Why WoW?

Having no game time and no money for any I've re-download Star Wars: The Old Republic to play the free trial to level 15. I initially played SWTOR back in 2011 when there was a free weekend. Being back on SWTOR has got me thinking - what is it about WoW that I enjoy and that makes it the MMORPG for me.

I was very happy to see they'd kept with
already established species.
This is a female Cathar called Yael.

Being an avid Star Wars fan I was extremely excited when SWTOR was announced. I signed up to their emails and followed the games development. When the game came out I didn't buy it and decided to wait for a trial and try it out first. I remember the day I received an email saying I was invited to a free weekend. Once the game client was downloaded I got straight online. It's probably worth pointing out that at this point I did not have my own WoW account. I had however experienced the game so had some idea about MMORPGs etc.

So there I was, in the Star Wars universe, something I'd dreamt of! I was literally looking for a reason to buy SWTOR. How disappointed I was. I wasn't a fan of the character creation system and found myself going 'back' an awful lot. Once I'd settled on a class and race and gotten into the world I found it too quiet for my liking. I mean, I enjoy questing and leveling alone, but this was so quiet that I rarely saw other players. In a bid to make the experience better I got my boyfriend to join me. But this only frustrated me, well us, by highlighting the annoyance of class specific quests. Fair enough if they were teaching me something about my class or abilities but more often than not they weren't.

Don't get me wrong - it wasn't all doom and gloom. I enjoyed the area looting and the fact it was Star Wars. And more importantly... It highlighted what I wanted in a MMORPG and just how many of these boxes WoW ticked! I subsequently started playing WoW and hadn't given SWTOR a second thought - until this week.


Couldn't help but notice how my character sat down!

Since my first experiences of SWTOR the game has had some major changes. Namely server merges and the implementation of switching to free-to-play in the near future. So how have these changes altered the games appeal to me? It's certainly a lot busier in game and that really was my main dislike. I haven't played a great deal, yet, but there's no doubt in my mind that going F2P could have gained SWTOR another player, namely me. Having said that I can't see myself leaving WoW and going completely over to playing SWTOR. I've worked hard to level my characters, professions etc. and lets face it - I couldn't just give up pet battling! I guess I'll just see how I find playing SWTOR this second time round.