Good day, TORWarriors! Recently our own Mark Douville wrote an article about players racing to the level cap and today I’d like to present the other side of this debate. The general feeling is that players that reach level cap within weeks (or months in some cases) are “content whores”, “rushers”, “content locusts“, or even “@#$&!”
The mountain only got bigger as time went on...
And this is echoed in the comments. Every article or mention of this has brought about hoards of condemners and hatred for those have reached cap so quickly. With my flame shield firmly on overdrive: I reached level cap within six days. Does this mean I rushed the game? Does it mean the game means less to me? Does it mean I talk in l33t numbers? Does it mean I call everyone else a n00b? Of course it doesn’t. I’d been a fan of the KOTOR series since it came out; and since completion of the series I’d been eagerly awaiting part three of the story.
When Star Wars: The Old Republic was slowly being hinted at I was sat on the edge of my seat; and when the official site went live I signed up within the hour and then subsequently followed it until its release. So it’s clear I care about the game (in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m writing for a fan site…) and I don’t talk in numbers; and I certainly don’t call everyone else a n00b.
So why did I complete the game in such short a time? Because, after more than four years waiting, the game finally came. It’s as simple as that. Spare energy up to release was spent on day dreaming about the game; thinking about the story; how it will feel; how it will make me feel. Can I and others be truly blamed for suddenly redirecting that energy on release with the intention to truly immerse ourselves and experience the story? I purposefully completed essays and other work so that I could have the holiday period well and clear for me to spend the long days I did on the game (if that isn’t an expression of love for the project, I don’t know what is).
The strength of the hatred is.... puzzling
My tale is not unique. Many others feel the same way. And I really don’t see why we receive hate for doing what we have done as this act, in my eyes, resembles a true outburst of passion and love for the project (which could have been demonstrated in many other ways). Granted, there are those that rushed all the content. There are those that did skip the story and space bar every conversation. I was not one of them. Every quest was completed. Every location discovered. Every planet mapped. This is not a boast; but a presentation to show that those that reached ‘cap mountain’ did not all rush the game, we did not all space bar every conversation, we did not call everyone else n00b.
Have I complained that there isn’t enough content? Have I said that it’s boring at end-game? I’ve certainly never said there isn’t enough content because anyone that’s followed the project knows that there isn’t a game out there with more content. Anyone that does say that is clearly trolling you; SWTOR is in the Guinness world record book for having such a giant bank of voice acting – it’s well established there’s more than enough content (maybe too much, some critics have suggested).
End-game is boring. There has never been a game where end-game hasn’t been boring. You’ve done your story, you’ve done all your quests. What else is there? There are dailies to do; and they can be done in an hour or two. Then what? There’s PvP; but sometimes PvP can get a bit old; and if you have a few bad games you take a break from it. There’s Operations and Flashpoints. Operations require a full team and are then subsequently locked out for six days unless you do them on a Monday for the Tuesday reset. Flashpoints are heaps of fun; but you can do them to death – and there isn’t always a party knocking around.
Flame shield: Activate!
That is the reality of end-game for all games. Of course it’s boring because there’s only so much content that can be put out; saying end-game is boring is a no brainer. Anyone that’s been in an MMO before knows that true end-game comes from guilds, friends, and in many ways, making your own fun. To clarify, I’m not saying the listed above are dull or boring; I’m saying the reality of end-game content relies heavily on friends and collaborative effort since end-games often have little solo content (which means that you get bored because everything requires a group).
Is there really any need to be so angry at those that reached cap so quickly? Everyone played the game under different circumstances. As I said earlier, I purposefully cleared my schedule so that I could devote time to the game – time I no longer have. Yes, there are those that rushed the game and it’s meaty content; but that is not all of us. I believe the term ‘rush’ should be used more positively. I ‘rush’ yes, but I ‘rush’ to content, to new content, to old content; that doesn’t mean I rush through it.
I remember that when I reached cap and then subsequently went to PvP – which meant standing on the Republic Fleet – I was besieged by a bunch of level 30′s bitching at me for reaching 50. I had done nothing to them; I hadn’t done anything to offend them; I was simply waiting for a PvP match. They did not know my story; they did not know why had I reached 50 so soon; they did not know that I had time then that I do not have now. They judged me on sight without even taking the time to learn about my story.
How is that fair? And why should it exist within a community? It marred what I considered to be a pretty perfect experience so far. Do you want to be a part of that? I certainly don’t.
TORWars Podcast #77: The Big Subscribers Discussion
Galaxy of Guilds - Stellar Corsairs
Jedi Knight Weekly: Slaying the Dragon
James Ohlen Dishes Out Specific Expertise and PvP Damage Formulas
SWTOR Comic Strip: Fail Hunter Episode 35
A lot of the hate directed at people at cap is pure envy. “They got where I want to be first.”
