PvP in SWTOR 1.2 is Complete Crap...Unless You're Empire....

...but just so happens that 80% of  SWTOR's population play Empire.

So...I took this free "7 days come-back" special from Bioware for people who quit. They wanted us to come back to try the hyped up 1.2 legacy patch and give the game another chance. I decided to try it again because, well, Guild Wars 2 isn't out yet and maybe I judged SWTOR too early but...

...all it's doing so far is making me hate this game even more. There are many things I want to touch on but the major most noticeable thing is the PvP handsdown.

It's almost exactly 50% worse than it was before and worse than any game you've probably PvP'd in. 

Yes, even Champions Online and Rift.

Just Joined A Game. Republic Losing and Only Had 5 Players Vs. 8. This Happens 90% of the Day.

Not to mention Bioware buffing/ changing classes in very rushed and sloppy way. And it's not me. I love PvP and found SWTOR pvp amusing and fun before 1.2. Now it's complete trash.

It's hard to describe how the PvP is worse because it was never really that good to begin with, but I'll give you an example:

If You Play Republic, This Is What Your Score Will Typcially Look Like. Note
If You Have Less Than 3 Medals, You Will Get No Reward.

Before 1.2, you would get a certain amount of rewards if you lose. It wasn't as much as the winner but it was better than nothing.

Now, they changed things to the point that you can get NOTHING AT ALL for doing PvP matches. Literally, nothing. It's now based on medals. If you get very few or none, it's almost if you didn't even play a match.

 And this will happen ALOT if you are playing on the Republic. I was just in a match, fighting the SAME pre-made Empire guild over and over. They would stomp us into the ground. This has alot to do with the "PvP" stats in game as well (which I find makes PvP worse in itself) but still let's say that wasn't even a factor.

The fact that you get NOTHING is stupid all together.

It's even more stupid because Bioware KNOWS 100% well that Republic is outnumbered or dead on almost every server. Not only that, on the server I am on, we barely, if ever, have a full team. So it's always 5 +/- Republic going against a full 8 man team of Empire.

I also say Bioware knows this because they are slowly leaning torwards making all the Warzones non -faction based. Which pretty much means Empire will be fighting Empire and Republic will fight Empire. See what I did there?

The sad part is, there are players ACTUALLY trying to play the PvP still. That part I DO NOT understand. For some of these players common sense will just never kick in. The PvP is imbalanced and not fun. Period.

But you know what? Instead of making some long post about this horrible broken PvP sytem, I'll leave you with some threads on the official forum where people are obviously not happy with this change to PvP:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=405248
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=414039
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=412826
http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=76

 In fact, the only ones that seem to be happy are the Empire. I wonder why?

With that said, if people want my advise on if they should buy this game...

...then the answer IS NO.

I can deal with MMO developers making mistakes but Bioware just does not listen. They do not test their content properly. They have no clue how to run a MMO or what a MMO needs.

Do not waste your money and time on SWTOR unless it goes free to play or you just want to do PvE single player type things.

Just Thinking: MMO Developers Should Not Expect High Subscriptions...

...because they will end up disappointed like most.

I never really understood the big hype and obsession with developers wanting high subscription numbers post-WoW. I thought the fact that MMORPGs were brought into the mainstream( due to WoWs success) was good enough. It was for me at least.

It's to the point where it's obvious the desire for high subscription numbers has little to do with the "cost" of running the game and more to do with seeing high profits.

Yes, I expect developers to make a profit but it feels as though the "profit" is all these developers think about now. It's no longer about making a fun game that even the developers enjoy. It's about how developers can take a feature they feel WoW lacks, and exploit it to attract players. Or in some MMOs case, an IP.

Anyways...was just thinking.

Bioware Values You...If You Are Level 50 in SWTOR.

Many adult TaunTauns were killed in order to steal their children to be your slave.

Yesterday on April 12th, Bioware announced they would be giving their loyal subscribers that remained subscribed from day one a free TaunTaun pet and 30 free days.

Sounds great!

Bioware is finally giving back to the community it loves to rob so much.And I bet it has nothing to do with players leaving SWTOR in droves and all the negative feed back! Oh,wait a second...aren't you...aren't you one of those, "I didn't rush to 50 players" that still don't have a level 50 after almost 4 months? You are also one of those players that believed Bioware and thought a decent MMORPG consist of rolling alternative characters constantly?

Well then I would like to apologize as this offer does not apply to you.

