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[Belfast]

So I started playing an Imperial Agent. Was probably my least interesting class before but now one of my favorites. Fun class and they have an awesome storyline.

Going to have to respectfully disagree. It's the class I've been playing. It starts off alright and you think you know where things might go with it. About 10-15 hours in, something kind of cool happens (but, like most other "kind of cool" points it happens completely off camera), and then you spend the next 40-60 hours (at least) with no meaningful plot advancement.

The pacing is terrible, and since this is an MMO, I feel like Bioware should've taken that into consideration.

And as I mentioned, when something potentially interesting or cool happens, it almost always happens off-screen. Most of the "cinematic" elements of the game, even during class quests, are relegated to the old Bioware talking-head dialog sequences that have already been brought up in this thread.

 

[EhrgeizVII]

My friend just came home from GamesCom and managed to play the game for about 2,5 hours. He was in line for 45 minutes, but they said it was going to take another couple hours so they started pleasing the fans by throwing stuff into the crowd. He walked up to a Bioware representative and asked them not to throw anything since he walks around with a broken nose and was afraid of someone hitting it. The representative took him to the back and let him play both PvP and PvE content for however long he liked. That's awesome.

He's really hyped about it, too. Told me he was the only one taking about 15 minutes to setup all his keybinds while the rest of the players just clicked their skills. He was able to dominate everyone in the PvP games he played without dying (everyone in our MMO gaming group is/was a hardcore WoW PvP player). His enthusiasm managed to get me hyped a bit more again!

 

[Baller. PhD]

After looking forward to this game for long and spending so much time defending it... damn. I'm officially burnt out. The leveling is too slow. WAY too slow. The quests are all the standard pre-WotLK stuff you've done 1,000 times before. The dialogue at the beginning and end is nice, but most of your time is spent watching your guy travel a billion miles from A to B and then clicking something on the ground or killing X number of Y. Planets are way too big. Quest objectives are way too generic. All in all, nothing about this game feels epic. It doesn't feel like KOTOR with other players -- It feels like vanilla WoW with talking quest givers.

I'm really, really disappointed. I'll probably still keep playing because it's Star Wars... but Guild Wars 2 is looking better and better.

Ugh.

 

[zlatko]

After looking forward to this game for long and spending so much time defending it... damn. I'm officially burnt out. The leveling is too slow. WAY too slow. The quests are all the standard pre-WotLK stuff you've done 1,000 times before. The dialogue at the beginning and end is nice, but most of your time is spent watching your guy travel a billion miles from A to B and then clicking something on the ground or killing X number of Y. Planets are way too big. Quest objectives are way too generic. All in all, nothing about this game feels epic. It doesn't feel like KOTOR with other players -- It feels like vanilla WoW with talking quest givers.

I'm really, really disappointed. I'll probably still keep playing because it's Star Wars... but Guild Wars 2 is looking better and better.

Ugh.

You could totally let me play your beta account.

 

[Hawk269]

And that was my problem with fighting games.

I'm looking forward to Huttball, but unless it does turn into something people think about and use team based techniques, it would be fairly difficult to use strategy to win.

Common thought process is opposing players are going to go after the person with the ball. If the arena's are or arena (if there is only one), if you have a coordinated team, you can tell some people to be in certain spots, as the opposing force tries to go after teh person with the ball they pass it to the designated target.

Just some thoughts...

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

You could totally let me play your beta account.

Seriously. So many people playing in once or twice and then no giving a damn. I want this so freaking badly!! :/

Gimme your beta, people!!

 

[Won]

After looking forward to this game for long and spending so much time defending it... damn. I'm officially burnt out. The leveling is too slow. WAY too slow. The quests are all the standard pre-WotLK stuff you've done 1,000 times before. The dialogue at the beginning and end is nice, but most of your time is spent watching your guy travel a billion miles from A to B and then clicking something on the ground or killing X number of Y. Planets are way too big. Quest objectives are way too generic. All in all, nothing about this game feels epic. It doesn't feel like KOTOR with other players -- It feels like vanilla WoW with talking quest givers.

I'm really, really disappointed. I'll probably still keep playing because it's Star Wars... but Guild Wars 2 is looking better and better.

