SW:TOR

Questing in Dromund Kaas

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Well, I certainly didn’t hold out long. After reaching level 10 as a non-subscriber I decided to subscribe for a month. This eased my mind when it came to all of the restrictions that F2P players get stuck with, and it allowed me much more enjoyment while playing. I re-created my Sith Inquisitor as a  Twi’lek which was what I wanted to create from the start. I picked Artifice as my craft with archaeology and treasure hunting to supplement it. After that, it was back to questing in Dromund Kaas. I enjoyed being out of the desert of Korriban, the landscape of barren wastelands has never really appealed to me. One thing I noticed is that my UI had turned off tracking for all quests that were not main story quests. I turned this back on so I didn’t miss anything, and that’s how I found myself level 25 in the level 15 area. None of that matters since the game levels you down to an appropriate rank and I’ve always been a fan of games that had this mechanic.

I’m playing my character as an egotistical daredevil who knows that she’s great at what she does. It’s an odd experience for me, but I’m loving the story options so far.

Next up? Balmorra!

Free Player? Lets Make Things Difficult..

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A lot of friends of mine are playing Star Wars: The Old Republic lately, whether it’s inspiration from watching the latest movie or just an urge of theirs. That’s how I found myself downloading the client last night. The game is free to play, but it has been a long time since I felt so incredibly shunned as a free to play player. First, there are tons of race restrictions. Even as a subscriber there are race restrictions for certain classes that you have to unlock through various ways. You can’t sprint until level 10, subscribers get this at level 1. Whether or not you can sprint isn’t going to necessarily make or break the actual gameplay, but while you’re questing through wide open spaces and everyone else is running past you it can be painful. You also can’t hide your helmet graphic unless you subscribe. That one bugs me a lot. You can’t use group chat until level 10, even if you’re on friends lists, so that meant I couldn’t actually talk with any of my friends playing. At least not yet.

You can’t choose your quest rewards, they’re already designated to you. None of this is new and the comments and discussions have already happened, but as someone who has never played before it’s very off putting.

As a Canadian gamer, subscriptions are a prickly cactus. They’re typically charged in US dollars, and the Canadian dollar is worth less than 70 cents to the US one these days. That means a regular $14.99 subscription actually costs me $21.71 and there are rumors about it falling to around 50 cents to the US dollar before the end of the year. A failing Canadian dollar means my groceries get more expensive as they’re imported, and so I have less money for things like subscription games. Not a big deal if you’ve only got one subscription game on your plate, but if you play more than one subscription game, or your a multi-gamer household, it gets expensive, fast. That’s why games like WoW, EVE, and EQ2 appeal to me. I can earn enough in-game currency to purchase a token to continue playing. Of course that means casual games are almost nonexistent, you need to be able to dedicate x number of hours in order to raise the funds.

I did manage to get to level 10 last night and unlock sprint as well as the ability to talk to people. The game is pretty, the story amazing. Whether or not I continue to play however will depend on how many more limitations I come up against and whether or not I decide to subscribe.

 

Thoughts on Staying Power #MMORPG #EQ2 #SWTOR #WoW

 

This post may come off a little negative, but that’s not how it’s intended. I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to why SWTOR didn’t grab me, or rather, it did, but couldn’t keep me. One of the major issues I had wasn’t really an issue at all, but is just how gamers perceive things. There are a lot of ‘things’ that I’m used to having in games, thanks to those who have been around for 5+ years. I realize it’s incredibly unfair to judge a game that releases today against a game that has been around for many years because after all that game has had time to grow – but – as a gamer, we are not interested in how things were 5 years ago, or how they will be 5 years from now. What we are interested in (and I use the term ‘we’ loosely here before someone throws a fit) is what is available NOW. At this exact moment that we are playing. If I can play a game that offers me 5 things that I really want from my video game, as opposed to a game that offers me 9 things that I really want from my video game, which game do you think I’m going to play? It doesn’t matter how old or how new a game is – in order to KEEP me playing, it’s going to have to appeal to those things on my list, and lets face it, the older games have had more time to work out what those ‘things’ are and to add them.

I feel very strongly that in order to actually compete with games that are 5-10 years old, games that are being released today need to take that progress into account. Dusty made a very good point yesterday regarding SWTOR – if you are leveling alts you can’t simply say “well, I leveled in Balmorra last time, so this time I’ll go to planet X instead.” There’s no alternate rout for you to bring your characters, where as (as an example) in EQ2 if you leveled in Thundering steppes last time, you’re more than welcome to head to Nektulos Forest. Or Butcherblock Mountains. Or do dungeons. In WoW you also have the choice of where to spend your time. In Rift? Not so much. SWTOR? Also not so much. Again this is an unfair comparison and I know it is, because the two later games are much newer, and thus haven’t had the time to add new content – but that’s simply how it is. In order to compete with games that are 5-10 years old, you must think of yourself as one of those games. I realize that there’s only so much manpower a company can dedicate to a game, and I also realize that this is pretty much an impossible task – but for us selfish gamers, that’s how we’re thinking. We’re going to constantly compare any new game to those we have played previously. Those older games have already gotten their hands on us, we’ve already got ties to them – new games need a way to get those hands on us in a MUCH faster way, so that we’ll stay.