No, for those of you that are not level 50  but subscribed the same time, you get nothing but the TaunTaun, which if you are lucky won't causes errors to your gameplay. Yes, you players that decided to roll alts because Bioware said it was an important part of the game are not important nor loyal enough to get 30 free days.

On a serious note, if you look at the forum, most of the people who constantly defended everything Bioware did are now up in arms about not being rewarded as well. Go figure.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be rewarded as well. I feel they should get 30 days free as well but it's kind of amusing to see the ones who called anyone who was dissatisfied "whiners", "complainers" and "entitled generation". And now they are complaining.

Amazing isn't it?

Because remember kids! Everything is fine and dandy until it's something that effects you!

I leave you with links to the rage:

The Real Reason for the Free 30 Days!
Celebrate Game Update 1.2: Legacy

Also a bonus post for Legacy 1.2 and why I told you / will make a post about why it fails:

GUILD BANK GONE! items lost!

Enjoy!

Quit SWTOR. Sucked Then, Sucks Now, Will Suck in 1.2 PT.2

Alright, just to let you guys know, this will probably be one of my last post about SWTOR...

I know. I just love giving my very biased opinion about SWTOR because it's everything I feel is wrong with the MMO genre wrapped up in a big ball of hype and failure-to-deliver. I don't believe I have hated a game this much since...All Points Bulletins. In a way, they are actually very similar.

APB and SWTOR that is. They were both published by EA, both lacked real content, both were hub games and both focused more on advertising than the horrible, broken gameplay.

Maybe I liked Bioware so much  I expected too much? Not sure!

Moving on!

So...by now if you STILL have forced yourself to play SWTOR, you probably have noticed the huge drop in server population unless however, you are on one of the few populated servers. And when I say "few", I literally mean that. If you stroll by the forums, the "loyal" Bioware fans however will make you believe otherwise.

I say this because most of them will consistently deny that most servers are either very empty or near death. They deny it to the point that if you were to show them any evidence of this server population deficiency (let's say the evidence is people on the forums begging for server merges, TORStatus.com and screenshots of empty fleets), they will persist with denial. Usually, citing that they see no issue with population. But...

...I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact the ones claiming there is no problem are usually on the two or three populated servers.

Anyhoo...Let's talk about how linear SWTOR is!

Now, I understand that a video game can only offer so much as far as exploration goes... But in SWTOR, it's almost as if they just cut the idea of adventure out completely.

First, Bioware claimed all this unique story, decisions matter blah blah blah. I will tell you that, not only are the "class" stories not "unique" because most of the stories (if not all) revolve around the same plot (Hunt this guy down, Stop this super weapon, Hunt this guy down)and they only count for about 10% of the missions. The rest of the missions are all the same for EVERYONE on your faction.

No, it isn't like alot of other MMOs where you have some type of option as to where you might want to do missions... unless you just completely skip those around your level. This is because you follow an invisible path that takes you from quest hub to quest hub, planet to planet etc. If you've played Rift and Warhammer you will know what I mean. Ironically, people from the Warhammer team helped with SWTOR...go figure.

The linearity of SWTOR is so bad that it made it VERY hard for me to make alts after 50. It's worse than a grind. It feels like TORTURE. I know, I know! "But on the SWTOR forum, people say they love making alts!" Yeah, that's because most people that have a bunch of alts still aren't level 50, barely play the game and/or are loyal to anything Bioware does. Probably even working for Bioware.

 I actually had to skip most of the missions on my alt and do PvP for levels just to  get through the tedious grind. PvP was a little better but after doing 100's of matches of the same three maps, I am sure you can imagine that also gets old too.

Transition!

Oh man...end game/ normal content. Wow, not only was it broken, it was broken with the most stupid things I have ever seen in a game. And what made it worse, it's almost as if none of it was tested!

OH WAIT!...It probably wasn't because Bioware didn't allow players to have pre-made max level characters in beta nor did they allow it in this new 1.2 patch (which is why it is failure already; No ranked warzones, overpowered tank assassin class, matches usually unbalanced).

You had things like tons of mobs coming out of no where, couldn't delete missions to the point you HAD to do them, you die when you zone in to a instance after a wipe, bosses spawn that didn't reset, boss mechanics not working properly, companions not working properly, getting stuck on your ship etc etc. Some of these issues had work arounds, most didn't.  It was almost as if I we were playing a beta SWTOR still.   It was so frustrating, people would vent in guild chat, in general chat, on the forums, on my sleep, on my blog...well, you get the picture.

