Browsing Category SWTOR

GD’s first theme week!

I’m excited to announce GD’s first theme week which will start day after tomorrow on Monday the 13th. We will be focusing on SWTOR, specifically Ranked PvP previous to patch 2.0. Below is what you can expect to see this coming week.

Monday 13th: 8v8 Ranked on TRE Part 1 (Why our server was better than yours) by Mylex
We are starting the week off by welcoming Mylex to the GD family with his first guest post. Interested in the player involvement needed to get ranked PvP in SWTOR off it’s feet I asked Mylex to share his experiences of ranked back in the days of 8v8.

Tuesday 14th: 8v8 Ranked on TRE Part 2 by Mylex
The end of Mylex story as well as some advice to anyone looking to try to make competitive PvP happen.

Thursday 16th: “Rules of conduct” and Ranked by Noctua
January 26th, 2013 members from RC, TWATS and ND held a meeting agreeing upon a list of rules that would improve the state of PvP which was suffering from heavy imbalance between classes. Yesterday I brought Mylex and Anthis to the GD TS and asked them questions about this occurrence. In this post we will go over what happened at the time as well as encourage a discussion about rules and agreements for ranked PvP in games like SWTOR.

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Will The Fallen Empire ‘Res’ SWTOR?

“Knights of the Fallen Empire”, the new SWTOR expansion, was announced at this years EA’s E3 press conference. This was done through stunning CG story telling. The expansion is due this October but has already created a stir within the SWTOR community. Holding our breaths, we are all waiting to find out if this is what will bring Star Wars: The Old Republic back up on its feet.

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In Game Whispers – The Player

In Game Whispers” is a series of posts featuring real characters with fake names based on real events.

 

Lamb: Hiya
Noctua: hey
Player: Hi
Tarras: hello
Player: anyone else sick of kdy?
Lamb: First time!
Player: really?
Lamb: Yeah : )
Silence.
Player: mate, why are you pulling all that aggro?
Lamb: Sorry I’m new…
Player: i can tell
Player: and dude, youre in wrong stance for tanking btw
Lamb: I’m not a dude! ^^
Player: dudette then

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In Game Whispers – The Womaniser

In Game Whispers” is a new series of posts featuring real characters with fake names based on real events.

 

Womaniser: I’m so tired of killing the damn prophet of vodal… can’t wait to lvl up.
Noctua: tell me about it
Womaniser: 2x XP FTW!
Garret: That was my last one though. thx 4 the run boys n’ girls!
Womaniser: Wait… are there girls here?
Silence.
Garret: Well I don’t know I won’t assume
Womaniser: Well are there??
Flint: there are no such thng as women in gaming it’s all guys pretending to have tits
Noctua: that’s not true :p swtor especially has lot’s of female gamers I’d say
Womaniser: you are girl noctua?
Noctua: well yeah but point is there are a lot
Womaniser: yeh, back off Flint, you’re being a little offensive m8
Noctua: No it’s fine really, just saying
Womaniser has removed Flint from the group.
Garret: “Err, ok… I’m gonna head off too before I get kicked too”
Garret left the group.
You left the group.
Womaniser: Why you leave the group?

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The Psychology Behind Character Creation – Part 2

A little while ago I wrote an article about why we make our characters look the way they do. To follow up on this I have conducted a few interviews with SWTOR players asking them questions about characters they’ve made. Something I quickly picked up on was the relationship with the players motivation for gaming and the attitude he or she had towards character creation. There’s a very clear connection between these two which you will be able to see for yourself below. If you haven’t already read the original article about the psychology behind character creation I would recommend you follow the link and do so first.

The Psychology Behind Character Creation – Part 1

Here are the summaries of four interviews highlighting some different attitudes to character creation and it’s importance:

 

Aaree
The Harbinger

Aaree tells me that the first character she makes in a new game generally is a slightly idealised version of her self. It’s got similar features as that of her own physical self. The alts that come after can differ a lot but tend to unnamed (2)have one or two things in common like the eye colour or make up. She gears her characters to suit the role they play.

“As in the case with my healer sage wearing robes, ect” she explains.unnamed

Almost all of her characters are female and have always been since she started gaming years ago. Aaree does have a male character that she is very fond. She tells me she has spent a lot of time getting his appearance just right.

From talking to Aaree it is obvious that immersion is important to her when playing a game like SWTOR. This is clear from looking at everything from the way her character looks to how she gears them and even makes choices in the story fitting the personality traits she has assigned the character. Her main is female and so are most of her alts. They look either very much like her or are very different but with one or two similar characteristics (such as being human, same gender or even eye colour). If she goes for other species then these tend to be human like in their appearance, marialans or cyborgs for an example. Similarities such as these will make it easier to feel a sense of immersion into the story. It is also a way for us to explore different sides of our own personalities within the safe environment that gaming provides.

 

 

Snave
The Red Eclipse

Snave tells me that he spent more time making his main character but then modeled the other characters that came later after that. This due to a combination of limited character design options in the games he plays and him “being pretty lazy about this stuff”. He has spent much more time customising his characters outfits ect than he did in the initial character creation he informs me.

When asked if he finds his main resembles him in any way he answers: “Unfortunately I am not blue, nor do I have red eyes. I guess we have similar hair at a push but to answer the question; no I do not model characters after myself normally.”

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The missing link between West-East and Grass-Snow

“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.”

– Charles Darwin

Alright, here’s the deal: You’re sitting on a side node in Civil War, because naturally, no one else wanted to spend their precious time with defending. You’re crazy enough to take the responsibility, and face the possible reactions such as „noob” „idiot” „WTF” „go die in a corner”, in case you lose it. Naturally. Things seem to go well, you can cap the node without getting attacked by millions of assassins and operatives, because FAIR PLAY people! Now you only have to find a good hiding place, go in stealth – because that is apparently the only reason why you have to defend, you’re the only stealther. Yep. -, and lean back, job well done. Aye, no need to mention the constant nervousness of failing the other 7 great guys and girls in your team. Who cares anyway? Right? Right.

So, it turns out, it is going to be one of those Civil Wars, when no one can cap the middle node, you realize the fact, that you’re stuck here for a while. You’d love to say someone should replace you at the node, cause, well, obviously the team’s dps is not good enough, and naturally, you could make it better. Naturally.

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Ranked PvP and why Bioware needs it

Every day millions of people all over the world interact with each other in online environments known as MMORPGs. Asking these players why they play reveals a wide variation of motives. Nick Yee made a study of this subject. Using this I will tonight write down a short and (hopefully) easy to read analysis of the long term benefits that could be gained from a functional ranked PvP scene.

Let us start by asking why people play these types of games. If we can first articulate the motivations then this provides a foundation to explore the methods of creating a satisfying in game environment. For game developers finding out more about player motivation is important since it can emphasise how certain game mechanics may attract or alienate different types of players. Though Bartle’s Player Types is a well-known player taxonomy it would be hard to use on a practical basis unless it was validated with more verifiable data. I will instead use the paper by Nick Yee: Motivations for Play in Online Games. In this study three main components emerged as the principal incentives.

motivation-to-play-online-game-7-728

If we now take a closer look at rated gaming in SWTOR we have two types of ranked PvP queues available (even if they are highly dysfunctional due to reasons like imbalance between classes and poor matchmaking resulting in the existing population feeling discouraged to queue).

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