Many of you have asked me to comment on whether or not you should play SWTOR or Skyrim this weekend. Bioware has already sent out invitations to this weekend’s test (the first in a few weeks) and you’re now faced with whether or not you should test the next big MMO on the horizon or play during the first weekend of one of the most anticipated game releases in years.
I can’t break the NDA that I have agreed to, but I can speak relatively and give you a hand walking through this logically.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a MMO. Based on everything made publicly available during events, we know it to be very theme park in its design.  However, we, the players of MMOs, have never had a story-driven MMO quite like SWTOR. Bioware has implemented their story telling abilities into an online setting. The outcome of blending the two, theme park and story, creates something quite unique (despite being familiar). It deserves a chance on those merits alone.
Why not play SWTOR for at least 30 minutes? I’m of the mindset that a game can tell me almost everything I need to know within the first 5-10 minutes, so 30 should suffice. This might be your only opportunity to try the game before it comes out. It is, essentially, a free trial. (Note: be a good little tester and report a bug or two.)
Skyrim will be there waiting for you. I assume that you have already purchased Skyrim if this is even an issue for you. Skyrim is a single-player RPG that will be completed on your schedule at your pace. Play Skyrim the first minute it’s available and then try SWTOR a day later. If SWTOR hooks you, awesome; it’s available until the end of the weekend. If not, go back to Skyrim and slay dragons.
Me? I’ll be playing Skyrim, but I’ve been testing SWTOR for a month.
Not much of a dilemma for me since I’m not very interested in either. One’s in space and the other’s not a persistent world.
I may end up dabbling in both at some point but this weekend will be business as usual in my normal MMO portfolio and that’s probably how it’s going to be until GW2.
Always interested to read about other people’s reactions to the latest hot things in MMO/RPGs though.
For me, the choice is simple: play the one that I actually have access to AND enjoy.
Right now, that’s looking to be Skyrim. If SWTOR was launching in the Philippines at the appropriate time, I’d probably be playing that too.
If only I could try SW:TOR this week end… still no invite here 🙁
lmao, are people really asking others if they “should” play a game over the other. I feel like that has to be up to you the person. Go with what you feel interests you the most, i don’t see how hard it could be. If both games interests you equally, then juggle between the two.
Ya i definite think you guys should try swtor till like.. level 5 or something, what better way to know if your going to play at release?
And whats up with so many people against swtor just cause its sci fi? so weird.. i love sci fi.
First world problems.
Did not get an invite to SWTOR but my friend did! Going to check it out tomorrow for sure. Not sure if I should get Skyrim at launch or wait for it to go on sale during Steam’s Xmas deals. Maybe even a Turkey special?!?
However, with so much of SWTOR focusing around the story, which makes me very skeptical, playing the beta could ruin some of it. The best MMOs I’ve played have had little company driven stories. Players create their own stories. I’m not a big RPer but some of the best times I’ve had in MMOs were in RP guilds. Of course being given the freedom to create stories through pvp, crafting, housing etc enabled this to happen.
The RNG for SWTOR beta invites still doesn’t like me, so I purchased Skyrim and already have it pre-loaded. And I’ve got the day off tomorrow. 🙂
[…] Keen posed the question of whether to play Star Wars: The Old Republic or Skyrim this weekend, and his reasoning is […]
You know what would make Skyrim the “perfect” game for me? The ability to play it via some hybred coop mode. Allow myself, and perhaps 3 friends, to be dropped into the world and play together. You could implement all kinds of restrictions on not leveling without everyone online or other stuff. It would create a great experience imo.
I’ve grown fond of playing games with friends and if I could share this experience with them in the game, not in skype while we play the game at the same time, I would be much more apt to buy it. I don’t care about all the difficulty scaling or what have you, just a coop mode.
New, available game vs. beta of a game I might play in future?
Don’t understand how anyone could be struggling with this “dilemma” 🙂
I will be playing Skyrim on my Xbox 360 while while TOR will be downloading for most of the weekend. I don’t know if I can get it downloaded before the testing ends.
usually in favour of a game should hook me in the first hour or so – but Swtor didnt really “open up” until lvl 20 for me. early level stuff really felt like same old same old.
On the surface this is a pretty weird comparison, you have to admit; they’re very different games, though I can definitely see the position that they appeal to the same demographics. Personally, the solution for me is simple.
TOR will never have a “Steam sale”. Skyrim will, eventually.
I’ll pick up Skyrim probably *next* Christmas when it goes on sale for $15-$25 dollars. Not only will it be cheaper, but a year later in its post-launch dev cycle virtually all of the bugs will have been found and worked out (courtesy to a year’s worth of paying beta testers). I do this pretty frequently now; Fallout 3 being the canonical example. It was still having a few weird problems when I picked it up (for $15) but not nearly as many as launch, and it was still a damned good game.
There are few games I pick up the second the drop nowadays. I basically reserve those for Blizzard and Bioware titles.
I haven’t been playing TOR for months though, as you have. 😉 Looking forward to your review on Skyrim.
@Rinvan: You should be able to start dl’ing prior to the weekend, and yes it will take a long time…
Love Skyrim an I got 4 hours in before hitting a bug (got pushed into a wall and stuck). Reloaded, losing 30 mins then it started doing odd stuff during looting before crashing.
Noticing it was 4:15am I took this as a sign to go to bed 🙂
Hahaha Easy one… Skyrim!
Not that im downing Swotr or anything, but Skyrim is a game ive waited for, for 5 years.
Not so much a beta as a stress test/free trial. I’ll definitely be checking out ToR for a couple of hours to see if it belongs on my Christmas list or not.
@Gankatron
The TOR download was not as difficult as I first thought, only took about 10 hours. 🙂
GTA is a better RPG than skyrim and swtor.
dragons are the new unicorns. not my style.
For ne it shall be neither
First no beta for me for SWTOR, though even if I had one still wouldn’t use it.
Second Dark Souls has me firmly in its grasp. I’ve never had so much fun dying (and lord have I died sooooooo many times and so many different ways). Normally I am all about story in a game but Dark Souls is very minimalist in it’s story approach. You are basically thrown in to the world not knowing a single thing about it. You find out things very slowly as you play. It’s basically one long line of bread crumbs and I love it. I never played Demon Souls (no PS3) so thi sis my first foray in to the twisted minds of From Software.
Third Skyrim: I am not entirely sold on it yet. Given Bethesda’s history I think I will wait until they fix whatever bugs they launched with. Combine that with I am not sure which system to get it on (PC or 360) and I will likely be waiting until it goes on sale before the holliday.
@Tings:
have you played Skyrim, or are you just trolling?
Just out of curiosity…
Didn’t take much for me to cave. And I’m glad I did. Skyrim is amazing.
The crashes are less than hourly and – given the fun I’m having – forgivable. 🙂