Category Archives: Story

Sixth screenshot meme (contains slight Jedi Knight spoiler)

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Psynister left his tags open for the Sixth Meme which has been floating around the WoW blogosphere (and now is somewhat making inroads into the SWTOR blogosphere). That’s good enough for me – I fall into “everyone who hasn’t been tagged yet.”

The basic premise is easy…

  • Go into your image folder
  • Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
  • Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couln’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
  • Challenge six new bloggers.
  • Link to them.

The problem lies in the fact that I apparently have the most disorganized approach to screenshots ever: one big folder, ordered by timestamps and game (which happens automatically thanks to Fraps). However, my Fraps folder is the sixth one in my general images folder, so I guess it kinda counts! So, let’s see what we get:

Dinging in space. Well, that was boring. Let’s try sixth from the bottom.

Lord Scourge, talking about… well, who IS he talking about? Spoilers! Okay, let’s try something else – I enlarged my Fraps folder until the icons are in rows of six, and picked the sixth screenshot of the sixth row.

One of the walkers on Hoth, seemingly wearing sunglasses – this one’s stationed outside Aurek Base.

Well, that could’ve gone better. Ah well. I’ll redo Psynister’s tagging: if you haven’t been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged now.

On Legacies: a little wishing, a little speculating

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So let’s talk Legacies. We’ve been accumulating that Legacy XP, dinging those Legacy Levels, but what are we going to get for our time invested?

First up, a little video review of what we’ve been told is upcoming (details, as always, are subject to change, but this is straight from the horse’s mouth, where in this case “horse” means “James Ohlen”):

The textual portion:

The Legacy System actually allows each one of your new characters to join a family tree, and all the characters within that family tree gain benefits. It’s going to unlock abilities and powers that you normally wouldn’t have access to.

 

The video itself isn’t a big revelation, per se; there’s really only a few things to actually see:

  1. An almost-certainly-not-final graphic depicting a family tree being formed (specifically the Vizla Legacy, which seems to be missing its namesake).
  2. A character fighting two droids, who was confirmed later by Daniel Erickson to be a Miraluka Sith Warrior.

What I find most interesting about that latter part is that it shows up while James Ohlen is talking about “abilities and powers you normally wouldn’t have access to.” Well, yeah, I suppose a miraluka (the blind, Force-using Republic-only race) having access to the Sith Warrior (an Empire-only class) would be different, sure.

But enough rehashing. Let’s talk things I’d like to see. My blog, my wishlist – after the jump.

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There and back again

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The hills are alive, with the sound of--no, no, stop that, NO SINGING

The hills are alive, with the sound of--no, no, stop that, NO SINGING

Over on the Inquisitor’s Roadhouse, Anexxia asks: “why the rush to 50?” Well, let me tell you who’s not rushing. There’s a story here.

Oh, how I love looking at Alderaan. I’m pretty well ready to go, though. It starts with Kyzur, a rotund miraluka Jedi Sage with a problem where his head clips through hoods. It took me 30-odd levels to realize I’d made a huge mistake. (Pardon the pun.) I just wasn’t having fun with the Sage playstyle at all. I loved the story, but evidently I am still primarily a melee player. Yet I still wanted to get my legacy. (Silly things are important to me.) So between levels 30 and 32, I tackled the first three quest hubs on Alderaan, then said “oh screw this” and did my story quest there, my end of act 1, picked my legacy out, and left Kyzur Epsilon Barsen’thor to take a well-earned rest on the Republic fleet.

