The Misfortunes of SWTOR as Told by Anonymous
(click to enlarge)
I was tempted to possibly give Star Wars: The Old Republic a shot, despite my distaste for MMOs. The game seemed to be really popular and well-liked, but soon as players get deeper into it, sentiments began to change. Bugs and patches that made new bugs caused a huge number of players to unsubscribe, and now the tide seems to have shifted in terms of fan support.
To catch up on the whole saga, 4chan’s /v/ made this rather hilarious comic with Star Wars Episode III scenes explaining where Bioware went so wrong with the game. The rest of the pieces are below, but first, a glossary of terms.
TOR – The Old Repbulic
B – Bioware, creator of the game
/v/ – 4chan’s video game section
EA – Owners of Bioware, said to be a corrupting influence
Biodrones – A Bioware fan who will defend the company to the death.
Now read on:
My favourite bit is where /v/ walks away with Obsidian.
as long as they dont fuck up Mass Effect 3 im happy
Wow…just….wow.
This is both funny and sad at the same time. Funny because it’s true and also sad because…..sigh….it’s true. Such high hopes for this game and it’s so broken.
This…. isn’t really accurate….
First of all: Yes, there ARE problems with the game (there always are with an enormous undertaking like an MMO). The fact of the matter is, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for the company to do enough play testing to iron out all the bugs pre-launch. There’s just TOO MUCH code and too many tiny things that could go wrong.
Second: Bioware’s “transparency” on customer support issues has been, lackluster. Personally though, I think too many people cry on the forums and then expect an immediate response. They never put in an in-game ticket (Biowares stated preferred form of CS).
Third: Yes, people have cancelled after their free month, but the fact of the matter is, MOST HAVEN’T.
The reason for this? Bioware has made *gasp* a good game. Not perfect, not in the least. But to say it’s not good, is immediately identifying yourself as one of those people who didn’t give it a chance and never had the intention of giving it a fair chance. I cannot tell you how many people I’ve heard complaining about this game who obviously “spacebared” through ALL the conversations, rushed to 50 and then are surprised when there’s not enough “end game” content for them, a month after release.
The fact of the matter is, it’s an enormous, in-depth world that is FULL of intriguing story and gameplay elements.
There are bugs. Most of which are cosmetic and non-gamebreaking.
There are balance issues. Has ANY MMO ever been COMPLETELY balanced? No. How about at launch? Not even close.
Would it be nice if we could get more information from Bioware on upcoming fixes, content patches and everything else? Of course it would. Are they obligated? No.
The above photo progression is funny and even clever. But the fact of the matter is, it WAS written by big, green-skinned boys who live under bridges, whose only enjoyment in life is to piss in everyone elses cornflakes.
Paul, I don’t agree with everything you say on this site, but for the most part, you’re usually spot-on. I’d hate to hear that someone who was actually thinking about trying this game out, missed out on it because of what he read on 4chan (dripping with sarcasm and a large eye-roll to boot).
i totally agree with Lyre in every single point.
i have played it nearly every day, no single char on 50, cause there’s so much to discover. 5 chars or so in whole (’til now).
give it a try, it’s worth it. if you haven’t tested it, then you shouldn’t be qualified to judge^^
@Lyre & Limitus
Been playing the game since launch and I’ve had nothing but issues. On the first character I got to a point and all of sudden my class quest dissapeared. Now there is no way to follow the main story line on that character. I took out a ticket on 1/6 got a response telling me to do the standard “reset quest etc…” response on 1/8. Reopened a new one title “hedgehog”, just like cust. support told me, just to let them know that I was still having the issue. On 1/20 I finally got a response to that ticket. Not a response telling me how to fix it or that they could fix just a ticket saying basically “We are working on it. Your patience is appreciated”. So, this is getting close to 3 weeks now and it still isn’t resolved.
So, while waiting for all that I made a new character. And lone behold another issue with the class quests. I got to a point where you have to beat a “boss” type character and a force field blocks your way out until you beat him. Or so I thought. I beat the “boss” and the force field never came down. So, I was locked in the room. The only way out was to go back through the way I came thus resetting the quest. I eventually figured out that if I just use the emergency fleet pass I found a way around that glich but I should not have to do that. As easy as a fix that was it shouldnt be there.
I realllyyy appreciate the way everything is voice acted and just how ambitious the whole project was/is but maybe it was a little too ambitious. Or maybe they released it to early. I dont know what but there’s no way to deny that there are some serious issues with the game.
I really want to like the game but I’m pretty close to just unsubscribing and waiting for ME3.
I have had 0 issues withe the game. You may have read somethign on 4chan but this REALLY isn’t how the game is. I’ve played many an mmo and this is superior to most in just about every way. This criticism is unfounded. I have quite a few friends with the game too. None of them are experiencing any issues either.
