So it finally happened. After 7 years of gaming, mostly in World of Warcraft, I've lost my desire to log on. I guess it was something I had seen coming, but never thought much on it. In the past few months, I've logged on mostly just for raids, I didn't do my dailies even if the rewards are great, and I just felt there was nothing for me to do outside of the weekly raids.
Burnout was definitely something I had experienced before and I have taken a week or 2 off and then I'm back and raring to go. But this time, it is much different. I could probably take this and rant on games and gaming of this generation, like the Raid Finder ruining raiding or SWTOR having too many problems at the end game. But really, thats not the case and the problem is found between the chair and keyboard.
One thing that drove me to raiding and gaming as I have been is the desire to be one of the best. I have tried to be "the best" at some point and realized I cannot do that. So I settled to being "one of the best". This did work out for me but it still led to what ultimately causes gaming burnout - the need to keep up with or be ahead of everyone else.
This constant need to be the best you can be is basically what keeps MMORPGs afloat. There always has to be an achievable goal and it is not inherently a problem. It when the goal is to be the best you can be as fast as everyone else, that can cause issues.
For many people, it is this drive that gives them the most fun. They would not be happy until they are the best they can be ahead of as many others as possible. I was definitely one of those people. I had forgotten what made World of Warcraft fun for me initially and joined the grind to the top. This meant maximizing rewards, changing professions, and basically just doing all it took to reach that goal and and do it quick.
This became glaringly clear to me when I was playing SWTOR. While I was leveling, I signed up for the warzones and had a lot of fun. More than I expected since I was not really a PvP person. Sure, I got my ass handed to me most of the time, but I had a lot of fun, and I did get better. Then when I hit 50, things changed somehow. Warzones was more frustrating for some reason and I would not have as much fun as I used to.
As it turned out, my frustration was not with PvP or warzones themselves, but to get my 3 wins for the daily quest. The fact that I had limited time, and warzones take ~15 minutes to play out, every loss felt like that time was wasted. Every misstep by myself and others in my team just stood out more and made me even more angry than I should be. This is the same thing with Ilum. It all stopped being fun.
By the time I realized this, I just felt burned out with both games. I hardly even log on to WoW and I mostly play SWTOR mostly to help tank stuff for friends. I PvP for the fun of PvP and if I can't get the daily done, its not a problem. The personal story really paid off though so now I want to see how the other classes' stories play out, but in a much slower pace.
No, I have not unsubbed from either game. The time may come soon where I will get back the drive to play like I used to, but I doubt it will be the same. What becomes fun for me has changed and will change further.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
SWTOR: One Month of Learning
The one month mark has passed for Star Wars: The Old Republic and while there are a lot of reasons to praise the game, but there have also been a lot of problems and controversies. I'd like to start by saying that I think the game is great, but there are way too many annoyances that prevented it from being the best game out there. Yes, hindsight is always with perfect eyesight, but the mistakes of the past will prevent a lot of it happening again in the future.
ILUM: Too Much, and yet, Too Little
Ilum is probably the worst disaster that SWTOR has encountered to date. It's initial incarnation saw little to no PvP for a PvP zone and it's current state is too bland for most time of the day. The promise of world PvP falls flat when there simply is no one there to fight. Picking off stragglers isn't really fun.
Ilum is also way too large to host the current level 50 populace. When we did get organized for some PvP, we ended up chasing the enemy group through half the map before they realized there might be a fight to be had and ran up to meet us.
In my opinion, the zone was a missed opportunity for Bioware. If they had held out and not released Ilum with the game, they would have been able to build anticipation and momentum for the zone. Releasing it when there are a lot of level 50s would have opened the floodgates to some really fun PvP moments. They also would not have released it in it's original incarnation because it would have been tested on the test server. Speaking of which.....
Test Servers Need High Level Testers
The spectre of Ilum raises it's head once again and the post patch version had some glaring problems. Testers were able to find one that resulted in a 1-day delay of the patch, but a few others made it through that simply caused havoc in the zone. The fact that this problem appeared not even an hour into the patch going live means that it would have been easily caught on the test server if there were just more people on it.
At this time, there are no ways to get a level 50 character on the test server other than leveling all over again. Unfortunately, this limits what your average player can really test. Sure, they don't plan to delete characters with every patch, but to level once again? On a server that may or may not delete the character? For the power levelers, this won't be too much of a problem, but for your average player who wants to test the higher end changes, this is just not possible.
This also means high end changes will go live with glaring bugs/problems like Ilum. The more people there are to test the changes being made, the easier it will be to find the problems in the patch. Until character transfers are enabled, future patches will not be as polished as they want it to be before it hits the live servers.
Design Decisions: Who? What?
