You Cannot Stop the Romance

Literally, you can not.

I have been very openly against the romance options in BioWare games. I like optional conversations, I hate romance. To me, what sad lonely life do you have to live to like them? I just try to avoid them all costs it seems. I can’t stand the mushy childish love scenes.

And exactly what is romance without conflict? Why is this game teaching idiots how romance doesn’t work? What are we teaching; throw a bunch of expensive gifts and eventually your interest will fall over you? How this may be true in so many ways, it doesn’t justify the end game touchy feely conversations.

But you can’t avoid it. No matter what, it seems. If you like XP, then you better learn to say the right things.

I’m leveling my Sage, who is on the copse of 48 and that is thanks to Nadia Grell. Nadia is emotional child that can’t help but talk about anything other than her feelings for me. And you as a Consular, cannot escape it. I was able to on my other toons, but with the Consular they made the story so that as long as affection builds with Nadia, you she’s going to get you.

I played my Sage with Light Side. I am a beacon of Jedi will. I’m not romancing. You can’t make me. The problem is, all your conversations give you options to do nothing but. And even when you think you aren’t, Nadia so in love with you she loves everything you say. It’s like an adolescent girl. You push her over, she loves you more. And everything is worth +300 affection to her. I save a galaxy and fulfill Qyzen’s expectations as the Herald of Awesomesauce, but he only gives me +15. I kick a Jawa in the groin like an asshole and Nadia is dry humping my leg for +180.

I can’t stop Nadia’s advances is the bottom line. This bitch is persistent. Got news for those of you that don’t understand real life. If you ever have a woman that gets this pushy and attracted to you for no reason other than you being yourself, you are either an Italian Model for Underwear or she’s a prostitute. It’s usually the latter unless there’s scores of alcohol involved. Even then.

I can’t completely dislike Nadia though. I ignored her requests to talk for multiple levels. I ding 47 and go to my ship almost immediately, and then go into a string of massive quantities of mushy conversations and she gave me enough XP to ding 48 within, literally a 10 minute time span. Her love interest gave me a free level for doing nothing. Which made me realize, she wasn’t the prostitute, I was.

I took a very long shower, scrubbing out the dirtiness while crying hutched over in the corner.

Upcoming 1.2: Fake Nerfs

One of the things I most learned from WAR was that you have to stay cautious on the idea of nerfs. And the BW/Sorceror nerfs throughout the life of WAR only tended to make just another play style that much more inconvenient. It was as if the Devs would list the change as a nerf only to really buff the living hell out of the class. The same held true for so many classes. And I am basically seeing the same thing here in SWTOR. Amazingly, the public grief on the forums are nothing short of tears and urine, but it’s as if these classes have no idea how their class works.

First and foremost is the Commando/Mercenary QQ. The only whining I will accept is the Healing Nerf, almost everything else is a buff. You cannot simply just read one bullet that says 10% less Tracer Missile Damage and cry like a little bitch.

Though I can agree, the statement “Tracer missile has been rebalanced in order to encourage more active gameplay rotations” is pretty false, it’s actually pretty hilarious.

• General Populace says: Dear BW, the Tracer Missile/Grav Round impact from Mercenaries/Commando seems pretty ridiculously imblanced and far too hard hitting for not having a cooldown. Please look into this.
• BioWare: You are in fact correct, this looks very OP. We will nerf bat.
• Mercenaries/Commandos: But, it procs everything we use. We can’t do any other rotations because of the class design. Can we have some variety instead of just a flat out nerf?
• BioWare: Okay. To improve balance and to encourage more active gameplay rotations, we will nerf the damage by 10%.
• Mercenaries/Commandos: What the … How is that a change to rotations?
• BioWare: …  Because.

So, I’m not fully attacking Commandos/Mercs here. We/they are pretty overpowered in terms of burst damage. The class is very boring in terms of gameplay. Clearly BioWare doesn’t feel like doing something about it at the moment. I just love the notes. By encouraging more active rotatioins, they mean, nothing at all except the statement that this should. Hilarious.

So, this is a nerf right? Not really. Here’s why:

The animation and sounds for Tracer Missile/Grav Round are so obnoxious the populace believes these are overpowered. They are kind of right in one way, wrong in another. Problem being is that they don’t have a combat log to see what’s actually happening … yet. Yes, these are hitting you within a 5 seconds span and it looks like they are hitting you for the value of  Pure Brutal Rape. But the truth is, while their damage is considerably high, it’s these 2 abilities that are causing you to die in a pile of tears: High Impact Bolt and Demolition Roun (Commando Names, I don’t know what Mercs call High Impact Bolt).

