Now that we're past that most "wonderful" part of the school year, the crew is back and ready to give their two credits on the hottest topics. Of course, the biggest news right now is the population drop. Does it matter? What does it mean for the future? Will some servers be sacrificed?! This episode gets really deep really quickly, but there's always fun to be had when team MER gets back together!

I've only told a few people about this, but I personally have been falling asleep while playing ToR. I thought it might be just because I solo so much, but the other day when me, Wood, and 2 other MERC'ies were trying to do the dailies, I was falling asleep in the middle of combat. It's not that I was tired, because I logged off and played like 7 games of LoL with out falling asleep.

I don't blame ToR for this, I am just tired of the repetitiveness of MMORPG's. I thought the story was going to hold me over until they added the new content that separated it from other MMORPG's. You can only save(Republic)/condemn(Empire) an entire planet and get a few credits and an item so much before you really just don't care anymore. They said our choices in the stories would matter when it doesn't in the majority of the missions, the final outcome will always be the same. The couple missions that actually have their outcomes effected are class story related.

Highlight between the spoiler tags for an example, *Spoiler* Jaesa Willsaam, the Sith Warrior companion, is the only companion in the game that, through the choices you make during your story arc, can become light side or dark side when she finally becomes your companion.*Spoiler*

The primary thing that drives me up the wall is how they are handling PvP gear. WE DON'T NEED A PVP STAT FOR CHRIST SAKE. Make PvP skill based, NOT gear based you canucks. If you don't do this soon, you will lose a TON of players to new MMO's coming out like Guild Wars 2 or Planetside 2, that are focusing on skill over gear.

I want to play ToR, but I am a competitive gamer, and right now ToR's PvP is horrible. I don't mean the Warzones themselves, they are cool, if a bit redundant. I hadn't read or looked at anything about Guild Wars 2 until last night, as soon as I started exploring their website, I was instantly sold. In order for ToR to stay competitive with the upcoming MMO's, BioWare really needs to start thinking outside the box for PvP content.

In case anyone is wondering what sold me on the GW2 website, it was this page ALONE.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/p ... /engineer/

As a player of LoL, I love how they give previews for some of the class skills. The Thief's videos are NUTS.

Can't listen yet, no iTunes upload :/ this shall be a boring work night


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk in a Galaxy Far Far Away...

But you do get to use your iphone while working? Or iPod w/ internet? If either is the case, the direct stream from the post page works great in place of iTunes.

We fixed the itunes earlier, btw. Subscribers like you should be able to dl it anytime.

We I'm not "supposed" to use it, but I run this joint at night, so yeah I use it lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk in a Galaxy Far Far Away...

It should be up and running now.


-Sent from my starship in docking bay 94.

Greetings Gentlemen,

First off I'd like to say that I love the show and look forward to each podcast. The show and its staff are doing a great job.

Today on the show a Evan stated that comparing SWToR to WoW "is not really a fair comparison". However I feel that as a paying customer this comparison is not only fair and valid- it is also realistic.

In terms of the paying customer, a subscription is meant to be indefinite in the context of MMO games. The hope being that as time passes the game evolves and improves given it can be sustained with current subscription base.

Naturally, customers are going to want to play the best game out there. SWToR has its design flaws and bluntly there are things WoW does much better. Not only in terms of play design but also as far as system requirements (SWToR is very demanding technically). In addition, SWToR costs the same amount as WoW so if design flaws and bugs plague SWToR, it is easy to see what the best value is.

But I love SWToR as a someone who grew up watching the movies. But my passion for the source material can only extend my subscription so far. In addition- potential is only a resource that means nothing unless it’s realized, so it’s difficult to attribute that as a reason to stay.

All in all, comparing the newest (SWToR) with the leading (WoW) is a challenge every MMO gamer must undertake. "Which game deserves my money and subscription?" After all, MMO's are a time commitment as well. But the advantage that Bioware had prior to launch is that they had a good model to compare to. They had WoW to play and experience, which has undergone years of evolution and development. WoW's level of game play and system requirements should have been the ideal starting point at the very least. Because in today's gaming market, "almost as good as" is not going to make a gamer switch to SWToR as would "better than".

True, my view point may not please fans of the game but we the player base cannot ignore the importance of its primary competition.

Major Cisqo
Los Angeles, CA

I don't remember saying that.

Huh. I hadn't had THAT much to drink. I'll have to go back and re-listen to it before I can comment.

I said that.

And I still stand by that statement. Comparing two games that had launch dates 7 years+ apart based on system is not a fair comparison.

Comparing 1.3 million subs that are primarily 90% North America and compare it to 10.3 million total in WoW isn't fair because the latest number is of that 10.3 million, only 2 million are in North America.

- Alan

I'll have to back up Alan on that one. I played WoW when it first came out and it had it's own problems too. Yes since their coming in late they could have modeled everything after WoW to get it all right. Well yeah, if you wanted to make a WoW clone instead of trying to forge ahead yourself. I guess this boils down to new MMOs just being new skins (instead of swords -> combat knives -> lightsabers, bows -> pistols/rifles -> blasters/energy rifles). Mechanically it's all the same.

The content does get repetitive (3rd time through on the Imp side right now) but I just do each one a little different. First time I completed all side quests and class quests. Second time through I did class quests and operations and the like as much as possible with a couple side quests when I got bored (rest xp took care of the "rest" of it). Third time here I'm doing class quests and PVP, with side stuff thrown in. Now I also have the Rep side which I've barely touched so this is gonna last a long time for me. I plunked down the 6 month and if they would have had a 12 month I'd have bought that. Every MMO that i like after the 30 day purchase gets 1 year and then I'm usually bored. I'm hoping by the time 1 year rolls around there's enough cool stuff to get me hooked for another. If all else fails I've got my lifetime sub (which really isn't as big now since it's free to play) with LoTRO that I can always go back to. LoTRO was the only game that's kept me wanting to play more (tolkienhead here).

Usually I could care less about PVP and I just like the stories while leveling. Give this a couple years and there's gonna be enough content so you can just class and side quest to max 3 or 4 times only repeating a chunk here or there.

A question for Zack however (and yeah, shoot me now) but you want the gambling games in or more content but instead of jumping on the Rakghoul thing, LoL got yer free time. Just kinda wondering how pazak is gonna stand up to that or whatever new game is out there. (not judging or finger pointing, just posing a question).

When Daniel was on one of the questions I had was the new legacy system almost SCREAMS for credit selling to ramp up. Like you said for $13 I can get any race? Damn sweet!

To each their own I guess, I've never been to worried about endgame content cause I'm an alt-a-holic so whenever I get bored I start a new alt and play them to the 20's or 30's to get a feel and then if they're boring move on.

As always guys THANK YOU so much for the time you put in on these casts, makes my day when I get on and see new casts are up. Good to hear you all survived school.

Also Denny Green should have been easy for ya Evan, thought you were a MN boy!? Bring Zach the Leinenkugel variety pack next time, bet he'd love the Berry Weiss. Love me some Shandy on a hot summer day though. Sunset Wheat and Russian Imperial Stout are a few others that are good. I guess there are a few perks to living in Fargo.