This. Stated perfectly in a single line.

Amen to that. It would also be great to see them implement something similar to the Creature Handler profession in Star Wars Galaxies, or bio-engineered pet or something like that. Specifically though, the way SWG handled the Creature Handler profession, it was well done. One had to find a baby of a certain species, and it wasn't always easy as a lot of the more exotic creatures were found on harder planets, with momma and daddy monsters nearby. So say catching a baby rancor took a few hours time sometimes to locate it, to battle their relatives, to do a little damage to the baby without killing it and trying to get it tamed. But even a bioengeneering type system would work, simply make a little pet-version of whatever critter. The pet system ideas, character housing, open space flying and battles, crafting-oriented classes - these are all things that are not PvP oriented, therefore sadly I think they rank very, very low on any priority to-do list that Bioware might be working from...

I appreciate the responses and read them all. I just want to say that if google/forum searching is part of the game, they should have added that as an ingame mechanism to do that. As for being on a PvP server, we have four accounts in our household, my older two boys each have level 50 characters which they got pretty early on. They have pretty much all the rewards/titles/commendationpvpwhatnotarmors etc... They both played Warcraft previously and were already very familiar with the genre. They recommended that we join their PvP server because it was 'funner' to play on at higher levels (we had played the first several weeks initially on a PvE server). My daughter and I restarted on their server with new characters, since we play more casually we are still only 30-some level, besides we spend a great deal more time probably than the average player (or the catered-to hardcore gamer) exploring the beautiful worlds Bioware have created. Anyways whenever we log on we get the harrasment message about PvP servers, so we understand that it is a lot more dangerous to play as far as our characters are subject to attack in PvP areas almost constantly. That part we understand. People will be people so that if a level-50 finds it satisfying to repeatedly and easily prey upon a level-30 character time and again, well that isn't something I would do, I would prefer to win a level fight, but there are some people that enjoy being able to do that ingame (probably tied into some rl issues, not going to psychoanalyze here). I suppose she could ask for help, etc... but that isn't the thing, we took that risk playing on that server. Frustration to the point of tears is part and parcel of that, it will make getting it so much more rewarding for her. But my daughter doesn't come to the forums, she shouldn't be penalized just because she doesn't. Or because she has less time to play. That is the issue. As for myself, I don't want to play a game that in order to achieve things it is directly tied to googlesearching ones way through the game. No free-month rewards, now this. Bioware seems to be less able to work well on their feet when they don't have several years of prep-time/meetings to discuss how things will run...

The game itself is fine, the problem I have is with the way Bioware has handled this event and the previous 'most valuable players' award of one-month free gametime. Twice now I feel left out because I don't read the forums, am not a hardcore gamer. It is very simple, Bioware should let us know that in order to gather enough information to accomplish or attain things ingame then you will need to read this site outside of the game. I don't want to spend the limited time I have to play reading forums, I want to be able to sit down and play. I understand that probably every aspect of this game is discussed on one of many gamer web-sites devoted to it out there, I've used them to find datacrons on planets that I've finished questing on, but in two years + of playing star wars galaxies for instance not once did I need to visit the forums in order to find out something ingame. To be honest, if my daughter wasn't so upset about missing out on the chance of getting a pet for her character, to me it is not that big a deal. There are a lot of aspects of the game which we haven't even begun to explore. What is upsetting to me is that Bioware did not make it known simply by playing the game the rewards available as well as putting in some sort of clue mechanism as to how it can be done (In five seconds they could have added some line reading "Crimson Raklings have been found to bond with..." or something like that). As my daughter saw more and more of these things following people around she didn't realize it was a reward for the rakghoul events, even just the most simple bit of clue leading us that way would have been good - again ingame because we aren't spending time on the forum, nor have a desire to begin playing that way on a regular basis. Bioware has spent untold tens of thousands of man hours creating a really beautiful game, it seems though they just can't help but shoot themselves in the foot time and again. By the way, the 'news terminal' on the Republic Fleet was bugged when 1.2 first came out, it locked up my daughters system and we didn't want that to reoccur. If there was information on there about getting his crimson rakling pet then we missed it. Player rewards in star wars galaxies were given through achievements and time played (36-month reward, etc...) that were more readily accessible ingame, such as the wookiee life day events for instance. In comparison the way the rakghoul event was handled by Bioware was poor. Yes, I'm sure they will live and learn, hopefully they will integrate some of the feedback they receive in order to improve their handling of future events. But still, my daughter now has no pet, no remembrance of this event time for her ingame character to keep, nothing. The distressing part is there was really no way for her to have known either the rewards available or how to get them or the ending time. Now we find out after it is over that this pet was part of it, she cannot get it anymore. Bottom line, I don't want to pay for a game which requires googlesearching in order to advance in game. As for the orokeet egg, it is in a PvP area in alderaan and apparently spawns every 4 hours. The frustration level alone in trying to attain that pet is enough for an 11-yr old girl with a life outside of the game and plays during her free time to endure. Bioware is catering the game to hardcore gamers, they are keeping it that way because of the way they are handling these things. Pleasing the 1% at the expense of the rest. One last thing, pets and such things are a big attraction to the younger players, free advice to whom it may concern: make it so an 11-yr old girl that only plays a few hours weekly does not find it impossible to get one and becomes source of frustration to the point of tears.