Enter Jentra. Rolling out the door from day 1 as the action-oriented Shadow to Kyzur’s “let’s talk it out” Sage, I remembered why the Shadow/Assassin playstyle was the first one I played in beta. Fluid, fast, stealthy, loved it. I blew through Tython and Coruscant, slogged through Taris – which I am happy to say takes nowhere near as long the second time, mostly because you know where everything is – and was rolling through Nar Shaddaa’s first quest set when friend and NSTK guildmate Xindrola caught up to me. Somehow. Despite spending way too long on Taris. (Xin’s argument is that he was saving for a speeder because he’d blown a bunch of cash on investigation and armstech; upon being told that Nar Shaddaa was not the spread-out hot mess that is Taris, he hopped planet immediately.) I helped him catch up to me in the Kintan Kings quarter, then we duo’d the rest of Nar Shaddaa. All of it. To give you an idea how grossly overleveled we were at this point, we were able to immediately accept the Nar Shaddaa Bonus Series. (Level 28, I believe, is the minimum for that.)

We actually tried it at first, but it was slow going. “C’mon,” I said, “let’s just go to Tatooine.” And so we did. Everything fell before the combined might of a Shadow, a Commando, M1-4X, and Tharan Cedrax. Alderaan as well, which is where we left off last night – we still have the Glarus Valley quests, but he’s now completed his end of Act 1 and I’m doing mine tonight (again). But it was slow going at times. Xin’s still a bit new to MMOs (he played a little WoW, and I think someone talked him into FFXI because they were sadistic), so keeping him oriented in the right direction can be a challenge – I’m eager to kill Sand People for their rifles, while he’s busy trolling the wildlife by punting it into canyons with Concussion Charge, for instance. He still lives with family, so he (understandably) gets called away from the computer for minutes at a time – pretty frequently sometimes. Getting lost also happens occasionally. I want a leash sometimes.

We’re also still grossly overleveled. When we got to Alderaan, I was one level ahead, and every quest outside of my story content was grey. All of them. 5 XP apiece. Woohoo? (Even now, still at the last quest hub of Alderaan, I’m level 36. I’m pretty sure I’m at the high end of the level range for Balmorra.)

But on the upside, it’s a lot less boring than doing the same content again would be by myself. I get to see two stories for the price of one – 90% of the trooper stuff is available to me in Spectator Mode, and likewise for consular stuff for him. We have two crafters’ worth of crew skills available to us (granted, Armstech is really only useful for Tharan, but he is our healer). We can usually roll Heroic 4s with a combination of smart CC and, in one case, me kiting a boss around LIKE A BOSS.

And Social points? I am rolling in Social points. I’m 200 or so away from Social III. My Social points abruptly jumped during Tatooine; I was barely in Social I when I got there, but was at Social II and then some by the time we left – even before the bonus series.

Still, I wouldn’t characterize myself as being in a rush to 50. Pretty much the exact opposite. I am, however, in a rush to see something I haven’t seen before – I’ve been here before, and now I’m back again. Luckily, I’m on the verge of doing just that: every quest left on Alderaan is one I haven’t seen, as is every planet after Act I.

What’s in it for me?

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Perhaps you think this is about the “loot bag” announcement from this week. Afraid not. My feelings on that (I’m for it!) hardly justify an entire post to themselves. No, this is something else entirely – gaming personality types, and their relationship to SWTOR.

Have you heard of the Bartle Test? In 1996, a professor by the name of Richard Bartle wrote a paper – specifically mentioning MUDs, but still highly applicable today – called “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs.” It’s available to read online, if you wish. Bartle’s personality categorization was converted into an online test in the late 90s by Erwin Andreasen and Brandon Downey, and later – due to popularity and infeasibility of scaling  the database side – moved to gamerDNA, where it resides today.

The four card suits mentioned in Bartle’s title align with four “gaming personality” types. See if they sound like you or anyone you know:

 

