Recently I have had little opportunity to play and I noticed one thing. I log in and can immediately have some fun. It's very fast to hop on your ship and do some space missions, queuing for WZs doesn't take more than a few minutes, and depending on the time queuing for HM FPs and Operations doesn't as well.

 

Other MMOs went like this: I log in at 7 in the evening and start waiting for guild to log in. Even though we had specific raid times it took 1 hour to gather due to DC and RL issues. Then until we go do our raid 2 hours pass and usually we finish at 11. At that point people are lazy to do other groups and scatter.

 

SWTOR let's you enjoy even at late night. Was doing HM FPs the other day at 2 am

 

Gotta say it's awesome to have an MMO that let's you progress even if you don't have time to play 5+ hours a day.

Great post! I couldn't agree more.

Of course hardcore players shouldn't be neglected, but I do see a possibility to provide content for for hardcore and casual gamers. The Introduction of the group finder was groundbreaking for casuals, who didn't have time to shout at fleet.

MMO's have been for casual gamers almost exclusively for years. This has been standard procedure in MMO's since around the time CoH launched.

 

It's not a bad thing that players can accomplish something in an hour or two.

 

Where this game has issues is in giving players meaningful alternatives when we have more than a couple of hours to spend. There are literally none that I know of below level 40, unless you count fruitless hours spent trying to get groups for Heroics that everyone and their dog seem to skip.

+1 OP!

 

I sometimes find myself blowing hours just sitting on at GTN sniping items! LOL....it's true - I can get into a op/raid group and bash away for hours, and not even notice!

 

For all the bugs and flaws....this game is pretty solid and fun. Re-play value? Heck yes!

Finally a positive post! and I couldn't agree more. I love so much about this game and despite the naysayers hope to see it around for years to come. I honestly think people that started playing at launch and quite shortly there after are missing out on what this game has come to offer!

Interesting. What I have found recently is that Ops groups are popping faster and are more prevalent.

 

The scenario you describe in terms of waiting to do something was something I encountered in this game earlier this year. It took time to set up an Op for the reasons you listed. Now however, if we have to pug a couple of slots including healers and tanks it doesn't take long at all to get going, 10-20 mins.

 

So... maybe more casuals are now running Ops? More peeps are 50s and running Ops that is certain. In any event, I've now stopped running HM flashpoints because I can easily jump into and Ops group HM or SM. Experience varies between players and groups, but on many occasions, I pug and have good runs with well geared groups that don't take much time at all.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Rafaman

No it's not. It lacks basic functionality such as appearance tab, chair sitting, cross-faction chat, addons, useful crafting skills, etc. The whole game invites to a senseless grind that only benefit the hardcore gamer.

No it's not. It lacks basic functionality such as appearance tab, chair sitting, cross-faction chat, addons, useful crafting skills, etc. The whole game invites to a senseless grind that only benefit the hardcore gamer.

 

Nope. All those things you mention are for hardcore MMO players.

 

Senseless grinds are for power gamers, completely different beast.

Depends what you like to do as a casual gamer.

 

Have you casually been busy enjoying WZs and casually levelled your way to 50 over couple of months? GZs!

Good luck managing anything resembling fun in those WZs ever again.

 

Mountain of blood, ***** and agony casual player needs to climb in order to acquire good enough gear to be able to start learning how to pvp @50 is pretty massive in scale. God help him if he fell into trap of spending WZ marks and RWZ marks on now-obsolete gear.

 

I've played TOR casually and generally speaking I find it very difficult to find anything fun to do once you ding 50. " Ehhh, why am I not in WoW. WoW does this better." is pretty much reply to ervery end game related " what shall I do today?" type of a question one can ask in TOR. I find it tragic I'm so incredibly tired of it:l

Edited December 17, 2012 by Stradlin

Nope. All those things you mention are for hardcore MMO players.

 

Senseless grinds are for power gamers, completely different beast.

