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Hello TORWarriors! Here we are again with yet another podcast for your listening pleasure. This episode #129 is full of all the things we could muster over the week for our opinion cast.
“FOR MASTER YODA!!!!!!”
Here’s what you can expect:
News:
Werit’s Intel Report: Darvannis, the Shadow Dealer, and Colussus
Opinion:
What’s going on with our friends over at Darth Hater? Vox Mortis is the new content manager, he’s been an article writer at DH for about eight months, so he’s not entirely new when it comes to Hater. He answered a couple of inquiries into what’s going on over at Hater and why their readers haven’t seen them in so long. This one in response to queries about what is going on over at Hater headquarters and his OpsCom articles:
Welcome back to OpsCom after a considerable break! Expect this and other columns to return to a more regular pace from here on in, and sorry to leave you folks hanging for so long.
This response is answering questions on what’s going on over at Hater and speculation what’s going on:
Hey Folks,
I’ve already piped up in a different thread, but I wanted to speak up in this one as well. As I’ve said in the other thread, there are obviously things that I’m forbidden to discuss via contract, as well as out of consideration for all those involved. There has been a transition, and the plan at present and well into the future is to keep content coming out. A large part of the problem existed in transferring the ability to make front-page posts such as news and articles to those currently responsible, but that’s been taken care of now. Of course I won’t be able to answer specific questions involving exactly what’s going on, but I can assure you that this site isn’t going anywhere. I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for being such great members and continuing to be loyal. Posts will resume with regularity within the next day or so; again, this transition hasn’t been easy for many of us, but we’re attempting to do it as smoothly as possible, while keeping the content flowing. So, keep checking back and we’ll have some (hopefully) cool stuff up for your folks in the meantime. Thanks for your patience, and I hope we can continue to live up to the example of dedication that you’ve all provided for us in the past.
Vox
Shout Outs:
- ● Enjin.com – Thanks for the Guild/Mumble hosting for the TORWars guild!
- ● SWTOR Spy
- ● Corellian Run Radio
- ● Thanks to Liselotte (otherwise known as WowDane) and Dave Sageser for donating to the site, and helping to defray our server costs
- ● New Writers Ace and Jean
- ● TORWars.enjin.com – Shadowlands – Imperial Side
That wraps up this super short show for this week. Give us your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
TORWars Podcast #152: The Terrors of Nuturing the SWTOR Community
I like that Werit guy!
i lold
Cory Butler’s response basically said packs are a necessary evil to make money for developing the rest of the game.
We still haven’t seen any sign of them putting the assloads of money they have made from the cartel market back into the game rather than giving it all to EA.
Kind of a general blanket statement there, Moonshine. I’m not sure what you’re really looking for or what would satisfy you. I’d say if they’re hiring more people–in whatever capacity, be it CSR, dev or artist–then that’s some evidence. Continuing content rollout–such as the Ilum re-make in 1.7–would be more evidence.
I mean, sure I’d like to see some of the things most requested show up faster–more content past 1.7 or Makeb coming out faster, guild-related niceties, some of the bigger bugs fixed…heck, even chat bubbles!–but patience (abundant amounts)is paramount here. We don’t have any say in how they spend their money, nor do I really care to have that responsibility.
The thing that would make me the happiest SWTOR player in the world is to enable paid server transfers. I need all of my characters together. I refuse to re-duplicate the effort. =)
Love the flying squirrel picture! Some comments about the Cartel Market and Cartel packs. I’m a long-time subscriber, and I’ve spent $79.98 beyond my monthly subscription and accompanying CC from being a subscriber. When the CM first came out it was all very exciting. I bought a bunch of Cartel packs along with things like the rocket boost, the GTN on my ship, one chest piece for my consular, and XP character perks boosts.
My thoughts and feelings about the CM are mixed. If you want to buy things like the rocket boost and additional cargo holds, the CM is a pretty good value. I think a lot of the gear you can equip is overpriced, particularly the higher end armor sets. The Life Day items were WAY WAY overpriced (and not that interesting) and struck me as a money grab and very disappointing given that there was not an ingame holiday event or one year anniversary event.
I’ve bought in total 16 – 18 Cartel packs. Most of those packs I purchased when the CM first came out, and my pack purchases have steadily declined since then. Out of the packs I bought I got a few mounts, some pets, a Satele Shan statue, a Phantom helmet, emotes, and some adaptive armor (most of it for female characters). Nothing too exciting, just decent or okay. The items I really want are the super rares like a white crystal and an ambassador’s meditation mount. I realize my chances for getting one of these is extremely remote, so I don’t see much of a point in buying more packs. Since I’ve bought most of what I want off of the CM and unlocked the legacy perks, character perks, and cargo holds I want, I don’t see much point in buying more CC with RL money. BW needs to do something new with the packs and offer new things on the CM to get me excited again and open my wallet.
