Sounds to me like a big PR spin of "We know our game has a lot of problems, but we want your money, so umm, yea, we are fixing things just for you."  What a bunch of bull.

Best bet is to go to newegg.  I doubt though you will find a laptop for 700 dollars that has the graphics card you want.  I could be wrong, but last time I looked, the high 600 series cards were anywhere from 14-1800 dollars for the laptop.

That's Kajmir for you.  She is quite demanding, and if you don't act super grateful, that is what happens.  There are plenty of folks like that in Wurm, and that is why I quit after 3-4 months.  I hated having to deal with the elites bitching and yelling at each other over stupid things like this.  Don't feel slighted though m8, she does this to everyone.  She sadly is a piece of work, and with her (husband) she is even worse.  I know both of them, and while he can be nice, and isn't so demanding like her, she is a tyrant.  Sucks that you left, but I guess better now then investing tons of time into it.

There is room for sandbox games if a company comes along that is dedicated to it, and doesn't limit themselves to exclusively the PVP crowd.  I know there are a lot of folks out there that like PVP, and that is fine.  But there are a lot of us that like PVE only as well, and there is maybe 2-3 games total that are sandbox like that don't force you to PVP.  All of these games barely have 500 people playing, and have such slow development times that honestly it isn't worth investing the time.  So get a decent company to make one, that can cater to both, and you will see that a sandbox game can work.  All you need to do is give the players the tools to have fun, we will do the rest.

Think that could be said of any game really though.  Any game that has released in the last 2-3 years has enough problems that there is tons of posts about bad things about it.  Part of it is the developpers faults, for releasing with such bugs, and greedy measures, but the other is our fault I think.  Too much negativity, and the desire to see games fail, that it is all we care about.  Maybe we are just too picky, or maybe we are just so bored with games in general, that we will find fault with anything.

Originally posted by Shodanas

 

All game genres with minor exceptions are being simplified as of lately, it's time to accept this. The game in your signature is far less complex and way more simplified than Morrowind. Does this make it a bad or a mediocre game? 

 

Why should we as gamers "accept" this.  Sure there are those who like simple to play games.  There are also people who love complex, complicated, games, and gameplay as well.  I'll even throw you a bone and say that maybe the mentality of people is simple = better, and that is why devs and game makers are doing this.  But do you really believe we challenge seeking people should just lay down, and not voice our concerns?  Should we not care about how games aren't fun for us anymore just because the majority of people like it so easy that a 5 year old could do it?  I care, and clearly others like  Lobotomist do as well. 

Sadly, if we all just lay down, and say nothing, then what point is there to game in the first place.  I'm guessing the developers and big studios have crystal balls and know exactly what we want.

Quite a weekend indeed.  First it was TERA, and now this game.  Wonder if it will hinder interest for either with them both having this big open beta weekend. 

Wonder if they are actually making money with those rates.  Honestly, it seems cheaper to just sub instead of this cash shop.  It is amazing what cash shops have become over the years. :(

 You know the irony, I can remember more details about EQ dungeons than i can in any of the instances in the current MMO's.  It wasn't just blast your way through the dugeons spells blazing, you had to be careful not to pull strays, watch out for roamers and adds, all while managing your resources such as mana (you could quickly burn down a mob but then you had downtime and couldn't get out of combat to drink a drink and be back to full in 10 seconds).

You talk about variety in gameplay, almost every dungeon that has come out lately in current MMO's is a straight path from start to end. No winding coredors that can get you lost, no secrets, no incentive to explore in essence they really arent dungeons they would be more aptly named "Guantlets" (not to be confused with the old school game) where you run from one end to another and hope to survive to the end to get a prize.

In the newer MMO's you are just shuttled from one area to another with quests most people don't even look around them they just run towards where there arrow is pointing them. Also whats the point in quests if all you do (or rather what most people do) is just look at the objective without even caring about the lore. No incentive to break the mold just one quest area to another.

I dunno i call that less variety in gameplay than I used to get from games like EQ.

This is exactly what my point is.  Now if you want to call that endless mob grinding so be it, but it had far more thought, risk, and freedom, then anything that has been released today.   I suppose though it doesn't really matter though, as there are those of us who see it this way, and think that this is the way it should be done, and then their are those who love being shuttled and hand-holded.  I personally still feel SWTOR limits these freedoms, and basically forces you down a path that you really can't escape or leave.

