Usually when I wake up in a good mood and begin pouring over twitter, facebook, swtor, swtor-life, darth hater, CRR, MER, etc…  it only takes about 15-20 minutes of reading before my mood is shot to shit and I develop an urge to commit homicide by tossing swtor forum members into a Sarlacc.  Today, I am unusually surprised to find one hell of a gem buried in the pile of rehashed shit and whipped to death horses.  This of course got me thinking, and well all know how badly that usually turns out.

The Official SWTOR forum user Revchong posted a GREAT idea and topic.  A mobile Pazzak App.    Thats right.  A WoW inspired idea that doesn’t make me want to pour acid on Jawas until my rage subsides.

There are tons of possibilities that I personally hadn’t thought of.

• Crafting Monitor App.
• Jawa Punting.
• Space Darts
• Space Donkey Shows
• etc…

This would provide BioWare with a micro-transaction or as they like to call it “service” (which I believe is Latin for “gimme all your money dumbass”) option that didn’t make them appear to be greedy money whoring, space bitches.  They would be extra services that really add functionality to the game that really only affect people who give a crap about that particular section of BW/SW cannon.  The rest of us would never know it was even there.  Nor would most of us even care.  God knows I wouldn’t.  Well maybe the Space Donkey show idea…

Now as much as I hate the idea of micro-transactions and people running around with little flying Jawas or pet Wamprats that do cute little things like OD on death-sticks every 30 seconds or nibble your bum when you stand still, this idea I think is sound.  Additional revenue for game funding without impacting a subscription plan and forcing us to endure a glowing button ingame that flashes every time they release a new pet Mini-Wookie [mini-wookie 2011 Flagg – Patent pending] that glitters like a barbie doll after a 3 day crack binge.

We all know BioWare and EA are on this moronic and silly yet persistent “social networking” kick to exploit the huge market of internet stalkers and pedophiles around the world (THANKS FACEBOOK!) because, well, lets face it.  The majority of them are idiots and have more money than common sense.  I guess in retrospect I would milk them for every penny too.  In the immortal words of my hero Forrest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does”.    If they choose to implement something like this, the sheer volume of  “tweens”  (once again, latin for “to young to have a job but old enough to spend money”) that will bolster the games income could be justified, not to even mention adults that think $50 for  pixels of a see through wanna-be pegasus is a sound investment.  I have some great beachfront property on Hoth if you are interested…

In conclusion I would like to point out that I am an opinionated bastard with a lot of issues pent up having to do with my uncle forcing micro-transactions on me at a very young age.  I think he works for Cryptic now.  Anyway….

If I had my way I would go to BioWare and smack a release date out of them, then proceed to hide all the office snacks until I got a beta invite, but as much is in life: It just ain’t like that.  So I wait and seethe.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me, that I despise micro-transactions and simply will not play games based on pay-to-win.  So why do I think this is a good idea?  Simple.  I don’t have to see it, experience it, or deal with it in any way.  Out of sight, out of mind.  I respect BioWare and their talent and skill, but I remain steadfast in one opinion. Someone should force-pimpslap their   PR department.  With less than 8 months until the announced window closes, we know exactly enough to cover less than 4 minutes worth of commentary on G4.   That’s so sad I think i’m gonna go adopt a kid from one of those Sally Struthers countries.  At least that way I can meet Jabba and get a cheap lawn service while I wait.

Something I have been wondering about for quite some time is the level of item one can expect to craft after a “crafting crit” takes place during item creation.  Will the created item be on par with raid loot drops, PVP drops, or other drops or rewards from missions?
Read on!

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My question to you today is:

Based on your normal play style how do you see yourself acquiring the materials you need to craft in SWTOR?

Will you use the auction house mechanic relying on other players to provide the auctions for you to buy, or will you rely on yourself and your companions to gather what you need via the gathering mechanics and the missions?

Read on!

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There is an Electronics Arts event being held in London, and as we reported earlier a big announcement for The Old Republic was anticipated at the event. Bioware delivered in a big way on this promise and gave us details on both crafting and PvP warzones.

SWTOR Crafting

Crafting will have three major groups – Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. For now, we have been presented with two professions in each of the groups:

Crafting system is completely innovated in comparison to what we are used to seeing in other MMOs. You will be able to use your companions for crafting! The “Crew Skill crafting system” means that you will be able to send your companions on crafting tasks and specialize them in certain crafting branches. Sending out your companion on a Treasure Hunt can bring you a rare item based on random number generator. Certain companions will excel better at certain professions than others (the example provided was Vette, Sith warrior companion, who will excel at Treasure Hunting). You will be able to send companions on crafting missions from anywhere in the world and you will be able to queue your tasks for them. It is still unclear whether different companions will be able to have different crafting tasks at the same time or you can have one task at a time (with multiple companions working on it), but I believe we will soon find out.
A very interesting mechanic was mentioned concerning gathering. If you have your companion with you adventuring; once you see something that you can gather, instead of moving your character there to gather, your companion will do it for you while you continue fighting or doing whatever you were doing.

For all you crafting buffs out there here’s a very interesting quote from the event:

It is a very robust system, and there are still some details that we haven’t revealed yet which I know players are going to be excited about. I will just say there are some mechanics to it that will allow players who are more involved in crafting to really get deeply involved in crafting and be appropriately rewarded for it.

SWTOR PvP Warzones

We received details on Alderaan’s warzone that was previously announced at E3 but without going into too much depth. The most important points are:

• 8 vs. 8 combat
• objective-based PvP with a goal of controlling an area
• rewards tokens
• rewards XP

The way this warzone will work is that each team starts at their drop ship in the skies. They have means of transportation to get to the ground. Once there they fight to get control over planetary’s defenses. Whoever controls the defenses starts firing on the other team’s drop ship. The winner is the team that destroys the other team’s dropship.

The other thing we learned is that each warzone will have different objectives and mechanics involved. For example, the next warzone that will be revealed will take place on a derelict starship and will have completely different mechanics than Alderan’s. Here’s a quote from Darth Hater’s original article that I found most interesting:

BioWare’s PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo said they wanted Warzones to fit in with the story element of the game. When they looked at PvP, they decided that banners, flags and points were “too game-y.”

These two reveals have once again changed our way of looking at this game once again. The crafting system is much more intricate than we initially though it will be. The warzones mechanics looks legit and fun from a PvP buff point of view. Everything is starting to fall right into place and we are now more excited about the game than ever before.