Feb 3, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: How Are You Spending Your Time At Level 50?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today’s Blue Milk & Cereal is once again crowd-sourced from the awesome AAJ Army! This time, from Charlie Malbaurn! If you have a great idea for a BM&C topic, let us know!

The level cap is an interesting thing in MMOs, especially new ones. The sooner you get there, the less there typically is to do. Usually all of the content is designed around either cooperative or competitive group play, and without other players, it makes it a little harder to do!  Star Wars: The Old Republic has been out well over a month now, and many players are beginning to reach the level cap of 50. I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere close to “most” yet, but a good chunk of folks are getting there.

So, I’m curious to hear about what you, dear readers, are doing to whittle away your time in that galaxy far, far away. Some of you have been level 50 for quite a while, and some of you just arrived. So it will be interesting to hear the perspectives from both camps! So don’t just vote, discuss below!

How do you spend your time at level 50?

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Feb 2, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Would You Attend A “BioCon”?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today’s BM&C was seeded by an idea from Zach Lee on Twitter… thanks Zach!

Gaming conventions are always a big deal every year, and Star Wars: The Old Republic along with EA, BioWare and LucasArts attend many of them. Some are for players such as PAX or gamescom, and some are geared for the industry such as E3. These are generally huge stages upon which publishers can catch the eyes of the public, and shine the lights on their wares.

A few years back in 2005, Blizzard sort of redefined the idea of a gaming convention by holding their own – Blizzcon. Since then, they’ve held it every year except 2006 and attendance has grown exponentially. In 2005, just over 8,000 people (including myself) were there. Last year? Over 29,000. And they’ve worked to make it accessible not only on the Internet but also on pay-per-view over DirecTV.

So that got me to thinking… BioWare has plenty of franchises and some equally passionate and numerous fans. Would something like a “BioCom” be possible? A gathering of all of the BioWare games and gamers, focused on letting fans see and play the future? It’s possible that with this week’s announcement of the Guild Summit in Austin, the seeds have already been planted… come on David, 200 people is no different than 20,000! :)

Anyway, would you attend a BioCon if there was one? Would you travel to get your hands on Mass Effect 3 early? How about an early peek at the TOR expansion race? Let us know!

Would you attend a "BioCon" if there was such a thing?

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Feb 1, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: What Are Your Three Wishes For TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Even if you’re the most loyal fan, supporter and player of Star Wars: The Old Republic, you no doubt have some thoughts on what you’d like to see in the game. It’s just human nature – we’re given an inch, and we take a mile. Since BioWare themselves know full well that the long term life of the game depends on quality of service and frequent content and feature updates, I figured we may as well find out what’s on the AAJ Army wish list!

Your wishes might range anywhere from “I want a better GTN interface” to “I’d love to see a new class” to “Why can’t we have more Warzones” to “Fix the damn bugs.” Obviously, the potential wishes of players are going to be as varied as the players themselves. But you can only pick three for this topic!

As for me? My number one wish is for the worlds to feel more alive. I’d very much like to see world events along the lines of festivals, holidays and so on that not only provide additional things to do, but a nice distraction that makes the world feel organic and bigger than just your story. That things are going on with or without you there. Luckily, Game Director James Ohlen confirmed that they plan on doing just this soon, and have had a job opening for Senior Social Systems Designer for quite some time. Here’s hoping they find that person soon!

Due to the nature of the question, this is the first Blue Milk & Cereal we’re doing without a poll! I’m counting on your comments and discussion to fuel this one, so lets see how it goes! So please, let us know – what are your top 3 wishes for Star Wars: The Old Republic?

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Jan 31, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Do You Miss Having A Reputation System In TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Editor’s Note: Today we take another stroll back in time, and re-ask a question that we asked long before Star Wars: The Old Republic was in the hands of players. This time, it’s all about reputation systems. 

Learning that there wasn’t going to be any sort of reputation system in Star Wars: The Old Republic was sort of a let down for me. This revelation came as a bit of a surprise, since this type of system has been an MMO staple almost since the beginning of time. The ability to gain (or lose) favor with a given group of NPCs to unlock content or rewards presents an opportunity for interesting dynamics, especially in the Star Wars galaxy where political undertones play such a big part in the story. As a matter of fact, this page has been on the Holonet since the site launched in 2008. It looked ripe for expansion, but nothing ever came of it. That page sure made it look like a reputation system in waiting!

On the down side of these systems, the implementation of these reputations or factions in other games tended to lean toward the “grindy” side of available activities, and we know BioWare is interested in removing that aspect of the genre as much as possible. Now, you might be able to make the argument that the companion system is a type of “reputation” system, but I think that is a stretch.

Still, I think with a little creativity and ingenuity, a reputation system could work in a game like The Old Republic. What if it were called “diplomacy” as opposed to reputation? It suddenly takes on a whole new life. Perhaps this is something that BioWare would add to the game through an expansion, or maybe we’ll never see it at all.

How about you? What do you think of the absence of a reputation system in TOR? Do you miss it? What ideas do you have to make one that isn’t so “grindy”? Let’s hear ’em!

Do you miss having a reputation system in TOR?

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Jan 30, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Do You Use All Of Your Companions For Combat?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Companions are a pretty big part of Star Wars: The Old Republic. They’re your crew, helping your craft and gather materials; they provide story and act as a moral compass and perhaps most importantly, they can stand at your side in combat, lending a hand, or a blaster, when needed.

But when it comes to using your crew for combat, you also need to consider upgrading their gear much as you upgrade your own. They become noticeably less effective if you neglect to do this (speaking from experience here :) But it’s pretty challenging to keep up on gearing one of them, let alone all 5 of them. As a result, if I have a companion out at all (usually I’m in a group with real people,) it’s almost always the same one.

Personally, I think companions figure far too much into the combat output equation for your character, because they’re basically forced on you if you’re solo questing especially at higher levels. But that’s a topic for another time! What about you guys? How do you use your companions, and do you try and use more than one now and then?

Do you use all of your companions for combat?

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Jan 29, 2012

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Have You Played On The Public Test Server?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

One of the things the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums are good for is discussing the game with fellow players, and keeping up with developer responses to posts. That is, if you stay out of General Discussion. The General Discussion forum as as much a cesspool of negativity as it is for any MMO. Here you’ll find mostly complaints ranging from purported class balance issues to unreasonable downtime schedules.

Sometimes, the complaints are a bit more focused on the progress of fixing bugs in the game. BioWare themselves have said that they are in heavy patch mode, to make sure they can improve TOR as much as possible as quickly as possible.

What perhaps you don’t know, though, is that BioWare has a Public Test Server for TOR. You can play and test upcoming patches before they make it to the live servers, with a chance to weigh-in on things it might fix (or break!) You can access this PTS directly from the main login screen of your launcher client.

My guess is that most of the complainers aren’t even logging on to the PTS to try and give feedback before it goes live. Now, to be fair, there’s no way to use your current character on the PTS, so testing can be limited. Still, it’s nice to check out things like UI improvements, improvements to ability delay, and so on.

So today’s question is simple: have you played on the Public Test Server? What has been your experience if so? And if not, why not?

Have you played on the Public Test Server?

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