WoW and SWTOR: Worlds at War – Part 2


My first discussion comparing WoW and SWTOR went over Gameplay and Story.  This time we’ll ‘campfire’ over Game Age and Reasons to Keep Logging In.

Game Age

If WoW was an Aging Rock Star and SWTOR was the Hot New Rocker , it would go something like this:

WoW has been rocking out for almost a decade.  Showing up at the right place and time all those years ago.  It brought familiar sounds to the masses, with a passion driving it to provide the best Stage experience ever.  WoW’s beginning career was rocky, but staying the course they have amassed legions of fans and every critic eats their words when a new album comes out.

SWTOR smashed onto the current scene with a hype machine pushing it like none other before.  The sounds they Rock are familiar with a cutting edge vibe to hook you.  The fans want to attend every concert, but tickets are hard to come by.  The venues have shitty facilities and the concessions are sub par at best.  Factoring in all that, when the show goes on,  you can’t find a better Rock ‘n’ Roll experience.  It’s just a bitch to get there.  It’s alot like when WoW first toured.

The best things get better with age – Wine, Cigars, Sex, Cars, & MMOs.  SWTOR will get there, its just a damn shame Bioware/EA went live with no Quality of Life.

WoW and Blizzard have “Been There, Done That, and oh Yeah.. We Printed T-Shirts About it Too.”  SWTOR and Bioware have an MMO that should have ctrl+v and ctrl+c every quality of life part of WoW.  Yet they didn’t.  It’s like they kidnapped every Wrath developer before Dungeon Finder dropped and had them create SWTOR.  Great game with shining moments of Awesomeness, buts it’s got little to no quality of life aspects that keep players coming back.

All this points to SWTOR really showing its age.  It’s Young, very young.

Reasons to Keep Logging In

SWTOR has one thing going for it right now.  The Legacy System.  It’s an Altaholics dream come true.  The more characters you have, the stronger your Legacy becomes.  The Legacy system grows every patch.  It’s going to be one of the top 3 reasons players keep logging in.  Growing your Legacy will be the reason why alot of players keep on logging in.  Gear is always replaced, your Legacy name never does.  Players see your Legacy name and instantly know who you are.  I’ve started just using my Legacy name when looking for a group on the fleet.

SILVERSTRIKE LFG

When playing WoW your characters can help each other, but they never have a link visible to other players.  Your Legacy tag lets player’s know instantly who you are.  In Mists of Pandaria your achievments will ‘pop’ account wide.  Mounts and Pets too.  Your accomplishemnts on all your characters will be shared.  This means you won’t have to choose between your ‘Main’ and ‘Alts’ if an accomplishment is up for grabs.  They all will be able to display the achievment.

Will the War Continue?

Yes.

The way Blizzard is weaving their products together will win out in the end if Bioware/EA doesn’t start to take more ques.  Blizzard is creating a community accross games.  Communicating accross Battle.net will become the standard operating procedures for all Blizz products.  Bioware doesn’t have the need to create that type of infrastructure.  The social aspect is going to be a strong pull for many players who don’t want to put them selves on an MMO island away from their friends.

Will SWTOR Fail?

No.

Bioware has too many talened people and EA has too much money to let this MMO fail.  Why should we think any other way.  Bizzard had the ‘Luxury’ of no expectations.  Bioware has to live up to them.  Given time SWTOR will deliver an MMO gaming experience to rival WoW, and in my opinion there’s always room at the top for more.  If there isn’t, you just make some.

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