Producer Letter – Galactic Strongholds

Observation: Unfortunately most meatbags who prefer PvP don't understand this concept. It's at the point to where it's practically physically impossible for them to comprehend it. So when they have restrictions placed on them, they whine about it. Which is what they do anyway.

Aside: At least they do on my server on Republic side. Whine and argue in General Chat.

People are really smart about circumventing any forms of restriction, so there is not abuse-proof method of stopping that from happening.

No dude he's right, it's way better to have no content than potentially exploitable content. Wait what

I'll try not to bloviate.

Ryzom, formerly known as the Saga of Ryzom, is a strong example of how a game company (or, in this case, multiple game companies) can take a really strong story idea (in this instance: You're a Homin living on a planet that's essentially a giant worldtree - no metal, contiguous world, sandbox style, etc.), add a war element, and end up with a hot mess afterward.

In this particular game, controllable outposts were added for guild warfare. After the dust settled post-server merge (the game is finally down to just one server - no idea how it manages to stay alive, but I suspect the story's got a lot to do with it), the largest guilds controlled these outposts and the items they produced. These items added powerful boosts to in-game craftable weapons, which soon caused several paradigm shifts.

The two most important? The coin of the realm - the dapper - was rendered completely worthless as the largest guilds refused to accept them in trade for the uberitems. Soon, the entire economy became resource-based.

(I'd like to note that I don't have a particular problem with a resource-based economy... but I am STRONGLY in the minority there!)

Since the largest guilds were in control of the economy after that, hardly anyone bothered to create any more guilds. Survival depended on joining one of the few guilds in control of the outposts, because A) only they had access to the ubermaterials and B) the economy went resource-based - to buy anything worthwhile, one needed to work like a Japanese beaver or simply join one of the guilds in control.

I don't think I have to tell you how stagnant that gets - particularly if, as in the case of Ryzom, the power guilds in charge of the desirable, controllable properties don't really feel like changing the status quo.

That's why I'm exceptionally concerned about this one particular facet of the new update. If Conquest means ANY kind of in-game advantage a player can't get elsewhere (preferably without buying - no one likes a wallet warrior, after all) then odds are pretty good something like this can happen.

I don't want to see that here. SWTOR's a great game with a vibrant, diverse community. Bioware would do very well to preserve that, as it is the game's strongest draw by far. -bp

My GOD, you can't type. I'll try to translate as best as I can, in order by paragraph:

* Considering none of us have even seen an alpha of this concept - and the change was just announced - I don't see how you can be so all-fired sure things won't change in development as they are wont to do. If it remains just a PvE thing that everyone can do, then there's no issue. But I doubt strongly that'll be the case as more details are announced.

* I'm sorry. I sat and stared at the second paragraph for a while but couldn't see a coherent point. It seems like you were simply upset that I mentioned PvPers by name. If that's the case... I don't know what to tell you, man. If it isn't, kindly clarify. Thanks in advance.

* You'll forgive me if I ignore anecdotal evidence in favor of the historical record RE: MMO gaming, I'm sure. But kudos on getting a proper poll done on the topic so quickly. Do you work for Quinnipiac or something? (Look it up.)

* In that whole mess, one pseudoword stands out - "prolly". (I assume you meant "probably" and were just extremely pressed for time.) It doesn't sound like you're as certain as to what's going to happen, or what the final product will be.

No one is. There's no final product yet and no definite list of features. Perfect time to raise concerns, isn't it? That way it can be avoided if someone else comes along and says "let's make this a guild war thang!"

Ounce of prevention and all that. -bp

No, no, it shouldn't.

Guy robs a guild bank, takes 20m credits. Should BW give him 1000 CC too, to reward him for taking action?

Guy ragequits a group finder group. Should BW give him the loot of every mob he would've killed?

Guy plays through the Sith Inquisitor class story five times. Should BW give him 500 CC, simply for doing something?


No.

You are correct in that it is silly to claim that ALL player actions should be rewarded. However, open world pvp (you know, players engaging in the actual war, on the actual planets of the game), is probably worthy of encouragement.

One of the reasons OWPvP was cut from Ilum was due to the Kill Trading and people not wanting to fight in the way it was intended.

And Arenas are different from OWPvP because you are talking about it in an Controlled environment with limited players plus bioware can easily find those that take part in win-trading.

OWPvP is a different monster with no control variable

Hrm, thats why you have PvE servers?

See, this is why I don't put you on ignore. Because eventually you come back with a completely accurate statement that I can't help high-fiving