It seems to be a misconception a lot of people have, but if SWTOR does a similar thing then great. My main concern about SWTOR would then be its similarity to WoW. Having played both a decent amount, I can tell you they 'feel' almost identical in terms of the combat. SWTOR is far superior in its storytelling, but I'm not sure that's enough to draw in players who want a WoW-style game who've probably already got a lot invested in WoW.
I haven't played WOW so I can't speak there. But another misconception a lot of people get is that SWTOR set out to make a MMO system different from that of WOW, when in reality, Bioware stated from the very beginning that they were going to base SWTOR off of WOW. SWTOR is meant to provide a unique approach to MMOs in terms of storytelling, but a traditional approach in terms of many other MMO systems. Having played to level 50, I know many, many former WOW players who feel that SWTOR went above and beyond, however, in the "traditional" approach and made things much more enjoyable than they had been in WOW (whether it was combat, traveling, content, etc.). So I do know that SWTOR improved over a lot over WOW. Meanwhile, Guild Wars 1 was a completely weird MMO (more like an instanced cooperative online game), and when Arenanet announced that they were going to be making Guild Wars 2, they also said they were going to make something completely new and different than anything else that had been made before. Which is well and good (and I think I'm gonna fall in love with Guild Wars 2 once it finally releases), but many people went on to criticize SWTOR for imitating WOW in light of Guild Wars 2, which isn't fair to SWTOR at all. Besides, WOW wasn't unique or original either - it copied from a lot of MMOs (including Ever Quest 2).
Sounds very similar to what GW2 is doing then, which is great.
Yeah, it's a new system that I think is gonna end up becoming standard in MMOs from now on - yay for innovation and listening to player feedback!
Basically I mean progression in power. There'll be lots of ways to customise the look of your armour though dyes and transmutation stones, and ways to modify the stats with crests. Unlike WoW (and SWTOR if I'm not mistaken), there isn't a specific stat or selection of stats that a specific class *should* get. All of the stats are beneficial to every class in GW2, so it'll come down to balancing them according to your play style.
It is true that Guild Wars 2 doesn't have class-specific attributes, but honestly, it's been that way since Guild Wars 1, so that really isn't anything new. But in Guild Wars 2, this is due to the role-less system, so it's to be expected. SWTOR is traditional, so it does have role-specific classes, but the beauty with that is that almost all classes have access to all roles - which means that 90% of the time, a player can choose a class for a theme and a story rather than for a playstyle. Thus, even though there are class-specific stats in SWTOR, there is still a large amount of variation. Indeed, SWTOR's armor customization system is almost a direct copy of Guild Wars 1's item modification, except on steroids. This is because in SWTOR, armor stats are simply determined by what mods they have in place - so say I enjoy the look of a level 5 piece of armor, I can keep stripping mods from higher level pieces of armor and putting them in my level 5 armor piece, which means my armor can level up with me - I never have to feel obligated to wear a certain piece of armor because of its stats, as said stats are tied with the mods, not the armor itself. And as I said before, the "Match To" system will be coming out soon, which means that color will also be determinable, although not in as dynamic a way as with Guild Wars 2 or even Guild Wars 1's dye system.
Perhaps, but like my dear wife Lollipop () said, the primary benefit of side-kicking isn't being able to go back and do content for getting rewards or for the challenge of it, but rather simply being able to experience it more or less as it was intended to be experienced, AND to prevent friends being separated by huge differences in power.
Indeed - as I said earlier, side-kicking is great for building a social community, so I did appreciate it in Champions Online even if I never used it myself, and I really wish SWTOR had something like that.
In terms of endgame content though, I don't think you can get around the fact that GW2 is based on your skill, and your own decisions you make when creating a build, whereas WoW and SWTOR are heavily based around gear - even if skill certainly factors into it.
To a limited extent, yes. But honestly, unless you're doing Nightmare-Mode Flashpoints and/or Operations, if you know the strategies for the content you're doing and you're good with your build and class, you can easily do Normal-Mode and even Hard-Mode Flashpoints and/or Operations - since I was one of the SWTOR pioneers on my server (playing since Day 1 of Early Access!
), we had to tackle Flashpoints and Operations that way, so I'm speaking from personal experience.
All of the stuff that's grindy in GW2 will not affect character power, it'll all be cosmetic (armour/weapon appearance, achievements, titles), and you'll quickly get access to the best gear available once you reach the level cap. After that, it's a case of whether you can beat the content that is provided using the tools that you've been given (and that everyone will have reasonably easy access to).
That's true, and I also think it's true for SWTOR - that game pretty much rains good gear at the end (again, after hitting level 50, by the end of a week or two, playing casually, I had the best armor available in the game). But yeah, I see what you're saying for GW2.
Oh, and again, thank you for hearing me out and inviting me here. I do enjoy the chance to discuss this with you!