Thus began the first Dungeons and Dragons game I’ve played in about 7 years. And it was awesome.

I don’t get where all the hate for 4th edition comes from, either.  From a 4e newbie,  it’s significantly streamlined from 3.0, and about as far from THAC0 as you can get.  Our DM is pretty lenient in terms of rules, in that he follows the only one that matters: let nothing get in the way of telling the story.

We only got about halfway through the adventure Khyber’s Harvest; however, we still had enough time for our group to prove to me that D&D is full of what I love best: stories and silly moments to remember.

Memorable Moment #1: The Living Lawn Dart

One of our team’s 9-year-old stepson was playing for the first time.  He was a Shardmind Rune Priest with a bloodlust I haven’t seen outside of hungry jungle cats.  He wanted to kill his stepfather for stealing his house (literally–the house was just gone, he says!), so his introduction to the group was a sneak attack from a roof.  He leapt off the roof toward our party…and rolled a natural “1″ on his D20.

The DM chuckled and informed us that we saw a six-foot-tall man made out of crystal fall from the sky and embed himself (face-first) in the street beside us like a lawn dart.

Memorable Moment Number 2: Grandpa Eskimo

In Khyber’s Harvest, an elderly orc approaches your party and tells you to beware of the harvest and that everyone in the village has disappeared.  He’s crazy and fairly useless outside of that bit of information.

But he grabbed me!  Me!

So I pull him inside the cottage and my Paladin friend accidentally roughs him up a bit (by accident–another natural “1″) and knocks him out.  We find some blood and decide to follow it’s trail.  But loving Cleric that I am, I can’t leave the old orc alone in the village to disappear like everyone else.  So I pick him up and carry him Superman-style down the road and to our dungeon.

Eventually, he regains consciousness and screams all the time about not knowing who we are or what we’re doing to him because apparently, he was set-dressing for the adventure that was meant to be forgotten once his message had been delivered.  However, as we made our way deeper into the cultist’s cavern, I protected him and made sure my senile old orc was okay and with me for every step of the encounter.

I loved him and named him Grandpa Eskimo.  I can’t wait to get back to him next session.

Memorable Moment #3: You’ll Poke Your Eye Out

Apparently, the Khyber’s Harvest adventure has a mid-point boss.  You enter a room with a cultist priest (complete with tentacle shoulders!), a gigantic orc in armor, bunches of cultist minions, and a 25-foot-tall eyeball embedded into the wall.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: we have to blow up that eyeball!

I thought it, too.  So did my Warlock friend.  So we, being Dragonborn and very large of stature, convince the Shardmind that his earlier stunt could actually come in handy to us here.  So we tell the DM that we are picking him up and throwing him like a dart directly into the giant, pulsing eye in the wall.

Our DM then promptly has an aneurysm. I roll a 22 for the DC check, and my Warlock friend rolls a 19.   So we toss him. Perfectly.  The giant eyeball explodes into a gooey mess as our Shardmind friend flies through the air and right into the pupil.

Then the problem comes in: he falls 40 feet and takes fall damage to where he’s within 1 saving throw from death.

Whoops.

And you know what else? The giant eyeball wasn’t actually the boss.  It wasn’t even connected with the boss.  It was the doorknob–it just opened the gate to the next area.  All we managed to do was kill one of our teammates and really, really piss off the real bosses in the room–the big ole orc and tentacle priest.

Needless to say, the encounter was a bit tougher than it otherwise should have been.

Other Moments?

We quit soon after that encounter because it was getting late, but already, there are stories to tell.  Our first night together, and there are already memes–Grandpa Eskimo! Stay back!–and we had a lot of laughs.

