MMO Week in Review: Into the sunset

@Graill440
I don't recall anyone saying it wasn't. Care to provide a link to anyone who did? I mean Lucas didn't extend Galaxies licence therefore could not continue with Galaxies. And of course they wouldn't extend the licence because they would not want 2 Star Wars MMO properties competing with each other. So I don't know what your anger is about in this regard.

@(Unverified)

I highly doubt that SWG would never compete on the same level with a juggernaut like SWTOR. So let's turn the question back to you and ask: In what way would SWG continuation effect Lucas Art's bottom line then?

Keep in mind SWTOR is the 3rd MMO of this IP...in which the F2P Clone Wars Adventures is still actively going to my understanding. It appears Lucas Art's does not have an issue with two or more Star War's based MMO's running at the same time. /shrug

@Utakata Clone Wars is marketed for the cartoon network watching kids/teens though and swtor is marketed for a more mainstream audience as well. I imagine there's more market for "casual" players than there are sandbox players who still know how to use their imagination and creativity.

@Amlin

See, no offense, but I always read/hear some sort of reaason, like you state, that doesn't really mesh well with how I perceive the business end of things.

You may be right, but I am doubting it. Being "marketed to a specific segment" never has entered into LucasArts mind, unless you count "The Phantom Meance" marketed at kids.

From most of my research, it really feels EA (and maybe Bioware) convinced LucasArts to kill SWG, regardless of market, because they did not want any competition. That's a more "sound" business practice because, hey, if I had a restaurant that sold chicken fingers and another restaurant opened selling the same, I'd want them "out of the way", too.

@(Unverified) A lot of hater-types claim that SWG was sunsetted because it sucked, had no players, lost money, deserved to die, was on its last legs, never recovered from the NGE, etc. etc. We get these folks in our comments a lot. And heck even Smedley never actually said that SWTOR killed SWG, but yeah, we can read between the lines and figure out that the chain of events leading to SWG's demise had very little to do with any failings on SWG's part and more with its new sibling. I think Graill was just trying to head off the usual "SWG sucks anyway" types of posts.

@Space Cobra Pre-NGE SWG would might have had enough sandbox features to draw people from the theme park world of TOR, but I don't think the modern SWG would have been much competition for any mmo, especially the new kid. I honestly see SWTOR losing more potential clients to SWG due to name confusion (people hearing about a "SW MMO" and downloading the wrong game) then to honest "which game is better?" competition.

@Miffy So? SWG had it's own share of crap you had to put up with. I hate it when people talk about SWG like it was some great amazing game. It was always a huge disappoint. The idea of SWG may be better than SWTOR as far as MMO world go, but at least SWTOR sets out to what it wants to do and executes it great. Plus, areas are detailed rather than mountains of bland, lifeless hills of a planet.

I'd rather have that than some old game that the devs had no clue what the community wanted.

@Miffy I agree 100%. I love the companion/crafting system. I enjoy the combat and the voice acting is superb. But you cannot ignore how linear it feels. There is no amount of patching that will save that. Now I can say I enjoy the story but am I willing to spend a monthly subscription on it?

For example Star Trek Online is not a game for everyone. .At launch it felt like the game did not have the right to call itself a decent Trek game. But now that Season 5 has released and all the content is amazing. It's Immersive and my ADD can run rampant. With the opening of Open PVP will make the game even much more interesting. Also you have the Foundry which is now full of missions and episodes the community has created. More than a few couple thousand missions you can play and still get gear and experience.

Not to plug the game but after playing TOR for a few hours I got bored and switch to STO. At least my lifetime membership guarantees I wont see a bill ever again.

@Tizmah
I've read Miffy's post three times. Still can't see a single line where SWG was mentioned much less any claims of being better.

@geekcream
Level 15+, a wide open new planet that is less linear than the start planets.

@geekcream

Everything about the game is great, it is the best attempt at this type of game since WoW. There are two things that are killing the game for me more than anything else;

1. How linear it.

It feels like you're on a straight path right the way through the game. If you make an ALT on the same side you'll be doing mostly the same quests and going to the same planets in order. There is no repeatability when rolling the same side, it becomes boring very fast. Even if you make a character on the other side you'll quickly get to the point where you're going to the same planets. There needed to be multiple planets per level range or they needed to mix up the content so you're going back and forth to different planets.

2. How sterile the Planets feel.

There is no voice over work inside the game, it only seems to be in the cutscenes. All the NPCs stand still and hardly animate, they're not on patrol like other MMOs and they don't say something if you click on them, though you cannot click on most. There are loads who are stuck in mid animation forever like ones who are training or gambling. They never finish their animation, they never grunt or anything... it was like Bioware forgot to put the life into the planets. The planets are also not very populated, you'll have massive open areas of nothing and because there are multiple instances of the same zone, you hardly see anyone, I've never seen a zone go above 95 people.

All the animals as well do not make a noise, there only seems to be one type of wildlife on each planet anyways lol. There seems to be a real lack of sound effects too, rivers do not make noises either and waterfalls are silent. All I can work out is they thought they'd get away with it blasting the music constantly.

These things come together to make me bored of the game more than anything else.

@Miffy

"All the animals as well do not make a noise, there only seems to be one type of wildlife on each planet anyways lol."

lolwhat?

Have you even played passed level 5?

@Tizmah Miffy's post isn't saying that SWG is better than TOR rather it's saying that the linearity of SWTOR bores him.

It's a valid complaint, ya SWTOR has interesting enjoyable features like their take on crafting, their companions, and the storyline but none of that make the game any less linear.
Whether or not you like TOR at the end of the day you have to agree it's a pretty damn linear game

Like you said TOR rather than having boring gland generic mountains TOR has put detail into them, however those detailed mountains, cliffs, etc. are the very same ones which are 'protected' by invisible walls.

@Furdinand

Smedly hinted they are working on another sandbox game.

@Yellowdancer

I saw that, and am taking some comfort from it. Smedley also noted that SOE will focus on its own IP from now on, rather than licensed IP like SW. (Which, of course, is just more evidence that it was LA that killed SWG).