Ugh.

Sounds negative. You better start running!

 

[Filth]

After looking forward to this game for long and spending so much time defending it... damn. I'm officially burnt out. The leveling is too slow. WAY too slow. The quests are all the standard pre-WotLK stuff you've done 1,000 times before. The dialogue at the beginning and end is nice, but most of your time is spent watching your guy travel a billion miles from A to B and then clicking something on the ground or killing X number of Y. Planets are way too big. Quest objectives are way too generic. All in all, nothing about this game feels epic. It doesn't feel like KOTOR with other players -- It feels like vanilla WoW with talking quest givers.

I'm really, really disappointed. I'll probably still keep playing because it's Star Wars... but Guild Wars 2 is looking better and better.

Ugh.

 

[Belfast]

Seriously. So many people playing in once or twice and then no giving a damn. I want this so freaking badly!! :/

Gimme your beta, people!!

Once or twice? Sounds like he's put in quite a bit of time, and I've put in 60-80, myself. I've submitted a bunch of bug reports.

 

[Giolon]

After looking forward to this game for long and spending so much time defending it... damn. I'm officially burnt out. The leveling is too slow. WAY too slow. The quests are all the standard pre-WotLK stuff you've done 1,000 times before. The dialogue at the beginning and end is nice, but most of your time is spent watching your guy travel a billion miles from A to B and then clicking something on the ground or killing X number of Y. Planets are way too big. Quest objectives are way too generic. All in all, nothing about this game feels epic. It doesn't feel like KOTOR with other players -- It feels like vanilla WoW with talking quest givers.

I'm really, really disappointed. I'll probably still keep playing because it's Star Wars... but Guild Wars 2 is looking better and better.

Ugh.

Hmm...maybe this is what things like beta testing are for - so that feedback can be offered to the devs for improvement instead of posted publicly, breaking the NDA that you signed.

Hmm...

 

[Einbroch]

Hmm...maybe this is what things like beta testing are for - so that feedback can be offered to the devs for improvement instead of posted publicly, breaking the NDA that you signed.

Hmm...

Would you have said anything if he was like "omgthisgameisawesome"? Doubtful. At least he posted why he didn't like it instead of just flaming it after playing for like 3 minutes.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Don't really know whats nda breaking about that

Sounds negative. You better start running!

Oh no they might do something horrible to him, like all the countless other negative people in this thread that no one has done anything about either. Yea run away!

 

[Gvaz]

I absolutely love all the "hey you finished this quest, what did you think" questionnaires that come up because I'm 100% and brutal with them. I Figure it's better to be blunt now while they're still listening to testers instead of the vocal minority later.

 

[Painraze]

It's WoW in space.

It's WoW 1.0 in space. Current WoW is more advanced (game design wise) than TOR in a lot of areas.

 

[Gvaz]

And in quite a few areas TOR is ahead of WoW.

 

[Darklord]

It's WoW 1.0 in space. Current WoW is more advanced (game design wise) than TOR in a lot of areas.

Not really.

 

[Meicyn]

Nothing wrong with a brutal assessment. He's apparently not having any fun, so that's that. It's bitching about petty crap like sunsets and chairs that aggravates people.

 

[Giolon]

Don't really know whats nda breaking about that

The NDA specifically prohibits posting any feedback about the game publicly. Go re-read it, if you're in the beta. If you need, I can PM you the specific section to read.

The Devs have also stated repeatedly the only thing you're allowed to say is

1) There is a beta.
2) You're participating in it.

That's it.

As for the people saying I wouldn't say this if he were saying positive things, that's clearly not true. You can see my posts reminding people of the NDA almost anytime anyone posts any impressions from beta.

The thing is though - these are things that are important to the devs to make the game better. The game is in flux. It's not finished. Things are changing every build and even with smaller patches. Bioware needs feedback on areas that need improved, not people publicly posting things about a game that's still changing weekly.

 

[BattleMonkey]

The only answer is to keep playing WoW.... but in space. The ultimate solution.

