NOTICE: I HAVE MOVED MY BLOG TO MY PERSONAL WEBSITE!
Please check http://www.pmhsilva.com for more details. You can red this blog post here.I just finished reading this article on Gamasutra where the author explains why, in his opinio, SWTOR (Star Wars - The Old Republic) is, let's face it, a failure. Being a huge fan of MMO's and an active World of Warcraft player since late 2006, I also tried SWTOR as most my friends playing it told me this would be the game that would finally challenge WoW.
I decided to try it out, but I quickly understood that, while the leveling experience was indeed very nice, the game was too much focused on single player progression and everyone I talked to said the end-game experience was not that good. Well, this is where World of Warcraft really shines. I started playing WoW because a very close friend incited me to it and I remember his words, back in 2007: "It's when you reach level 70 that the game REALLY begins!". It's true. It's more than true, it is astonishingly true!
While I disagree with the author of the mentioned article that social experience in SWTOR is not that good (WoW's one is even worse imo), the fact that the end game experience is not good actually killed the game. I mean, why would anyone in his perfect sense play SWTOR (and actually PAY to play it) when it is so frustratingly hard and repetitive to actually consume all the (very good) content of the game? I mean, yes, some people could do it once or twice, but then it just becomes too boring...
Anyway, I believe there is a lesson or two to be learned here and most of all, I don't think people should be afraid to base their ideas in other already existing and well established ones. If it is working, why not do the same and improve it. Reinventing the wheel never seems to payout...
I'm sad. I like Star Wars. A lot. They really had the potential to compete with WoW. But they failed.
Better luck next time, EA.
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