Why are they so scary? Besides not having much animation or sounds, they hit for the value Rape +10, and on top of that nonsense, they get to bypass GCD. So, you as said victim are standing there hearing 3 sets of “Bzzzzztttttkkkkk” and going “What the Fuck! Nerf Grav Round!” When in reality what really took place was this rotation:

• (1.5 Sec) Grav Round “BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTKKKKKKKK” 2K
• (1.5 Sec) Grav Round “BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTKKKKKKKK” 2K
• (1.5 Sec) Grav Round “BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTKKKKKKKK” 2K
• Instant Demolition Round “Plop” 2.5K
• Instant bypass GCD High Impact Bolt <practically silent> 3.5K

So while, everyone might be gleaming or screaming over a 10% reduction to Grav Round/Tracer Missile, the 10% boost to Demolition/Heatseeker is going to mean that the rotation stays exactly the same while just distributing the damage in different areas. They have infact not changed or influenced anything to make us explore less mindless rotations, but just slightly changed when the damage comes in within that simple rotation.

Oh and here’s the real kicker. Now that we have combat logs in 1.2 on the test server, the 25% extra damage that Demoltion/Heetseeker were supposed to be applying, were in fact not working. They have fixed it and apparently the results on the PTS are just what you think… devestating.

So if you came to me and said, I’ll trade you 10% off your Grav Round and give you 35% more on your Demolition Round, you bet your ass I would take it. In the end it is 5% more burst. It’s not a nerf.

Fueling the War Against Homosexual/Christian Propaganda: A BioWare And a Fake Organization’s Story

No surprises here, just as soon as BioWare hinted at the possibility to have same sex relationships with your companions in SWTOR after the release of Mass Effect, Christian Extremist come out the woodwork to … write angry letters. As Penny Arcade illustrates:

Apparently, The Florida Family Association is calling to spam BioWare with letters of demands to stop this needless addition to game with this form:

My family and I were disappointed to learn that BioWare and Electronic Arts plan to add LGBT content to Star Wars video games.

American families grew up with the Star Wars film series that was family fare. The films contained no profanity, no nudity and no sexual situations.

It makes no sense that BioWare and Electronic Arts would shatter that family quality in Star Wars video games just to pacify 35 LGBT polling participants and appease extremists.

Star Wars video games are for children. An overwhelming percentage of the 1.7 million games sold are being used by children who do not need to be exposed to this propaganda. Please stick to your policy to avoid such advocacy representations in your games.

Please tell us that it is not too late to stop this from impacting our children.

I look forward to sharing your response with family and friends.

Thank you.

Multiple things here:

1. If you want to stop BioWare, you aren’t going to do it representing yourself as a non-paying customer. You should spam LucasArts so that they stop BioWare from doing it. That would make sense.
2. The original films had plenty of near nudity and sexual situations to include; incest based kiss; nipples and sex slave torture. You clearly didn’t watch the films.
3. Bioware is pacifying extremist huh? Giving their customer base what they want is called business. Not doing what they want at your non-paying non-customer demands is called pacifying extremist.
4. The game is not for children, it is rated for teens. Furthermore, MMORPGs are dominated grossly with adults. As it has become the last safe haven in the gaming world for the mature community to gather under.
5. You reference a policy that BioWare has for not representing gays in their games. I think everyone is confused. What policy?

As you all are Christian Extremist, I’m more concerned with why you think Star Wars is Family Friendly to your Beliefs. Not sure if you have played the game, but rest assured Star Wars contains the following intense themes to include:

• Pre-Marital Sexual Encounters with Multiple Partners. Holla Playa!
• Massive Amount of Options to Deliberately Murder Near-Innocent Beings
• Mass Genocide. You may enjoy this. EM-RAH really represent Jews, and you get to murder them all.
• Playing Evil Sith that in fact Do Very Evil Non-Christian Things
• Playing Good Jedi that can in fact Also Do Very Evil Non-Christian Things
• Did I Mention Needless Murder?
• In-Depth Explanations of Religious Awesomeness of the Force 
• Very Concise Decisions to Murder People

But that all doesn’t even matter because of two things. Because arguing with an extremist is much like punching your balls, you only look stupid in the process.

And more importantly the Florida Family Association is not in fact a group of extremist nor an advocacy group of people worried about Christian American Fundamentals. No, apparently you don’t have to have more than one person to actually be an Association. The truth of the matter is the Florida Family Association is actually a one man owned and operated function by one David Caton. Davey Caton is most famous for his Anti-Muslim propaganda, but more so famous in the examination of the born again Christians gone crazy. You see Mr. Caton used to be a Club Owner and on top of that one of the most obsessive porn addicts anyone has ever seen. He even wrote a book about it.

What Mr. Caton has figured out over his decade of issue mongering, is simply that you don’t actually need a real organization or supporters. You just need a printer and a mailing list. He spams such mailing list with exact duplicates of the same message, let’s the organizations PR scramble to contain the situation, and let’s other extremist crawl out of the fold on their own once the issue takes movement. And he watches it burn.