  • Diamonds are Achievers. They love concrete signs of advancement. Scores, money, points, achievements, gear – if it can be collected and/or improved upon, a Diamond will do it. Diamonds are notable for pursuing in-game challenges or rewards that are of no actual use to them simply for the notability of having done so. MMO creators love Achievers, for obvious reasons. Someone who levels characters for the love of leveling, or your typical achievement hounds (guilty as charged) are, to some extent, Diamonds.
  • Spades are Explorers. They got their suit due to their tendency to “dig around.” Seen someone post a vid where they were exploring in a closed-off region of a game just because it was there to be explored? You’ve seen someone with some Spade leanings in action. Spades delight in new areas, Easter eggs, and sometimes new glitches. Explorers are the most likely to dig into a game, but are the most likely to leave when a game transitions from fun to chore. Once again, yours truly is a prime example.
  • Hearts are Socializers. Hearts are there for the people. Maybe they never advance above level 20 because they’re roleplaying. Maybe they’re those people who genuinely do raid for the people – not the boss-killing, or the loot, but the people. Hearts are usually the most helpful to other players, and are usually that person that everyone gets along with because that’s just how a Heart rolls. Most people who play online games are, to some extent, Hearts – even if it’s just a little bit – and their relationships don’t necessarily have to be with people! A Warlock who’s attached to her minions, or those people asking about relationships with companions in SWTOR, are to some extent a little Heart-y.
  • Clubs are Killers. (There’s an obvious joke here about clubbing people.) The “Killer” archetype often seems to have a lot of negative aspects associated with it, but at the heart of it, Clubs are just extremely competitive. A lot of Killers are focused on PvP, true to their name, but sometimes Killers can be found in other aspects of the game – controlling markets on the Auction House, for instance, or guiding their guild to World First Boss Kills. Don’t take the name to mean they’re griefers or trolls – many Killers are very nice people who just happen to thrive in a competitive environment. Bored Killers are usually bad news, though; ‘bad’ Killers will turn into trolls, while ‘good’ Killers will often seek environments that give them the competition they can’t find in their current environment. Cynwise is a Club who competes with players directly, Basil Berntsen does it in the auction house, and anyone leading a bleeding-edge progression raid guild is more than a little bit Clubby.

 

So now that you’ve read that summary – and perhaps you’ve taken the test yourself, so you know what your gaming personality looks like (yours truly comes in as 73% Explorer, 60% Socializer, 53% Achiever, 13% Killer) – you might be wondering what TOR has to offer for each aspect.

 

  • Diamonds may have been a little disappointed to discover that there wasn’t an actual Achievement system in the game, but there’s still all those hallmarks of MMOs that you’ve come to love – leveling, stats, cash, skills, et cetera. You may not have actual capital-A Achievements, but there’s still plenty of things for an Achiever to point at and say, “I did this.”
  • Spades will have intricate stories to play through and enormous frickin’ planets to traverse, and lots of lore to delve into – including the Bioware Codex. Plus, for the first time in a long time (outside of Rift’s placement of artifacts and cairns far off the beaten path), SWTOR is set to reward Spades with an actual, tangible reward for exploring – Holocrons, which give nice permanent stat bonuses to a character, fill in a spot in the Codex, and most are said to be solely findable by dedicated and crafty Explorers.
  • Hearts will find all the usual tools they’re used to in order to foster kinship – guilds, et cetera. In fact, Bioware’s gotten a head start with its guilds with their Guild HQ site. Go ahead and form your guild now! (We certainly did, and you’re welcome to join us!) Declare other guilds as friends or enemies, and Bioware will do their level best to get you onto the same server and everything. In addition, SWTOR should help Socializers with relationships with non-player characters, too – each class gets its own, unique set of Companion Characters who travel with you, respond to your conversations, and (in some cases) can grow into an actual relationship with your character. (However, for Jedi, that’s more than likely the road to some Dark Side points. Choose carefully!)
  • Clubs will likewise find the aspects they’ve always been used to competing in. Raids, aka Operations? Check. PvP, aka Warzones? Check. Auction house, aka Galactic Market? Check. Whether you’re killing threats to the galaxy or just beating up those pesky Imperials/Republicans, you too can flex your inner Killer. World PvP is available on PvP realms for those who enjoy that aspect of the game, as well.

 

I, for one, will be hunting Holocrons til the cows come home – after I dive into the storyline Bioware’s put before us, probably several times over. What’s your “gaming personality” like – and what aspect of the game are you most looking forward to? Do those fit with one another?