I finally cancelled my Star Wars: The Old Republic account a
few months ago. It made sense; I wasn’t
playing anymore, and even when I did get a chance to play it felt more like a
chore than fun. I never took the time to
run instances, and when I did the meticulous coordination that Operations like
Explosive Conflict required made me more of a liability than an asset to my
teammates, turning runs into a frustrating, unproductive affair. Eventually there were enough games stacking
up for me to play that it just didn’t make sense to waste time grinding Black
Hole commendations in SWTOR. Getting
gear for the sake of later being able to get better gear took on a tedious
aspect.
But time passes.
Games get expansions. Expansions
like Rise of the Hutt Cartel, expansions that I pay for for reasons I can’t
entirely explain. And eventually, after
I finish grading, after the fervor of the semester dies down, I get a chance to
sit down and play said expansions.
I started Rise of the Hutt Cartel last weekend, after tentatively
dipping my toe in the waters of SWTOR to finally earn my third class-specific buff,
and it’s everything I wanted it to be. It’s
a well crafted, distinct experience with a vibrant new storyline that recasts
the Empire faction as a believable government, a totalitarian construct that has
good intentions behind it, even if those intentions are often lost in a mire of
war crimes and struggle for personal gain.
The stakes are high, even as the story occurs in a microcosm: the Empire
is losing, and they need this mission to succeed if they’re ever going to
become more than the protective shell of an unseen Emperor. There’s a cast of characters, decisions to be
made about who to save and who to let die.
There are new daily quests, and a new array of ways to piss off Malavai
Quinn. I’m still pounding through the
early portions of the expansion, but there have already been twists and turns
aplenty. The storyline is every bit as
compelling as the class storylines I’ve played through to date, maybe even more
compelling than some of the duller bits and pieces of the Bounty Hunter
storyline. It’s been great.
The only downside is that I’ve had to play Rise of the Hutt
Cartel under the banner of SWTOR’s new Free to Play system. It’s generous of them to let me play for free
after sinking over two hundred dollars into their shit (I say that facetiously but
it is actually a nice change of pace to be able to let my subscription fee
wane) but in the process I’ve been turned into a sort of second class galactic
citizen. Basic elements of the original
game ranging from the use of advanced equipment to complete access to trade
skills are now gated behind a pay scale.
Granted, it’s a pay scale that I can readily surpass with the in-game money
that EA gave me for my loyalty as a subscriber, but the prospect of spending my
in-game currency to be able to produce what eventually becomes substandard
equipment is a bit grating. There are
other, more promising applications, such as the sale of mini-content packs
(like a new world to adventure on and a new companion to adventure with, purchased
for a little less than a dollar of in-game cash) and bits and pieces of luxury
gear that doesn’t actually impact gameplay at all, but look sweet as all
getout. But all of this is presented as
part of a contiguous mass of largely undifferentiated possible purchases.
I’m not sure I’d mind if I hadn’t spent so much time playing
as a subscriber before coming to this brave new free-to-play world, but as it
stands it’s pretty frustrating. Experience
accumulates more slowly, and the supplementary equipment gains that crafting skills
provide might seem unimportant when they’re there, but once they’re gone their
absence is conspicuous. There are also
currency caps which, particularly later in the game, are downright
draconian. Non-subscribers can only
carry around 350,000 credits, which means most useful equipment is either
unpurchasable or will exhaust the limited credit pool you’ve been keeping
around for the last month after a single purchase. Legacy upgrades, previously an important end
game credit-sink that improved play experience dramatically, can no longer be
purchased without the use of in-game currency, either to unlock the necessary
credits you’ve already earned (held in a tantalizing escrow account) or to
purchase the ability itself (at a cost comparable to the cost of unlocking your
escrow account). That means the grind
caps severely for non-subscribers who are reticent to spend real-world money on
nebulous in-game benefits, and many benefits there to make repeat play more
pleasant, like the incredibly useful and tremendously expensive Rocket Boots
Legacy upgrades, are out of reach for the casual players they’d benefit
most. And the generous bonus experience
system that made grinding through planets so easy and advancing through levels
so delightfully well paced is gone for non-subscribers, making grinding into…well,
a grind.
The flow of play that made SWTOR so superlative is now largely
gated behind a fee system. There’s still
plenty to love that you can interact with without dealing with the fee system:
remarkable overarching storylines, frenetic play that combines action, strategy
and role-playing elements fluidly, and Star Wars flavor saturating every
element of the whole package. But the
act of interacting with this system is now contained within a framework, that can be more than a little hostile if you’re
not willing to pay to get to it. And
paying for it is now more than a little problematic. The Galactic Marketplace where in-game
currency is spent is bafflingly designed.
Package deals, which look like bargains from afar, have serious shortcomings. Finding what you want to pay for is more
often than not a challenge, and the value of most of the items for sale is
questionable, at best. A package of
experience boosts might be nice, but why would I pay for a series of random
loot items when I spend most of my time selling the random loot that I’ve
already acquired? Is it worth real money
to look like a Tusken Raider instead of a Sith Lord? Or like a Rebel Alliance Pilot from the
original film? I’m not entirely sure who
these purchases are for, but I can tell that they’re not for me.
It’s a strange new system that I find myself playing within,
but it’s a testament to the joy of SWTOR that I’ve stuck around despite the
trials and tribulations of navigating this new architecture of play. The story of Makeb, hell, even the stories of
the worlds before Makeb, compel me enough to keep me plugged in for hours a
night, even though I’m more than a little concerned that I’m earning experience
so slowly in this brave new expansion world.
It won’t be long now before I fight enemies four levels above me, an
unpleasant prospect given how Accuracy and Damage function in SWTOR.
But it’s all one big adventure, I suppose, and there’s
always more grinding to be done in places like The Black Hole of Corellia. Hardmode Flashpoints will always be there,
and Operations Group Finder is more populated than ever (thankfully, because
the guild my more dedicated friend Alex got me into is quite defunct now). If I have to interact with these systems
without the benefit of super-duper rocket boots? Well, that’s a price I guess I’ll have to
pay. Or not pay. You know, because the game is (mostly) free
now.
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