SWTOR

[luckton]

They might drop the NDA just to counter blizzcon  

I actually wouldn't put it past them.

 Edit: IGN is releasing their load now on pc.ign.com

[Zetor]

This Massively article is not entirely positive... and rags on it a lot about the 'WOW in space' thing. I'm sure everyone is shocked and appalled.  

edit: there's also a much more positive preview

[Shatter]

That first Massively article...the writer is a moron. 

[Sky]

But the NDA is still in place for testers.

I dunno, hopefully the press would be more professional in understanding the ramifications of commenting on a beta product.

Wait....ok, now I'm done laughing, sorry.

The crap a lot of the "testers" have been writing has been at the level of official forum troll griping, mostly. And a LOT of them don't seem to have much of a grasp on mmo in general, let alone the vagaries of TOR, which certainly has a different style than other mmo. So while you might get some good post-NDA info here, there's going to be an overwhelming amount of utter crap disinforming the general public.

[Sky]

This Massively article is not entirely positive... and rags on it a lot about the 'WOW in space' thing.

If that's not exactly the ringing endorsement you were hoping for, consider the source. I'm a sandbox guy, and rarely titillated by MMOs that stick to the straight and narrow.

F13 wouldn't have me review Diablo 3, ffs; or better yet Starcraft 2. Or Hainogaijinsuck: No Ima Chopee or whatever the hell jrpg. Honestly, the sheer amount of SWG vets whining about things in TOR not being like SWG is deplorable.

For those of us who realize that MMOs were meant to be more than casual combat games, though, I'm afraid Sir Alec Guinness said it best when he said this is not the MMO we're looking for.

What a self-righteous cunt.

[eldaec]

Wait, f13 has people review things?

Also, stop reading the output of gaming journalists. It is only going to upset you.

[Nebu]

Please stop calling them "journalists".  Most are anything but.   

[Simond]

I suspect due to holiday issues and the general trickle-in of players I expect us to have we're going to be stuck wherever we land, for better or for worse.

Odds of goons picking an RP server seem pretty low in any case.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/guild/defias-brotherhood/Ye%20Olde%20Goone%20Squade/
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/guild/defias-brotherhood/Goon%20Squad/

Guess what type of server Defias Brotherhood is. Go on, guess. 

[Ingmar]

Oh sure, but I am talking about the massive "we have to have 8 guilds on this server because we broke the character limit" type goon presence. They only needed 2 there, that's nothing. 

[Murgos]

Guess what type of server Defias Brotherhood is. Go on, guess. 

I don't think Bioware has confirmed 'RP' servers yet.

Goon Squad is Republic PVE this time around but they are dwarfed membership wise by Star Fleet Dental (~3:1).  For what it's worth I'll be running around with a Goon Squad tag.  I've found that I like being part of very large, no commitment guilds that still manage to have enough going on to do things now and then.

Listening to the wind blow in the Bat Country chat channel got old fast in EQ2.

[Nevermore]

Was it really necessary for EA/Bioware to have 3 separate accounts that are necessary for SWTOR?  Oh, they *claim* you can synch up the EA Master account, the Origins account and the actual SWTOR account, but it's proving to be completely impossible to do so.  Whoever started this fucking retarded trend of making the email address the account name should be drawn, quartered and set on fire.

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/20/hands-on-the-old-republic-part-one/

[Draegan]

There are some good "reviews" out there, and by good I mean that they give out decent information and are decently balanced.  Writing quality will vary.

RPS is a good one, and IGN has some good reviews that dish out some details on crafting etc.

The press was able to speak about things up to a certain level, which was around level 18-20 or so.  So you'll get a bunch of low level and beginning mid-level content.

edit:
This one is decent: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9186-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Hands-On

[luckton]

Ars Technica has a preview up as well.

After reading all of these, what I said above holds true.  Nobody in their right mind is gonna bad talk this game.  That said, those that tried were either idiots or were trying too hard to find a problem, which to me means that maybe we really do have a good game on our hands here.

[Nebu]

After reading all of these, what I said above holds true.  Nobody in their right mind is gonna bad talk this game.  That said, those that tried were either idiots or were trying too hard to find a problem, which to me means that maybe we really do have a good game on our hands here.