Which goes on to his ultimate plan that in a creepy way is very diabolical. He doesn’t get to make news that would title: One Psycho’s Delusional Christian Values Takes on Corporate Game Maker BioWare over Anti-Gay Rights. No, he gets this in the news: Christian Activist Groups Petition Game Maker to Exclude Same Sex Marriage. It is in fact brilliant is a sinister sort of fashion. He, without any support, gets to represent Christians as one against a non-issue.

I wonder if people like this know that they cause more hate and anxiety over religion more than they do advocate their position. Or maybe that is what these people are trying to do?

Either way, he’s a Sith. Just saying.

SWTOR: 1.2 Upcoming Patch: PVP is Going in the Wrong Direction

Take this as negative as you want, but I don’t like “cross the finish line, here’s a medal”. Granted, I run marathons and that’s exactly what happens. But, everyone that crosses doesn’t get a medal that says first place. I don’t cross and get a sponsorship from Nike. But that’s what PVP turns into in almost every MMO.

Essentially PVP gear should be:

1. A Progression
2. A Reward for Hard Long Term Work

The key is providing these 2 things without the expense of balance. Here’s where games fail. They make multiple sets that are tiered based on certain requirements and all that was really needed was some basic upgrade from the previous set. Really in all, to keep a balance of skill vs. time played you just a need a simple step function.

• First set
• Second set (5% better);
• Third set (5% better);
• Fourth set (5% better);

So that the final end game end all set is only 25% better than the first entry set. Yet, no game does this. The make the gear disparity 150%. And then wonder why 1) casual players prefer games like LoL to their PVP and 2) why those that have the gear get bored with being demi-gods. Geeh, I fucking wonder.

Does next tier gear really need a 50% advantage over the previous set? Will the player lack interest in working for that set unless it makes them practically invincible? The answer is yes and no. Yes, the player is of course wants to be godly, but only because he/she doesn’t know any better. And also mainly no, because the player wants better even if it’s only slightly better. Which is why the player will work in time to get such items.

And this leads me to where BioWare is about to grossly fuck up SWTOR PVP. To start, the gear for PVP was in effect grossly under thought. They made it so that the only stat that matters is Expertise, and then more over made 1 end game set that had a requirement for Valor. So once you turn 50, you can easily do a bit of work and get yourself into Centurion. Then you have a slight uphill grind to get Champion Bags through weeklies, dailies, and if dedicated, grinding the living hell out of Warzones. And then once you get Valor 60, you can start to earn your Battlemaster set. This almost works perfectly in a starting sense, as you can easily get into ‘my first’ PVP set with little work and then you have a goal of getting into full Champion while grind Valor. And then once to 60, you still have to work for your Battlemaster. The failure was in the great variance of stats in the gear. Making the Battlemaster gap too great.

With the changes upcoming in 1.2, we can call death to all long term progression. First being the death of any Valor requirement, meaning you have a leveling bar that is about to be as useless as the Legacy Bar is prior to 1.2. The second is the death of special gear commendations. Instead of working for Champion and Battlemaster items, you’ll have 3 (technically 4) sets to now chose from:

• Recruit Set – Buyable by Credits.
• Battle Master Set – Now Purchasable with Warzone Commendations. So this will be a slight grind, but with no barriers other than time.
• War Hero Set – Purchasable through ranked Warzone Commendations. Basically, exactly like Battle Master except you have to do Ranked Warzones.

This is what makes me sad. This means, basically I can leap frog right into a War Hero grind. Why play regular warzones when rated will grant me the commendations I need for better stuff? It also means the grind for end game gear basically dies right in the first week of release. We will be seeing full War Heroes by the second weekend of this patch release. The other is the major differences in stats between sets. You are talking easily 50% better stats to Battle Master Sets from Recruit. I’m assuming War Hero is probably the same. So whoever is on top, stays on top with very little room for skill to overcome stats. 1.2 needs to be released with 2 things in mind so that we have some kind of barrier to break through:

• Stats need to only be slightly better than the last set. With Battle Master have set bonuses, it doesn’t need 50% better over the Recruit. It needs to be at best 20%, more like 15%. And that step should remain true for War Hero
• There needs to be Valor Requirements on the Gear

You are only setting up two scenarios here:

The death of normal warzones (which is okay, you should remove them altogether) and the inevitable boredom of PVP which will lead to a loss in PVP subscriptions much too early. You aren’t even providing a month’s worth of contained progression here.

There are two arguments:

People want even PVP that is based on skill. And to that my answer is, “no you don’t”. If that was true, you wouldn’t be playing an MMO. It’s always about progression and having the best. My skill should earn me reward. What does that matter if we all have the same thing? The other is that the cost of commendations is great enough to provide long term goals. And that I don’t believe. I have no doubts in the amount of War Heroes I will see in 2 weeks after 1.2.

