Overview
Play Star Wars: The Old Republic and forge your own Star Wars saga in a story-driven MMO game from Bioware and LucasArts. Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy.

Choose to be a Jedi, a Sith, or from a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, and make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions. Together, you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat and team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges.

The Setting
The Old Republic takes place 300 years after the KOTOR games, after the Jedi Civil War which took place following the Mandalorian War. The Sith Empire sat on the outer reaches of space, waiting for a time when the Republic was unstable and weak. It was then that the Sith Empire, not the Darth Revan or Malek Sith of recent years but the 'True' Sith, launched a full-scale invasion of the Galactic Republic. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant.

The game itself takes place during a time after the signing of the Treaty where the ceasefire is coming to an end due to an increase in open hostilities between Sith and Republic forces.

Player Classes - Republic

Trooper

Vanguard (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Ranged Tanking)

Commando (Roles: Mid - Long Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

Smuggler

Gunslinger (Roles: Mid - Long Range Damage Dealing, wields dual pistols)

Scoundrel (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Healing, wields scatter gun)

Jedi Knight

Jedi Sentinel (Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing. wields dual Lightsabers)

Jedi Guardian (Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing, Tanking. wields a single Lightsaber)

Jedi Consular

Jedi Shadow (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)

Jedi Sage (Roles: Mid-Long Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

Player Classes - Sith Empire

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

PowerTech (Roles: Mid - Long Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)

Sith Warrior

Sith Marauder (Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing. wields dual Lightsabers)

Sith Juggernaut (Roles: Close Range Damage Dealing, Tanking. wields a single Lightsaber)

Imperial Agent

Sniper (Roles: Mid - Long Range Damage Dealing)

Operative (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

Sith Inquisitor

Sith Assassin (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)

Sith Sorcerer (Roles: Mid-Long Range Damage Dealing, Healing)

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Companion Characters

Similar to other Bioware RPGs and the previous KOTOR games, even though this is an MMO, the game will feature Companion Characters. A companion is an NPC you meet during your journey through the game who has decided to take up your cause and follow you. Companion types follow the same basic character/class archetypes as the player character classes. Thus there are Tank/Healer/DPS companions. You can only have 1 companion character with you at a given time. While they do not have their own inventory space, companion characters have all of the same standard equipment slots a player has. Thus, you can equip your companion with the gear of your choosing assuming they're able to use it. Inactive companions take up residence in your personal spaceship.

Currently, Companion characters are unable to be used in PVP Warzones and PVE Raids however they are useable in Flashpoints to a limited degree. If you don't have a full party (of 4) 1 player can pull out a Companion to take that 4th slot. While the Companion AI will never full replace a real person, the idea behind this is to augment a missing DPS player. Current theory is that you wouldn't want to use them to either tank of heal.

Romance options will apparently be available, similar to other how Bioware deals with Companions in other games.

It has also been revealed the Companions are the focus point of the Crafting system, see Crafting Below...

Player Spaceships (Housing)

At some point during your character's journey (in most cases, when leaving their "Seed Planet"), your character will undergo a quest for a personal spaceship. These ships are designed to have multiple functions. Sadly, the ship you get is not one you get to choose...it is predetermined based on your class. One is the act as a player house, which you are able to add decorations and other personal elements to. Another function is as a place for your companion characters to hang out while you aren't using them. The third, but not final, function of your ship is to be used as your primary means of traveling from one planet to another in the game. Recently added to the list of features for the player ship is that Crafting Stations/Workbenches will be on-board the ship making it more convenient to craft.

Player Spaceships (Combat)

Players will be able to engage in space combat using their personal ships in "Hot Spot" zones throughout the galaxy. Much to the dismay to supernerds, the space combat is not a fully fledged Space/Flight Simulator. The space combat engine looks more like a combination of the old Rebel Assault Games + Star Fox (Yes, I just went there). On-Rails Shooter, Tunnel Shooter, Track-Shooter...call it what you want. Not a vastly large amount of details exist at the moment on exactly how space combat will be integrated into the rest of the game, but from the offset most of it looks as-though it is a kind of mini-game.

PvP

Much like all MMOs, PvP will be available in game in different forms. Warzones will be their version of Battlegrounds, open world PvP will exist on PvP servers as well as open world PvP "lakes" on PvE servers.

