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Got an email this morning from Bioware. Read it, answered it. Just doing that made me think about SWTOR, and think that, in short, I wasn’t actually enjoying the game. In fact I didn’t even want to play it, more..if it was the only game on my HDD I would probably just go for a walk.

Shame – I waited years for it, but it’s as shallow as a puddle of pi$$. Here’s what I wrote anyway.

Hi,

Sad to say, I’m not really enjoying SWTOR at the moment. The buzz wore off very quickly (a few days) and I’m left with quite a hollow feeling towards ther experience. Here’s why that is (for me at least);

Storyline

The story for Jedi Consellor is a little repetative

• Go to planet one – then do the following;
• Quest line to find and help Jedi Master with disease
• Quest line to help locals with group of "insurgents" or "imperial agents"

..when finished..Goto planet two and start again.

UI

The user interface hinders me a little, nothing is where I would find it intuitively. I find myself healing a recently beaten mob rather than my companion sometimes, all sorts of things I don’t like about the interface (it’s too BIG for a start – it’s like a 5 year old child’s toy) Really needs to be customizable.

Character customization.

CC seems underdeveloped. I am very limited in what I can wear, and despite buying new items every few levels my character’s "look" is more or less unaltered. I see other JC’s running around, and they all like just like me. I don’t feel like a hero, or even an individual, I feel like "Jedi Counsellor Clone 3354b"

Crafting

Crafting is dull. I can craft a whole list of virtually identical mods for armour and weapons. They all look the same, and no-one (not even me) can find any use for them. I can stick them on the the trade for 500 credits an no-one wants them

"xxxxx mod 9" looks exactly the same as

"xxxxxx mod 8"….. and despite keeping my crafting up with my character levelling, I have yet to find an item I craft that I actually have a use for myself – i.e is even marginally better than a mob drop I have already found or someone else has found and put on the Gal trade network.

Crafting itself is uninvolved. It’s not a sub game, it’s not a challenge, What it is is being interrupted during combat when one of your companions comes back and sats "Here’s your stuff" and just pressing "Make this" or "go there".

The only slight interaction I have is to ensure that I have enough of the vendor sold re-agents in stock or storage.  There are these descriptions of the missions your companion is oging on "Visit a deserted spacecraft and see if they have XXXXX" but after the first five goes… you just press the button

That is 100% of your crafting experience in a nutshell..press a button to send a companion off…. wait 20 minutes till he or she comes back….then press it again.

Trading

Should be interesting. But it’s not. There is not enough data to make informed stock choices or to "play the market". I perhaps spend 40% of my solo time at end level in other MMO’s playing the market. It’s great fun. Sure EvE and some other games (PotBS) have really good involved economics tied in with harvesting and crafting, but even WoW, Aion, Rift and FFXI have  a fun factor.  X-faction trading, storage and logistics etc.SWTOR has none of this, or at best very stunted and unerdeveloped trade and trading tools.

Community

Grouping takes so long, and with so few people looking to run any particular flashpoint or heroic, I have just given up on it. I am planning to give multi (or at least dual) boxing a try, as the lack of community means I am missing so much of the content I might well enjoy -  I might buy a standard retail copy and give it a go for a month. But eventually I see me leaving SWTOR in a few months for a game with more scope (more involved trading and commercial aspects, better and more involved crafting)

At the moment there is not enough depth to make the game a stayer for me. I can quite happily solo while a community builds up, but all I’m doing is grinding quests. No secondary professions, dull crafting, dull trading and awkward interface, coupled with a plot line (for JC’s at least) which just seems to be an endless repeat of the same tasks – just with the level numbers changed. If I have to "Save another Jedi Grand Master" …Arrrggggghhhh!

I understand SWTOR is a "theme park" and I have no issue with that. WoW is a theme park, Aion is a theme park, FFXI is a theme park I love those games. But they seem to have a lot more "rides" than SWTOR.

With a real lack of involvement and depth in crafting, trading, sub professions etc, SWTOR is like a theme park with one ride..levelling.

