SWTOR Looking To Merge Servers

Let’s take a look at what I said back when SWTOR was about to launch and I was doing betas.

Back in December of 2011, I marveled at the sheer rabid fanboyism that was going on on the SWTOR game forums. People saying things like “WoW killer” and denying that what happened to Rift would also happen to SWTOR.

Bioware brought nothing new to the table, they did nothing innovative. Instead, they took us back in time, to 2005. Not only that but then they regressed us even farther back and gave us a game with features fresh out of the 90’s, no world exploration, shitty pvp and then released it in 2011.

Here is my post from 2011.

https://shockanlawl.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/swtor-final-beta-tonight/

Here are the highlights.

“1. The game needs to get past the 6 month player base curse. Mediocre MMOs go through a period of 6 months where the fanbois pick up the game, play for 1 – 6 months, get bored because it is a mediocre MMO after all, and then quit. Resulting in subscriber peaking and drop off.”

This has come home to roost. It’s been exactly 6 months since the release of SWTOR. They are now considering server merges. This comes as no surprise whatsoever. This is what happens to games that put all their eggs in one basket (voice acting), totally ignore all other aspects of the successful games on the market at the time (no exploration, game on rails) and then give us a game from 2005 in 2012.

This is the reason they’re considering the merges.

That’s during peak play. Granted, not all the servers look like this. But, server merges only happen when the player base has dropped off significantly enough where it starts to affect the other players on the server in terms of game play opportunities.

This happen with Rift, Warhammer, AoC, Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc. It is very common in the MMO community. Most MMOs have a strong release and then settle into their position on the scale of mediocrity. WoWs are very rare.

There is only one prediction left.

“For it to go free to play.”

It will have to do this eventually, as will Rift. I do not believe either of those titles will have the income to remain subscription titles. If they do, they will dwindle away to nothing. Bioware would do well to adopt the FtP model as soon as possible. Yes, that will mean that there will be real money options for the game, but at least it’s better than where they’re headed right now.

The game just was not good enough to compete with Blizzard Entertainment. For people to argue with that is lunacy. They have not survived the 6 month curse.

I fear we will see this again in 2013.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403944,00.asp

A game bringing nothing new other than the title, no innovations, copying WoW right down to the cartoon graphic style, and trying to suck money with very little effort. And they started in 2007. Wheeeeee……

MoP Beta: Priests (Pic Heavy)

I got my invite over the weekend, so, I’ve been testing the classes that I play the most and I’ll be covering those in the next few postings. I’ll include some screen shots and such. The first up for coverage is the priest.

There have been some exciting changes to the priest class. Some I hope stick, and some I’m sort of “meh” about.

One of the first things that should be said about beta is that Blizzard has cleaned up a lot of the excess baggage with the new talent trees. Instead of having a lot of useless crap on our bars, they see more streamlined to me. That’s a welcome change in a time when bar space is a hot commodity.

I copied two priests over for this because right now you can’t unlearn your specs, so I needed one for shadow, and one for disc and holy.

Here is what you get when you choose the shadow specialization.

A couple of very interesting changes that should be noted by dedicated shadows everywhere is that Shadowy Apparitions are now an instant castable by the priest, meaning we can control where and how they’re used. This comes with good and bad issues as one would imagine. First, they’re currently the only spell we have that uses shadow orbs, reminds me of an orb dump and makes me curious why even keep the stupid mechanic. Second, and thankfully, it means we no longer have apparitions standing next to us just idle because the mob died already.

Another thing that’s changed is Vampiric Embrace. It’s no longer a castable buff and is now a castable instant buff that lasts 15 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown. Situational at best.

We get Silence right out of the gate which makes LJ a happy, happy little priest. I get sick and tired of people asking me if I have silence in stances, knowing that the number of shadow priests who have it outside of PvP is staggeringly low.

Mind Soothe is gone……thank the Gods. No one ever used it that I have ever met, so I’m glad it’s gone off the bar. Mind Control is also gone. We also lose a good many of the healing spells, cutting down on our “save the day” affectiveness if the healer dies. Shadow Orbs don’t decay right now. I hope that stays.

