Rookie Mistake by a Veteran Developer

I have been a Bioware fan since I first fired up Baldur’s Gate. Ever since then, I’ve bought every one of their titles (almost) and regarded them as nearly untouchable. No longer, and today’s SWTOR 1.2 announcement is why: 

  • Free In-game Legacy Tauntaun Ram for all active subscribers. YAY.
  • Active accounts with a Level 50 character will receive thirty days of game time for their support and loyalty. HMM.
  • Starting on April 13th through April 19th, 2012 former subscribers will be able to log-in to their accounts without having to re-subscribe. UHH.

What has really happened here? Why not reward based on subscription time instead? 

Forgetting the silly Tauntaun pet, Bioware has decided to reward accounts with level 50 characters and non-loyal former subscribers. Is it right to reward someone who, for example, has only been subscribing since April 2 yet has a level 50 character? While at the same time ignoring someone else who has been a subscriber since day one yet doesn’t have a level 50?

They also seem to enjoy rewarding unsubscribers. I might have to try that.

Bioware, you aren’t a rookie developer, so don’t act like one. 

Disclaimer: I don’t have any level 50 characters. I’m a casual player with an extremely busy life outside of gaming (like many others). 

In this episode of Force Poke: Twi’leks might have removable Lekku, EA is apparently worse than Haliburton (including my thoughts on the ME3 ending whine-fest), and I can’t seem to keep my companion alive while recording these.

This is a quick look at the new cooldown animations and text overlay, recently implemented by Bioware. The configuration options go deeper than I expected with adjustable cooldown font sizes and countdown display (tenths of a second). There are also four different variations of cooldown overlay and flash displays.

Watch to see it all in action.

Maybe whining really works?

A few days ago, I got all pompous and tweeted this:

If you recall, there was a fairly large response from the community about Bioware’s implementation of flashing cooldowns. They were supposedly making some people sick. Sick, as in *puking* sick.

This just in: Soon warcraftic.com will be selling pacifiers.

I think we all want Bioware to progress the game’s user interface (UI). However, it should progress based on a scheduled road map of related interface enhancements, not reaction-based changes. Development hours DO matter to a gaming company. To spend more than 30 seconds changing how a cooldown flashes, is simply a waste of time.

Looking back on it now, this whole thing is a process. It’s a path towards “getting it right”, from a UI perspective. Yesterday, we reached a major waypoint with the patch 1.1.4 UI changes:

So, here we go. We have what was previously only available as an addon in another popular MMORPG, now native in SWTOR. I hope Bioware keeps implementing those “must have” features as native components to the game, while still keeping those tasty APIs in the back of their minds.

SWTOR Force Poke: E4 - Let’s Talk UI

Since the last episode, Bioware released some encouraging footage of UI enhancements and customization options coming soon(TM). In this episode, hear my thoughts on why we all want some type of UI customization, how it’s great (yet controversial) for end game players, and why it’s going to take some time.

SWTOR Force Poke: E1 - Don’t Feed the Seh-run!?

In this first episode of Force Poke, my lvl 11 Sith Inquisitor is about to head to the Empire Fleet to meet with his new master. Before that, he has to go feed Seh-run. Not sure what will happen here, but hey, he’s hungry and is short on acolytes to eat.