I expected better PVP thought processes. This is a disappointing move

Upcoming 1.2 Patch: Prestigious Means Different Color

There was a bit of work up in our guild when we heard about Rated Warzones. 

“Alright, it looks like you all are going to have to focus fire and actually pay attention.”

Here we thought we were going to finally be forced to play like we did in the old days. Organized and top of the teir. Our biggest worry was with a re-roll to Republic most of our key players gave up Battlemaster Siths to be Champion Pubs. We currently only have 3 starting to get Battlemaster and the decent majority of us in Centurion and some Champion. And then on top of that you have 3 others re-rolling new toons for upcoming adjustments. So, when it seemed Rankings were going to determine our guild’s ability to be in better gear, we got a little worried.

But never fear, with the release of the patch notes we finally read this:

– Players with high ratings can purchase Rated War Hero gear and vehicles. Rated War Hero gear has the same stats as War Hero gear, but has a more prestigious appearance.

Oh, well this is good and disappointing in a couple of ways. I guess good that it doesn’t cause an immediate imbalance for guilds that already have 8 mans in full Battlemaster being able to immediately obtain the best and stay on top. Disappointing in the fact that it doesn’t really give a reason other than bragging rights. What more do you need right? I guess maybe a slight advantage would be okay.

Well, who cares right? At least our hard work in the rankings will gain us much better appearances. And then this happened  (thanks to Old Republic.NET for posting them):

 

Besides being the worst design for end game gear ever, the term “Prestigious Appearance” apparently means slight color variation.

Upcoming 1.2 Patch: The Death of Green Big Guns

The initial patch notes for 1.2 are out.

 What’s surprising to me is who is whiney and who is not. There are some pretty significant changes, but the parties I expected to be the loudest are not yet screaming like I think they should.

Anyways, I’ve not been very happy with my Commando in PVP healing. It basically has a 2 button rotation to maintain Ammo (mana pool) costs. I feel like I’m Marauder Cat Food. Basically with their interrupt and cooldown increase, I’m a sitting duck. And they know it. With their incoming buff in 1.2, I wasn’t all that thrilled, but it was the first thing I read. While reading down the list I assumed they would be giving us Commandos something to combat the upcoming changes of PvP doom. My heart sank as I read the changes to Combat Medic:

– Field Training now increases critical chance by 1% per point.

Oh my god a buff, right? Wrong. Wording makes it seem this way, but this ability used to be 2% per point, so yeah, slight nerf to crit/surge specs.

– Field Triage now reduces the cost of Medical Probe by 1 (down from 2).

This is a Gigantic Nerf. Basically, if you don’t play a Commando, here’s a quick class synopsis. You have an ammo pool of 12 shots. This regens, but does so slower the lower your ammo gets. Meaning, you can really only go below 6 to dig deep when you have a Reload (2 min cooldown) ready or you have no other choice. Going below is basically a last result in most cases. To maintain healing more than, I don’t know, 7 seconds you need Field Triage so that you can cast Advanced Med Probe for 2 Ammo and consequently so that you can throw Reg Med Probe for 1 Ammo. With this change, now it’s 2.

To put this in perspective, we need to compare it with the Sage who is given a 500 point Force Pool that slowly regens. The Sage uses a 3 sec Cast called Deliverance which is more comparable to the Commando’s Medical Probe. The Sage also has Benevolence, which is a quicker cast, smaller amount comparable to the Advanced Medical Probe. Now while this is about where the similarities end, these are basically the main healing skills these classes have, even though the Sage has multiple other options to directly heal with.

Deliverance is 55 Force and Benevolence is 50 Force. While Medical Probe cost 3 Ammo and Adv. Med Probe cost 2. While the Commando can use Field Triage to reduce the Medical Probe cost by 1 (was 2) with advanced med probe the Sage can ignore Benevolence in a straight healing contest. The Sage can also go to the immediate bottom of the Telekenetics tree to not only increase their Force Pool by 100 (600 Total) but can reduce all ability cost by 9%, making their Deliverance costs 50 now.

Saying that both parties are spec’d similarly, their heavy heal should heal for an average of 2.5 K while their secondary quicker heal should be more towards 1.7K.

Regens for the Sage are roughly 8 Force per Second. Regen for the Trooper depends on the amount of ammo. Currently the assumed amounts are for 8 ammo and above, 0.6 ammo/sec; above 3 is 0.36 ammo/sec; and below 3 ammo result is in a 0.24 ammo/sec.

For the Sage at 600 Force over 30 seconds of straight healing could cast X number of Deliverances. At 30 Seconds, that would be (30*8) an extra 240 Force. Meaning with proper upgrades you could cast 2 second Deliverances (Qty 15) at 45 Force each for a total of 750 Force. At the end of 30 seconds the Sage would have 90 Force left and would have at least (without crit) 37,500 worth of Healing.

