SW:OR Delayed Outside NA/EU

[soldant]

...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Okay maybe that quote doesn't work, the fiery flames of self-righteous, zealous rage are clearly in effect. But key point is that the release has been delayed to an unspecified point in time outside of NA/EU. Being Australian I can't say I'm ultra impressed but hardly surprised given that we're usually on the tail end of game releases. I suppose it also makes sense in that Star Wars would probably be a bigger draw card in the western world than the east, unlike WoW or Starcraft or something.

Then again I don't have high hopes for this game anyway.

(Oh god I hope there isn't already a thread on this which I've missed or I'm going to be executed...)

[Creeping Death]

Hey, at least this way if reviews start coming in and the general consensus is negative you'll have time to cancel if you preorder.

[duff]

Hey, at least this way if reviews start coming in and the general consensus is negative you'll have time to cancel if you preorder.

Yeh, I'm very dubious about whether the game will be good. They may have just saved you about 40 thousand dollars or whatever stupid price they are charging.

[Rii]

Hey, at least this way if reviews start coming in and the general consensus is negative you'll have time to cancel if you preorder.

To review an MMO properly takes a few weeks too.

Obviously this sucks for those who were definitely going to buy the game, but for those of us on the fence it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Even if the game is great there's sure to be a raft of bugs to be patched out.

[deano2099]

WoW didn't even launch in Europe until months after it launched in the US. MMOs are the one case where I can see that a global simultaneous worldwide launch might not be possible (as you have to have local servers, billing and support staff for every territory).

I fully intend to wait until a year after launch for the issues to be ironed out and then enjoy it as a big single-player game regardless...

[Rii]

WoW didn't even launch in Europe until months after it launched in the US. MMOs are the one case where I can see that a global simultaneous worldwide launch might not be possible (as you have to have local servers, billing and support staff for every territory).

Yeah, the other way of reading "not available in X at launch" is that they intend to offer dedicated infrastructure (or at least infrastructure closer to home) for other markets rather than - as in the case of WoW - having AU/NZ players (for example) served via US West infrastructure with consequently high ping times.

The only question in my mind is just how much business EA is expecting TOR to do outside the traditional western markets. Do BioWare and Star Wars really have any pull in, say, Korea?

[J Arcane]

This game makes me feel at times like I'm the only kid who can see the Emperor is actually naked. I mean, I know it's Star Wars and all, but it's like the whole freakin' internet is salivating desperately over this game.

But every time I see gameplay footage it just looks awful. Boring, stiff, awkward, it just feels like a bad WoW clone where you have to jump through a dialogue tree to get to another "Get 10 Wampa Asses" quest. Maybe I'm just misreading what I've seen, or maybe I'm just not the Star Wars fan I used to be, but I can't get excited for this game at all, and I've pretty much resolved only to try it once I can do so for free.

So, maybe the Aussie delay will just save you the disappointment? The point upthread about the delay giving you time to see the reviews before dropping on what could be the biggest let down in MMO history.

[R-F]

This game makes me feel at times like I'm the only kid who can see the Emperor is actually naked. I mean, I know it's Star Wars and all, but it's like the whole freakin' internet is salivating desperately over this game.

But every time I see gameplay footage it just looks awful. Boring, stiff, awkward, it just feels like a bad WoW clone where you have to jump through a dialogue tree to get to another "Get 10 Wampa Asses" quest. Maybe I'm just misreading what I've seen, or maybe I'm just not the Star Wars fan I used to be, but I can't get excited for this game at all, and I've pretty much resolved only to try it once I can do so for free.

So, maybe the Aussie delay will just save you the disappointment? The point upthread about the delay giving you time to see the reviews before dropping on what could be the biggest let down in MMO history.

Most reviewers have said, "Ehhh, pretty naff", too. Guild Wars 2 is the bigger draw here, really.

[Rii]

This game makes me feel at times like I'm the only kid who can see the Emperor is actually naked. I mean, I know it's Star Wars and all, but it's like the whole freakin' internet is salivating desperately over this game.

But every time I see gameplay footage it just looks awful. Boring, stiff, awkward, it just feels like a bad WoW clone where you have to jump through a dialogue tree to get to another "Get 10 Wampa Asses" quest. Maybe I'm just misreading what I've seen, or maybe I'm just not the Star Wars fan I used to be, but I can't get excited for this game at all, and I've pretty much resolved only to try it once I can do so for free.

So, maybe the Aussie delay will just save you the disappointment? The point upthread about the delay giving you time to see the reviews before dropping on what could be the biggest let down in MMO history.

By all accounts the folks who're actually playing the game are enjoying it.

WoW is a deservedly popular and critically acclaimed game, so 'a WoW clone with BioWare storytelling tacked on' should in theory be a solid recipe for success. My problem is that it doesn't actually look anywhere near as good as WoW.

TOR is aesthetically terrrible. Granted, it's Star Wars, so that kinda goes with the territory, but it's like they put it through the blandification filter again for good measure. WoW, in contrast, is charming in its colour and vibrancy. On a technical level the game seems to be behind WoW - behind where WoW is now, that is, not 2005, obviously - as well. The UI is ugly, animations are unpolished, everything seems to be the wrong side of 'clunky'.

That the game is still of any interest at all to me is testament to the enduring appeal of lightsabres and the dearth of personal storytelling in MMOs to date.

[Lightbulb]

I think I have realised I am finally over my Star Wars obsession. Couldn't give a damn about the game. GW2 all the way for me.