That’s what gaming is about, and why I remember having so much fun with D&D back in college.  What makes D&D unique is how it puts the players in control of the narrative (it is their story, after all) and that’s what we remember about gaming.  None of us remember the 15th time we kill a boss in an MMO, but I sure as hell remember blowing a dog whistle near some sleeping demon mastiffs back in college, and my buddy asking the devil a riddle before we beat him to death.  I remember that because it was fun, because it was us, and because it was unscripted.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of Khyber’s Harvest holds.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see where I left Grandpa Eskimo.  He needs me.

Thank you for reading Dungeons and Dragons: Memorable Moments?, a post from Professor Beej.

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s censorship.  Not the kind where parents tell their kids not to listen to explicit lyrics or that they can’t watch R-rated movies.  The kind where the government or another organization attempts to stop the free-flow of ideas and creativity under the banner of doing what’s right and protecting intellectual property.

I, and the rest of the Internet, call shenanigans.

In lieu of blacking out today or even writing a long-winded essay about the evils of censorship and the damage it can do, I thought I would post some links to other writers who’ve posted about it already.  These are some good reads, and if you’ve got the time, I suggest you work your way through them all.

• The ever-vulgar and insightful Chuck Wendig says it best: “Fuck SOPA.”
• John Scalzi changed his whole website (until 8pm tonight) to reflect his thoughts on SOPA.
• Wolfshead is as eloquent as ever when discussing how SOPA/PIPA affect free speech.
• Tesh sums it up: “Stupid SOPA.”
• And finally, something a little more lighthearted from Syp.  If SOPA passes, Geocities sites will make a comeback.  And none of us want that, now do we?

Thank you for reading SOPA, PIPA, and Censorship. Oh my!, a post from Professor Beej.

Now, two years later, I’m running into that same situation once again. Despite my fervent belief that Star Wars: The Old Republic is chock-full of superfuntime storytelling goodness, I have a hard time making myself log on because of the standard MMO gameplay at the game’s core.

And every time I don’t log in, I feel the subscription fee nagging at me.  I’m paying for a game (many times over, if you consider the exorbitant price they suckered me into for the CE) that I don’t want to play, and therefore, I’m subject to what I like to call subscriber’s guilt.

Something’s Gotta Give

The MMO subscription model does nothing to engender loyalty from a gamer any more than a shock collar actually teaches your dog to stop peeing on your flowers.  There’s nothing actually keeping you there other than fear–fear you’ll lose money, just like your dog is afraid of getting zapped.

This is where F2P game companies have it figured out.  Unlike a subscription company, F2P developers have to make you actively want to give them money.  They give you the game, and if they are going to make money, you have to want to play.  Compare this to subscription games where it is in their best interest to keep you around as long as possible, whether their methods for doing so are technically fun or not.

You see, subscription services are tricky.  They’re passive, and they autorenew.  So if you’re not thinking about it, if you don’t take any initiative, you give that company money.  As long as the games are good enough, you’ll keep the subscription active–which is how much of my seven years of World of Warcraft subscription fee was spent, by the way.  And even if you don’t play past that first month, you’ve still dropped $20-6o on the box.

With a free-to-play game, however, you download the client and have to be sucked in if you’re going to spend any money.  You can set up a subscription, but let’s be honest with ourselves: you probably won’t.  Instead, you’ll able to shop the store and see if there are any quality-of-life purchases you want to make–XP bonuses, quest/adventure modules, and other shiny things that are in no way required to play the game.  Your money is then a direct line to the developers saying they did something right.

But the most positive thing about about F2P games is that they are free from subscriber’s guilt.

You want to read a book?  Well, I hope you like wasting $15 a month.  You want to play another game? Again, I hope it’s worth its cost and your MMO’s.  You only have a few hours of free time to play this month?  The value of your subscription just plummeted.

And you know what? I’m not cool with that anymore.

I don’t feel like being guilted into playing a video game just because I’m paying for it.  I want to log on and play when I want to without feeling that I’m wasting my time if I’m not pushing to the endgame, if I’m not having fun.  I want to just play and enjoy myself, and if that’s for 2 hours this month, then a F2P game is fine.  If it’s 50, then even better. Bang, meet Buck.

