The Republic Ep117: Out of Control

Written by: QuintLyn (Twitter @QuintLyn - Google+) | December 18, 2012 11:01 am

76 Comments

In this week’s episode of The Republic, Gary Gannon, Massively SWTOR columnist Larry Everett and Darth Hater’s Justin Lowe discuss update 1.6, the new holiday mounts and the fact that there are no in-game holiday celebration events for players. Gary is surprised to find out exactly how much the new mounts cost.

It also appears that Pay to Win has begun to creep into the game with space mission requirements.

As with everything, feel free to let us know what you think about these topics in the comments below. Do you think the cost of the new mounts is fair? Should Bioware have at least given players Life Day to celebrate? And what about the space missions? Pay to Win or have you experienced something different?

Hosts’ websites can be found here:
Larry Everett –> http://massively.joystiq.com
Justin Lowe –> http://darthhater.com

3:23

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Star Wars The Old Republic

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WildStar

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9 comments

http://twitter.com/DaveyDiablo Davey Diablo

Troll away Gary, troll away
Devon Archer

I love the hoverchair….
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

Like the Party Jawa, I love the Life Day “troll” speeder. It is so completely cheezy stupid that I have to pull both of them out at every chance I get. As much as I love immersion in RPGs, things like this just help me get a good laugh at the end of a hard day of work.

Other than that, I am one of the few (it seems) that doesn’t miss having a holiday and anniversary event. Far too many “been there done that meh” events from the years through other games.
theunwarshed

no mounts in GW2, but a full set of gear skins costs less than US $10 (500 gems). SWTOR has been completely mismanaged from the beginning. hindsight being 20/20, Bioware as a newb mmo developer was a bad choice to handle such a huge ip. this game should’ve/could’ve been a cash cow if better decisions were made from the ground up.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  You are so right, if SWTOR had been B2P with a huge cosmetic cash shop, some players would have spend hundreds of dollars the first day. Heck some would have spend over a thousand dollars on a game they expected to play forever.
http://www.facebook.com/Tyronius89 Tyrone Kelly

Q. Who is running the show at Bioware?
A. Electronic Arts has made Bioware it’s bitch
Deadnstien

I’ve said it before, Swotor isn’t FTP it’s an extended trial designed to railroad you into subing.
David Alcon

I loved Gary freaking out. It made me smile. That being said, Bioware has a good game that they keep chipping away at with their idiocy and boneheaded decisions. The Cartel Market has SO MUCH POTENTIAL, but they squander it on obviously cheap stuff. The Adaptable armor are simply reskins of existing gear which, while nice, is kinda lame. This is the opportunity to let your art team (if there is one left) go wild and make some really unique pieces that people would be excited to buy. Instead, the cash shop and grab-bag boxes are lazy and dialed in. The lame excuse for a Holiday speeder is “beyond ludicrous” to quote my Sith Warrior.
http://www.rebelminds.dk Kenneth Jørgensen

I really don’t agree with some of the stuff you guys are getting at these days.

Is the life day thing bike overpriced, sure. But you’re very much not required to buy it, just sit back and laugh at the people buying it. Fact of the matter is – people are buying it, ergo it’s priced just fine. Would they sell more if priced cheaper – sure. But that would really just push the silly scooter into a whole new place and make it less special. I think it’s a nice feeling for someone with enough money, to say – i’ve got this silly thing and you haven’t, so suck it.

I’ve personally not purchased many things, a few lotto-pacts… and then i’ve spent cartle money on unlocking stuff on the characters i play, like scooter training, quick selling, HK51s, etc. And despite having spent a few real life coins on it, it’s fine, it was my choice.

Too much negativity these days guys. Atleast try and make the xmas show a bit jolly.
- http://twitter.com/Hagg3r Michael
  
  Saying that just because people are buying it, does not mean that it is priced just fine. People buy overpriced garbage all the time and that does not mean those things are priced fine. It just means some idiots out there are buying them.
  
  SWTOR is quickly going down the path of the toilet and the expansion being 10$ for you IF YOU HAVE A SUB for an amount of content smaller then other games actual content patches. Hell, you could probably argue that the 1.5 patch had more content then the Makeb patch.I mean really, Makeb is just a content patch that you pay for. And no, you cannot use cartel coins to purchase it so you are forced to pay for it.
Michael Pino

Eighteen
Dollars.

Whoever is in charge of making those decisions needs to be taken behind the chemical shed and shot.

