Since Day One on the TOR forums, there has been a passionate brigade of folks, eager to leap from the shadows the second anyone has criticised an aspect of the game, shouting, “The game is only pre-alpha! What’s wrong with you?” and variations on that theme.
And, to some degree, there are reasons why, in general game terms, a pre-alpha game sometimes won’t cut the mustard and these people have a grain (a small grain, but a grain nevertheless), of truth to what they are saying; I will agree to that much.
However, TOR has been in development for a long time. Good heavens, most of you should realise this; it was the gaming world’s worst kept secret for a long, long time… and even when LA announced they were working with BioWare, it remained “secret”.
When I look at things like, for example, the graphics, I don’t think the whole, “The game is only pre-alpha! What’s wrong with you?” argument holds much water. I truly think what we’re seeing is the direction the game is going in. The bird has already flown, folks.
I can’t quite figure out whether the, “The game is only pre-alpha! What’s wrong with you?” brigade is made up of people who don’t like what they see and are thus passionately wanting to believe it will get a hell of a lot better… or people who genuinely believe that BioWare and LA would somehow go out to the market with a game direction and style that is, somehow, totally and utterly wrong and nothing like the “real” game… because it’s all part of some elaborate marketing stunt, worthy of a James Bond villain?
People, people, people. Please. Apply some logic to this scenario. Companies like LA and BioWare WOULD NOT go out with graphics and other game elements that were as far away from the finished product as you seem to want to believe. It makes no logical sense. I saw a thread recently stating that the images we are seeing were “the worst” possible, so that it would be a nice surprise when the real game launches. Bzzzzzzt, sorry about that. It’s a cute ideal to cling to, but real businesses don’t work that way. Companies of this magnitude DO NOT go out there, in a blaze of publicity, showing sub-standard work, particularly with no explanation thereof.
What you see developing, from the artwork down, is the direction the game is going in. We won’t hit beta and suddenly be looking at a new game. This is it, people. Learn to love it if you’re not enamoured with it, because the final game will be more like this than not.