Reliving the Past

If you've ever checked out the links to the right, you've noticed one particular blog called Being Bahama. The writer is always in character and tells stories of her life in SWG, her business there, her guild's town, and the comings and goings of its citizens. Although I no longer played SWG, I would read the wonderful stories and couldn't help but feel an occasional tug wanting to relive what once was.

So it was with a mixture of sadness and excitement to read about the closure of their guild's town and a dream sequence in which she finds herself with her friends in the same place, but a different time. That story, coupled with another old acquaintance also stepping into the past, motivated me to do the same.

I wanted to just have a bit of fun and ease into things slowly so I went with an entertainer for my first character. As someone who always loved Naboo, I made the poor choice of starting in Theed. There were only a few people in the cantina and no trainers in site. Fortunately, they started me off with a small sum of money, so I caught the first ship out to Mos Eisley. I spent a little bit of time here, learned some languages so I could understand what the non-humans were saying and struck up some conversations. As nicely populated as Mos Eisley was, I was told Coronet was the place to be, and I'd have better luck finding other entertainers to train me. So spending the last bit of money I had for a ticket, it was off to Coronet. And it was packed with people.



It's been very much like the old days, both good and bad. Ninety percent of the entertainers are still afk and macroing their *winks* and *tips appreciated*. But also like the old days, lots of nice people are to be found and I really had a great time. Lots of things still aren't implemented and I can't speak yet for how well the combat side of things works out. But with the other half looking over my shoulder, I got him interested enough to start the download. There are no character slot limitations this time around, so I'll likely be starting up a Teras Kasi with him again. For anyone who enjoyed the game before the CU, it's definitely worth a look. And if you find yourself in the Coronet cantina, look for the dark-haired human in the dingy brown starter clothes.

Meaningful Solo in MMO's

Not a week goes by where I don't see a remark somewhere on some forum that the current trend of soloing is ruining MMO's. But I think they have it all wrong. In comparison to older titles, the more recent ones are actually less solo friendly.

Let's look at EQ1, what many consider to have been the ultimate grouping game. A good portion of folks I knew there soloed at some point. Every one of my alts soloed, of course some better than others. It took a long while to kill something, your experience bar didn't move much, and maybe you had to stick to green/light blue mobs. But it was done. Typically, I'd go to a zone and start soloing. If someone shouted out that they were looking for more, I joined in. If someone shouted looking for a group, I invited them to join me and eventually more would join. While leveling was still slow, grouping took some of the tedium away and just made things more enjoyable overall.

In more recent titles, leveling speed is increased and quests often yield more than the kills. It's not efficient to group since many are on different quests. And forming up groups is more tedious than just going out and getting it done on your own.

All that's changed is leveling speed, color of mobs you can take on, and the introduction of quests. But there's one major difference in current titles from prior. There is no meaningful solo content anymore. In EQ1 there were numerous dungeons that could be soloed, many with placeholders for named mobs that dropped nice items. This wasn't exclusive to dungeons though. Named mobs could be found in outdoor zones as well, if you didn't mind camping a spot to get them to spawn. In DAOC also dungeons and named mobs indoors and out could be soloed, both for armor and trophy heads which could be mounted and placed in your home. I didn't have the best gear and didn't always have the best solo class. But there were meaningful things for me to do on my own while out adventuring. Even SWG was more solo friendly pre-NGE than it is today.

In the current games I've played, you solo strictly to level. It doesn't lead to eventual groups and usually gains you nothing but experience. Anything meaningful, and what I consider to be fun, requires groups, usually full ones at that. And they are organized events, not chance encounters while you're out and about. Occasionally you might meet someone on the same quest. You group up for a few minutes to get it done and then part ways. So come to think of it, not only are current games less solo friendly, but also less group friendly.

So soloing has always been around. It's just not very fun anymore.