We're not allowed to have good things.  What will we post about outside of the Politics forums?

[Merusk]

Boobs, asses and beer.

[AcidCat]

I've found that I like being part of very large, no commitment guilds that still manage to have enough going on to do things now and then.

Sums up my thinking as well, Starfleet Dental here. I'm sure I'll make an Empire character too but no idea where he'll end up.

[Ingmar]

Guess what type of server Defias Brotherhood is. Go on, guess. 

I don't think Bioware has confirmed 'RP' servers yet.

They certainly gave it to us as a server type to sign up for for guild placement.

[Mrbloodworth]

3 separate accounts

Really?


.............................. 

[Ingmar]

I just have the one. It does seem to be separate from my Bioware Community account or whatever, but that one also seems to have nothing to do with SWTOR.

[Mrbloodworth]

Well, multi accounts is a pet peeve of mine. Seems you need 4 with two emails just to take a shit recently.

[Lantyssa]

Thankfully I have a domain where I can create unlimited number of email accounts.

[Sjofn]

I have just the one login? I didn't even have to do anything special to make it work that way, I don't think. I've had an account with the EA downloading shit for ages though.

[Sky]

I've only used one account to play the game.

Making the account name your email address does need to go die in a corner, though.

[luckton]

God I need to stop reading these previews....getting too hyped up 

[Crumbs]

For those of us who realize that MMOs were meant to be more than casual combat games, though, I'm afraid Sir Alec Guinness said it best when he said this is not the MMO we're looking for.

a) That is a hella inaccurate quote.

b) Aw man Bloodworth got demoted?

[Sheepherder]

It's not much of a demotion.

[lamaros]

There are some good "reviews" out there, and by good I mean that they give out decent information and are decently balanced.  Writing quality will vary.

RPS is a good one, and IGN has some good reviews that dish out some details on crafting etc.

If RPS was a good one then I can pretty safely say that this game is not for me. I'm more excited to clip my toenails than to get anywhere near TOR.

[caladein]

The RPS staff and commentators don't generally like MMOs but John Walker's piece is pretty fair: it's a modern Diku, it's a modern BioWare RPG, it appears mostly competent at being both.

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, it is a modern DIKU MMO.  Spam your attacks, wait for cooldown, rinse and repeat.  If you loathe that formula, then you should probably not play MMOs anyway. 

What SWTOR has that the game it accuses of copying doesn't have:

- Looks pretty nice (if you can handle the art style)...I was actually expecting it to look like shit, but it doesn't at all.
- Sounds freaking awesome
- Voice acting is very good
- The quests are faaaaaaar more interesting.  No contest.  Somebody finally put the RP back in RPG.
- Companions

Really, the only reason I can see people not wanting to play this game is if they are just too sick and tired of the DIKU formula, or if they just fucking hate Star Wars.  We can (and will!) nitpick the shit out of what they could've and should've done differently, but there's no doubt in my mind at this point that Bioware (Austin!) has basically accomplished what they set out to do.

[Mosesandstick]

But once things kick off, and you’ve got ten quests down the right side of the screen and six different people pissed off at you for something, four flashpoints available for when you find someone else to play with, and have I mentioned, two lightsabres, it’s jolly hard not to want to keep going for more.

Four flashpoints at a low level? He's talking about group quests isn't he?

[luckton]

But once things kick off, and you’ve got ten quests down the right side of the screen and six different people pissed off at you for something, four flashpoints available for when you find someone else to play with, and have I mentioned, two lightsabres, it’s jolly hard not to want to keep going for more.

Four flashpoints at a low level? He's talking about group quests isn't he?

That's one of the annoying things I'm finding with BW's take on MMOs...they can't just use terminology that we're all already familiar, no, we have to go and create a whole new language to confuse people with.

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, Flashpoints are group quests.  It isn't really a problem with the different terminology.  The first time you run across one, you are instantly aware of what the deal is.

[koro]

Flashpoints are the equivalent of WoW 5-man dungeons. The quote from the article is accurate and means what it says.

[eldaec]

Every mmog ever makes up new names for the same shit. Taskforces, supergroups, linkshells, battlegrounds, scenarios, souls, jobs, auras, neural remapping, wardrobe, appearance tab, LFD, same old shit, different name.