Edit: Well countless testers have been posting feedback here, they don't seem to care

 

[Dakota47]

The NDA specifically prohibits posting any feedback about the game publicly. Go re-read it, if you're in the beta. If you need, I can PM you the specific section to read.

The Devs have also stated repeatedly the only thing you're allowed to say is

1) There is a beta.
2) You're participating in it.

That's it.

As for the people saying I wouldn't say this if he were saying positive things, that's clearly not true. You can see my posts reminding people of the NDA almost anytime anyone posts any impressions from beta.

The thing is though - these are things that are important to the devs to make the game better. The game is in flux. It's not finished. Things are changing every build and even with smaller patches. Bioware needs feedback on areas that need improved, not people publicly posting things about a game that's still changing weekly.

Dr. Greg?

 

[Spehornoob]

Really, the only disappointing thing I'm hearing is the slow levelling. That'll bug me plenty. Other than that, I mostly expected "WoW in Space" because that's pretty much what they've always said it would be.

This game and GW2, baby. All over my face.

 

[gillty]

The thing is though - these are things that are important to the devs to make the game better. The game is in flux. It's not finished. Things are changing every build and even with smaller patches. Bioware needs feedback on areas that need improved, not people publicly posting things about a game that's still changing weekly.

Primitive quest design is not going to change three months out from release.

 

[Einbroch]

Funny how when people post good things about the game there isn't an uproar about the NDA. GAF being GAF.

 

[Belfast]

The NDA specifically prohibits posting any feedback about the game publicly. Go re-read it, if you're in the beta. If you need, I can PM you the specific section to read.

The Devs have also stated repeatedly the only thing you're allowed to say is

1) There is a beta.
2) You're participating in it.

That's it.

As for the people saying I wouldn't say this if he were saying positive things, that's clearly not true. You can see my posts reminding people of the NDA almost anytime anyone posts any impressions from beta.

The thing is though - these are things that are important to the devs to make the game better. The game is in flux. It's not finished. Things are changing every build and even with smaller patches. Bioware needs feedback on areas that need improved, not people publicly posting things about a game that's still changing weekly.

Things change, but at this stage of development, it is far too late to change the deeply-rooted problems endemic to the game.

 

[Dinosaur Tamer]

It's WoW 1.0 in space. Current WoW is more advanced (game design wise) than TOR in a lot of areas.

If more advanced is equal to more casual friendly to you.

Nothing wrong with a brutal assessment. He's apparently not having any fun, so that's that. It's bitching about petty crap like sunsets and chairs that aggravates people.

I agree. Still, it's pretty subjective. Personally I don't like how super fast you level in Cataclysm and I prefer huge zones over small ones.

But I also like TBC over Vanilla WoW, Vanilla over Cataclysm and Cataclysm over Lich King. I always felt like World of Warcraft was going downwards after TBC.

 

[Giolon]

Funny how when people post good things about the game there isn't an uproar about the NDA. GAF being GAF.

Go look at my post history over the past 5-10 pages then come back and try to say that.

 

[Baller. PhD]

Things change, but at this stage of development, it is far too late to change the deeply-rooted problems endemic to the game.

Exactly. I still fill out my forms, answer the weekly feedback questions, and provide my own constructive feedback when necessary. There's still time for them to change some of the smaller annoyances, or streamline a few mechanics to make them more fun. That's good. However, there's not enough time for them to completely redesign entire planets or program fresh quest mechanics. Not if they're aiming for 2011. They have enough on their plate already with the bugs and other game systems that aren't quite working yet. At this point they're in the polishing phase.

 

[Einbroch]

Go look at my post history over the past 5-10 pages then come back and try to say that.

Well I've been posting and lurking in this thread since it's been created and when people say things like "The voices are awesome" and "Storm Trooper is really over powered" no one is telling them to stop. Maybe the NDA police are here now but they certainly weren't before.

 

[FieryBalrog]

If more advanced is equal to more casual friendly to you.

Really dude? Nothing about this game suggests there's anything "hardcore" about it. People have reported (see Q&A 15 I posted, for example) that the game is angling squarely for the "even more casual than WoW" crowd with the way dungeons/raids are set up.

There's nothing wrong with that, I just find this hilarious.