So What’s The Plan?

For now, I’m going to be spending a lot of time with two titles: Dungeons and Dragons Online and DC Universe Online.

I’ve had an off-and-on relationship with DDO for years, and I have to say, I love the game, and and in 2 years, Turbine has snagged exactly $20 from me–I bought access to the Warforged Race and the Artificer class.  The core of DDO is different enough from standard WoW-style MMOs that I don’t feel that burnout I get with SWTOR, and DCUO is an action game where I get to team up with my favorite superheroes to do quests.  Yes, Nightwing, I will help you kick Bane’s ass after what he did to Bruce.

To be fair, though, DCUO has snagged my wife’s attention more than mine.  I bought her a PSN giftcard for her birthday, and she spent the $5 necessary to get Premium access.  That’s it.  She’s not one for MMO gaming, so she jumps on when she wants to, does a few quests (“Superman and I used teamwork to defeat Lex Luthor,” she told me one morning), and doesn’t let the game drag her down.  When it gets frustrating, she logs out and does something else–a novel idea if I’ve ever heard one–because she is not financially tethered to the game.  No subscriber’s guilt for her.

With the semester coming back into full-swing and the number of projects I have that I want to work on, I don’t have time to worry that I’m not getting my money’s worth out of an MMO.  I’d much rather spend $15 on a couple of quests, character options, and quality-of-life upgrades that I’ll be able to access for the life of the game instead of worrying if I played a game enough to warrant my sub fee.

Thank you for reading In Defense of Free-to-Play, a post from Professor Beej.

My wife: “Wait, you paid $150 for the stupid collector’s edition and aren’t sticking with it? Are you serious?”

The discussion then proceeded into her asking me if the extra stuff was worth it, to which I answered a solid.”Actually, no. It’s not.”

Now, I’ll get my money’s worth eventually.  I intend on playing SWTOR for a while (around 4 months to justify the cost vs. purchasing other games), but I can’t see myself playing for the seven years I dedicated to World of Warcraft.  Instead, I intend on playing Star Wars: The Old Republic as though it were Knights of the Old Republic 3, experiencing the various stories and classes with the endgame gear-grind only a tingle of a thought in the back of my mind.

If you’re like me, you’ve been fiending for BioWare to release KOTOR 3 for the better part of a decade.  So when they announced the MMO entry of the franchise, the online addict in me rejoiced.

As an MMO, SWTOR is every bit as polished as any other triple-A MMO (and more than most). But what about as a single-player game? I mean, it wouldn’t be a BioWare title if the storyline didn’t take precedence over anything else, right?

Well, yeah.  And the storyline’s are good.

So it’s KOTOR 3, then?  Or just as good as?

Eh…well, maybe.  Kinda.  Let’s just say that I’m torn on that particular point.

Having made my way to level 50 on my Sith Inquisitor, I can honestly say that the game’s leveling content is phenomenal. The class quests are brilliant, and each planet has its own enthralling narrative.  The flashpoints (instances) are hit or miss, with some being story-driven and others being WoW-style dungeon crawls.  Depending on your preference, there have to be a couple you’ll really enjoy.

The thing is, though, SWTOR is still a themepark MMO with straight-outta-Azeroth combat (don’t let the no autoattack fool you; it’s WoW combat with a laggier UI) and The Burning Crusade‘s endgame.  Only with lightsabers and a fantastic story.  If that’s not your kind of game, let’s just say these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

After having done a week’s worth of dailies and PvP, I’m tired of the game at 50.

I still have a lot of content to see (especially as my class quest bugged just a little into Chapter 3–I’ll have to finish it up once BioWare figures out how to fix me), but I’m having a hard time making myself log into my 50.  Instead, I’ve been playing a Jedi Guardian and Jedi Shadow, trying to decide which one will let me most enjoy the Republic’s storylines.

