Jun 23, 2011

Posted by in Blue Milk & Cereal, Columns | 20 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Are You Going To Miss Swimming?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, Joanis and the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

As you stroll through the Jedi compound on Tython, you are continually awestruck by the beauty of the planet. The landscape is dotted with sparkling lakes and one with a particularly beautiful waterfall catches your eye. You run over to check it out. As you stand at the edge, you wonder how deep it is. You stare at it, sigh, and walk away. There will be many more unexplored lakes in your future. Somewhere in your Jedi training they forgot to include the skill of swimming.

Aion, World of Warcraft and other popular MMOs all offer the ability to swim. One could even say that swimming has become a standard feature of modern MMOs. When BioWare announced that swimming would not be included at TOR’s release, there was a massive outcry from TOR’s community. Citing that they would have to create underwater content to justify adding swimming, BioWare’s Georg Zoeller responded that it’s something they might do at a later time.

So, are you going to miss swimming? Do you think adding swimming at a later date is a bad thing? Will it affect your decision to buy TOR?

Does the lack of swimming in TOR surprise you?

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Does the lack of swimming in TOR bother you?

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  1. Yes it was surprising, and yes it bothers me some. If one of the pillars is exploration, this is really putting a crimp on the “feeling” that we can freely explore. Same goes with flying vehicles/mounts.

    • I think it was a conscious sacrifice to make the game more streamlined for release, and I mean…is being able to swim in water for 10 minutes (with absolutely nothing around or underneath you) or fly around–which is completely lore-breaking–that crucial to your experience?

      I think that’s just not the game they’re trying to sell

      • Lethality says:

        Then perhaps “exploration” as a pillar is a bit of a stretch, eh?

        And who says there won’t be anything around you… some basic underwater set decoration and the addition of potential resources such as minerals, aquatic plantlife, etc.

        In the end, it’s an immersion-breaker to not at least be able to go in and take a look around.

  2. I could care less about swimming and will not miss it in this game.

  3. Lethality says:

    I’m definitely puzzled why this doesn’t bother people, yet they were surprised by it.

    As far as me, it just wasn’t even on the radar as something that might not be in… and I’m disappointed in the opportunity for exploration it castrates.

    • ScreamAndRoar says:

      I don’t recall you complaining once about swimming during your playtime at #SWTOUR.

      It seems to me it’s one of those things that troubles you far more as a concept than an in-game reality.

      It’s entertaining to watch you rage about it though and it’s reminiscent of a prequel hater raging about Jar-Jar like it will make any difference.

      • Lethality says:

        If the planet were Earth, with 2/3 of it covered by water, that would mean 2/3 of it were un-explorable. Hardly a pillar.

        Anyway, thanks for the click and traffic :)

    • Pashtun says:

      It’s really not that hard to understand. Most are probably surprised because no matter, how poorly it is done, it is in most mmos. Most people don’t care that it is not in ToR, because it is usually poorly done. It is in no way immersion breaking for me. It added nothing to other mmos except immersion breaking swimming in heavy plate armor and fighting in water as if on land, it was just silly.I assume we will get it in an expansion with a few water worlds with content to support it.

    • Shadowmant says:

      It surprised me because it’s such a common MMO feature. I’m not disappointed because I’ve never seen an MMO implement it in a way that was anything but dissapointing. I’d rather them not have the feature instead of having a poorly implemented feature.

  4. Chorusboy says:

    If memory serves, we didn’t see any Jedi swim till Lucas did episode 1. Swimming is over rated since everyone hates quests and areas under water anyways. Seems like they are just avoiding as many initial player problems as possible. Talk all you want about realism but how is your Jedi supposed to use a super heated blade of plasma in an underwater environment. Too many questions and not enough answers.

  5. I wasn’t all that surprised, but really, I could care less. In any MMO where I could swim, I had less-than-fond memories of doing so. The fact of the matter is, the only game that did swimming right was Dark Age of Camelot, and only for the Atlantis expansion. Otherwise, having to map a TON of space underwater would just take up needless resources.

    And people say that it kills exploration, well what exactly do you want to be at the bottom of tython? A few fish that you can kill? If you want underwater exploration, petition Bioware for an underwater update. They have said that this is really the only way they’ll bring in swimming, if there’s a dedicated quest or story to it.

    Plus my blaster will thank me when it doesn’t rust.

  6. I was surprised when I learned it wouldn’t be in the game. After all, as you said it “has become a standard feature of modern MMOs.”

    On the other hand, it would break (and does break in almost every MMO) the sense of immersion. No MMO has ever done swimming, either movement, breathing, or combat remotely well in water. Combat especially is hilarious (lightning underwater? really? spells that require somatic components shouldn’t work as well underwater? fireball? right out.). There is no good way to do this well in a Star Wars universe (lightsabers and blasters? underwater?).

    As far as castrating exploration, these aren’t real worlds. What I mean by that is that they are not precreated. The time spent creating underwater content is time that directly reduces time creating other content. As the content underwater is already castrated by the medium, I have no problems with doing away with it and focusing on fuller, more robust content.

  7. While it surprises me that it’s not included, I can’t think of a single time when I’ve ever thought, “oh boy! Time for an underwater mission!”

    That, and the only underwater Star Wars action I can think of right now is on Naboo, with That Supporting Character Who Shall Not Be Named. Not exactly inspiring me to root for underwater missions.

    • Darth Strom says:

      I agree, underwater missions will not be missed. However, I do hope they add the ability to explore at some point. Not everything in an MMO has to be scripted.

  8. Slavakov says:

    Real men use boats. Swimming is overrated.

  9. The ONLY thing I can see swimming bothering people is what Lethality said about the whole immersion. But that’s it.

    Swimming is always frustrating and the quests and combat just blow. Granted, exploration, sure it hurts it But we have to ask ourselves this. How many planets (in game) will have water that we can swim in? And even then, how much water would be on that planet? I’m willing to bet not a whole lot of planets and even the planets with water, won’t have that much water. Just my opinion.

  10. DarthShnooky says:

    I’ll miss it for about 3/8 of a second the first time i try to jump into some water. Then i’ll move on and get back to enjoying the game and never look back. I’m sure there will be plenty to see, explore, and kill on land without wrestling with terrible underwater mechanics (rogue in WoW i’m looking at you).

  11. I won’t miss swimming since It was a painful experience in WoW, always have to look you have enough air being slower, and how the hell I could swim life a fish with 400 pounds of metal on the back a horse in my bags and 2000 gold coins. However I was very disappointed when I learned that there won’t be a night and day feature.

    I know it’s such a simple thing but I know it will be something I will miss when I will be playing, on the plus side dynamic shaders are not to hard to code with luck we will get it in a expansion.

    still sad I won’t be able to hunt Jawas at night… tatooine doesn’t have a tidal lock c’mon.

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