I appreciate your response Dolcia. To be honest, had I been more inclined to or had realized there was something to do with those DNA samples more than just accumulate them I would have done so. My 11-yr old daughter spent 4 or 5 hours of her Sunday evening getting repeatedly killed waiting for an orokeet egg by Imperial characters that would log on every now and then, kill her and log back off as she waited so that she could have a pet ingame. She was determined though and kept this up for a number of hours, getting killed, getting to the med center and driving back to the spot. After a while it was becoming terribly frustrating to her to the point of stiffling back tears as these level 50 Imperial players that had nothing better to do with their time than repeatedly kill her level 32 vanguard and deny her chance are getting an egg that apparently only appears only once every 4 hours. Anyways, to now know that she should have spent that time getting another ingame pet, the rakling and the chance to get one of those things is now gone? I play the game as casual as probably anyone, I sometimes just walk around and just enjoy the gorgeous graphics that the developers have created. I detest the time I am spending here on the forum, I feel like I am wasting my limited time venting about this rather than enjoying it playing the game. How was I or her to find out about this event without going through the steps that you went through Dolcia? To begin, the 'news terminal' on the fleet for my daughter was bugged the day 1.2 came out. The news announcements that were made on the Republic Fleet, they spoke about going to Tatooine and we did so. We found a nifty little ingame scene where a rakghoul would escape around some soldiers, but didn't run across any other rakghoul-related thing. I suppose we could have went in general chat or in guild chat and ask others about what to do, specifics etc... but we like taking the game where it leads us. Now, had we found say a mission to get this pet, we would have done so (not so much for me, but for her, she really wanted one). Had we known previously that we could trade rakghoul dna and purchase one from a vendor that is now gone, for sure we would have done that. What I'm trying to say is, there were no paths placed before us to by Bioware ingame that would lead us or let us know what to do. My daughter wasted her time trying to attain an orokeet, had we known the existence of the mission to get this other pet and the limited duration to do so we would have done that. In fact, had we known a little more specifically about the whole event without having to come to forums/blogs/dev posts etc we would have chosen to take part in it. This game the past month has been one disappointment after another. I spend the time describing this in hopes someone is reading this that can understand our point of view. We are in the tiny minority, but feel like this game isn't catered to our style of play. We aren't rewarded with an additional month, we aren't provided with some minimum information ingame that others like yourself have found to get rewards, we now realize that we need to seek research outside of the game in order to do ingame things, etc... This just isn't the game Bioware told us they were making, the game that one could take months to play through if unrushed - a manner of play which they encouraged, the game that had made plans years in advance on improvements/enhancements they would be creating. Now our characters are left without a remembrance of the first event within the game, no pets, nothing. The most frustrating part however is that I feel like a fool for not having google searched out the information like so many others routinely do - and not even realizing that apparently that is a common part of gaming, finding someone that has done something before you and described it so that everyone else could copy in order to achieve things within the game.