 

[BattleMonkey]

What exactly is this questing innovations WoW made in recent years? Because it's the same old quests where you kill shit, or retrieve shit..... presentation improved, but gameplay wise the quests are identical to what everyone else is doing. I played Cat for a while and really didn't see anything really new, again it was just presentation of how you performed your generic mmo questing.

 

[FieryBalrog]

What exactly is this questing innovations WoW made in recent years? Because it's the same old quests where you kill shit, or retrieve shit..... presentation improved, but gameplay wise the quests are identical to what everyone else is doing. I played Cat for a while and really didn't see anything really new, again it was just presentation of how you performed your generic mmo questing.

Isn't that TOR's thing though? Different and more cinematic presentation of the same generic MMO questing? (kill X, collect X, press the lever, retrieve the foozle).

 

[CzarTim]

Isn't that TOR's thing though? Different and more cinematic presentation of the same generic MMO questing? (kill X, collect X, press the lever, retrieve the foozle).

Did someone say otherwise?

 

[sykoex]

I don't even get what people have against the "Kill X" quests. In an MMO I enjoy playing my class and using their various abilities to kill stuff and complete objectives. I hate nothing more than a quest that involves scripted crap where my class abilities don't come into play at all.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Did someone say otherwise?

There are plenty of people saying TOR's quest system is bringing the innovation to the table, yes.

 

[CzarTim]

I don't even get what people have against the "Kill X" quests. In an MMO I enjoy playing my class and using their various abilities to kill stuff and complete objectives. I hate nothing more than a quest that involves scripted crap where my class abilities don't come into play at all.

Agreed.

 

[Spehornoob]

I don't really understand why "casual friendliness" is taken as a negative. Far as I'm concerned, a game like this should absolutely be casual accessible, with depth to find for the hardcore players who search for it. That's my big issue with a steep levelling curve. There's no added "depth" when a level takes five hours to gain rather than when a level takes one. It's just tedious.

A strong feeling of progression is more important than a levelling curve, though. If it feels like each level actually means something important, then I could accept a slow curve.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Isn't that TOR's thing though? Different and more cinematic presentation of the same generic MMO questing? (kill X, collect X, press the lever, retrieve the foozle).

I wouldn't know, I'm not in the beta

There are plenty of people saying TOR's quest system is bringing the innovation to the table, yes.

Really? Whose saying this really? PR talk or something? Seems like most people who have played it or those seeing the videos are not saying "innovation".

 

[Giolon]

Well I've been posting and lurking in this thread since it's been created and when people say things like "The voices are awesome" and "Storm Trooper is really over powered" no one is telling them to stop. Maybe the NDA police are here now but they certainly weren't before.

A lot of people are posting impressions from Gamecom - I have nothing to say about that. They didn't agree to any NDA.

I look at it this way. You've been given a 1 a million chance (almost literally) to test out a pre-release version of a game said millions of people are looking forward to. You also agree not to to post any public feedback about it (i.e. the NDA). What do you do?

Do you stick to your agreement because you have some honor and integrity, help them make the game the best it can be, and try to convince them to change things where you think they've gone wrong?

Or do you say "fuck the NDA, nobody's gonna catch me" - spill all your guts, either trashing the game publicly or hyping it up to the stratosphere? I guess we know.

But, I give up. There's no integrity anymore. Excuse me if I think it's wrong to promise to do something in order to get what you want, then break your promise regardless of consequences.

 

[Giolon]

What exactly is this questing innovations WoW made in recent years? Because it's the same old quests where you kill shit, or retrieve shit..... presentation improved, but gameplay wise the quests are identical to what everyone else is doing. I played Cat for a while and really didn't see anything really new, again it was just presentation of how you performed your generic mmo questing.

People think vehicles and character costumes/temporary abilities are innovative. (which they are, but the core quest framework is still the same - kill X of these get me Y of those).

 

[CzarTim]

There are plenty of people saying TOR's quest system is bringing the innovation to the table, yes.

Anyone remotely familiar with this game wouldn't say that.