Given that I kind of dread logging into my main, I have to ask the question, is SWTOR worth it?  After splurging on the CE to my wife’s chagrin and setting up a subscription, is SWTOR worth the time and the money?

I think so, yes.

The leveling content is good.  Real good.  Awesome good.

While the gameplay mechanics may be old-hat and the endgame a carbon copy of The Burning Crusade, the narrative is solid BioWare.  And if  the developers are even half as good as Trion in producing regular updates, then you’ll definitely see a lot of value for your subscription. (The first patch they’ve announced already includes a new 4-person flashpoint and additional raid bosses, so they seem to be on the right track.)

If you’re a sucker for a good story, The Old Republic is worth every penny.

In fact, the more you can immerse yourself in the narrative and get over the fact that you’re repeating planet quests on alts, the value of the game skyrockets.  At just $15 a month, getting 200+ hours of gameplay (which is what BW estimated each playthrough should have) isn’t a bad deal.

But if you’re an endgame junkie, if min-maxing is your thing, and you have to grind for gear, points, progression, whatever, I’m not sure that The Old Republic is the game for you.  It’s probably not even close to worth it because the content just isn’t there yet.  It will be eventually, but right now, there just isn’t much variety for that playstyle.

Personally, my plan is to experience the stories, work through the Republic side of the planets, and hook up with friends whenever we can.  I’m not worrying about gear or progression or even seeing the raids and level 50 content just yet.  I am going to be playing other MMOs at the same time (F2P offerings, actually–Dungeons and Dragons Online and DC Universe Online are my current mistresses) and doing what I can to enjoy myself and not burn out.

As a game, SWTOR is worth it.  As one’s sole hobby, it’s not quite there yet.  You’ll have to determine how and why you play MMOs to see if it’s worth it to you.

Thank you for reading How much is SWTOR Worth?, a post from Professor Beej.

It’s also been around seven years since we’ve done any of that, and that seems like way too long.

With the new year comes, as with many people, an evaluation of ones priorities.  And one thing I’ve noticed about myself is that I don’t see my friends nearly often enough.  One of the reasons I gravitated toward MMOs for so long was the social aspect, and not just that, the real-life social aspect for me.

My RL friends and I played together on the same server, if not the same guild.  We raided together, PvP’d together, and generally had out visits via proxy.  It’s not nearly as pathetic as it sounds, as many of us scattered after college and our professional schedules as lawyers, teachers, professors, scientists and such did not allow for the hours-long drives for in-person visits.

But–and there’s always a but–I want to change that for both selfish and selfless reasons

Selfless

While there is no way to change that most of us live 2+ hours apart, there are handfuls of us nearby and others visit periodically.  One of my ideas is to get a Dungeons and Dragons campaign going, maybe once every couple of weeks, so that we could see each other, have a few laughs, and not be dominated by the every-present geargrind and frustrations that come so often with MMOs.

It may not work.  People may not be interested, but it sounds cool to me, so I’m going to give it a shot.

Selfish

I’m a writer, and tabletop RPGs are all about writing.  Not only will playing the games give me some opportunity to work on improvisational storytelling.  Even though I’m a panster-style writer, I need to have a plan.  I like to know where my stories are going.  With a group of people, my stories aren’t able to be planned.  I’ll learn some much-needed skills in terms of motivation and characterization, I think.

And also, I’ll be able to get a better grasp the rules of the games better, understand structure, and get myself prepped for a project I’ve had in mind for a while–turning my Birthright universe into a D20 RPG campaign setting.  I’ll make a longer post about that in the future, but the long and short of it all boils down to the promise I see in the Indie RPG industry.  Selling a setting and various modules would be both fun and potentially profitable.  It would also settle a lot of my desire for writing short fiction, if I could make my stories into adventure modules.

