Time to see the signs telling me not to play SWTOR?

[Admiral-Flint]

First of all, if you are reading this expecting a rant about how bad everything is you will be disappointed.

Granted this is being written out of frustration, not so much about the game itself though but about a series of personal experiences regarding trying to get back into SWTOR.

 

-- Background (I suppose you can skip this without losing too much actual info) --

 

Being an old Star Wars Galaxies veteran I was naturally heavily biased against SWTOR. After all (and I still believe so now) if there had been no SWTOR Star Wars Galaxies would likely still be around (not the point of this discussion though). Plus I knew what type of problems the game would inevitably run into. Thus I had no intention of every playing it.

A friend of mine thought exactly like I did but was however gifted a collector's edition of the game with beta access shortly before release so he did give it a shot.

 

The two of us have a long history of playing the same MMO(s) and we see eye to eye on most topics and aspects of this genre. So once he was playing SWTOR we talked a lot about it, his experiences, the good things, the bad things and how the game felt overall.

Having felt "restless" regarding MMOs for a while at the time anyway (I just couldn't find a game that made me feel "at home" after having left a certain other one a while before) I gradually became more and more interested and after a few weeks was ready to give it a try myself.

While still hating the fact that SWG got killed over it I had to admit that on its own SWTOR was a solid game. It did have the flaws I had predicted before but it was a very enjoyable game nonetheless.

 

I played the game for several months, not hardcore but not too casually either and enjoyed it very much.

At around two or so weeks after the launch of the Operation 'Explosive Conflict' I decided to drop the subscription though. There were no hard feelings towards the game so to speak, no anger or particular frustration, just a combination of factors inside and outside of the game.

 

-- end of silly 'background' rambling --

 

I cannot recall the exact sequence of events. It is all a little blurred when it comes to what happened during which of my attempts to return to the game.

 

Anyway here is where things started to go downhill.

 

First were the server mergers. I had anticipated being put on The Red Eclipse and prepared accordingly. My server was however transferred onto some other pve one, resulting in all my character names being lost and me having to chose some gibberish instead, losing all meaningful identification with my characters.

 

During my several months long break there was often the slight urge to resubscribe and give it an other shot which I eventually did, fighting to overcome the distaste for my whole character-name situation I finally logged in thinking it might be a nice idea to give those flashpoints a try that were added towards the end of my initial playing phase. So I queued up in the groupfinder...

The "welcome back" experience given to me by the group in there essentially came down to a "**** off out of this group/instance and go farm daily quests for gear for about 2 months before you dare to come back, we don't want you around!".

 

Being the good boy I of course obeyed to at least parts of their demands. Logged off and let the 30 days subscription lapse without bothering to log back in even once.

Neither that kind of treatment nor 2 months+ of daily quest grinding for gear just to be allowed to stay in a random group for a flashpoint I had already started looking into many months before when I was still active are not what I come to an MMO for.

 

Now, another several months later, I once again could not resist the urge to come back any longer. I wanted to resub, purchase the expansion and enjoy the game for a while.

 

The first thing that I notice is that Bioware/EA is demanding that I pay in my home country's currency. There is nothing too bad about that all by itself. However, my currency is valued higher than the US $. On top of that, the numerical price in local currency is even higher than what it is in $. On the bottom line I was asked to pay 30% more (on both the subscription and the expansion dlc) compared to anyone paying in US $.

Checking my payment history I did realize that this has always been the case, I simply realized it for the first time now. Nonetheless another nice "welcome back" surprise indeed.

 

Oh don't worry there is more.

Once through all the payment stuff, I do log in.

Rejoice, a second server merger happened and now I am on The Red Eclipse... except that all my names are trashed yet again...

 

Not quite ready give up again yet I spent several days (no kidding) to come up with some combination of names to use that I could sorta, kinda, in a way, live with.

I do manage to convince myself of a solution and finally start the renaming process: clicking on my Marauder the rename window pops up. I enter the name I worked so hard on, hit accept... and am presented with the fact that it did not rename the selected Sith Marauder but instead my Assassin. So now my Assassin has not only not got the name I wanted him to have but is also blocking me from using it on the character the name was originally intended for.

 

Yes I know I go on about character names a little much and I am aware that people will find it completely silly and stupid etc. but if a character has some gibberish random name that I cannot identify with in any way form or shape I cannot enjoy an MMO. Sorry I simply am that dumb or whatever you might want to call it.

 

Yes there is yet more to come.

Logging in on my Juggernaught I had to realize that two of my favorite abilities were missing.

