreams is pulverized. What does story do in a game, especially in a MMO?
1) it finally kills meta-gaming. HAVING to follow story means, willing or not, you have to think as the character thinks.
2) Story being paramount now dominates gear&power. You will still enjoy bracing your new penis... i mean rifle... i mean penis, but loot and level-cap obsession will not tyrannize your mind anymore, the usurper of Otranto is being dethroned.
To me, the concerns about SWTOR are fascinating. SWTOR is probably the most-anticipated upcoming title in the MMO world, but there is more anxiety around it than any other unreleased game that I remember. The question has come up- will it even be an MMO? This tells me that the current state of the MMO world is one of near-crisis proportions. So many big titles have failed to live up to their hype in this post-WoW world that players are really worried that the genre as a whole might be a bust. The secret fear may be that it will take years of playing to realize that the genre has been unsatisfying.
I admit that I have that fear myself.
