I recently installed this MMO, since it's been out for almost 8 months. I figured the bugs would be mostly fixed, though my hopes weren't all that high.

I am very pleasantly surprised. I like Star Wars, so that really helps, but this game is very well done. I have a Jedi Sage, and the character is a blast to play. I've also done the starting areas for every class. I suspect the Bounty Hunter is going to be my next main, once I max out my Jedi.

Things I like:

Sound effects = outstanding. Lots of voice actors, and little crossover. Some pretty famous people were involved in this, once you see the credits.

Various aliens from movies = all over the place. Hutts running a starting planet!

Graphics are fantastic, as well.

The storylines were all good, up until I stopped playing each character (I stopped once they finished each starting area. I expect the quality to continue till level 50). For example, while you play both types of Jedi in the same starting area, their main quests are drastically different from each other. Same with all of the other class options.

Customizable gear (orange). You can keep the same item your entire career, you just have to update it's modifications.

Combat is fun. Kind of clicky, since it's an MMO, but I like it. The whole atmosphere of Star Wars helps this.


Things I think could be better:

Too many cut-scenes. Every time you get or finish a quest, you have to go through a scene. It's not bad, but it can be tedious.

I don't like Jedi and Sith wearing heavy plate armor. It doesn't jive with any of the movies.

Not enough customizable gear. I really wish they'd just made all armor and weapons customizable. I think this was a missed opportunity.

Too many powers. Why can't MMOs figure out that I really only want to keep track of maybe 10 or 12 buttons during a fight? How about just improving them over time and not adding a new power every few levels? Powers do improve, but they quickly get lost in multiple rows of buttons.

Not enough player races. There are a number of popular ones, but many are not available. In addition, a bunch of races are only available to certain classes, until you get them to level 50 in a class they can take.


Summary

If you like Star Wars, you should play this game. You can go all of the way to level 15 on every class for free.

have they made it for macs yet?  the one thing holding me back from giving it a go.

No idea. If you like to game, you need a Windows computer.

i'm more of a console gamer.  if stuff comes out for mac, it's a bonus.

I've started playing the past month or so, and my Smuggler/Gunslinger is ~L40 right now.

The community is a bit more helpful and patient than, say, WoW, although LOTRO still has the best community at the moment.  Having people constantly asking "LFG 2M Mandalorian Rage" and for other Heroics in gen chat is actually enjoyable, something I haven't seen since the Dungeon Finder dropped in WoW.

I keep hearing detractors say "there's nothing to do at max level", but from what I can tell TOR isn't geared strictly toward endgame.

Oh, and there's rumors out there of more playable races coming with the next patch and/or added to your Legacy.

Quote from: beeber;562630have they made it for macs yet?  the one thing holding me back from giving it a go.

not yet, but this is supposed to be in the works... i'm waiting for a mac port as well.

I played it for a few months.  It's a very good single player game on rails.  End game is boring, though.  I quit when they implemented the stupid dungeon finder.  Same reason I quit WoW.

Quote from: JRR;564451I played it for a few months.  It's a very good single player game on rails.  End game is boring, though.  I quit when they implemented the stupid dungeon finder.  Same reason I quit WoW.

The dungeon finder doesn't seem to have changed things the way WoW's did.  I still see plenty of people asking for LFG for Heroics, and since the dungeon finder is per server --not on a battlegroup of servers-- there isn't as much "you'll never see me again" idiocy like on WoW.

are there skills/crafting/gathering professions?  that's one thing that's kept me in WoW (as a soloer and altaholic, the whole "end game" thing is meaningless to me).

Quote from: beeber;564552are there skills/crafting/gathering professions?  that's one thing that's kept me in WoW (as a soloer and altaholic, the whole "end game" thing is meaningless to me).

There are crafting and gathering elements. You send your companion off to do those, and also look for resources in the field. The companion may also have missions or rare drops that pop up by going on the gathering missions.

Plus you can send several companions out at once. It is very "passive" for some people, but I enjoyed it.

Heck I enjoyed the whole game until people I played with stopped playing.

EA just announced the game will be going Free-to-Play in November (they also announced subscriptions have dropped to under the million player mark, so there's that too. They had 1.7 million players in March.).

I'll admit I'm one of those lapsed players.
Never seemed to be able to game at the same time as friends, and solo endgame is impossible (can't do 16-man missions solo, too many damn cheaters in PvP that EA does nothing about).

I can't say that I am interested in an MMORPG, because MMORPG, but SWTOR has caught my attention from its awesome artwork - which I have been grabbing off the internet for inspiration for my own d6 Star Wars stuff.

Quote from: TrueGygaxFan;570141I haven't ever seen Star Wars but I have played a lot of Star Wars Saga Edition D&D (Dungeons and Droids LOL) so I am looking forward to playing this game when it is released.

It's been out for months. It's also now publicly acknowledged as a failure, so it's going Free To Play (i.e. Pay To Win).

How many people were disappointed that feature X which was in Star Wars: Galaxies wasn't in Knights of the Old Republic?

I played both, quit both. But I loved the sandboxy, build up your character however you like them of Galaxies. You could have a character that was almost purely a trade character, and have fun doing it.

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;571909It's been out for months. It's also now publicly acknowledged as a failure, so it's going Free To Play (i.e. Pay To Win).

There's no money in trying to be the biggest MMO in the market, unless your game is World of Warcraft. No, the good money is around fifth place, tenth place, that sort of area; lower revenue, but vastly lower costs.

WoW has had over a billion dollars spent on it's development by now. Trying to compete with that is insane.