New to MMO PvP is a Resolve Bar. This is a bar on the UI which will fill up as Crowd Control are used on a target. Once the bar is full, the target is immune to CC. Basically what this does is give you a visual representation of diminishing returns, instead of having to guess if someone is immune.

Tank characters have access to a "Guard" ability. Currently, this ability lets a tank class select a specific ally and absorb 50% of that ally's damage so long as they remain within 15m. This was added to give the last side of the trinity a place within PVP.

Warzone maps include power-up scattered in key locations that refresh regularly. Observed power-ups include Increased Speed, Increased Damage, and Healing.

You can receive at least four different rewards for PvP: Valor, Tokens, Experience, and Credits.

Valor is basically similar to Warhammer Online's Renown Rank.

PVP gear will come with a "PVP Stat." This stat will increase a character's damage, damage absorption, and healing effectiveness specifically in PVP. It was stated that PVP gear will be, at most, 10% better for PVP then comparable PVE gear. This limit is in place to give PVP focused players a boost while still letting non-PVPers compete.

The Voiceover Announcer will behave similar to games like UT2000 or LoL, where it will say things like "X Player is Unbeatable".

Crafting

Using their ship as a base of operations, players will be able to send their companions on crafting tasks, and particular companions excelling at specific duties.

Gathering - Bio Analysis, Slicing, Underworld Trading, ?, ?
Crafting - Artifice, Biochem, Synthweaving, Armortech, Armstech, Cybertech, ?
Mission - Diplomacy, Treasure Hunter, Archeology, ?

This Crew Skill system will be divided into three majors groups: Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. We were given two examples for each major group: Gathering will be comprised of jobs like Bio Analysis and Slicing, Crafting includes Artificer and Bio Chem, and lastly Missions will involve activities such as Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting.

Companions utilizing Diplomacy can spread influence and change morality alignment points, while those seeking Treasure may find rare items based on a random number generator. The Bio Analysis example illustrated a logical dependence of gathered material to create a crafted item; using the skill on a dead creature produces components for use in creating stimpaks as a crafted item in Biochem. They also mentioned in passing that crafting would be a key part of their yet unannounced Auction House system.

Grouping - Small Group Instances/Flashpoints

Normal group size was revealed at E3 to be up to 4 players, enabling a group to have 1 of each archetype. Group play is also supported by companion characters, to a limited degree (as detailed above). Small group instances are called 'Flashpoints', where players will go through a story/combat situation resulting in exp/money/loot. Flashpoints change based on how players go through dialogue options with the NPCs in the instances.

Grouping - Large Group Raids/Operations

Nothing is known about raiding in detail as of now aside from them calling raids "Operations" and the first being a place called The Eternity Vault. The only information has been that Bioware feels that 25 (or more) players versus 1 mob is not epic nor does it fit into the Star Wars universe. Raid size has also not been detailed.

Closed Beta/Open Beta/Release Date

The game is currently in Closed Beta Testing. No date has been set for when Closed Beta will end and Open Beta will begin. The projected release date of the game is sometime in 2011. If you have not by now, to register for Beta you need to create an account at the website and do a small scan of your system.

Important Links
http://www.swtor.com/
http://darthhater.com/
http://www.swtor-life.com/
http://www.massively.com/tag/star-wars- ... -republic/

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Character Sheet
(info subject to change at any time...known info comes from the characters playable during the TOR demo at E3/PAX/Gamescom)
Stats:
Strength - Value Unknown Currently
AIM - Modifies Critical Chance
Endurance - Value Unknown Currently
Cunning - Modifies Bonus Damage
Willpower - Value Unknown Currently
Presence - Modifies Bonus Healing
Health - DUH
Armor - Armor Bonus formula displayed as (EN/KIN)+0.4...it also seems to negate Energy and Kinetic damage.
Alignment - This is your player alignment, based on your light/dark side points...each are earned doing your conversation/quests. Similar to the KOTOR games.
Damage Range - your Min/Max damage you're able to do
Bonus Damage - Modified by your Cunning
Accuracy - Basically, your Hit Chance
Critical Chance - Modified by your Agility
Tech Bonus Damage - Value Unknown Currently
Bonus Healing - Modified by Presence
Energy Regeneration - Similar to MP5

