Jan 18, 2012

Posted by in Lethal Injection | 25 Comments

Lethal Injection: Calm Down, It’s Going To Be Okay

Lethal Injection is a regular opinion column here at Ask A Jedi. If you know Lethality, whom you may be familiar with from over on the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ forums, you know that he’s not afraid to share an opinion or two. Even more than that, he enjoys backing it up in the discussion that invariably follows. You can look for the same approach here in each installment of Lethal Injection, and we can’t wait to hear YOUR opinion of his opinions!

This image represents a snapshot of the General Discussion forum on SWTOR.com earlier today.

Click to embiggen!

There are, apparently, billions of players in an uproar. Everything from Mythic to SOPA and even Billy Mays are being blamed for the perceived issues with TOR. If you were to use this as the sole measuring stick to see how well-loved the game is, you’d think BioWare must be getting ready to pack up the servers right now.

I really can’t do anything but laugh, to be honest.

You Can’t Handle The Truth

You want to know the truth? Most players aren’t reading those threads, much less complaining in them. They’re not even here reading this article. What are they doing? They’re out playing the game and having fun. They’re not obsessing over microscopic details that simply do not matter in the grand scheme of things, if they notice them at all. If they come across a bug or a problem, they work around it. They don’t use it as the basis for a manifesto against BioWare. They see the big picture.

Yes, there are some issues and BioWare has acknowledged that. They’re actively working to pin down real performance issues for some users, and we know they are doing everything they can to make the grand vision for Ilum work as they intended (official thread here for feedback.) BioWare has a vested interest, obviously, to make this game the best it can be. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a well-crafted game built by a company passionate and proud about what they do.

And…?

This is all you need to ask yourself: are you having fun? If you answered yes, you may continue to do so unhindered! If not, you can do something about that, too. But posting ridiculous rants on the forums is a waste of time. If you’re searching for a reason to hate the game, you can find one. But if you truly want to enjoy it, all you have to do is let yourself. Honest.

You can call this a fanboy post from a fan site if you like, I don’t mind. For the record, yes – I have some issues with the game, and I’m not afraid to express them, usually here in Lethal Injection. But I’m also smart enough to realize the difference between problems and personal preferences.

To all of the knee-jerk reactionary complainers or the band-wagoners, try to understand there’s a much bigger picture being painted than for your own, personal, self-entitled needs. There are many, many players logging in and having fun right now as you waste time here reading this rant about rants.

Just look past the end of your arm to see what’s up ahead for a change. You just might be surprised how much fun you can have.


  1. I had this exact discussion with my cousin this morning. He asked “Have seen the forums this morning? The community is outraged, I’ll probably stop playing.”

    It was very frustrating… most of his complaints are not things BioWare can fix either such as “As a Republic player, it isn’t fun doing PVP since we lose all the time.” When asking why “All the hardcore PVP people went Imperial.”

    I agree with your post entirely.. do you have fun playing? Keep playing! If not, let them know why. If what is happening on Ilum is an exploit, Bioware will treat it as such.

    • Yah WoW had alot of the same complainers.They refused to recognize the possibility that the reason that they were losing had to do with the fact that they themselves were partially at fault.

      • Yes, you are correct. It is my fault that I accepted the mission at my level (17). It is my fault I had the absurd thought that I could possibly complete it. 5 pvp matches per day and a week later I am still getting roflstomped with the entire empire team of 50s top of the damage meters. The best we ever did was a single score in huttball. Going back to wow, you can give a level 17 200,000 hp and my season 10 gladiator is still going to wipe em off the face of the map. It is inconceivable that they shipped the game like this. At least there is going to be 50 only war zones now with the patch. The lame excuse that the level 50 wouldn’t have enough of their own level to play with is just stupid. If you get to 50 in a few hours after launch wth did you think was going to happen? I’ll revisit it later I guess.

        I still love the game overall though.

  2. Would Lethality use his own advice when if it comes to AC witching;)

  3. There is no reason to ever visit the general forums of any game. It’s just a place where people take extreme views to get a reaction. If you make a post about how much you enjoy the game you will be three pages down in about two minutes.

    Make one about how BIO is ignoring it’s players and you will have 20 pages of replies. People are bored and can’t play the game so they play the forums.

  4. End-game PvP fails though, am I and my guild having fun? No. Illum IS broken, Bioware said as much. Which is really the old end-game PvP content, so basically there is no end-game PvP content.. That’s quite a problem.
    Not that I’m on the forum complaining about it or threatening to cancel my sub. When I get bored I’ll just stop playing :p

  5. Some points like their customer service, must be fixed asap. Im just glad i never needed their help yet! lets hope it stays that way!

  6. Two of my guild mates (a married couple) told me last night, “We are having so much fun. All we can think about is playing this game!” Neither of them had played any significant time on an MMO, preferring in the past to play XBox games.

    In my opinion, Ilum was broken before patch 1.1 (what was delivered at relase can’t possibly be called “good”). It’s probably still broken now. If I were a hardcore pvper, I might care a little, but I’m not a hardcore pvper, so I really don’t care at all.

    Last night I ran Eternity Vault. Had a blast. Everything worked just fine. I also played a bunch of Hutt Ball and 1 warzone. That also worked just fine. The game works. It’s fun to play. It could be better, but it’s far from “broken”, plus it has a lot of promise. It’s only too bad the forums can’t be used to gather much truly constructive feedback…

  7. Some of the threads made bring up some valid points, but most are garbage.

    The problem is that posting a thread is not going to change the decisions BioWare had made. It may bring to their attention some issue that was over looked or feedback, but that is really it.