Originally posted by OberanMiM

Originally posted by Axehilt

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

People complain because it is the same actions, everytime.  There is also the fact that most raids are instanced, so you have no real varibles at play of something being different.  In the bit of raiding I've personally done, it normally is a matter of learning what to do, and having enough stats to produce the damage to kill it.  That's it.  Once you learn the fight, it is easy, and when you get better geared, you then can steamroll it, making it even easier.

Take a non-instanced version of say a cave, or dungeon you and a group of people are exploring and killing for xp.  Your in there, 10-15 minutes, and someone might come in.  They may or may not be capable of handling themselves.  That adds a few varibles.  Generally speaking, stuff respawns after a bit, so you need to keep track of where you rest up at, and where you are, or else you could be in trouble.  The "trash mobs" actually give you a run for your money, instead of bending over and dying.  There is plenty more of these varibles that occur playing but I will assume you get the point. 

This is what keeps you from being bored, this is what keeps you from feeling the grind.  Not to mention, the social interactions, and making friends in the process.  As I stated in another post, people don't act the way they used to either, and I personally feel that is part of the problem as well.  Also having the content laid out to you in a nice neat package is part of why folks feel it is grindy, which is also a problem. There really isn't any freedom to do it another way, and once you learn it, it becomes boring.   Freedom is honestly the biggest problem in most games nowadays, we just label it different things.

Wow, you're really trying to claim that endless mob-grinding had more variety than raid fights where you have to learn each boss' unique mechanic?

You realize that's rather ridiculous, right?

(As a complete aside, kudos to the mods for not automatically knee-jerking this thread into the TOR forums.  That's always been the worst and most unnecessary type of moderation that happens around here.)

 Is endless mob grinding anything less than endless daily grinding, endless token grinding, endless instance grinding..

Its a treadmill either way.  As far as unique mechanics?  When there really isn't much to lose from failing that mechanic it encourages people to play poorly. That or they grind lower level instances to improve their gear to mask their poor playskill. At least in EQ you learned many of the same mechanics you would use in raiding while you leveled (as in grouping) so you at least had some skill if you managed to make it to a higher level.

This is exactly my point.  It is all the same grinding at the end of the day, and there is really no difference.  At least mob-grinding, and generally exploring the massive worlds we had available gave us something to do.  Right now in SWTOR, Ilum is very small, maybe 10-12 types of mobs at most, and half the map is friendly to either side with the mobs.  The PVP area is a joke, doesn't work right half the time, and no one is in there the other 1/2. 

I'd much rather the open-ness and freedom of grind mobs for hours with a group of people, who respect you as a person, then doing raids all day with idiots and assholes.  I feel raids are very limited, and you are piegonholed into doing it one way or else, and never felt that restriction with mob grinding.

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

Originally posted by Axehilt

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

Originally posted by Axehilt

Repeat after me:

• All content is journey.
• All gameplay is journey.

Stop obsessing over one solitary thing that stops (leveling) and realize that you're still constantly in a journey for as long as the game keeps tossing new things at you.

 

People are so hyper-fixated over leveling that even when a game has months and months and months of gameplay at endgame, they think that somehow the game has stopped.

 

It hasn't.

Be that as it may, going through the same thing day in and day out doesn't feel like a journey.  It feels like a drive to work and back home again.  Yes, it is a journey, but it is a boring one you do everyday.

As long as we're not trying to pretend earlier MMORPGs were somehow better, I totally agree with that statement.

Early MMORPGs were a drive to work with endless mob-grinding long before you reached endgame.  Despite newer MMORPGs being way better than that, they could obviously stand to be changed in ways that make them interesting for longer.  The same could be said of any game, really.

It isn't that they were better per-say, but even in all that grinding, it seemed better.  You grouped up with people, and had a blast, and that "grind" didn't seem like anything. Grouping with others was fun, and it was something people looked forward to.  It wasn't like grouping with people today.  You weren't insulted for not having the best gear, or for not understanding a boss the first time through a dungeon. You weren't insulted if you caused a wipe.  I could go on about this, but I imagine you get the point.

I have plenty of memories over the years of being lost for 8-12 hours at a time, completely captured in what i was doing in a game.  It was a challenge.  It generally was hard.  But that challenge was worth the reward, and after playing, you felt like you did something.  I again, don't feel that way anymore.

I agree with you though, that any game could stand to be changed a bit.  Even the older games that I fondly remember could of used a few changes here and there.  I guess the point I'm trying to make is even though there was a ton more grind, it somehow felt more fulfilling, and overall a better game.  I'm guessing in today's world, people can't be allowed that freedom to go do what they want, we need to be guided, or we might get lost.