 

[Won]

What exactly is this questing innovations WoW made in recent years? Because it's the same old quests where you kill shit, or retrieve shit..... presentation improved, but gameplay wise the quests are identical to what everyone else is doing. I played Cat for a while and really didn't see anything really new, again it was just presentation of how you performed your generic mmo questing.

Turtle punting. I don't thing anymore needs to be said here.

More serious answer. Blizzard really learned how to mix up things properly with minigames and gimmicks. Really helps a lot.

 

[Morn]

People think vehicles and character costumes/temporary abilities are innovative. (which they are, but the core quest framework is still the same - kill X of these get me Y of those).

With Cata, and ESPECIALLY in the Firelands dailies, Blizzard uses the "vehicle" system from WoLK for non-vehicle quests and it really mixes things up and makes it more fun.

 

[Einbroch]

I just want to know if the game is looking good from those who have played it for a while. It's an MMO. Gamescon and it's controlled demos are terrible ways to know how an MMO is.

Integrity be damned.

 

[falastini]

Turtle punting. I don't thing anymore needs to be said here.

More serious answer. Blizzard really learned how to mix up things properly with minigames and gimmicks. Really helps a lot.

They also learned how to streamline the quests. You would travel to quest-hub A, where npcs would give you various objectives to do in a specific area, complete them, then get sent to hub B... rinse/repeat.

In vanilla, quests were scattered all over the place. You would travel across several zones just to complete a handful of quests.

While the change did make questing "funner", it also shrunk the world and removed any sense of exploration.

 

[Giolon]

With Cata, and ESPECIALLY in the Firelands dailies, Blizzard uses the "vehicle" system from WoLK for non-vehicle quests and it really mixes things up and makes it more fun.

I hate the Firelands dailies so badly I quit WoW.

 

[WarMacheen]

With Cata, and ESPECIALLY in the Firelands dailies, Blizzard uses the "vehicle" system from WoLK for non-vehicle quests and it really mixes things up and makes it more fun.

I finished those dailies, they are not fun or mixed up.

I haven't stepped foot in there again and won't unless it's for a raid.

 

[LowParry]

Ya know GAF, I'm proud we haven't gone the ways of putting out GW2 vs SW:TOR shit. It gets so damn old. As for the leveling curve, the longer, the better I say. Though aren't people saying it takes them what, 2 - 3 weeks of play to get to 50? That's not bad at all. Super excited to see what PAX has in store with the PvP planet.

 

[Einbroch]

Ya know GAF, I'm proud we haven't gone the ways of putting out GW2 vs SW:TOR shit. It gets so damn old. As for the leveling curve, the longer, the better I say. Though aren't people saying it takes them what, 2 - 3 weeks of play to get to 50? That's not bad at all. Super excited to see what PAX has in store with the PvP planet.

I'm totally for longer leveling. Hate how it's all a race to the level cap, where the "real game" begins. Gotta make that leveling fun though.

 

[LowParry]

I'm totally for longer leveling. Hate how it's all a race to the level cap, where the "real game" begins. Gotta make that leveling fun though.

As long as we're not seeing levels of Korean grinding, then I'm cool.

 

[Dinosaur Tamer]

Really dude? Nothing about this game suggests there's anything "hardcore" about it. People have reported (see Q&A 15 I posted, for example) that the game is angling squarely for the "even more casual than WoW" crowd with the way dungeons/raids are set up.

There's nothing wrong with that, I just find this hilarious.

If the game is like Vanilla/TBC WoW - as some people here seem to suggest - it's much less casual than Cataclysm.

Also, there are at least three difficulty levels for flashpoints and operations and only the first one is in the beta. Now, if you look at World of Warcraft, back in TBC Heroics were actually hard, while normal difficulty endgame content was already pretty easy. That could be the case in TOR - especially since we know of at least two modes above normal. We don't actually know how those compare to Heroics, but chances are good at least the third one is harder than Cataclysm content.

Anyway you can't really tell the how difficult endgame content is going to be with only the lower 33% (perhaps even less, though that is somewhat unlikely) of the difficulty modes available. And if people compare it to old school WoW it seems to be less casual in some way - apart from encounter difficulty. Not hitting max level within a weekend and huge zones being two examples.