MMO Players - An Underutilized Resource

We are passionate about our MMO hobby. We blog about it; we sign on with gaming sites and volunteer our services; we create mods and maps to help other players. We spend gaming-related hours outside of actually gaming. And we do it for free.

Different gaming companies here and there have programs that take some small advantage of this. EQ2 has a guide program; however, you aren't permitted to do it on your own server and are randomly assigned another server. I had considered applying at one time, but I want to make my own server a better place, not someone elses. SWG took on player volunteers to silence the gold spammers. But so much more could be done to put players to use that would enrich the gaming community, create a reputation that brings in more players, and retain the ones you have. You can create a good game, but you need a community to build it up.

One idea would be someone leading weekly dungeon groups with an emphasis that those who never grouped before would be welcome and given guidance. I have come across so many who avoid grouping because they are afraid of doing something wrong. While players could undertake this task and start this up without developer involvement, odds are slim they will. Give them a special title while on duty, make them feel like they are part of your company, and give an occasional pat on the back and you'd be amazed how many would step forward to fill roles. And likewise, when players see an official representative getting that group together, they feel a bit more safe joining up.

The same goes for raiding. Many would love to try it once in awhile but do not wish to join a raiding guild. Why not company-sanctioned events and "hiring" on volunteers for the job? Or what about roleplay for beginners groups, particularly on the roleplay servers which can be intimidating when new. Or how about tours through zones, pointing out little-known lore and locations. These are just a few thoughts and I'm sure there are great ones I haven't thought of yet. Just like the guide program, there would need to be some accountability to be certain volunteers remain courteous and helpful. Expand on that guide program but please don't send them to other servers. We're more likely to volunteer and work hard for you when it benefits our own server and community.

This would also be a way to get guild leaders more involved in the community. The majority of players don't read forums or pay attention to official notices. So when your fancy titled group leader wants to lead a heritage quest group next week, how does that information get out to the community? Either the guild leaders can sign up for a mailing list to be notified of events which they then message to the guild, or make it their responsibility to keep up with a section of the forums for these events.

Now here's an example of how not to handle your company-sanctioned events. Recently, EQ2 advertised having a Guild Recruitment Fair. Guild leaders were asked to sign up, which I did, and we were told it was taking place at the Claymore Monument. So what was it I signed up for? Nothing. We were basically just given a time and date and told to show up. As I said, the majority of players don't read forums and didn't even know about it, and there was nothing there to signify any event. I showed up prime time evening on a Saturday night and here was the fair:


So much can be done to take advantage of our MMO passion and benefit all of us all the way around.

The Big Easy

There are times when challenges just become frustrations and I'm in the mood for easy mode. Such was the case yesterday. My husband and I had become accustomed to duoing dungeons in EQ2. However, the dungeons in that last two expansions have gotten progressively more difficult so that we have not been able to even attempt them when green. And the new Runnyeye instance is out of the question unless you have a full group in legendary gear and two healers. He logged in briefly, not knowing what to do with himself and logged off to play his necro in EQ1, which to him feels easier and more fun than any class he plays in EQ2. I tinkered with with an alt, but most of them are in those yucky levels where a lot of the mobs and quests are heroic.

So I thought I'd play a bit of Vanguard and do something more relaxing like diplomacy. I have a ranger who was in the middle of a quest series and thought I'd pick up where I left off. So off I went to parley with some mean looking fellows. I failed the parley and he killed me. Ok I loot my corpse, change card strategy, and win the parley. He hands me some items and tells me I will fall to my death unless I summon some spirits to aid me. Next thing I know I'm up in the sky falling to my death. I look at the items he gave me that call upon the spirits and they are a level higher than I am so I can't use them. So splat I go. I couldn't see my corpse anywhere on the map so had to use the altar and take the loss. I logged off quite frustrated, particularly that they would even give me the quest at that level when I had no means of being successful.

I checked my desktop. Hmm, let's see what other options there are. EQ1? Errmm definitely not tonight. SWG? Used to be easier but not so much today. So I went to bed instead.

