BioWare Repies to Star Wars: The Old Republic ''WoW Clone'' Comments
BioWare fires back after Star Wars: The Old Republic was described as a "highly derivative" clone of World of Warcraft in a recent E3 2011 report.
Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz recently ruffled the feathers of BioWare (and a few fans) after slamming the upcoming MMOG Star Wars: The Old Republic as a "highly derivative" clone of World of Warcraft. He even went so far as to suggesting that EA hasn't announced a release date because the game will likely not ship this year.
"We got hands-on time with the game, and were largely unimpressed," Creutz said in the firm's E3 2011 report. "Despite promises from EA/BioWare that the title represents a major step forward in MMO design, what we saw was essentially a World of Warcraft clone with Star Wars character skins and the BioWare RPG nice/nasty dialogue tree mechanism bolted on for non-player character conversations."
He also didn't have anything positive to say about the game's visual presentation, calling the scenery and character designs competent but hardly breathtaking. "Granted, we were playing in a desert area, so other areas may be more impressive-looking... on the other hand we question why EA chose a desert level to showcase the title,” he added.
BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka responded to the criticism by not even addressing Creutz's comments directly, saying that the development schedule is currently on track. "We're progressing well," he said. "The fact we're showing it hands-on on the show floor is an indication of our confidence in the quality. We're getting a lot of positive feedback on that. We know how critical it is to launch as a solid game and then have really high quality service afterwards, too. We have plans to do follow-on content and things that'll keep our players engaged and active for years to come."
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk also threw in his two cents worth. "The content's getting there," he said. "We're pretty happy with what we're showing. There's always a lot of refining and polishing. We've pretty well announced the whole range of features. There's such an incredibly large range of things, like crafting, heroic combat, PVP, war zones, end game content – what we call operations, which are basically raids, companion characters, there's all this stuff. All those things all together are looking good."
Zeschuk added that it's not just enough to make the game great. "You have to give great service and you have to be able to support the game on a long-term basis," he said. "So we've devoted a lot of effort and thinking towards how we do that. The beta testing really is a validation of that stuff. At some point we'll be ready to go."
As for the actual launch date, Zeschuk said that EA is guided towards this calendar year. At least, that's what the "big men" have stated. "At the end of the day quality also matters," he added. "And quality of service just as much as quality of game."
So far SWTOR is still slated to launch by the end of the year. As reported, even Blizzard is banking on the game's success, hoping that Star Wars fans who have never played an MMORPG before will get hooked and have a desire to taste other offerings like one particular fantasy-based MMORPG played by millions and millions worldwide.
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Lets face it, theres very few 'kinds' of mmorpg's; the heavily quest based ones like Wow or the sparse quest free-for-alls like... Legends of Kesmai (?)
Perhaps there is yet unseen content which differentiates it from Wow beyond graphics. I have been thinking on that and beleive I have the answer but don't want to give it away. Blizzard can buy my idea if they want to but it won't be cheap. LoL
Bioware "Repies"... Does this mean they threw pies at them? Or do we all get pie!? Cuz that would be awesome... LOL
Cowen is a moron and wouldnt know a good game if it jumped up and bit him on the arse. Fact is there will always be things in a game that are WoW-esque but then again if you think WoW is original in many of its concepts you are sadily mistaken. WoW begged, bored, and stole from many of its mmo predaccessors like EQ.
I wish they would go back to making KOTOR 3... not this crap... Thanks EA management...
It doesn't look like they responded to the WoW clone comment at all. Either way, I completely agree with the complaints towards the game. It's turning into everything that I feared it would. I had slim hope that Bioware would innovate in some way.
WoW clone isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Bioware "Repies"... Does this mean they threw pies at them? Or do we all get pie!? Cuz that would be awesome... LOL
Yes, repies is to apply another layer of pie.
...
From clips i have seen they are using a 8 year old graphics engine that does not support dx10+ this is 2011 i was expecting more.
Bioware was killed when EA bought them out.
There are quite different and original kinds of MMO's. Take Eve online and WoW, two COMPLETELY different games with different styles of play, goals, etc. If they focused on making it a unique game in and of itself instead of trying to copy elements that already exist, maybe it'll get more attention.
This guy would say the same about every FPS since Quake....."well, they are still shooting at each other, so nothing new here." I smell the fear in his comments. This is a MMO based within the lore of Star Wars. The SW fanbase alone will drive this to compete with WoW. I have never played WoW.....I am an FPS online guy. Since this MMO is SW, I am giving it a try.
Makes me feel like I want to come back every time I visit this site because all I see is old news, and everything written by kids who seem that they don't even have a high school diploma.
This guy would say the same about every FPS since Quake....."well, they are still shooting at each other, so nothing new here." I smell the fear in his comments. This is a MMO based within the lore of Star Wars. The SW fanbase alone will drive this to compete with WoW. I have never played WoW.....I am an FPS online guy. Since this MMO is SW, I am giving it a try.
Actually, about the Quake comment, I would REALLY hope new FPS'es are more like it, lol. Borderlands was a good approach to a new FPS mix, but it died by its own hand, lol.