For the Commando with 12 Ammo we have to follow the progress in step format:

Cast Adv. Med (2 ammo)/ 1.5 Sec/ 1,700 Health = 10 Ammo/1.5Sec/1,700H
Cast Med Probe (2 ammo)/ 2 Sec/ 2,500 Health + (0.6*1.5) 1 Ammo Regen = 9 Ammo/3.5Sec/4,200H
Cast Med Probe (3 Ammo)/ 2 Sec/ 2,500 Health + (0.6*2) 1 Ammo Regen = 7 Ammo/5.5Sec/6,700H
Wait .5 Sec for Adv. Med
Cast Adv. Med (2 ammo)/ 1.5 Sec/ 1,700 Health + (0.36*2.5) 1 Ammo Regen = 6 Ammo/7.5Sec/8,400H
Cast Med Probe (2 ammo)/ 2 Sec/ 2,500 Health + (0.36*1.5) 0 Ammo Regen = 4 Ammo/9.5Sec/10,900H
Cast Med Probe (3 Ammo)/ 2 Sec/ 2,500 Health + (0.36*2) 1 Ammo Regen = 2 Ammo/11.5Sec/13,400H
Wait .5 Sec for Adv. Med
Cast Adv. Med (2 ammo)/ 1.5 Sec/ 1,700 Health + (0.36*2.5) 1 Ammo Regen = 1 Ammo/13.5Sec/15,100H
Wait 1 Sec for Adv. Med for Ammo Regen
Cast Med Probe (2 ammo)/ 2 Sec/ 2,500 Health + (0.24*2.5) 1 Ammo Regen = 0 Ammo/16.5Sec/16,00H

Now you cast into Recharge and Reload to get back ammo to get to the 35,000 worth over 30 Seconds. But if that’s not available, then you are just plain fucked. Not to bore you with numbers, but using this system with the old cost would have meant you could have made it to 28 Seconds before getting to 0 or 1 Ammo.

This is in all essence a giant nerf. I understand this was probably a change for PVE, but I’m not liking the pool management now in comparison with the Sage. This just makes my decision that much more easy to make. Sage it is.

– Kolto Bomb now affects up to 4 targets (up from 3), improving reliability in group and Operation situations.

I like that they specified the PVE usage.  

– Kolto Residue now increases all healing received by 3% (down from 5%).

Kolto bomb healing is almost useless now. Not sure why we are nerfing an already useless high cost ability.

– Psych Aid no longer reduces the cost of Field Aid. It now causes Field Aid to heal the target for a small amount.

I get that you have basically given all Troopers the Psych Aid for free to the class. A specified “Small” amount would be nice to know. Small as in the useless amount the Trauma Probe does for roughly 250 health or small as in the slightly useful amount that Advanced Medical Probe can do?

– Supercharge Cells now restores 1 Energy Cell (down from 2) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%). The shield applied by Kolto Bomb now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%).

Another Nerf in all sorts of ways. That Energy Restoration was a big one for healing Commandos. Mainly because Reload is on a massive 2 min cooldown, you’re only other dig for ammo recharging was the Supercharge. The extra 5% being taken away is basically a dick slap after the load has been blown on your face.

– Trauma Probe now costs 2 Energy Cells to activate.

Let me get this straight? You have taken an ability thought to be useless outside of leveling that roughly heals for 200 health on damage only in 2 sec intervals but at least was a free cast that you can only apply to one player. And now you are making said entirely useless ability cost 2 Ammo?

Go ahead you twats. Make it 10 Ammo while you are at it. And reduce its healing by 90%.

If you want to make it cost Ammo, maybe you should make it heal for some amount over the current near non-existant.

 

Normally I see room for adjustment, but this just overall says to me that the Healing Commando is considered extremely over powered in terms of Energy Management. I just don’t see how this is true. It’s my biggest grief with the class operation. And now you are basically cutting that usage by 30%. I don’t find these terms acceptable. But, then again, you basically just gave me resolve to play my Sage non-stop for a week.

Not So Journalistic

I read all kinds of bloggers and posts. And for the most part, I only really connect with maybe 20% of them. I’m off the wall, I’m crude, and even in a stylistic manner, very jagged around the edges. To bring me to the point of my post, I got around to reading someone today that I’m not fluent with, in a consistent manner. Mainly, because we don’t have a thing in common. Gaming, writing, audience and for the most part, just our vast difference in followings. He probably has 100 readers for each of mine, but that doesn’t keep me from completely disagreeing with him.

Tobold’s latest post presents two ideas that I don’t agree with.

(One) is the remark on journalism and to which I have always whole heartedly disagreed with: Bloggers = Journalist. Blogging is called blogging because it is that. I can write, but it doesn’t grant me integrity. It further more doesn’t obligate me to any code of conduct or does it demand my ability to properly present information through analysis. No, blogging is just what it is. You can take it seriously, but you aren’t a journalist. You can have journalistic values, but until you are working for a publication, guess what?