Just like in real life, challenges here and there can be fun. But honestly I don't want to be hit with it every day. Sometimes I want easy and why can't there be both? I understand the allure of WoW because if I had it installed, I might have played it last night. Even DAOC was sounding tempting again. Maybe it's an age and situational thing. I have so many exhaustive challenges at home, I am just not in the mood for more of it at night. Maybe when I was younger and had fewer responsibilities, the MMO hardships would have filled a void. And maybe that's a whole different subject to get into later.

The Illusion of Power

Years ago in the early expansions of EQ1, when you upgraded your armor, it was noticeable. When you acquired alternate advancement points, it made a huge difference. Just leveling and gaining spells you didn't have before made you different. My main had become a beastlord, while my husband was a warrior. We could not duo these two in dungeons in our 20's, 30's or 40's. But we could do so at level 60. We had access to abilities at 60 that made us more powerful so that fights were much easier than they had been previously. And because of this playing at level 60 was a heck of a lot more fun than it had been at 20.

In the early days of SWG, we'd wait in line for our doctor buff and charge into lairs with a dozen mobs pounding on us and survive. But of course this was removed when devs realized we weren't paying $15 a month to have fun, but really to have balanced game play. /sarcasm off

Fast forward to current MMO's. In the latest EQ2 expansion, armor rewards are unlike any I have ever been able to obtain previously. Beyond the usual stat increases, there are also effects such as + to power and health regeneration, spell damage, and healing abilities. At first glance it was a bit exciting. My mediocre mystic might actually be more powerful! But alas, it was not to be. In order to compensate for the better armor, mobs have been tweaked up in difficulty so that if you don't have this armor on, you will be worse off than before. I'm finding as I level, that my characters become weaker.

In LotRO, while I didn't feel weaker as I leveled, my characters were stagnant. It didn't matter that I equipped purple armor much better than what I had. My survivability was the same. Stats were very soft and just didn't make a tremendous difference to game play.

The current trend is to offer just the illusion of power so we think there actually might be something to look forward to as we level. So while the dungeons of Norrath sit empty, we can rejoice in fact that all is fair and balanced. I miss being the hero.

Random Stuff

PotBS - NDA is lifted and lots of reviews to be found. Not a bad game at all and definitely a change of pace from current offerings, but not everyone's cup of tea. And that is how it turned out for me. I didn't enjoy flying ships in SWG and even less so enjoyed the ship combat here. Guess I'm a landlubber at heart. Unfortunately, the land options weren't fun for me either, so I'll be passing on this one.

STO - "I personally think that MMOs need to be a better deal. Paying $200/year is a good deal for some but I don't think that is sustainable for the category and certainly rules out a lot of people who don't have the time to get enough value out of that expense." Ok I see where this is heading now. Removed this game from my radar.

Zuroth Online - This was the game that sounded very much like pre-NGE SWG and had many vets excited. That is, until they released this statement a couple weeks ago:

"One of the main things that plague an indie developer is time, money, and developers. Currently our goals are set very high (which isn't always a bad thing) but what we currently have planned is a very, very, very big undertaking (infact though any mmo is a big undertaking, what we're going for is even bigger). This leads to not enough time and it scares away potential developers.

What we're going to do to alleviate this problem is pretty simple - scale it down. Scaling it down will require many sacrifices that you all are probably here for and are expecting (all the prior SWG people especially).

So what are a few of the changes?

- Sandbox status is gone. We're moving to a more stream lined game.
- Move to a Leveling System

Some other features are getting changed to fit with the above. But... This doesn't mean we're going to become a carbon copy of what's already out there - we're pretty sure we're going to have some unique, and fun features that todays MMO's seem to have forgotten about..

Also I'd like to apologize to all the people out there expecting another SWG Pre-CU. It's just not possible with an Indie team... But you have my word if we ever get into a position where we can make a Pre-CU like game we WILL in a heart beat. But, right now we're going to work on the game, and hopefully make a game a few people would enjoy playing."

