Monday, May 7, 2012

SWTOR Subscriptions Down 25%...

...but of course there is a reason.

And according to the diehard fans, it's either never Biowares' fault or it doesn't mean there is anything wrong. Everything is perfect in the land(s) of SWTOR...even if your server has 1 person on it.

Funny. I know.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=447469

Today's earning call provided facts that allowed us to finally understand that the dead servers we were playing on weren't just part of our "hater" imagination.

So now, the defense comes up.

On the forum, you have people who once said "SWTOR would surpass 2 million subscribers " saying , "I told you haters this game wasn't dying!"

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-sales-beat-targets-star-wars-takes-hit-2012-05-07?siteid=yhoof2 

Yes, it makes perfect sense!

Because losing a quater of your playerbase means the game is still growing!

Sometimes, I really believe it's the fanboys that helped destroy SWTOR.

Sadly, it's probably the "haters" like me, that are big MMO fans, who saw this coming long ago. Instead of listening to us, Bioware tried to do the bidding of the people who have no idea what makes a good MMO.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Tera Online Head Start

Hello everyone, as stated on the launch schedule Tera Online will start tomorrow on Saturday the 28th at 8:00 am pacific time. When tomorrow does come I plan to fill up my character slots and level the characters using rested experience, its easy to level them that way and they get leveled at the same time. How do you guys level characters in mmos? If you do not plan on playing Tera and are looking for a good game to keep you occupied until Diablo 3 or Guild Wars 2 I would recommend trying Tera Online. Launch Schedule

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Just Thinking : Turn-Based Combat Does Not Belong In Any Star Wars MMO

Now, I am by no means a "Star Wars geek" or knowledgable about much of the lore besides the first three movies, KOTOR and Jedi Knight series but...

I've been thinking after watching the Star Wars movies (the first originals) on how a perfect Star Wars MMO would be. You know? The type of gameplay, mechanics and features it would have.

I felt the best way to achieve a good Star Wars MMO is to follow the period AFTER the originals. Either right after the end of Return of the Jedi or around the time period of the Jedi Knight : Academy game series.

Even though I have been playing MMOs for years, it took me a while to understand what people meant by "turn-based" combat. And now that I understand what "turn-based" combat means, I can see why turn-based combat doesn't feel right in some games.

I want to jump right into it though. I think alot of the issues with MMOs is the "turn-based combat" in them. It seems very out of place, especially Star Wars MMO.

I think that combat in a Star Wars MMO should not be similiar to other MMOs. It should not have the type of combat where you hit someone with a lightsaber and it doesn't inflict tons of damage. It should be more about BLOCKING / DEFENSE.

Therefore, I think the animations and gameplay should be based around defending yourself.  Where you block until one of you gets lucky enough get a hit on the other.

And as much as I would like FPS style combat, that is usually the first type of combat to become exploited with aimbots and other hacks so...an auto-target system will suffice.

 I also think that crowd control skills have gone too far MMOs and if you play SWTOR you will see what I am talking about.

Friday, April 20, 2012

OT: Diablo III Beta Error 3003... EU Rages Even Though It's Free

Error 3003
Apparently, tons of people (mainly Europeans) have flooded the forums with comments such as "failed beta weekend" and other classics such as "blizz wake up EU test is an abortion".

This is due to Error 3003 which PROBABLY has something to do with the amount of people connecting to Diablo 3 servers because...well...it's free.

So let's just forget that it's free and that the players complaining about the service of something free are being ungrateful...

Thinking about Error 3003 or connection issues on Diablo 3 free beta weekend?

All These Post And More Were Deleted In About 1 Second.
Well, don't bother posting it on the technical forum on the Diablo 3 website because it won't make it past two comments.

No, Blizzard is having none of that SWTOR forum troll nonsense in their house.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

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!