Here is the talent tree, alone with my present choices for the shadow spec.

Void tendrils seems to be the only one I’d choose outside of pvp. I don’t want anything that fears targets because in instances this is a huge no no. I also am not really wanting to Mind Control any targets, particularly, although it’s situationally useful. Dominate Mind replaces Mind Control.

Phantasm is the only I would choose from tier 2 in any of the 3 specs. Archangel is a no brainer for shadow and disc, although it no longer does anything for your mana. I’m not very happy with that.

I chose Voidshift, here, but Angelic Bulwark would also be useful for a shadow spec. I haven’t had to use it, yet. I see Desperate Prayer as an extra “Oh shit” button, but I wouldn’t choose it in any spec but holy, if even then.

Divine Insight makes the most sense here for shadows for Shadow Word: Death, although PI gives you a 20% mana reduction for 15 seconds.

The glyphs I chose were pretty standard for a shadow from where I sit. Dispersion for the CD reduction, Mind Blast for the stun. The only one I find iffy is Mind Spike. The problem here is that Mind Spike cancels your debuffs on your target if you casting it without it being proced. This is a big deal, especially when mana is a hot commodity and you don’t want to be wasting it on recasting debuffs.

The Minors are negligible. Nothing new or fun. Booooo.

Here, you can see that I’m in holy spec. Quite a lot of the heal spells, as well as circle of healing, and a new spell Guardian Spirit that prevents a target from dying and then heals it for 50% of it’s damage upon sacrificing itself. Lightwell is also standard. Chakras now have a nice little pop out menu.

The talents I chose for Holy Spec are really straight forward. Void Tendrils for CC, Phantasm for freedom of movement. This time I chose From Darkness Comes light for the 15% chance for a free, instant Flash Heal. It procs a lot from my tests. Next is Angelic Bulwark for shit hit the fan situations and Divine Insight because with FDCL, that free, instant Flash Heal just earned me a 20% cast time reduced Prayer of Healing or Greater Heal, for 10% less mana!

Here’s where it gets really interesting and people will be going “huh?!” and it brings into focus some other very interesting changes.

Atonement is now a glyph. That glyph now works with Holy Spec. So, if you’re a disc priest and really want to try Holy Spec and still keep Atonement healing, you can.

Proof that Atonement works in Holy Spec. I hope they keep this because that means I can have two healing spec and max level with only a couple of differences. Coupled with Holy Fire glyph that makes HF instant cast and you have epic Atonement healing for Holys. SOME Holys will scoff at this, but I know some who are crying tears of joy into their wheaties.

The rest of the Glyphs for Holy are standard, Renew because….well Renew….. This could probably work for Disc, too since the talents for it aren’t in the Holy tree anymore. Mass dispel and Fade are still good choices for those that want to grab those.

I’m not actually IN Disc Spec, here, but this is what you get. Inner Focus, Pain Suppression and a new heal, Spirit Shell. Spirit Shell seems to be the new spamable heal for Disc priests. It puts a shield on the target that blocks 10k damage for 8 seconds and then heals the target for 80% of what’s remaining when it drops. Sort of like Lifebloom for priests except in shield form?

Both Holy and Disc get Evangelism as a passive.

For Disc Spec, my choices on talents would be the same as for Holy Spec, except for I would choose Archangel instead of FDCL. This would come at a price. No free, instant cast Flash Heals so I can see how some Disc priests might find Archangel negligible.

Mana seems to be an issue in beta. I don’t if that’s purposely or if it’s because they don’t have the mana costs tweaked yet, but I plan to revisit priests more down the line of the beta and I’ll post when I know more. The Shadow spec is very mana efficient from what I’m seeing right now, but Disc and Holy have some issues.

I really like the new talent trees, they are very liberating and allow people to bring different things to the table for raiding and pvp. I’m hoping we see less cookie cutters!

 

 

It’s Getting Down To The Wire

I play a lot of games. Not all of them are on the PC. Altogether, I play something like 15 different games, but the PC games take up the lion’s share of my time. As a result of this, I’m always looking to downsize and age out of games that no longer have things in them that make them enjoyable to me.