Citadel of Sorcery - Another MMO in very early stages. Will be keeping an eye on this one to see how it progresses.

Knowing Your Player Base

Anyone that's spent any amount of time in a particular MMO gets a pretty good feel for the type of players that reside there. And if you spend any amount of time reading up on future MMO's and seeing what players have to say on the forums, you can get an idea of what type of player will be playing in the future.

But sometimes companies make decisions that have me wondering if they spend any time at all playing their own game and mingling with players. So many times I've heard that some developers belong to raiding guilds. But this does not represent in most cases your typical player. Do they know who the majority of players really are? Or are they making their judgments by the complainers on the forums?

Putting the NGE aside and going forward, I've been looking at the most recent SWG expansions as well as the upcoming chapter and I'm just really baffled. My experience in both original and current SWG is that it consists of a lot of players who like to do their own thing. Back then people grouped up to get the mission bonuses, but everyone spread out and did the missions solo. We chatted together while grouped, but we were all on our own. Currently, when I'm out and about, about half of the players I run into are on their own. This is not to say there isn't a group presence because their certainly is, but I think the strong solo presence has been forgotten. These latest expansions have no resemblence to the existing content in SWG and the upcoming chapter will be adding yet more heroic encounters. Alienation of the casuals -- it's like witnessing EQ1 all over again.

Speaking of EQ1, I was going to add them to the pot here of not knowing their customers, but I've had a change of heart. Originally I had thought the progression servers were added to attract back the old casual players. And I thought clearly they don't know those players. I was one of them. Why would I go back to a server that raiders would flock to so they can be the first to unlock the content? In a short time, these servers would be no different than the rest once everything was opened up. But then the light bulb went off. I don't think we were the target at all. It was the existing raiders they were attracting all along. It gave them something new to do and I guess it worked.

Another company I think needs to be careful here is Turbine. LOTRO has a very strong pure PVE player presence. I recall talking about monster play in guild chat one day. Turned out my husband and I were the only ones in the guild who had even dabbled with it. The rest of our guild mates had absolutely no interest in it and no plans to participate. This was the case for the majority of players I met in game. However, if you were to read my server's forums, about 95% of the posts are about monster play. Turbine has responded to the complaints by adding some features to monster play. To their credit, they continue to push out content for the majority players but I think they really need to be careful about how much focus they put on PVP. People say it all the time but it often gets ignored -- the majority forum posters do not represent the majority players.

As I said, regarding most upcoming MMO's I have a pretty good idea who their target player is. However, one game I can't quite figure out is Chronicles of Spellborn. This will be a questing-based game with very little experience gained from combat. You will belong to one of five houses and it's been recommended that guild members all belong to the same house as they will all be in conflict with one another. Most zones will not be PVP-enabled; however, from what has been stated recently, you will be required to enter PVP zones to gather crafting materials and access certain content. This type of setup is slightly similar to Ryzom which hasn't fared well. So clearly they are not aiming for the PVE crowd. But I don't hear the PVPers talking about Spellborn. What about the folks in between who want to dabble in both? Most of my fellow bloggers fall into this category and I don't hear them talking about Spellborn either.

Spellborn has a lot of really really neat features. It had been on my radar for a long time but I just don't want PVP forced on me in any form. So who is their target player? I've heard it said several times now that many believe Spellborn will be a sleeper hit. Maybe it's unique enough but I think they need to define more clearly who they are to avoid becoming another Ryzom.

Quit Luring me Back!

So Friday I open my email, and what do I see? A message from SOE that they have reactivated my EQ2 account until November. Grrrr. So naturally I immediately find my discs and begin the long install. Now if I had been a bit more savvy and knew certain things back then, I would have had a more updated disc to work from. But no matter, after 5 hours, both computers were ready to go. I assumed hubby got the same email, and since he always loved EQ2, knew he'd be a happy camper.