 

 

If Grouping made the feeling of Grinding go away, than why do you people complain so much about "RAID GRINDING"? thats both large group as well as a grind. The people here contradict their own complains all the time. Now you see why you people aren't happy about any MMO that comes out

People complain because it is the same actions, everytime.  There is also the fact that most raids are instanced, so you have no real varibles at play of something being different.  In the bit of raiding I've personally done, it normally is a matter of learning what to do, and having enough stats to produce the damage to kill it.  That's it.  Once you learn the fight, it is easy, and when you get better geared, you then can steamroll it, making it even easier.

Take a non-instanced version of say a cave, or dungeon you and a group of people are exploring and killing for xp.  Your in there, 10-15 minutes, and someone might come in.  They may or may not be capable of handling themselves.  That adds a few varibles.  Generally speaking, stuff respawns after a bit, so you need to keep track of where you rest up at, and where you are, or else you could be in trouble.  The "trash mobs" actually give you a run for your money, instead of bending over and dying.  There is plenty more of these varibles that occur playing but I will assume you get the point. 

This is what keeps you from being bored, this is what keeps you from feeling the grind.  Not to mention, the social interactions, and making friends in the process.  As I stated in another post, people don't act the way they used to either, and I personally feel that is part of the problem as well.  Also having the content laid out to you in a nice neat package is part of why folks feel it is grindy, which is also a problem. There really isn't any freedom to do it another way, and once you learn it, it becomes boring.   Freedom is honestly the biggest problem in most games nowadays, we just label it different things.

Originally posted by Axehilt

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

Originally posted by Axehilt

Repeat after me:

• All content is journey.
• All gameplay is journey.

Stop obsessing over one solitary thing that stops (leveling) and realize that you're still constantly in a journey for as long as the game keeps tossing new things at you.

 

People are so hyper-fixated over leveling that even when a game has months and months and months of gameplay at endgame, they think that somehow the game has stopped.

 

It hasn't.

Be that as it may, going through the same thing day in and day out doesn't feel like a journey.  It feels like a drive to work and back home again.  Yes, it is a journey, but it is a boring one you do everyday.

As long as we're not trying to pretend earlier MMORPGs were somehow better, I totally agree with that statement.

Early MMORPGs were a drive to work with endless mob-grinding long before you reached endgame.  Despite newer MMORPGs being way better than that, they could obviously stand to be changed in ways that make them interesting for longer.  The same could be said of any game, really.

It isn't that they were better per-say, but even in all that grinding, it seemed better.  You grouped up with people, and had a blast, and that "grind" didn't seem like anything. Grouping with others was fun, and it was something people looked forward to.  It wasn't like grouping with people today.  You weren't insulted for not having the best gear, or for not understanding a boss the first time through a dungeon. You weren't insulted if you caused a wipe.  I could go on about this, but I imagine you get the point.

I have plenty of memories over the years of being lost for 8-12 hours at a time, completely captured in what i was doing in a game.  It was a challenge.  It generally was hard.  But that challenge was worth the reward, and after playing, you felt like you did something.  I again, don't feel that way anymore.

I agree with you though, that any game could stand to be changed a bit.  Even the older games that I fondly remember could of used a few changes here and there.  I guess the point I'm trying to make is even though there was a ton more grind, it somehow felt more fulfilling, and overall a better game.  I'm guessing in today's world, people can't be allowed that freedom to go do what they want, we need to be guided, or we might get lost.

Originally posted by Axehilt

Repeat after me:

• All content is journey.
• All gameplay is journey.

Stop obsessing over one solitary thing that stops (leveling) and realize that you're still constantly in a journey for as long as the game keeps tossing new things at you.

 

People are so hyper-fixated over leveling that even when a game has months and months and months of gameplay at endgame, they think that somehow the game has stopped.

 

It hasn't.

Be that as it may, going through the same thing day in and day out doesn't feel like a journey.  It feels like a drive to work and back home again.  Yes, it is a journey, but it is a boring one you do everyday.

Originally posted by StoneRoses

Originally posted by precious328

SWTOR disgusts me because of their poor use of research and resources.

They didn't even bother to look at the horrible track record of Pure Theme Parks, e.g., Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Star Trek Online, Aion, etc.

BioWare did a fantastic job with the questing. They probably created the most entertaining grind to max level within the entire genre. However, there is no "me" in SWTOR. I have no identity; I have very little freedom. This is one of the smoking gun complaints in the games listed above.

