Confused by the controversy over game difficulty

[Myracarrah]

With those two dynamics in mind I see NO reason to question that a 5 year old can do this content (2 year old, yeah that may be a stretch)... especially since I play other games with my 5 year old nephews, one of them a civil war turn based strategy game. They can identify threats and have the hand eye coordination to use a mouse and keyboard. ultimately that is all an MMO requires if you only need to hit 1 button at best, since the Companion can do it for you (these new comps make the GSI bot look like a wimp)

 

As the mom of said 2 year old, I'll explain. I was doing Heroics on Korriban. The little one got fussy, so I plopped him on my lap. My hotbars are fixed to my numbers pad. So I clicked the stone pillar in the center of the room, spawning waves of Korslugs. I used the directionals to point the kiddo to the first group of mobs. And told him 'Okay now hit the 4' (that's my fast reuse rage builder). His whole face lit up like I had given him Christmas. And he happily went to town smashing my numbers pad keys, while I steered him towards mobs. Sure at one point I told him to hit the 1 key to leap in. He chose to disregard my advice and hit the 2 instead (saber throw - so it still worked.)

 

Maybe next week I will work on teaching him to steer for me. Soon enough I can probably send him out to credit farm

[DataBeaver]

Maybe next week I will work on teaching him to steer for me. Soon enough I can probably send him out to credit farm

That reminds me of a thought I forgot from my previous post.

 

I'm sure all the credit farmers love these changes. The game basically has built-in botting now. It may not be completely autonomous, but it sure helps multiboxing farmers a whole lot when the game takes care of combat for you. Just point the character at some enemies and turn to the next computer while combat happens. I bet a single farmer can easily steer five characters, maybe even ten. And since it requires no external tools, BW can't ban them for botting.

[Swissbob]

And if you believe everything people say about what their allegedly 2-5 year old children do, I'll sell you this magic bean cheap, only used once, virtually no risk of giants.

 

Okay well maybe I was a little quick to believe the actual events happened, and I was wrong to try to use that as evidence.... but you want to know why I believed it? Because it was completely plausible. I mean.... how could a 5 year old not win at combat?

 

I can win combat by not doing *anything,* not pressing buttons, not even being at the computer.... which mean everything from a 5 year old, my dog, or the ghost of Christmas past could win, because it requires no input. Companions win the game for you.

 

Personally, I'm all for optional difficulty settings, but that's probably about as likely to come our way as is pie mailed straight to our homes, with love, from Bioware.

 

Probably not happening.

 

They'll probably tweak things according to whatever screwball metrics they keep, and it'll almost certainly be iterative and incremental. I doubt were going to see dramatic fiddling around with difficulty levels in the core game or even with companions until at least, at -least-, the next major content release.

 

And quite possibly even not then. This new direction looks very much like they're all in on it.

 

Yeah, we've been over this. What are the chances of my suggestions being implemented? Slim to none, of course. I'm willing to keep acknowledging this over and over, but it's not going to stop me from advocating for them.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Swissbob

[WDreamer]

How is it a logic fallacy to say that if SoR was not hard then returning the game to SoR difficulty (as an example) would mean the same would still not be hard? Perhaps the issue is how we argue this point.

 

My starting point is this. First, many people seem to be arguing (perhaps not you) that the current ease is/was necessary to implement. I highlight SoR to challenge that assumption. Second people are confusing the idea of increasing current difficulty as making the game objectively hard. So I again raise SoR as the bar to meet... If SoR was easy and we just increase the difficulty to there, the game is still easy and not hard, it is just not as easy as it is currently.

 

I also raise SoRs ease for the final reason. If that was also easy why did they have to make the game even more so? In essence if you, or someone else, wants to raise the question of why in terms of increase asking difficulty, I can, with an example, raise the question "why did it have to be made even easier.

 

All of this in the end is to argue that increasing difficulty, with in reason, will not have the hyperbolic negative impact that some people seem to think would occur.

