

Welcome to Show 103!
This time out we start with some news about Doom Sayers vs. Bioware, Ubisoft, tragedy in Taipei and more. Then Zeke from Ironmanmode.com joins us to talk about how he is turning videogaming into dollars for Charity. We follow up with a discussion about the indie game that went viral called Minecrack…er…minecraft.
See you online,
Julie and Fran
Articles and web sites discussed:
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/40044/The_Old_Republic_hits_17_million_subscribers_worldwide.php
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/03/conan-obrien-shows-off-swtor-same-sex-footage/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115734-Ubisoft-Apologizes-for-DRM-Server-Switch-Screwup
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/03/man-dies-while-gaming-no-one-notices
'hi' by Token
Submitted on 2012-02-21 08:13:03 CST
Thanks again for being consistent. I have to be a bad nun for a moment because I have listened to your opinions on TOR a lot, and find that theres not been any balance.
Your stance on TOR comes off as extremely defensive. The fact that you enjoy the game doesn't change the fact that many who bought the game were disappointed with it. I purchased it at launch and only played it casually for about 2 or 3 weeks before uninstalling out of sheer boredom. I suppose this was my shark jump moment, like when Brent made the post about Warhammer.
In my opinion the game is not really fun to play at all. The engine is a hog. The combat is slow, clunky and very dull. Its a bad and inferior copy of a system I already spent years playing. I would dread every trip to the skill trainer, as he would liberally hand out another 2 skills that did almost the same things as abilities already cluttering up my hotbars. I would look at the archaic talent tree system and the endless situational skills, and I would just despair at how much time and money they wasted to make this utterly pointless turd.
How would this game be better?
They could start with a highly optimised and responsive engine,(not to much to ask after all these years and $$$'s)
Fewer and more meaningful skills. It is blatantly obvious to me that this is the way games are going. People don't want to play finger twister with their 30 skills on their bars, they want a Guild Wars/Moba/Diablo 3 style cap on active skills. It means you can make meaningful choices about the skills that define your character, your play style is customised, its interesting and you own it. The same principle goes for the talent trees, we don't need all the useless clutter, just give people real choices. Fortunately Blizzard have seen this and I guarantee it will be in their next game, they are already moving in that direction with WoW and D3. In a couple of years, TOR is going to feel very old and tired.
'One woman's treasure' by Julie
Submitted on 2012-02-25 19:58:27 CST
Well my friend, you know what they say - one woman's treasure is someone else's trash. It sounds to me as if you have a boneyard or two to pick with TOR. Might I suggest a short segment on an upcoming show? Sort of an "editorial" if you will. If it makes you feel better, we have recorded show 104, 105 and part of 106 and have yet to even mention TOR. Show 104 is being edited now. A member of the 2lazy2be Otaku podcast will be a guest on 105. We would be happy to stick an editorial by you about TOR anywhere in there.
Julie