Anyway, on the subject at hand: Blizzard is happy about SWTOR, because of a simple reason: Titan is prolly heading into that (same, maybe) gender of Sci-Fi plus another big bag of things. I wouldn't be surprised about it one bit, actually. "We really hope it does well.. -CHA CHING-", rofl.
Cheers!
Old school MMORPG gamers expect new MMOs to be completely new and revolutionizing, but this was never the aim of Bioware. If a company wants to play it safe, it has to take the road of small incremental improvements, and not try to redefine the genre.
Everything he mentions there, except companions, is already in WoW; but this is alright. Bioware's design focus was to create a polished and solid game similar to WoW, but with a few additions. There's nothing wrong with that, the FPS genre has been doing this small incremental improvements for a long time now, and people don't complain about it as much.
They should have tried to do their own thing. If they wanted a SCIFI mmorpg they should have done mass effect.
Makes me feel like I want to come back every time I visit this site because all I see is old news, and everything written by kids who seem that they don't even have a high school diploma.
Granted, the writing on this site is sometimes incredibly horrid (*cough* Douglas Perry), but if you're going to talk smack about poor writing you might want to work on writing a proper sentence yourself.
There is another kind of MMOs ...
DD
KOREAN GRINDERS !!!!
"Everything he mentions there, except companions, is already in WoW; but this is alright. Bioware's design focus was to create a polished and solid game similar to WoW, but with a few additions. There's nothing wrong with that, the FPS genre has been doing this small incremental improvements for a long time now, and people don't complain about it as much."
And yup EQ has companions in it... Yes WoW is still catching up, since companions will be released by the end of this year...
That reply wasn't much of a reply. They did not deny or imply to deny the comments at all. It's not just Cruetz that is saying it, every single E3 report is saying the same thing, the game looks and plays like WoW with a Star Wars skin. Every gameplay video they've released only confirms this. Sadly Bioware, under the direction of EA, played it too safe. The game will still sell like hot cakes, but those of us hoping for a true "Bioware" MMO will have to wait, or may never get one. Make no mistake, this is EA's attempt at cloning WoW and its success.
You people are nuts. You polish the chrome after it's done not before. You want functionality and that is what they are showing. It's not hard to beef up the graphics.
WoW is just another EQ clone - if it wasn't for EQ success none of this would be happening right now. ALL MMO's are influenced by other MMO's.
oh these days... All it takes to be called a "WOW clone" is you need a game with abilities, level ups, quests, classes, and online players and poof you got a wowclone. have a game with an elf in it and online its suddenly a wow coppy cat.
Its much saying that call of duty and halo are quake clones.
You can't reinvent the wheel, and yet so far the only mmorpg that is not a "wowclone" is eve-online and thats because its pure pvp combat and sandbox style customizations. There's no "classes" or "one role to play" and every ship (character) is customizable to either be dps, tank, healing, or utility without re-rolling.
Haven't played city of heroes, or matrix online or anything of that sort so can't comment....
I just hope bioware focuses on whats considered long term gameplay, lore cannonization, defining what's endgame and not just "level cap pwnage", and how to appeal to the occasional farmer, pvper, 1 hour a day player as well as hardcore 8 hours a day grindage uber pwnage.
P.S.
most importantly making the game balanced. Not uber faceroll mages, constant tweaking of 5%, 10%, 7% 15% 2% with added effect against pvp targets only for abilities every single content patch. or re-structuring classes, re-mapping entire classes, re-working talent trees, breaking, fixing, breaking fixing, making live your beta-test, and most importantly having 90% of the server being 1 particular class (jedi) because they are so OP and refuse to balance out the other classes.
I agree uten, and I think a lot more people are like that to which is a shame. But that's what happens when you get mass people to flock to one game because they made it so easy, and anything could run it. More people more idiots.
O I know lets just make it where nobody can solo anything unless you're one specific class which is known to be overpowered.. Then we can say it's a clone of something else.
Who care wow is for pussy and all clone are fail. Anyways Titan incoming suppose to replace wow, hope its more interesting and no repetition of instance, gear overtime.
They're both everquest clones, as WoW is effectively a polished Everquest. That's acceptable, apparently. I feel safe in saying every single MMO ever made (with the exceptions of Planetside, MAG, that need for speed game, test drive unlimited, and a few select others) uses the Everquest system. More accurately, every *successful* MMO ever made uses the Everquest system.
Apparently it isn't technically feasible to do anything but the Everquest combat system in an mmo, or someone would've tried it already. Too bad, there's a lot of potential in games for more than 64 players at the same time, especially within the star wars universe.
Edit: I'm not trying to compare it to the MMORPG genre. I'm wondering why the only sort of MMO is an MMORPG that uses the everquest combat system. It's apparently not possible to make an MMORacingGame or an MMOFPS or an MMOActionGame or even an MMORPG that uses a different combat system. KOTOR is an interesting game universe, why waste potential by making the same game we already have?
