There is a lot of talk going around about SWTOR being a letdown. We’ve already hashed and rehashed the comparisons to other MMOs, WoW in particular. While some say that SWTOR is just not measuring up, there is one who makes a very valid point: maybe we’re not measuring with the same ruler.
I, like many others, have had a pretty critical eye when it comes to SWTOR. We have all earned that when we purchased the game I guess. As consumers we review just about everything we buy. We make purchases on eBay, Amazon or even in-store and we are often asked to give a review of our product. Or at the very least that option is there for us if we so choose. Just like every other game in the last 10 years SWTOR went through the review process from all the big name videogame sites on the net. The problem is that SWTOR was measured with a different set of criteria than its competitors. At least that is what I think.
This really brings up a great topic. Is the game leaving more to be desired or are certain people judging it on the wrong criteria? Everyone keeps comparing SWTOR to WoW today- years after launch. And the most common argument is that WoW didn’t have all those things at launch either. In fact, WoW didn’t have a lot of things, like LFG tool or battlegrounds. It also didn’t have the in-game features that essentially turn the game into Easy Mode. Who remembers actually having to go to Thottbot for something because you spent hours wandering around lost on a quest and no one in Barrens chat could give you an honest answer?
No, WoW didn’t have all those things at launch either but the counter-argument is that SWTOR launched many years after Blizzard launched World of Warcraft and gamers in general are expecting a bit more when it comes to innovation.
This is a point well taken. While WoW might not have had all those things at launch, SWTOR launched many years later and also had opportunity to gain from the advancements that WoW had made and the popularity in the game. BioWare seemed to fall short in many points, launching the game before key elements like the Legacy System were ready and in place.
However, could we still me measuring this inaccurately? It’s not a topic of WoW vs. SWTOR but rather an opinion on SWTOR itself. Did it launch with everything the developers wanted it to have? Nope. Did it launch with everything the gamers wanted it to have? Nope.
But have they continued to advance and grow the game, listening to player feedback and trying to make as many adjustments and additions as they can as quickly as they can do them successfully? Yes!
Quite honestly, I feel like BioWare listens to the player feedback and acts upon it much more openly than Blizzard ever did with WoW. So on that basis alone, we can conclude that SWTOR is a step above WoW on their openness to listen to player feedback and adjust the game accordingly.
So now that we have opened this can of worms, what do you think: Does SWTOR suck or are the standards of measurement unbalanced?