Summary

• Group finding  (Flashpoints and Heroics being missed due to no groups and very few flagged as LFG)
• GUI customization (lack of) Poor GUI, targets, etc all in fixed and none intuitive places
• Professions (dull, uninvolving "click button  – wait – click again")
• No "Extra" professions to kill time when soloing. As you don’t even craft personally. If your not levelling – your doing nothing  – and that’s not good at all.
• Trade Network (dull, no incentive for engrossing trading/stock play – no economic tools)
• JC plot line repetiton (Save Jedi Grand Master, goto planet two  – rinse and repeat)
• CHARACTER APPEARANCE CUSTOMIZATION (Limited in what I can buy – and no matter what I DO buy I end up looking 99% the same)

You’ll see from my stats that I’m playing less and less. I’m hoping for big news on improvement soon. Story alone is not going to make up for lack of  varied gameplay elements. And I’m not that impressed with the story (for JC at least)

I’m paid up till mid April, and sadly I think that will probably be the end of my time with SWTOR unless there are really big improvements. ESSP with more involved and varied gameplay elements added.

I expect you’ll get more money from me though. Mass Effect 3 in a few weeks etc.

I’m not sure MMO’s are going to be your strong point though. Too much emphasis on story and not near enough "game" to go with it.

Scritty

 

Oh well

So, some people are ranting like crazy..others seem pretty cool with it.

What?

No Blizzcon in 2012 of course.

 

It’s rare that I have news as amazing as today’s. But Blizzard has officially announced that there will be no Blizzcon in 2012.

A spokesman for the company cited the release of three games in this financial year as a reason why the company said they did not have the time for resources to put on a major events such as Blizzcon.

Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria and the new Starcraft game are all being released in the next 8 to 10 months.

Ok so they have a lot to finish and promote, but surely, with a high profile games being released now is exactly the time you would have a major event to promote them, wouldn’t you?

An event which guarantees tens of thousands of visitors, a huge boost in publicity and is already established in the calendar of many gamers throughout the world.

Don’t forget, taking a break of the year and sometimes completely lose focus, people will find something else to do to that particular week and it may not come back with the same pizzazz as it left with.

I put a link to the official statement in the image with this post, I’m just off to have a couple of very strong coffee to get over the shock.

As those of you who’ve been following the progress of Diablo III through its various trials and tribulations. You will be well aware that the non disclosure agreements for beta testers was lifted some months ago.

As of now patch 10 for the latest beta client has just been released. And tonight there is an opportunity to see it being played live. In lieu of those few who have managed to make the closed beta this could be one of your last opportunities to judge yourself how well the game’s progress since the early videos were well touted on Youtube.

Personally I’m looking to see more depth in the game. A jazzed up Diablo II is not what I’m after it all, I have Titan Quest, Torchlight and several other games in my drawer to scratch that itch..

I’m looking for real characterisation, progression, teamwork and a hell of a lot more than just spamming two or three attack keys over and over again.

Anyway, follow the link here and judge for yourself tonight.

So patch 4.3.2 is likely to be delayed.
For most people this is probably fine. It’s just a 3rd tier update with a few balancing tweaks after all.
Notice the hunters changes though. All positive. Black Arrow effect roughly doubled, deterrence effect increased and Lock and Load is not halter by arcane shot (which might fundamentally change a hunters PvE rotation)

Full notes below.

 

 

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3.2

• Classes: General Vengeance is no longer triggered by receiving damage from other players.
• Druids The Tier 13 Balance Druid 4-piece bonus now also increases the damage of Starsurge by 10%, in addition to its current effect.
• Hunters Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
  Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
  Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
  Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.
• Mages Fireball damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
  Pyroblast damage has been reduced by roughly 6%.
• Paladins Holy Radiance now costs 40% of base mana, up from 35%.
• Priests Mass Dispel should again prefer dispelling targets that have magic effects that can be dispelled.
• Dungeons & Raids You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
   
• Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
• Players can no longer win multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons and wins the first, will not be eligible for the second on that particular boss.

Like most major software companies, particularly those affiliated to large distributors, Blizzard have an obligation both to their partners and to their shareholders to periodically appraise them of their situation.

One of these “Financial calls” is due in the next few days, and it comes at a very fluid time for the software developers.

Blizzard are expected to announce the release of Diablo III very soon..

Mike Morhaime is widely expected to use the upcoming call to make a release date announcement.

But for those of us still playing World of Warcraft, the financial situation of Blizzard has a much deeper interest, and one that I’ve not seen reported elsewhere.

As most of you are aware, there is a project on-going at Blizzard called “Titan” and this has been described as a “ new casual role-playing game”.

That’s the title that baffles me. Any game where I have to pay a monthly description I would expect to play for many hours per month to get value for my subscription fee. I’m not sure where the word “casual” comes into it?

More importantly even than that is that reports over the last three months have been that up to 1.4 million subscribers have cancelled their Warcraft craft accounts.

