I love Massively.com and their podcast Massively Speaking, but I had to reply to their constant negativity on SWTOR. Hit the jump for my response in their comment section.

I have been following this podcast for a while, and I love it. I also love reading the columns here, and I even referenced the podcast on Wildstar Radio (wildstarradio.com) in Episode 5 when we talked about Bree’s Wildstar interview (though I did accidentally call her the senior editor when I meant to say Editor in Chief, my apologies 🙂 ). I follow Justin’s blog and “other podcast” lol. You guys do great work.

That being said, one thing that has really bothered me recently is that pretty much every time you reference SWTOR, you are almost completely negative about it. I know it’s had its issues, but in short, it is still a fantastic game, and it is far better than it was at launch. To say that in your personal opinion you like GW2 or TSW better for story is fine, but the story content in GW2 is sorely lacking comparatively, just to give an example; that is MY personal opinion. You have five stories in GW2, one for each race. There may be more story in the later levels, but to be frank, I lost interest around level 20, as I do not enjoy exploration, and it forces you to do that to level at any remarkable speed.

You have eight class stories alone in SWTOR, plus companion stories (40 to be exact), world arcs (14 planets x 2 for Imperial and Republic), detailed stories for flashpoints and dungeons (17 total, but 4 are linked into 2 arcs, so 15), story arcs to go with each raid (4), and it has an expansion coming out that has even more. That is 95 individual, wrapped-up stories for your consumption, plus an expansion in the works for even more story, with enough to produce 10% more levels of content anyway. In addition, the story is compelling, interesting, and shocking even (haha sorcerer joke). No other game in the market can compare (again in my opinion) to this one in terms of overarching, interwoven story. I challenge you to watch all of the Youtube class story cutscenes (since you won’t play the game). See if you aren’t wowed by the interconnecting pieces of the class and companion stories. Even the world arcs are sometimes affected by the class stories. Want to know why the Supreme Chancellor is different when going into the raid content and getting your briefing? Ask the Bounty Hunter. Want to know why Malgus defects in The False Emperor flashpoint? Ask the Imperial Agent. Want to know why the Sith Warrior even has a Chapter 3? Ask the Jedi Knight.

By only looking at the surface and first few levels of one class, you are robbing yourself of the experience of the whole, and completely missing the point. My reaction is the same every time I hear you guys bash SWTOR as yours probably was to my GW2 comment above. I don’t actually believe that GW2 has a bad story, but it makes a point.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, but I think the constant spiral of negativity that plagues the fansites that actually still write positive things about the game is additionally propagated when a respected and usually unbiased site like Massively continues to focus only on the negative aspects of a great game that hundreds of thousands (and suspected over a million now) players still enjoy.

Wow, that was one sentence. I am sorry, Bree. Forgive my english skills, as I am a chemist.

Remember, I write this as a fan that loves the show. I just want to be able to listen to it and not hear the comments that I get all the time as a writer on TORWars and Corellian Run Radio that lambast the game for no reason except that they personally didn’t like it. Treat it as a work of art should be treated: subjectively.