After a month of playing the game, some design elements of the game still boggles my mind. The auction house is atrocious, as are the lack of real use of most crew skills at 50 (both problems go hand-in-hand though). A dual-spec system, while coming soon, is something that new MMORPGs already have on launch and the current system can be prohibitive for some due to cost.
Granted, SWTOR is a huge game, larger than any MMORPG ever lauched as far as I can remember. Even World of Warcraft did not launch with as many features as SWTOR did. But does that really excuse having the command to split stacked items be the same that links it in chat?
Still, many of the problems encountered in the first month are those that a good number of people would not have even seen yet. If general chat on the fleet is any indication, the average player-base is still at the level 35-40 range so a lot of the end-game issues are a non-factor. Bioware has been very quick so far with bug fixes and patches so it gives me confidence that they will have ironed things out by the time more people get to max level.
ILUM: Too Much, and yet, Too Little
Ilum is probably the worst disaster that SWTOR has encountered to date. It's initial incarnation saw little to no PvP for a PvP zone and it's current state is too bland for most time of the day. The promise of world PvP falls flat when there simply is no one there to fight. Picking off stragglers isn't really fun.
Ilum is also way too large to host the current level 50 populace. When we did get organized for some PvP, we ended up chasing the enemy group through half the map before they realized there might be a fight to be had and ran up to meet us.
In my opinion, the zone was a missed opportunity for Bioware. If they had held out and not released Ilum with the game, they would have been able to build anticipation and momentum for the zone. Releasing it when there are a lot of level 50s would have opened the floodgates to some really fun PvP moments. They also would not have released it in it's original incarnation because it would have been tested on the test server. Speaking of which.....
Test Servers Need High Level Testers
The spectre of Ilum raises it's head once again and the post patch version had some glaring problems. Testers were able to find one that resulted in a 1-day delay of the patch, but a few others made it through that simply caused havoc in the zone. The fact that this problem appeared not even an hour into the patch going live means that it would have been easily caught on the test server if there were just more people on it.
At this time, there are no ways to get a level 50 character on the test server other than leveling all over again. Unfortunately, this limits what your average player can really test. Sure, they don't plan to delete characters with every patch, but to level once again? On a server that may or may not delete the character? For the power levelers, this won't be too much of a problem, but for your average player who wants to test the higher end changes, this is just not possible.
This also means high end changes will go live with glaring bugs/problems like Ilum. The more people there are to test the changes being made, the easier it will be to find the problems in the patch. Until character transfers are enabled, future patches will not be as polished as they want it to be before it hits the live servers.
Design Decisions: Who? What?
After a month of playing the game, some design elements of the game still boggles my mind. The auction house is atrocious, as are the lack of real use of most crew skills at 50 (both problems go hand-in-hand though). A dual-spec system, while coming soon, is something that new MMORPGs already have on launch and the current system can be prohibitive for some due to cost.
Granted, SWTOR is a huge game, larger than any MMORPG ever lauched as far as I can remember. Even World of Warcraft did not launch with as many features as SWTOR did. But does that really excuse having the command to split stacked items be the same that links it in chat?
Still, many of the problems encountered in the first month are those that a good number of people would not have even seen yet. If general chat on the fleet is any indication, the average player-base is still at the level 35-40 range so a lot of the end-game issues are a non-factor. Bioware has been very quick so far with bug fixes and patches so it gives me confidence that they will have ironed things out by the time more people get to max level.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Return of the Blogger
So the holiday season was terrible for blogging although the biggest culprit was Bioware's evil, EVIL, game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although there is something to say about how good and engaging the game is when I finally got up to get a snack and realized 3 hours have passed.
I won't be doing a full on review though I will be putting down a lot of thoughts about the game. I have also collected a few videos although I am running into the same problem with disk space. Streaming is also back to being in the works.
Still, it is hard to resist making a few comments about the game here.
I won't be doing a full on review though I will be putting down a lot of thoughts about the game. I have also collected a few videos although I am running into the same problem with disk space. Streaming is also back to being in the works.
Still, it is hard to resist making a few comments about the game here.
- PvP - damn I love pvp in SWTOR. I normally play a tank with tank spec and gear, so I don't top the damage charts or anything. But I have been hard to kill so objective games are just great.
- Level 50 - Still much to do. I have yet to run higher level flashpoints and more hard mode ones. Hard Mode Black Talon was fun and has some challange...and bugs.
- Ilum - I heard some things about the place and it is more or less correct. It was actually fun getting jumped on by 3-4 others. At least something happens more than the quests there.