I relate this to another hobby of mine. And that’s painting and sketching. I’m decent, but I’m no artist. As in, I’m not quitting my day job because I can’t live off of selling this crap. It’s a hobby for me. This fact that I’m not an artist doesn’t keep 98% of the people who see anything I do from calling me one. I just recently argued this point to someone who said, “My sister is an artist, she has made all kinds of work”.

“Very nice. Where’s her gallery?”

“Oh, she just can draw. You should have seen the drawing she did of my cat last weekend.”

This annoys me. One, drawing is a terrible word. You might as well say “I’m taking a dump” instead of “I must use the laboratory”. It’s just about as proper. “Oh, nice drawing”. No one fucking draws, you southern twit. You sketch, you can etch, you can chalk, you can even doodle on a napkin. You don’t draw.

Two, she’s not an artist. An Artist is a professional person that does something very specific, which just so happens to be professional art. She must either sell a piece of art, or perhaps present art in a manner that is critically examined, or some other effect beyond random pencil marks on a paper for family members to enjoy, to which she can be recognized with for such a profession.

I have had sex. I have sex. I will have more and more sex. I don’t do it for money and no one but me enjoys it (zing). I am not a Porn Star. That simple.

The same applies to being a journalist. Blogging is masturbation in public at best. Only few weirdos stop and watch you.  

(Two) is Tobold wonders why bloggers and game reviewers spend some much time relating to prior games and have these bitter review processes. He presents the idea of “… consideration of how long it would entertain the hardcore veterans, and very little about whether it is a fun game for new players”. This is odd to me. I think you can only read a review that has experience. Or at least give it merit.

I mean really, are you going to buy a car because you read 3 posts from 16-year-old girls that were highly impressed with the Miata’s cuteness? This just can’t be me, but I don’t give a shit what 17-year-old Billy the Blogger thought of Star Wars: The Old Republic. His top desire was “uberness” and his least favorite criticism was the “girl toons’ boobs aren’t very big”. I don’t give a shit what Billy, Only Touched One Set of Breast Blogger thinks. I give a shit what angry Mark the Rager, the 38-year-old Gamer that can remember when MUDs were cool, thinks about the progression about the developement and his opinions of why he thinks the game will make and break.

Experience and bitterness are what grant the opinionated a resolution.

Billy can say “I think SWTOR will last a really long time, because … ummmm … I want it to and I enjoy it”.

But Mark, he can say “The inevitable success and demise of SWTOR simply lies within the developers ability to deliver timely improvement patches and highly invested content updates. The game has a strong and rewarding leveling RPG aspect on your way to 50. Compare this to WOW’s “what’s RPG mean, here’s a top-level toon right now” system, old players are going to feel at home as they level on their own time with an in-depth storyline we would expect from BioWare. I can say I see a future here, but that really depends on the developers actions in the next year”.

I can’t prove to you why my review has merit unless we have something to relate to. And that goes into not only is the blogger or reviewer experienced, but his readers are as well.

A first time player didn’t happen stance on someone’s blog review and buy a game. That just didn’t happen. A new player to the MMO world is the exact same as a new car buyer. The 19-year-old bought his/her first Honda with no review or checks in mind. At best he/she picked up a crappy Consumer Reports and decided that a random Red Dot system was an effective resource for decision making on the first big purchase of your life.

Compare this to the 30-year-old buying his/her 4th or 5th car now. These people are checking the awards, the enthusiast reviews, the lemon checks. Really, if you want to know if the car has lemon defects, any twit can join an enthusiast forum and read around. Let’s face it, if you are reading around for non-mainstream reviews, then chances are, you probably aren’t a novice yourself. On that same note, I expect bloggers to write at an Experienced Comparative Level, because that’s what they offer. And that’s their audience.

P.S. I’m only ranting in general. Tobold is a great writer. I just don’t agree with his points, and decided to use them to make many other string of points I have been holding in. Mainly the segway to Artist.

Sages and Sorcerers: Over Powered or Over Esteemed: Part 1

I have had my turns in a few of roles in SWTOR. I started the game late assuming the wildly rare class of Imperial Agent in the month of December. I, of course, more attracted to healing aspects went the route of Operative. Reading about the character was by far more fun than actually playing the character, and by January’s start I was so irritated with the lack of progress, that I was dabbling in all sorts of projects. Not one of which attracted me back to my Operative. Even today, my conclusion stands that this role in game is only one you can appreciate after having played other roles.

I then went with some old friends to a new server and for some reason at the rank of 10 decided that go Assassin instead of Sorcerer despite the fact I knew I liked healing. It was as if my right and left brain had a battle and my right side just laid down to the left’s demands.

