SWTOR: F2P

This is a difficult discussion to have at this very moment. As it is, F2P in SWTOR is in a state of flux, and they are slowly granting the Preferred class of players more for having spent money. Essentially, a Gold Membership still have the best deal, if you are going to be doing EVERYTHING in SWTOR, otherwise, you can piecemeal yourself the aspects of the game that you want.

The issue is that for a while, if you weren't Gold, you might as well not even bother. But they are changing that. As a note, I spent $5, to get Preferred status. That means I get several bonuses, as well as unlocking some cosmetic functionality (legacy name display, for example).

Things I don't like in the game, are things like, having to unlock the ability to wear Purple gear (unnecessary as it may be, it limits what I can get from the game). As well as unlocks for accessing certain gear. Even your partner's skin requires an unlock to use, and to even get at one point! That's right, there are rewards you cannot pick up unless access to it is unlocked. And you can't even unlock it later to use in most cases!

That aside, they have quite a few cosmetic items, which I'd be interested in, if I invest enough into the game to get to level 50. The game is quite playable for free, but I suggest dropping at least $5, even early on, to get the preferred member status.

Also, though the limit is only 2 characters, you can make 2 characters per server, so it is quite possible to negotiate all the storylines. As far as I can tell, members to go from Gold to F2P will keep their characters, but only 2 can have items bought for them. I would need further testing though, and I just didn't have the money to test it out.

If you like the game, I suggest getting the $5 bonus pack they sell in the cartel store (gives a lot of little trinkets, a ride, and gives you preferred status).

Overwhelming Schedule

I'm going to be taking a break for the holidays. Between work and now 2 high speed classes to attend, I simply don't have much time for anything else. I think that after the holidays I'll have more time to devote to side projects. See you then!

Pathfinder Passion Penumbra

I had never played D&D 3, 3.5 or Pathfinder before. A couple of weeks ago, I had my first Pathfinder game with some new friends. The interesting thing is that this was with a relatively newer DM (dungeon master) and with a team and system I was not familiar with. There were times where I was acting a certain way, which mechanically was counter to my benefit. A few other things went wrong with the game as well: I was tired from a long day of work, the DM favors realism/simulation, we were playing online instead of face to face, we were using a program new to most of us (and it was buggy to boot).

Regardless of this, the game was fun, and I learned a bit about the mechanics of the game (I always prefer to learn "live"). The thing is that it made me want to DM again (DMing was my primary activity in almost all D&D and RP games I have played). It made me realize how much I loved crafting story and combat events for players.

Thing is, I don't really want to also learn this program that we used (using it as a player is fine, but our DM seemed to have spent a lot of time on this). My solution would probably be to set something up in google docs drawing, but I would need to find a shared screen die roller.

Also, I really only have experience with 2nd edition and 4th edition (I'm probably skipping next and going for the edition after next). So if anyone has experience with DMing multiple game systems from D&D, I'd love to hear some good tips.

I'm not sure if I'd like to DM a Pathfinder game, or a strong simulation game (the group seems to have a strong hate for 4th edition), but I'm definitely thinking about it.

League of Legends - Honor Initiative

For a little bit now, League of Legends has started an initiative, where at the end of a match, a player gets rewarded by the others with praises of being helpful, friendly or displaying good teamwork or friendly competition. This is a post-game mechanic that is added beyond the typical "gg" at the end of a game.

The interesting thing is... that its working. I have seen an increase in the number of players saying thank you, glhf and in general at least saying hello. Where as before, that was something that existed and was slowly starting to slag off.

Now this does not mean that the opposite has been abandoned. Several, players still continue to swear, and deteriorate into juvenile actions. The fact, that such a system can at least encourage those who used to be nice to come back out of their shells, is huge.

I think that many more games should try to encourage things like this. Loading bumpers with, "Always start a game with a Good Luck, Have Fun," or "Help those who are new, don't forget you used to be new yourself!"

I've covered such actions before in an older post, but I feel that the company actively sending messages, being supportive will greatly help those who play that way to do so, regardless of the jerks and trolls. Let people be positive, let people who are negative be punished, and let the players dictate that.

Sure there are times when such mechanics will be gamed, but I think it is a great support to continual and traditional customer support and service. Between this initiative, and the tribunal, I think that Riot is taking several steps in the right direction, and that other MMOs should start looking to Riot on how to curb certain behaviors.

Tetrahedron Twister

Well, here's an upload of a game I made for last month's class.

Its buggy, but I'm really proud of it. I'm using it as a prototype of what I can do, perhaps in game maker.

goo.gl/MXiCu

The concept (since the tutorial was slapdashed together) is for the player to make each side of a tetrahedron have the same color, by picking up one color tile at a time.

Please post any reviews or comments below. Thank you.