But the other and more substantial part has been fostered by game designers over the years. People rushing to cap means more dev time is directed towards those at cap, fluffing up the endgame , instead of making the leveling experience richer.
We have yet to see that with SWTOR which has a rich leveling experience already and where fixing the bugs in it seems to be a high priority.
But if patch 1.1.1 is nay indication, we might see more of that: a level 50 Flashpoint was introduced, a level 50 Operation was expanded. Sure, those are things that have been on the schedule for a year, and yes, content around 50 peters out and needs improving… but if it goes as it did in other games, that the devs focus on a small number of raiding guilds exclusively, putting out content that a maximum of 10% of the player base will ever see, it might be more understandable why some might feel the hatred was justified.
I would +1 your comment if I could, Thorn.
)
I don’t have any issue with those that hit 50 in the first week. Just those that did that, then instantly slammed the forums with omg this game fails, end game is boring pvp sux type posts.
If your that much of a fan to power through 50 levels in a week then surely your enough of a fan to understand end-game content will come and that you could be constructive instead of just bitching?
Quite often it appears the SWTOR community reached its level of jerks, haters and trolls in super fast motion compared to other MMOs, even without the need of any kind of LFD tool. Your experience of actually getting harassed as level 50 by multiple other players in the fleet is another sad evidence. My hope is that it will get better once the tourists have buggered off.
Is there really any need to be so angry at those that reached cap so quickly?
No not at all.
Is there really any need to be so angry at the attitude of alot of those that reached cap so quickly?
Of course, they add like spoiled white rich kids. Funny thing is, as we all know, the majority of those twits will be gone in less than 6 months.
Not all spoiled kids are white. Or rich, for that matter. xP
I think the anger is part envy at burning through the game that fast, and part frustration with the people who burn through the content that fast and then a. gripe on the forum about lack of content or b. take on the ‘I’m better than you because I got to lvl 50 in 2 days!!11!!eleventy-one!!11!!’ attitude–annoying at best, trolling at worst.
I will tell anyone that powerlevels to 50 in a very short time that they’re missing some pretty amazing aspects of the game that can’t be experienced any other way but by taking your time to explore and run around the planets, but otherwise, if getting to level 50 in 37 hours is fun, hey, whatever floats their boat.
–> is still working on getting to 50….
Great points Anthony! While I obviously fall on the other end of the spectrum, I commend your defense of yours. Plus I am in total agreement with you about the angry trolls. There is no reason to get mad or belittle someone for getting to 50 so quickly or still having a level 15. People should play the game how they see fit and at their own pace. I merely offer my side of it.
It’s not the fact that people hit the level cap so quickly. I don’t care that they’re level 50 or that they got there before me. It’s the entitled/superior attitude of many of the people who hit the level cap so quickly. People who raced to the cap, only to turn around and complain that there wasn’t enough to do. People who yelled at you if you didn’t spacebar through flashpoints and other group content. The people who deride anybody who hasn’t hit 50 yet. Those are the sorts of people that most of the vitriol is directed at.
What armor is that in the SWTOR_Flame_Station pic
The chest piece is Mindful Guardian (i think i got in Quesh, not sure) and the rest is crafted armor around the Quesh level i think.
why should there be an issue for people that hit 50 when they implemented leveling, not story progression. the 100million they spent on voice acting is just spaced through. They designed the game with a very linear progression, not to make you stop and think: Am what i’m doing? is bad or good? should I continue or do something else for my Class, Race, Alignment in this quest I am doing??? Why does every game company copy and paste what is successful from other games? nothing innovative. Why not instead have every single quest be something beneficial like a spell , class choice, then good bad alignment, talent trees race/style.
TLDR: 100million dollars spaced though.
I don’t suppose you could rephrase that a bit? Right now it sounds like you’re saying that the leveling component of SW:TOR doesn’t have strong story elements, which… Well I’m assuming you haven’t been living under a rock since 2008.
I don’t think it was so much that people were angry at others who fly through the game, but rather the ones who do it and say there’s nothing to do. I think most people expected to hit level cap and then for the game to start like most other mmo’s (Aion, DDO, Vindictus……..small game called WoW). The reality is though that BW put a lot of their creative minds towards the personal story lines throughout the game. Most of us who have been used to the same old get to cap so you can play scenario that some forgot to enjoy the leveling process. Yes the cut scenes get repetitive but I burned through once and found myself at a loss. Now I re-rolled and found what an immense game this actually is. I do love end game but hey there still 7 other stories I need to see first.
