Bio Ware Shoots, they score, with a CG trailer.
Again, this is a trailer and not ingame footage…I mean lets take a look at the awesome WAR trailer compared to actual in game play… doesn’t match up.
I want some ingame vids before I plunk down a large chunk of change on another MMO.
That actually looks pretty interesting… though I think I’ll wait for late beta gameplay videos to get too excited.
Yup, definitely cool looking cinematic. Let’s see what they deliver and how much of it.
…once bitten I guess, eh. 
Tobold has the same thoughts that we’re going “ga-ga” over the game just over this trailer. Actually, he thinks that the game is already reaching over-hype:
Just have a look at the latest SWTOR news: There is a new cinematic trailer out everybody is drooling over. There is so much excitement about this trailer, that people are willing to overlook two minor details: This isn’t how the game is going to look, and this isn’t how the game is going to play. In fact, the trailer could have been a trailer for any other Star Wars product and nobody would have been any wiser.
I respectively disagree with all of you for this very reason because you’ve all missed the point in my little mind. For the record, I liked the trailer not because of the game that is behind it, but because it was a great piece of Star Wars entertainment. I would even argue that this is the best piece of Star Wars media that we have seen in a long, long time. Personally, I don’t care if the game comes out and the graphics are all ACSII and it involves plucking chickens. That trailer was of the type of quality that Star Wars fans have been cheated out of for years and I’m just glad it was put out there.
Is the game over-hyped? No…I don’t think so at this point, because we haven’t seen the game yet. Is the Star Wars lore and story behind the game getting hyped? Yes…and I would argue that this is the right way to do it and it’s a distinction that we should keep in mind. Remember, Bioware has no equivalent of a Paul Bernett out there making “KABOOM” and “GLORIOUS!!” statements about game play. That would be hype. Bioware has not hyped itself into a corner and it really doesn’t need to…the Star Wars IP does that without any help. Watching a trailer about a great piece of Star Wars lore, is not hype.
Will this be the game? No…of course not…and it would be ridiculous for any of us to expect that type of fidelity in our games from any company. So, why don’t we just all put our grumpy old man hats away and just enjoy that great piece of Star Wars media and worry about the game later.
D out.
Entries (RSS)
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:12 am
Yeah, gotta be careful not to confuse ‘what we want’ with ‘what we will get’. Trailers like that inspire the imagination which is what gets people worked up.
Frickin’ awesome trailer though!
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 am
I think you’re playing an odd little semantics game here, Darren.
Bioware has released a high quality trailer in support of a game for the express purposes of marketing that game. They’re not spending their money to produce lore for the sake of lore…. they’re spending it to promote a game – and like it or not, that feeds into the hype cycle.
So yes – you may have enjoyed the trailer because it was a nice artistic piece of “Star Wars entertainment”, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the trailer is designed explicitly to hype a forthcoming game.
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:33 am
Also if you want a peak at combat game play, you can always just load up the Trooper trailer. It’s not like they’re trying to hide their game play from the prying eyes of the masses here. (http://www.swtor.com/media/vidcasts/devdispatch003 <- the trailer btw)
Overall, I don’t think they’re running a hype bandwagon. I mean yeah, they’ve got publicity on steady burn, but they aren’t really throwing millions of dollars into advertising campaigns here. Honestly, if they hadn’t released a trailer at E3, the cry wouldn’t be, “Bioware avoids hype to everyone’s satisfaction” it would be “Bioware conspicuously absent at E3.”
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
Either I have high expectations or I get bit a lot.
AC, AC2, VG, AoC, WAR, TR, DDO…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 am
I would agree that the visuals are some of the best I’ve seen in a Star Wars media. Hell, that is probably what Clone Wars should have been and I would have been glued to the TV every week.
However, I thought you were saying “Oh Dear Gawd” to how sweet the game must be if the trailer is this good. Your comment was very vague. Also, a ton of people, who have also posted the same video have also commented on how they look forward to playing this awesome game due to the CG trailer, it only made sense that, coupled with your short message that you might have felt the same. Where upon I responded by giving my opinion of what I would expect from the actual game.
Course, even without that, it would still make sense to voice an opinion about possible game play since, well, its a trailer for a GAME and not a some other form of media.
Sorry, only one cup of coffee this morning.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
@Smaken: AC1? Get it away from that list…
As for SWTOR, basing your hype around the “4th pillar of story” leading everyone to the promised land, this is a great way of say ‘we have not been paying attention to the MMO space since 97′. And with the masses moving even further away from long-arching story and towards casual mini-games, this might be a tough sell to pull off. Granted Bioware has yet to disappoint, but so far what has been shown/said has failed to impress or reassure me.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
Well written – my thoughts as well except that seeing something that well done makes me cry a little for the crimes of George Lucas in the last 3.5 films.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 am
What are ACSII graphics!?