Lets face it, theres very few 'kinds' of mmorpg's; the heavily quest based ones like Wow or the sparse quest free-for-alls like... Legends of Kesmai (?)Perhaps there is yet unseen content which differentiates it from Wow beyond graphics. I have been thinking on that and beleive I have the answer but don't want to give it away. Blizzard can buy my idea if they want to but it won't be cheap. LoL
types of mmos... ok, lets get them
there are mmofps games, but few were ever made
mmorpg are more common
- the eq like - eq defined how to do an mmo right, and it still does. however after eq2 and wow, eq has progressivly went for just catering to the end game players, and not helping the noobies along. at 1 hour of seious play a day, it would take you almost 2 years to get to what is the current end game, and thats assumeing you know what you are doing, if you dont, it could be a 4 year grind even than, a normal 4 hours here and there could take 6 months to scratch the surface of the most recent end game
- there are the psudo mmo- here are the phantasy's stars and where allot of Korean games fall. they have a small subset of people in an instanced area and those 4-8 kill everything leave instance, and re enter... this is barely an mmo
- aisan grindfest - look at almost any asian rpg, they almost all take rediculas ammounts of time to get to the end through repetitive quests, and once you hit the end game there is almost nothing there (ff11) because... who knows.
- quest driven games - these are games where killing enimes, even names, result in so little exp they arent even worth killing without a quest
- pve porn - basicly the quests are over all a joke, and all you really want to do is just kill every mob because they give better no bs exp
-pvp focus- these are the rare ones that focus exclusively on pvp, not great, but not bad either.
and mixed in are more actiony games and games that are more strategic use of skills.
my personal favroite are open world mmorpg, where do what you want where you want and to who you want. i suck at them, but they are fun. see ultima online
I wish they would go back to making KOTOR 3... not this crap... Thanks EA management...
here here
It doesn't look like they responded to the WoW clone comment at all. Either way, I completely agree with the complaints towards the game. It's turning into everything that I feared it would. I had slim hope that Bioware would innovate in some way.
from what i understand, the game is an mmo with a story that isnt just a back drop. that fact alone makes it not a wow clone. if they can pull off a kotor like experience, with a story, online, will be a great alternative.
From clips i have seen they are using a 8 year old graphics engine that does not support dx10+ this is 2011 i was expecting more.
an mmo is suppose to run on everything... you know what, im not explaining this AGAIN... i just wish death on people who @$%@# about graphics, please do us all a favor and stop gaming.
Old school MMORPG gamers expect new MMOs to be completely new and revolutionizing, but this was never the aim of Bioware. If a company wants to play it safe, it has to take the road of small incremental improvements, and not try to redefine the genre.Everything he mentions there, except companions, is already in WoW; but this is alright. Bioware's design focus was to create a polished and solid game similar to WoW, but with a few additions. There's nothing wrong with that, the FPS genre has been doing this small incremental improvements for a long time now, and people don't complain about it as much.
actually... it is. though i dont know about combat, from what i hear, its like kotor, but its story that really brings the game forward.
You people are nuts. You polish the chrome after it's done not before. You want functionality and that is what they are showing. It's not hard to beef up the graphics.
its surprisingly hard, in an mmo at least. but thats not the point. in an mmo there can be 300 people on screen doing anything, not even the most powerful rig on the planet could run the game if he had his way.
Old school MMORPG gamers expect new MMOs to be completely new and revolutionizing, but this was never the aim of Bioware. If a company wants to play it safe, it has to take the road of small incremental improvements, and not try to redefine the genre.Everything he mentions there, except companions, is already in WoW; but this is alright. Bioware's design focus was to create a polished and solid game similar to WoW, but with a few additions. There's nothing wrong with that, the FPS genre has been doing this small incremental improvements for a long time now, and people don't complain about it as much.
WoW has pets as companions...
Who care wow is for pussy and all clone are fail. Anyways Titan incoming suppose to replace wow, hope its more interesting and no repetition of instance, gear overtime.
Titan is not supposed to replace WoW....that has been stated by Blizzard several times already. Titan is intended to compete with WoW...
Seems everyone is forgetting about Space Combat, Complete Voice Over, Personal Housing(Ships), Crew Skills, Companions.
Those are all main features of the game that are not in WoW at all.
Finally if a game that is still in developement can have gameplay that rivals with WoW now (after 6 years of polish) it is a monstrous feat in itself. It just shows that the person who iniatially wrote that article has NO perspective or knowledge of the MMO genre, playability of games and history.
Yeah and WoW was a clone of Dark Age of Camelot and Everquest....they all pull something from their rivals. Any MMO that comes out now will be compared to WoW and I will give it to them they have had the pedestal for a while now but there are and have been better MMO's.
I really really hope SWTOR becomes the top MMO.. so other MMO's/journalists always compare everything that comes out in the MMO world to SWTOR. WOW is such a dumbed-down game, the graphics are so outdated it is not even funny. Yes, it is a fun game, and i do play it, but arena is just too simplified now.. getting 2800 was easy the past 2 expansions. I pray that SWTOR takes the throne of MMOs.
WoW clone isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Agree. I would play it for a few months for that reason alone.