The greated PC MMO I’ve ever played was Horizons: Empire of Istaria, now called Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted. I don’t play it anymore because while the game still has absolutely everything I’d like, they lack one thing.

They’re not free to play and should be.

Their community size, game engine and the like are not a good model for a pay to play game, especially not for $15/mo. I left it back when I started WoW 7 years ago and have been back several times, but could never stay because I just can’t justify playing an 11 year old game, with an even older gaming engine for $15/mo.

Because I’m always looking for ways to downsize my gaming library, I’m currently dealing with a game that may be on the chopping block for good if things don’t change there in a big way with their next expansion.

That game is World of Warcraft.

As much as it pains me to admit it, WoW dropped the ball in a major way with Cataclysm and they’ve been hemorrhaging people ever since. They’ve got an open wound that needs to be sewn shut in a major way.

Last night, in my guild, one of the most devoted players we have was admitting that WoW is dying, if not already dead, and it may be time for a changing of the guard. She’s right. It’s 7 years old and now’s the time to put up or shut up.

The announcement of the model for the female pandaren did not help their case as far as I’m concerned. She looks absolutely terrible! Like a very large, big boned chipmunk rather than a portly, motherly female panda monk. She looks exactly like I feared she would, which proves to me that Blizzard is far too concerned with sex and furries and otherkin than they are pleasing their players. Needless to say, I’ll be playing the male panda.

The beta will prove to me just how much time I will be spending in Azeroth, though. It just has to be admitted. I’m actually glad I paid for the annual pass because I’ll get to beta the Mists of Pandaria expansion pack and that’s a damned good thing. Because if the game doesn’t have exactly what I want it to have with this xpac, I’m out. Their announcement of the Blizzcon cancellation didn’t help them in my opinion. So, they’d better have something to offer me because I can and will cancel my sub in October and move on.

With last night’s press tour, we got some revelations and I’ll go ahead and comment on some of them, now.

1. The final patch of Mists of Pandaria will be the Siege of Orgrimmar! Both factions lay siege to the city to bring Garrosh down and end his reign of Warchief.

Well, I’ll just assume that’s the final raid scenario and that’s fine. My guild seems to have their heart set on 10 dedicated raiders even though we’re an extremely casual guild. Meaning that most of us don’t see end content, so I won’t cry over not seeing that. It’s “meh” as far I’m concerned. Garrosh? Yeah, he’s a monumental douchebag and I’d like to see his head on a pole in the middle of Orgrimmar, but I’ll see it after the other raiding groups do it.

2. An 11th character slot has been added.

Well, fuck me. They should have done this back with Wrath of the Lich King for Christ’s sake! I’m sure all those people who had to delete a toon to have a Death Knight back then will be pleased as pie to hear this shit. It’s only 4 years too late.

3. There will not be an item squish in Mist of Pandaria.

This one actually kind of pisses me off. So instead of maybe going back to the realm of say, 5k damage being more than enough, we’re going to go from the 30k per second we have now to probably 50k or 60k?! Bleh. Obviously, this one isn’t game breaking, it’s just overdue and I don’t know why they couldn’t take the time to do it.

4. No new race models are ready to be added yet.

No. But, we can have female pandas that look like a black and white chipmunk with the female dwarf body, though, right?! Again, Blizzard is being lazy, here. And, I’m wearing thin with laziness.

5. There will be nine level 90 heroics for players as well as three raids with 14 raid bosses and three difficulties. There will be an additional two world bosses.

Well, I’m not really interested in heroics particularly, but I’m going to assume they meant dungeon instances here, both regular and heroic. If there’s no normal mode I’m going to be highly upset. The instances in Cataclysm are an hour, maybe hour and thirty minutes long. Meaning that I have spent very little time in them because they’re far too long. The ones in MoP had been be 30 minutes tops and far, far easier to complete than Cata’s are. There is just no damned excuse to make them as ridiculou as they are right now. Wrath had it right, Cata is hilariously overdone as far as instance length and difficulty. I don’t want to see that again.