Reading of the patchnotes revealed that Tumult, Savage Kick and most importantly Pummel Strike are gone completely from the game. Yes I know people will say "wut?! 'I' never used those abilities so it is good they are gone, so ****!". Matter of the fact is though, a notable part of my enjoyment when playing Juggernaught was to use such abilities as they not only helped in PvE but were extremely fun for me to watch. But oh well, all gone now and an additional entry on the list of 'welcome backs'.

 

On the bottom line, all these "welcome back" experiences have become one huge waving sign that is screaming at me to stop bothering altogether. It has reached a point where I don't know how to ignore it any longer, or rather where to find yet more motivation to overcome all these obstacles.

 

So why do I bother posting this?

 

No, sorry to disappoint again, it is not an attempt at getting attention or looking for confirmation of the problems and hurdles described.

I suppose part of it is just to get it out. Maybe "shared frustration is half the frustration"? But the main reason is me looking for some kind of input that might re-spark my motivation to try yet again. I think I would like to enjoy the game again but it has become extremely difficult to ignore the continued slaps in the face both from the community and the technical/administrative side of things each and every time I make an effort to return.

 

So, any comments would be appreciated, yes even the inevitable flames. They might seal the coffin for me so to speak but at least I would finally not be pulled to and away from the game all at the same time anymore.

 

ps: for added irony: even trying to post this I ran into trouble and had to wrestle with the website/browser for a while until the forum would let me.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Admiral-Flint

[Arkerus]

First of all, if you are reading this expecting a rant about how bad everything is you will be disappointed.

Granted this is being written out of frustration, not so much about the game itself though but about a series of personal experiences regarding trying to get back into SWTOR.

 

-- Background (I suppose you can skip this without losing too much actual info) --

 

Being an old Star Wars Galaxies veteran I was naturally heavily biased against SWTOR. After all (and I still believe so now) if there had been no SWTOR Star Wars Galaxies would likely still be around (not the point of this discussion though). Plus I knew what type of problems the game would inevitably run into. Thus I had no intention of every playing it.

A friend of mine thought exactly like I did but was however gifted a collector's edition of the game with beta access shortly before release so he did give it a shot.

 

The two of us have a long history of playing the same MMO(s) and we see eye to eye on most topics and aspects of this genre. So once he was playing SWTOR we talked a lot about it, his experiences, the good things, the bad things and how the game felt overall.

Having felt "restless" regarding MMOs for a while at the time anyway (I just couldn't find a game that made me feel "at home" after having left a certain other one a while before) I gradually became more and more interested and after a few weeks was ready to give it a try myself.

While still hating the fact that SWG got killed over it I had to admit that on its own SWTOR was a solid game. It did have the flaws I had predicted before but it was a very enjoyable game nonetheless.

 

I played the game for several months, not hardcore but not too casually either and enjoyed it very much.

At around two or so weeks after the launch of the Operation 'Explosive Conflict' I decided to drop the subscription though. There were no hard feelings towards the game so to speak, no anger or particular frustration, just a combination of factors inside and outside of the game.

 

-- end of silly 'background' rambling --

 

I cannot recall the exact sequence of events. It is all a little blurred when it comes to what happened during which of my attempts to return to the game.

 

Anyway here is where things started to go downhill.

 

First were the server mergers. I had anticipated being put on The Red Eclipse and prepared accordingly. My server was however transferred onto some other pve one, resulting in all my character names being lost and me having to chose some gibberish instead, losing all meaningful identification with my characters.

 

During my several months long break there was often the slight urge to resubscribe and give it an other shot which I eventually did, fighting to overcome the distaste for my whole character-name situation I finally logged in thinking it might be a nice idea to give those flashpoints a try that were added towards the end of my initial playing phase. So I queued up in the groupfinder...

The "welcome back" experience given to me by the group in there essentially came down to a "**** off out of this group/instance and go farm daily quests for gear for about 2 months before you dare to come back, we don't want you around!".

 

Being the good boy I of course obeyed to at least parts of their demands. Logged off and let the 30 days subscription lapse without bothering to log back in even once.

Neither that kind of treatment nor 2 months+ of daily quest grinding for gear just to be allowed to stay in a random group for a flashpoint I had already started looking into many months before when I was still active are not what I come to an MMO for.

 

Now, another several months later, I once again could not resist the urge to come back any longer. I wanted to resub, purchase the expansion and enjoy the game for a while.

 

The first thing that I notice is that Bioware/EA is demanding that I pay in my home country's currency. There is nothing too bad about that all by itself. However, my currency is valued higher than the US $. On top of that, the numerical price in local currency is even higher than what it is in $. On the bottom line I was asked to pay 30% more (on both the subscription and the expansion dlc) compared to anyone paying in US $.