• Left Side: Wooooaah…. A double blade lightsaber option?
• Right Side: We just got bored with an Operative because we don’t like Glass Cannon DPS and we rolled this specifically to be a Sorc.
• Left Side: Darth Maul!
• Right Side: That’s not even an argument. You are just saying relatab….
• Left Side: Double Blade Lightsaber!
• Right Side: Okay, but …
• Left Side: DOBLE LITESAAAAABBBBOOOOOOOORRRR!
• Right Side: Okay, Geez …

To a point, when my guild started alts on the Republic Side a few weeks in, on the same Server to help balance the Open PVP, I was somewhat relieved. I had my moments as an Assassin, but I was clearly misplaced in my calling. So when we all started new toons, I of course started a Consular. And I played such Consular to the ripe rank of 12 before my Left Side Brain saw a Commando.

• Left Side: Big Gun!?!
• Right Side: Yeah, it’s a race to get to rank 50 right now. We are behind the main group and this will cut a day into our overall leveling plan …
• Left Side: HEAVY ARMOR!
• Right Side: That is true, but you know how we are always …
• Left Side: NOOOWWWSSS!!!
• Right Side: For God Raping Mary Sake … Fine!

And Right Side leveled that Commando to 50. With no help from Left, who was too busy wasting precious ammo on Explosive Rounds trying to get 25 kill medals. It was a terrible union.

• Left Side: Must fire … another wave of Full Auto!
• Right Side: We are a healer. And we only have a half bar of ammo left.
• Left Side: Explosive Rounds!!!
• Right Side: Great, out of ammo.
• Left Side: Boooooo. Why?
• Right Side: Why? Why?!? You ignoramus, because you wanted a big gun instead of a Sage. Guess who gets a practically limitless Action Pool?
• Left Side: Whaaaaaaaa?
• Right Side: That’s right. I was right back then, but no … we keep listening to you.
• Left Side: I wanna LightSaber!
• Right Side: We already have a 50.
• Left Side: I WANNA LITESAAAAAABBBBOOOOR!
• Right Side: (I do this to myself)

3 weeks and some massive leveling and now both Left and Right are happy.

• Left Side: Throw Stone. Throw lots of Stones. Now throw 2 Stones. Now Mez. Now Stone.
• Right Side: Now, now Left. What did I say about stability?
• Left Side: Oh yeah … Throw Stone. Cast Force Shield. Throw Stone. Throw Lots of Stones. Yay! He Dead.
• Right Side: Good boy.
• Left Side: How long can I do this for?
• Right Side: Forever, Lefty. Forever.

 

Tune in next chapter, when I get away from writing inner brain dialog to actual factual data and analysis of the Classes.

I Have My Capslock Moments

I’m not always well-mannered. Shocker, right?
I can rage. Of course the way I type isn’t what I exactly feel. But … every so often I just can’t remain quiet.

So, I’ve lost for a short amount of time, quite a bit of our level 50 player base to Mass Effect 3. And since I have no desire to have gay ass sex, in game (comma on purpose?), I have taken the time to try to ninja a Sage to 50 while everyone is kind of away. I should really be working on grinding Valor on my Commando who only needs just a little more time to be Battlemaster, but I really despise the fact he’s not a Warrior Priest at heart. Even though I gave him a shaved head with a beard, he just doesn’t do it for me. He’s okay, I just don’t like the 2 heal button rotation life.

Anyways, I’m on my Sage and I’m leveling correctly this go. Which is DPS spec, not healing, and I’m in a Civil War Warzone. Here’s how it plays out:

We all load in. Random Player 1 notices that we have 4 of the same guild in team 1. The Hand Banana are such guild. They are not a PVP guild from my experience. But hey, anything’s better than complete PUGs, right?

So, Random Player suggest that Premade go Right, PuGs go left and some poor sap goes Mid just for funzies. I, of course volunteer, as I agree with such planning. “Outsides” win Civil War. Distractions make that happen.

And sure enough, everyone does what they are supposed to. Amazing. We take left, we take right and I … I keep 5 morons occupied on Mid for roughly 30 seconds.

Then suddenly, as I am flying back overhead I notice we lose Left (West). I don’t know the specifics, but we are now 1/3 Turrets. Surprisingly, as I land I find that 5 party members are rushing Center (Mid), and successfully take it. Wow.

Literally, as someone finishes typing “Okay 4 on Mid, 4 on Right” there a 3 purple Dots headed for East. Mid is overrun and quickly captured. We are talking not even a minute of Warzone and it’s pretty crazy overturn of points.

I can’t grasp what just happened. Why … why does one leave a sure win to stupidity? How does one over come superiority and throw that to the wind? I /ops and say:

“I’m going to say this as calmly and appropriately as I can …”

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING?
WHY DID YOU LEAVE MID?”

Which is met with:

“Wow, nerd rage much bro?”

Which I find an appropriate response to capslock, but not accurate to the events that came into play. And I share this story only because it had a great analogy. It’s also the best paraphrase I could remember. The screen shots weren’t taken at the right times. Too much inbetween crap it would take 5 Screens to show it.

