I haven’t updated in a while. And by a while, I mean an entire week at the least. I could take this time to apologize for not posting and for being lazy and not writing anything for so long, but instead, I’ll give you an excuse!
I’m home for the holidays, at last. This last semester felt a lot more brutal than it actually was, but regardless I’m glad that it’s over. And in accordance with the huge sigh of relief which is the break, I have busied myself with doing absolutely nothing constructive whatsoever. This includes writing in my blog, as you’ve probably noticed. But hey. Chances are, by “you” I mean either someone I’ve directly given this link to or someone who has had this link given to them by a friend of mine. Translation: I’m fully aware of the fact that I have a very small following, if one exists at all. So you’ll probably forgive me! Because somewhere in my mind, smaller groups of people equate to a higher willingness to forgive. It makes sense in my head, don’t question it.
So now you’re probably wondering, “What have you been doing with all that time you should have been spending writing your blog for our entertainment?”
Well, the answer will likely come as no surprise to anyone. It isn’t that I haven’t tried to write anything. I have, believe me. But every time I’ve sat down to write, and even after getting a good amount written sometimes, I’ve been overcome by the overwhelming desire to do something else. Literally anything else that isn’t writing. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to overcome with this blog, so uh… problem admitted. However, more importantly, at least 90% of the time the activity I have chosen to do instead of writing has been….
Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Yes, folks, I am a Star Wars guy. Not the over-the-top, believes in the Force, cosplays and goes to conventions type Star Wars guy, mind you. However, I have constructed a lightsaber which I’m quite proud of, proceeded to then take a picture of and photoshop a blade onto said lightsaber, and would probably happily discuss how it was better when Han shot first with you on a first date. (If you wouldn’t happily have that same conversation with me, don’t worry. We likely wouldn’t be on a date to begin with.) I love the Star Wars universe, (not the books because most of them suck) and no, I will not read your Star Wars fanfiction on DeviantART.
So you can only imagine my absolute unbearable joy when I found out that a Star Wars-themed MMORPG was going to be released this year. I followed the developments, I watched the cinematic trailers, I deeply envied the beta testers… The only word which can accurately describe my reaction to this game: Nerdgasm.
And now I have it. And here’s the story.
As I have mentioned before, I am a poor college student. I’m unemployed (save for a freelance job writing game reviews which I’m not technically paid for, don’t ask) and so I’m living a very limited life. As such, I was unable to afford the game when the pre-release was launched on the 15th. However, after acquiring a bit of Christmas money, I was able to pre-order…
…The day before the official release. Yes, I pre-ordered this game for the opportunity to play it one single day before the store-shelf release. And you know what? I didn’t get to play it until then. Because my computer’s memory was so full that it took literally all night long to download and install the game. After that point, though, it was all over. I loaded up my new addiction, and I was gone.
Class Selection time! Before we delve into this, let’s take a moment for a brief observation of gaming history. On the 23rd of November in 2004, the greatest scourge to ever strike the gaming world crawled from the dark pits known as Blizzard Entertainment. It reared its ugly head and smote the rest of the MMO world with an iron fist, stealing their subscribers and becoming the dominating force in computer gaming. They called it World of Warcraft. It implemented a two-faction system, something its fanatics were eager to praise it for (completely ignoring the fact that Dark Age of Camelot had done the same thing years before with its three-faction system) and thus created a trend among online games in which two-faction systems became the standard, because WoW did it and it worked for them. Similarly, SW:TOR presented me with a two-faction system. Light Side, or Dark Side. But really, how else were they going to do that? So all you WoW people who love to point out all the things BioWare took from WoW? Stuff it. Derailing rant aside, I created a Jedi Knight because I had to, out of principle (because it’s Star Wars! How can I not make a Jedi?) but then began to explore other options.
“So,” the game asked me, “Would you like to play a Force-wielding character with a lightsaber and some awesome melee combat abilities?” I pondered this for a moment. “Sure seems tempting,” I said.
“Well how about I offer you a heavy armor-wearing badass equipped with blasters, flamethrowers, jetpacks, thermal detonators and freaking ROCKETS fired from his wrists?”
“Hell yeah I wanna play that!” I said, as I immediately took the more sensible option and chose the Dark Side. Thus, my Bounty Hunter was created.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have been playing this game for almost three straight days. And when I say that I don’t mean I’ve been logging in for gaming sessions between other things for days. I mean I have logged in when I woke up and logged out before I went to sleep. This is absolutely abnormal for me. I have played a lot of MMORPGs before in the past, and one thing I cannot do is grind. I cannot sit there and tirelessly drag myself through the character levels without getting completely bored of the game before a few hours are up. It’s for this reason that I have only ever maxed out one single character in an MMO. In SW:TOR, however, I have reached level 18 in just three days of play, and leveling isn’t exactly quick in this game. Why? The story. This game is highly story-driven and I can easily endure the quests and mobslaying for the sake of advancing the story.
So there you have it. That’s why I haven’t been updating.
SW:TOR is a hell of a drug.
-The Sarcastic Soul-
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