    When Soa bugged or the pylons would not work, did we complain? On vent, but not on the forums. We know that gear dropped from nightmare is bugged somewhat, and we know a lot of stupid bugs (Like falling into the lava during the Soa fight will get you killed sometime after you rez). These are things we the players cannot change, and the only thing we can do is either send in a CS ticket (Which gets nothing done), or create a thread.

    I hardly read general because I know that is the minority talking, and many people have stopped playing all together. After the 20th, when the first bill goes out, you may see those threads die down.

    The main issue is that we the people have no other outlet to let the developers know of what is going right and what is going wrong. In many cases people are still running into bugs (Again, like Soa that if everyone dies you cannot loot him).

    While we do not expect these things to get fixed overnight (Or ever really), it would be nice to see BioWare create a post of thread of the most common issues and how far along in the process of solving them they are.

    It is not a perfect solution, but something that would put a lot of the doom and gloom to rest.

  8. Perfection is inpossible, we can only ever aim for it. WoW’s 7 years old and I somehow have MORE problems with it now than I did 5 years ago!

  9. Chris Grooms says:

    Either way, Bioware favors Sith and a lot of people are pissed off about how unbalanced factions are from Operatives 3 hit kills where it’s impossible to react 75% of the time, Snipers (highest range in game), Inquisitors combined AOE… it goes on and on. As far as Ilum goes.. Sith outnumber all servers 2:1-3:1 and they are on Ilum just 3:1 raping people because now they have to actually you know… have some skill rather than raping lowbies. So they are all on Ilum right now since they can’t PVP against their own levels in warzones without a 3:1 advantage like in Ilum.

    • Ummmm Chris. The classes are mirrored across faction.

      The Empire being higher population is strictly about cosmetics. Empire just LOOKS cooler and all the KOOL KIDZ want to play the bad guys.

    • Every time i see a post like “Bioware favors Sith and a lot of people are pissed off about how unbalanced factions are from Operatives 3 hit kills where it’s impossible to react 75% of the time, Snipers (highest range in game), Inquisitors combined AOE… it goes on and on.” i laugh so hard i almost pee a little.

      Anything Operatives can do, Scoundrels can do. Gunslingers have the SAME 35m range as Snipers. Consulars have the same AoE as Inquisitors. I’m not one for flaming people, and i’m resisting the urge here, but please learn more about the classes before you try to cry about imbalance. The factions are just about identical.

      • Incorrect. While the classes are broadly mirrored their skill sets and animations are not EXACTLY the same. I used to think they were, but then upon investigation discovered that they are not. In general, the differences tend to lean towards the sith having pvp advantages, and that is before taking numbers into account.

        • No, they are not exactly the same, but the vast majority of claims i have seen are completely incorrect. Especially ones mentioned above, such as Snipers having the highest range in the game, which ignores that Gunslingers have exactly the same range.

          Every time i’ve seen a post about the differences, it has been universally exaggerated and is often downright incorrect. The differences being touted are not as significant as people want to believe they are.

  10. Pyroblast says:

    Most of the complaints are VALID ones.

    Bioware have clearly spent a lot more on the VO than the actual core game itself.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Bioware told you to right this article. The community is outraged and they are right to be.

    1.1 is a mess and the bugs are everywhere.

    • As paying customers they have a right to say what they want. It’s a shame absolutely ZERO of them are doing it in a way that’s constructive, helpful, logical or intelligent.

    • Quoted for truth. VO sucked the attention of Bioware away from core game systems. No doubt in my mind at all aobut this.

      • Because programmers work on VO? Because game artists work on VO? Because content creators, producers, and level designers work on VO? Because game directors work on VO? Because writers work on VO?

        None of those people are directly involved in voice over work. They have completely different teams involved in these things. This claim is just about the most ludicrous thing i’ve seen, and i’ve seen a lot.

        VO didn’t suck BioWare away from ANYTHING. They have different people working on different things. Probably one producer, some sound guys, and a few others working with the talented voice over artists they had working on this game. None of that impacted the gameplay at all. Just c’mon…

    • “wouldn’t be surprised if Bioware told you to right this article.”

      This has to be taken right off the general forums. Totally clueless and with the obligatory wrong word used (it is write this article).

      Yea, BIO is controlling all websites and their content–that’s it.

  11. /signed

    Thank you for that.

    ‘Nuff said.

  12. Well said, Lethality. Well said.

  13. Nice post Lethality. I refuse to go to the General forums any more, it’s just sad. Fortunately, there are a few sane places on the official forums that are fun to visit and talk with other players. But General is just a wretched hive of trolls and flamery.

  14. I am enjoying the game. I am taking my time and going through the missions on the planets, my class story, exploring, datacron hunting, and crafting. I don’t want to rush to 50. I dont have the time commitment to invest into end game Operations. And I dont PvP. I dont like it. And yes, I know there are some things that are broken, and I know that Bioware is doing all it can to fix them. Personally, I am having fun and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

  15. Well I don’t know who’s the luckiest. You guys that can see that end game PvP is borken (I’m only 38) or me who can’t even patch because of BioWare’s failure to make a patcher work or even provide the files for a manual patching….

Leave a Reply