Checking my payment history I did realize that this has always been the case, I simply realized it for the first time now. Nonetheless another nice "welcome back" surprise indeed.

 

Oh don't worry there is more.

Once through all the payment stuff, I do log in.

Rejoice, a second server merger happened and now I am on The Red Eclipse... except that all my names are trashed yet again...

 

Not quite ready give up again yet I spent several days (no kidding) to come up with some combination of names to use that I could sorta, kinda, in a way, live with.

I do manage to convince myself of a solution and finally start the renaming process: clicking on my Marauder the rename window pops up. I enter the name I worked so hard on, hit accept... and am presented with the fact that it did not rename the selected Sith Marauder but instead my Assassin. So now my Assassin has not only not got the name I wanted him to have but is also blocking me from using it on the character the name was originally intended for.

 

Yes I know I go on about character names a little much and I am aware that people will find it completely silly and stupid etc. but if a character has some gibberish random name that I cannot identify with in any way form or shape I cannot enjoy an MMO. Sorry I simply am that dumb or whatever you might want to call it.

 

Yes there is yet more to come.

Logging in on my Juggernaught I had to realize that two of my favorite abilities were missing.

Reading of the patchnotes revealed that Tumult, Savage Kick and most importantly Pummel Strike are gone completely from the game. Yes I know people will say "wut?! 'I' never used those abilities so it is good they are gone, so ****!". Matter of the fact is though, a notable part of my enjoyment when playing Juggernaught was to use such abilities as they not only helped in PvE but were extremely fun for me to watch. But oh well, all gone now and an additional entry on the list of 'welcome backs'.

 

On the bottom line, all these "welcome back" experiences have become one huge waving sign that is screaming at me to stop bothering altogether. It has reached a point where I don't know how to ignore it any longer, or rather where to find yet more motivation to overcome all these obstacles.

 

So why do I bother posting this?

 

No, sorry to disappoint again, it is not an attempt at getting attention or looking for confirmation of the problems and hurdles described.

I suppose part of it is just to get it out. Maybe "shared frustration is half the frustration"? But the main reason is me looking for some kind of input that might re-spark my motivation to try yet again. I think I would like to enjoy the game again but it has become extremely difficult to ignore the continued slaps in the face both from the community and the technical/administrative side of things each and every time I make an effort to return.

 

So, any comments would be appreciated, yes even the inevitable flames. They might seal the coffin for me so to speak but at least I would finally not be pulled to and away from the game all at the same time anymore.

 

ps: for added irony: even trying to post this I ran into trouble and had to wrestle with the website/browser for a while until the forum would let me.

 

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Arkerus

[mpdugas]

Regardless of what the first reply says, my advice, as a 5 year veteran of SWG, a 7 year adventurer in Azeroth and an early adopter of SWTOR, is to play your own game without regard to what others say.

 

Bioware will frequently change the game, and that is unavoidable. They seem immune to user comment, so don't let their intransigence change how you play the game.

 

SWTOR, its story-lines and companion play, are lots of entertainment in-and-of themselves.

 

Just switch chat tabs to 'other' and have a grand time!

[Avicii]

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

 

Exactly all of this is so f'n minor as well.

 

Open a ticket they will fix your names for you but also pay attention and you would've noticed how the names were gonna work. Also you stated you prepared to move to the Red eclipse, you mean you created toons with the names you wanted? That is how I prepared, if you did so when you came back your toons would still be there with that name no? Just curious how "you prepared"?

 

The rest really is minor can I get you a maxi pad?

 

Be easy

[-Kyuzo-]

Wow.

 

did you really have to quote his whole post..

[Admiral-Flint]

My appologies for having annoyed people with my post.

I should have known better than to try to interact with the community. There is a reason i have tried to minimize my public exposure in other games as well as swtor, I should have stuck with that.

 

I will do my best to take the advice, "man up" / take an adult decision (or however people called it) and leave it all behind.

 

Again my appologies for the trouble, with some luck though it was my last mistake.

 

Oh and I did write several CS tickets regarding names. I am sure you can guess the outcome of every single one of them.

 

Finally to adress the question of how I 'prepared' for the server merger (sorry, will be as brief as possible): yes I did create characters on Red Eclipse with the names I wanted to use. But I guess because my subscription was inactive at the time the second merger happened (the merger that combined my first destination server with Red Eclipse) all my existing characternames were being put "back up for grabs" by Bioware to anyone with an active sub.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Admiral-Flint

[Andryah]

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

 

/Agree.