 

As for your reference to the "mandatory" crowd... That is a tad hypocritical because of what we know to be the practical limitations of an MMO. They can not implement difficulty sliders as you would in a SP RPG. To introduce multiple levels of the solo instances would be a drain on resources in general and I pointed out elsewhere how a "easy" click able item for buffs would impact open world play in general and encourage griefing. So in essence you end up with one or the other as the "mandatory" mode. This is another reason why I use SoR as my bar. If no one (or almost no one) found that anything more than easy then it is a good compromise point between the "I want HM" peeps and the "I want 1 button play" peeps.

 

All of this before I get into why I think blasting through an expac in a single weekend even with casual play is a bad thing for player retention...but that is something I think we already agreed to disagree on.

 

^ I agree with this.

[Uruare]

just needed to say I kill groups of mobs with 1-2 buttons max. I have seen them die with just my companion doing the work. With those two dynamics in mind I see NO reason to question that a 5 year old can do this content (2 year old, yeah that may be a stretch)... especially since I play other games with my 5 year old nephews, one of them a civil war turn based strategy game. They can identify threats and have the hand eye coordination to use a mouse and keyboard. ultimately that is all an MMO requires if you only need to hit 1 button at best, since the Companion can do it for you (these new comps make the GSI bot look like a wimp)

 

 

That might be so. Having no ready access to a convenient toddler, I can't test it myself, though I'm reasonably certain that the game is much too complex for such children to log themselves in and go around playing it like you or I can.

 

I've done plenty of my own testing of what companions can and can't do though, and I'm not terribly concerned, myself. That which was always faceroll is more faceroll. They still cower uselessly against world bosses. Their AI is still much too pitiful to truly replace an even halfway enthusiastic player in HM's with them, though a buddy and I can trash tacticals with our companions throwing heals.

 

They're strong, but irrelevant in the content that's apparently supposed to be hard now.

 

 

They're no dispute to be had that they made a lot of the low hanging fruit easier to get at and get into.

 

I think they meant to.

 

I'm not sure there's any future at all for arguments declaring that to be wrong and bad, as they're just going to listen to the metrics anyway.

 

I reasonably expect that they'll tweak and adjust things, but if your kid can do that now, he'll probably still be able to this time next year.

 

That's just me banking on the probabilities surrounding the whole fiasco of iterative and incremental changes.

 

As for what they should or shouldn't do... Foof. I really don't know.

 

Difficulty options for at least instanced content would be great, though I don't have a very good feeling that they're going to try making that challenging for anyone at all ever again.

 

The whole expansion and game rebalance seems completely aimed at the casual market. Whole lot of money there, but not a lot of consistency and dedication.

 

Raids and hard content won't really grab those looking for Second Life in Space, so it baffles me that they made the new companions static of appearance and also made casual grouping for the story stuff so clumsy and awkward.

 

I suppose the future will tell it's own story no matter. Much as I'm not personally bothered by the difficulty order lack thereof, a fair few people make very good points about when things are so easy that nothing feels like it matters anymore too.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Uruare

[Uruare]

Okay well maybe I was a little quick to believe the actual events happened, and I was wrong to try to use that as evidence.... but you want to know why I believed it? Because it was completely plausible. I mean.... how could a 5 year old not win at combat?

 

I can win combat by not doing *anything,* not pressing buttons, not even being at the computer.... which mean everything from a 5 year old, my dog, or the ghost of Christmas past could win, because it requires no input. Companions win the game for you.

 

 

 

Yeah, we've been over this. What are the chances of my suggestions being implemented? Slim to none, of course. I'll willing to keep acknowledging this over and over, but it's not going to stop me from advocating for them.

 

I'll certainly agree that companions are hilariously strong these days. It's not what I would've done had I been named Queen of Development on it, that's for sure.

 

I'm personally fine with them being as strong as they are, but I don't care about challenge in the content they're relevant to and they're not relevant in the content I care s little about challenge in (Ops, specifically).

 

That's just my mileage and not a standard against which the whole issue could or should be measured though.

 

If I had a magic wand to wave at it, I'd reduce companion power by at least a third and institute a system but which people could set their own basic difficulty.

 

Set yourself to Hard and you and your companions do 50% normal damage, take 150% normal damage, have incoming healing reduced by 25-50%, but have a reasonable chance to get rare and artifact crafting materials, decorations thematically appropriate to the area and/or exclusive rare gear shell schematics only available from playing and getting lucky in Hard mode.

