Tag Archives: MMO

Some initial thoughts on SWTOR

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Star Wars: The Old Republic launched on December 20th, and I’ve been playing it for almost two weeks now.  I have been compiling some thoughts as I’ve been playing, and wanted to get them all down in one place.

World of Warcraft comparison

Every new MMO that launches is compared to World of Warcraft.  Without question, there are similarities between the two games, but it’s hard to imagine any MMO without some of the features from WOW.  The game has a lot of differences from WOW as well.  Almost every quest (called missions) is delivered by actual voice dialogue spoken by real actors.

The game features a lot of the things that Bioware is known for.  I have never played Mass Effect, but the conversation and companion gift systems are very similar to Dragon Age as well.

So what do you get when you take the basic game play of World of Warcraft and merge that with the developers of the companion and conversation systems of Dragon Age set in the Star Wars universe?  SWTOR.

Story line

One of the biggest selling points of the game is the complex story lines that your character will travel through.  Unlike World of Warcraft which allows you to skip quest text and basically remove all aspects of lore from the game, your characters story line is probably the biggest reason to play the game in the first place.

There are eight distinct story lines in the game, one for each class.  The four republic classes are Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, and Smugger.  The four empire classes are Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent.  Each class can choose from two different advanced classes, but they share the same story line.

I have spent most of my time playing an Imperial Agent character, and a small amount of time with a Bounty Hunter.

Gear/loot

One thing that SWTOR seems to have really gotten right is gear.  If you played WOW when it first launched, you might remember some of the gear that just didn’t make any sense.  Some items would have stats that wouldn’t make any sense, and other items would be good for multiple classes and cause arguments.  Both of these problems are nonexistent in SWTOR so far.

As I said before, there are four classes per faction in SWTOR.  There are 3 armor types: light, medium, and heavy.  Only one class, Sith Warrior(or Jedi Knight on republic side), has the choice of medium or heavy armor depending on their advanced class.  Every other class only wears one type of armor. Sith Inquisitor wears light, Imperial Agent wears medium, and Bounty Hunter wears heavy.  Simple so far.  It stays simple.

Each class has one primary stat.  Strength, Willpower, Cunning or Aim.  What’s more, you will only see aim on heavy armor.  Willpower is only on light armor.  There will never be an argument over loot across classes.  The system feels very well thought out in the game.  What’s more, if you run an instance (called flash points), only loot will drop for the classes that are in the group.

Summary

I don’t even really have a summary right now.  I just wanted to write a few things, and probably give a more thorough update at a later date.  There are a number of bugs in the game that make things annoying, but I’m working under the assumption that they will be fixed.  After all, it’s been barely two weeks since the game was launched.  Most of the feedback I’ve read is positive, and similar to what I’ve written.

One interesting thing is that there are currently no add-ons, and no means to customize the game interface at all.  I’m not sure if that will be permanent, but it could leave a lot of people very upset.

Why I no longer play Warcraft, but sometimes wish I did

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When people mention World of Warcraft(WOW) to friends, family, co-workers, or whomever, the responses are usually extreme in the direction of love and hate. There are millions of active players right now, I think the most recent number posted was 11 million to be exact. It’s a global game with separate servers in Europe, North America, and Asia to support the massive amount of players that are living in this world around the clock. I originally started playing WOW shortly after it was launched in November 2004. I didn’t really have much of an understanding for the game, but there isn’t a very steep learning curve either. I played on a server with a real life friend, and enjoyed it as any other game. Just something fun to pass the time. I was about to give it up after just a few months because I wasn’t really getting much out of the game and I was usually playing alone anyways. The social aspect of the game was completely avoiding me.

I just happened to mention it to another friend at the time and he was describing what sounded like a completely different game and experience to me. Vast collaboration with 39 other players at the same time, voice chat via a program called “vent”, and incredibly challenging boss encounters. It sounded more like a marketing campaign, but in the next breath he mentioned that he was about to level a new character, along with another friend, and offered for me to join up with them on his server and with his guild. I joined up with him that night and what I consider my real WOW “career” began. Within a few weeks I had a much deeper understanding of the game, was leveling like lightning, and learning more about my class, a Mage at the time. The social aspect of the game was also really hitting me now too Continue reading →

Kingdoms live – new iPhone transfer ?

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The loading screen of Kingdoms Live

The loading screen of Kingdoms Live

I read something about being able to transfer your character when you get a new iPhone, but I haven’t been able to do it. Can someone post in the comments?

The good news is I was able to get help from Storm8. All you need to do to transfer your character is load up the game on your new phone, and then go to the settings menu. You tell it you are on your new phone, then you do the same thing on your old phone, and tell it you are on the old phone. That’s it! You are good to go.

Kingdoms Live tips and tricks: What are your goals and the risks of battle

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So I had a few thoughts based on the comments in the other Kingdoms Live posts that got me wondering, What are your goals in this game? Like most MMOs, people play them for different reasons. Some people play World of Warcraft for raiding PVE content and becoming the first players in the world to defeat a boss. Some people play EVE or Warhammer Online because of its player versus player or PVP options that lets people battle each other. In Kingdoms Live, you get both options. You can do quests, which are PVE, and you can battle which is PVP. Which one you focus on is really your choice.

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Kingdoms Live tips and tricks: What NOT to do

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I’ve really been enjoying playing Kingdoms Live over the past few days, and have enjoyed blogging about it too. As I’ve been playing, I’ve realized some mistakes that I have made along the way, and almost wish there was a way to start over and do things perfectly. So I thought I would start compiling a list of what NOT to do, when playing. Sort of a list of frequently made mistakes that hopefully you can avoid. Such things as where NOT to spend your gold and skill points come to mind, and also how NOT to attack.
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