Can I ask you if you got a pet? If so, were you tipped off as to how to do so in some way by Bioware ingame? Not other players, or by google searching or reading dev posts or forums following the way someone got it (I wonder if there was single person to randomly find all of the necessary things without being tipped off to it or reading about how to do get it ingame?) Life is what we make of it. We choose to spend some part of our lives playing this game. By doing so, we are in effect living a portion of our lives in front of a computer screen, immersed in a virtual world that is created, administered and provided by others - the developers of this game. Are you following me or do I need to keep going, I think anyone could catch the drift of what I am saying. Many have spoken out on this and other things, almost bending-over backwards to praise the developers of the game, to state they have absolutely no problem how things are done, they are pleased as pie, so on and so forth. A few go as far as to literally taunt those whom for instance don't get a virtual reward - not saying that is what you're doing, but others. Anyways, if someone gets a whim in 'real life' and decide to do or get something, you still have to have the means and knowledge of how to carry out tasks. OK, no different in this virtual gaming world a bunch of coders based in Austin, TX have created based on Star Wars, just as it probably is in Warcraft, etc... If the developers are not playing to the lowest common denominator, then they are assuming we have some previous knowledge on how things work in these types of games. For instance, it might be routine to googlesearch how to do things in these games, therefore they can be very sparse in how they explain things, or perhaps they just are influenced by the feedback they get and do things more on the fly. Whatever, but obviously they design these things with the player in mind, everything they do is done that way. Now, they may all be gamer-nerds who lack someone with a less gamer-centric view of things on their staff in order to say 'hey, this isn't really logical for someone to just know without having some kind of pre-knowledge of how it works' or whatever - the thing is, myself, my daughter - we're in the minority. We don't spend time researching about the game, reading the forums for whatever bug/exploit or armor advantage or DPS class spec - we just log on and play in our spare moments of time. So frustration mounts in trying to achieve or attain some virtual reward in a virtual game populated by real people playing virtual players, and your sage wisdom is to say that 'you don't always get what you want'? Are you kidding me? Please don't tell me that, I don't drive a Lamborghini however much I would like to - however I know how to attain one, by walking into a dealership with $400k. But within this virtual world in which we co-inhabit, we only have to go by what is provided to us. When things aren't clearly explained, a proper and logical path isn't placed before us to follow, are supposed to simply accept that not getting things and just forget it and move on? I feel like myself, my daughter have been already overlooked as a 'most valuable player' and not received the benefit of a free month of game play, now I feel like this game isn't geared to players like us at all simply because we don't have foreknowledge of how games like this should work. It's all becoming too much, there is too much work involved in trying to find out what is going on ingame by having to read dev posts, blogs, etc outside of the game - but it is apparent that one has to do that in order to gain rewards ingame. That may be fully acceptable to yourself, I don't accept not getting 'what I want' simply because I have not been provided the information ingame of how things work and choose not to always resort to hitting google search in order to accomplish things ingame.

I'm just wondering, exactly how were we supposed to find out how to get the rakling ingame? Did Bioware provide a mechanism ingame in order to point us how to get it, or was it only through google searching or reading dev posts that we were able to find out how to get it? When an ingame event is frankly handled as poorly as Bioware handled this one, it gives me deep reservations about continuing to play this game... By the way, as of right now, if we go to swtor.com, right there on the home page is a giant Rakghoul Outbreak graphic. Great to know that my 11 year old daughter, not interested in whatever warcommendationarmor PvP nonsense, but in getting a rakling pet, she can't get it anymore. She spent most of her Sunday evening, 4? 5? hours trying to get another ingame pet, an orokeet, by waiting by an egg on Alderaan in which imperial lvl 50 characters would log in, kill her and log off seemingly every few minutes. She would just restart at the medical place and return, such was her determination. However after a few hours of that she was getting frustrated to the point of stifling tears. But now to see that she could have gotten a rakling pet instead, and because of the lack of ingame information, the chance to do so is gone because the event is finished - I don't get what Bioware is trying to do or achieve, is it to get all subscribers pissed off? Bioware created such beautiful graphical worlds in this game, such a shame that this game cannot be enjoyed without google searching how to achieve things in the game. This isn't fun, Bioware is big-time missing the boat in catering to the select-few of hardcore gamers they seem to be geared at pleasing at the expense of an 11-yr old girl simply wanting a pet...