 

And make those suckers bound on acquire. Nobody but those that roll on Hardmode get the Hardmode vanity shells and other exclusive goodies.

 

In such fashion, I'd not seek to effectively punish anyone by making it harder by default, but I'd strive to incentivize going beyond the minimum cakewalk requirements.

 

I'd also make it so that bosses and major enemies in story instances had tougher mechanics and real tactical demands for those tackling those fights on Hardmode.

 

Hardmode not required at all if you just want to take it easy and see the story, but, oh... If you take on Darth Baras at the end of your SW story in hardmode, in which hell be a real PITA to solo?

 

You can get his armor shells.

 

Very fun things like that could be used to reward people playing and grouping up to play at such difficulty levels, but there'd be no need to.

 

Never make any of the rewards be anything relevant to gear progression, but all about vanity and exclusivity.

 

Want Darth Baras' armor? Beat him at the end of the SW story on b Hardmode. Bring friends if you want to cheapen in and make it easy anyway, it wouldn't be a tuned to require a group.

 

It's just a thought, in any case. Something along the line of how I'd do it, were it mine to do.

[Uruare]

As the mom of said 2 year old, I'll explain. I was doing Heroics on Korriban. The little one got fussy, so I plopped him on my lap. My hotbars are fixed to my numbers pad. So I clicked the stone pillar in the center of the room, spawning waves of Korslugs. I used the directionals to point the kiddo to the first group of mobs. And told him 'Okay now hit the 4' (that's my fast reuse rage builder). His whole face lit up like I had given him Christmas. And he happily went to town smashing my numbers pad keys, while I steered him towards mobs. Sure at one point I told him to hit the 1 key to leap in. He chose to disregard my advice and hit the 2 instead (saber throw - so it still worked.)

 

Maybe next week I will work on teaching him to steer for me. Soon enough I can probably send him out to credit farm

 

Let us know how that method works out in a star fortress heroic. At no point in this game's history have Korriban or Tython been hard for anyone that has hands.

[maidelken]

Let us know how that method works out in a star fortress heroic. At no point in this game's history have Korriban or Tython been hard for anyone that has hands.

 

Who is talking about tython? I let my 5 year old do the chapter 3 boss on my trooper. The equivalent guy on my warrior kicked my *** at least 3 times.

 

I JUST finished my chapter 3 boss on my agent (at least I think it was, I haven't gone and collected my medal yet, it might throw me a curve ball.) either way, kalyo soloed him. I would have let my daughter do it, but she'd been in bed for 6 hours so I wasn't sure it would be fair.

[well]

Who is talking about tython? I let my 5 year old do the chapter 3 boss on my trooper. The equivalent guy on my warrior kicked my *** at least 3 times.

 

I JUST finished my chapter 3 boss on my agent (at least I think it was, I haven't gone and collected my medal yet, it might throw me a curve ball.) either way, kalyo soloed him. I would have let my daughter do it, but she'd been in bed for 6 hours so I wasn't sure it would be fair.

 

Kalyo soloed him? You might have missed something there.

[Uruare]

Who is talking about tython? I let my 5 year old do the chapter 3 boss on my trooper. The equivalent guy on my warrior kicked my *** at least 3 times.

 

I JUST finished my chapter 3 boss on my agent (at least I think it was, I haven't gone and collected my medal yet, it might throw me a curve ball.) either way, kalyo soloed him. I would have let my daughter do it, but she'd been in bed for 6 hours so I wasn't sure it would be fair.

 

Uhhh, well... Seeing as that Korriban is a starter planet as is Tython, Ord Mantell and Hutta, the reference was conceptually inclusive.

 

Once upon a time though, the heroics on Mantell and Hutta actually required a group and were at least a tiny bit challenging, au least as much as normal planet heroics would prove to be.

 

Korriban has two. They were both easily soloed at level 10-12 without any real strugglestruggle by someone that knew what was up.

 

Tython has one, and it too was dirt easy to solo once one got T7 or Qyzen.

 

Hence why I specifically reference those two.