Another problem I have with SWTOR is the lifelessness. When every mob seems like it's just sitting there, waiting for you to kill it, there is no thrill in that. It's boring. Not only that, but ALL the mobs are usually spread out in the same format /pattern almost as if they just copy and pasted them up and down. Then having to dig your way through a tunnel of enemies only to have to dig yourself back through them...ugh.

Guild Wars 2 PRE-ORDER UP! 'NUFF SAID! GO GO GO!

"

The wait is over! Pre-Purchase Guild Wars 2 Today!

 

https://buy.guildwars2.com/

NO TIME TO ADD TO THIS! TIME TO PRE-ORDER!

OT: EA Bots Rigging AllOut.com Petition...

UPDATE: THEY HAVE SHUT DOWN THE PETITION, PRETENDING EA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPAM BOTS.

Coincidentally, the same day people found out what they were doing, they shut it down and post this:

Thanks for standing up against homophobia.

More than 60,000 All Out members took action before our page came under attack from spammers. We've disabled the form, but want to assure everyone we've had no contact with EA regarding this campaign and are looking into the source of the spam.

You can read our press statement here and follow us on twitter @allout for more information.

Thanks for going All Out.

...And I can't say I am shocked.

Most of you know EA by now. 

If you don't, I will remind you that EA was voted the worse company in America for 2012. 

EA VOTED WORSE COMPANY IN AMERICA 

And I must say, that award was long overdue.

But now as the water boils and begins to rise, EA has unveiled their master plan to get you to believe

that all the backlash they get is from EA "defending their GAY consumers"...

 No seriously.

"Electronic Arts (EA) -- one of the largest video game makers in the world - is the target of a hateful boycott campaign. Why? Because they approved a gay romance story in one of their partner BioWare's most popular games: Star Wars: The Old Republic. "

Thanks to Reddits thewalking and JakeSteam

Make sure everyone sees this image, and understands the latest EA advertising trick is just that.  

 Yes, EA and Yoda want you to help them fight the darkside. 

And by "you", they mean automated bots that spam Allout.com with praise and love for EA

defending their LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans) player-base after EA received 1000's of imaginary anti-gay hate mail.

This was also almost predicted to happen beforehand by a user on Reddit.com (comrade-stalin) which posted:

So instead of talking about the real problem, that EA is a greedy, soulless company that sucks up talented developers, has them make mediocre games for the sake of selling DLC and then spits them out when they fail....they decide to make Christians and Republicans out as the enemy.

That's fine I suppose. 

Christians can be the religious enemy.

Republicans can be the political enemy.

 And EA can be the game industry enemy.

See? Now everyone is happy!

The Secret World! Sub. Fee,Cash Shop and No Information Oh MY!

So...where to begin....

The Secret World had announced it's payment model back in August 2011:

Regarding new details on The Secret World's planned business model

I figure they would change it but...looks like they are going ahead with what I feel is a suicide plan.

By the way, this thread they posted it in, is made up of many angry pages and they have not even responded to it.

But back on point.

I had a major issue with cash shops+sub. fees to begin with but liked the fact they had to balls to announce it ahead of time. Probably a mistake,but none-the-less, admirable. 

However, my opinion on Funcom, EA and MTs in a whole:

This game, The Secret World, is the type of crap I hate about MMOs and these greed developers because not only are they "double dipping" in potential revenue but they have given very little information about the game to begin with. Even less than what we got from Bioware with SWTOR.

So, not only do we know little about how this game will play, but they want me to PRE-ORDER it? 

Haha...Oh...it's not a joke?

No. It isn't.

Pre-Order Information

By little info, I mean very little actual footage of the game and no information on how much the monthly fee will be. Ironically, this is almost the same marketing method used by EA with SWTOR.

But they have information on the cash shop which is selling character slots because you only get three character slots to begin with!

And don't worry! You know this game will "more than likely" be a huge success due to the fact they are offering a "Lifetime Subscription" plan for a low price of $199 (which is alot more for EU)! Because if the game gets cancelled, like APB and Hellgate, that lifetime subscription 

will be worth it!

Note that EA was involved with APB and Hellgate:London ; both failed horribly.

I bring that up because this game is almost a mix between those two with a Champions Online cash shop twist!

Ahh yes. 

Dark Days are coming indeed...