[JPryde]

Time to see the signs telling me not to play SWTOR?

*looks for signs telling him to not play SWTOR*

*sees none*

*goes back to playing*

[-Kyuzo-]

My appologies for having annoyed people with my post.

i feel for you man they may not but i do i even read the whole thread i would of reacted the same way.

[Tatile]

Finally to adress the question of how I 'prepared' for the server merger (sorry, will be as brief as possible): yes I did create characters on Red Eclipse with the names I wanted to use. But I guess because my subscription was inactive at the time the second merger happened (the merger that combined my first destination server with Red Eclipse) all my existing characternames were being put "back up for grabs" by Bioware to anyone with an active sub.

 

The second round of mergers, which transferred everyone to new hardware, had the names being handled differently on a basis of longevity and activity - the specific things people complained about when they lost their names to "level 1's that haven't been played since January" in the first round of mergers.

[DarthWoad]

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

 

Translated: I don't agree with you therefore you are wrong and you don't have to write your opinion about the game because I represent the community and nobody shares your opinion. Only my opinion matters. Anyone who criticises the game or has anything negative to say about the game should leave the game and go and play something else, this game should only be played by elite defenders and people who LOVE the game and see absolutely no flaws in the game.

Edited April 20, 2013 by DarthWoad

[Arkerus]

Translated: I don't agree with you therefore you are wrong and you don't have to write your opinion about the game because I represent the community and nobody shares your opinion. Only my opinion matters. Anyone who criticises the game or has anything negative to say about the game should leave the game and go and play something else, this game should only be played by elite defenders and people who LOVE the game and see absolutely no flaws in the game.

 

Lol. I am hardly an elite defender. I just call Soap box BS when I see it.

[BJWyler]

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

 

Never mind the fact that SWG was going to go away regardless. The amount of subs at the end could not maintain the game nor afford the cost of the IP any longer. SWG fanbois love to bash EA/BW for the death of their "precious" but the game had been dead for years beforehand and just took that long for the contract to run out and Sony and LA to come to the mutual decision that the expense was not worth the cost of keeping it running.

[Vincke]

Wow, I've never seen someone cry so much about the smallest things ever.

[Alavastre]

So you're angry about people, but that is a staple of all MMO's. I recently went to WoW. Went through the grind to 15 and got into the very first dungeon. I created a healing Monk, but was put into the end as a DPS. As we were easily taking apart every boss I got a message about how I'm in a healing stance instead of a DPS one. Of course, who cares? It's the first damn dungeon and we were fine, no one died. But these are the people you have to deal with.

 

I've gone to a RP server, as they seem to be genuinely nicer to others.

 

Still, a lot of games have server mergers and it's not all that fair that you lose your name, but then again, that's life. We all had to deal with it. Well, most of us. I also lose interest when I have to rename my characters. But then I started over on another server. Not too bad actually.

 

The removal of tumult and savage kick isn't the end of the world. I also have a Jugg and you simply adapt. I even lost my fancy fire bomb on my smuggler because of the new trees. You move on.

 

In the end, it's really just your emotional state that keeps you from enjoying this game. That is something no one can help you get over. MMO's change, there are server mergers and dumb people. All of these things are not new. Let it go, and you can enjoy this game rather than moaning about it on the forums.

[stevekool]

I agree with OP all the way. I'm only still playing because there is nothing else out right now.

[DroidDestroyer]

As a SWG vet and on top of that SWG being my first MMO i feel your pain. I am still playing and still enjoy the class strories, but I hate the fact that they went the WoW route with dungeon/PvP min/max garbage. In SWG it was about making friends and working together. Everyone in my guild/friends list was welcome to do instances or DWB runs - despite gear. Gear was awesome, and the crafters were revered, but it was just one small part of the equation. PvP was fun and I was obsessed with it because it became personal. It was a war that spread across the Galaxy. We had to protect our bases, crush the rebel scum, and take control of the major cities.

 

No one makes MMOs like that anymore

[Uber_the_Goober]

Wow. There is no need to post a soap opera about your feelings regarding the game. You are analyzing everything way too much. Seriously though, you are over analyzing everything. It's a video game, not a funeral.

 

If you aren't having fun go play something else. No need to write a 15 page thesis on your feelings. If you took this much time to write about all the things you are struggling with, I think its time you man up and make an adult decision.

 

And if it means anything , there is more to do in the game than ever before. No one slapped you in the face. No one insulted your family. Changes to the game are inevitable. Stop being so dramatic and make a choice.

 

Wow, there is no need to REPOST his soap opera.