But hey guys! We got limited-use fireworks for free!
http://www.facebook.com/bkdornbusch Brian Keith Dornbusch

lol he is one of those people that talk while playing trailers lol shhh
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701512579 William T L Burns

Gary, I agree with you. $18 for that mount is ridiculous. Because of this, I am seriously considering whether or not I want to keep my sub.
DarQuingDragon

When I heard what the F2P model was, I decided that the game wasn’t worth any time until they decided to change it. I played the free trial until the game went f2p and then uninstalled the game. The speeder with the lights amuses me, but I wouldn’t pay for it.
http://profile.yahoo.com/WZ324KCWGCMJENR2ZFFTCK3QP4 Blaze

Not the first MMO that sells stupid mounts at 20 bucks.. I wouldn’t buy a 20 dollar mount but obviously plenty of people do.
- Deadnstien
  
  The difference is, in those MMOs you generally get the mount on all your characters, not just one like in this case. I’ve bought all the WoW mounts and paid the extra for the turtle in Rift. I don’t mind that because they are mounts all my characters can use, (and as an altoholic that is a lot of toons) and they are just regular mounts, not a holiday mount I would only really use during the holiday.
  
  It would be like WoW selling a permanent reindeer or flying broom, for $20 and saying you can only have it on one toon. Sure, some people would buy it, that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous.
- balen arenas
  
  It’s not really the price I think, I mean WoW sells mounts for $25. It’s really the fact that the mounts are for that character only. In other mmos the paid mounts are available for every character on your account (and for new characters that you make).
http://twitter.com/coreydowning Corey Downing

Someone needs to make a 10sec clip from when Gary goes “Wooo look at this, it’s $18 go buy it wooooooooooo!!”
Sloppys Chicken

Food for thought…

Bioware just announced their next years “expansion” price as $9.99 for subscribers and $19.99 for F2P’ers. As they consider the horrendous looking mount worthy of an $18.00 price tag, how much content or how good can players expect said “expansion” to be?

Also, for Bioware to call it an expansion is incorrect in my opinion. DLC or mini-expansion would be better terminology I think, if they want to avoid some complaints.
http://www.facebook.com/azrael.karah Azrael Karah

I really do hope to see good things happen in SWTOR. I play the game with my brother (sith inquisitor and sith warrior) only because it offers a better questing system than WOW, and so that i can spend quality time with him (he is 15), but i don’t see myself playing it alone, because it lacks so much features compared to WOW.
http://www.facebook.com/bkdornbusch Brian Keith Dornbusch

They’re doing it wrong. They need to look at EQ2s model. cheap stuff, most appearance items. you want them to buy, EQ2 makes more money then subs this way.
http://twitter.com/roguecyber roguecyber

From the beginning SWTOR has copied Blizzard without understanding the reasoning behind Blizzard’s design decisions. From group size to class balance, it just doesn’t seem like they know the “why” for what they are doing.
http://twitter.com/Dope_Danny Danny Smith

You would think post itunes and the “99 cent” games that make a metric shitton of cash that selling something cheap a lot is better than catering to your most die hard users with something expensive.
i can only think this is more of the “lets just copy paste what blizzard does!” design ethos. which is a shame if so, a year on and they still cant stand on their own.
Selona83

I really felt like if I dident subscribe to the the I really am a second class citizen.
And yes. As far as am concerned the pricing on that Cartel market. Its bonkers….way off the mark
I did pay for a month I should say. After doing that I really felt like it wasent worth it either
http://www.facebook.com/davidallmighty David Cohen

I came back to see the new raids and revisit old friends, but I unsubbed today with this horrible xpac and the horrible holiday…. but I love the show… its like a train wrech…
http://www.facebook.com/davidallmighty David Cohen

BTW it is awesome to see Larry finally come around and not give them a break for the BS Bioware has shoved at us for months now
Josh Osmer

The Elite War Hero gear sucks. Flat out. The itemization is total crap. In fact, there are several War Hero items that surpass their new Elite War Hero counterparts. For example, a rage jugg will not upgrade his earpiece and implants, the War Hero are superior to each and every option of the Elite War Hero versions. While the stat inflation is one thing to try and counter, there needs to be SOME upgrade to the previous tier or there’s zero point in obtaining it. They don’t even have new models, they just “added sprinkles” to the War Hero sets. Gaining 1 power, 1 str, and 1 endurance on most of the items is a slap in the face for the effort.
Bananamanswtor

