- A La Critty

Written by: Ryan Verniere (@Shaddoe) | May 15, 2012 3:36 pm

36 Comments

Every week — now every two weeks — the developers at Star Wars: The Old Republic sit down to answer the fan questions. This week, we dive into some technobabble from not the developer but from the hosts. Combat developer Austin Peckenpaugh stated to the community that the team is looking for ways to improve alacrity as a general stat. For those who are not familiar, the alacrity stat currently reduces the amount of time channeled abilities channel; it also increases the number of ticks in DoT abilities. As a PvPer, Ed Park stated that alacrity is nearly worthless. Most PvPers are looking for ways to improve instant cast abilities because the player health bars do not last very long any way in PvP. Although the panel gave many examples as to way alacrity is nearly worthless, there were few suggestions on how the stat could be improved upon.

If Star Wars: The Old Republic is your game — or even if it isn’t — you need to tune in every week! Our panel dissect and analyze all the latest news and announcements from BioWare’s foray in to the world of MMORPGs. Gary Gannon, Justin Lowe from Darth Hater, Larry Everett from Massively, and Ed Park from Taugrim are the panel of distinguished media personalities for The Republic!

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Live Call-In Show

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Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

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MMO News

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

WildStar details finally coming out!Read more »

28 comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Caliolo/100003765889295 Robert Caliolo

SWTOR has left the building
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  Guild Wars 2 is just a money grab and a lie. I actually hope it fails.
  - easytoread
    
    Such a shame. As a gamer why would you want less variety in available games? Surely it is better to have more games that suit individual play styles than hoping other games fail. Just seems like lots of rage for nothing.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      If it is all garbage, who cares how many flavours there are?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260795388 Kelley Gray

SWTOR is really dying, yeah. So many dropped balls, it’s hard to count anymore. Look at how many comments there are here…
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  no doubt an arena net fanboy on the lose waiting for his Free to play game to come out.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260795388 Kelley Gray
    
    Nope. As a matter of fact, I got on SWTOR last night for a while. I want it to do well – I just don’t see them moving in the right direction. Even EA doesn’t consider SWTOR to be a high priority.
    
    Do you really think that it doesn’t have issues right now? My server is down to 15 people on fleet at peak. Go crawl back into your troll hole.
Sharuko

It boggles my mind they can sit here an claim other games are “not worth the sub” when they are paying a sub to this game which is literally dying. Maybe it is time to talk about the game you are playing and realize it is “not worth the sub”.

A game is worth what the player is willing to pay for it even if you think otherwise. Taugrim’s plan is the best, you don’t pay the box fee but pay monthly if you like the game. I bought GW2 and feel ripped off as I know I won’t play the game and felt it should have been 100% F2P because it is not worth the box price, so the B2P model didn’t work there for me although it might have worked for the publisher.

Sub models can work on small games however, look at games like Eve and FFXI that can be looked as success stories in a world of failed MMOs.
- Shaddoe
  
  If “they” is the panel, you might want to listen to the show again. I know that I said something different.
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  Why would you say the game is dying? the stupid negative press is probably the only thing harming this game at the moment. This game has Better story, more fun pvp, better classes end game content than any mmo that is currently on the market or in beta.
  - Randy McRandom
    
    I think he would say that the game is dying because of the 400k subs lost in 3 months. Also, over one million people that got the game and are now not playing (whether they just did their free 30 days or subbed or whatever). Game sold ~2.3 millions boxes. Only 1.3 million active sub.
    
    “This game has Better story, more fun pvp, better classes end game
    content than any mmo that is currently on the market or in beta.”
    
    I am sorry but no…no it does not (although I am glad certain people like it). If your statement was true, then why are over half the people that got this game not playing it anymore (for whatever reason)? I am not saying they went back to another game but if they didn’t, doesn’t that makes it even worse? That means they would rather not be playing anything at all rather than SWTOR.
    
    Negative press is harming the game? What negative press? The forums are not a press entity, it’s a place to post thoughts. They are actual players that feel their are serious problems and are posting in the only location they are told is looked at/moderated by the games creator. Now if people started doing commercials about how bad SWTOR is and run smear campaigns to reach the masses that run over and over again then yes, that would be negative press.
    - http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
      
      The problem is the story element of an mmo probably appeals to less than half of the mmo community. I love story, any game I will sit there read the quests read the background find the books. But games like guild wars, terra, War and Aion just failed in the story department. The shitty thing is my friends are huge fans of the Warhammer universe, but the game was totally let down by no memorable characters nothing, it was blank.
      
      Perhaps that is what will happen there will be a 2 way split an mmo with story to appeal to those players and an mmo without.
  - Sharuko
    
    I love SWTOR, I think it is a great game. From the PvE to the PvP etc. But they really need to do something about servers which is their biggest problem. One of the biggest things SWTOR did wrong was make too many servers and their servers can’t handle a lot of people.
    
    If they can somehow merge the servers and make every server seem lively and full again the game will be around for a long time. But when servers are empty the game feels dead and people will quit.
    
    I played WoW for years on a dead server (Jaendar Alliance) and the game felt dead and I wanted to quit. Then I moved to a full server and the gameplay and experience changed dramatically.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/ADEN6X6TYCORSSGEHKWMBIHDHY Eclipse
      
      You’re so scared of GW2 doing well (which you know it will) and it shows.
      
