Kleenex Sales Will Skyrocket On SWTOR Launch

I am sure Kleenex is gearing up for the SWTOR launch. There are going to be so many tears shed on early game access up to the official launch of SWTOR they won't be able to keep it stocked on the shelves.  I am buying some Kleenex stock on the 12th because it is going to shoot to the sky.

Why am I thinking this?  Well I could mention many things, but today let's focus on one of their latest announcements.  Do they even know when early access is going to start?  It has been the 15th for weeks, and now it is announced as starting the 13th.

How many players are going to be pissed if they requested time off from work starting the 15th, and now it has been switched to the 13th?  It sounds like SWTOR is already hitting the panic button.  I got a good laugh at the official website today announcing the new date.  Check out the screenshot.  One part says 7 days, and another says 5 days for early access.

Another interesting part of this letter is that if you don't redeem your actual product code by the 20th you will be shut off from playing until you do.  I feel sorry for anyone who ordered a copy to be shipped.  This is the busiest shipping time of the year.  How pissed are you going to be if it gets delayed, and shows up on the 26th?

I bet you are thinking it will never happen.  I say think again.  All you have to do is look back at the Warhammer Online launch which did the same thing. Unfortunately Best Buy screwed it all up, and anyone who preordered from them couldn't play on launch day. I think it took a whole weekend, and a few days before players got access back.

It caused so many problems.  By the time they received their codes the servers were locked that their friends were on so either their friends had to reroll, or a week or two later they cloned several of the servers.  The problem is no one wanted to leave because they liked the high population.  It was a joke, and started the early demise of the Warhammer Launch.  If SWTOR sticks to this plan I am not a fortune teller, but I see similar things happening.

I also have to laugh at if you tested this last weekend you don't have to reinstall, but will have to patch on whenever you log in.  Who is going to do this when you can uninstall, and pre install the game client now?  You would have to be crazy to wait to try to download it, and possibly deal with corrupted files, and stuff if your beta client is all fubared. Why take the risk?

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Taking Advantage of SWTOR Huttball

What you didn't know there was an advantage you can get in SWTOR Huttball?  After seeing Jewel's rant in Google + it started making me think.  You know what happens when I start thinking right?  What is this advantage that players will use all about?  Is it really an advantage?  Would players actually do this, and risk being banned?

Did you read Jewel's post yet?  If not make sure you do before continuing reading on how I see something that can easily be taken advantage of.  Don't worry this isn't NDA breaking news because everyone knows how SWTOR Huttball works.  Okay so let's get to the juicy details.

Bioware decided it would be really cool if you accidentally score a goal for the other team by taking the huttball back to your own base.  I understand how Jewel made the mistake.  It makes sense that yellow should go with yellow, but instead yellow goes to purple, and purple goes to yellow. Confused yet?

Everyone knows that PvP players find the quickest, and fastest way to score honor, renown, or whatever they end up calling the grind to earn pvp gear.  Look at AV in World of Warcraft these days.  You actually get yelled at if you stop, and actually fight someone.  It is all about who can kill the boss the fastest for the quickest honor.  The same thing with Warhammer Online renown.  Players soon realized it was easier to flip opposite zones, and not fight each other for the fastest renown.

This leads me to how the same thing will happen in SWTOR Huttball.  The first few weeks everyone will think it is fun, and go around killing each other. Three weeks later players will want to score as fast as possible, and do anything to make it happen. Bioware is setting this up to make it too easy.

First of all you are going to be able to fight against your same faction.  Everyone wants their faction to be the best geared so this is where the conspiracy begins.  Simply by allowing the same faction to fight each other will cause intentional losing for quick wins, and pvp reward points or whatever SWTOR decides to call it.  It happened in WoW arenas, and so why wouldn't it happen on SWTOR? A large guild ends up fighting against each other in premades, and gear everyone up by doing quick wins.

Secondly they could make it easier by using the tool that Bioware implemented by being able to score a goal in your own base for the other team.  It could make it real easy to finish games, and rack up the pvp points by completing matches of Huttball in five minutes or less.

I am not sure they really thought about this when trying to keep communities together by having no cross server queuing.  I think it may backfire big time.  It will be interesting to see what happens a few weeks after launch.  Do you think this will happen?  Do you think Bioware should fix it before launch?

Feel free to comment, and join the interactive discussion on Google +

SWTOR Should Lift The NDA

I understand the point of a NDA to a certain point.  When does it just seem stupid to still have it in place?  I feel that way about the SWTOR NDA right now.  Is it really still necessary?

The next wave of beta testers will start testing on 11-11-11.  It is the biggest wave of testers to date.  It will include hundreds of thousands.  Just let that sink in for a minute.  Hundreds of Thousands.

By now everyone has tested, heard about the game at work from someone who tested, a friend who tested, your fourth cousin who tested, and yet SWTOR still has a NDA.

I doubt anything I could write these days could sway anyone's decision on buying the game.  Is there really anything in the game that really hasn't been posted by Bioware?

All that is left is peoples opinions from beta, and you don't think players have talked on vent, secret circles, ICQ, or whatever?

Just lift the stupid NDA.

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SWTOR Officially Falls Off My To Buy List

I keep hearing voices in my head.  Oh wait.  It is part of the game in SWTOR.  I just don't understand how so many bloggers, and game magazines can hype up a game that will be 99% voice.  After reading another glowing review about how great the voice stuff in SWTOR is in PCGamer I just want to puke.

I already hate reading quest text, and now I will be forced to listen to the whole thing.  I am not a whole story, or lore buff.  If I want to know about it I will watch all twenty of the Star Wars movies again.   How is this going to work in guilds that use vent?  I think it will drive players crazy.  You won't be able to talk in vent, and play the game at the same time.

I know personally I already hate the sound in most games, and turn it way down, or off depending on what it is.  Do they really think it immerses a player more?  I really don't see a NPC talking to me feeling like the person is talking to me in real life.  SWTOR really seems to think it will.  I tried playing DA:O, and after about five minutes I logged off, and never played the game again.

Players don't want to listen to NPC's.  Times are changing.  Do you spend much time talking on the phone these days?  It is about texting, and SWTOR will soon find out the millions and millions they spent on the voice acting in the game will prove to be the biggest waste of money ever.