Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
Ugh, if I put all that $$$ into a game, I'd try to make it a much different experience than WoW. I get that they have a successful model, but copying it isn't the right thing to do and it won't win you subs.
Give me dynamic (and working) PvP or Realm vs. Realm.
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This is the thing. It will get them subs. The problem with a game like Conan being a WoW clone is that there just isn't a ton of interest in the Conan mythos. So when many had the choice of exploring the lore of Conan which was from way before the average player's time other than a few AHHHHNULD! movies or the the Warcraft lore which many players have been immersed in since what? 1994? Right in the wheelhouse for the average gamer who would have been between 5 and 19 when that dropped. Factor in the fact that almost all of the major lore in WC is game based which is easier to access and it was just a lot simpler to learn about what you were playing as opposed to going back and finding out more about Conan. It didn't help that most people who Conan was vying for were already level 70 and in raiding/pvp epics with WotLK on the horizon.
TOR will not have that problem. Not only is the Star Wars lore easily accessed, but the lore that is pertinent to TOR doesn't even require you to listen to one poorly timed or poorly added "NOOOOOOOOOO!" The Knights of the Old Republic games are all you need, but if you're an eagre beaver then there are books, if you're so inclined, or an even easier read in comics.
How many people will sub both or drop WoW simply because the preamble is a yellow lettered scroll? Christ, even I'm gonna play another MMO, even though I really really don't want to, because I get a lightsabre and can run around in character being an annoying ####. Copying WoW will essentially give them the ability to advertise to players by saying "We have a new fancy shoe that is custom fit to you whether you know it or not."
EA saw the writing on the wall even before development on this game began. WoW had created a game model that was both enticing for new players but challenging enough to old players all while preventing people from losing interest in the in-between. How many MMOs failed because they changed it up? Warhammer, Matrix, a few others. If you're a major company sinking as much money as EA is the game cannot fail. If it fails there are a lot of things that can suddenly go south. To expect the game to start off as anything other than a WoW clone is naive and that's what major content patches are for. To start deviating as you build player base and get the warm to the idea. What has bugged a lot of the non-NDA binded reviewers that got to play and is bugging myself is not that it's a WoW clone that deviates very little from the template set. Most of us expected as much at the start. It's bugging us that it's a VANILLA WoW clone. It's cloning a game from 2004, a 7-year-old game taking no advantage of anything that has been gift wrapped to them to make a game that eases the grinding and fetch quests or increases the "wowzer" factor with changing visuals and a sense of your actions having an affect on the environment.
It's a mistake that will cost them players who played WoW and know that there's a game that makes it funner and easier, especially Vanilla WoW players who remember waiting an hour to kill one mob with a long re-spawn and a line up of players there to kill it who don't want to group and high level griefers who kill it just to laugh at you.
Then there's a concern of no real end-game content at the drop which will also hurt.
That all being said. Still gonna play it. Be a Jedi etc. Father before me etc.
Edit- Another thing I forgot to mention is that TOR also has a huge opening because WoW is considered to be at an all time low as far as end-game content and Lore which is huge. A lot of players (such as myself) felt closure when they killed Arthas as he had been the antagonist most players had wanted to get to since the end of the first act in WCIII back in 2002. There is another big fish out there that players would like to face (Sargeras) but currently it's meh. While Blackwing is a nice villain, he's not a villain I feel I have any vested interest in killing since I wasn't playing the books, I was reading them. He didn't cause me any grief. He didn't kill an Uther, as it were. So there is a huge sea of players who are actively looking for something new, and with no WoW expansion even announced as far as I know, TOR has the perfect window but risk ####ing it up with their poor decision making.
