Starting SWTOR, Abandoning SWTOR

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I've said in the past that one of the only things that would get me into SWTOR is if they made it possible to only play the story while ignoring the grind.  About a week after I said that on Twitter one of my friends pointed me to the announcement that all storyline missions would get a 12 times experience boost starting May 4th for the summer.

So I had to try it out.

I was immediately drawn in by the Star Wars aesthetics.  I love the universe and the lore so much.  And then I was almost as immediately let down by the MMO-ness of the game.

Apparently all my time with Final Fantasy XIV had tricked me into thinking that I enjoyed the MMO genre again.  That's not true.  I like Final Fantasy XIV, but it does a lot of things that separate it from the rest of the genre.  SWTOR doesn't do anything like that.  It just has the Star Wars IP going for it.

I tried to just play it like a single player game.  I did love the original Knight of the Old Republic single player game and this is supposed to be a true follow-up to it.

I got a Bounty Hunter to 25 before giving up on the character.  The story wasn't grabbing me and the planets I was on were very dull and uninteresting.

I asked some people I trust on Twitter about other class quests and I decided to give Sith Warrior a shot.  It was much more fun!  I liked the story a lot more than the Bounty Hunter, but after getting the Sith Warrior into the mid-20s the MMO-ness of the game wore on me too much.  I couldn't do it anymore.

So I'm done.  I gave SWTOR a good try.  I got two separate classes over a third of the way through their individual class quests and the game still didn't hook me.

Now I know that Final Fantasy XIV is an exception when it comes to MMOs for me.  Not the rule.  This makes me much less likely to try going back to other MMOs in the future.  Instead, I'll bide my time waiting for the Final Fantasy XIV expansion to come out.  At least now I know.

Comments

  1. AywrenMay 15, 2015 at 12:50 PM

    There's nothing wrong with trying out a game just to see what the experience is like. I did that, actually, with WoW last year. Simply because I'd never given WoW a try (since the early vanilla years), and I wanted a frame of reference for the experience. I didn't stick with it (not going to play another sub game alongside of FFXIV), but I learned a lot and don't regret the experience!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VoidMay 15, 2015 at 4:48 PM

      I don't regret my time with SWTOR at all. Now it's not a big question mark in my mind. I know what it is and I know it's not for me. I can move on and not worry about it. I'm glad I spent a few weeks with it!

      Delete
  2. ChestnutMay 26, 2015 at 9:58 AM

    I just subbed-up for SWTOR yesterday... It's... okay. I'm enjoying the story, and the idea of romancing a companion sounds neat (I've surprisingly never played a BioWare game before). However, even with a sub, I feel like I'm being nickled-and-dimed. It's kind of ridiculous. I do plan to use a sub to get to max level to help cut out a lot of the grind, but not sure how much I'll play after.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VoidMay 26, 2015 at 12:38 PM

      Probably my biggest issue with the game is that I have played so many Bioware games before. I know how good their single player games can be, and this feels like a watered down version of that.

      If you end up enjoying the story elements, character development, and romance options I would highly suggest checking out their single player games once you're done with SWTOR. You won't be disappointed.

      Delete

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