- Story - I LOVE the story. Just finished the Sith Inquisitor story and I am amazed by it. Certainly suprising to some degree.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
SWTOR: Space Combat Preview
Space Combat is probably one of the more underrated features of Star Wars The Old Republic. Yes, it certainly is not innovative gameplay by any stretch of the imagination, but it really is quite fun.
Of course, fun is relative and many will probably not look past the fact that it is a rail shooter. Admittedly, i did have trouble when I first tried to play, not really knowing what to expect. Controls were simple, but tend to be sluggish so that took a while to get used to.
Gearing the ship is very expensive so you should not expect to buy all the upgrades at the same time. Since missions can be repeated even if you fail, you can decide which upgrade will be the most beneficial if you cannot afford them all. Mission ends with you alive but targets not getting destroyed in time? Just get the cannon upgrades and perhaps one for the missiles too.
It certainly is a very pleasant diversion from the normal MMO game. You can certainly play the game without ever doing a space combat mission, but i think this gives players a better feel of being part of a larger game world...or galaxy.
Of course, fun is relative and many will probably not look past the fact that it is a rail shooter. Admittedly, i did have trouble when I first tried to play, not really knowing what to expect. Controls were simple, but tend to be sluggish so that took a while to get used to.
Gearing the ship is very expensive so you should not expect to buy all the upgrades at the same time. Since missions can be repeated even if you fail, you can decide which upgrade will be the most beneficial if you cannot afford them all. Mission ends with you alive but targets not getting destroyed in time? Just get the cannon upgrades and perhaps one for the missiles too.
It certainly is a very pleasant diversion from the normal MMO game. You can certainly play the game without ever doing a space combat mission, but i think this gives players a better feel of being part of a larger game world...or galaxy.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
SWTOR: Tanking Alderaan PvP
I have to say I am definitely having more fun doing PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic than any other game I've played. Heck, even League of Legends did not keep me for very long, as great a game as it is. I suppose a huge part in SWTOR's favour is the fact that PvP is very accessible. The bolstering mechanic allows even a level 10 to go toe to toe with a level 50 and potentially win. However, it does not give any talents or skills so that is already a huge disadvantage. Bolster also does not scale down, so those with top pvp gear will still overpower those just jumping in as soon as they can queue for warzones.
Mind you, I've never been one-shot. Or 2-shot for that matter. I went up against a level 40 Jedi Guardian a few times and it was apparent we were both in tank spec. However, the gearing and ability differences were very obvious and I was clearly outmatched. But even then, the fight did take a while before I ran away like the coward I am.
Alderaan is not exactly perfect for a tanking class. With the lower damage, you can't expect to go solo and kill someone. However, because of high survivability, you are suited to being able to protect the objectives for a long time. Sure, it can be boring, but SWTOR actually makes it clear that it rewards people more for objective play than how many people you killed. In this Alderaan vid, I cut out several minutes because nothing happened while defending the center node but I ended up 3rd on the leaderboard, particularly with the medal count and objective points.
The match shown was really really close - pretty much down the wire, but we were able to pull it off in the end. Pretty good for a PUG group actually.
Highlights of the match:
Mind you, I've never been one-shot. Or 2-shot for that matter. I went up against a level 40 Jedi Guardian a few times and it was apparent we were both in tank spec. However, the gearing and ability differences were very obvious and I was clearly outmatched. But even then, the fight did take a while before I ran away like the coward I am.
Alderaan is not exactly perfect for a tanking class. With the lower damage, you can't expect to go solo and kill someone. However, because of high survivability, you are suited to being able to protect the objectives for a long time. Sure, it can be boring, but SWTOR actually makes it clear that it rewards people more for objective play than how many people you killed. In this Alderaan vid, I cut out several minutes because nothing happened while defending the center node but I ended up 3rd on the leaderboard, particularly with the medal count and objective points.
The match shown was really really close - pretty much down the wire, but we were able to pull it off in the end. Pretty good for a PUG group actually.
Highlights of the match:
- Some really terrible goofs from yours truly. Learn from my mistake and NEVER leave the objective for a long time.
- The nodes interfere with line of sight and smaller characters can effectively hide themselves. You may never know that they are there until it is too late.
- Line of sight also makes stopping a node capper from range a bit harder. If you are range, make sure to move around the node to take shots at them.
- Keeping a friendly shielded and his opponent taunted ensures his victory. After the taunt, I go back to guard my node.
- 11k Objective points! I honestly have no idea how and which points factor in to your rewards. Unfortunately, the leaderboard does not show the rewards given to even your teammates.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
SWTOR: More Tank Hutball
Over the weekend I focused on getting my Sith Juggernaut to a level where I get more tools to play with. I stopped at level 26 and this gave me access to Force Choke and Force Push. The former is a nice crowd control ability limited only to the fact that it is channeled. It lasts for 3s but that is usually enough to keep someone away from an objective.
