I made a promise to myself long ago that I'd never play WoW. I never bought into the whole subscription thing; I bought the game, just let me play dammit! That along with the amount of time I knew if drop into it made me stay away. I'm thinking of finally jumping into an MMO now on a whim. I know most people on here from what I've observed have been semi negative about SWTOR, but is that only because you've seen it all before and it's a rehash with Star Wars coating? Do you think I'd enjoy it much more, being new to the genre and all?

its certainly not a rehash. it may take lots of 'inspiration' from WoW but the amount of development that has gone into the game its a massive in justice to class it as a just a rehash.

but for your first MMO id maybe give one of the free ones ago like hmmm WoW and see of you like it. if you like the way WoW plays you will like the way SW:TOR plays. if you don't you won't and you won't of wasted £40.

I'd never played an MMO before either (2 hours of dc universe online don't really count in my opinion), and I'm loving it so far. You can ease yourself into it because they have included alot of single player game elements (story being the big one).

I could never get into MMOs because of the lack of story and change in the world. I've already put in like 35 hours into TOR and I've really been enjoying my time with it. Definitely recommend you at least try it.

@wmaustin55: I think you will have a great time. Discovering the game and all the MMO mechanics and most importantly the social dynamics. In terms of difficulty its on the easy side. People, at least on the mind trick server have been surprisingly nice. However let people know beforehand that you are new to MMOs when you get in a group. People will assume a lot of skills, like crowd control, tanking, healing, pulling, aggro management etc As in people in FPS will expect you to know how to shoot dudes. People will explain though and there is not that much to it really.

I'd say that if you're opposed to the whole subscription thing to go with one of the better free mmos out there, like Runes of Magic (very wow like in style but houses & dual classes), champions online or star trek online. From what I've seen of the time with SWTOR, the story is good for the characters & a good choice for SW fans.

The game has a story and dialogue style derived from other Bioware games, which in my opinion is the best part of the game. When it comes to the gameplay aspects that make up the core of most MMOs, such as the "go kill 20 of these things and then come back"-type quests - that there just seems to be an obscene abundance of in every one of these games -, SWTOR is no different from the rest. Some things are more streamlined in this game, but WoW has much more content.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-star-wars-the-old-republic/17-5448/

I'm in the same situation and really enjoying The Old Republic.

Thanks for all the insight, I really appreciate it! As for the subscription aspect, I'm not as opposed to it anymore because I have more money now than I did back when WoW was really getting popular. And I mostly want to try this one because a lot of my friends are and I want to get in at the ground floor. I feel too much time has passed in WoW that I'll feel left behind trying to get everything out of it. I have no real affinity either way towards Star Wars, but I love Bioware games

@wmaustin55 said:

I love Bioware games

It takes much less work to play through the story in for instance KotOR than in SWTOR. So it doesn't feel very viable to try out different classes or alignments really, since there's just an enourmous amount of stuff to plow through. However, Republic and Empire characters share almost no quests, so at least one Republic and one Empire character could be worth it.

ToR is a great starter MMO because it does what no other mmo does, it has a cohesive, mostly interesting, story tied to your class and your specific choices. So it is an mmo but keeps alot of the cool elements from a single player rpg. It makes it far more engrossing early on and rewarding for you as a player. At the same time it is still an mmo so you will get a feel for what mmo's are like too.

Great game, you'll certainly have a good time.
 
You can do much worse as far as MMO's are concerned.

For the first 10 levels the 'gameplay' is just awful (if you want a free taste of what to expect, just hit the '1' key on your keyboard as many times as you can until you get bored - that's the level of mental engagement required). Hopefully that improves soon because fuck.

What's harder to forgive though is the obnoxious -I would argue insulting- elements of the game design, which are intended to do nothing more than waste as much of your time as possible as cheaply as possible. This is obviously a common problem with any game using a subscription model, but this is by far the most egregious example I have seen. Eg.: Game areas are made unnecessarily large just for the sake of it (and it doesn't help that the starting areas seem to be as bland as they could possibly make them). Your character runs about as fast as a dead snail, which makes just getting from A to B a massive fucking chore. Never-ending trash mobs which respawn almost instantly, so if you're unfortunate enough to have multi-stage quest (or multiple quests) in the same area, you might have to slog through the same trash mobs more than once, which induces almost the same level of dread / sighing as random encounters in a Final Fantasy game.

