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« on: June 15, 2012, 12:31:53 PM »
Cross-posted on the Synch and HoJ forums.
There's a fragment of an interview with the SWTOR lead designer hinting that the game may go full free-to-play in the not-so-distant future. I know it's going free up to level 15, but I'm a bit non-plussed by that. Level 15 is about where I started disliking it.
For whatever reason, I've been thinking back on the game of late. I was openly telling people last year that I wanted to substitute SWTOR for WoW, but the game just didn't work out for me. The option of free-to-play lets me reconsider. If I don't have to pay a subscription, can I enjoy the game at a casual pace past its flaws?
I really don't have a clear picture in my head of what went wrong and what it might take to get me interested again, so I figured I'd open the matter for discussion. My thoughts are below.
The Good:
- Its Star Wars. I may not read the novels any more and the prequels were rubbish, but I'm still on good terms with the franchise itself. I've enjoyed the first two seasons of the Clone Wars CGI series and I plan to watch the third season soon.
- Tython and Korriban are both excellent zones. I played through both several times and enjoyed them. The way my Consular came by her lightsaber was completely epic.
- The storylines: good, if a little too unstructured. (See also below.)
- I really enjoyed the space combat missions. I'm sorry I didn't get a ship for my consular.
The Not So Good:
- Elite quests. I forget what they're called in SWTOR. I think Blizzard have it right here. They're aware people just skip them and are building something to compensate for that. They're a legacy of the pre-WoW MMO market and the audience has moved on from them.
- Coruscant and Nar Shadaa. Note that both are city planets. The design of both of these zones completely ticked me off and I didn't get past either. The Cataclysm underwater zone Vashj'ir is a bit of a trial too, but I've actually played it through several times and will probably do so again. Something is really wrong with SWTOR's city zone design for me.
- Chatty quest-givers. I never imagined this would be a bad thing, but it was surprisingly antisocial. Since the social aspect is a big reason that I play MMOs at all, let alone the ones I choose, chatty quest-givers and their funny gestures proved to be a negative.
- The storylines: a little too unstructured. WoW Cataclysm goes too far the other way, but it nevertheless provides some strong contrast. What do I think should have happened? My Sith inquisitor should have arrived on that third planet (whatever it was called), reported to the local Imperial commander and been routed back and forth to junior officer quest-givers. Pretend my inquisitor is attached to that officer's command on temporary assignment while working on the sneaky overall objective. Instead, as I recall, I didn't meet the local commander until about three quarters of the way through the zone. Narrative cohesion doesn't mean a linear quest structure.
- Stupid evil. On more than one occasion I found myself wondering how the hell the Empire functions at all if everyone sits around indulging their sadism. Quite screwing around folks and get on with conquering the galaxy. I know Star Wars is a straight-out good vs evil universe, but when I mass-murder rebels quickly for the sake of efficiency instead of slowly for chuckles I really don't think I should be earning light-side points.
Any feedback on my points? What did and didn't work for you? If you're still playing, how's it going? If you gave up on it, what would it take to entice you back?