While this still leaves Blizzard with a game many times more popular than any other MMO on the market, it does represent a huge and very rapid drop in subscription. Let’s face it, WoW is now over seven years old and at its very heart a lot of its infrastructure is pretty dated..

This is never more apparent than when creating a new character with one of the original races. The rather gormless looking caricature faces for humans, dwarfs and gnomes, not to mention the very limited choices in facial features is the first indicator that this game is based on a very old platform.

Of course like most people we value depth of game-play above visual aesthetics, but there comes a time when you really are stretching the elastic, and something needs to give.

I predict that this next economic update from Blizzard will at least hint at a change to the subscription style that they operate or, conversely that following the Pandaria update, Warcraft will undergo a massive and fundamental change in engine and design.

Of course there is a third option, that Warcraft will gradually be phased out, going free to play in the next 18 months or so to make room in the market place for “Titan”.

Here at Wowgoldeliteguide we will have the full update after the call the call

It’s a question that might take some answering, When does a homage turn into an insult?

Quite a while now we been aware that Blizzard were considering adding references to Skyrim, a single player role-playing game from rival company Bethesda Softworks.

Some of the trash mobs that raiding parties had to encounter before doing the Ultraxion content were named or referenced the story and characters from Bethesdas record-breaking game.

I have scoured the net and not seen any representatives or anybody involved with the production of Skyrim complain about this idea at all, yet in the Blizzard forums there seems to be quite a heated debate about an “implied insult”.

Think of it this way, if you did not realise that other people were insulted by this would you consider it as an insult at all, or simply a homage to another game?

I’m firmly in the second camp, Warcraft has often cross-referenced popular culture in the past, and there is no direct competition between WoW and Skyrim.

One is a massively multiplayer game, the one a single player only.

In fact if anything, they probably compliment one another in keeping the “swords and sorcery” theme alive. I won both – as do many people I know. I am not choosing one over the other, they are quite different and…..oh well

Sadly, (in my opinion anyway), Blizzard seem to be considering removing or changing this content.

The spoilsports and killjoys win again.

Well, blow me down with a feather. It seems that monks are going to be given some very powerful raid saving abilities. While this is great, I do struggle to understand the logic explained blow by the “Blizzard Blues” How does taking a particular talent spec of monk instead of or as well as your shaman or druid magically make way for your DPS rogue or hunter. Did these guys do basic math. 11 into 10 STILL won’t go, you’ve just made another class and spec “indispensable” which doesn’t help your rogues or hunters one little bit.

Not that I personally care.  I don’t run a  hunter or a rogue, but the math is still wrong no matter where you sit on this one.

Talent Tree Homogenization
There is homogenization that is good for the game, and homogenization that is bad for the game.
Consider Blood Lust/Heroism and Rebirth (battle rez). Those are very powerful abilities and probably mandatory for raiding. If shaman and druids were the only classes that brought them still, then every 10-player raid group would need a shaman and druid to be successful. In a game with 10-player raids and 11 classes, that means someone is excluded. Even worse, if yours is the guild with 2 really good rogues or hunters, you are going to have to make the choice to sit one of those players out in order to be optimal. Even if that hunter is a really nice guy or a good player, he can’t come because you need Blood Lust. We don’t think that’s fun, and we know a lot of players agree. There are several abilities in this mandatory or near-mandatory category: interrupts, raid buffs, dispels and so on. We have no problems spreading those around, or homogenizing the abilities that mean groups can bring the player they want to.
The other category though is making each class feel a bit different when you play them. These are abilities or mechanics that tend to make your class or spec feel unique, but aren’t mandatory. There are a lot of these in the game: Chakra, Cauterize, Bladestorm, Demonic Circle, etc. There are of course still going to be healing, survival, damage and movement abilities in the game that are equivalent in their effect as another classes’ ability, but they all work a little differently, and hopefully make you feel different when you group with other characters or play different alts. It’s important to us to protect those differences in the game.

Character and Creature Model Quality
We’ve acknowledged that the old character models could do with a revamp, and we’re planning to get this done. But the point several of you raised about system requirements holds true; we want WoW to be accessible to those with older machines as well as those of you with top-end gaming rigs.

I’m a big fan of MMO Champion, and sometimes they bring you up some statistics that completely change your perception of the game. Recently they did an update on the gear levels of those participating in player versus player combat in war craft.