      Shush Sharuko. Shush.
      - Sharuko
        
        Why would I be scared that a Warhammer Online reskin does well? I bought the game and can play it anytime I want. If I didn’t buy it I would see your point.
- http://twitter.com/lifensoul Steven Whiting
  
  How have you been ripped off? GW2 hasn’t been released yet, you can’t judge it by the BETA if that’s what you’re doing. Not only that but you’re also not forced to purchase it. If you were never going to play it, why did you buy it?
  - http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
    
    Come on you can’t judge it by the beta.. rubbish, 90% of the reason they have such huge beta weekends and stuff these days is just for marketing, hell GW2 pretty much only let you play if you brought the game biggest rip in history.
Selona83

Am sorry but this comment:
“A game is worth what the player is willing to pay for it even if you
think otherwise. Taugrim’s plan is the best, you don’t pay the box fee
but pay monthly if you like the game. I bought GW2 and feel ripped off
as I know I won’t play the game and felt it should have been 100% F2P
because it is not worth the box price, so the B2P model didn’t work
there for me although it might have worked for the publisher.”

..that got to be one of the most.****** comments I ever read here on gamebreaker.
So you think company’s spend millions upon million on dollars just so you should be able to be get their game for free?
I mean, sure, if you dont like it, dont buy it. But dont sit there crying that they are not giving it to you for free.
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  I want to pay a sub to keep annoying people out, and so I don’t have to listen to arena nets manifesto.
- Sharuko
  
  Actually you don’t understand how a F2P model works, it should have been like PlanetSide 2. You download the game from free but they operate a cash shop where they make their money. FireFall is doing the same exact thing. WoW and other MMOs in China do the same exact thing.
  
  Again, I fell for NCSoft’s marketing and what I bought was not worth the box price. So in this case the B2P model didn’t work for me. If I instead tried the game and if I liked it I would support it with subs or RMT then it would work for me.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Paying a big up-front cost for a box encourages companies to scam their customers. A free client and monthly sub fee grants the game LOTS of people trying the game and if it is good – paying for months to follow.
  
  I doubt it will ever be used as a business model, because companies are not willing to make a good MMO.
  
  You heard me.
  
  MMOFringe
http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley

I don’t like the direction that this show is going. This whole discussion about legacy and transfer is just dumb. Australians got transfers weeks ago, all that happend is that the legacy was copied to the new server and also remained on the other server if characters were still there. Get a clue hosts. Also, Mr Lowe claims there was something wrong with the Australian server transfers. I am sorry but if you had problems it was your fault, sure the site was not working the second they were available but who cares the transfers were not happening for days anyway. They got the thing working and all went smooth, I know aussies that missed the transfer deadline and sent a message to support and their character was transferred that day. NO ISSUES.

On a final note, typical media hyping that this game is dying, annoys me, and all the praise for Guildwars, yet, after spending much time on the game I feel like guild wars is the mmo that is more of the same, and somehow they win praise for not having features that people enjoy in MMO’s. Star Wars comes out and builds a game with story. Literally an element that echoes through every element of the game at this point, and a bunch of people that buy into Arena nets “joke” of a manifesto say swtor is dying.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260795388 Kelley Gray
  
  It’s all hype that the game is dying? Are you even playing it? As someone that has been ON the game and on various forums, it is OBVIOUS that the server issue is the biggest thing facing the current state of the game right now! I still play and I still like the game, but there is no denying it.
  
  People that are head-in-the-sand supporters of SWTOR remind me of an old woman smearing lipstick all over their face, yelling, “I’m pretty! I’m pretty!”
  
  You go ahead and scream to the heavens about it. We can all see the truth, though.
Julian Jansen

i still like the game and will contiue to play for at least another 6 month or so… thats because i play the game mainly for the class-storys and pvp. With two level 50 characters there are still 6 storys for me to experience and 6 class-mechanics to learn by heart.

For me thats enough – but its undeniable that there is a massive drop in server population and if this continues and my pvp queue-times go up to 10-20 minutes i will consider unsubbing as well.

Im sure many active players think the way i do and this leads only to one conclusion: Merge the servers Bioware… or people who truly like the game will quit due to lack of other players.

i.e. my server is one of the top 4 german servers and we have only around 60-70 people on the fleet at peak. Thats still a solid number but i dont even want to know how the numbers are on the 26 lower populated german servers… we speak about 10-20 players at peak ^^
MMO_Doubter

The PvP vendor exploit – proof that the devs are NOT GAMERS.

A GAMER would KNOW that players would do that.
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  Because at one time in wow, i didn’t use the queue for pvp as a transport system to capital cities. (you could do this at one point)
MMO_Doubter

Ads that can’t be skipped. Your donations at work.

WTG, GBTV.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ADEN6X6TYCORSSGEHKWMBIHDHY Eclipse
  
  Uh huh….and how much have you donated again?
  
  Oh and if you watch on an iPOD – there aren’t any ads.
http://twitter.com/LiamRdsn Liam Richardson

I think they should introduce Dewback, Bantha, Tauntaun mount to the game *nods*
http://www.facebook.com/eric.sprenger Eric Sprenger

What is Larry talking about that there are no pure casters in PvP? Gunslinger Sniper. All the abilities are casts. Aimed Shot, Charged Burst, Speed Shot. All those are channels or casts. If Alacrity was a good stat, those abilities could benefit from it.
kyle robinson

SWOTR sucks stop beating a dead hourse and let it die in peice.
- http://www.facebook.com/shart89 Stephen Hart
  
  peace*
- http://twitter.com/ByronLumley Byron Lumley
  
  Guild wars 2 is a shit game, stop denying swtor is the best mmo on the market.
ceewolf

Dear Daniel Erikson..
May your viking ancestors guide you in giving us new PVE content…HOLY SH*T!
zilvis78

As far as advertising take the celebrity route and make a commercial with guess who…Mark Hamill…yes he’s still alive lol
Ignore_me

What are they going to talk about on 5/21? seriously?

A La Critty - Gamebreaker.tv

After Dark Ep33:
“Xbox, Go Home”… You’re Drunk!

Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

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