Bioware is so close…yet so far away

Player: “We don’t like gear in PvP. We want it to be based on skill. A symptom of this disease is gearing is random and Battlemaster lootboxes suck because they aren’t fun.”
Bioware: “Okay, well you can now buy gear you want, but it takes a long time.”

Player: “We like ranked 8-man PvP, but the queue times are long without cross-server and preseason 1 is taking forever (over a year)”
Bioware: “Oh, well, I know we promised cross-server, but we’re gonna remove that game type and give you one that is radically different in style in a way that completely eliminates the point of some of the advanced classes.”

Player: “We still don’t like gear in PvP. We still want it to be based on skill. The grind is strong with this one.”
Bioware: “Here is a starter set of gear for zero credits that no one will buy.”

Player: “We STILL don’t like gear in PvP. We actually want it to be based on skill. The grind (that was unchanged) is still strong with this one.”
Bioware: “How about a system that makes your gear less important, but still needed? Oh, but PvEers and naked people will be more powerful than you.”

Player: “We still REALLY don’t like gear in PvP. We still want it to be based on skill. Also, the PvEers hurt me.”
Bioware: “Okay, we’ll fix that broken system we put in (finally), and here are some reduced costs so only the first two weeks of warzones on a new character will be miserable instead of two months of misery.”

Player: “Okay, this gearing system is still a little rough, but I finally can get my alts consistently geared and it is a fairly enjoyable process. How about some more maps at some point? And maybe keep working on cross-server to help ranked populations?”
Bioware: “We need a new system. This “getting gear consistently” thing isn’t as fun as not knowing where your next meal will come from. Tell you what, pay us money and we’ll give you gear. But it will be random. And good luck min-maxing. Oh and hey, we heard your complaints about the PvEers and we’ve made sure they have the same problems you do now.”

Player: “We don’t like the Alliance lootboxes, they aren’t fun, and they’re pointless.”
Bioware: “Oh then we’ll give them a point! We’ll make it so you have to get them for gear. Exclusively gearing through lootboxes! Now they aren’t pointless.”

Is Legion a classy broad or broadly classy?

I see what you did there…nice Hippogryph naming, Blizzard.

In case you’ve been hiding in a small hole where not even Jinx promotional emails can get to you, World of Warcraft’s Legion expansion launched over a month ago. It was a slow trickle of content release before that, since the class and system changes went live early August along with story content like demon invasions and scenarios where a bunch of main characters from the Warcraft lore had their battle-rez on cooldown when they died, and several people were /promoted. Finally, the deluge of Legion happened, and it was amazingly – and surprisingly – great. As in, one of the best expansions in any game ever.

Those of you who have followed me on here know that I haven’t been a World of Warcraft guy. I started playing last January, got a hunter to level 86, and quit to go back to SWTOR or TSW or one of my other standard plays.

Things were different for Legion for one reason and one reason only: Class Identity. This is a day-and-age where SWTOR is abandoning the thing that made it great, their class stories. It’s a time when games have come out that have had the ability to change class at will with the same character, like The Secret World and Firefall. And it is at this time, that Blizzard has not only embraced the class-specific content, it has doubled-down on it!

Fine, SWTOR, I forgive you

My friend Tom who just moved to Canada has been asking me questions about SWTOR since he has gotten back into it recently. I dropped my sub a few months back, so I haven’t been playing much at all. With the warzone coming out soon, I’ve been excited, so I decided to transfer a character to his server and see what’s up.

While cleaning out the mail of my Guardian, I grabbed a Cantina box from a code I had received on Reddit, and I decided to open it really fast.

Lo and behold, it sat there in my inventory, staring at me like a golden ticket to a chocolate factory.

TSW, I think I’m in love with you

Please tell me if you love me back. Check yes or no.

Yes ▢
No ▢
Maybe ▢

Okay, so I’ve made the rounds through the MMOs. In the last few months, I’ve played Wildstar, WoW, Firefall, Marvel Heroes, GW2, and SWTOR. Finally, I’ve looped back around to The Secret World. They just released their new membership with new and improved stuff.

The last time I quit TSW, it was because my computer would lock up to where I had to hard-reboot it about every 15 minutes.

The thing is, I still keep coming back. Despite the issues I have with it hardware-wise, I frickin’ love this game!

How long have I been playing MMO’s again?

I’ve been playing MMO’s for 12 years now. I guess that answered the question in the title. You can leave now. Or you can stay to see why I feel like a noob.

Pets in WoW don’t act like Companions in SWTOR do. They don’t just hitch for a second and then teleport to your side if you jump down a cliff. Pets in WoW take the scenic route, scouring what seems like the ENTIRE DUNGEON pulling every conceivable mob, running up to their oblivious master, and plopping them at your feet like a happy golden retriever puppy with a dead bird.

Proud.

Sad.

Because their master dies.

Since I’ve spent most of my time leveling up either in Battlegrounds or in dungeons, I learned this wonderful fact pretty early on. Ever since, I’ve been careful to not pull the dungeon when jumping off a cliff.

Except for the other day. The other day I failed.

I pugged into a Blackrock Caverns at level 81, which is fun for me, since I play Hearthstone, and any references that have been made have been lost on me this whole time. So I am enjoying the references in the reverse direction from anyone else.

Halfway through the dungeon is a a drop that didn’t look like a drop because the terrain made it look like a ramp. Before I could do anything, my pet had gone off in the other direction, pulling a group just as the tank pulled the next boss. It didn’t end well.

Then, not 10 minutes later, I swing a bit wide in the same stupid dungeon, just not paying attention, and I face-pull another group. I’m surprised I didn’t get kicked right then and there. Could have been my profuse apologies. Or my begging for forgiveness. Or maybe they could sense how embarrassed I was.

Oh yeah, and I move a lot even when I do dungeons, because it is a twitchy habit I learned from PvPing. This caused me to die to a debuff that did more damage the more I moved. Lovely.

Looking like a noob aside, I really don’t like dying. I had to be rezzed three times. That is almost more than I’ve been rezzed in the entire time I’ve done dungeons in WoW put together. I think the tally before then was five times total.

Did I mention I was embarrassed?

So yeah, even though I feel like a old, wizened pro at this point, sometimes you can still have bad days and off moments.

What about you? Have you had any facepalm moments that made you question your noobiness? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below!