Hello everyone, it has been some time hasn't it?
Things have been pretty busy on my end and I haven't had the inspiration to properly upkeep my blog until today. Lately I have been taking care of a few personal matters and have gotten more and more into MMO's. Of late, I got really into SWTOR. (Star Wars The Old Republic) I've played SWTOR on and off since The Hutt Cartel expac. I've got both expacs now (Hutt and Revan's expac) and much of the digital update content.
After spending many years playing WoW I can honestly give some constructive feedback on SWTOR and WoW.
Before I begin though, a few points.
1) I don't believe in censorship and I WILL swear a lot.
2) I should fairly point out that I think WoW is a GOOD not a GREAT game. It ONCE was a great game but no longer is one. I will state my views on this later.
3) After playing SWTOR for a long time now (And almost have my first level 60, max level character!!!) I can honestly say that SWTOR has the superior quest pack and better presented story telling package overall.
Now, on to the point of this post.
I wanna start this piece by saying that this is MY own opinion. I'm not trying to hate on Blizzard or Bioware, I'm trying to simply get a few things off my chest. The key thing being that I believe both WoW and SWTOR are fantastic games. They both have strong points and weak points. And after I've played SWTOR for the length of time that I've played it, I can honestly point out one key flaw that WoW has. It's not the economy (Which I will get into), it's not any specific expac, it's not the PVP (Which in my opinion is VERY broken) and it's not all the grief players that log on Trade Chat every day just to make us sane (Or insane) cats lives' miserable.
My BIGGEST problem with WoW as a whole is something that Blizz could have fixed during The Mists of Pandaria expac. Instead, they fell into a HUGE trap of pandering to "end-game" content and NEGLECTING the rest of the game. There's an entire world on Azeroth that has decent content that has almost never been overhauled. In fact, some of the zones quest mechanics are virtually identical to their Burning Crusade counterparts. This is a HUGE problem. One of the biggest complaints I hear about when I encounter fellow WoWers (And this is something I share with them) is how BORING and uninspired the quest pack for WoW actually is.
You mean to fucking tell me that the best you can do ALL the way until you get to (Basically) Outlands level at sixty is fetch and kill quests? Blizzard really? For 100 levels you have us doing the same basic quest over and over. No wonder people are upset with the game developers and the current product as it exists.
Now, I am someone who keeps a pretty neutral stance on a lot of these matters. But my OWN personal issue with WoW isn't actually the boring/repetitive quest pack. It's the fact that the quest pack is dated. Most zones got merely COSMETIC changes during the Cataclysm expac. During Wrath of the Lich King, some zones also got minor changes. And that's literally been it. The quest pack has basically been the same quest pack since Nilla WoW and it will likely NEVER change.
That's my biggest problem/concern with WOW. After getting my main character to level 100 and playing through much of Draenor's content, I was not impressed. I liked SOME of the quest(s) and what not but I didn't feel drawn into the world of Draenor. I think blizzard was so caught up in the garrisons that it missed the key element.
Now here is my favorite aspect of Draenor. I play BOTH Horde and Alliance, but on different servers and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Thrall back in action. There were tons of NPC's showing up that I had SOME familiarity with since I played basically as far back as Nilla WoW and Burning Crusade expac. Khadgar being one of the most notable of these NPC's. I enjoyed the Tanaan Jungle content a lot and thought it was an awesome quest chain right up to where you initially first get your Garrisons base.
My main favorite aspect of Draenor is the fact that your deeds ACTUALLY get acknowledge. No longer are you an obscure figure doing deeds in the shadows. Instead, you are a mighty Commander who people refer to as a Hero. THAT alone is well worth the price of admission for Draenor after we've done all this shit to get to Draenor in the first place. 90 levels, many expacs, several zones across Azeroth and countless dungeon runs and PVP headaches. You start Draenor at about level 90 and then work your way up to level 100, the new cap.
AFTER the Tanaan Jungle quest chain is over it's back to business as usual with the same old quest pack mechanics. Nothing TERRIBLY new was added with the quest interface in Draenor at all.
THAT is my hugest problem with WoW.
Now conversely, let's take a look at SWTOR.
Here you have an actually VIBRANT setting and lore set in a KNOWN universe/reality. The character(s) in this universe all have their own agenda and all have their own motivation(s) or lack thereof. Star Wars Expanded Universe lore is amazing in it's own right. In my OWN opinion far superior to Star Wars movielore. But that's an opinion piece for another discussion. Tonight, we're discussing comparisons between SWTOR and WoW. Now the biggest thing I will talk about with SWTOR tonight is the quest pack and PRESENTATION of the quest pack.
Swtor has an immersive quality that sucks you right in from the first moment you watch your introductory movie and get right into your chosen Class quests. SWTOR presents to you a large variety of sometimes difficult situations and presents you with choices as to what you will DO with said situations. These choices can either be POSITIVE or Negative. (Light Side/Dark Side of The Force) and grant you points based on the situation. The responses alone for some of these choices are PRICELESS. SWTOR goes out of it's way to present a much more mature quest package with varying themes of survival, conquest and mystery.
You start off as the lowly level 1 character you first make and end up going all the way to end-game, level 60 (Revan) content. I think the fact that bioware CARED about it's quest pack says a huge deal about the presentation of SWTOR And I feel this is the key different that will SECURE SWTOR's long-term survival against WoW's.
For WoW to survive another TEN years of life, Blizz MUST overhaul the presentation of the quest package. I think that will be VITAL to WoW's survival.
In any event I know I have given you guys a LOT to think about. I tried to be fair and neutral as I possibly could. Any feedback from you guys is always appreciated.
Stay classy, WORLD.
~Pavel Vargas