 

They've never been anything other than faceroll.

[FromAbove]

Most of this debate is utterly surreal. Like partially valid conversation bout whether or not it is perfectly fine vast majority of fights in this game require you to do nothing at all. lol.

 

Quoted for truth.

 

I read through the first couple of pages of the thread and then pages 22-29, which is currently the last page. (Apologies if I missed the killer argument buried somewhere on pages 3-21, but evidently so did everyone else.) From my own impressions as someone who's just come back to the game and from what I've read other people saying, I think it's true that players can get through a huge percentage of content literally without engaging in combat mechanics beyond hitting Ctrl-1 to set their companion to attack.

 

That's a completely ludicrous state of affairs. Like Stradlin said above, that people are trying to defend it is "utterly surreal." A game the mechanics of which revolve around combat that doesn't require the player to engage in combat isn't a game, it's a tour. I mean... It's honestly mind-boggling to me. Gameplay is content, too. Learning to play the game and your character, getting better at it, conquering things that challenged you--that's content. Your abilities and the way they work and the way your class works and the way your class and build and abilities interact with other players--that's content. Rendering that all a triviality until you hit endgame and can do the same PvP and instanced content over and over and over... Do some people really want that? My head is caving in.

 

If you're okay with essentially employing the W key, Ctrl-1, and your right mouse-button to progress through content, what is it you get out of the game? Do people literally just want to watch the story cut-scenes? Do a lot of people play just for that? Because the cut-scenes are on YouTube. You can actually go watch them without playing. You can dodge the screaming monsters in fleet and the inane, lowest-common-denominator political analysis in gen chat on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas by watching someone else play, which is only a tiny step away from walking yourself through it when your companion does all the meaningful work.

 

Something about this game has me hooked so that I keep trying to come back to it, but no game I've ever played has so consistently managed to squander its phenomenal innate potential by completely botching game balance.

[zalanii]

I do say though...some of the content on the Hutt and Revan expansion can hit like a truck if your companion isn't maxed out. I got overwhelmed on my gunslinger a few times, but KotFE was a cakewalk.

[robertthebard]

Okay well maybe I was a little quick to believe the actual events happened, and I was wrong to try to use that as evidence.... but you want to know why I believed it? Because it was completely plausible. I mean.... how could a 5 year old not win at combat?

 

Hey, maybe you should head over to the latest "level sync is bad" thread and point that out? Brace yourself for the flames, and the board warnings.

 

I can win combat by not doing *anything,* not pressing buttons, not even being at the computer.... which mean everything from a 5 year old, my dog, or the ghost of Christmas past could win, because it requires no input. Companions win the game for you.

 

 

 

Yeah, we've been over this. What are the chances of my suggestions being implemented? Slim to none, of course. I'm willing to keep acknowledging this over and over, but it's not going to stop me from advocating for them.

 

Feel free, but do read around on the forums. It seems like not everyone thinks this new system is mindnumbingly boring. In fact, some think it's too hard.

[WDreamer]

The only time my companion (influence lvl less than 9) died was when I set her loose on an entire dungeon, without ever healing her between mobs and she took on 2 gold / elites / mini bosses back to back at the very end. For story immersion I'd like to have considered it as her trials of sorts, and how things are supposed to drop dead after only getting hit a couple times by dual lightsabers....still she kinda OP.

[Raphael_diSanto]

If you're okay with essentially employing the W key, Ctrl-1, and your right mouse-button to progress through content, what is it you get out of the game? Do people literally just want to watch the story cut-scenes? Do a lot of people play just for that? Because the cut-scenes are on YouTube. You can actually go watch them without playing. You can dodge the screaming monsters in fleet and the inane, lowest-common-denominator political analysis in gen chat on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas by watching someone else play, which is only a tiny step away from walking yourself through it when your companion does all the meaningful work.

 

Watching videos on youtube means the people aren't picking the conversations choices I would pick for my characters. Those characters in those videos also aren't my characters. They don't have the same names, the same races, the same appearance, or the same personalities. Watching someone else make decisions for their characters is not even close to being as much fun as making decisions for my own characters.