Defenses:
Damage Reduction - Damage Reduction percentages given versus current level, and are broken down into four categories: Energy, Kinetic, Internal, and Elemental.
Defense Chance - Placeholder (?) formula for Defense Chance Versus Melee and Defense Chance Versus Ranged is 5.0=5.0+0.0
Glance Chance - Value Unknown Currently
Glance Absorption - Placeholder (?) formula for Glance Absorption Versus Melee and Versus Ranged is 30.5%=30.0+0.6
Resistance - Value Unknown Currently

(Now...prepare to cry)
PVP Stats
Bonus Damage - Value Unknown Currently
Trauma Ignore - Triage Rating is a modifier for Trauma Ignore.
Critical Damage Reduction - Value Unknown Currently
Critical Chance Reduction - Value Unknown Currently
Damage Reduction - Value Unknown Currently
Hardiness Rating - Seems to effect the above 3 stats and it works like Resilience in WoW

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Huh, surprisingly smart call on PVP Stats. Something Blizzard really should've been doing from the beginning, but instead nerfed PVE for PVP and vice versa to accomodate the other(often to the point of overbalancing one side and continuously playing ping pong).

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20100924

Smuggler Update today. Yes, they get a Wookie companion...

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Is it bad that I kind of enjoyed that movie? =/

Also, is that a lightsaber on the Smuggler's left hip? Forgive me, I'm not up to par on my Star Wars lore. From that angle it doesn't look like a gun, I dunno.

I think that's supposed to be some sort of tool, as the video on the website shows him drawing blasters from leg/hip holsters.

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A few reports have it on a few sites that a new testing phase is going to be starting soon, and a new batch of invites should start coming out.

(P.S. If anyone ends up with an invite and doesn't want it, feel free to throw it my way...)

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The Fan Friday update goes into some details about advanced classes...

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20101001

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wonder how the pvp is going to be in this game. I know its a good vs evil thing so im guessing its going to be a all the time pvp thing. Kinda hope not though as i am pretty much sick of pvp and pve mechanics being toned down due to pvp.

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There is a lot of misinformation being spread on the Internet currently about how PvP is going to work, since a lot of it is absolute pure speculation. At this point, all we really know is that the game will feature PvP and Battlegrounds.

Likely the game will have Rule Set servers like everyone does, PvE/PvP/RPPvE/RPPvP.

In terms of balance, and I know Joxur is still have a migraine over this, Jedi/Sith are NOT the universal badasses. The games class balance is being designed in a PvP sense that there will always be someone who can kill you better and you can kill someone else better. A properly played Smuggler Gunslinger can kill a Sith Juggernaut, although he'll be spending quite a bit of time eating through his HP to do so.

As is evident by the Player Stats above, there is going to be a Resilience type stat from the beginning...this brings into speculation that gear with "Hardiness" comes from PvP and is useable in PvP.

Another misnomer around the Net is "Republic Planet vs Sith Planet". There has been a lot of complaints lately about planets being controlled by either side, leading to the rumors that a Warhammer type control system over planets may be added as an extra PvP type mechanic. Again, this is pure speculation/rumor and has absolutely no basis in facts released.

Daniel Erikson, one of the lead writers, did say in a recent interview that now Convention Season is over they'll be going back to work and getting more information out there about the 'End Game' systems. And with the next phase of testing slated to start sometime this week, it wouldn't shock me if more of the critical end game systems started to get revealed.

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Dude.. it was a legitimate concern.

I just read the entire legacy of the force series (I was bored!), and with a few exceptions, the jedi rolled through people. One after the other. The only character who could consistently beat a regular jedi knight was Boba Fett.. the pinnacle of bounty hunters in the lore/universe. Other bounty hunters / mandalorians in the series got destroyed.

I don't have a huge problem with it. But it's a disconnect, pure and simple. This is a game whose designers frown upon 1-boss fights because it would "never happen" in Star Wars lore. But what would also never happen is two equally experienced characters, one a Sith Juggernaut and the other a bounty hunter, standing toe to toe in a PVP situation and the fight be equal.