I put the figures below, but it begged the bigger question…

“Whatever happened to twinking”

I’ve put a polite enquiry on the MMOC website.

“Does this only take into account characters have reached level 85, or is it across the board.”

I was told that this was a total survey, and that player versus player combat for characters below highest level was virtually non-existent, statistically not worth mentioning.

Sample Size

• Item Level 370+: 2.6 million sample size
• Item Level 385+: 600k sample size
• Item Level 395+: 25k sample size

Participation Rate

• Item Level 370+: 17% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds
• Item Level 385+: 28% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds
• Item Level 395+: 39% of the eligible characters participated in Rated Battlegrounds

What are telling statistic this is. I used to enjoy the levelling process, and had twink at 19 and 39 which seem to be the sweet spot. My level 60 level 70 characters often used to go out and farm blues and greens for my twinks. The number of times that the Scarlet Monastery for twinking greens and blues I can’t possibly count.

Now, the race to the highest level of the game is almost negligible. It’s just a chore.

All the fun and exciting things we used to do along the way are now put off until the highest level.

There is no point levelling profession as you go, as you have a top-level character in a stable who can bike or farm all the equipment and ingredients you need in a fraction of the time.

There is no point grouping for quests, all the main deals are only the high-level characters, and as the statistics show hardly anybody partakes in PvP other than at level cap.

Soling od dual boxing some low-level instances for fun, well it’s been a very boring and solo experience now since Wrath of the Lichking was released in 2008. It’s a waste of time trying to group up on most servers to anything other than top-level instances, no-ones doing them…ever.

If you’re levelling up an alt, and stop to have a little chat at those around you, the chances of finding a genuine World of Warcraft newbie is virtually zero.

Everybody else’s levelling up alts as well. To fill a gap in their profession skills, or just because they are bored of the offensive or defensive rotation of their main characters.

I’m ranting again, but I wish Blizzard would put some thought into making the levelling process at least a little bit exciting and involving. Perhaps giving tangible rewards for group, crafting or PvP activities such as heirloom items which level with you?

I don’t know, what do you think?

It’s about time that software moved to 64 bit platforms. There is a 90% plus chance (probably 99.9%) that you play Warcraft on a 64 bit machine. The processor is 64 bit (all mainstream processors have been 64 bit for almost a decade now), and the OS you are using is 64bit  or has a 64 bit option.

I won’t bore you with the massive advantages we would all have if all software moved to 64 bit – but at least Blizzard are now making a positive step towards propagating the next generation of hardware with the move to a 64 bit client.

Patch 4.3.2 64-bit PTR Client

The new PTR build also brought us a 64-bit client for Mac users.

Originally Posted by Blizzard

A 64-bit client is now available for use with the 4.3.2 PTR. You can download it at the link below, unzip it into your PTR directory, and then run the executable to test it.

• The 64-bit client is being distributed separately from the PTR as it is not yet supported for use with World of Warcraft.
• This can only be used with the 4.3.2 PTR, it is not to be used with the live version of the game.
• The game’s built in voice chat does not currently work in the 64-bit client.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the in-game movie recording functionality.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client does not currently support the customized LCD display for the Logitech G15 series of keyboards.
• [Mac] The 64-bit Mac client is currently not supported on 10.5 systems. You will need 10.6.8 or later for this version.

Build 15201 – PC link, Mac link
If you encounter any issues while using the 64-bit version, please report your findings in the PTR bug report forum (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/2359401/), and return to using the 32-bit executable.

So Blizzard have said that there will be one more content that between now and the release of Mists of Pandaria. Patch 4.4

The rest of this post is pure speculation.

I have no idea what the time-line will be the release of the new expansion but given that the last content patch is only a matter of weeks old, Blizzard has 3 to 4 months between one content patch and the next. There is also a similar gap between the last content patch for any given expansion and the release of the full expansion .

What this means if you add it all up is, if Blizzard follows the usual pattern and spacing rules that they have since 2004, Mists of Pandaria will be out late summer or early autumn 2012.

Some this will be good news for many this will be a disappointment. The rumour that this may be because of the support required post-release for Diablo III is probably unfounded.

The new game has a completely different development team working on this game, even the telephone support for Diablo to a different centre I believe.

So before Mists of Pandaria drops, we can expect 4.4 and possibly even smaller incremental content patches. Given that I’m engrossed in Star Wars at the moment I’m not that concerned, but when the time comes I shall be waiting and raring to go with the new monk class.

The new pet system in Mists of Pandaria looks to be introducing innovation into the whole companion system.

