TERA opens the door for beta sign-ups [Updated]

@Equillian

Why 35?

@Equillian Do you realize that amounted to 50 cents in US dollars for what they paid in Korea to beta test it? It wasn't 35 dollars US

@Equillian
You guys should realise that http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/28/teras-japanese-beta-test-to-shrink-by-66/ was wrong, and thus updated.

@Ganathar

Surely I can't be expected to read the same article several times a day.

Thanks for the update.

@Laren your statement makes no sense

@Xo1o

ok. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

@Laren The gameplay is live action with open world. If you like that more instead of WoW's gameplay, you'll like this.

@Laren

You seem to be assuming that SWTOR, with its voiced cutscenes and interactive dialog will be a runaway success. While its true that early results are positive, its still far to early to tell how that system will fair in the long run.

One negative I can think of off the back is re-rolling and instance repetition. With a quest box, I can click accept and roll on. With cutscenes requiring player responses, you're SOL when it comes to speeding up the process. That will seriously drag in the long run. Its a great idea in theory, but I my opinion thinks that its not going to pan out in the long run, and unfortunately for Bioware, MMOs are all about longevity and player retention.

@Apakal I can put my two cents in here. I PERSONALLY (this is my opinion, don't kill me -__-) got sick and tired of SWTORs cutscenes. Unless it was my class story. The side quest stories are pretty boring for me. I just skip them. Most of the time I see a new mission, I don't even want to click on it because I'll be forced to spacebar through it. I understand full that this game might not be for me but that's just like...my opinion, man.

@Grumms & @Apakal

I agree swtor isn't perfect. I do disagree a bit with the re-play value (I'm itching to re-roll the same character but play a dark side, for example), but I understand it certainly isn't for everyone. Those people who only want to PVP or run instances have to somehow get through all the cut scenes to do that. I get that.

All I'm saying is, there is definitely a group of us who like the Lore, Story, and Leveling up experience. Any new mmo that comes out with the typical XP bar/quest to level up paradigm probably needs to look at the new reality.

It is perfectly acceptable for them to say "meh, the players we want won't read the story anyways, so who cares"... and that's fine. But then one would wonder why they'd bother with Lore at all. Just add generic content and move on.

@Laren

I don't disagree that there's a need and a desire for new and innovative formats within the industry and that Lore-lovers play a significant role in the community. That's very true.

There are a slew of possible alternatives and developers are just starting to test the waters of alternate formats. SWTOR will be a good trial. We'll see what happens in 6 months. Hopefully TSW will offer some new insight into the query and GW2 will provide another example. At that point I imagine there will be some healthy competition and a lot of new ideas emerging, which is nothing but good.

But at the same time, games shouldn't be judged on singular aspects. A game like SWTOR brings in a more immersive questing experience at the cost of a more traditional combat experience. Conversely, TERA offers a more dynamic combat experience in the framework or traditional MMO structure. Both have their pros and cons, and its ultimately up to the player which system they enjoy the most, which I think we can both agree is only beneficial to the players.

@Apakal another oft forgot issue with voiced cutscene quests is the time it takes to add content. Adding 40 dailies takes a lot more work when each one needs voice work, model work, animation, translation (and translated voice/lip sync)...

@Grumms Yep the game wasn't for you.

@apakal I don't understand this complaint about rerolling. First of all, you reroll in other games and no one seems to find it that big of a deal. If you happen to have made that horrible mistake and pickd the wrong adv. class then it'll take you two tough hours maybe to start fresh with a new one. I wish they would unlock that just to shut ppl up about it.

I'm at lvl 36 and because of all the stuff there is to do on the first 3 planets, I have skipped 2 and maybe even a third planet for all but my class content because I outleveled it. I look forward to doing it with an alt.

@Laren Just because you enjoy the way SWTOR does things, does NOT mean that a lot of us are not enjoying the SWTOR way of things. Cutscenes as SWTOR does it, get old after a while and extremely diminish replay value of the game. As in ALL MMOs are about replay value with alts for longevity of the game.

Do not lump your views and say that is what everyone believes.

@(Unverified) Too much content for one character. Alts will have plaenty to do. Different story lines and such. I don't know how many alts you plan on making. Even still I would say do you just fast forward through the scenes of a movie. That's what I liken this experience to.

@Laren

What new reality is that? You do realize that despite having fully voiced dialog, you're still doing the same ol' thing. Go here and kill 10 of these. Go here and flip this switch. Go here, retrieve this item and bring it back to me. Do all of this while I give you some half-assed justification as to why you're my errand boy!

To be honest, the only time I sat back and thought; "Man, this feels like KOTOR!" was during my class quests. Unfortunately, those quests are too few and far between for my liking.

It's the same shit with an enhanced wrapper. Riveting.

@Grumms +1 internets for a Big Lebowski reference.