Obvious difference being that one design decision encompasses a class archetype(jedis and their counterparts) which not only a massive selling point of the game, but also a class concept that has potential for gameplay possibilities... and the other design decision has to do with a mechanic that, while consistent with lore, is probably more about actual gameplay and lessons learned from WoW than it is about "does it follow the Star Wars universe?". Far be it from me to defend SWTOR, but these decisions are no-brainers. Only someone pointlessly obsessed with lore in an MMORPG, which is like being obsessed about the sesame seeds on a hamburger bun, will be even remotely concerned over these decisions. From a gameplay standpoint, they both make (nearly)perfect sense.

I suppose the "WHO WOULDZ WIN IN A FIGHT BATMAN OR SUPERMAN??!!?!??!?!" contingent of folks would also be mortally concerned, but for the sake of argument we'll be kind and leave them out of this.

Batman

yep, Batman has a reserve stash of kryptonite in waiting in case Supes ever went rogue.

Which version of Superman tho? The Kingdom Come Kal-El would not even break a sweat with Kryptonite It does nothing against him and he is much more powerful than the "New Earth" Superman.

And, the "main" Kal-El is pretty much joining the Kingdom Come char, where Kryptonite is not working much at all anymore.

Oh for God's sake we all know both Superman and Batman are slaves to Lois Lane's/Catwoman's vaginas respectively.

Anyway, after the derail...

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Hasn't been much news to share over the past 2 months aside from Class Trailers and such. Today, a video came out about the games first 'Warzone' (originally Battleground). Also, the much hated Jedi Wizard Subclass of Jedi Consular is undergoing a name change. The possible names are being voted for on the forums. Last but not least some real information regarding the Crafting system has finally come out.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/warzones

http://darthhater.com/2010/11/05/swtor- ... -revealed/

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Here it is on YouTube:

http://swtor.com/info/systems/crew-skills

Mentioned in the video, TOR's crafting system will allow offline crafting/gathering. Already being compared to SWG gathering and EVE. Probably one of the best updates to date.

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Some more information has become available on the Crew Skills (Crafting) system.

Each player will have up to 3 Crew Skills, but only 1 of them can be an actual Crafting Skill. What does this mean? Examples:

You can have 3 Gathering Skills
You can have 2 Gathering Skills and 1 Crafting Skill
You can have 1 Gathering Skill, 1 Crafting Skill, 1 Mission Skill
etc etc etc

The justification behind this is that on your ship there is only room for 1 Workbench (although it's a big one since you can have multiple companions working on the same Crafting Skill at the same time) and they do not want players being able to dominate the market by being a jack-of-all-trades with their companions making all the items for them.

Another bit about the overall crafting system itself is that items are not instant. The length of time to create an item can be anywhere from a minute up to 23 hours. Again, the justification behind this is that you can't churning out items via 1 click combines like in WoW. A items of extremely good quality will take time to craft. This is where the benefit of offline crafting really hits home.

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That's a really clever way to temper the influx of crafted items and it should help them keep a reasonable mark up over the cost of raw materials.

I wonder how that will work day to day. I've always hated crafting with a passion. Mostly the gathering aspect of it. This system looks nice on paper.

I've always loved crafting stuff except most games end up where the raw materials grossly outprice the goods able to be produced. It's terrible like this in WoW.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

Sounds pretty much the same as a crafted item with a cooldown, just putting the point where you actually push the button on the other end of the timeline.

Agreed. Gives the false impression that something exciting is happening offline. Hail Transmute Arcanite 2.0.

In terms of actually crafting an item, yes. Instead of clicking create item, item appears in bag, and the recipe being on cooldown for X amount of time...you click create item, wait X amount of time, item appears in bag.

In terms of the Gathering/Missions however, you can feel like you're getting something done with the companions who're just sitting around your ship while you're off questing/instancing/raiding or while you're offline because you've sent your minions off to do your bitch work for you.

For the purists, you can do everything but Mission Skills yourself. Mission Skills are exclusive to companions. However, doing shit yourself (at least in terms of Crafting items) still has the Craft Time.

I'll be interested to see how the system pans out in practice. Overall it sounds like you get the best of all types of crafting with the 1 penalty being the cooldown/creation timer for items.

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I'd say there is a difference between giving creating the finished product a cooldown effect and giving a reagent one. Reagents stockpile because no one ever lets a cooldown go by without using it, there is no reason to...if you don't need something made with it right now, eventually you will use if for something.