“Guys, I’m going to explain something in all sorts of emotions here:

1- We gloriously gain both Left and Right in the beginning
2- We sadly lost Left immediately
3- We amazing regained Center
4- We then decide to say FUCK YOU TACTICS and went mindlessly to our deaths at LEFT and Lost Center

We had the ability to win and decided that was too easy?

You just scored lucky with a hot chick. You have a little trouble with her bra, but she does it for you and invites you To Take This Now, and your all’s response was to …

MOUNT HER, TURN AROUND, AND TAKE A SHIT ON HER STOMACH!”

Some LOLs, but mostly STFUs.

Here’s what was the saddest: While typing the longest stream of thought rant I have ever been able to coherently do in anger, I had, no joke, 3 solo kills trying to take back Mid by myself. I was watching 5 AFKers on RIGHT while doing it.

I probably had the greatest PVP moment I ever had by myself. A 1v1 followed with a successful 2v1, taking Top Damage (by 3 times the next up), Top Kills, most of which Killing Blows, 3 Solos and still having Top Healing, all while lecturing with glorious satire. The greatest! And I was sharing it with 7 other twits that earned basically the same rewards and valor as me by AFKing on an Objective.

I’ll repeat … I DO NOT LIKE THE LAST PATCH FIX for 4 MEDALS EQUALING 2K in VALOR. Fuck you underacheivers.

SWTOR: The Devs, The Players and the Understanding

I basically keep up with a couple of websites to get my share of resources each day for SWTOR. As a former WAR blogger I am of course in habit of checking in first with my old resouces. I generally go check out Werit first. He keeps me upto date with WAR. Just in case I feel like coming back. But more importantly he also plays SWTOR and EVE, so his convenient blog roll on the side makes him my perfect resource for getting glimpses of bloggers I want to read.

From there I generally check in with Ask a Jedi. I find the read clean and to the right point. Many are doing the news at 12 approach, but I find this blog’s take on a daily basis worth checking into. Between catching Developer notes and just basic news, it seems to have what I’m looking for.

I also tend check in on OldRepublic.net. They have the some pretty useful guides. Incomplete in some cases, but useful. Plus the front page news source isn’t bad.

Which brings me to the point of the post. Today’s front page article is on Developer Frustration and the Quality of Forum Posts.

The site moderator pulled in a classic “Suck It” from a former developer on the SW Galaxies MMO. As funny as it is, it is sad, as Vexx points out, the vast majority of forum posts on the official forums are of the retarded nature. I find his statistic almost perfectly true. Ss when reading any post of any nature, it takes nearly 100 replies to read one well mannered and thought out collection of words. The high majority are of the regular texting language crap.

Is it that the overwelming majority of players are full blown idiots? Or is it simply the actual majority are either non-vocal or the refer to other mediums? I like to prefer to think that it’s the latter.

I mean really, if you have a good idea, do you really want it buried in the 500 replies inbetween “I R 2 Awesomes 4 U” and then below “I AM GOING TO END MY SUB IF YOU DON”T NERF <ROCK> -SINCERELY SCISSORS”?

The answer is no. I doubt that you do. So you start a blog and your opinions are never read again.

So while I appreciate the Developer Fuck You, based on the assumption that the player base is whiney unemployeed children, I like to believe in the CCP Model. Which from 2011, we learned, that the upset player base controls a lot. It only takes a couple of upgrades, rumors and lack of updates in other areas, to directly layoff a hundred or so employees. Which is really sad. A company goes after decent revolutionary upgrades (this being the station and character avatar customization, the best any game has ever dreamed) but ends up being a horrible company destablizing move.

To me, it’s a really important lesson.

Player base basically demands 3 basic things: More Ships, More Combat Stuff, Balance
Developer goes: Fuck You, You Want Non-Space Stuff, Money Buyable Crap, and Major Overhaul to In Game Shinies that Don’t Matter

And it results in … 2 destroyed side product, complete turn around of a companies image and let’s not forget the dozens that probably won’t return to work.

Yet, CCP still turned a major profit. That’s of course due to cuts in expenses. But they turned around. It took a genuine outcry of players to go, Fix Now or I Leave, in a childish approach for the developer to go “Okay okay … we have some stuff. It’s not ready, but we’ll halt all crap and balance and fix right now.”

So as much as I feel for developers being harrassed by what is clearly a very biased and unforgiving customer base, I do have to say what I have always said before…

“It’s free fucking feedback”

Think how much every other industry has to pay out to get customers to give them their opinion. In the MMO world, everyone gives you theirs for free. For free. And it’s completely trackable and you know everything about the opinionated voice. Amazing.

So while it’s failry annoying to keep reading “Sorcs R OP”, I guess it’s a little nicer than say, I don’t know … losing 30% of your subs in silence.

Just a thought.