Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Game is at the Bottom

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Written by Eric Schwarz on July 23rd, 2012

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The interface of Sim City has clicking menus and placing objects with the mouse. You press your mouse button in order to press an on-screen button in order to perform an action. There's a layer of abstraction at work that keeps the game at arm's length. The interface of Doom 3 has you looking around and moving directly, without the middleman of on-screen buttons. You don't bring up your PDA to decide who to attack, you just look at him and pull the trigger.

Neither experience is invalid. The menu-clicking one is more abstract and distant, and is more appropriate for strategy situations where you're making granular, long-term decisions or choosing from a large list of possibilities. The action interface is better for fast-paced gameplay where you're making many moment-to-moment decisions that shape the course of a single encounter.

In SWTOR, the game is at the bottom, and the visuals are just window dressing. Ugly window dressing, if you believe what some people are saying.

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