Posted by TwinHits | 3 Comments

United We Stand: Feels Like Purpose

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

Quick Note: 5/5 Karagga’s Palace downed! Special shout out to the creator and moderators of www.dreshdaecnatina.com.

I think that one of the most common complaints about MMO’s is that at a certain point they just feel like you are playing a job. One of my roommates, Walters, said this a lot towards the end of his raid leading career in World of Warcraft. I don’t blame him at all, this feeling is common among guild leaders, officers, and raid leaders. We like to refer to it as ‘burnout’, but I think that it is more than that. I think that the fact that our games can take on this flavor is a great statement both about Star Wars: The Old Republic and about the effects they can have on us and our society.

What about MMO’s feels like a job? Management, responsibility, having to tell people they can’t do whatever they want because their gear isn’t up to par, etc. The list goes on. Getting sixteen people online at the same time at the same place with a shared purpose isn’t easy, and it takes quite a bit of skill to do well. All the /tells, officer chat, forum moderation, and drama means less time spent running Koan Under Siege for that Columi headpiece (I’m not bitter) or PvPing to get that Battlemaster title isn’t necessarily fun. In fact, I would probably not get much resistance if I said that’s not nearly as fun as Huttball.

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Posted by Lethality | 3 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: How Long Is Your Ideal Boss Fight?

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!

Over the years, raiding has generally taken center stage in the world of MMO gaming. The big, epic boss fight is something groups of players have aspired to from Lady Vox to Ragnaros and beyond. I won’t lie – the reason these were so popular with players is, of course, the loot. But beyond that, they also represented the pinnacle of PvE gameplay. Large groups of players needed to come together with enough knowledge, preparation and coordination and work to overcome the obstacle between players and their new shinies.

These raid encounters began life as simple “tank and spank” fights, where they offered only basic mechanics and your strength came through the numbers you brought with you. Over time, the evolution of raid boss fights became more complex. Soon, we were all dancing around in a Rube Goldberg-style contraption with each player requiring the individual precision of a sharpshooter and the group synchronization of a well-trained army. For me, the peak of encounter design was the original C’thun fight in World of Warcraft. That was where I believe Blizzard really turned a corner in encounter design… tons of fun.

One of the key components of these ended up simply being endurance. While there was all kinds of coordination going on with different phases of the fight requiring different tactics and usually different team members, in the end having to repeat it all and keep it up for 5, 10, 20 minutes or more was sometimes the real challenge. I can’t tell you how many frustrating wipes we had near the very end of The Illidari Council fight, in what was a 20 minute long fight while you were learning it.

Soa, the end baddie in The Eternity Vault, the first raid in Star Wars: The Old Republic is about  a 10 minute fight. It has some awesome visuals and mechanics, and if you don’t mind spoilers you should check out a kill video. This feels like sufficient time to make the fight epic, but not so long that you start punching kittens if you lose and have to start over.

Anyway, it got me to thinking. What’s the right length for a raid boss fight? It needs to feel epic, and needs to be a climax of something you’ve been working toward, but it also can’t be too frustrating. Let us know your thoughts below!

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Posted by Lethality | 5 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Are You A Hard Core Operator Yet?

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!

Raids are one of the key end-game activities for MMORPGs, and it’s no different in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Here, they’re called Operations and come in several different flavors: 8- and 16-players versions, with normal and Nightmare mode for each.

There are currently two Operations in the game: The Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace. Each location gives players a different setting, different enemies to defeat, different objectives to achieve and a different story.

Despite the fact that most of the player-base is in the sub-30’s, and the highest level character I currently have is just level 22, I know full well that there are plenty of folks who have already arrived at the level cap of 50. For those of you that made it, what do you think of these Operations? Are you even doing them yet? What is your experience like? I just want to see how many in the AAJ Army are smooth Operators already :) Let us know!

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Posted by Reedyn | 5 Comments

Halls Of Healing: The Social Side Of Healing

Each week or thereabouts here at Ask A Jedi, we’ll meditate on the finer points of the healer’s role in Star Wars: The Old Republic. No matter where your allegiance lies, you’re sure to find guidance here in the Halls Of Healing!

In previous articles we’ve covered topics on game mechanics, advanced classes and the user interface. This week we will take a look at the social side of being a healer.

I’m sure most of you who are reading this will have some form of connection to healing. You’re either planning to play one, have played a healer before or played with a healer on some occasion.

Healing in Groups

In groups the healer’s job is to keep yourself and your group members alive. This can often be mistaken by the majority of players that it’s solely the healer’s job to keep the group alive, not a group effort.

I’m sure many of you will disagree with this and say that, “Everyone needs to be a team player.” I agree that this is highly preferred, but it’s not the case in a majority of groups I’ve played with (I’m generally talking pick up groups here. Not guild runs with people you know. However this is also the case for a vast majority of players inside guilds).

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Posted by ReDDoT | 7 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: How Many Operations Should TOR Have At Launch?

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 most important parts of an MMO is the end-game. It’s that time period after your character reaches the level cap (in the case of TOR, level 50) and the normal leveling, questing and storyline are over – or at least on hold until a contnet patch or expansion. The quality and quantity of this end-game content is what holds a large majority of subscribers and becomes the climax of the MMO experience. As we recently learned on the new Operations page, BioWare is not going to let us down in this department. One particular quote stands out:

Please note, that even though the Eternity Vault is featured prominently here, it is not the only high-level Operation for you to experience in Star Wars: The Old Republic. More will be revealed…

Clearly, we’re going to see more than the Eternity Vault, and if you look at the picture on that page that follows this quote – we can see that it hints at an Operation linked to the Hutts. This is great news for those who were a bit worried that there wouldn’t be enought raid content to start. As a compariosn, inudstry leader World of Warcraft had just two true raids when it launched (Molten Core and Onyxia.)

Personally, I think having 2 or 3 full-size Operations at launch is ideal. It would provide enough variety for those players who make it to end-game ahead of others, and give BioWare enough time to ease into their content patch cycle. It is going to be very interesting to see what BioWare has in store for us. Luckily, we don’t have to wait much longer!

 

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