It's my first MMO and I'm loving it. I've found it's really easy to go solo or play with another person if you know one. I had the same idea of MMO's as you had, however I've now come to the idea that I like the idea of a persistent character. Some place where I have a content is added to the world I have built a character. I love the Elder scrolls games and Fallouts but having to restart a character every time is making kinda bored. Mass Effect showed how nice it is to carry over a character that you've grown in to multiple games. Just my opinion though.. I will also qualify my enjoyment of the game that KOTOR is my favorite game. Since there is no chance of a stand alone KOTOR 3 I'm playing this.

@Dry_Carton said:

The game has a story and dialogue style derived from other Bioware games, which in my opinion is the best part of the game. When it comes to the gameplay aspects that make up the core of most MMOs, such as the "go kill 20 of these things and then come back"-type quests - that there just seems to be an obscene abundance of in every one of these games -, SWTOR is no different from the rest. Some things are more streamlined in this game, but WoW has much more content.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-star-wars-the-old-republic/17-5448/

Pretty unfair to say WoW has much more content, that game has been out for over 7 years.

I got this game yesterday and it's the most fun I have had playing an MMO since WoW. Really easy to get into.

I'm having a fun time. That said, it certainly plays more like a single-player game than any existing MMO, which is both a good and bad thing. And as far as PvE goes, it's the most forgiving game I've ever played, regardless of genre; you're allowed to respawn (not corpse run) back where you died.

I don't know if it's the same on other servers, but I need to add that I've never had a problem finding a helpful group. As long as you tell people that you've never run an instance ("Flashpoints" in the game's lingo), they'll help you out.

I guess the best advice I can give about TOR is to go in *not* expecting an MMO. I feel that TOR has more in common with Guild Wars than WoW, both in design and in social interactions.

I consider myself a first-time MMO player. I played about a week of WoW but it didn't catch me and I definitely didn't see the worth for me in paying $15/mo for WoW. I was very leery about a monthly subscription for SWTOR before it came out but so far I've really been enjoying the game and I think Bioware has delivered a quality product and stayed on top of updates/fixes for the game. Another thing was I didn't think I would have the time to commit to an MMO given I'm a working adult but I find time to play a little bit pretty much every night.

@Heltom92 said:

@Dry_Carton said:

The game has a story and dialogue style derived from other Bioware games, which in my opinion is the best part of the game. When it comes to the gameplay aspects that make up the core of most MMOs, such as the "go kill 20 of these things and then come back"-type quests - that there just seems to be an obscene abundance of in every one of these games -, SWTOR is no different from the rest. Some things are more streamlined in this game, but WoW has much more content.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-star-wars-the-old-republic/17-5448/

Pretty unfair to say WoW has much more content, that game has been out for over 7 years.

I got this game yesterday and it's the most fun I have had playing an MMO since WoW. Really easy to get into.

WoW has much more content than SWTOR. OP has not played either game. It's both a fair comparison and a relevant one.

I got this game in December, am currently level 47, and am still enjoying the game. I'm in a guild with a couple of friends and I like the Imperial Agent storyline.

I also tried a week of WoW and didn't get into it. Even after hours of play, wolves would kick my ass. Plus I never did actually interact with another human and didn't understand why is was an online game.

That being said, SWTOR has been incredibly fun. Of course, I did find some friends to play with. I've enjoyed the story and don't seem to get my butt kicked by random encounters. The flashpoints (raids) have been fun and challenging. Running from one end of an area to another to turn in quests, just to be sent back out again is a pain, but I'm not sure how you fix that.

My first proper MMO, and i've put in over 100 hours into it. I don't think I've put that much hours into a game before. I'm sticking with this game for as long as they never go F2P