 

BS. Only way to define " casual player" in ways all can agree has to do with amount of time and effort he invests on playing the game or figuring the game out. What casual person DOES with his time in game varies greatly, just like it does on a HC player. (who, in turn can pretty much be defined only by amount of time he uses to play the game as well. )

Nope. All those things you mention are for hardcore MMO players.

 

Senseless grinds are for power gamers, completely different beast.

 

Agree. The casual gamers I know don't want to sit around in chairs or "tweak" the appearance of their armor. Quality of life means much less to a casual gamer in general because they don't spend countless hours hanging out in the game so to speak.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Rafaman

Couldn't agree more with you OP. +1

/sign

 

Share the same feelings. I'm able to log in for a couple hours here and there and can find more than enough to do.

Mountain of blood, ***** and agony casual player needs to climb in order to acquire good enough gear to be able to start learning how to pvp @50 is pretty massive in scale.

 

Have you tried L50 Warzones recently? After the leveling of Expertise, its much easier to be competitive right off the bat. People who grind WZs still have better gear, but its only slightly better.

 

For example: My Sentinel used to consistently rank in the top 25% of her team in WZs before reaching 50. She hit 50 a few weeks ago, and got routinely trashed by every single person: Snipers, Sorcs, Operatives running crew missions. She could only kill someone if they were already mostly dead. After they leveled Expertise on the PvP gear, she's hanging out in the middle of the rankings. Low gear still hurts her (she's just got 2 pieces of Battlemaster gear), but she can hold her own. WZs are fun again.

Game was designed for the casual. Working as intended and couldn't be happier!

OP, I couldn't agree more.

I agree, also. It's nice to just log on for an hour or two and accomplish so much. It lets people set their own pace and doesn't end up shafting those who don't have all day (or night) to game.

No it's not. It lacks basic functionality such as appearance tab, chair sitting, cross-faction chat, addons, useful crafting skills, etc. The whole game invites to a senseless grind that only benefit the hardcore gamer.

 

If for useful crafting you mean it giving you the only access to BiS bop gear then no sorry, and no it doesn't give you a passive bonus for having a skill maxed. Crew skills are there to make money, thing that actually they do really well (except for the poor investigation). I wasn't this engaged in crafting since EVE and Fallen Earth.

I love that there are about 5 bosses per tier of raid content. Means I can actually do serious progression raiding 1 night a week. Just awesome

Yea they really make it fun to progress your toon whether you're in an active guild or not.

 

Have you tried L50 Warzones recently? After the leveling of Expertise, its much easier to be competitive right off the bat. People who grind WZs still have better gear, but its only slightly better.

 

For example: My Sentinel used to consistently rank in the top 25% of her team in WZs before reaching 50. She hit 50 a few weeks ago, and got routinely trashed by every single person: Snipers, Sorcs, Operatives running crew missions. She could only kill someone if they were already mostly dead. After they leveled Expertise on the PvP gear, she's hanging out in the middle of the rankings. Low gear still hurts her (she's just got 2 pieces of Battlemaster gear), but she can hold her own. WZs are fun again.

 

Agree and acquiring gear doesn't take very long to be on equal footing that it makes ti worth playing your alts. Before 1.6 gearing up a character in pvp with wh took too long.

it is good. I must admit I have been on longer then usual this week. maybe even a little obsessed with finishing my 3rd class story since early access. i take my time on story ( a very long time) but really wanting to finish this one.

It's a freaking game. It is SUPPOSED to be fun, quick, nice accesible, etc.

 

Whoever uses the words WORK or HARDCORE when talking about gaming is doing it wrong.

No it's not. It lacks basic functionality such as appearance tab, chair sitting, cross-faction chat, addons, useful crafting skills, etc. The whole game invites to a senseless grind that only benefit the hardcore gamer.

 

Could you please expand on how sitting in a chair is a critical feature for casual gamers?