The following is a discussion and debate of both games.  Having two big franchises on the market is healthy, it forces developers to evolve and incorporate genre changing ideas faster.

In part 1 we’ll go over Gameplay and Story.

Gameplay

The fluffy center of your cake, that’s what gameplay is.  The mechanics of an MMO are going to be there 95% of your playtime.  It’s how you dps, tank, or heal.  It’s what and how many buttons your press.  It’s how long you have to wait to press the next button.  It’s how aggro works and the resource system that throttles play. Who does it better though?

The quick to answer is WoW, who has had 7 years to polish.  Combat is fluid and smooth.  Attacks link together in a smooth ballet of destruction.  Yet, there are sparks of potential when you see SWTOR in action.  Gameplay potential can been observed by studying  how a DPS player prioritizes targets.  In WoW the DPS player targets what the tank targets.  You burn everything you’ve got on his mark.  Simple.  In SWTOR it’s an entirely different strategy.

When facing a pull in SWTOR you have to judge each enemies power.  You could have 8 targets that need to be taken out.  There are three levels of enemy strength besides a boss.  Weak, Standard, and Strong.  Here’s the catch.  Many enemies in SWTOR carry blasters.  They don’t need to run up and start smacking the tank.  They’ll do it from a distance.  So you have 8 enemies; 1 strong – 2 standard – 5 weak.  the tank will engage the strong and hold it.  You will then Crowd Control the two standard.  If the DPS attack the tanks target and not the weak enemies you will have trouble.  New players will wipe over and over unless they understand that the weak enemies can be killed in 4 global cooldowns.  In twenty seconds you can take out the 5 weak targets and then team up with the tank.  If left up, the weaks will shred your healer, fast.  It’s a fun mechanic once you understand it.  IMO better than Target-of-Target DPS.  The tank protects you from the Strong and the DPS protects the tank and healer from the weaks.   Good DPS is nice to have in WoW, but it’s essential in SWTOR.  Funny to think that 90% of an MMO’s player-base roll DPS characters.

I’m inclined to believe that Blizz knows that Tank centered gameplay can be improved, but can’t change how you pull at this point.  They are just too far into it.  I’ve heard speculation that the new ‘Scenarios’ in Mists of Pandaria are Bizzard’s testing ground for a Tank-less gameplay model.  You will que up for Senerios in the same way you do for dungeon and reap the same rewards, but Scenarios don’t need tanks or healers.  They just need players.

WoW and SWTOR both have new and interesting gameplay mechanics to work with.  There is no clear cut better way to do, just different.  I’m happy to experience both and see how far MMO Gameplay evolves.

Story

Gameplay is king and story come second, or is it?  Blizzard has stated that Gameplay trumps lore every time.  Would you say the same for Bioware?  Every line of dialog is voiced in SWTOR.  E V E R Y O N E.  I’d say that Story is in the driver’s seat for SWTOR.  When you load up a fresh character in SWTOR you don’t play as a part of an over-arching story.  You are the story.

When playing WoW, you become a part of the war machine.  You might be doing heroic things, but it’s always major lore characters that save the day.  Usually with the help of a “Ragtag bunch of Adventurers.”  Becoming the “Emperor’s Wrath” in SWTOR is something all together different.  WoW’s lore is deep, yet can be made into whatever Blizzard wants it to be.  Bioware has a gorilla of a franchise to live up to.  Lucasarts holds the trump cards to anything the Bioware Austin team can dream up.

One of my reasons for playing Star Wars is simple.  Lightsabers.  I’ve always wanted my own.  Most kids have, and those kids are now adults.  The snap-hiss of an energy blade never gets old.  Legendaries are awsome, no doubt.  I’d ask for a real lightsaber before Sulfuras though.

Bioware has to live up to Star Wars.  Blizzard has to constantly reinvent WoW.  Which poison would you choose?