It's Friday night, which would ordinarily mean a new episode of the Darth Hater SWTOR podcast to download. However, in an abrupt turn of events, unconfirmed but plausible rumors on reddit indicate there may never be another episode of the show.
Details are extremely sparse - all we know is that the site has not updated in 2013, including failure to cover this week's patch (normally a mainstay of their daily updates). The Reddit rumors indicate that most or all of the staff have been dismissed. Unless I missed it, there was no direct indication that the site was in trouble. However, the hosts did spend their presumptive final episode reflecting on both the game's first year of release and their experiences over the show's 3+ year run - suggesting that perhaps this possibility was somewhere on their minds.
We will probably never know enough information to determine whether stones should be thrown at the Curse network, which picked up the site in September 2011. I'd imagine that hosting the podcasts and images along with paying the staff cost Curse some amount of money, while advertising revenue was very likely down due to the game's limited success. It's a sad irony that, after spending a year covering layoffs of Bioware developers - many of whom the team got to know personally - the podcast crew may have gotten the same treatment. Even if Curse has future plans for the site, their failure to let the team say a proper farewell to the community they created is disappointing.
As a blogger who plays many games, I'm dependent on high quality sites and podcasts like Darth Hater to stay informed about day to day events. Beyond traveling to cover conventions at personal expense, the show made an unprecedented accomplishment - the coverage of SWTOR's launch came in episode number 105. I.e. they released over two years worth of weekly episodes about an MMO that had not yet released. Between the years of dedication and expense - and the reality that only an intellectual property like Star Wars could possible provide enough material to talk about for that long - this benchmark may never be surpassed.
Best wishes to the team, wherever you may wander, and many thanks for your years of hard work.
Early Impressions of TSW Post-Buy-To-Play
With its business model out of the way, I've given the Secret World another look. The game still has some rough edges - in particular a relatively steep learning curve. Given a bit more time (and a lot more out-of-game research), I'm starting to see the game's strengths - a story experience and the skill-collection minigame that serves as the class system. I'm also wondering that these strengths may not be well suited for longevity.
Learning Curve
My initial impressions of TSW pre-launch were not overly positive. Part of the issue is documentation. The game offers embedded YouTube video tutorials, but these often feel more promotional than instructional. Some of the challenges are due to ways in which TSW does things differently from other MMO's. A few examples:
The Story and World
Through a combination of art, sound, and writing, TSW presents a very distinctive world experience. You may or may not like their specific vision - in particular, I did not find the NPC's for two of the game's three factions in any way people that I wanted to be working for over any extended periods of time - but I definitely tip my hat to them for making the environment and feel of the game stand out.
That said, one quirk to the game is that most (all?) missions are repeatable. The quests are also non-linear, in that there are not enforced levels, or a specific order in which they must be completed. There are definite advantages to this approach, as it leaves the door open for players to replay content (either alone or to help friends), especially if they find they need more character advancement before they can forge onwards. The catch is that when you do quests in the "wrong" order and/or repeat too many quests just because they are conveniently located, you might try to pick up a piece of the story only to find that it is no longer challenging or rewarding due to your character's progression.
Collecting Skills
The skill system is another area with a major learning curve. The tutorial gives you a weapon with some basic skills and enough skill points to purchase a few more skills. This is a trap. Instead of advancing down the offered vertical path, you are supposed to immediately pick up a second weapon. Almost all DPS weapons generate free resources for both of your two skillsets, so you are really at a disadvantage in terms of character power and versatility if you fail to branch out.
This hurdle aside, the system is a fun skill collection minigame. I started with a sword - a somewhat tank-oriented weapon - and a pair of pistols. An early passive ability on one of the pistol trees turns unused pistol resources on mobs you kill into free passive healing. I'm experimenting with several other combinations, but at least I appear to have a better understanding of what you're aspiring towards in character builds.
As with other parts of the game, though,. one a caveat for the future: the problem with progression systems which allow you to pick which skill to get next is that you will (hopefully) get the skills you want first. Once you have something that works, it's always fun to tinker, but there is a risk that future upgrades will be less rewarding if you don't really need them.
Outlook
Overall, I certainly don't regret my purchase - all $15 of it. Thus far the game has been a fun and unique experience. That said, I can also see how longevity might be limited as players complete their main storylines and skill decks. This is by no means a unique challenge for TSW, but it might help explain part of the game's limited success under the old subscription model.
