Thursday, December 22, 2011

It's Not A Race

It's out! After years in production, Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially launched. At the cost of US$150 million, the game is the biggest MMORPG to be launched in years. Some even expect it to be the one that finally put a dent in World of Warcraft.

Now the stories from the launch in the U.S are the usual. Long waiting time to enter the game, certain servers being overload and fill to capacity; these are the usual stories from a MMORPG at launch. However one story caught my eye.

Star Wars: The Old Republic maximum level is 50. That means no one can currently go beyond level 50 in the game. Within 12 hours of launch, it seems 2 players have already reached the max.

Now, I know everyone have their own play-style but reaching level 50 is under 12 hours? I won’t ask “how” because I can imagine it happening but I’m interested in “why”? I had played many MMOs before and this is something I could never understand. Why would anyone do that? The quickest I ever reached the maximum level was in DC Online when I reached it in about 3 weeks and the max was only 30 in that game. I mean a MMORPG is an open world where one can explore in, read the background stories of the characters, and generally enjoy themselves in.

Why this race to reach the cap? How much of the world can you explore in under 12hours? To me, this race to the top play-style is one developers should actively discourage.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There r two types of gamers. The first play the game like you and me. Then there are those who play the gamers who play the Game. They are Brotherhood of course, how do you expect them to make money if they don't rush up the hill and plant their flag? Not everyone plays only e game, some play the game within the game.

Understand?

Ghost said...

Sorry but I have no idea what you are talking about.

Gar said...

I've been playing for about 6 hours and my highest level character is level 4. I feel so ashamed.

My only complaint about the game is that it should have come in a single player variety where you can go through it at your leisure without having to pay a monthly fee to play with thousands of other people you could care less about.

Ghost said...

6 hours and just level 4? You must be one of those "alt" guys. Glad you're having fun Gar, the game not out in Asia yet and most of the shops directly importing from America have sold out already. I never played a MMO at launch before but was thinking of doing so for this game. I feel so jealous.