SWTOR Vs. WoW: Impressions from a Long Time MMORPG Fan

I've been playing MMORPGs since I was a little girl. I've played World of Warcraft (WoW) since it launched seven years ago and also played Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) since beta. I write for a SWTOR fan site and over the years, I wrote a great deal about WoW, too.

I'm certainly not the first to make the comparison between the two games as it's been happening for years now and even more since the December launch of SWTOR. Both games are too vast to cover every detail in one review but here is an overview of comparisons between the two games.

Character Creation and Customization

Character creation and customization in both games is nice. While WoW has more character races and classes to choose from, SWTOR has more customization by far. You can use the slider bars to personalize minute details of your character. If I had to choose a winner, SWTOR is my favorite for character creation and customization.

Storyline and Questing

When it comes to storyline and questing, BioWare set out to do what no game had done previously. The story is really what sets SWTOR apart from any other MMORPG, as many of the other features are the same. They tried to make their game stand out by packing in a great deal of story and reducing grinding quests as much as possible. The result reminds me a great deal of the early days of WoW.

I still remember when not everyone knew every quest in the game and there were no mods, guides or location finders to help you get around. There were no dots on your mini map showing you where to go and what to do. You had to read the quests, you had to understand the clues and you had to figure it out. WoW is not like that today and quite honestly, it's gotten boring. SWTOR finds a new way to achieve what WoW had when it first came out- interesting storyline and intriguing quest story arcs.

Multi-Player Experience

BioWare has done a unique thing with SWTOR and created a multiplayer game that could be played straight through like a single player RPG. You can immerse yourself in your own story and your character's class quest line or you can choose to break and group up with others when and where you want. Multi-player experiences are not necessary to enjoy the game but are available throughout and BioWare highly encourages players to experience all that the game has to offer through the multi-player options.

WoW has a strong multi-player experience but having been out for so long, it has created a haven for trolls and tricksters (not that other games don't have this as well but WoW tends to have a lot of them). Unless you are in a raiding guild, you have to PUG (pick up group) WoW end game content and this is often a disaster waiting to happen. There are just not as many players playing and enjoying the content anymore so finding a good group for things can be tough.

WoW has cross-server group finding capabilities which means you get in a group much faster but with a price. The anonymity means that players you group with are more likely to be jerks, ninja-looters or flaky. BioWare has said this is one reason they do not want to introduce cross-server grouping options at this time.

End Game Experience

The end game experience in SWTOR is going to start off a little slower, seeing as how it's a new game and there still aren't that many people to max level yet. Depending on your server population, there may not be a lot of people at the level cap yet and you may have to wait for others to catch up. However, there is plenty to do in end game SWTOR such as PvP, Ilum, professions, flashpoints and more.

WoW has a 7-year head start and while it's end game content is pretty good, the problem for long time players is that it gets repetitive. For someone who just started playing in Cataclysm, it might still be fun. Firelands gave everyone a little something extra to do for those progressive guilds that had already done the rest. My guild actually quit after Firelands to prep for SWTOR (and many of us were in SWTOR beta by that point).

For those gamers who are used to the WoW end game experience, SWTOR might first seem like a let-down but for those who have grown bored with Blizzard's brainchild, BioWare gives you something new- something different.

For me, it's a relief. I was hooked on WoW for quite some time. I have quit and returned over the years and tried hundreds of other MMOs- free and pay to play but now, for the first time in seven years, I have cancelled my subscription to WoW without feeling bad about it one bit.