I’m not sure what to do about the super rares. On the one hand I want them and would be willing to buy them directly with CC as long as the premium price is not too outrageous. On the other hand, I do kind of want them to be rare and not have everyone walking around with or riding on the super rares.
After spending some 3,000+ cartel coins on one single type of pack to get a throne. I now have some 40 flying lizards, tons of emotes, gave away 15+ vehicles… and no throne. And I am now only spending my coins on legacy perks and account unlocks.
I think they should make certain items become available for direct purchase say 4 months after the packs hit the market. So you pay a less amount for a chance to get it in the packs, and then several months later you pay a direct charge that’s much higher.
Great podcast again guys!. I just want to say I am so thankful for being apart of this great guild and I absolutly love all of your podcasts.I will have to say the last 2 have been rather short, like only 25 minutes or so compared to an hour. Please make them longer, I listen to these at work to pass the time. I don’t care if there isn’t to much to cover, just talk about anyting
I also enjoy the live streaming of the raids.
I also get my bonus check in the begning of March and I plan to donate some money. I love this website, podcast, & guild and want to see it continue
Anyway, my view on the Cartel Packs are they should still be different. I do understand some of the worthless stuff that are in them but they should still be different worthless stuff. All of the items should be different with the exception of maybe some of the experience buffs since you can’t really get too different on those. But that is just my 2 cents.
Speaking of buttloads of money, paid server transfers will be it.
Hopefully we see it shortly after the expansion.
And hopefully Bioware eventually learns not to be so tightlipped about what’s coming in the near (next week to six months) future. Then we can have more info for longer podcast shows!
Shouldn’t it be called what pooh-storm did Brian start this time? (joke)
If im not mistaken the things that are the same in the different packs are the xp boost, crafting material and companion gift. Since these are consumables it doesn’t really matter if you are getting a lot of the same. Unless there’s certain aspects like space you don’t play or don’t have a lot of alts, these are things you can always use more of, to speed up leveling of alts and to craft. So I really don’t see the big problem in these being the same, when you know what you are getting. The exciting stuff is the last two spots which are different from pack to pack.
Ofcourse the dancer outfits in different color is not good enough, I agree on that. And the novelty is wearing off a bit, I only bought 1 or 2 of the last two packs. If there is something I really wan’t I juse get it on the GTN. Maybe start with some other armor than leg, chest and head pieces.
I think the cartel packs are a fun idea, I think i’d buy more if I knew that the packs had more clarity on the items available and unique items only available in each pack. For instance if every pack gets 5 unique armor items from one or two sets, rares that they require that are subclass orientated and boosts etc that can be random. In fact why not take the randomness out a bit and make them more class orientated so people are getting most of what they need for their class, followed by packs that provide unique adaptive armors. The current system is far too random and not worth my time and money hoping for an item i may like. So less randomness, less items in each pack but packs that are more specific, how about some random high level companion gifts or something absolutely everyone uses, rather than stuff that ohh i can sell that, in each pack that ARE usefull and essential to the build up of characters and companions. How about even some rare legacy unlocks and perks, even new upcoming species unlocks. Probably showing myself up now but havent bough packs in ages since the first ones!
Just listened to the podcast,
It would of been nice to of put a link to werits blog on the noted or on here. He gave a nice post supporting Tor wars page below
http://www.weritsblog.com/2013/01/werit-on-torwars.html?m=1
Thank you for your suggestion. We didn’t mean to forget him. There are many wonderful things happening behind the scenes here at TORWars HQ and it was a momentary slip of the mind.
Thank you for watching his back, I’m sure he appreciates it.
I have to agree with the comments about the cartel packs. When speaking with Damion Schubert at the New Orleans Cantina that “Magic the Gathering” was one of the inspiring trading card games that the developers looked at when coming up with the cartel packs. The key thing to note with each new “card collection” is that a new set of commons and uncommons are set up as well, which even if you don’t get that super rare card you still see a lot of new things. In the cartel packs that isn’t the case.
I don’t want to go on an EA bashing trip right now, but I do have some comments from a business and marketing stand point. EA has been known for looking at the short term profits much more than long term investment and customer satisfaction. Regardless of the complains that many players have about the cartel packs, a large chuck of players are still spending real life money to buy things from the cartel market. With a company as short term profit driven as EA (take Madden sports for example) they will not change the business model to something different if they are making such a large profit, not to mention the fact that they seemed to think that SWTOR was going to be a low profit game just a few months okay. I would even go to say the people at the game itself aren’t going to change anything right now with this much money coming at them. Its like winning the Powerball, are you going to turn to down the big payout right away for the annual payments? Majority of people take the big payout right away and don’t worry about the rest. I understand its hard for BioWare to go hey we are going to changes things when all this new profit is being thrown in their face, but long term investment is what keeps an MMO going.
I have hope for the future and I believe in time things will turn around, but I don’t see any changes to the cartel market till profits from it take a big hit.