As far as 3 raids and 14 raid bosses, as I said earlier, I”m casual. My ally guild seems to be moving in the direction of casual guild, but progression oriented raid team. I won’t see these instances unless I can get in on one of my horde guild’s raid teams. Which is probably my goal. Although, I can’t say I’ll see much of them, so we’ll see.

6. There are now seven zones, up from five. This was done to add more content to the game and give players a less linear progression path so that leveling for a second or third time isn’t the exact same.

Unfortunately, I can’t see how they could possibly do this and get them done right and with enough content to be interesting in such a short amount of time, but fine. Although, this smacks of “keep them leveling longer so that they don’t bitch that there’s no end game content”. (I’ve always gotten a chuckle out of the term “end game” being used in an MMO. There is no “end” so it’s pretty hilarious.)

7. There will be one new arena and two new battlegrounds at launch.

Nothing will ever be as epic as pre-battleground WoW, or at the very least, pre-nerf Alterac Valley. So, this is pretty “meh”. Arenas are the buttcrack of WoW, in my opinion.

8. PvP pet battles are going to be fun and causal, only tracking the number of wins and not the number of losses. When fighting another player, you cannot see the other players name or communicate with them.

Yay!!!! This is the best part of the whole press tour! I plan to sit in Orgrimmar and do nothing but pet battles while talking in guild chat! No, I’m not joking, I really do plan to do that. I have 110 or so non combat pets I can sit there all day. This may be the future of WoW for me if there’s no REAL casual content.

9. Currently, every race except Goblin and Worgen can learn the ways of the monk.

Why the eff did they even bother with this one? What was the purpose of shorting (HAHA, puns are great) Goblins and Worgens out of being monks? Oh, a werewolf can’t be a monk, but a filthy goat man can?! Where is the logic in this? Belf monks? GNOME monks but no Goblins?! Who’s thinking this crap up and how many blows to the skull have they had in the last 30 or so years?! Goblins and Worgens should be monks, this whole “only certain races can” garbage is soooooo 7 years ago.

10. The Tillers faction will let you run your own farm! The farmer’s market will provide daily quest to improve your farm every day, you will be able to clear plots of land and plant things like cooking ingredients, herbalism nodes, gifts for NPCs to build your reputation… etc.

Really?

No……..REALLY?! Farmville WoW?! My excitement is waning.

All in all, I’m mostly about most of the bread crumbs that were just dropped. Meaning there better be a pot o gold at the end of the rainbow and not a big tub o shit.

This Never Ceases To Amaze Me

My last beta for SWTOR was uneventful. My opinion of the game hasn’t changed and I won’t be buying it until well after the 6 month mark, just to make sure this game isn’t a flash in the pan. But, I still read the forums daily.

Today, I happened upon this lovely post from a beta tester. This crap never ceases to amaze me.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=701760

As a parent, I would like the ability to disable flirt options entirely. I realize that many people may not be fully understanding of the reasons why, nor am I asking opinions for why this is not a good idea. What I am asking is for people that believe this would be a good option to add is for them to reply to this thread with their reasons for support.

My personal reasons are that I don’t even want to accidently click on such an option. I was personally shocked when I walked into the cantina to find a dancer on a pole. I realize that cantina dancers always existed, but they were at least reasonably classy. Now, they’re just… strippers. I know many enjoy this in the game, and they’re more than free to do so. I don’t expect this aspect to be removed, but adding the ability to disable flirt/romance options would go a long, long way to making this game allowable in my house.

Also, I realize that many would argue that if you don’t like the game, then don’t buy it. Well, that is exactly what I’m going to choose to do without such an option. That’s not a threat to the company but rather an action I am choosing because I don’t support everything being about the relationships that occur between adults. Please add this feature so my family can play.

Sincerely,
A concerned parent

I responded in the thread, but I’m going to respond here. Just in case any people are reading this who are afraid of their own sexuality, the sexuality of their children, or life and reality.

I wonder what this poster thought she was going to find in a Cantina called the “Dealer’s Den”. In game where we shoot other players with blasters and chop them to bits with light sabers. In  a game with espionage, slavery, and racism. In a game with death, destruction and torture.

