Meh, I think I’m going to flip my CE instead of using my retail code. I like the fact that I’ve had early access, but I’ve only been interested enough to play about 8 hours and get a character up to level 6 or so – I just don’t think it’s my type of game.
That said, I respect the story aspects a great deal – in fact, as much as I think subscription TV has supplanted movies in many respects (i.e. HBO, etc. has shows that are better than most movies, and offer a different type of creative freedom), I think that a story-driven MMO like this is analogous-- i.e rather than the concentrated 30 hour story of Mass Effect, an MMO like this allows you to tell a 300 hour+ story from many different perspectives - rather than stick with core themes and narrative moments, you get to develop “side players” like Imperial Agents, etc. and give them focus and engagement which you couldn’t afford to offer in a shorter, more restrictive narrative. So I think just like “TV are the new Movies” – “Story-driven MMOs are the new narrative MMOs.” I think if you’re a big fan of Mass Effect, etc., you would probably really enjoy this game.
I do like the Mass Effect games, but so many other things bother me about this game. I don’t like the MMO conventions, most notably, but also don’t like the cartoonish Clone-Wars style graphics, still needing groups for missions, the quickly respawning enemies, the emphasis on loot, the lack of mouselook controls, the lack of interactive objects, no 3D objects, the aggro/conning systems that diminish exploration, etc. – even though those things are handled better than in many MMOs, they’re still genre conventions that annoy me. Most of the occasions I’ve died it’s been because of enemies that have respawned either because other players had cleared them out so I didn’t realize that I was entering a respawn zone, or because I was trying to do what I enjoy most about RPGS - explore and enjoy the sights, without being pressed to advance or move to certain areas.
I just would rather spend my time playing Skyrim, which just offers a much more detailed, interactive environment – or so many of the other great games this year: Dark Souls, Witcher 2, Deus Ex 3, as well as the big hits from other genres that I think I’d enjoy but haven’t played: Batman Arkham City, Dead Island, Gears of War 3, etc. Everything that MMO regulars focus on…kinda bothers me, and certainly doesn’t interest me in the least. I don’t care about the most effective DPS/direct damage builds, etc., I don’t care about guild support, the server chat annoys the hell out of me even on RP Servers since it completely takes people out of their characters, the focus on online guides/cheats to find items, the completely barren environments other than a few creatures, etc. – Frankly, I prefer SWG, as at least I could have my own personalize RPG experience mining and exploring worlds, etc.
I haven’t really played an MMO since 2004 when I played WoW on initial release, and a lot more of City of Heroes – thought about playing Conan Online and Lord of the Rings Online, and Rift (especially for its dynamic aspects) which at least marginally interested me — but I held out for SWTOR because of the story-driven gameplay, space combat, companions, etc, which I thought would remedy most of the problems I have with the genre…but after playing for 8 hours or so I already feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome, as the game just feels very similar to the games that I abandoned back in the early 2000s.
Again, that all said, I think it’s an amazing achievement to produce such a content-filled, polished game, and think EA/BioWare deserve all the success they’ll likely get from this title. But I’m just kinda relieved to shelf it and walk away from the genre again, likely forever.
