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The Daily Grind: Does a class' popularity influence your desire to play it?
There are a few constants that dog my adventures into every MMO. I will play a female character even though I am a man, I will go nuts over pet classes if they are available, I will probably create a legion of alts before ever hitting the level cap, and I will wear stylish hats even if the stats aren't the greatest. But above all of that, the biggest constant in my playing career is that I almost always refuse to pick MMO classes that are extremely popular. I think it's because I -- like probably most of you -- like to feel unique in games, even though it's usually difficult to achieve. Choosing a class that's in the minority helps with that feeling, and conversely, going with the FOTM or whatever the kids are calling it these days makes me feel like I've got my unique snowflake status revoked. So is this insane? Do you allow class popularity to influence your desire to play it, or do you just go with whatever sounds like the most fun? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
PAX 2010: Your questions answered by SWTOR's Blaine Christine
A little over a week ago, I asked you all what questions I should ask SWTOR developers at PAX. Well, wait no longer -- the answers are here! Blaine Christine, the Senior Producer for BioWare, took some time specifically to answer some of Massively's readers' questions. There were five main categories I wanted to hit on when approaching BioWare about the content of Star Wars: The Old Republic: playable species, classes, space combat, starting zones, and endgame. I did focus heavily on endgame in the interview -- including crafting -- but I did not neglect the other portions. Player species are not that complicated at this point. BioWare hasn't really announced anything new regarding species for a couple of weeks. However, if Zabrak is not a playable species for the trooper, then the devs will have to build the species out of the game I played this weekend, because the trooper I played was definitely a Zabrak! I will dig into starting zones a bit more in depth when I do my version of a hands-on for SWTOR. That will probably end up being next week's Hyperspace Beacon. Lastly, before I begin the interview, I did not ask Blaine Christine anything about space combat because the night before the interview, Daniel Erickson, the Lead Writer for BioWare, brought it up in the official presentation, saying: "You remember that part where Han Solo and Chewbacca are in the Millennium Falcon? Han's like, 'Hey, Chewie, let's go into space, and let's just dick around. Let's go off in that direction and see if there is anything interesting'? Remember how they went off and there was this asteroid, and they mined the asteroid? Yeah, we couldn't find that either. Two things happened when you went to space. One: You took off to space when you wanted to go somewhere. You took off into hyperspace -- BAM! -- and got there. Two: You wanted to go to a battle or you were trying to go somewhere and someone stopped you. Uh oh! Giant exciting combat! ... That is why we did space combat the way we did." After the break, your other questions are answered by Blaine Christine. What's in there? Only what you take with you.
Hyperspace Beacon: Forced species
The Hyperspace Beacon is a weekly guide and discussion by Larry Everett about the yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week I was excited about the new species introduced to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the lore-lover in me is still extremely elated despite what some of the commenters said on the announcement article. However, I've had time to think about a few things, and the seed of internal conflict sowed itself in my fanboy psyche. It did not break me, but I do question some of the decisions BioWare has made regarding species-to-class choices. I do not like to draw attention to negative posts because I believe arguments can be made without berating other people and defiling the English language. But one of the posts in the recent space-combat-on-rails article reflected some of the fans' sentiment towards the game when the poster said this about BioWare's developers: "They have their formula and every new game is just fresh paint." Although I don't think it is exactly that simple, there is a bit of truth in that statement. But that does not, by any means, destine this game for failure (right, Final Fantasy?). BioWare does have a formula, but when it sticks to this formula, it usually produces something very successful. BioWare's mantra is "story." The company has chanted this from the first day SWTOR was announced, yet for me something still seems a bit amiss. Upon examining past BioWare games, I am not quite sure the reasons for tying species to a specific class actually make sense -- at least not for the reasons the company offers. Perhaps when you follow me through the rest of this article you can help me resolve this inner conflict.
