Wild Space: The Calm Before the Storm

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!

Several lucky fansites were invited to the second Fan Site Summit at the BioWare studios in Austin, Texas. That caused a relatively calm week in terms of fansite content as they undoubtedly prepare to bombard BioWare with questions about the game, but that didn’t stop several sites from posting great articles worth checking out. Let me tell you about them!

SW:TOR is coming along in a very interesting time in the MMORPG market. The genre is shifting more and more towards the free-to-play model and away from the subscription based model that has been a staple of MMORPGs for some time. New MMORPGs are on the horizon with vastly different play styles than we have seen in MMO’s before. The “big kid on the block” (WoW) is losing subscribers due to a lack of interest in the available content. SW:TOR hopes to come on the scene and capture a a good portion of the existing MMORPG market as well as create some converts out of people who never thought they would ever log into an MMO.

Over on Republic Trooper, Mike Kern has a really good write-up titled “Always In Motion Is The Future – Those Left Behind: Saying Goodbye To Your MMO” about making the switch from another MMO to SW:TOR. What I got from the article is that the hardest part of the switch is leaving your in-game friends and the community behind to make the switch. Sometimes it isn’t possible to convince your friends come along for various reasons (time invested, money, real life, etc…). However, the benefit of having the “Star Wars” name slapped on the box is that the game already has a ton of people interested in it and a well developed community.

Maybe I’m biased what with writing for a fansite and all, but I do believe that this is one of the best gaming communities I have ever been a part of and I can’t wait to get in-game and become even more a part of it. That should definitely make the switch much more bearable and besides, you still have time to convince your friends to make the switch! Check out the full article over on Republic Trooper.

But what if you don’t come from the MMORPG world and don’t have any community or friends to leave behind? What if you’re one of the people who have never played an MMO but love Star Wars and/or BioWare? Well then you, lucky soul, are “a Rookie” and that’s great! StaticSilence of the fine website TOROCAST has a great write up of his personal experience as a rookie to the MMO genre. He’s no video game noob and he loves single-player RPGs but has never made the jump to MMO world.

There is a terrific benefit to being an MMO rookie: you have no preconceptions about how the game should work and no expectations which can track higher than can be realistically obtained by the game. You are simply logging in and experiencing the game (and genre) for the first time. I’m envious of you. A lot of us “bitter vets” wish we could have that experience all over again “in a galaxy far, far away…” so definitely enjoy it while you can. Be sure to read the full article over on TOROCAST

Last up this week is a site that I recently started reading, SWTOR-RP. They have a column similar to our own Blue Milk & Cereal called Force Reflection which poses a question to their community every day. A recent one caught my attention and I thought it would be worth talking about. I mentioned earlier about new MMOs coming out soon with different play styles than we have seen before in the MMORPG genre? One of those is Funcom’s The Secret World. What’s different about it? Well, similar to Eve Online, The Secret World eschews a leveling system in favor of skill-based progression.

“Leveling up” has been a staple of the RPG and MMORPG genres since they were created but these new games seek to turn that convention on it’s ear. AstralEcho wanted to know “what do those levels mean to you?” Are you the type of player (like me) that needs to see your level increase in order to feel like your character is progressing and getting “more powerful”? Or are you satisfied with new/better skills, gear upgrades, and access to new and more difficult areas as your reward for gaining in experience? Do you like to rush to the level-cap and stop worrying about gaining those pesky levels? I ask all of these questions to you, dear readers. Sound off in the comments and check out this article as well as all of the great content over on SWTOR-RP.