I couldn’t agree more and I think Jeff Hickman should be fired.
and makeb is total bullshit
http://profile.yahoo.com/F2XRQU4GOV52OTKES2ZLGRBOOE rusty

“Does it come with a prostitute?” Some of my favorite Gary commentary ever in this episode. I personal quit playing shortly after 1.2 because of the way they handled my in game tickets and the customer service forums. The whole deleting threads and telling me that my problems didn’t exist thing didn’t go over well with me. I quit playing before my 6month sub ran out and had no way of recouping that. So to say I’m dis-enthused with the prospects of this new F2p system and bioware/Ea in general would be a understatement. I really want to come back to this game so I can finish the rest of the story-lines, but I can’t bring my self to support a company who just doesn’t seam to care at all about the player or the star wars franchise anymore.
Kareth Rihker

Long time sub here. You guys are right on the mark, the prices in the Cartel shop are insane and they are nickling and diming subs. Agree with the comment below that they should have low priced cosmetic items in the shop and no P2W
http://www.facebook.com/joekeyser Joe Keyser

It’s almost guaranteed that someone at EA and not Bioware is in control the Cartel Market.
- Cenarl
  
  Bioware apologists are getting old. They choose to sell out to EA because they wanted money just like EA does now by exploiting their brand and IP. They could have continued building up their private brand but they wanted a quick cash in, tell me how that attitude is any better then EA.
  - Kingmob23
    
    People crying over Bioware selling out is getting old. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every game BW has released under the ea banner. For all the bitching people did over Dragon Age 2, I would still rather play it over Skyrim.
Passio1

I unsubbed a long time ago when the dwindling populations just made the game unplayable for me and all my friends also left due to the frustration of the multiple raiding bugs and lack of customer support.
I watch this show to stay in touch with what happened and because Gary just makes me chuckle and this show at only 28 mins in has had me in hysterics. I`ve watched a lot of shows at GBTV and never seen Gary lose it like this. While i find his reaction funny i totally agree with him and FINALLY Larry is starting to see it too. These guys are running this game into the ground and it had so much potential.
Granted this game was designed for a subscription model but even so they have enough examples around them for how to make a F2P model work. I can`t imagine that a gaming company could be this stupid so in my opinion they are just going for a cashgrab before this game goes completely belly-up.
No holiday event? An x-pac with ONE new planet(Zone)?
They are not even trying.
http://twitter.com/Cpt_Badger Cpt.Badger

No Garry, you are not off. In fact you are completely right. Bioware is making mistake after mistake.

I am a subscriber. I also own a dual GPU AMD Crossfire rig. Guess what ? Since 1.4 came out – my Crossfire setup simply does not work.

In order to be able to play I have to DISABLE my second GPU effectively reducing my framerates by about 30% (in what is a rather poorly optimized game).

It’s been THREE months and still there is no word about a fix. All they do is add useless crap to the Cartel Market yet nobody bothers to fix a crippling performance issue.

It’s mind blowing.
http://twitter.com/Seiferjesus Luke Power

I love watching the show to hear you guys talk about this epic failure.

Bring back SWG, you can’t get a better Star Wars feeling hunting player Jedi as a bounty hunter.
http://twitter.com/Agimat08 Solo Miranda

First year anniversary of Swtor “25 year stacks of fireworks” ROFL
Oldschoolremag

What choice do they have? The game wasn’t good enough to support a sub for most that tried it and they clearly know it isn’t good enough to make it as truly free to play. I say they know because they sent me emails trying to lure me back with complimentary cartel coins to reward me for being enough of a sucker that I bought the collector’s edition and subbed for a while. All I had to do to get them was….resub.

Thanks, but no thanks. If I decide to sub, it will be to try Rift because of the good things I hear about its raiding and world bosses and the absolutely jaw dropping DImensions. If I want to deal with a cash shop, it will be GW2 or PS2. You know, games that are trying to get you to spend money because you enjoy playing them, not to lessen your f2p misery. Hell, Swtor was such a heart break, it has even made me reconsider playing WoW and I never thought I’d say that.
Seventy One

The 1.6 is, imho, a huge PR disaster. They really need a new plan to run their bussiness, after the Rise of the Cartel expansion things will be more visible and ugly.
http://profiles.google.com/samgilsig Samuel Gilsig

I’ll be honest, there’s absolutely NOTHING except for legacy unlocks to spend Cartel Coins on.

There are no Cartel Market items worth buying.