[Vincke]

I agree with OP all the way. I'm only still playing because there is nothing else out right now.

 

This is probably the dumbest and at the same time saddest thing I have read today.

 

Thank you for that.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Vincke

[jedip_enguin]

OP needs to get some perspective.

[SystemProcess]

I know you might be annoyed, OP, but honestly... I feel like the issues you've been having with the game are fairly minor thus far. Some of them are even your fault, not the game's. (Such as naming the wrong character, not realizing about the currency.)

 

Prefacing this by assuming you're not a roleplayer. I played on an RP server from the start and I had to merge characters together from 3 different servers by the end of all that server nonsense. Luckily, I played a Chiss with proper naming conventions as my main, so her name wasn't taken on The Ebon Hawk, but all my other roleplay characters had to be renamed, and I ended up no longer playing a few of them. So I understand you might be frustrated about your character names, but think about all the roleplayers that had to lose their character names as well. I imagine that was a lot more frustrating to them.

 

Also, I'd have to wonder what type of flashpoint you queued for that you got yelled at about gear? If you were even slightly geared at all for PvE before you left, you should have done fine in any of the lower difficulty flashpoints. If you queued for a hard mode or some of the newer or harder content (you mentioned queuing for some of the ones added before you left), I'm afraid that's your problem. It's always good to do a bit of homework before attempting group play, because you risk just being the guy who wastes the entire group's time. They didn't have to be rude about it to you, but you probably did at least deserve to be kicked politely and told to get some better gear if your stuff was really that bad.

 

And no, you don't need to do dailies for 2 months.

[OKandrew]

Less QQ more Pew Pew.

[Toat]

This thread needs more barrel rolls imo

[Falensawino]

The first sign. like direct message to me NOT to play swtor anymore was this patch note:

 

---- 1.

I had toons across different servers, many hadn't been logged in for months. All with items, messages pending in their mailboxes.

 

In all the months I've been subscribed, I let my items reach over 30days and never lost an item or credit. These messages would be mailed back to me as NEW 1DayOld messages. Again, prior to this update, never lost an item or credit.

 

THEN, all the sudden, one patch Tuesday later, with no warning! This happens:

Expired mail messages will now be removed from mailboxes appropriately.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU---

 

---- 2.

I file a support ticket, I update it, (with more text to explain it) not once but twice AND everything I typed and submitted turned BLANK!

Fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu

...bugged support ticket systems...

 

Then I file a new ticket to report the BLANK ticket.

I get a response from a Droid, telling me my tickets reporting blank tickets will be closed.

Apparently the droid couldn't see that my original ticket was about the mailbox thing. He thought I was filing tickets reporting more blank tickets like some Xzibit "Yo dawg, I herd " meme.

 

I filed another one about my missing items, they turned blank... again. I gave up. Whatever, illum Gree event was on, so I forgot about it.

 

------

so the strikes on my list, so far:

1. lost items due to patch

2. bugged support tickets

 

^-- those are REAL issues. not the meta game theory, fan/nerd rant, game expectation, game history, gameplay balance type complaints; Issues like I encountered are real complaints, real Loss of time, real loss of money.

Can be considered game breaking problems.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Falensawino

[Ghost_Spectre]

So, any comments would be appreciated, yes even the inevitable flames. They might seal the coffin for me so to speak but at least I would finally not be pulled to and away from the game all at the same time anymore.

 

It's a game and should always be viewed as such. I understand the frustration. I'm a veteran of CoH/CoV having spent 7+ years playing that until it was unceremoniously killed by NCSoft. I know the growing pains that changes bring with expansions.

 

However, with all the problems that you're experiencing with server mergers, renaming toons, under geared, and the likes, you might want to consider wiping the slate completely clean. Meaning, delete all your toons and start completely over with new ones. This will allow you to build a better relationship with said character instead of having to re-ignite or reconnecting to an existing one. Accordingly, you'll be able to relearn the mechanics and function better. Sometimes, starting over from scratch can re-ignite that fire you seemingly lost. Before you do, make sure that you send one toon all monies (on hand and from selling gear) and non-bound gear for storage to send to your new main.

 

A change of server might be what you're needing too. Change over to Jedi Covenant if you are looking for PvE. There are a number of outstanding guilds on JC that go all out for their members, mine included. Change of scenery can help with improving things for you too.

 

You might want to consider subscribing for 3 or 6 months. The cost is less for longer terms than the standard monthly. Just a thought.

 

However, at the end of the day, if none of these help, then it might be time to step away for good and move on to something else. If you're not happy there's no need to keep putting yourself through this over and over again. It is not worth the hassle.