I’ve had a couple issues, with only one game-breaking issue (sorta, the quest became impossible to finish), but even that didn’t have a huge effect, and was it was quite humorous watching a little tiny blue elephant alien with a vibroblade fighting and holding off three Imperial shock troopers, with no one losing health. But everything else I’ve experienced in this game has been absolutely fantastic, except for the community on the Empire side (at least on Warriors of the Shadow) is completely juvenile. Aside from those things, I can’t put this game down (or my mouse, at least).
Wait wait wait, how’d they screw up with DA2? I mean, yeah, the environments could have used a fair bit more variety, but that was my only problem with the game.
I’ve been playing SWTOR and the comic really hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve run across some minor bugs here and there but nothing game breaking at all. Are there some class imbalances? While I haven’t experienced it, I don’t pvp so I’m not really in a position to see it.
What I have experienced is a game that finally broke my WoW addiction for good. I flipping love the storylines and some of the mechanics such as all the cut scenes and light/dark side choices have made it an enjoyable experience.
Yeah, it’s not as polished yet as WoW in some respects. But how many years has WoW been out at this point? I remember the very early days of WoW too and it also had class imbalances and buggy aspects.
To be honest, this is one of the things that really annoy me as a gamer. We can be such a demanding and petty bunch at times. If any single thing isn’t to our liking then we rush off to the forums with pitchforks and torches screaming for blood. Sure, there are things that can be improved. That’s EVERY game in some respect.
I wouldn’t actually call myself a BioWare ‘biodrone’. I’ve enjoyed the games of theirs that I’ve played but don’t go out of my way to play every single game they release. Main thing is, if this type of game genre appeals to you then go for it and try it out for yourself.
I’ve been playing since the early release and I’ve had no issues that I have in any way disrupted my gaming experience. A few bugs are in there but the ones I’ve seen in Skyrim are about a thousand times worse and it’s a game running online the whole time. I think Bioware has been releaseing patches trying to fix the major issues when they can to not disrupt the gameplay by releasing a patch everyday. The thing is this. For every person that gets on a message board to simply complain about the game because it’s not conforming to their every whim there are dozens of us that just play the game and are happy. It’s always the minority extreme that are the most vocal. I played WoW on and off since it’s come out and I the reason I kept leaving it is becaause you never feel like you’re involved in the world around you. In this game you actually HAVE a story, unlike every other MMO where you’re simply a mindless drone IN a story. So yes there are issues. But if you played Skyrim then you know that just because there are glitches and bugs in a game, doesn’t mean the game isn’t great.
Paul, try it out for yourself and decide, I’ll even send you a gamecard if you decide to keep playing 😛
There are a couple of things the people here who think the game is fine where it’s at fail to comprehend: Money is an issue. If people are tight on cash, why would they waste their money on something that doesnt satisfy them? BW is speaking in rhetoric and nothing is going to fully attended to now despite the amount of time they had to build everything.
@Lyre
Try using words that aren’t “The fact of the matter is” and maybe people will be able to get through your long post. Seriously, that’s the only take away from your post because you apparently can’t think of any other words that make the same point as those.
Wait, so folks love the Star Wars prequels enough now to use them to illustrate their complaints? Or maybe this (admittedly funny but too long winded) comic is some kind of multi-layered satire where the real point being illustrated is that modern gamers’ complaints are as overly melodramatic and poorly thought out as the Star Wars prequels. Bioware has always brought the noize for me and I’ll continue to support them until they don’t. I love a good story more than anything in the world and nobody in gaming does it better. Sorry if that doesn’t float your boat, but I hear the next CoD is on the way if you just want to focus on superficial perfection. Meanwhile the true RPGers will watch Bioware and their ilk push the gaming medium away from kiddie games towards true interactive fiction and art at the cost of a few short-term bugs. Buh-bye now.
I’m not a gamer, but this seems interesting.
@ Jim Lahey
The fact of the matter is, I’m a gamer not a writer.
The fact of the matter is, you should spend more time contributing to conversations, rather than sophomoric trolling.
DIAF. That short and sweet enough for you? Learn to read.
@trashcanman Well said, hope Lahey can get through it.
Haha, pretty funny and unfortuanatly true.
Im going to continue to play WoW, certainly not perfect but its pretty much the same game with far fewer bugs, any attempt at balance and an endgame to speak of. Im glad i got swtor as a gift so i didnt have to spend money on it. In 6 months itll prob be worth checking out again though
The points made in this thing are valid, but it undermines its message by sounding like an illiterate.
Grammar, mother******! Do you speak it?! (In Samuel L. Jackson voice)