Putting a cooldown on the finished products has an immediate impact that there won't be 1000 pairs of reinforced leather gloves on the AH. If you can't use or sell the item right now, you will probably have your companions do something different than make it...a mission perhaps.

I see the similarities to the arcanite cooldown, but I think it's just different enough to be superior.

I guess I fail to see the significance of the companions being able to "do something else!" during a time they would normally be spending.. what, crafting I suppose? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the system, but it sounds like you're suggesting that a feature introduced with flaws is countered by another feature, which leads one to suggest that maybe the first feature shouldn't have included that flaw. Why not just have an automated craft station in the back of the ship instead of having the companions working on it if it's just going to be done away with via this system? This sounds like a game design case of "Normally this product sells for 200 dollars! BUT WAIT!! Right now you can get it for only 19.99!!!!". Glad to hear they fixed their own annoyance with a feature.

That's part of the overall idea. The significance is that you're ordering your companions to do 'something' while on your ship instead of doing nothing.

Here is the best way to explain the system...using KOTOR1 as an example:

KOTOR example:
You (the Player) and 2 Companions (lets say Jolee and Bastila) are out adventuring/following the games storyline. While you and your 2 companions are off having great adventures, Carth/Canderous/Mission/Zaalbar/Juhani/HK-47/T3-M4 are all sitting back on the Ebon Hawk doing jack and shit. Being that the game lacks a crafting system aside from being able to add modifications to existing gear or build lightsabers, there was little to no reason to have your dormant NPCs being able to do anything but sit there.

SW:TOR example:
You (a Bounty Hunter) and 1 Companion (Miko, the Asian chick seen in the Crew Skills video) are out questing/leveling/exploring. While you and Mako are off having adventures, the Huuk (the big thing with the giant chin seen in the Crew Skills video) and M3-M1 (a droid) are sitting back on your ship. For your Crew Skills you selected Scavenging (to Gather), Armorsmith (to Craft), Treasure Hunting (as your Mission Skill). While out on your adventures, you and Mako are getting materials by Scavenging. Instead of doing nothing back on your ship, you send the Huuk out on Treasure Hunting mission and you tell M3-M1 to make a Chestpiece using Armorsmithing.

Scavenging out in the field, with or without your present companion helping you, is just like Skinning/Herbing/Mining in WoW. The Treasure Hunt has a 24 hour completion time and the Chestpiece has a 10 hour completion time (both of these times are taken straight from the video...and are not the case with every item/mission). When you log off, these timers keep going...meaning if you start a 10 hour craft and log back in 8 hours later you still have 2 more hours before the craft is done. Again, what this does is front load the cooldown system we've seen in WoW (on things like transmutes) while at the same time allowing you to have your dormant NPCs to do something.

Also, you can have up to 5 companions working at your workstation at the same time...so in theory you can have all 5 making the same 10 hour item that way you'll get 5 items every 10 hours so long as you have the materials to make them all.

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Jedi Wizard officially changed to Jedi Sage

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better, though it's not saying much since I would rather be named a Jedi Potato rather than Wizard.

Straight from the EA Q3 Earnings Conference Call: SWTOR will ship Calendar 2011. Fiscal 12 guidance when Q4 results are announced. Fiscal 12 release for SWTOR. (For reference: FY11 ends in March)

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Not a lot of new in SWTOR lately, but this video showing the graphic evolution of the game which puts it up against other games in the genre is interesting



Now, if you've played the Dragon Age 2 demo...notice the level of detail in the character's expressions during dialogue. SWTOR looks better in motion, even off the Beta build I have access to.

The only downside of this video is that the comparisons to other MMOs are down at High Res SWTOR vs Low Res other games.

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Aion comparison definitely biased. That game has it's faults, and you can certainly make effeminate males which are pretty popular in Asia, but customization is not it's weak point. The still screenshot it showed was in the Abyss, specifically near some ruins around a fortress. Probably one of the most bland areas around.

You can easily make short, tall, gruff, ugly, old, fat, young, skinny, Gumby characters with a wide variety of expressions. Add in remodeling for armor and a ton of costumes and basic dyes.



Probably my favorite game aesthetics wise.

http://www.swtor.com/guilds

This site is designed so you can start setting up your guild prior to the game's launch. Pretty cool idea...