Where You Come In

So that’s where I need you!  Have any of you fine folks have ever had experience starting something up like this?  My friends and I are pretty often saying “hey, this would be a great idea” then never following through with it.  One thing leads to another, and we stick with the same routine we’re used to.

I don’t want this tabletop campaign/game night to be like that.  So if anyone has dealt with this kind of situation before, I’d love to hear your experiences.

Thank you for reading How to Start a D&D Campaign?, a post from Professor Beej.

Apparently, a group of indie developers, the Multiverse Foundation, are beginning work on what they hope will become a Firefly MMORPG.  I know what you’re thinking–OH-EM-GEE!–because I am, too.  But we have to be careful not to get out hopes up too high.

Like was mentioned in the comments of the original post, don’t hold out for your dream game here.  Don’t think it’s going to be the Firefly resurgence we’ve all waited for.  If it ever comes to fruition, there’s a good chance be like the Battlestar Galactica browser-MMO that I’ve never even bothered to install.  More likely than that, the IP will be denied.

Still a nice thought, though.

On the other hand, we Browncoats have to decide if we’d even want a Firefly MMO.  Much of the adoration of the franchise comes from the quirky characters, the appealing actors, and the tack-sharp dialogue.  The universe, the actual guts that would make up the game, while interesting in its sci-fi/western hybridity, is only set-dressing for the real content we love.  Without being able to watch Nathan Filion, Alan Tudyk, and the others’ shenanigans, would the game even feel like Firefly?

Keep an eye out, but my gut tells me this is about as likely as Fox suddenly giving us a second season.

Thank you for reading Firefly Online?, a post from Professor Beej.

My RSS feed is just chock-full of people writing their New Year’s posts, and I figure that I would follow suit. I’ve neglected this blog (and other projects) for too long, and this is a good way for me to outline my plans for the year.

Also, to discuss a slight reworking of the way I approach the blog.

So first thing’s first: the blogroll. I purged it.

Let me apologize to anyone who didn’t make it to my short list. It’s nothing personal. I figure that the blogs I link to ought to be the blogs I can’t keep myself from reading. The blogs I always read every word of.  Every entry, even if there’s a backlog.

There aren’t too many of those, but the few there are, are fantastic. In some way, they’re also all in some way inspiration for my new approach to Professor Beej in 2012.

• Terribleminds – Chuck Wendig is a penmonkey with enough wit and insight to either counter or enhance (depending on your preference) his foul-mouthed wordsmithy. He drops the f-bomb like he’s a postmodern Enola Gay with a quill, but that all part of the charm. His “25 Things” posts are fun, and he’s realistic about indie publishing, unlike many people. If you’re not reading him, start.
• Whatever – John Scalzi runs one of the longest-running blogs on the Internet. He’s been blogging almost daily since 1998, before most of us were even aware that blogging was a thing. He’s a hell of a writer, and he drops a lot of writerly advice. The thing is, he also posts pictures of his cats, talks about politics and religion, and in general, says whatever he damn well wants. I’ve found more good reads from his “The Big Idea” series than I have almost anywhere. He’s a smartass and more than a little knowledge of the industry, practical knowledge. Keep your eyes open.
• Bio Break – Syp has it all figured out. The man balances being a full-time gamer, writer, and father in ways that I cannot even begin to fathom. He always stays positive about his life and his hobbies, which is a unique, shining spot in the MMO blogosphere. He updates all the time, even if it’s just a neat picture from his current game of choice or a quote from a good article to show its author some link love. If you game online, drop yourself into any kind of avatar, and like to support all-around nice guys, keep up with Bio Break (and his columns over at Massively).
• Tobias Buckell Online – One thing I like from an author is candor. If someone shoots me straight, they have my respect. Tobias shoots straight about writing and publishing, posts neat videos and articles that pertain to all aspects of speculative fiction, and publishes more short fiction than anyone I know about. He experiments with media, and his own writing is just different enough from typical SF that if you don’t have an eye on him, you’re all but walking around blind.
• A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing - I don’t particularly like Joe Konrath, at least from what I read about him. He’s egotistical, full of himself, and his blog posts are full of so much rhetoric that he should be writing presidential campaign speeches. But I still read every blog he posts. Despite being sensational and over-the-top, there are nuggets of goodness that indie authors can glean from his stuff. However, go in with your bullshit detector at full-strength. He speaks in absolutes, and he’s good at it. Just be aware that whatever sounds too good to be true…
• We Fly Spitfires – Gordon’s a good guy. He doesn’t update his MMO blog nearly as often as he used to, but pretty much every time he does, there’s a good idea in the post. He plays a lot of games, and he writes about them with an analytical eye. Where most MMO bloggers fall into the fanboy/hater dichotomy, Gordon stays a realist. If he likes a game, there are reasons. If not, there are reasons. And they’re well explained and interesting to read.