[QuantaCat]

But DONT YOU UNDERTSANDDNNERDR!!!!==== THE VOICES!!! VOICESSSSSS

[Stormbane]

All we know for certain is that preorders have been blocked in the southern hemisphere and Bulgaria (maybe other countries as well). Reading the bioware forums seems to suggest that the players are expecting a delayed launch for the southern hemisphere and certain countries in Europe, although neither EA nor Bioware have confirmed this. The community have dubbed the excluded regions as 'the red zone'.

Stephen Reid a senior community manager for SW:TOR has commented on his twitter saying we should not expect to find out if there will in fact be a delay in 'the red zone' any time soon (http://twitter.com/#!/Rockjaw/status/95035918091685889). The fact that he doesn't deny that there will be a delay however is sadly enlightening.

I agree with you guys on the previews, the game looks clunky and uninventive but I can't help but want to play it. I guess I'll be putting my hopes in Guild Wars 2.

[Taidan]

As Deano said above, they seem to be following the WoW Launch Formula, but without the 6-month wait for the EU. As has also been said above, this could very well turn out to be a blessing. Still, it's gotta burn if you really are looking forward to the game, and you live in an unsupported country.

What's really got my goat though are two things: One, that they're effectively launching with £15's worth of crap DLC even before Day One. (More if you include the Big Edition of the game.) I really like the crap object collecting metagame in MMOs, but I don't appreciate them trying to gouge me for an extra £20 before I've even played the game to fully take part in it. (£20 figure comes from price of DVD pre-order from amazon.co.uk vs price of "Digital Deluxe", only available as a download from Origin.)

The second thing is the community. They really are, for the most part, a bunch of Grade-A arseholes. The pointless bickering and elitism on the forums is ludicrous. A lot of them have even gone as far as editing their forum sigs to refer to themselves as "VIPs", in a big gold font, and have have started bombing the forums with threads moaning about how everybody else is "jealous" of them, because they've pre-ordered the £150 edition of the game that allows access to an exclusive in-game shop area, which really stretches the definition of being a pathetic basement dweller to brand-new heights.

Now personally, I was looking forward to the game. The idea of WoW+Star Wars+Bioware storytelling sounds like gaming heaven to me, but the twin concepts of being treated little better than a walking wallet for EA's attempts to triple-dip on the price of playing (Expensive boxed copy + currently unknown subscription + inevitable RMT shop) and having to share a gaming space with the kinds of scum and villainy that are currently inhabiting their official forums has really got me considering cancelling my pre-order.

[squirrelfanatic]

Mhhhh.... Wampa Asses. I wholeheartedly agree with Lightbulb. I'll be waiting for GW2 to see if I even can get back into a game like that. To be honest, TOR never interested me that much in the first place, although I used to be a great SW fan. Back in the days, SW:Galaxies was a bigger temptation for me than this is now (although I never played it).

Edit: The point of my post - which I somehow forgot to write - should have been: Can't understand why people get so excited about the game, for good or worse. The pricing seems to be absolutely ridiculous, but if the game works for some people, that's great for them. Maybe a wasted opportunity for using a great setting in an MMO, but then again SW is not what it used to be.

[deano2099]

This game makes me feel at times like I'm the only kid who can see the Emperor is actually naked. I mean, I know it's Star Wars and all, but it's like the whole freakin' internet is salivating desperately over this game.

You should check out the RPS or Eurogamer comments threads then. From what I can tell most people have stripped the Emperor and are doing unmentionable things to him before he even had the new clothes commissioned.

As has been said: WoW-style gameplay + Bioware storytelling should be a recipe for success.

WoW is a solid game. Seven years ago everyone was gushing over it, the central mechanics haven't changed that much. And they're good. Might not appeal to everyone but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with them. I'm kind of fed up with them, but that's because I played WoW for five years. Of course I'm bored now. There's not many games that would stand-up to that much play in the first place. But of course, WoW involves 'grind' doesn't it, where you have to go and kill 20 of something for a quest, which is so different to an FPS or a single player RPG where you have to go from point A to point B and kill 20 things on the way.

There's nothing wrong with WoW, just lots of people played it for a long time and got bored of it, so went around telling other people it was boring and a 'grind' and so a load of people who never played it now also think that. In the meantime, SWOR is going after people that would have liked WoW were it not for the setting, which is probably quite a large number.

[J Arcane]

I could be my perspective is a touch different because, outside of RPS, I mostly read and post to American sites. Maybe the "OMG STAR WARS" factor is less overpowering in Europe?

Don't get me wrong, I love WoW, it's a fine game and a game that does what it does and does it well is fine by me, it just doesn't look like TOR is doing it well at all, and it doesn't really seem to bring anything new to the table other than it's vaunted dialogue trees, which aren't really new at all. EQ2 and Anarchy Online both did that shit years ago.

And what I've seen demonstrated of those dialogue trees in actual play videos is that basically it's just an annoying hoop to jump through to get your quest.

[Rii]

I could be my perspective is a touch different because, outside of RPS, I mostly read and post to American sites. Maybe the "OMG STAR WARS" factor is less overpowering in Europe?

Hmm, that's an interesting notion. Star Wars is definitely an American thing first and foremost, the domestic/foreign split for the Star Wars films (per Box Office Mojo) is ~50/50 which (outside comic-book films which tend to have similar ratios) is unusually high on the domestic side. Still, I would've thought that franchise fatigue would've taken some of the shine off the 'OMG ITS STAR WARS THE MMO!!!!!' factor at this point, esp. given that 'LucasArts' and 'quality control' haven't been on speaking terms for a long while now. But then I guess BioWare brings its own cred in that respect.