Did they think there would be a youth minister in the cantina waiting for any wayward smugglers to come in so he could “help them see the light”? Did they miss the part where Bounty Hunters are part of the game? Drug dealers? Street gangs? Death?

Did they miss the gritty, dirty nature of the game, the futuristic parts? Did they miss some of the very abusive scripting and language?

This poster is worried about flirting and a fucking stripper with a pole! You seriously can’t make this shit up. I guess they were expecting a cantina with Hello Kitty decor and some cupcakes for their kids while they await their next mission to kill or torture someone!

This is the future of our society, everyone? Really?

This is why I have less than a modicum of faith in humanity as a whole. The who world is facepalming, right now.

SWTOR PvP: As Big A Joke As Rift

If anyone ever doubted the state of PvP in December 20th’s upcoming release, Star Wars: The Old Republic, all they need do is read this thread.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=704589

Obviously, that link won’t last forever, so I will caption the part that counts.

As it is now, it seems pvp is in a sad state of affairs in SWTOR; exhaustion barriers separating pvp, removal of pvp in certain areas of the game recently (Nar Shadaa), and separated questing areas between factions have left this game a pve game with some pvp elements thrown in to call them pvp servers.

People are totally expecting PvP in SWTOR to be leaps and bounds above games like Rift, where the PvP is like an afterthought, tacked on because they said, “Oh shit! We forgot the PvPers!” Well, it isn’t. SWTOR’s PvP is a big joke, too. PvP servers are anything but.

 

More after my painful 3rd weekend in SWTOR.

SWTOR Final Beta, Tonight

I got invited to the SWTOR final beta cycle. It starts today, around 5pm I imagine. I’ll go ahead and try a third time, even though I didn’t even log into the game the last day of the Thanksgiving beta and had no inkling to do so.

The FPS issues were worked out to my advantage the very last day I played. They rebooted the servers and suddenly I was getting 55 FPS. Which for that game is outstanding from all accounts.

Still, the other problems remain according to general testers who are playing this next build. Character creation still lacks substance, the graphics still look like a Clone Wars cartoon, the game is still a horrifying grind at level 25+, still a theme park MMO, still has WoW style pvp that sucks, no space combat or exploration, still can’t sell my smuggling abilities for large quantities of credits…..you know, things that count.

It has been good that this is just beta, because it’s saved me from doing what I do best. Impulse buy. I would have bought this game without thinking had I not participated in two betas. I would have bought the Collector’s Edition for $150! This game isn’t worth $150, no way, no how.

Now after 2 betas and mulling over what I’ve seen and done and what this game really presents, I doubt I’ll be playing at launch. In fact, I’ll probably wait for one of two things to happen first. If not both.

1. The game needs to get past the 6 month player base curse. Mediocre MMOs go through a period of 6 months where the fanbois pick up the game, play for 1 – 6 months, get bored because it is a mediocre MMO after all, and then quit. Resulting in subscriber peaking and drop off.

This happened with Rift, Warhammer, AoC……most of the same ole same oles.

2. For it to go free to play.

I can not understand how this game is good enough for a monthly fee. If you’ve played the beta, you know how in depth the story lines are for every class. Complete with superior voice acted cutscenes. How anyone thinks there is enough content in this game to last everyone until a new expansion hits is beyond me. We had to wait 7 years just for this incarnation of SWTOR, how long do you suppose everyone will wait for them to develop another 8 classes of storyline complete with superior voice acting and cutscenes, along with new areas to level in, etc?

Sorry, I don’t trust EA enough to pull that off. Not in the time it would take someone to play a class, do everything, and get bored out of their skulls. This game never has shown me anything that would warrant a monthly subscription fee.

SWTOR is what BW does best. An RPG. It plays like an RPG, it just has some multiplayer quests sprinkled in it. I’d buy the game and then play it for free, you bet. But, I highly doubt I’ll be paying to sub it. It’ll be F2P in 2 – 4 years anyway.