I’ve got 2325 Cartel Coins saved up because all the items on the Market are pointless.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac

The idea that the inclusion of the space gear in the market is somehow shattering to the game is downright laughable in its sensationalism. Then again, the game actually could come with a prostitute or something and Gary would likely complain about the prostitute’s hair color or something.

As for Life Day…no one cares.
- InvaderMig
  
  Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they say something about not selling purples on the Market. Also it’s slippery slope. Sure the space game is an abomination and has been that way since they pathetic concept reached the public, but the point is that what they say is unreliable at best and other high end gear could just as easily make it’s way to the cash shop.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac
    
    I don’t recall them ever saying that. And I no fears about them selling armor or anything on the market. Regardless of the chicken little-ing some some folks, I really doubt it will happen.
    
    The slippery slope argument really falls flat because even having the space gear in the store barely affects anything.
Joel Viola

Another hate show? How surprising….
- Passio1
  
  Another ill-informed post. Just saying.
- rickyard
  
  It is impossible to post about SWTOR in another mood
http://www.facebook.com/jason.horton2 Jason Horton

Gary i love you, your reaction to the mount was just hilarious <3
http://profile.yahoo.com/VU7FTNUZEEGUXT7QVQGNVS22HE lionfan96

what about sparkle pony? thats a $25 mount you can buy for WoW. yes, its account wide.. but its also almost $7 more than the TOR mount.. im NOT defending bioware/EA. the price and the speeder itself is ridiculous.. as is the fact that they have no in-game event for life-day. I also agree completely with this vidcast.

but, if im going to be objective.. i have to point out other examples of ridiculousness as well.
- Passio1
  
  To be honest although i don`t like the mount myself, it is a decent mount. This thing they put out is just god awful, never mind the fact that personally i would never spend money on a mount.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Blizzard charged $25 for the sparkle pony and players queue up for hours on the release date.
  
  At release it did offer a convenience factor to players. When rolling an alt, you didn’t have to bother with farming or transferring funds to purchase your first mount.
- InvaderMig
  
  The Wow mount from what I understand is account bound, not character bound like in Swtor. That is a MAJOR difference.
- Dekin
  
  The main thing about the sparkle pony, though it was silly. It was the first flying/ground mount they released. Before the sparkle pony you had to have a ground mount equipped and a flying mount and buy new ones each time you upgraded speed. Before the pony you had to get a rare drop from some dungeon (that has skipped my mind) or have the headless horseman mount. After the pony all flying mounts run at ground mount speed. Plus it being account wide made it good for alts.
  
  TL;DR It wasn’t that it looked cool as much as the convenience for alt-aholics.
http://twitter.com/Cpt_Badger Cpt.Badger

My sub just took a Hickman to the knee.
http://profile.yahoo.com/TEJDAQO43UAXTKPEUEMQTSDFNA Estoyyoda

And then, the Cartel Market won’t sell the first expansion
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Even number episodes of The Republic on GBTV are love-fest for SWTOR. This was episode 117, just saying.
http://twitter.com/AisarGaming Aisar

This was a very ugly episode and I was troubled listening to it but it’s all true as far as I can see. I purchased the collector’s edition and bailed about 2 months after release. My opinion of the game has always been lousy and so very little of this surprises me. Even the story for my Sith Jug and Operative got boring between level 35-40. It was predictable and did not keep my attention.

It’s a bad game. Whoever is making the decisions is bad. I like this show but..this was a tough one for me. Bad. End of story lol.
Darkstorm57

The fact that they went off with another hate show with the wrong facts at the drop of a hat about the space ship parts with certain ones being only in the Cartel market is laughable. the ship parts come from the 2 fleet ship vendors. 1 for credits, a few more for fleet comms, and the rest are with daily comms.
- http://twitter.com/AisarGaming Aisar
  
  I believe they said you could earn them through normal play or purchase them from the market. The space stuff was such a waste of time in my opinion so this space part stuff is just nonsense to me. Maybe try to consider the episode as a whole and not just the space bits.
  - Darkstorm57
    
    @ roughly 34 min Larry goes on about the space ship item being pay to win cause they haven’t found all of them and “1 if not 2 are only obtainable on the Cartel market” which is false.
    
