Star Wars: The Old Republic Two Million Accounts Larger

[00slash00]

Hm, well that's unfortunate. I am interested in playing to experience the story, but I guess in order to do low level heroic missions, I'd have to be super over leveled (which would probably then make them kind of pointless. If no one does low level heroics, does that mean they're pointless and I should stick to just doing daily heroics?

Low-level heroics primarily give planetary commendations, which you get buckets of through other quests and can only be used to buy gear and mods appropriate to the planet's level range. You can easily skip them.

You shouldn't worry about missing out on any of the story since most of the heroic missions are basically filler. It'll be some Twi'lek dude telling you to go kill twenty gangsters in pre-recorded Huttese so Bioware don't have to pay for more VA. You're not missing much.

well the only reason id do heroics would be for the experience.

is it worth subscribing just to pay the story and flashpoints? i dont want to play a human or zabrak so im trying to figure out if i should pay to unlock another race and just pay the $15 a month, given that i would probably only have a few hours to play every day

 

[dystopiaINC]

I downloaded the F2P just this week, lasted 3 days, 3 whole days before I ended up subscribing. I just wasted my WHOLE SPRING BREAK playing this game and the story has me hooked. I love the fact they there are essentially 8 whole stories to go through and one both sides of the same conflict, I've only got 2 characters right now but I'll have more in short time.

Also, i just keep geeking out when ever they bring out some reference to KotOR 1 or 2, since those were mt all time favorite xbox games and I still play the damn things on my 360.... good times

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Well I was glad to read this; then again I'm one of those few people who actually seemed to like the game.

Indeed, as am I. Though, I find that this odd, underlying desire to see the game crumble before them doesn't seem to extend outside the Escapist based on my personal interactions with other people regarding the game.

To be honest, this is no surprise to me anyway. Last time I logged in, all of the servers ranged from medium to heavy to full population. This was on a good day too since I've logged on before only to see all the servers at heavy or full making it a ***** to get on the one I use. Whatever reason nay-sayers have latched onto this idea that The Old Republic is a complete failure, plenty of people are still enjoying the game quite well.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

well the only reason id do heroics would be for the experience.

is it worth subscribing just to pay the story and flashpoints? i dont want to play a human or zabrak so im trying to figure out if i should pay to unlock another race and just pay the $15 a month, given that i would probably only have a few hours to play every day

If all you want is casual play and to see the story, stay F2P. The main reason you'd drop a subscription is if you wanted to get into the endgame heavily, because free players are paywalled out of endgame content.

I've subbed since early access and I play pretty often, so the subscription isn't a bad deal for me. For you it sounds like you'd be better off sticking free. If you want to experience more flashpoints there's always the option of buying a pass from the cartel market for a couple of dollars.

(Also, I wouldn't worry about heroics for XP because you tend to level extremely fast anyway)

Off the bat it felt very generic, lot's of mundane black and white choices like "if you complete quest in this manner puppies will fall from the sky into blankets of cosy warmness or in the other manner puppies will fall from the skies TO THEIR DEATHS, THE SURVIVORS WILL ATTACK THE LEGS OF BYSTANDERS MWAHAHAHA"

Just on this note, I should mention that the moral choices in the game are highly inconsistent. Both in their level of maturity (some are a choice between kicking or hugging a puppy, whereas others are real headscratchers) and in what Bioware's writers seem to consider the "light side" or "dark side."

One example from the Consular starting area is a side quest where you are told by a Jedi master to spy on his two padawans, who he suspects are starting a romantic relationship. It turns out they are, and the light side option is to turn them in to their master so that they'll be separated and never see each other again. The dark side option is to let them continue their tryst. That one stumped me.

Whereas other examples would be like "Do you want to force choke this person, or allow him to reunite with his lost puppy?" It's really all over the place.

 

[Orks da best]

man most people in this are so negative, has this what became of gamer culture? pessmistics you only she the bad while only a few see the good or at least aren't so negative about things?

be happy for once, Think of rainbows, colors, ponies, crushing your foes beneth your feet.

Cheer up for once.

