Did SWTOR Fall Short of Expectations?

Since the release of SWTOR in December, we have brought you news, reviews, updates, funnies and everything else we can find SWTOR related. Most of our readers are fans of the game or fans of Star Wars. However, we would not be fair and unbiased if we only brought you news of the good stuff. There are some fans and gamers who feel let down by SWTOR.

In some ways, I have to agree with the points they make. While I still play the game and intend to keep playing, there are some areas of the game that I am disappointed in. I feel like BioWare made some pretty big promises that were hard to back up.

The Picky Geek has some reasons why they think SWTOR fell short as well:

  1. The bugs – “From graphical quirks to game breaking glitches, SWTOR’s seen them all. While every game has bugs, this one had some that interfered with the very core of gameplay and stayed there for an extended period of time.”
  2. The community- “While there’s a small amount of novelty in being berated for idiocy by a player whose name shows up as Yo’mama Isa’ho, it quickly wears off when you realize the only way you’re going to get anything done in a group is to play with people you know. You’re forced to deal with these idiots or quit. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option for some people, so they were forced out a large chunk of the game.”
  3. The lack of endgame- “As everyone knows, the heart of an MMO is what happens after you’ve reached max level. Will you group up and kill some of the biggest, baddest bosses in the galaxy? Or will you wipe out the opposing faction in PvP battlegrounds? SWTOR raises a third question. Did you like the movie Groundhog Day? Because no matter which option you choose there’s going to be a whole lot of repetition.”
  4. The customer service- “What’s maddening is that it’s still awful. Most of it is automated, and when you do manage to get ahold of a human, they speak in broken English and fail to solve anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if I walked into BioWare Ireland and saw nothing more than a bunch of crash test dummies, given life by some arcane and unspeakable magic, conducting their customer service jobs.”

He does add that all of these problems are fixable, which I agree with. The question is will BioWare fix them quickly enough before losing a lot of potential players? I have not had any problems with the Customer Service department but this reviewer mentions he’s contacting BioWare Ireland so maybe that’s where the problem lies.

The bugs I can agree with. Although I see BioWare taking steps to fix them as quickly as possible, I do feel like the game was a bit rushed- most likely so they could get that Christmas 2011 launch. It could have done with a bit more polish first.

I don’t have a lot of complaints about endgame personally, but I know most everyone else does. In fact, I rarely even see most of the level 50s on in my guild anymore. It’s like they hit 50 and stopped playing.

The community issue is a 50/50. On my server, the trolls and craziness is at a minimum. I’m not bothered too much by it and I just ignore the foolishness in general channels. PvP can get heated sometimes and usually has a few trolls but it’s nothing game-breaking for me. However, I’ve heard gamers from other servers complain like this reviewer did so I guess it’s a case-by-case basis.

Read the full report and let us know if you agree. Have your experiences been bad like this or did one player just have a bad run of it?

Lisa Clark

Lisa has been an avid gamer since she was old enough to hold her first controller and a game writer for more than a decade. A child of the Nintendo generation, she believes they just don’t make games like they used to but sometimes, they make them even better! While consoles will always be her first love, Lisa spends most of her gaming time on the PC these days- on MMOs and first-person shooters in particular.