The idea that your pets can take part in pet versus pet PVP is an interesting one, but many believe that it introduces an unnecessary level of detachment from the game play.

At the end of the day, no major world achievements have yet been introduced that require pet versus PET battles To be undertaken, so the way I see it you can either partake in it or not.

What’s the point in moaning about something you don’t have to do and other people may enjoy?

On the other hand, it does point in a more frivolous direction for our game. Lets Remember seven years ago World of Warcraft was quite serious and deep a MMO. It seemed to do pretty well for its first four or five years.

I’m going to reserve judgement until I’ve actually taken part in a pet battle and seen how involved they are.

As we look forward to the introduction in a few months of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria expansion, I thought it was time to take a look at the last class introduced to the game. The Death Knight.

At the time I think Blizzard’s introduction of this class was done for obvious reasons.

To reward long-term players with a slightly overpowered class capable of performing most main actions slightly better than average. You could tank, you could self heal, you had partial group healing abilities, you could DPS. Depending on your spec Death Knights at patch 3.0 could do just about anything.

2) To reward seasoned players. At the time of Wrath was released it had become clear that most seasoned players had several alts at a high level and had done Azeroth several times. Death Knights gave these players the opportunity to perhaps fill a hole in their stable of ‘toons without the grind of Azeroth.

3) Refer to 2. Yes, Death Knights were simply to allow many players to skip Azeroth and go straight to the burning Crusade. Skip the entire original game and go straight to the expansion packs.

 

If you think about it, that’s an incredibly telling fact.

It’s saying,

“We don’t think our original game has enough content or variation to keep our established players interested.”

It also pointed to the increasing dominance of endgame raids and instances to provide meaningful rewards the players. Both in terms of content and gear.

This had a knock-on effect a game. With gear increasingly farmed from high end instances, even the scant “ new raider” recipes available to crafters would be trimmed down to the bare bones. Blacksmith’s could make one tanking weapon for level 80 starting raiders, and for some reason it was mace. The story was the same for most other crafting professions. The game was shifting towards more endgame group content – and something in the mechanics had to change.

But times have changed. As we look forward to the monks that will be introduced in Mists of Pandarea, the headroom above Death Knights has increased dramatically. Levels 80 to 90 have added a considerable amount of levelling scope. Azeroth has been completely remodelled quest lines that followed you throughout your entire levelling process now require that you start at the beginning.

Death Knights themselves have been nerfed and nerfed again until they are barely capable of holding their own.

They are now the ubiquitous jack of all trades, and masters of none.

The class mechanics have been simplified again and again, and “Mists” looks like they will be simplified still further.

Other than a quick alt to fetch and carry..what now is the actual purpose in game of the Death Knight? The first – and probably last “Hero Class”

Death Knights seem to have been designed to solve a problem that no longer exists, and now stand out as anachronisms. Serving no real purpose other than a quick fix for levelling.

So all hail the monks of Pandaria. The first proper new class in Warcraft.

Okay, that headline is a little misleading. But blizzard, our favourite software producer has announced its internship program for this year.

Covering most areas of the company including esports, publishing and quality insurance this internship program offers college students in the United States the opportunity to get hands-on with the world’s number one MMO software company.

There are a few provisos;

All applicants must currently be students studying in the USA and due to return to school or college this autumn (2012)

The internships themselves last approximately 3 months and are paid placements.

The location is centralised and Irvine California

you’ve got until the end of January to submit your application.

So by my reckoning you have three weeks from today. What are you waiting for, here is the Blizzard internship link.

For those of us who followed the release date drama with Star Wars TOR recently, nothing that a major MMO company does as regards informing their potential user base will surprise me any more.

Perhaps not quite as drastic as deciding game will ship two days before the shops close at Christmas (Which was Bioware’s plan – in Europe anyway) Blizzard are still remaining cagey as to the exact date that Diablo three will release.

Most tellingly the Beta is still on-going and does not have an end date yet.

Traditional thinking would suggest that while the pre-release Beta still has an indefinite time to run, there is no firm or fixed release date scheduled.

However, I wouldn’t take this too seriously. Such is the secrecy and “cloak and dagger” methods surrounding any major games released these days, particularly in the MMO field, it could well be that Blizzard will only give us 3 to 4 weeks notice.

I’ll let you in on a secret, my best guess is somewhere between February 1st 2012 and October 28, 2027. And I’ll eat my hat if I’m wrong.