 

[00slash00]

well the only reason id do heroics would be for the experience.

is it worth subscribing just to pay the story and flashpoints? i dont want to play a human or zabrak so im trying to figure out if i should pay to unlock another race and just pay the $15 a month, given that i would probably only have a few hours to play every day

If all you want is casual play and to see the story, stay F2P. The main reason you'd drop a subscription is if you wanted to get into the endgame heavily, because free players are paywalled out of endgame content.

I've subbed since early access and I play pretty often, so the subscription isn't a bad deal for me. For you it sounds like you'd be better off sticking free. If you want to experience more flashpoints there's always the option of buying a pass from the cartel market for a couple of dollars.

(Also, I wouldn't worry about heroics for XP because you tend to level extremely fast anyway)

so basically all the outrage over how terrible to free to play model is was pretty much overblown?

 

[The_Emperor]

well the only reason id do heroics would be for the experience.

is it worth subscribing just to pay the story and flashpoints? i dont want to play a human or zabrak so im trying to figure out if i should pay to unlock another race and just pay the $15 a month, given that i would probably only have a few hours to play every day

If all you want is casual play and to see the story, stay F2P. The main reason you'd drop a subscription is if you wanted to get into the endgame heavily, because free players are paywalled out of endgame content.

I've subbed since early access and I play pretty often, so the subscription isn't a bad deal for me. For you it sounds like you'd be better off sticking free. If you want to experience more flashpoints there's always the option of buying a pass from the cartel market for a couple of dollars.

(Also, I wouldn't worry about heroics for XP because you tend to level extremely fast anyway)

Off the bat it felt very generic, lot's of mundane black and white choices like "if you complete quest in this manner puppies will fall from the sky into blankets of cosy warmness or in the other manner puppies will fall from the skies TO THEIR DEATHS, THE SURVIVORS WILL ATTACK THE LEGS OF BYSTANDERS MWAHAHAHA"

Just on this note, I should mention that the moral choices in the game are highly inconsistent. Both in their level of maturity (some are a choice between kicking or hugging a puppy, whereas others are real headscratchers) and in what Bioware's writers seem to consider the "light side" or "dark side."

One example from the Consular starting area is a side quest where you are told by a Jedi master to spy on his two padawans, who he suspects are starting a romantic relationship. It turns out they are, and the light side option is to turn them in to their master so that they'll be separated and never see each other again. The dark side option is to let them continue their tryst. That one stumped me.

Whereas other examples would be like "Do you want to force choke this person, or allow him to reunite with his lost puppy?" It's really all over the place.

The reason that that particular romance choice was light side or dark side was because in the films Jedis are not allowed to have romantic relationships because they can cause jealousy and rage and can make them go all darksidey. Which I always thought was poor storytelling on Star Wars part. This quest I felt was very shallow in the way it skims over this nmoral ambiguity in a very quick cutscene. They tried to fit moral ambiguity into their binary lightside/darkside mechanic and it doesn't quite fit. A much larger storyarc is required to deal with such a grey area. I felt even in the films it was handled poorly, the whole anakin should be celibate so he doesn't go all darkside. All the weird celibacy thing does is draw cmparison between Jedi Order and Catholic Church lol.

Yeah, the way that quest was handled and simplified kind of annoyed me, I know they have a lot of quests to write but they could of done that one a million times better. I think they went over it in the KOTOR games. Which were excellent.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

man most people in this are so negative, has this what became of gamer culture?

This is the Escapist. We're all required to have some percentage of smug cynicism if anyone expects to thrive in a land under the rule of a fedora-wearing misanthrope.

Still, this place isn't nearly as bad as Reddit.

 

[Etherlad]

Preordered and played the shit out of it when it came out, leveled six characters and then stopped playing because of the incredibly lazy Endgame-Content.

I checked it out recently and their F2P-System is simply insulting. Even Sony did a better Job with DC Universe. Good Riddance to TOR, you Money-Sucking WOWO-Clone you. I regret spending so much time with you.

 

[Strazdas]

so we got 1 million free bot accounts, 0.5 million scam bot accounts, 0.4 million free alt accoutns from current players to duealbox and if were lucky 0.1 million actual new players.
hail going free to play?