 

So to answer your question - Yes, I play for the interactive cutscenes. It's what I play all BioWare games for. Actually, it's why I play video games in general.

 

I play for the story content. I play because it's a CYOA interactive movie. It used to be a CYOA interactive movie with annoying combat in between the interesting bits, but now it's an interactive movie with slightly less annoying combat in between the interesting bits. I literally fall asleep during combat, (yes, even during vanilla TOR, when it was much more difficult), because it's so boring to me. I wake right up when it comes time to pick a dialogue line though.

 

I've done hard modes. I've soloed 2-man and 4-man heroics, way back during beta or launch when the game was significantly harder. I don't object to combat difficulty because I'm unable to succeed in that environment. I object to it because it's boring, it's pointless, and it adds nothing to the narrative of the story.

 

Besides, my character should be the one challenged by the events in the story. Not me. RPGs are supposed to be about the separation of player and character, no?

 

I don't have a problem with people who challenge, and if BioWare can figure out a way to give people challenge without affecting anything else, I'm all for it. I'm only replying because you asked "Is this really what you want?" and in my case - I gotta say - Yeah. It really is

Edited November 11, 2015 by Raphael_diSanto

[LordArtemis]

Well, I did the test. New smuggler, different server, no legacy, no presence, new comp, first character.

 

My comp died 4 times, was killed by 2 silvers once and three standards the last time. I was killed by a silver once, a gold second and 5 standards the third time.

 

(had to correct that...it was 5 standards that killed me, not 4)

 

Not sure why folks are saying that in this situation companions are still OP...at least from my experience they are most definitely NOT OP.

 

Perhaps a bug, perhaps some kind of bonus they are not aware of....or it's hyperbole.

 

There is NO DOUBT that with all the bonuses companions are VERY STRONG at higher levels. There is also no doubt, IMO, that the game could benefit from an optional way to provide a harder difficulty setting for those players that desire a challenge.

 

Frankly I am sick of watching my comps punch mobs....

 

However, I think the folks that are pushing for mandatory difficulty increases are perhaps being less than forthcoming with their experiences.

I think a bit of exaggeration is at work here.

 

And here is the problem....If I am right, if they are right means nothing...since the DEVS are most likely clearly aware of the state of comps at the moment. It is not as if posting false information in the forum is going to sway them to make changes....

 

Either some of you feel the devs are not very bright, or you are deluding yourselves.

Edited November 11, 2015 by LordArtemis

[Nommaz]

From experience in a few mmo's over the last 12 years, what happens is people complain that its too hard, normally those that just want to play.

The game is made easier, and then the other people, I like to call them that, start complaining because its too easy.

When its too hard more will complain, (if you want the stats or proof go back and look them up yourself on this and any other game where the difficulty is increased).

 

However if its like the way it is now, a great many will just be playing, enjoying the fact they don't have to corpse run every few mins, or stop and regen after a decent fight.

I am somewhere in the middle, I like how good the companions are for tanking (groups could be better) dps is ok, and yes healing is a little over powered.

Having said that I am also enjoying soloing 2H with my companion, it is not as simple as normal mobs and there is still a risk of dying if you are silly.

 

The challenging content is end game PvE and PvP, questing and levelling PVE which is basically all the companion is used for is fun and not a drag right now.

There is many ways that people can make it harder for themselves.

 

Think about this: bear in mind all the complaining, now go look in game, how many people do you see playing without a companion out?

That should answer your question...

[Myracarrah]

That's all I want. The ability to choose difficulty solo, difficulty Heroic +2, or difficulty Heroic +4. And I am only wishing I could have that for instanced zones, because I do not wish to inflict my playstyle on others.

 

For all those people saying 'hey you have nightmare mode, and HM FPs'. Nope. I have kids. I can picture it now I sign up for a HM and have to AFK midboss fight because one of the kidlets had a nightmare. I would come back to find myself replaced with a companion.

 

I'm not even asking for a Companion nerf. Seriously, don't touch the companions. Brand new F2P players with none of the goodies I have, can barely get their starter companion to heal.

[dharh]

That's all I want. The ability to choose difficulty solo, difficulty Heroic +2, or difficulty Heroic +4. And I am only wishing I could have that for instanced zones, because I do not wish to inflict my playstyle on others.