There are other blogs I read, too. A lot of them. But not every post. I’m sure there will be link-love posts coming where I’ll highlight those, too, but for the time being, these are the ones you should really check out.

The Goals!

So, goals. Resolutions.

I hate these things. I always feel bad when something doesn’t work out, you know? I’ve squandered a lot of time this past year, had a lot going on, made excuses, yadda yadda yadda.

This year, I’m working on getting my head back on my shoulders, and here are a few ways I plan on doing that.

• Put the polish on Birthright and get it uploaded to various ebook distributors and start querying agents
• Work on a Kickstarter campaign to make that happen and pay for the myriad of self-publishing expenses that include, but are not limited to finding and paying a cover artist, a professional editor, a layout editor, formatter, and website designer.
• Write and finish at least 2 new short works–a faith-themed novella titled Where Angels Fear to Tread and a Birthright-universe story called “The First Day.”
• Over the summer, write the first draft of Lineage, a sequel to Birthright.
• More updates for the blog. They’ll probably be shorter, but about just about anything I want. I miss blogging, and I always have a lot of stuff to share, but not the most time to write a 1k-2k article about it. Hopefully, this will fix it.

So there it is, the new year and the new Beej. Here’s hoping it goes well for everyone.

Thank you for reading New Year, New Beej, a post from Professor Beej.

A few failed login attempts later, and I found out that I was. After a few frantic minutes of creating junk characters on multiple servers to save the three names I want to use for my primary characters (Damien, Lesser, and Beej on the server “Prophecy of the Five” if you care), I settled in for my first week of my next MMO.

And it was glorious.

SWTOR is not without its issues and bugs, but for the most part, I haven’t seen an MMO release with this much polish since 2004 when World of Warcraft sucked me away from Star Wars Galaxies. Even after just a week of early access, I can safely say that if BioWare allowed for lifetime subscriptions, I would snag one as soon as my free month runs out.

Your Own Saga

Taking a page from Syp’s book, I decided to play a single character until the level cap of 50 before even starting an alt. From the moment you start in SWTOR, you feel as though the entire game is about you.

Now, there are other people running around, and The Old Republic is very much an EverQuest/World of Warcraft-inspired themepark MMO, but the way BioWare structured the narrative, that doesn’t matter. This is Knights of The Old Republic 3 for all intents and purposes.

After 7 days of taking my sweet time, I’m level 30. The leveling has slowed down significantly over time, and the story has only ramped up. Just before the servers were taken down tonight, I hit level 30, finished chapter 1, and unlocked the Legacy system–which I’ll get to soon.

The end of Chapter 1 is intense to say the least, and it is certainly compelling me to keep playing. I find myself leaving planets before I run out of quests because I finish the class quests and want to move forward with them. I don’t think that will happen nearly as often now that I have unlocked my legacy and don’t have another narrative-oriented goal to work toward.

Overall, BioWare has done a great job implementing the story, and I fully intend eventually to go back to the planets I didn’t give my full attention initially–except for Balmorra. That place is a mudhole.