 

[shintakie10]

well the only reason id do heroics would be for the experience.

is it worth subscribing just to pay the story and flashpoints? i dont want to play a human or zabrak so im trying to figure out if i should pay to unlock another race and just pay the $15 a month, given that i would probably only have a few hours to play every day

If all you want is casual play and to see the story, stay F2P. The main reason you'd drop a subscription is if you wanted to get into the endgame heavily, because free players are paywalled out of endgame content.

I've subbed since early access and I play pretty often, so the subscription isn't a bad deal for me. For you it sounds like you'd be better off sticking free. If you want to experience more flashpoints there's always the option of buying a pass from the cartel market for a couple of dollars.

(Also, I wouldn't worry about heroics for XP because you tend to level extremely fast anyway)

Off the bat it felt very generic, lot's of mundane black and white choices like "if you complete quest in this manner puppies will fall from the sky into blankets of cosy warmness or in the other manner puppies will fall from the skies TO THEIR DEATHS, THE SURVIVORS WILL ATTACK THE LEGS OF BYSTANDERS MWAHAHAHA"

Just on this note, I should mention that the moral choices in the game are highly inconsistent. Both in their level of maturity (some are a choice between kicking or hugging a puppy, whereas others are real headscratchers) and in what Bioware's writers seem to consider the "light side" or "dark side."

One example from the Consular starting area is a side quest where you are told by a Jedi master to spy on his two padawans, who he suspects are starting a romantic relationship. It turns out they are, and the light side option is to turn them in to their master so that they'll be separated and never see each other again. The dark side option is to let them continue their tryst. That one stumped me.

Whereas other examples would be like "Do you want to force choke this person, or allow him to reunite with his lost puppy?" It's really all over the place.

That's not the worst one in the game that I found. Early on in the Republic story there's that quest where you're asked to get medical supplies for wounded/dying soldiers where its pretty heavily implied the wounded ones will probably die without the medicine. On your way out a Cathar stops you and asks you to get the supplies for some sick children, she does not imply they'll actually die if you dont.

Long story short, the light side option is to the sick, but not dyin, kids. Dark side option is soldiers. Every time you walk by the soldier who asked for it originally if you give it to the sick kids continually cries out in terrible despair "Please you have to get that medicine for us. My friends are dying!"

I can understand if maybe, maybe one was light another was just neutral or if they were both light and there was a dark side option to just sell it on the black market, but there wasn't.

 

[nexus]

Yea, that almost means something when your product is free.

How many of those 2 million even bothered to spend $5 or more, at all? Likely no more than 10% if I had to guess.

I hate this free-to-play propaganda crap.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Gaining two million accounts isn't the same as gaining two million active players.

 

[TheCaptain]

The reason that that particular romance choice was light side or dark side was because in the films Jedis are not allowed to have romantic relationships because they can cause jealousy and rage and can make them go all darksidey. Which I always thought was poor storytelling on Star Wars part. This quest I felt was very shallow in the way it skims over this nmoral ambiguity in a very quick cutscene. They tried to fit moral ambiguity into their binary lightside/darkside mechanic and it doesn't quite fit. A much larger storyarc is required to deal with such a grey area. I felt even in the films it was handled poorly, the whole anakin should be celibate so he doesn't go all darkside. All the weird celibacy thing does is draw cmparison between Jedi Order and Catholic Church lol.

Yeah, the way that quest was handled and simplified kind of annoyed me, I know they have a lot of quests to write but they could of done that one a million times better. I think they went over it in the KOTOR games. Which were excellent.

Actually in this particular case it kinda made sense - when found out the girl was already lashing out at the player character - the couple in question already couldn't handle the relationship. Helping them covering it up meant letting them go down that road...

The calibacy thing is a precaution; the attachment that comes naturally with romantic relationships tends to trip up Jedi all over the place, and when they fall, they fall hard.


Anyway, OP:
It's true, the game feels a bit more lively lately, though I'm convinced that is owed to the server mergers. I really really really like the game and didn't even go through all of the storylines yet, so I really hope they're right to assume everything's well. The cartel market seems to help, too, some people seem to blow insane amounts of cash on purely cosmetic items. I know I have. For now I'm happy the boat is still afloat