No end-game, boring and redundant instanced PvP, typecasted classes to the point where it's cheesy, shockingly poor performance for being an underwhelming graphical game, a blatant lack of social skills, the lack-luster console space shooter, and the complete and total single-player co'op epedemic are just some of the features that paint this terrible game a target.

What pisses people off the most is their poor use of resources. They had the financial backing to make this game appealing to everyone. This includes socializers, explorers, adventurers, combat players, roleplayers, instanced pvp players, world pvp players, etc. There is nothing to explore. Follow the path and move along.

This game, as far as I'm concerned, is the new laughing stock of the genre.

Because Sandbox games have a great track record themselves!

 

Again there is no way players like yourself will ever be pleased!

Insatiable, Insatiable!

I honestly think there is a way to please those of us who are looking for more then just a b-line to endgame.  It just so happens that it doesn't exist, and from the looks of it, probably won't exist.  I'd venture to say that it is far too much work to create a game that has something to make every group happy.  I'd love to see a hybrid of a sandbox game and a themepark game.  I have no idea if that is even possible, but I do dare to dream of a day that this exists.

At the end of the day, their business model is working, and clearly we are just a handful compared to the masses who apparently enjoy these Themeparks.  I'd imagine Bioware/EA probably made back what it invested, and then some, so what makes you think they "care" about us players?  Have they ever really cared about the folks who spend 60 bucks for their half baked, half thought out games?  I personally can't remember a time when EA had good customer service, nor can I remember them overly caring what other gamers thought about their games.

What's worse, is that we sit here, bitching about it, but most of us probably bought SWTOR hoping it was different.  Hoping it would have tried to add something new.  Turns out it didn't.  Yea, it had a great storyline, yea the voice acting wasn't too bad, but it is still the linear hand-held game like Rift and WoW.  The only difference between them and SWTOR is that SWTOR has been out for a month, and they have been out for a lot longer.  Doesn't change the fact the Bioware/EA left out stuff, that the worlds feel empty and alone, and that when you get to max level, there is nothing to do aside from grinding warfronts/dungeons.

Personally speaking, I'm quite sick of the same game, just in a different package.  As I read, I can tell a lot of you are also tired of it.  There isn't anything that can be done to solve this or fix it.  Clearly the "masses" have control and we are just a very small minority.  Clearly our voices don't matter, and I assume that no one really cares about what our thoughts or ideas are.  So until there is a developer that comes along that actually does care about this minority, I'm going to assume we are stuck where we are.  It sucks, but it is the reality of things. 

That's some funny stuff there headphones.  Had me in stitches laughing.

Originally posted by Zolgar

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

You need to access their website now to setup a new account PlayOnline ID.  Login to the square enix management page, click on Select Service on the left menu, select FFXI, and then Add a PlayOnline Service account. It is the the second button on the right hand side at the top of the page, next to the FFXI image. Pop your serial in there and you should be good to go.  It seems with this new move they have really screwed the POL thing up a bit.  Hope this helps.  If you have done this and still have issues, then I'm at a lost.  I had my account already setup by then.

All this worked for the most part. Now I can at least log in, but when I hit play, it says I don't have a Content ID so I need to make one or reactivate a cancelled one.

 

EDIT:  Do I go to register/update service accounts?

Log into the management system.  When your in there, look on the left side.  Click Select service, from the options menu down towards the bottom left.  After that, select FFXI.  On this page, click on the Options list button, about midway on the page.  It will list your Playonline ID.  Now check the box with the character/characters you want to reactivate, and click the reactivate button.  If all goes well it should either bring you to a payment page to pay, or if you use crysta it will probably take it out of your account automatically.  Once that is done, you should be able to log-in and play.

Yea.  Just sucks for newcomers as no one is around and it looks like a ghost town.  Of what I got to do in my 14 hours, it was quite fun.  Made a compound, and was learning about different concepts of buildings and such, but there seems to be a huge hurdle to get over, and without people it would almost seem impossible.  But I guess that is just my opinion.  I do really like the game though.

It's possible.  The game itself does seem pretty sparse as far as players go.  I was playing a trial of it, and I maybe saw 2-3 people in all my time playing.  The free TP's you get as a newbie were all 0/0/0 meaning no one was in the region.  In Egypt chat there was a few people, and one was really nice and helped me get started, but I hadn't seen him since.  After about 14 or so hours, I gave up, due to how empty it felt.  So many buildings were made, most of them abandoned.  Almost seemed more of a graveyard.