 

For all those people saying 'hey you have nightmare mode, and HM FPs'. Nope. I have kids. I can picture it now I sign up for a HM and have to AFK midboss fight because one of the kidlets had a nightmare. I would come back to find myself replaced with a companion.

 

I'm not even asking for a Companion nerf. Seriously, don't touch the companions. Brand new F2P players with none of the goodies I have, can barely get their starter companion to heal.

 

I think most sane people would like to see HM and maybe even NiM Heroic 2+. Perhaps even bring back 4 mans that don't even allow companions. Each with slightly better rewards. Some people might even settle for just a small extra bit of CDCs and greater change for the custom gear to drop.

 

This of course would only work with Heroic 2+'s that are instanced, but I imagine that would be good enough.

Edited November 11, 2015 by dharh

[WDreamer]

From experience in a few mmo's over the last 12 years, what happens is people complain that its too hard, normally those that just want to play.

The game is made easier, and then the other people, I like to call them that, start complaining because its too easy.

When its too hard more will complain, (if you want the stats or proof go back and look them up yourself on this and any other game where the difficulty is increased).

 

However if its like the way it is now, a great many will just be playing, enjoying the fact they don't have to corpse run every few mins, or stop and regen after a decent fight.

I am somewhere in the middle, I like how good the companions are for tanking (groups could be better) dps is ok, and yes healing is a little over powered.

Having said that I am also enjoying soloing 2H with my companion, it is not as simple as normal mobs and there is still a risk of dying if you are silly.

 

The challenging content is end game PvE and PvP, questing and levelling PVE which is basically all the companion is used for is fun and not a drag right now.

There is many ways that people can make it harder for themselves.

 

Think about this: bear in mind all the complaining, now go look in game, how many people do you see playing without a companion out?

That should answer your question...

 

Not everyone (or probably even the majority) PvPs or Endgame PvEs. However, EVERYONE does level 1-40+ and experiences the story at least once. Why does the leveling experience be relegated to a walkthrough/tutorial as means to reach endgame or PvP. People have already mentioned they don't intend to PvP or Endgame PvE as the main reason of playing swtor.

 

So what answers have you got for them. I thought the idea / suggestion of dismissing you companion was already stated to be an unreasonable / ignorant solution. Right next to fighting without gear.

[Nommaz]

Not everyone (or probably even the majority) PvPs or Endgame PvEs. However, EVERYONE does level 1-40+ and experiences the story at least once. Why does the leveling experience be relegated to a walkthrough/tutorial as means to reach endgame or PvP. People have already mentioned they don't intend to PvP or Endgame PvE as the main reason of playing swtor.

 

So what answers have you got for them. I thought the idea / suggestion of dismissing you companion was already stated to be an unreasonable / ignorant solution. Right next to fighting without gear.

 

Why is the idea of making it harder for yourself unreasonable or ignorant, but complaining about it so its made harder for everyone else isnt? lol

[dharh]

From experience in a few mmo's over the last 12 years, what happens is people complain that its too hard, normally those that just want to play.

The game is made easier, and then the other people, I like to call them that, start complaining because its too easy.

When its too hard more will complain, (if you want the stats or proof go back and look them up yourself on this and any other game where the difficulty is increased).

 

However if its like the way it is now, a great many will just be playing, enjoying the fact they don't have to corpse run every few mins, or stop and regen after a decent fight.

I am somewhere in the middle, I like how good the companions are for tanking (groups could be better) dps is ok, and yes healing is a little over powered.

Having said that I am also enjoying soloing 2H with my companion, it is not as simple as normal mobs and there is still a risk of dying if you are silly.

 

The challenging content is end game PvE and PvP, questing and levelling PVE which is basically all the companion is used for is fun and not a drag right now.

There is many ways that people can make it harder for themselves.

 

Think about this: bear in mind all the complaining, now go look in game, how many people do you see playing without a companion out?

That should answer your question...

 

There should be challenging content every step of the way, if you want it. Not that it should necessarily interfere with those who 'just want to play' but those that don't want to have to grind from 1 to 65 just to finally have a challenge that they can't just brute force win.