Shame on you Darren… and aren’t you an engineer? =)
I was away this weekend and hadn’t had a chance to catch up on my gaming news. When I popped open my feed reader last night it was overflowing with boatloads of responses and opinions to the SWTOR video….
Now I may be going out on a limb here, but doesn’t the community as a whole, bloggers included, contribute to the hype frenzy? All Bioware did was plop a video up at E3… It seems like everyone has had to chime in about how the video does/does not represent the game well etc…
Isn’t that just feeding the monster? Just watch the video and enjoy it for what it is.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 am
I kind of have to agree with Andrew here. The sole purpose of this video is to make the game look epic by pimping their “fourth pillar” (ie. story). Thus, it is hyping their game.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Of course it is hype. Awesome, delicious, mouth-watering hype. Of course that was just a pre-rendered scene. They aren’t trying to trick you into believeing it was anything other than that. However, the same people behind that pre-rendered scene … the voice acting, the story, the graphics and overall art direction are the same people making this game.
So, yeah. It is hype and I am HAPPILY buying into it. Well played Bioware.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
I have to chime in here. Long time reader, first time poster. Is Bioware feeding the hype machine? Of course they are. They are saying “Hey come over here and look at what we have in the shiny box. You can’t touch the shiny box yet, but here is a quick peek inside.” Is it a bad thing? Only if they are trying to sell us on WAR everywhere *cough* err I mean Jedi vs Sith on a scale not before seen in a decent SW IP. This is a just a trailer for a game that is about to be born. A really GOOD trailer but just a trailer. Those of us around long enough to know trailers do not mean in game ‘get it’. The hype monkeys who throw money, then feces at developers to get in line will never ‘get it’.
Short answer: this gets the community excited and hungry for a potential hit by a solid developer. The dark side of this is Bioware sets a tone they never intend to follow. Sound familiar anyone?
“It’s just a story with moving pictures” Looking forward to see if the pictures tell a story I want to be a part of.
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I’ll second this article — hear hear!
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I have to agree, I don’t see a lot of hype coming out of BioWare. This isn’t like Warhammer Online or Age of Conan that were touted as the next great evolution of the MMO. BioWare just released a crazy incredible trailer, a couple of class videos and some game details. I don’t see any company-generated hype.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Its an awesome trailor, and a very close second to Warhammer’s for ‘best ever’. It captures the fact that in the SW universe, even popular characters die. Its pretty cool the way it represented 4 different class types that I could see – bounty hunter, sith, jedi, and…well red shirt :p
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
[...] experienced a fan backlash when players perceived that they did not meet those targets.Darren of the Common Sense Gamer disagrees and believes that the Star Wars lore is being over-hyped, not the game itself. He also argues that [...]
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’m not seeing much SW:TOR hype, but then I’m not especially looking for it.
Hey, Warhammer trailers. Remember the one with the Chopper fighting the Slayer? That was great.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
[...] volume and rumble was impressive. No, the game won’t look and feel like the trailer, no game could, but hot damn! Lucas, do you have a copy of this [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
The trailer was so awesome I’ll buy the game even if it sucks. Why you ask? Just to pay them back for making me feel like I was watching Star Wars back in the late 70’s early 80’s. I had goose bumps. Sure its hype, but so what, it was awesome. If they could just make more of these trailers, perhaps a two hour one….
June 4th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I was entertained in that 5 minute trailer than I was by the last three films. I say /thumbsup and agree with Darren completely.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
typo ..entertained MORE is what I meant
June 7th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I think it was a very good trailer (the best Star Wars media in years, indeed), and a nicely excecuted marketing strategy.
BioWare has had a history of never delivering unfinished products. I believe that if they are releasing this awesome cinematic trailer now, they’ll surely show us more awe-inspiring trailers in the months (years?) ahead, and that these are probably intended to show investors this could be a good place where to put their money, and at the same time to get the Internet Spotlight on their game.
I’m not overhyped after watching the trailer, despite being a big Star Wars fan. I played Galaxies in the beta test and then when it came out, and I still remember very well how disappointed I felt when I tried it. I hope, and would expect it from BioWare’s high quality standards that this will come out polished enough not to be yet another MMO with lots of initial subscribers who leave after the first 30 days.