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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

SWG Update (With Bonus Spires Event Ramblings)






If you're an EQII player and all went well with the launch you're probably up in the Kingdom of Sky or engaging in some PvP action.

And you're probably not going to be reading Aggro Me today. Well, I post these things the night before so maybe you are.

But, instead of an EQII post I'll just mention that a SWG dev outlined a
lengthy plan for future Publishes (the SWG word for Live Updates I assume). Now, as I said in my last SWG post, I've criticized the NGE (as a business practice) a bit twice before. But that's not going to keep me from playing this game for free as long as I have a Station Access subscription and as long as I'm not bored with it.

I don't know enough about this game to make any editorial comments on the actual changes. Pretty much all I know about SWG is that the swoop bike is cool, the lag (on Bria) is bad and the Rebel quest series on Tatooine is pretty fun so far. I have continued to play since my last SWG post, though infrequently. Oh, the test heavy weapon they gave everyone for free recently seems cool enough but it very nearly got me killed by a mob of angry Tusken Raiders. I guess it's more for demonstration purposes than for actual combat and I haven't mastered the art of switching weapons in under three minutes.

Some people in game seem to be pretty excited about the changes from what I heard on the general chat in Bria (especially about the Smuggler stuff). However, my in-game friends told me that Entertainers and Crafters are not happy with the changes at all. But again, I don't know much about SWG and I can't bring myself to read their forums outside of the dev tracker.

So make of it what you will. It does appear that SOE appears to be sticking with SWG contrary to rumors I read on various forums. And at least they seem to have a plan for the future. Whether you like that plan or not is up to you.


Okay, I lied and I can't shut up about EQII even for a day. The Spires event was the kind of event I like because it had a dynamic world-building aspect. I thought the pacing was a bit slower (which is better) than the Griffon Towers event but it was still exciting.

However, the friction the dragons caused on the forums and in-game between casual players and raid guilds and between various raid guilds was a bit much. Do you want to say that was SOE's fault? Do you want to say that was the players' fault? I'm torn on this one because I liked the dragons but I hated the name-calling and anger in ooc chat. While I wasn't personally offended by the dragon thing the controversy was so wide spread on my server that it did kill my mood. Things are usually relatively civil. Relatively.

Part of me liked the competitive action but part of me wants to suggest that SOE try to prevent similar ill-feelings in future events. I'll have to think about this one some more.

In this one respect, it was not that different from the long server-wide quests in WoW to open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj. In that case, some casual players balked at participating because they felt the zones that would be opened upon completion of the quest were geared toward raiding guilds. In the Spires event in EQII, casual players felt slighted when they spent time doing the grunt work on the quest and then a raid guild swooped in to get the dragon which popped at the end and the resultant loot.

And yes, I'm aware that every turn-in in WoW was rewarded with an item and faction. I'm aware that everyone who participated in the Spires quest gets a reward.

I don't know the solution to the casual vs. raid guild debate. Frankly, I doubt one exists. I want to say that game companies should try not to exacerbate the problem, but on the other hand I don't want to see them restrict their creativity or water down content.

The Spire event was probably the hardest time I've ever had trying to formulate a definitive opinion, as you can probably tell. It was pretty much exactly what I asked for in the past, yet the recriminations and accusations left a bad taste in my mouth. I can take that sort of of thing on the forums but when it happens in game I have a problem.

But hey, the spires are open now so let's move on with our lives and have fun in the Kingdom of Sky. Or at least take out our anger on the PvP server.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If there had been a title for contributing n quest turnins for spire construction, there wouldnt be nearly the bickering I've seen i think. The problem is that the title awarded from defeating the spires vastly outshines the a house item spire (unless we find that the spire transports you to the Overrealm or does something equally unique)

4:06 AM  
Blogger Anskiere said...

What would be the point of giving everyone a title though? How many people would actually use it if the entire server had "Destroyer of [Dragon Name Here]"? Then people would complain that it wasn't unique.

Honestly, I think the event was fine. Like you said Aggro, there is probably no real answer to the casual vs hardcore "problem".

Besides, it's all in how the players handle themselves. I think a lot of people just pull up that casual vs. hardcore argument so much now like it's some cliche, a reason to whine and complain that they can't get something that "hardcore" people can.

And I know of a lot of "casual" players who got their title on my server. There were many pick up raids.

If some raid came in and ganked another raid's fight, can people HONESTLY tell me that they wouldn't try to do the same thing if the tables were turned? Maybe I'm just an arse but I know I would have tried, and I'm willing to bet that even though people won't admit it, they would too.

8:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Naw it was better to make the dragons FFA... it was more like eq1 used to be... badasses get the loots!

EQ2 is to babyish!

8:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There was an event?

11:55 AM  
Blogger Terence Towles Canote said...

I hafve to admit that I would like to try SWG sometime. One thing that seems like a good idea to me is more heavy weapons, although I can see some drawbacks with it (namely, nearly killing oneself using one...).

12:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How many times did I have to turn in the Sky Essance to get an item? I turned in about 4 or so, not much I know but you try to kill a mob that dropped one with one hundred lvl 60's flying around killing 'em =P (I'm only 31)

But on the topic, I think the event was fine, but as with any situation someone is gonna try and grief other players, swooping in and killing the dragon when a bunch of people had been busting their ass all day sucks but it happens.

Honestly the only good thing it dropped was the earring, someone in my guild killed the dragon and got it, its a really nice item +10 to every stat.

Aside from that though maybe they felt a bit cheated, but in any event you got something out of it to say I helped build something in the game.

6:38 PM  

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