Learning Curve
My initial impressions of TSW pre-launch were not overly positive. Part of the issue is documentation. The game offers embedded YouTube video tutorials, but these often feel more promotional than instructional. Some of the challenges are due to ways in which TSW does things differently from other MMO's. A few examples:
 |
| Nicholas "Brevane" Brevane - named for a continent in the Rift expansion I have yet to play, and Templar resident of the Arcadia (RP) server |
- The text at character creation informs you that your first and last names are cosmetic and that your nickname is your unique character identifier. I spent a while beating my head against the system trying to generate nicknames that sounded like actual names and were not taken, only to find that most players in-game seem to be using nicknames that sound more like social media handles.
- Pressing the X button toggles a "sprint" ability that doubles as your mount-equivalent. There was a brief tooltip on this, but it did little to explain how it worked. It does not seem to be necessary to hold the button down to continue running - not sure how I got the idea that this was the case, but this happened - but the function does break when you enter combat.
- It's possible that I did not click on the correct Youtube link, but currently 100% of my understanding of the game's stat and gear systems comes from having read out of game guides. Gear is statted for tanking, damage, or healing, but some characters (especially solo) will want to take a more hybrid approach to their gear. On a related note, there was a tutorial on how to attach glyphs to gear, but I did not remember how to do this by the time I found non-tutorial gear I wanted to glyph.
- There is a buyback function for accidentally vendoring items, but I had to google to find out where it is hidden. (Answer: a nondescript button on the bottom of the "sell" panel of the vendor UI.)
The Story and World
Through a combination of art, sound, and writing, TSW presents a very distinctive world experience. You may or may not like their specific vision - in particular, I did not find the NPC's for two of the game's three factions in any way people that I wanted to be working for over any extended periods of time - but I definitely tip my hat to them for making the environment and feel of the game stand out.
That said, one quirk to the game is that most (all?) missions are repeatable. The quests are also non-linear, in that there are not enforced levels, or a specific order in which they must be completed. There are definite advantages to this approach, as it leaves the door open for players to replay content (either alone or to help friends), especially if they find they need more character advancement before they can forge onwards. The catch is that when you do quests in the "wrong" order and/or repeat too many quests just because they are conveniently located, you might try to pick up a piece of the story only to find that it is no longer challenging or rewarding due to your character's progression.
Collecting Skills
This hurdle aside, the system is a fun skill collection minigame. I started with a sword - a somewhat tank-oriented weapon - and a pair of pistols. An early passive ability on one of the pistol trees turns unused pistol resources on mobs you kill into free passive healing. I'm experimenting with several other combinations, but at least I appear to have a better understanding of what you're aspiring towards in character builds.
As with other parts of the game, though,. one a caveat for the future: the problem with progression systems which allow you to pick which skill to get next is that you will (hopefully) get the skills you want first. Once you have something that works, it's always fun to tinker, but there is a risk that future upgrades will be less rewarding if you don't really need them.
Outlook
Overall, I certainly don't regret my purchase - all $15 of it. Thus far the game has been a fun and unique experience. That said, I can also see how longevity might be limited as players complete their main storylines and skill decks. This is by no means a unique challenge for TSW, but it might help explain part of the game's limited success under the old subscription model.
Pet Battle Progression
In the process, I functionally completed the pre-Pandaria portion of the pet battle game. My pet collection currently stands at 340 unique pets and counting, including all but three of the pets that can be captured prior to the new expansion content - the overwhelming majority of these are green or blue quality. (The three stragglers are the Qiraji Guardling, which only spawns in summer, and two highly camped rare spawns, the Minfernal and the Scourged Whelpling.) I have beaten all of the trainers up to the Cataclysm era (including the new Darkmoon Faire pet master) and leveled my first half dozen pets to the max level of 25.
The real progression in the pet battle minigame is not just the highest level individual pet you can field, but also the overall diversity of your stable. In general, wild pet battles will occasionally throw in something you weren't expecting, and the NPC pet masters are especially likely hit you with tough line-ups. You can in principle tame and use whatever you find locally - indeed, a few of my pets are recent captures who started above level 20 - but you will likely need to catch and raise some pets to deal with high level pet battles.
