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Tuesday 31 January 2012

Busting Bugs

Hey hey everyone welcome back.  Today BioWare released an update to their blog discussing the bugs and exploits that I wouldn't say are game-breaking but are more so game-bending.  Rich Vogel (Executive Producer) had this to say,

"Generally speaking, we can fix these types of issues pretty quickly once they are detected in the game. Our turn-around time is really good in this area and we’ve dealt with some recent exploits quite quickly."

I am going to have to back BioWare on this one.  Since their release, just over a month ago, several bugs and balance issues have been implemented.  All while preparing for their first content release "Rise of the Rakghouls" and opening the servers to the NA community, over the holidays!  With the amount of random things that can happen when launching a new game, I am astonished it has been so smooth.  Rich Vogel also had this to say,


"Our most important goal is to make sure you continue to have fun playing our game and we will do everything in our power to make you feel that you are getting your money’s worth every month."

This final note makes me very happy, in my opinion, developers who ignore their player base are doomed to fail.  Every yellow post on the forums and blog post, from a moderator/developer, has been to address specific community questions and issues.  We aren't being fed generic copy/paste answers from the PR department.  This I feel is very important to the success of an MMO.  I think the bar has been set when it comes to community relations in the MMO world.  Developer blogs, press releases, forums responses among the regular email and phone customer support are all needed.  They help players create relationships with the game they enjoy and the people behind the scenes.


You can read the full article on the official StarWars: The Old Republic website.

Sunday 29 January 2012

Sith Inquisitor

I finally hit level 10 today on my inquisitor. I decided to class change to a sorcerer. It wasn't what I originally had in mind for playing but, I already have a Jedi guardian so there's no point in having two tanking classes right now.

The sith story line has been awesome. People are mean and call me "slave", every time I talk to an NPC I get angry with them lol. "Kill NPC" is not an option for me, yet :( I was playing around with light side responses because I just feel inclined to be nice. But I made the decision to go full dark side. Which, I must admit, is still a little hard to discern between good and bad.

I was listening to The Instance ToR Edition pod cast and they were mentioning how being dark/light or neutral had no real advantages. Apparently they said BioWare had made a comment on upcoming benefits for being a neutral Jedi. Sounds cool I guess. My only complaint is not knowing if your response will have a good or bad outcome.

Thursday 26 January 2012

Email

Well for whatever reason I am unable to figure out the emails for my adsense and my other blog.  So I am making this new one.  I have gotten clumsy over the past few years with my emails and such so I did some house cleaning.  I removed all my emails except my personal one and the one for Youtube.  I cant believe they still wont let us change our emails.

Computer is Ready

My computer is finally ready for pick up on Monday. Once I have it back home I will have to assemble it and install windows 7. Baring any unforeseen problems, everything should be up and running Monday night. Then I can start setting up my recording software for video/audio and a few other tweaks. I still have to test Fraps and Camtasia to see which runs better with SWTOR.

Over the next week I will work on advertising and graphics for YouTube. I might even throw together an intro. But I am still undecided on that part.

4 to 8 Business Days

This is Friday the 6th. Most importantly is it day business day 8 for new PC order. NCIx has been very good to do business with but if I end waiting for another three days, I will be canceling my order.

When my monitor was ordered there was a 2-4 business day wait on it. A week later there is a 4-8 business wait on it. Then on Tuesday, three days ago, they updated it to 1-2 business days. So, I am a little confused about their stock updates in real time.

Anyway, I'm not an impatient man and do I understand boxing day sales. But business day 8 is here. Its getting to be a bit much for a pick-up order. If I don't hear from them by four o'clock today, I am going to have to cancel my entire order and just buy locally.

In the end, product is product. I just prefer to do business with people I know will deliver.

Wow! Not the MMO!

I seriously can not believe how many people hate this game. All over different forums, different YouTube videos, different everything, there always seems to be an outrageous amount of people who HATE StarWars: ToR. I just don't understand how you can judge a game this early.

MMO fans, especially SWTOR fans, have had this idea of judging a book by it's cover. This cover being the StarWars universe and the name Bioware. Then they precede to read one chapter and realize there are no pictures in this book! While completely forgetting that this is a business model to an MMO.

Take WoW for example. If it had stayed in development for eight years and was released last week then every one would be entitled to compare these two MMOs but it wasn't. I was there in beta WoW, I was there when the servers went live, I was there when they hit one million subscribers, and six mil, and 12 mil. Do you have any idea why this game grew like this? Content! Regular releases and huge gameplay changes kept things interesting. But this takes time. Heck, it's still happening after all these years.

Time is exactly what SWTOR fans need to give this game. I guarantee in a few years time TOR will be a game to be reckoned with. And if it's not? At least I gave it a chance to grow. I saw no potential in WoW or other MMOs and they have surprised me. I believe the same will happen here.

To sum up everything, I am basically trying to tell the "new guy" that this game does have it's flaws, just like any other MMO, in it's first month of release. I have used the engine that StarWars:ToR was built on and the possibilities are endless.

Don't fret, give the game a try. At the very least come back in a few months and see all the changes.

Signed: an Old Republic fan!