When it comes down to it, that’s why SWTOR didn’t have the staying power required for me to keep playing. Were the stories amazing? Sure they were, I loved them. I loved having choices for my characters to make. I experienced very few bugs (personally, I know others have a long list of bugs), and datacrons and exploration were fun. The problem is (aside from the story lines and character choices) I can get those things in any other game on my list, plus more sandbox features which is key to me sticking around in any game. I play alts, they need choices that will be different from my mains. Sure, I can choose a different *story* for them, but they’re basically doing the exact same things (as long as we’re the same factions) as my main, minus the class quests. They’re visiting the same zones, collecting the same datacrons, and when I dislike a zone like Balmorra (those lifts.. that map.. OUCH) I have no alternate rout. Now, maybe game companies have given up on trying to retain players and instead are working to build up their first-time sales, which is completely fine if that’s the way they’re trying to operate. Obviously that’s not how I’d prefer things done but hey I’m not a gaming company trying to make money, I’m just a player.

Anyhow, those were just some of my thoughts on player retention. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

A Sith Corruptor’s Cape, Balmorra, and Crafting #SWTOR

First of all, a VERY happy new years from me here at MmoQuests. I spent my evening sleeping which was probably the best present ever, teehee. I didn’t make it past 10pm but I did get 8 full hours of sleep and that’s something I treasure a whole lot these days.

I also got a lot of gaming done yesterday, my little operative is level 23, almost 24. I’m still on Balmorra, finishing off the bonus quests. I saw some players advertising in channels looking for a Sith Corruptor’s Cape and paying 20,000 credits for one so I decided to try and farm one. If you play on the Empire side you may have seen this object, it’s a long black cloak that players can mod (which means it’s basically appearance gear you can always keep and have useful stats on). I didn’t get one to drop, but maybe I’ll have some better luck today. One can always wish.

My crafting is going well but I’m learning the pitfalls very quickly. Due to orange gear there’s very little need for some crafting classes. There’s a high demand for cybertech created items because you only need to mod the gear you’re wearing, you never have to replace it. If a piece of looted gear looks like it will be better than your orange gear, chances are you can upgrade a mod and ta da the orange gear is better again. Biochem is another largely popular craft spec, as is the class that makes lightsaber hilts and crystals. The ‘core’ professions that we’re used to (weapons and armor) are not needed as much especially with the amount of gear players can find from questing and turning in tokens. They’re nice classes to make temporary upgrades, but not the huge money makers that I find the other crafting classes to be.

I made one last ‘splurge’ for 2011 last night and upgraded my account to the digital collector’s edition. With it came one of the most useful items I’ve seen so far, it’s a clicky item that will take a screen shot of the area directly in front of your character. It even removes the UI hub, so basically it’s a one click screen shot button where I don’t have to alt+z to remove the hub. Great for when I’m in combat, although I do wish it included my character (which wouldn’t really make sense for the item, it basically acts as a camera). I also got a mount, so that will save me a little money when I am able to use it at 25 – although at this point in time I doubt very much that I’ll be able to afford the 40,000 credits required. Leveling cybertech is expensive. Especially when you’re unable to farm the components required by hand due to your low level and have to rely on your companions failed missions.

How is everyone else getting along in game? What’s your favorite zones so far? Least favorite? I must admit, I really dislike Balmorra. The lifts complicate everything and more often than not I have no idea how to get to a particular section without running in long awkward circles around giant mountains. The next zone I’m headed to is apparently the ‘Vegas of SWTOR’ so we’ll see how that goes.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Post-Christmas.. Post. #SWTOR #Christmas

My Operative managed to obtain her first space ship last night as I sailed into level 17. This means I also earned a second companion, one I can send out on crafting missions without having to sacrifice my safety. I actually enjoy crafting in SWTOR, even though it’s not very hands on and can take a lot of time if you haven’t earned standing with your crew members.

Santa was very good to me this year. I got a new video card, a Radeon HD 6950, which replaces the two crossfired 4850’s that I was using. There was nothing technically wrong with the cards, I’ve been able to game just fine – but they were INCREDIBLY loud. It felt like a jet was flying overhead any time I started up a game. This new card is a dream, silent, and powerful. I used to use Nvidia cards, but one year I burned through three of them so I switched over and haven’t looked back. I moved all of the settings up to high quality and it runs very well.

I’m still playing WoW despite the lack of posts lately. I’m doing the Twilight dungeons, and this week I won three pieces of gear from the LFRaid tool on my shaman. She had not won a single thing before now, so I’m quite pleased. I have been taking a small break from leveling up the druid, I was a bit burnt out after getting her to level 70. I’m sure I’ll get back to leveling her once the holidays have calmed down.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, filled with lots of loved ones. As always, happy gaming. No matter where you find yourself.

 

Nomadic Gamer