    I agree with the stupid life day mount being stupidly priced at $18 and Wish more and More EA would GTFO
http://twitter.com/Agimat08 Solo Miranda

Switch to Rift already Larry and Justin
http://www.facebook.com/benni.nord Benni Nord

The Republic is prob my favourite GB show. I don’t even play the game but you guys just bring it
http://twitter.com/mlm430047 mlm430047

I agree with Gary.
http://profile.yahoo.com/KI7Q7KTG4XGQQ2NOM7N4IMFAIM Rae

the lifeday mount would be so totally worth it if You could mow crop circles with it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Shawn-Hargrave/100003202374593 Shawn Hargrave

Gary you need to be harder than that on swtor. The game is already trying to sell an xpac and trying to get people to pre order what was supose to be a free content update. As for a “hate” show what is so good about swtor? im surprised they even do the show still considering how bad its going.
- Passio1
  
  The show brings in good numbers and to be fair its entertaining. Anyone that watches regular know its not a hate-show. Sometimes fans don`t want to hear the truth.
  - http://www.facebook.com/mike.manco Mike Manco
    
    this has become a hate show, done watching done posting it on our site
    - Passio1
      
      Later bro. We`ll miss you.
Evilevi501

I quit playing this game a few months after release. However, The hosts on this show, I feel are some of the best characters espousing on MMOs in general. I find it very entertaining and watch the show though it has zero to do with SWTOR on my end.

I’d love to see these guys pick up a different game and a show come from it. I’m guessing it would have the same amount of viewers.
Dekin

[ ] <—- this is you box Gary when you are inside of the [ ] you are safe….
http://www.facebook.com/mark.bradden.1 Mark Bradden

lol more mmo are going down the cash cow road wow guild wars 2 and swtor
jediunited

Gary – I totally agree with the comments you have made about SWTOR. I loved the game when it went live… I still enjoy the original concept and idea of the game. But with James, Daniel, and Georg, all gone… i have lost all hope.

The store they have is very insulting. I wish EA had continued to fund the game and gave BioWare the chance to add more content to same the game.

This game was amazing at launch.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=65003030 Steve Lamoreaux

Quit playing SWTOR during first month. Just didn’t get me hooked the way I had hoped. Still watch the show every week! Hosts make the show worth watching and I just enjoy hearing people talk about games. Don’t feel bad about the “hate”, the viewers know it’s not like this all the time. If the truth needs to be said say it. The show should not be damned for saying what’s on a lot of minds anyway.
http://profile.yahoo.com/LY4PQKQMZXQR5VXJAEUX6TSMYU Jesus Astorga

Good to see some honesty about how one feels about a game instead of being “nice” for the sake of those who love the game. The game was not my cup of tea.. i don’t like mmos on rails with no immersion.
http://profile.yahoo.com/2ONNJ6IC42YKDOZ7EPLBSW7P7A Kim

its not out of control,,its just under EA control
EA will only be happy the day we all have a console and buy their sports games
they have destroyed a good part of the PC game market in the last decade
the next SW MMO will get a rougher start, because of this
Howard Kings

I came back to the game just this past week. I was there at pre-launch waiting with the other “Decemberists” to get into the game. I really enjoyed what I saw but it didn’t grab me as much as I thought it did. So I let it go after the first month and went on my way. I’m back and I’m enjoying it simply because I’m a Star Wars fan and I don’t have a lot of time to put towards specific times for raiding etc.

I completely agree that the Cartel Market is useless. I’ve subscribed and I went to look and see what interesting things I might be able to snag with my Cartel Coins, sadly there is nothing. I DON’T want experience potions because I want to experience the game and not rush to cap. I DON’T want gaudy looking chairs and badly made appearance items. Bioware/EA needs to take a page from the shops in EQ2 and LOTRO to see what a real cash shop is that isn’t offering next to nothing for subscribers.

Rise of the Hut Cartel is your chance Bioware/EA. Make it rock. Make the shop worth using, make the story make sense and not a giant Mary Sue. Make this game feel like Star Wars again and give us the freedom to explore that universe instead of everything feeling like our experience is on locked rails.

From a hopeful returned subscriber.
http://profile.yahoo.com/AOMNMY5NOR6ZX2AC3DTRGMLHY4 Collo

Totaly agree the cartel market sux. A few unlocks is all and I get them from my sub I can wait to get HK for all my alts. The market adds nothing to the game for me. And as you said where are the events? Only 2 this year? SWG had more.

The Republic Ep117: Out of Control

Blizz Blues From The GAMEBREAKER Vaults Ep2:
What’s A Fire Festival

The Republic Ep142:
SWTOR On Consoles?

Unicorn Duck Shadow Puppet Ep4:
WildStar For The Holidays?

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