Both EQ1 and EQ2 are the only games I've gone back to more than a second time. As soon as the music starts playing as I'm loading and I see the splash screens, I start thinking of Daughtry's "I'm going home", because that's kind of what it feels like. And then I hear "these places and these faces are getting old, so I'm going home." And I picture all the past games which did get quite old. SWG and the beta I'm in leave me feeling anxious and frustrated quite often, so this came as a bit of relief.

Yeah I may be a bit overly nostalgic. Although there are still things I don't like about EQ2, whenever I play something else, I realize it still is one of the best MMO's on the market. It's nice to come back to your apartment and have all your things still there. Some nice person must have been feeding my dog, cat, and bird while I was gone, cause there they were fat and healthy.

So after a few hours walking around our local Applefest, and stuffing our faces with pulled pork sandwiches and apple donuts (oh man were they good), we settled into Norrath for awhile. Don't know if I'll stay past the freebie time, but it feels like home for now.

Credit Spammers - The Sweet Sound of Silence

A couple weeks back there was an announcement at the SWG site that they were looking for volunteers to be part of their new Warden program. They were looking for about 30 responsible people for each server who would be given the ability to silence anyone spamming credit sales or power-leveling services.

It went into effect a couple days ago and Mos Eisley is once again a happy place to visit. The first couple days you still saw the spammers sitting there, but the Wardens were doing their job and no chat was coming across the chat box or in chat bubbles over their heads. Today they just weren't there at all.

I've seen complaints about greedy SOE being too cheap to hire people to do this, blah blah blah. I think it's a great idea. A lot of players love helping to making their server a better place to be. And I think it's great for a company to have enough confidence in players to make them part of the process.

SWG Update

We're still chugging along in SWG. I bought the two latest expansions a couple weeks ago. I haven't been to Mustafar yet as I am still too low level. I did pay Kashyyyk a visit though (yes there's three "y's" in there!). I was able to complete only a few quests. The majority of others were too difficult and apparently require a group to complete. Unfortunately my quest log is now filled with quests that can't be deleted.

One particular zone on the planet I still have yet to visit due to the required access quest. Gah, I hate access quests. I paid for the darn expansion, just let me in. This one involved a particular space mission. I broke down and took up piloting just to get this done. However, even though I've acquired a few levels of piloting, I still get destroyed fairly quickly during this quest, even when duoing. So I give up. All the group-required content in this expansion is causing LOTRO flashbacks. For my style of play, the original SWG content suits me fine. However, the expansion was a waste of money.

I thought I would take up the new beast mastery expertise with my alt. But unless you have been playing for a long while and have millions of credits to spare, it's just impossible to do. Not sure why they made this so inaccessible for new players, but there you go. Yeah we're still fairly broke by today's SWG standards and have yet to be able to afford a piece of armor. But I'm still getting by fairly well in my pre-NGE stat-less armor so not too worried about it.

I finally set down a home in Aquillian on Wanderhome. The mayor there is great and very helpful and found myself a lakefront spot. So stop by and say hello! I had a lot of veteran rewards awaiting me, so I got to fill my home with some nice items. I love the veteran rewards in SOE games. I love collecting nice things to decorate with. And for anyone that had taken up creature handling pre-NGE, you'll find your pets still in your datapad. I only had four pets and noticed a "stuff" command. Seemed a bit gruesome to kill my pet off and stuff it. But when I stuffed them and placed them in my house, they are actually moving their head around. So maybe Fluffy is still alive after all. I understand you can make a bit of money from selling pre-NGE pets. But I'd rather have my little collections than the money. I'm broke but happy!

So I'm still enjoying myself for the time being. The community here is still great and that's always a big part of what keeps me playing. And in spite of its flaws, given my gaming interests, it's still better than a good portion of other MMO's currently available.

