blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Part one concentrates on an EA investor call; the mid-week announcement of phase two of the guild phases; the Friday update concentrating on companion characters and some reader mail, featuring several great questions (and answers!)
Part two concentrates on reader mail, featuring several great questions (and answers!)
Click here for the two-part playlist.
There are a few comments that get thrown around regularly in the guild section official TOR forum, yet many of them are built on shaky foundations and only seem to remain in currency via the fact people keep saying them, rather than by actually being factual.
One of the classics runs something like, “Man! I’m going to play Republic, because there’s so few of us! It will be a massive challenge! We’ll be the underdogs!”
And, sure, it sounds all gung-ho and might excite people to hear someone say it, but consider this:
BioWare will, to the best of its ability, be trying to balance the population of Republic and Imperial characters via the guild process.
As such, when it comes to your server, you will see the Republic and Empire actually balanced pretty well. It’s the whole point of the guild process.
So just some food for thought, next time you hear someone say, “Man! I’m going to play Republic, because there’s so few of us! It will be a massive challenge! We’ll be the underdogs!” do consider the reality of the guild process and what it will achieve.
These Republic martyrs really aren’t quite what they portray themselves as.
blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Part one concentrates on the Friday update which, this week, included TOR at the upcoming Eurogamer Expo 2011 in Earl’s Court, London; a Studio Insider article on Combat Animation; and a Community Q&A. The team also tackle their listener mailbag.
Part two sees the team still tackling questions from their listener mailbag, on topics as diverse as mature guilds; Mandalorian knowledge; and same-gender romance arcs.
Click here for the two-part playlist.
blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Part one concentrates on the Friday update which, this week, included a developer blog, video feature from Pax Prime, and a Smuggler progression video.
Part two, three and most of four is an interview from blur with Brehon, the guild leader of Unconquered as well as the driving force behind Bootleg Radio (www.tormonger.com/bootleg) and its flagship program, Galactic Underground.
Click here for the four-part playlist.
TOR is like some MMOs, and unlike other MMOs, via the way that guilds can only host characters from one faction. In other words, you might be working your way through the Jedi Knight story and, let’s say, the Bounty Hunter story, but you cannot house those two characters within the same guild.
This has led to many guilds trying to be dual faction via simply creating two versions of themselves; one to sit on the Sith side, and one for the Republic side. And it’s those guilds that I want to touch upon here as I recently found myself giving some advice to a community member on this very topic.
You see, I came across a community member wondering if there was a good dual faction guild out there and I said to him that, for mine, the answer is to look to guilds that are concentrating on one faction only. In other words, join a “best of breed” Sith guild, and join a “best of breed” Republic guild.
Why? Because if you dig beneath the surface of guilds that are trying to dual faction the game, you will find they are a total compromise in every way. And they will always, always, ALWAYS end up favouring one side more than the other by the simple fact they have finite members split between the two factions and members can only be on one side or the other at any given time. Which means you might get a good (or even great) experience with one faction, but the other will suffer — guaranteed.
That’s why Beskar, for example, is proud to be a single-faction guild. See, we do the Sith side of the game — it’s our only focus. Join us, and we’ll talk Sith morning, noon and night. Then, if you want some Republic action, we’d suggest joining a great single-faction Republic guild. The result? Whichever guild you are playing in, it will be 110% focused on the faction you want to be playing at that particular moment in time; you won’t log in and find 90% of the guild occupied with the opposite faction, leaving you to play with just a handful of people who felt like playing your faction for the night.
This simple fact seems to have bypassed some people who think dual-faction guilds will be great. I beg to differ. And I think they will beg to differ when they log in, night after night, and find the faction they want to play isn’t getting much interest from their guildies. Whereas, again, if you’re in a guild where it’s focused on just one faction, you will always have access to the right people at the right time.
blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Part one covers a video from Bioware’s Gamescom 2011 appearance in Cologne, Germany, general talk on TORs progress and answers the question, “How much wood, could a woodchuck chuck; if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” as sent in by Drast, the guild leader of Shadow Legion.
Part two is an interview from blur with Buttersworth, who is well-known in the TOR community via being the guild leader or Project Serenity.
Part three dives into the listener mailbag, answering questions from listener TJ Diddles from Project Serenity, and also includes a blur rant.
Click here for the three-part playlist.
As they say about a lot of things, the proof of the pudding’s always in the tasting. And it’s no different when it comes to MMO guilds. Until you take that final, figurative step through the door of a guild, you really don’t know if you’re going to like it or not. It is, on some levels, a leap of faith.
The good news is, of course, that if you don’t end up liking a guild you can simply leave.
That said, joining a guild, finding you hate it and then leaving is a time consuming process. It’s much better to get it right the first time and, when it comes to TOR guilds, like Beskar, I advise:
Being in a guild is, primarily, about being able to mix with the people in it, whether just in the game (for some guilds), or in the game AND socially (for other guilds).
Decide if what the guild offers is what you want. Because, if it isn’t there’s a TON of guilds out there. Just under 50,000 English-speaking ones at the time of writing, infact.