Edited November 11, 2015 by dharh

[FromAbove]

Watching videos on youtube means the people aren't picking the conversations choices I would pick for my characters. Those characters in those videos also aren't my characters. They don't have the same names, the same races, the same appearance, or the same personalities... I play because it's a CYOA interactive movie. It used to be a CYOA interactive movie with annoying combat in between the interesting bits, but now it's an interactive movie with slightly less annoying combat in between the interesting bits. I literally fall asleep during combat, (yes, even during vanilla TOR, when it was much more difficult), because it's so boring to me. I wake right up when it comes time to pick a dialogue line though.

 

If I'm understanding correctly, you find the gameplay elements of the game uninteresting, yet you continue to play because you enjoy interactive, digitally rendered cut-scenes. May I recommend to you a combination of books and creative writing? I feel like you're doing yourself a disservice when you mess around with SWTOR's overly structured stories and the more-or-less-necessarily repetitive non-class storytelling elements.

 

I don't say that to be a snooty, presumptuous ***** (though invariably it will come across that way), I say it because what you're telling me is that you genuinely don't enjoy the gameplay elements of the game, and nothing in your post suggests some variation will make those elements interesting. If gameplay won't be interesting, why play a video game? Okay, so it's an interactive movie in which you can play dress-up with the digitally rendered doll who most often appears on camera. That's fine and I genuinely wish you all the enjoyment you can extract from a game in which the class stories follow a peculiarly formulaic storytelling structure that ought to shatter anyone's sense of immersion after their first character, but how does a game developer develop a game out of non-gaming? And why in god's name would they want to?

 

You sound like you'd really enjoy playing a pen-and-paper Star Wars game, and maybe you do. But SWTOR is delivered in the medium of a video game. If what it's meant to accomplish or provide consumers isn't tied to the things that make a game a game, then it shouldn't dress itself up like a video game--it's a waste of both the gameplay and the storytelling resources already being and continuing to be devoted to the game's ongoing development.

[WDreamer]

Why is the idea of making it harder for yourself unreasonable or ignorant, but complaining about it so its made harder for everyone else isnt? lol

 

I guess you miss post like this which has pointed out just how weird a premise in which you defend the argument that there isn't an imbalance in the levelling gameplay:

 

Most of this debate is utterly surreal. Like partially valid conversation bout whether or not it is perfectly fine vast majority of fights in this game require you to do nothing at all. lol.

[FromAbove]

Why is the idea of making it harder for yourself unreasonable or ignorant, but complaining about it so its made harder for everyone else isnt? lol

 

Other people have already addressed why imposing fake-difficulty is a bad alternative.

 

To summarize some explanations, and maybe add one or two more:

 

1) Fake-difficulty doesn't conjure up the same kinds of psychological responses in the player

2) Having to rely on the suppression of player growth is directly contrary to a major reason people play MMOs--the development of one's character in a social setting is a significant draw

3) Achieving things under false difficulty conditions arguably doesn't make you better at the game, as the only situations you learn to manage are those that aren't actually balanced around any existing player experience

4) The critical element of imposing fake-difficulty--not summoning your companion--effectively means that you can't practice tanking or healing while doing solo PvE content in any meaningful way. Your companion won't be summoned and therefore won't need either.

5) Learning how to better play one's class to cope more effectively with actual in-game situations is a useful endeavor for someone who wants to stick with the game. It's also really satisfying. By way of an example, the first PvP game in which I was able to be an asset after several games of sucking was a really good experience. Learning how to cope with imaginary scenarios is of much less obvious utility.

 

The player who imposes a false difficulty condition on him or herself will always be aware that the false condition exists and could easily be removed. When content becomes difficult only for bogus and self-imposed reasons, it's essentially impossible to conjure up the same kind of psychological response as when the content is unavoidably, actually difficult. If you're a procrastinator at all, you might be familiar with a somewhat similar feeling: Even if you try to impose artificial deadlines on yourself so that you feel pressure to complete things, the background knowledge that a given piece of work isn't actually due will undercut the illusion that the deadline meaningfully needs to be met.