The Wyrmsbane Legacy

In Ultima Online, my character’s name was Damien Wyrmsbane. In EverQuest, it was Dammiienn. Star Wars Galaxies ushered in the days of Damiiyynn the Wookiee Jedi, and in World of Warcraft, my first character was a warlock named Wyrmsbane.

So you can see, being able to log on early and snag Damien on a few servers and eventually unlock The Wyrmsbane Legacy is just that–my old characters’ legacy continued into a new MMO.

I don’t know exactly what the whole system entails (here’s hoping for new race/class combos so we can have Chiss with Lightsabers), but now all of my characters on “Prophecy of the Five” will have the surname Wyrmsbane, whether they’re Empire or Republic.

I’m very excited to see how BioWare expands the Legacy system in upcoming patches.

And just in case you’re wondering, the end of Chapter 1 unlocks the Legacy, which for Sith Inquisitors is right after the class quests on Alderaan. I assume other classes are similar.

Crafty McCrafterson

I hate crafting in MMOs. I can’t remember a game in which I’ve ever really enjoyed it. But in SWTOR, I don’t actually have to craft; my companions do it for me. All I have to say is “go do it” and 10-60 minutes later, they come back with loot of some kind.

Then I reverse engineer it (disenchant it, for emigants from Azeroth), learn the upgraded version of it, then send them out again to make the new and improved version. Then I repeat it until I can make the best version of that item (green, blue, purple progression).

Initially, you only get one companion. So you have to choose either to adventure without him or her or to craft. But once you get a ship, you get the failbot droid who you can send on missions while you bring your other companion with you. The more companions who join you, the more you can have out gathering and crafting for you.

But I warn you: crafting can get very expensive. I wouldn’t worry with it too much, as you will find replacements for the gear you can craft pretty regularly, but if you do it occasionally, you can get a decent Prototype (read: epic) item every few levels through reverse engineering.

Also, every character needs to take Slicing as a gathering profession. I don’t care if you think you want it or not. Take it. It’s just like you’re printing money. You send a companion (or companions) out for 2,000 credits. He or she comes back with between 1500 and 5,000 credits in a lockbox. Badabing Badaboom. Free money.

I don’t know how long the skill is going to stay like this, but right now, I’m riding the gravy train with the rest of the 1% and being able to buy pretty much anything I want whenever I want it. Riding skill for 40,000 credits at level 25? Easy. 210k riding training at 40? I had it before I was even 30.

Seriously, level Slicing. Thank me later.

Looking the Part

I decided to go with Empire for two reasons:

The first being that I thought the Sith Inquisitor storyline/voice acting was stronger than the Jedi Knight/Consular. The story is–initially, at least–full of more intrigue and politics, and that’s what I love.

The second reason was that I wanted to be a cool Darth-type character. I wanted to wear a hood and a mask that made me sound robotic like Vader or Malgus or even Revan. So I did my research, and after noticing what Dark Side Corruption looks like on various races, chose to make my guy a bald Sith Pureblood solely because of how it would look with a hood/mask.

And when I found my first mask…my hood went away. Oh, well, that’s no big deal, I’d rather have the hood. So I turn off my helm graphic and go about my merry way.

Then I find a half-mask on a vendor. It was Heavy Armor. Crap. Sith Inquisitors (or at least Sorcerers; I’m not sure about Assassins) can only wear Light Armor. I pop it into the item preview window anyway, and lo and behold, it shows up with the hood.

Cool!

But I can’t wear it. I look around, ask some folks, and the people from beta tell me that those masks don’t come in Light Armor. Not even moddable Light Armor.

So here I am, playing a character who looks a very specific way because of a costume, and I can’t get that costume. Lovely. I can’t even change the way my character looks to give him hair now. Even lovlier. I really hope they put in some kind of barber shop/image designer soon, or I’m going to be one unhappy man. #firstworldproblem or not, it’s irritating.