Force Push is just a fantastic ability. All day I have denied goals and killed opponents with this ability and made PvP even more fun. The knockback distance is actually quite long, perhaps 15 meters and it can stun opponents unlike other class' knockbacks. The one minute cooldown is very limiting however and knowing when to use or save it for later can make a difference.
Some highlights of the video:
Force Push is just a fantastic ability. All day I have denied goals and killed opponents with this ability and made PvP even more fun. The knockback distance is actually quite long, perhaps 15 meters and it can stun opponents unlike other class' knockbacks. The one minute cooldown is very limiting however and knowing when to use or save it for later can make a difference.
Some highlights of the video:
- Good use of ball passing for both sides.
- Using Force Push to knock people off ledges and into hazards. In one case, I pushed the enemy ball carrier into the poison hazard and rooted him with a charge to make sure he dies. I died too, but that was fun.
- Using Taunt when I can to make sure the ball carrier takes less damage. A Powertech was also doing very well shielding the ball carriers.
- A lot of good group play in protecting the ball carrier. The opposing group were a little disorganized, but they didn't lack in effort and had been trying to score.
- A teammate going the wrong way! It was a little confusing at first before we realized what was happening. We were ahead 3-0 though so everyone had a laugh. That same ball carrier also seemed inexperienced with ball passing.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
SWTOR: Sith Juggernaut PvP - Huttball
On the last day of the beta weekend, I decided to give PvP a whirl. I decided to stick with my tank spec particularly because of one talent - Intimidation. This allowed Chilling Scream to be cast without any rage cost. While Chilling Scream is governed by the global cooldown, it does not have a cooldown of it's own. And having a free, almost spammable AoE snare is incredibly valuable. Sadly, I wasn't able to get high enough level to get other great abilities for PvP, but I figured I'd still give it a go.
Huttball is actually a great warzone for a Sith Juggernaut or Jedi Guardian. While PvP is always about killing other people, control is far more powerful in a game like Huttball. Killing opponents would actually make things harder as they spawn behind the goal line.
In this particular game, I decided to play very aggressively and see if I can draw the attention of multiple players. My first skirmish did just that and 4-5 opposing players decided to beat on me. A deficit of half their team locked in a useless battle. It did take them 24s to kill me which was more than enough time for the ball carrier to score by the time I respawned. I decided to use this strategy a lot as my opponents did not seem to really care about the objectives and decided to farm kills (or they gave up early). I did make a mistake at one point when I created a 3-1 deficit created in favour of the opponents when I decided to take on a smuggler. Not that I didn't appreciate the healing or the extra shooter, but it was an unnecessary fight.
One of the better abilities of a Juggernaut at this level is Guard and Taunt. These make Juggernauts and Guardians excellent bodyguards for ball carriers and healers and actually makes tanking useful in PvP. I have to hand it to Bioware that they decided to make all specs useful for PvP and it made the game significantly more fun.
Other highlights of the match:
Huttball is actually a great warzone for a Sith Juggernaut or Jedi Guardian. While PvP is always about killing other people, control is far more powerful in a game like Huttball. Killing opponents would actually make things harder as they spawn behind the goal line.
In this particular game, I decided to play very aggressively and see if I can draw the attention of multiple players. My first skirmish did just that and 4-5 opposing players decided to beat on me. A deficit of half their team locked in a useless battle. It did take them 24s to kill me which was more than enough time for the ball carrier to score by the time I respawned. I decided to use this strategy a lot as my opponents did not seem to really care about the objectives and decided to farm kills (or they gave up early). I did make a mistake at one point when I created a 3-1 deficit created in favour of the opponents when I decided to take on a smuggler. Not that I didn't appreciate the healing or the extra shooter, but it was an unnecessary fight.
One of the better abilities of a Juggernaut at this level is Guard and Taunt. These make Juggernauts and Guardians excellent bodyguards for ball carriers and healers and actually makes tanking useful in PvP. I have to hand it to Bioware that they decided to make all specs useful for PvP and it made the game significantly more fun.
Other highlights of the match:
- A 3-1 situation where I was able to take one trooper down before I died
- Force Scream is a really powerful finisher ability. It should be able to deal far more damage than seen in the vid if I was able to gear up more
- Force Charge is a ton of fun
- The Juggernaut's resilience is shown very well on that last goal. Taking focus fire and having one healer, I was able to slowly make my way to the goal line. Also, charging through fire is fun, if dangerous (my health went down to almost 30%)
- Another show of durability of the class is when I decided to run through the poison hazard. Took some damage but it was not significant and allowed me to save my charge in case other opponents don't take their attention from the ball carrier.
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