Star Wars Galaxies - Is It Still Fun?

Well it's been a couple weeks now that I have been back to SWG. What I wanted to focus on was if the game is currently fun to play. I thought it best to put my existing characters aside initially and restart as a new player experiencing everything for the first time. This is not a post to bash the NGE and mourn over what was lost. There's been plenty of that for the last two years. I just really wanted to focus on the game in its current state.

Something I want to address that I mentioned in a previous post is the gold sellers spamming you on arrival. Having looked into the whole situation, I have a little better understanding. When I played EQ2 prevously, the 14-day trials were limited to the starter island. Since free trials are often the route of gold spammers, there really was not much they could do being stuck on that island. I was told SWG initially limited their trial to the space station tutorial, but the station is so small and there is nothing to do there beyond the quick tutorial; so it really was not a fair representation of the game.

Initially, GM's responded and would boot the spammers, but five minutes later they created a new account and would be back. So unless they pay someone to sit at entry point 24 hours a day on all the servers, not sure how they can get around this unfortunate situation. There is an option to turn off all chat by /afk players, but it is not selected by default. So any new players will just have to deal with this until they get their bearings.

I'll just highlight what I think works and what needs tweaking.

THE GOOD STUFF

1. Legacy Quest Line - When you first arrive in Mos Eisly as a combat class, you will receive a comm message on who to talk to. This begins the Legacy quest. You will be sent to various bunkers and caves to complete objectives such as breaking into the computer or killing mobs. Through this quest line, you will first receive a landspeeder and then later a faster speederbike. It will also provide you with various weapons of your choice.

You know how in other games you are sent two zones away to kill something, return to the npc who sends you all the way back there again to kill something else? I yell at them "why didn't you have me do that while I was there already?!" With these quests, you get there quickly by speeder or shuttle. And while you are at your target location, frequently the npc speaks to you via the comm telling you what to do next while there. One evening while we were playing, my husband mentioned reading about an upcoming game that would be quest-based that he won't be playing for that reason. I reminded him that we were currently questing in SWG. He said "Yeah, but these aren't grindy." Just so.

2. Combat - Bang Bang Bang, fast and furious. What else can I say?

3. Returning Vets - I would say about half the people I've spoken to have been pre-NGE players who just returned within the last two months. I had visited SWG very briefly about six months ago when I had Station Access, and the population has most definitely increased since then. The Mos Eisly cantina is usually fairly active and the Theed cantina is beginning to see a resurgence (Flurry server). Also, wherever I have been questing, more often than not, other players are there doing the same thing, making it easy to group up.

4. Class Fun and Goodies - I had logged in my former Teras Kasi and speced her to Officer to see what sort of things classes get at later levels (she is 57). I went out to the field to look over my abilities. Hmmmm, medic supply drop...wonder what that does? "Clicks button" A guy pops up on my comm and tells me supplies are on their way. Within a few seconds I hear the sound of a ship and spin around to see one flying in at me and dropping a box at me feet. Ok now that was way too cool :) I opened the box and it was full of stimpacks that group mates could take out to use for self heals.

I had another skill called Reinforcement which says it calls a pet to aid me. In flies another plane and out comes a soldier ready to assist me. Where else do you see stuff like this? I know I never had before and just absolutely loved it.

5. Entertainer - A big two thumbs up on the entertainer changes. I had both a master dancer and master musician at one time. Now, along with Image Design, the three are rolled into one. They have been given wonderful buffing abilities...stats, increased experience, reactive heals, tradeskill buffs, just to name a few. The buffs are required to be given in such a way that can't be macroed, so gone are the afk buffers from the past. They've been given the ability to make their own props (decorative swords, ribbons, glow sticks, etc. you wield while dancing). Also, just as combat classes do, they gain hitpoints and stats as they level, so those thugs who used to harass me in town now know better!

