Do you ever have those days where, even though you don’t actually want to, you seem to find yourself saying, “I told you so…” every few minutes? I had one of those days on the TOR forums today.

You see, over the past two and a bit years, and in the vacuum of information coming from Bioware in a lot of areas, I’ve commented on many things on the TOR forums. More things than I can remember, quite honestly. And, at all times, this has been based on my knowledge of MMOs, having played more of the things than I’d care to count over the last 14 years. I’ve “been around,” as people say.

Invariably, whenever I’ve come up with a comment about something, a host of people have leaped out of their chairs to tell me that I’m wrong. Sometimes these are people whom have similar gaming experience to me and might even be making an interesting point but, more often than not, have usually been people whose MMO experience extends to a resume akin to, “WoW and… um… some more WoW…” or people whom were a year or two old when I started MMO gaming (that’s always a bit of a head trip, I can tell you). Then, in some rather spectacular cases, there have been a few who had never actually played an MMO in their life, but still presumed to tell me — someone who’s played them for 14 years — everything that was wrong with my reasoning. Yup, that’s happened to me.

Such is the life of a forum warrior.

Today proved to be a big day for the, “I told you so…” club because Bioware unveiled a new guild program on its forum which, in turn, raised many questions and comments from people.

For example, the guild program asks people to nominate a guild time in either US East, US West or Europe. Instantly, a bunch of gamers in Oceania (read: Australia and New Zealand), jumped on the front foot, freaking out that this was proof that they were going to get stiffed on having an Oceanic server. Cue, “I told you so…” having lost count, over the last couple of years how many times I’ve told these people that a server physically based in Oceania was highly unlikely, and a server based in the US, but marked, “Oceania”, was probably almost as unlikely. Yep, and all along they told me I was a killjoy and had no idea about MMOs (even though, on the contrary, I was basing my comments on seeing servers created in MMOs for over 14 years), and yet there it was, finally being spelled out in front of them with no hint of ambiguity… the choices are US East, US West or Europe. I told you so.

Stemming from the Oceanic debate was disappointment that guilds wouldn’t even be able to point to a server and call it the “unofficial” Oceanic server — as they have in other games — because of the way Bioware is distributing guilds onto servers by its own hand in order, I assume, to maintain a faction balance. “How so?” I asked them, pointing out that although the system is new and different, in Phase Two of the guild process (as Bioware calls it), guilds can nominate other guilds they want to be aligned with, and guilds they also want to fight against. Bioware will take these into account when assigning servers to guilds. So, I asked them, what’s stopping Oceanic guilds from simply using Phase Two to nominate friends and enemies, also from Oceania, and when Bioware distributes the guilds onto servers, viola, there will be a server with a stack of Oceanic people placed on it, all safe, all together. “Oh but that’s so hard to co-ordinate!” came the cry. To which I got to point out another, “I told you so…” for the day — namely, that there are indeed too many guilds out there, in general. If you have 200 people, for example, spread among 20 guilds, that’s a crazy number of guilds to co-ordinate when you could have five guilds of 40 people each (which isn’t a large guild by any means), and be able to co-ordinate the same 200 people much more easily. Yet do any of these tiny guilds, which will be ineffective to the point of being utterly useless in the game want to consolidate with one another, even though it would create a better experience for themselves and their server? Nope. And now they complain that there’s too many guilds to co-ordinate. I told you so.

Then came the realisation, from others, that the new guild system cleared the way for three ranks — Guild Leader, Officer and Member — which sounded Jim Dandy to me, but for all those guilds which have spent the last year or two dreaming up ridiculous rank systems and titles for its members, it would clearly be woefully inadequate. And didn’t they let the world know about it. You could hear the gnashing of teeth in the US from all the way down here in Australia. How dare Bioware only give these guilds three ranks to play with! Guilds threw a fit about this topic but, once again, it was nothing I hadn’t said 100 times before over the last two and a bit years. Namely, “Guys, stop creating these overly complex rank and title systems for your guilds. Not only does it look a bit insane when you have 20 ranks but only eight members, but the practicality will smash you in the face when the game arrives and it only gives you a handful of rank levels to play with…” But did any of them listen? No. Did some of them call me names and tell me I was wrong? Yes. Well, sorry guys, but… I told you so.

Then along came people complaining that they could only create a Sith or Republic guild with their forum account — not both. Or, in some cases, they wanted to create a Sith and Republic guild within the one guild. Gah. This was the point where I got step in and say that, for the past two years, I’ve been encouraging anyone who’d listen to PICK A SIDE. Some did. A lot didn’t. Some of the latter even got into my face about it and told me I was, “wrong” to be suggesting that factions matter. I mean… seriously? Today, however, it seems that if those people had honed down on a side, just as I had suggested to them, they wouldn’t be having a conflict about it. I mean, gee, how hard was this concept to understand when Bioware had made it clear a long time ago that guilds must be one alignment or another? Now that it seems that a key component of being in a guild is being matched off against guilds of opposing faction; either by your choice, or dictated by whatever program Bioware will run to select our servers for us, so guilds really have to be one faction or the other… the mantra I have repeated 1000 times on the TOR forums. How many ways can I say, I told you so?

(Oh, and before we get off this topic, can I just give a special shout out to the argumentative guy who said, and I quote, “There is no reason i can’t live out my darth fantasy and my trooper one in a star wars MMO. Picking sides is for WoW fans .. not star wars ones.” I seriously LOL’d at this. It seems that, in this guy’s world, “Star Wars fans” must play computer games differently to everyone else — especially people who play WoW. LOL. Talk about emotion getting the better of common sense.)

Then came the people who refused to create guilds because Bioware has a limit on the number of characters in a guild name and, due to the fact they’ve invented completely ridiculous long and grandiose titles for their guilds… what a surprise… they don’t fit. To these people I say, why do you think I chose a name like Beskar for my guild? Because in every single MMO to date, “the best” guild names are short. They’re either short words, or acronyms. Both from a URL and marketing POV — and also so the name floating above your head is simple and easy to remember by people who might see you in game, like the cut of your jib, and want to contact you later on. Not only that but, drumroll please, because MMOs often have character limits on them! My point being — this is nothing new to MMOs. People should have anticipated it. Not to mention, ahem, I told you so.

Finally came the people who queried Bioware’s three-step guild creation system overall. Why did Bioware have to do it? Wasn’t it unfair for guilds that didn’t want to start months, or years, before the game started, and instead wanted to be created on Day One of the live game? On and on the questions flowed. To which I would like to say, welcome to MMOs. Guilds that start on Day One of any MMO are always at a disadvantage to guilds that have been hanging around for longer. Whether in terms of recruitment numbers, or an understanding of the game (possibly gleaned from participation in closed and open beta testing), and a wealth of other knowledge, yes, some guilds will always have a leg up on the opposition — but that’s hardly the fault of Bioware’s new guild system! Wow, such crazy comments. And, as expected, it did give me one last, “I told you so…” moment, when these comments were flying around and I got to point out that, for years now (literally, years), people have wandered into the guild section of the TOR forums and queried why people are already making guilds. They ask this question three or four times a week, thinking it’s some kind of amazing, possibly witty, original kind of question. And every time I point out the dozen, or so, key reasons why people make guilds before an MMO launches. Naturally, these people never tend to believe what they’re being told, so here’s one last comment for all those people who are now upset that guilds which already exist are starting to gain a real upper hand over guilds that aren’t planning on existing until Day One of the live game — or possibly even later than that. Guys… I told you so.