But, alas, again I fire up the download and the game just to see if they’re going to surprise me this time. I don’t know why I do it. It’s like a guy who hits himself in the nuts repeatedly for an hour and half and then wonders why he can’t walk the next day. Then he does it again the next weekend.

Band of Brothers In SWTOR

If you’ve never played EVE Online, or don’t know anyone who has, you won’t know who Band of Brothers [BoB] is. However, if you have played the game, or have ever come in contact with BoB, the news of their resurfacing in SWTOR is interesting to say the least.

I won’t rehash BoB’s history here, I’ll link their history instead.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Band_of_Brothers_(Player_alliance)

http://eve-history.net/wiki/index.php/Band_of_Brothers

SirMolle, the head honch from BoB, doesn’t really have a terrific reputation within the greater EVE population, but then again, most nullsec sov alliances don’t. I left EVE for awhile, even though I hold a very high opinion of the game. I miss it alot and I know I will return there eventually. I still keep up with the forums and the goings on within the game, so I found this particularly entertaining.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=595503&page=2

The above link will probably not work forever, so I’ll paraphrase the deal. BoB is forming an elite PvP guild on some server in SWTOR.

The reason this is kind of funny is that SWTOR is not a sandbox game. Much to my disappointment, as I’ve said before. But, it’s apparent to me that this guild has no idea that it isn’t. They look to pick up right where they left off in EVE “making alliances to achieve goals”, as was mentioned in one of the posts by a person I assume is Molle’s wife.

That sort of thing is unlikely to happen, unless MrsMolle there is referring to only picking up new blood for their numbers. It won’t happen because world pvp in SWTOR will be as dead as an undertaker’s coffin nail due to the mechanics that Bioware has in place in that game. Sure, there are pvp servers, but there is really no reason to have them because even in the beta there was no world pvp going on in any real quantity to speak of.

You can’t explore the opposite faction’s planets in SWTOR. This kills the idea of Pvp right from the off. There is one planet that is specifically for nothing but world pvp, even on a pve server. Ilum was the planet that everyone held up as their saving grace from the desolate wasteland that is world pvp in SWTOR. Unfortunately, even the general beta testers are left unsatisfied with the state of world pvp in SWTOR and Ilum had no effect.

SWTOR is like WoW in the fact that they’re seemingly trying to discourage open world pvp by including controlled pvp environments like WoW has. SWTOR has warzones, which were pretty thin, anyway. Ilum is nothing more than a glorified high level BG….sorry…..warzone. No alliances will be forming there.

Not that I can’t really blame BoB, here. I too would have liked to see many of the EVE O mechanics in SWTOR. Hell, the name and world really lends itself to that type of warfare! But, alas, we are not getting a sandbox. You can not be anything you want to be in SWTOR, you can be whatever BW and Lucas Arts tell you to be.

BoB’s history, though, precedes them. EVE is really a game of psychological warfare, which took it’s toll on their alliance. In fact, the psychological game of EVE is half, if not over half, of the entire game. Which I love!

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=40139&find=unread

Band of Brothers’ enemies within EVE have already gotten hold of the thread from SWTOR, and MrsMolle herself has acknowledged that they will be ready for any psycho warfare waged on them by their enemies. One poster vowed, “we will find you in SWTOR, you have no place to hide”.

Indeed.

I would have to question the tactics and motive and even the sanity behind taking the Band of Brothers name in SWTOR and holding it up like a badge of honor or street cred. from EVE. They’ve just opened themselves up for moles and spies planted in their SWTOR organization just “for the lulz”. Even though SWTOR has no chance of working the way BoB seems to think it will, or the way many of us wanted to see, there will now be infiltration, I predict.

If they wanted to start anew, this was a shitty was to do it. But, I’ll be watching, now. Because I love this shit. LOL

 

Weekend Warrior SWTOR Beta Cycle Two Thoughts

Tomorrow ends another cycle in the SWTOR mass beta weekend testing. Sadly, not much has changed.

The FPS issues within the game are still present, although this weekend was far better than the last one I was in. I can only get about 12 FPS, tops, on either faction, on any server. They don’t have central time zone servers! WTF is up with that?! I sure as hell hope that’s not the case come release because if it is, my stay in SWTOR will be short.

