Just the Facts Ma’am

So there’s a lot of HURR DURR going on around the greater gaming interwebs that’s pitting WoW against SWTOR for the next big holy shit MMO. Let’s get a few things straight shall we? That’s right girls and boys it’s another World of Warcraft vs Other MMO post! For the record though, I’ll be playing Cataclysm and WoW for that matter until the servers shut down. Of this I’m mostly confident. I’ll be picking up SWTOR with my bros when its released if not a month after and play as the Republic (fuck the Empire)

WoW: Cataclysm

• It’s the chemo to the growing cancer of Warcraft. A complete and radical change of the entire game only Outlands and Northrend will be unscathed.
• The leveling dynamic has been changed dramatically. Game mechanics and stats have been removed or altered significantly. Faction and lore changes are are very sweeping pretty much refacing the entire Warcraft universe from it’s Warcraft III template – (No more Thrall warchief, no more Arthas, no more Illidan, only Malfurion left for the most part and some other elements)
• It will be the same shit as we’ve seen for the past few years in regards to end game progression. Tier 11 > 12 > 13 and so forth most likely just going back to a single digit system.
• It’s the same playerbase that we all love to hate.
• Massive use of phasing is going to make the game world feel more alive. Basically this is not doing away with, but cleaning up as much as possible that feeling in an MMO where you do something and the world isn’t affected by it. Examples of changes, the bridge in Redridge is fixed, the Western Plaguelands are healthy and green again with no plague, Westfall gets destroyed and Sentinel Hill gets burned to the ground, the Zoramgor outpost in Ashenvale is now a fortified Horde port instead of three huts and a flight master.
• The combat is the same though mechanics and player UI for certain classes will be different. In the end though it’s still pretty much more of the same we’ve been getting, which is actually pretty fun and well written gaming that somehow always manages to entertain and soak hours of play time.

Bottom Line: Cataclysm is going to be a huge success. With the experience and new tech that’s been gained over the past half decade the developers are going back to the original game and essentially relaunching the damn thing. Some of the zones I have personally seen are jaw dropping.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

• The different planets look fucking incredible, the environments are stunning and the colors are great.The time line is also damn solid as it takes place significantly earlier than the movies (Ep.1) and the concept itself is really exciting.
• The Star Wars franchise alone pretty much means it’s going to be entertaining with replay value and as always the mega-nerds and unkempt losers of the world are going to take umbrage at certain details but hey, it’s fucking Star Wars what do you expect.
• The playable classes look great and the art direction is really cool. The Bioware guys have this amazing company with incredible talent and EA is feeding them money through an IV non stop to make this game a success.
• Being given the chance to actually grow and develop a character in the Star Wars universe is really awesome. That’s pretty much what made KOTOR so awesome and it’s a formula that still works really well.

However.

I’ve watched all the interviews and devblogs because I really want the game to succeed, but I’m starting to feel some doubt.

We still have n0 idea what kind of game SWTOR is going to be outside of an mmo. The one liner we keep hearing left and right is: You’ll be able to make your character live out a grand story that’s unique to everyone! Outside from one or two combat demos, no significant details of the game have been revealed. We know we get ships instead of traditional mounts or player housing but according to E3 reports and interviews, the ships will be exactly like the Normandy from Mass Effect 2.

So you can talk to the NPC characters in your party… so instead of just humans playing with me I’ll have a crew/squad of NPCs I have to wrangle too. This feels a lot like a single player RPG with multiplayer co-op built in. We know that each class will have at least two different talent trees so specialize into one of two different sub-classes but no real details or roles exist so far.

• Is it going to be PvP or PvE focused, or both?
• What does the end game look like?
• Is there going to be some sort of raiding scene?
• Will PvP be restricted only to the warzones spoken about during E3?
• Are there actually any space battles?
• How will players interact? If we’re “Crafting our own unique grand story!” will we even need to intract with players? Will it be a single player quest-grind?
• Just how much of the galaxy are we going to explore? How extensive is each planet?

Seriously if I can complete the entire story and all the different variations and branches in the story with any character class and such all by myself then what’s the point of the MM in MMO? I mean, the story itself is the big hook from what they’ve been saying since day one. Nothing about gear. Nothing about faction controlling sectors and planets in the war setting, nothing about toppling the Sith or crushing the Jedi.

These aren’t minor mechanic questions – these are questions that shape the ENTIRE GAME. Now if somebody wants to chime in with a link to an interview where one of these questions have been answered, be my guess and I’ll look like a moron. But as it stands, this game has been floating around for a while and we don’t know jack shit other than “YAY STORY!” and classes.

Bottom Line: I am still very excited for the game but in all honesty I’ll probably play a demo before I invest any real time and money into the title. I want this game to succeed greatly I want to experience a true MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER experience in the Star Wars universe. As it stands right now I am very nervous because the details released are extremely vague and what little has been released doesn’t point to an MMO and more towards something like Diablo 2 with Star Wars and a dash of KOTOR.