Posted by Cormeister in Wild Space | 7 Comments
Wild Space: Questing, Beta Testing, and Mobile Apps
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
First up this week, is great article from Force Junkies about the not-so-heroic quests that all “theme park” MMOs have players partake in. Author Laura H. does a really good job of explaining that this is all going to be different in SW:TOR because in this game, you actually care about what you are doing. As Ms. H explains, you aren’t just killing 10 wolves to get some experience and a minor reward, you’re killing 10 wolves in order to save a village from the persistent, feral attacks by the wolves and in return, the leader of the village pledges his support to your cause.
Making a player care about what they are doing from a story perspective certainly makes doing it much more fun. It’s the motivation for doing the quest (i.e. story context) and the presentation of it (i.e. interactive voice acting) that makes these “mundane” quests not so mundane anymore. Be sure to check out the full article over at Force Junkies.
Amid all of the Warzone update information that came out as part of the Friday Update this week, EA released their Fiscal Year 2012, Quarter 2 Earnings call. These calls are snooze-fests for the majority of the time, but every once in a while we get a pertinent bit of information out of them. Some poor soul over at Darth Hater (author Jaspor, I assume) had the dubious honor of listening to the Earnings call for that bit of information. What he found was even further confirmation (from EA Chief Operating Office Peter Moore, nonetheless) that the SW:TOR beta is going to eventually get downright massive:
“…the Old Republic is in Beta right now and players are blown away by the immersive story, dynamic combat and authentic Star Wars feel. In the coming weeks we’ll invite hundreds of thousands of players into our biggest Beta test to date.”
So if you haven’t gotten into the beta by now, you’re going to have a pretty good chance in the future. Keep tuned to www.swtor.com/tester to see if you’ve been selected for beta testing and head over to Darth Hater for the full article which links out to the official EA remarks and webcast.
What do you all think of one or more SW:TOR mobile apps? Marshall Carr from TORWars think that it’s a pretty good idea and has some suggestions for BioWare about what he wants to see in a mobile app. One idea that quickly jumped to his mind was a crew skills app. Since your crew can be working on Crew Skills while you are offline, an app to modify your Crew Skill queue and send companions out of missions would be extremely convenient. Other apps for in-game communication would also be really handy and I could see even becoming a necessity.
Another thought that I just had is something that the successful MMO Eve Online is already doing: build API tools and let the community create their own mobile apps. With access to an API, the amount and variety of apps created would only be limited by the community’s creativity, skill level, and commitment (and I think that the SW:TOR community can summon up droves of all three).
However, Mr. Carr is quick to point out that there is a concern with creating mobile apps and that some players could have a significant gameplay advantage over others just because they have a better phone. Still, smartphone ownership is on the rise and BioWare is surely thinking about how to approach mobile app development very carefully. Check out the full article over at TORWars and let us know what you think about SW:TOR mobile apps in the comments.
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Would be nice to have some sort of control over the crew skills and maybe the auction house, and a guild panel with chatbox maybe Don’t know if it’s possible but it’s the only things I have in mind, as I’am totally against any kind of armory-like system.
So someone is worried about my smartphone giving me an unfair advantage??? Does my 40″ monitor and dual vid cards or 8 gigs of RAM give me an unfair advantage too? Do people running on a T1 line for internet have an unfair advantage too? Let’s not make decisions on what is fair or not when it comes to the hardware we choose to buy for our lifestyle needs please.
Well yeah your smartphone does. It gives you access to the game outside of the game. It gives you the ability to advance your character and your crew skill level while others are out at work or otherwise busy. There is a major difference between a good gaming rig and 24hr access from anywhere you can get a signal.
As many may have guessed I am against a smartphone app for crew skills. I don’t mind one for looking at your gear or what you CAN make, but I am completely against crew skill advancing while offline. In my opinion this is another example of Play to Win and that will dissuade those on the fence.
Let’s keep gameplay within the game.
Pay to Win*
But that is assuming that a smartphone isn’t part of the gaming experience. But once you integrate smartphones, just as we do a mouse or the latest and greatest video card, then I don’t see how this provides an unfair advantage.
I can just as easily say that my job/wife/kid makes keeping up with folks that can play 5-10 hours a day difficult and it is unfair. And yet I won’t, because it’s just a game, and I’d rather everyone have more choices than less.
The difference is, you can still play the game on a computer than is a couple years out of date. You might need to buy a new computer in order to have a better gaming experience, but they’ve designed the game so that a minimum of people need to buy a new computer to play at all. Based on apps that are being developed today (like the g+ app, for instance) myself and basically all my friends would need to buy new phones just to access it. This could provide an advantage to those who have the money to buy new phones (or who always have the latest phones) that is much wider in scope than those who have better gaming computers, depending on the type of apps developed.
I don’t have a problem with it, as long as the app doesn’t give players any real advantage over those who don’t have it, and it doesn’t become required to play. I’d hate to see guilds or pugs start requiring mobile app x. I don’t really see crew skills as a huge advantage, or really anything else I can think of at the moment that you can do just as well from the game. My problem would be if you can do/get exclusive things through the app (like a Pazaak tournament with an in game prize that you can only participate in through the app).