Reflecting on SWTOR and XIV

[Jadi]

So during the down time I started looking for another game to play, I wanted something free and not WoW like. Despite what a lot of people say WoW isn't the worst game in world, but I've already played it.. so to me there was no reason to play it again or play a clone of it.

I choose SWTOR as I like Star Wars and there was a lot of positive hype about the game upon it's launch then a huge collapse, so I wanted to see what that was about and the game has gone F2P as well.. at least partly (who could blame them for how much they must have spent on voice actors).

My first impressions of it was "This is almost EXACTLY like WoW." And it started to dawn on me that the MMO landscape is absolutely filled with WoW clones and more WoW clones.. and it gave me a new found respect for what SE and the Dev's tried to do with XIV 1.x. The play style, combat and control that XIV was shooting for and partly succeeded in achieving is absolutely wonderful. They created something like no other and we can hate them for the mistakes they made but they also were brave enough to set out on uncharted waters and change the ideas of what a MMO could be.

XIV Dev's as you develop and plan 2.0 please don't loose that magic that exists in the XIV 1.x client.. it's not wrong to take steps in the direction of games like WoW or SWTOR as they shine in areas but keep in mind you have a lot of ideas in the 1.x client that also work well and don't exist in any other game. I can't imagine getting the kind of thrill I got from beating content like Raven in a game like SWTOR as it's the kind of game that you play for a while and drop, and thats why it failed..

[Ingolf]

Similarities =/= Clone.

Seriously guys. I don't think SWTOR was absolutely great, but it's not a clone. It's like saying every game with turn based combat is an FF clone.

[Fadigre]

The MMO industry is kinda stuck at the moment.

Triple A titles tend to follow a strict inner-circle of rules in regards to how they play which is why we keep getting the same-ish games and several sequals.

Creative gameplay mechanics are mostly coming from indie titles (such as Faster Than Light) as these developers don't have the funding to compete with triple As.

Due to the fact that it takes millions and millions of the Queen's english pounds to get an MMO off the ground, far more than any other type of genre, the MMO industry is short indie titles thus also short on creative innovation!

Also, due to the high risk factor and the shockingly poor economy of late, getting the green light for a game that doesn't follow typical styles that are known to sell is incredibly difficult!

Let's hope XIV continues to grow away from a typical MMO-style!

[Jadi]

I think some of it comes down to (god forbid because we all hate it) but the animation locks and spell movement locks.. with SWTOR I can jump around, do instants, hell not even face stuff and kill it.

And I guess this is a given that the thread will derail into "No it's not like wow!" fine.. tell me how it's different. What new and uncharted territory did SWTOR take? The controls are exactly the same, the game play is exactly the same, the leveling with class trainers is exactly the same, oh look it's got skill trees like.. umm.. wow. The differences between the two you could write on the back of a business card.

[BobbinT]

U know... I'm actually new to this kind of MMO. And since FF14 actually my 1st one, I have none to compare with.

But then one day I installed SWTOR. After 2 days, I concluded that even tho it has better responsive than FF14, the gameplay itself rather clunky and the graphic r way below FF14. Plus somehow I feel like controlling a doll where @ FF14, our player chara feels more alive. SWTOR does have impressive VA implementation tho, something that could be work on with FF14 which lacked this.

At the end, I resumed with experience with FF14 still. This game has sort of hidden charms I can't get away with, even after final save and it's like dead city game right now. ^^

[Rogue]

Well its not just with MMO's, the FPS genre is in a simialar situation, seeming to be heavily influenced by COD,

Its such a shame because i hate COD, but i spent my entire youth playing Duke3D, Quake, unreal and Halo 1. young players today dont know what an FPS is :/

I dont think we'll see another FFXI ever again, instead we are stuck with the instanced grinds we have now.

Alot of games are designed by people who wear a suit to work, "This game has done well so lets just base our game around it".. "but i want to do this"... "no you cant because we might not make as much money"

[Antipika]

The controls are exactly the same,

As if controls should be different in every game... There is no need to try and reinvent the wheel. (Also it's not like WoW was the first game to be controlled this way.)

[casker]

Similarities =/= Clone.

Seriously guys. I don't think SWTOR was absolutely great, but it's not a clone. It's like saying every game with turn based combat is an FF clone.

They straight up plagiarized a lot of stuff from WoW down to ability mechanics and math behind them. The bioware way is to copy other companies games and then shove dialogue trees into them.

But yeah...it's not really a WoW clone. For SWTOR, that is a compliment it doesn't deserve.

[casker]

I think some of it comes down to (god forbid because we all hate it) but the animation locks and spell movement locks.. with SWTOR I can jump around, do instants, hell not even face stuff and kill it.

Animation locks aren't necessarily bad, but in FFXIV they were exacerbated by the ridiculously clunky and laggy client, and having locks where they aren't necessary. GW2 for example, on the other hand, has hardly any animation locks but that game is way too floaty and spastic.

[Ingolf]

They straight up plagiarized a lot of stuff from WoW down to ability mechanics and math behind them. The bioware way is to copy other companies games and then shove dialogue trees into them.

But yeah...it's not really a WoW clone. For SWTOR, that is a compliment it doesn't deserve.