Problems, Bugs, and Issues

The graphics on this game are great. Really great. In fact, they’re so great, you probably will never get a chance to see them look great. There’s a nifty thread on Reddit’s r/swtor about running SWTOR on max graphics settings.

I took it’s advice, and what do I get? Pretty graphics that run at under 20fps whenever there’s anything going on. A few client_settings.ini tweaks later, and I’m doing just fine with my old 9800 GTX+. But there is still a good amount of lag when I hit the fleet and when I PvP.

I really hope that BioWare makes some improvements to the engine through patches and makes the game smoother for folks. Until then, it feels just a little clunky, but nothing games like RIFT and Warhammer Online haven’t also dealt with, too. In fact, Warhammer Online was much worse than SWTOR in terms of graphics issues.

Another issue that I haven’t experienced yet is the planet Taris has a quest tracking memory leak. I don’t know when a fix is going in, but until it is, I will be avoiding Taris except for my class quest.

Probably the biggest issue for me right now are the login queues. WIth times reaching upwards of 2 hours for some servers before the game even officially releases, I’m not exactly looking foward to seeing what they’ll look like in the coming days and weeks.

BioWare has said they are aware of the issue and are working on alleviating some of the waits, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I wish they’d take RIFT‘s strategy and open up a ton of servers for launch and then allow free transfers or mergers once the tourist population drops to a sustainable level

I don’t care about the rhetoric about server communities and all that. I just care about being able to log in and play a game I pay for in the time I have to play it. I shouldn’t have to decide 2 hours early that I want to play a video game and then go prep for it. I just want to type in my info and go shoot lightning out of my hands.

The Force is Strong with this One

In the end, Star Wars: The Old Republic does exactly what it set out to do. It doesn’t do anything new with the MMO genre, but what it does, it does well. The emphasis on storytelling gives the genre a much-needed (for me, at least) boost of immersion and rates really highly on the Make-Me-Give-A-Damn-O-Meter.

I think I’ll definitely be sticking with this one for the long-haul, even if the end-game isn’t anything but raiding. The PvP is awesome, the crafting is actually fun, and any new story content that gets put in is just icing on the cake. With 8 individual class stories to play through, I don’t think I’ll be getting tired of SWTOR‘s main draw any time soon.

Thank you for reading The Beej Republic: A Week of SWTOR, a post from Professor Beej.

And so, after seven years (I started on Malygos during release week of WoW in 2004), lots of friends, fun, and frustration, I logged out of Azeroth for the very last time.

So thank you, Blizzard, for the last seven years.  You made a good game.  A great game.  It’s just not the game for me anymore.

/logout

Thank you for reading The End of the World (of Warcraft), a post from Professor Beej.

When I was in 7th grade, I had a hard time finding books. Being from a rural elementary school in Tennessee, our library was neither large nor well funded. However, we did have a librarian who cared enough to help me feed my voracious appetite for books–especially science fiction and fantasy.

One day, I walked in and saw three new books on the cart. Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey. They were thin hardcovers, and the art depicted a girl with tiny dragons flying around her.

I had to read them.

And read them, I did. I finished up that trilogy, and then convinced my parents to drive me to the nearest bookstore (a little over an hour away), where they were good enough to buy me everything else that had McCaffrey’s name on it.

I read them all, too. I still have those same paperbacks on the bookshelf in my bedroom. I treasure them. I plan on giving them to my children when they’re old enough. They are artifacts that remind me of the first time that I ever fell in love with an author more than the story being told. I loved her writing. I loved her ideas. I loved her characters.

I can’t say that Anne McCaffrey changed my life. That would be melodramatic. I don’t know if those books changed my reading habits, made me a writer, or anything like that. I just don’t know.

I can say, though, that Anne McCaffrey had an impact on me. So thank you, Anne McCaffrey. Thank you.

Thank you for reading Thank You, Dragonlady, a post from Professor Beej.