(if you actually apply for a guild through there, it's actually like applying for a guild)

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Updated Player Classes section based on this new blog post regarding Advanced Classes

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20110408

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Main posts cleaned up, included new PVP information

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Had nearly forgotten about this game until about a week or 2 ago.
For those who have been out of the loop as I was, there are now some updated jedi/sith class videos on the SWTOR website, including the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior advanced class options, as well as a new Sith trailer that came out within the last day or so.

Worth a look.

anyone know the release date? is it even projected or are we in the theory phase still?

"After the first quarter of the year" was the last I heard. So May - December.

The release date still hasn't been revealed quite yet. During the last 2 EA investor calls, EA stressed to investors that the game was going to be released in calendar year 2011. With them pushing Mass Effect 3 until the beginning of 2012 and the current state of Game Testing, it seems very likely that Oct to Dec release window is likely.

With E3 next month, I have a feeling we'll get some more solid info which may includes the testing ramp up that has been on the horizon for awhile now. I however don't believe that we'll see the release date announcement until PAX Prime, mainly because that fits their release date window and the fact that SWTOR dominated PAX East and will likely do the same at Prime.

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http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/return

You know, part of me doesn't care if this game ever gets released, so long as they keep giving us trailers such as these.

Wow... they need to find someone to write them a good solid movie script and release a movie of their own. Impressive.

Watch it in HD on YouTube. It's worth it.

That trailer made me want to play the game even if the gameplay is not like that... Damnit.

Sad thing is I was at PAX East and didn't see the SW:ToR booth because I was busy winning Magic The Gathering tournaments heheh... Plus there was way too many people waiting in line and i'm not patient enough.

Would love to see an actual game come out of all this hype. One that's good. It needs to come out already, they've spent way too much time on it.

Would you rather them spend too much time on it and come out with a highly polished, very playable game, or not enough time on it and risk an Age of Conan or Warhammer Online type scenario?

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I expect both, frankly. Gaming isn't a new industry any more. They've had plenty of time to make a solid, stable and innovative MMO. They need to get it out the door already.

From the new videos, the game looks ready to go to me! Release it already please

That cinematic could have been a dude slapping a "Intro Cinematic" sticker on a box of shit and throwing it across your field of view. Cinematics don't mean shit. They never have. They could have put that cinematic together when they first started developing.

That said, cool cinematic.

I hope we get more out of e3 than another trailer and 5 bullet points about raiding and land mounts.

Sadly, E3 isn't going to result in a whole lot of new information. Don't get me wrong, it's good information but since this is the beginning of the Summer Convention Season they'll release more and more over the course of the next few months.

Based solely on the state of the game + their projected release date (Before the end of the year), I'm willing to bet that we'll get the release date announcement at PAX Prime. PAX is hands down their best event and they can dominate it with easy, so it only makes sense for them to release it then.

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There's no such thing as "enough time" in crafting a game. Some of the best games have been works of art that are poured over in the timespan of years and years(more often by startup or smaller developers that don't have investors and publishers pushing deadlines down their throats). I really want them to take their time on it. I want something that isn't another WoW clone like Rift.

In a way I guess I'm not as... put off... by the trailers as some. I view it with the understanding that they're not attempting to show any revelations about how the game will feel or play, but with the understanding that they're trying to push story and lore into an MMORPG, which has never really been done effectively. It's a noble goal, one that I don't think is attainable given the nature of MMORPGs and their changing environments(by players themselves), but I'm intrigued to see how it pans out.

The trailers mean shit, absolute shit, other then them being better than the atrocious prequels. The game play walkthrough's from e3 have been more of a goldmine then anything. That is what makes me not as put off as I have been.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Too true. A movie doesn't tell me I'm not going to get quests that ask me to kill a dozen force rats or some such nonsense.

Now, if a cinematic like this was built into questing... that would be something.

This is pretty good. It's a TON of information, so you sort of need to wade through some garbage, but it's still good info:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=292974

Questing will always have "kill random mob_x and collect item_x" in an MMO. If people thing other wise, they need to stop playing them etc

I don't think it will be. There are missions in Eve that are far more intricate than "go here and kill X (and maybe bring me Y)" -- not many, but they're there.

The only reason that we have those kinds of quests is because of developers who either a) are too lazy to build more intricate quests, or b) think that those sort of quests are what gamers want in MMOs.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]