I logged in what was my master musician and was dismayed to find her a level 1 entertainer. I filed a petition and within a couple hours I was bumped up to level 50. Unlike combat and tradeskill, the entertainer levels very quickly and I reached 90 within two days of at keyboard play. A great way to meet other players. Having a lot of fun with her.

6. No Money Sinks - *glares at LOTRO* Previously, SWG was already not much of a money sink game. Buy armor, weapons, and then fluff stuff like housing and furniture. The Bazaar has always been very reasonable to use. It is even less so now given that they have removed item decay. Not good news for crafters but since much of the good stuff drops off mobs, the permanent decay doesn't make much sense anymore. So money hoarders rejoice!

Items They Should Address

1. Targeting - Oh boy where do I start with this one. So you see a thug, you left click it and bang bang and you stop shooting. Meanwhile he starts running different directions shooting at you. You frantically try to follow him with your mouse while left clicking till dead. This is the default UI. I went into options to have a look at keyboard settings. Seems I have to type "Y" to auto-lock a target and program my own key in for auto-fire since there is none by default. I chose the space bar. So I type my "Y" (only needs to be done once per character, not per session), left click to begin shooting, hit space bar to continue, and good to go using special skills. Phew! Oh but wait. I targeted another player who was standing in front of the mob. Click, click, click trying to retarget. Oh, I have to hit escape first to clear original target and then click!

I noticed I kept accidently attacking and firing my weapon. I discovered the right mouse button is keyed to secondary attack. I'm one of those who use my right mouse to look around, etc. while moving. So everytime I adjusted the camera or spun around with it, bang bang bang. Ok disabled. To be honest, not sure what a secondary attack is anyway. Guess I'll be fine without it.

I loot a few things and want to put some in my bank. It's been so long I forgot how to open up the bank. Left click? No that just shows the money. Right click? Didn't work. I look up the keyboard settings again. I see "Summon Radial Menu". Yeah that looks like what I'm looking for. And for that they have assigned the tilde key. The tilde key?? Well that explains why there are no creature resources for sale on bazaar. How many new players know to use the tilde key on creatures they have killed to harvest hides, bones, and meat? You see, when you kill an animal, there's the regular loot that you left click for and then there's the ummmmm tilde key loot.

I can understand having to use half your keyboard for maybe flying a spaceship but for regular gameplay it seems a bit much. Granted, after two weeks, I'm getting the hang of it and in the swing of things. But given that their intent was to make the game enjoyable to a wider audience, this should be high on priorities.

2. Grouping Levels - When my husband and I played together pre-NGE we had both mastered our professions and were able to kill mobs together. However, his profession choice resulted in his being a level 80 combat profession while mine is level 57. We attempted to group together for some missions and neither one of us got experience. I learned that you can only group with someone within five levels of you.

It's my understanding SOE has been adding things to SWG to entice pre-NGE vets back in. Now why would you bring us all in at varying levels and none of us can play together? I can understand the 5 level restriction on other games. But when you've modified your game so that everyone is scattered level-wise, you need to address that. Either make everyone who had a master combat profession all level 80, or let us group together.

I thought I would make an attempt to catch up to him. I grabbed a couple missions and headed out. I looked at my bar when I was done and it hardly moved. There is no way I am doing this by myself for 23 levels so I'm abandoning her for the time being.

3. Crafters - I had a master tailor previously and wanted to see what it was like to start again. The first few levels went by quickly, but at about level 20 it became a grind. I made it to 24 and couldn't take it anymore. I was still making the same pet food I made at level 1 earning the same experience for it. While my combat player was given the legacy quest which gained her two vehicles, my crafter was told to make a few items for people and then they sent me on my way. I kept returning to the original quest giver every few levels to see if he offered more but he'd tell me he had nothing for me at this time.