Character customization is still lacking, it’s probably one of the most bitched about things in the game right now, aside from the FPS issues. Hardly any customization options.

SWTOR will be space flavored WoW, for anyone who’s wondering. That’s it in a nutshell. Bioware have introduced nothing revolutionary in any sense, other than the fancy Star Wars banner. So, if you are tired of Orcish flavored WoW, you can opt for space flavored.

I won’t get into anything else other than my own personal conclusions.

My stay in SWTOR will be painfully short. Probably not because I want it to be that way, but because if I wanted to play WoW, I’d remain subbed to WoW and be logged into it right now. The FPS issues, I don’t hold a lot of faith in Bioware to fix them. It seems to me they were more worried about voice acting and Lucas sackriding than they were about making sure the game was playable.

Yes, yes, it’s beta, that’s no excuse. After seeing the last 10 years in MMOs, BW has had 6 of those to improve on things. They were worried about aesthetics, not playability.

I forsee them doing some more “big name sackriding” and brown nosing the WoW fanboys more by adding third party addon support (something I am vehemently opposed to and will affect whether I stay subbed or not) and global LFG finders. Both of those things destroyed the community in WoW. Even more than it was destroyed by the fact that Blizzard allows things they shouldn’t. The WoW community, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. SWTOR will have the same problem upon adding third party addon support and LFG finders.

SWTOR will be small niche. Same as LOTRO. They have the Star Wars name, but that’s all they have. They don’t have enough to overtake WoW, nor should they be trying. SWTOR is not the next WoW.

One of my original questions was, will SWTOR be able to beat EVE Online plus DUST 514 for immersion. Answer? No. They never will be able to. There is no realism in SWTOR, just a cartoon Star Wars game. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll get tired of looking at it very quickly. As will most who are in the market for “not WoW’.

I’ll only be purchasing the standard digital download. I refuse to pay premium price for something that is only half finished and could have been so much more.

 

Personal Thoughts on SWTOR

In my previous entry, I posed several questions for myself that I would answer after the beta weekend was over.

1. Given that I’ve played EVE Online extensively, can SWTOR beat what I can get in EVE for space combat?

I have no idea, but I doubt it. I didn’t get far enough into the game in 3 days of beta to answer this, but from what I can see on the videos available on YouTube, that answer will be an emphatic “no”. EVE Online has something that no other MMO has. Dynamic spaceship, PvP combat, their system is one of a kind. The graphics are so realistic that you almost believe that you are actually piloting a spaceship in the middle of dead space. The SWTOR system will not give me that kind of intense immersion. But, SWTOR has something that EVE Online doesn’t, and that’s cult following. It’s Star Wars, duh! Star Wars space combat looks to be PvE only, a great disappointment if true.

2. With DUST 514 on the horizon from CCP games, can SWTOR beat what I would get from DUST for ground combat?

I had some issues in the beta that prevented me from actually getting down and dirty with the PvP system so, again, I can’t say. But, I doubt it. SWTOR and DUST will be far different systems. DUST 514 will be Modern Warfare in space, on planets. SWTOR is Star Wars themed. SWTOR will also follow the World of Warcraft PvP model, to a large degree. This is well known, so I don’t break any NDA rules by agreeing with it.

SWTOR will have warzones, which are their incarnations of WoW’s battlegrounds, they also have PvP and PvE base server types for dynamic, on the fly player versus player combat out in the open world. Sadly, I fear the same problems in SWTOR that WoW has with that. Battlegrounds effectively destroyed world pvp in WoW, unless you played on an actual PvP server. Some would argue that was a good thing because people who play PvE servers don’t play for PvP, but I’d have to emphatically disagree. Yes, you have to be flagged intentionally on PvE servers, but before battlegrounds, we had healthy world Pvp daily on PvE servers in WoW. Contained PvP battlegrounds destroyed that and it’s never recovered. I fear this will be the case in SWTOR. No world Pvp unless you happen to roll on a PvP server.