I don’t know how you guys managed to do it. I spent about a week and a half of playing most of the day to hit 50 doing literally everything. There is so much content to do on the way to leveling I don’t believe its possible to even attempt to do it all. I skipped 2 planets worth of quests on my alt to start Tatooine at level 22 and I STILL OUTLEVLED THE QUESTS. How can I be a content locust if I can’t even experience half the content without taking some effort to ensure it won’t be completely wasted? God forbid you try to do anything but quests you’ll outpace the planets your on so quick your head will spin. Now I don’t really care that there are only 3 warzones to do all day I play but I do care that pvp is fundamentally broken, abilities not firing off correctly spending 14 GCDs to try and use an instant cast ability, getting chain CC’d while sitting with a full resolve bar why did anyway think it would be a good idea for Roots to not build resolve and to basically be the best CC in the game as resolve doesn’t stop them or get built but they essentially do the same thing as a stun most of the time they are used. Is it really so much for a “finished” game to work as intended? Also ps all of these pvp things are applicable from level 1 on it isn’t a level 50 only thing.
I hit level 50 in about 11 days on my sorcerer. I was not racing I did alot of the story (wont lie just did my story quest and got the heck off of taris didn’t like that planet), I am not a spoiled white kid, and don’t look down at people that haven’t leveled as fast as me.
I have however been picked on byt lower level people saying you just rushed (I never hit spacebar during convo’s). Anyways if BW didn’t want me to go through the game so fast maybe they shouldn’t have made the darn stories so good.
Could just be me (won’t give any spoilers here) but this is the only mmo I have ever played that during a couple of my sorcerer’s cut scenes towards the end I literally had goose bumps. I won’t tell any of it to potential sorc’s out there all I can say is the ends of all 3 acts are friggin awesome. I didn’t race to level I just couldn’t walk away from my story I always wanted to see what was going to happen next.
I also have a 40 bounty hunter and am having the same problem with his story. For my sorc wasn’t so bad I took a 2 week vacation for launch but now I have to make myself log off my bounty hunter cause i can’t keep coming to work with no sleep.
People on both sides need to just let it go you’ll get 50 when you get there. Like most of life it’s not the destination that is so important or enjoyable but the journey you took to get there that is really special. I for 1 love BW for the journey I had with my sorcerer and so far for the journey I am on with my bounty hunter
It took me a month to get to level 50, but I wanted to do it before school was back in, and we went back on Jan 19th. I only used the spacebar on alien conversations pretty much. I was addicted to the story and everyone knows the smuggler lines are some of the best delivered in the game. I just have been playing MMOs for a long time and was efficient with quests and exploration. I still have some datacrons left, but I wanted to leave some things to do. I just did my matrix relic last night actually.
The problem isn’t that some people level fast, hell I did, but that some of them don’t care about the story. The kind of people who only care about the end game pulls priority to develop more end game instead of story, and that can make people like me angry because the very essens of this game is story, and story should always be a high priority. If you want to live by the “game starts at end game” philosophy go play wow or something, just don’t ruin a story based game with your endgame fanatism.
I think the ‘anger’ from some ‘non-50s’ is two-fold:
-As has been stated, ‘some’ of the early level 50s were the ones screaming/whining that they needed more content. (and honestly, what level 30 is going to run to the forums to scream “end game needs more stuffs!”?)
-The game has a number of issues that need to be fixed. Seeing resources used to develop new content annoys those who are suffering from those issues. (And I know that the bug-fixing team and the new-content team are different, just pointing out how it might appear to others).
This game is great, but the downside to ‘story-driven’ is that the devs control the pace. Being more story-driven that WoW means this game is even more dependent on timely additions to end-game; or the max levels will be taking breaks from their subs, as happens in that other game. Bioware seems to have the commitment to that continual end-game race, and the players who are fighting issues with bugs and such see that as the proverbial ‘slap in the FACE!’
(As I said, I think the game is great. I’m having fun, no real issues, no problem with folks who made 50 quickly. I’m just voicing my opinion of why ‘some folks’ might be angry at the ‘early 50s’.)
man I love you for this article.. this is just what Ive wanted to type to so many of those /whingers’ out there in those first few weeks. I hit 50 in about a week [.... or less
], but had devoured every conversation, every quest and all those beautiful sights that can only exist in Star Wars. I played it for three days straight without ever feeling fatigued, because for those first three days – I WAS SITH. I was my warrior… very literally in my head… I used to /getdown and follow my warriors moves in front of the pc.. I was insane… in love …. Sure its boring at 50 now, Ive got a couple of alts that are fun and yeah…. just awesome.. thanks bioware.. I am stunned by the amount of creativity that the human mind can create and let others enjoy.
Its the people that lurk in the battle grounds that hack me off… ok so you want to be lvl 50 but do it properly, dont let down a team of 7 other players that want to win. I watched one guy (Marek – Trask-ungo) go from 36 – 42 in a matter of hours. Now i know this guy is probably a gold seller but it still really upsets me!