How did you find out about the Rakghoul information Gilack? By the way, I'm just wondering, how often to you stop by the forums? Do you do so daily? I probably would require more 'handholding' than most others, not a hardcore gamer, not transferring over from some other popular MMORPG. Outside of some playing Star Wars Galaxies, have never played this type of game before. It seems like this game is structured/geared/aimed-at players that have experience playing these types of games before. Everything from the lingo used by developers to the way certain things (such as this Rakghoul event) have been structured - it seems to be based on how other games have done similar stuff before. Why do we have to come to the fourm anyways, I've spent a few hours here and on google search instead of playing the game (by the way, exactly why are you here Glack? To tell us Bioware is engaging in basic game design that we should already know through osmosis or the water?). This might be second-nature to you, it isn't to me. I don't want to play a game that requires googlesearching and reading cryptic developer posts on a forum to figure out what is going on. My character has been on Balmorra and Nar Shaddaa, I'm not exactly on the Republic Fleet getting all this info through general chat anyways. But if I played on a sparsely populated server, I probably wouldn't have heard had I been standing at the PvP terminal on the Republic Fleet 24/7. Is it that hard for Bioware to provide a mechanism ingame to let us know what is going on?

Is the Crimson Rakling related to the Rakghoul event? Is it still available to be found?

Let me just say, this is not fun. I'd rather be playing the game than posting grievances on a forum right at this moment.

I don't see people saying they have been mistreated, the gist of what people are saying is that Bioware has mishandled the event, and discussing what they might have done better. In my particular case, it would be nice to get a little clue as to a direction in which to garner info about the event ingame. I have been a subscriber to the game from hour-1 of the early access period, and realize I play the game in such a way that it is not consistent with the type of player Bioware is obviously catering to (not a 'hardcore gamer', not a 'most valuable player' worthy of a free month, for example) - but if this is the way that Bioware is going to carry out events, it's a problem. I don't like googlesearching my way though games because there is a lack of information within the game to point us in a direction. If this is the type of game Bioware has created, one in which players must read dev posts and twitter blogs and whatever, then it's not the game for me and judging by the reaction of others - not the game for them either.

This forum is full of gloating apologists. It is ironic in that usually those that go to forums are those that have problems that need to be solved or questions that need answers, not filled with those that come to taunt the ones with problems or issues...

Anyways, since it seems the only way to get through the game is by coming to the forum and reading dev posts: 1) Is the crimson rakling pet part of this rakghoul event that ended? 2) Is the crimson rakling pet still available to be found? It is becoming so painfully obvious this game and the presentation Bioware sold us on through several years of development is nothing like what they said it would be. I'm not going to play a game that requires us to search google or forums in order to get questions answered. There is a great codex system set up ingame, why not include parameters (with spoilers) about how things will work - again, ingame. If you want to find out about how to get a pet, which ones available, etc... these are things my 11 yr old daughter enjoys about the game more than PvP, why not make this info more readily available/searchable ingame?

Yes Liokae, unable to find it. An in-game anything would have been helpful. Anything. You have taken quite the condoning tone within this thread Liokae, I appreciate you taking up for Bioware, I'm sure they must be pleased to see such zealots defending their game on these threads, but for someone who is new to this type of MMORPG and how things generally work, it would be nice to see a little more done to inform those that aren't playing the game 8-hours a day or migrated over from whatever other similar game how things work without having to googlesearch our way through the game.

As someone who likes to play the game, not visit the forums to read about the game, all of these events instances and events that happen ingame, and whose parameters aren't even hinted about ingame are failures on the part of Bioware. I don't want to play the game and come out to read the forums to find out things that I should be learning about within the game! I'm sick of this stuff happening. I had saved something like 120-130 rakghoul dna samples yet were not even indicated ingame how/what/when to use them by. Bioware keeps messing things up like this. Please consider the players that like to logon and actually play, not discuss the game or find out things through such means as twitter feeds, dev posts, forum accounts, etc. So, can we still get our rakling pets? My daughter (who is level 32) has been unable to get an orokeet egg because of constantly being killed trying to wait for it to spawn, she wants a rakling but if unable to get one of those too it is really getting to be too much. The whole way that Bioware runs their ship, it seems to clash with how our (myself, my daughter) playstyles. We log on and play when we have a chance, not every night, a few hours here and there. Our time is limited. We spend several evenings trying to get something and are continually attacked in doing so, ok no problem, we are both less than level 50's. But this rakghoul thing, there is no way to get clues ingame, no way to figure things out randomly without having the time to spend hours roaming random places hoping to run across some random items, and we aren't even told ingame how/where to go, what to do, etc... Again, this is Biowares world, we just inhabit and play in it. But the way they are doing things is inconsistent with our style of play and more and more is it apparent this may not be the right game for us despite our love of all things Star Wars...