3. Compared to other space games, how are the graphics and overall rendering of the Star Wars worlds?

You can see a lot of the graphics on YouTube, but SWTOR modeled itself after WoW, in my opinion. Choosing the more cartoonish style graphics, rather than going all out for realism. Disappointing, but not on a level that would keep me from playing it. I hoped for the realism that EVE has, and this is because I’ve been very spoiled by what EVE delivers.

4. Compared to other games, how is the group game play?

Again, I have no idea. But, it looks to be on par with WoW. I did not get to really play with the group instancing. WoW has problems in this area as far as I’m concerned, and I hope BioWare doesn’t repeat Blizzard’s missteps on this front.

5. Is the game solo friendly, group friendly, or a combination of both?

I solo’d my entire time in the game, but there are things you will need a group for. It’s about the same as WoW, or LOTRO.

6. Can a casual expect to have fun in SWTOR? Or is the game tailored for hardcores?

I’ve seen the hardcore raiding guilds already popping up. This has me on edge because I detest that element in WoW. I don’t like hardcore anything in gaming, so I cringe to see it being perpetuated in every single game being rolled off the development trucks. LOTRO did it, Rift did it, looks like SWTOR is going to do it. It’s a shame. The only thing that would make me feel worse about the “hardcore element” in the game is if they add arenas. If they do that, it will be WoW with a Star Wars theme. And, I really hope they skip that label. Yes, WoW is the big boy on the block, but we’ve got to have variety.

SWTOR appears, for now, to be very casual friendly. But, if we see 5% (that’s a generous estimate, by the way) of the playerbase running around in gear that no casual can ever expect to wear, we’ll be looking at a WoW clone in space themed clothing. We’ll see how “hardcore” the raiding actually is at launch.

7. How does the game hold up as far as the lore is concerned?

I’ll just say that it feels like Star Wars.

8. How are the classes, and are they fun to play?

I played 4 classes, but only two in depth (due to issues beyond my control at the time). Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor. All are fun to play!

9. How complex is the game play?

The learning curve won’t be as steep as EVE Online’s is, but it won’t be as simple as WoW. That’s my opinion. I’m sure there are going to be those who disagree on both points for a multitude of reasons.

10. Does the game “feel” like Star Wars?

I answered this one in number 7, but yes, it does. That’s very, very important.

Now that I’ve answered those, I have to say that I’m kind of disappointed at a couple of things with SWTOR. I feel like they had an opportunity, here, to take this game in a very gritty, seedy direction. If they had, it would feel even more like Star Wars. They chose not to do it to the level I would have if I had made it. (I didn’t, and I get that.)

I really wish they’d followed EVE Online’s “sandbox” model for this game. The story line and the atmosphere lends itself to that on a level that is unseen in MMOs. Who wouldn’t want to hire a smuggler to get them away from the Empire? Who wouldn’t want to hire a mercenary to take out an infamous foe, regardless of faction? Who wouldn’t want to buy items on the black markets of Corusant or Mos Eisley? Is there anything preventing that in the current state of SWTOR? Yes, the game mechanics. As a Sith, I can’t hire a smuggler to do some dirty work for me.

Even with it’s drawbacks, I will be buying the game.

SWTOR Beta Starts at 5pm CST

I’m getting ready to start SWTOR beta for the weekend and I thought I would put down some questions and points that I will come back and answer after my time in game is up.

1. Given that I’ve played EVE Online extensively, can SWTOR beat what I can get in EVE for space combat?

2. With DUST 514 on the horizon from CCP games, can SWTOR beat what I would get from DUST for ground combat?

3. Compared to other space games, how are the graphics and overall rendering of the Star Wars worlds?

4. Compared to other games, how is the group game play?

5. Is the game solo friendly, group friendly, or a combination of both?

6. Can a casual expect to have fun in SWTOR? Or is the game tailored for hardcores?

7. How does the game hold up as far as the lore is concerned?

8. How are the classes, and are they fun to play?

9. How complex is the game play?

10. Does the game “feel” like Star Wars?

 

I’ll answer on Monday!