At level 15, I got a pop-up of an item received. Oh did I get my vehicle maybe? I looked in my inventory. It was an item to put on display in my house. Given that I was about as dirt poor as they come, that would be sitting in my bank for quite some time. Finally at level 19, the original quest guy had an option for me to say I need a vehicle. I had been hoofing it quite far to gather my resources so it was a welcome gift. I sold a few backpacks and some pet food, but it seemed clear that this class seemed more geared toward the player who had an existing character with money to fund the leveling up process.

4. Another Quest Line After Legacy - Those of us stuck in the 50's are a bit clueless as to where to go and what to do. And we also need a way to get armor and weapons, as the generic stuff we logged into has left most feeling pretty gimpy. If you really want to pull the vets back in, offer something similar to Legacy as an alternative to mission grinding and a means to gain armor and weapon upgrades. These missions really have been a lot of fun and I don't mind leveling this way.

So in summary, is SWG fun to play in its current state? HECK YEAH. And to be honest, it has been more fun than I've had in more recent MMO's. I'm a little concerned about hitting the later levels. I've heard when Legacy stops, it turns into a grind. So at this point I'm not setting down any houses yet and settling in. But I sure do plan to continue to play for awhile yet. It really has been a pleasant surprise and not at all the doom and gloom that often gets portrayed.

For anyone returning to a combat profession, I'd suggest starting over. You can now have two characters per server, so you can start on the same server as your original if need be. Starting anew will really give you a better perspective on the current game and result in less frustration.

Zuroth Online

Another new sci-fi MMO, Zuroth Online, is in the works, scheduled for 2008 or 2009 release. Planned features:

- Ranged and melee combat professions, entertainers, crafters, and certain specialty professions.

- Space combat.

- Battlefields for factional PVP which allows cross-server battles.

- Skill-based, no levels.

- Players can mix, match, and drop professions.

- Player housing and cities.

Hmmmm, something about this is all very familiar :)

They will be using the Multiverse platform. I had downloaded Multiverse a few weeks ago to take a look at their demo worlds and some others that are open to the public. I might be wrong, but I got the feeling this is the way to go when you're building the game from your garage with some buddies.

I wish them lots of luck. Given the similarities to pre-NGE SWG, they may very well have a large following.

From Middle-Earth to Tattoine

Though I tried to focus on the fun stuff, the negatives still kept getting in my way so think it's time for a little break from LOTRO. In a way, the whole leveling process reminded me of end-game EQ but minus the awesome rewards. Most of the group quests to me are no different than raiding....one hour to fill the group with just the right classes and then two to three hours muddling through elite mobs. Having only an hour and a half of uninterrupted play in the evenings and no desire for this type of play anyway, this leaves me with the Auction House to obtain my gear. Since the AH is so expensive to post items to, unless I know my item has a very good chance of selling within two days, I vendor all armor drops. And I'm guessing many others do too since there is very little to be found for sale. At level 39, I am still in level 21 pants.

So with my class trainer having no skills to offer after level 40 and there being no items to save up for, there's just nothing to look forward to. The Evendim expansion to me was a bit disappointing. It was supposedly the expansion with solo quests to get you through the 30's. More than half of the solo-designated quests were not soloable at all. Unless you are a class that can handle four to five mobs on you at once, you really need a friend or two to get these done. The zone is so dense with mobs, you can't take three steps in any direction without being ganged up on.

But anyways, being the glutton for punishment that I am, last night the other half and I resubscribed to SWG. I had Station Pass several months ago and had retried SWG for just a few hours. It was so unfamiliar to how it used to play, it was really hard to get back into. But my husband's been mentioning it often so here we go again. I only just logged in briefly this morning on the Bria server. My chat screen was immediately filled with spam from four afk players advertising their gold selling websites. I could not believe how blatant they were about it. This would not be tolerated in EQ2 so not sure why SOE is permitting it here. I've gotten tells and mail messages in other games but to be standing in the center of town shouting?

Ah well, I still intend to give it a fair shake. I at least want to level high enough to get out of Tattoine and onto prettier planets. If anyone is currently playing, please let me know!