That said, there are a few downsides to the system:
- Because this system was added to the game in its fourth expansion, players looking to jump right into Pandaria will need to spend a fair amount of time catching up before they can actually battle the pets in the expansion content. My approach - spending basically a month doing an extremely thorough world safari - is overkill, but the time is significant.
- Account-wide progress is a blessing and a curse. It is nice to be able to park alts in locations with rare spawns or account-level daily quests to re-battle the pet masters. Perhaps I would have burned out on this system if I had felt that I needed to regrind it on any alts. That said, short of creating a new account I will never have the option of starting over with a clean slate - any character I ever play will have all of these max level pets at their disposal.
- Competition for rare spawns in the world can be somewhat unfortunate. The two pets I just can't nab are constantly camped with multiple players at seemingly all hours of the day. Because only a fraction of spawns are the coveted rare quality (there are items to upgrade pets later, but these are rare and expensive), pet completionists are not intended to stop at just one. It's a bit jarring, because this level of competition does not occur anywhere else in WoW at the moment, so it's odd to see it rear its head in a minigame.
New Year's Resolutions for 2013
My annual New Year's Resolution post is usually lengthy but not that insightful - half of the items are short term goals that get done soon afterwards and the other half are more pie-in-the sky things that don't happen at all. My year for 2012 can be summarized with two lines of facts:
- Prior to October: Level capped characters in seven different MMO's simultaneously, posting on the blog every 2-3 days (11-18 posts/month)
- Post-October: Level capped characters remain in only three MMO's due to expansions I have yet to catch up to, posting to the blog once or twice per week, +1 infant
I'm happy with this turn of events, but it does put realistic constraints on what I can aspire to in-game during the coming year. A few resolutions, which are more qualitative than specific:
Work on what I have
2012 wasn't all bad when it came to trying new things. I started and capped characters in STO and SWTOR, along with some very brief (often one-evening) visits to Aion, Tera, EQ1, and TSW. That said, it was a tough year to carve out time for anything new, and that does not figure to change in 2013.
I currently have what I need (access and game time as appropriate) for content I have yet to use in WoW, LOTRO, DCUO, TSW, DDO, STO, and SWTOR. I don't expect any of these titles to fold in 2013, but it really makes more sense to focus on my backlog at this point. I'm fine with my budget where it currently sits, but it's pointless to collect more stuff that I don't have time to play - the best sale price is still a waste if I don't use the content.
Learn when NOT to beat the business model
While my time is scarce, I do get enjoyment out of snagging a good bargain. Sometimes, when the payoff is high enough, it can make sense to grind in-game to "beat the business model".
For instance, according to SWTOR Spy's Cartel calculator, I have unlocked more than 10,000 Cartel Coins' worth of stuff by purchasing the relevant unlocks on the GTN for in-game credits. This would have cost me $80 in the cash shop, while species and inventory unlocks I picked up for alts during my last month of subscription time could potentially have cost another $40. I did spend a fair amount of extra time in game sending my companions on slicing missions and farming daily quests (which also awarded several high end pieces of gear for my main) to pay for all of these unlocks, but this was definitely a major payoff for my time.
Even so, cash shops are a reality of the market today, and I should really make better use of them. If an unlock is purely cosmetic, it makes sense to do without or set it aside as a reward for earning the credits in game. When it comes to exp potions and other things that affect the rate of advancement, it's worth asking whether the game is worth playing if it's worth paying to play it less. However, when an unlock actually impacts quality of life - e.g. not being able to harvest materials I encounter in the world because one of my crewskill slots is locked - it really makes more sense to pay a couple dollars and move on.
Focus on my perspective
This blog will celebrate its 1000th post early next year and its fifth birthday in the spring. While limited time has been the most immediate cause for my current drop in posts, the results are somewhat positive.
I don't view reporting the news as one of this blog's strengths. I will post immediate reactions sometimes, especially if I have an opinion I'm not seeing from other folks, but often the "breaking news" of the MMO world does not even come with enough detail to support in-depth analysis. Because I know that most of my posts will not be timely, I'm free to spend most of my limited time working on more of the big picture, such as trends that tie recent developments into past experiences.
I intentionally don't have a set format or schedule for the blog, because this is a hobby and I prefer flexibility to write what I want. That the schedule happens to support the kind of posts that I like to write is a happy coincidence.
Thanks to all of my readers, best wishes, and a happy new year!
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