In a word, simplicity. There’s something to be said about a game where the characters have only five abilities, one being passive, yet still provide layers of complexity and strategy.

The reason League of Legends is able to accomplish this is through their skill trees, rune system and item store, which allow players to completely customize each character without adding additional abilities. While players can spend hours tweaking their stats, when they get into the actual game it becomes very simple.

When comparing it to my character in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have two hot bars filled with 24 abilities, then an additional two side bars with another 18 or so abilities, buffs, items and skills. I can’t remember the last time I played a MMORPG  where I had so many abilities as SWTOR. Full disclosure the only other two MMORPGs I played to the level cap were LoTRO and Warhammer Online, neither of which, from what I remember, came anywhere near SWTOR.

However I have played dozens of other MMO games to mid level and I can’t recall  filling up my hotbars by mid game in any of them. In comparison I had filled my two bottom bars and nearly another full side bar before I hit level 25. Then let’s not forget a fifth hotbar for companions.

However there’s a certain complexity that is expected when playing a MMORPG, much more than a MOBA game like League of Legends, but when is enough enough? Do we really need 40 abilities and items to select from while in combat?  Seems like overkill to me and while I don’t expect or even want a MMORPG with only 5 abilities, it wouldn’t hurt for MMO developers to take a look at what RiotGames is doing with League of Legends and perhaps simplify some things.

What do you think? Are MMO games going to far with the amount of skills and abilities players have access to or do you enjoy the complexity of it?

In the real world we all use a single currency system, ok, maybe two for some of the EU countries that still accept their old currency, but for most of us there’s only one. If you travel to another country you’ll have to exchange your money for whatever currency that country uses, but you remain in a one currency system.

When MMORPGs first started showing up in the gaming world, they followed basically the same logic, one basic currency that players can use to buy and sell their items to other players or vendors. However over the last decade, this system has ballooned into a complicated multi-currency system where it seems everything you do provides you with another type of currency. Call it what you like, tokens, commendations, points, it’s all basically the same.

Today MMORPGs are more about collecting tokens than they are about role-playing or even just playing. They have become a sort of achievement list for players to brag that they played 1000 PvP matches and now have enough tokens to get that awesome weapon everyone wants. To me that’s not a reason to play a MMO.

An overload in currency systems was the reason I quit LotRO some years ago and I have no doubt they’ve crammed even more collecting systems into the game since. However it’s not just a few games that are at fault, nearly every game today follows the same multi-currency system, including RIFT and SWTOR.

The issue has become so bad today that the simple removal of a token makes entire portions of a game pointless and irrelevant. Developers use these token systems to etice players to participate in activities they normally wouldn’t want to. For instance if you want more people playing mini-game X, simply create some epic gear and a token system specifically for that activity.  Boom, you’ll have people flocking to that mini-game in order to obtain those items, but the questions is, should they?

As a developer wouldn’t you want players to participate in certain activities because they’re fun and not because they get rewarded every time they do? If players are avoiding some areas of the game maybe those activities should be removed or reworked until players will actually want to participate.

I personally believe all MMORPGs should stick to a single currency system and allow mini-games or game features to fail if they’re not fun. If mini-game X is boring and I can get the same rewards elsewhere, I will.  That should give developers incentive to make mini-game X better, but instead they take the forceful route and create high rated gear and hide it behind a secondary currency.

Last week BioWare released a video of Game Director James Ohlen talking about some upcoming changes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, one of which was the Legacy System.

Up until now, we knew that the the Legacy system would create a sort of family tree for your main and alt characters and they would gain some sort of benefits. I for one assumed the benefits would be non-combat such as cosmetic gear, titles, mounts or something along those lines, however in the video James clearly states that all characters will gain new abilities and powers.

Being someone that has never played an alt character and who doesn’t plan to, this Legacy System completely gimps players who choose to stick with a single character. The Legacy System almost forces players to start over with an alt in order to remain competitive with other players.

Since SWTOR is all about story and is the game’s main focus, it’s no wonder BioWare would put in place a system that puts a huge incentive for players to start over. However for those of us who are not alt-players, this system makes it pointless to continue playing as we would do so with a permanently gimped character.

What BioWare is trying to do is add replay value to a genre that quite frankly doesn’t need it. Incentivising players to start over should be the last thing any MMORPG should do as the game itself should be engaging enough for players to continue logging in even after completely the story. However when you create a game that has the same old game mechanics and endgame as every MMORPG of the last decade, getting players to start-over is probably the only way to keep your subscribers.

When we left off a couple of weeks ago, I had just arrived with my baby Inquisitor Sorcerer on the planet of Dromund Kaas. The planet of milk and honey and giant frigging predators right outside the official Imperial Space Port.I think that the Sith Empire is taking this “let the weak perish” thing a bit too far, when you want to make even visiting your capital city an exercise in Darwinian jungle laws. Maybe all Sith lords are just complete adrenaline junkies that enjoy the rush of knowing that at any moment you take more than 5 steps outside the city walls there’s a good chance that something is going to try to shoot, bite or stab you in the face and neck area.

Also you would imagine that the capital planet of the Empire would have enough soldiers stationed to not have to rely on random passing strangers to keep the wheels turning.No really guys, I appreciate the chance to save the capital city of the Sith Empire from being destroyed by lightning storms, but you would imagine this is the kind of task that you maybe would not want to entrust to some fairly unproven “just-off-the-shuttle” hotshot that’s barely learned which way of the lightsaber you point away from your face (admittedly, that’s a mistake you normally only make once).

Anyways, after having saved the day I was able to make my way to the originally named Kaas City (Earth City, anyone?), which appeared to be suffering from some sort of outbreak that kept 90% of the population indoors.At least that’s what I must assume was happening, because I was jogging down huge roads and over large squares that were all but completely empty. For something that is supposed to be the hub of the entire Sith Empire it sure is deserted.Perhaps the citizens had stepped outside the city walls for a quick smoke and were promptly eaten/shot/stabbed/struck by lightning. Helps to keep congestion down, I guess.

Dromund Kaas offered me more chances to venture into yet more ancient Sith tombs. At this point I was starting to suffer from tomb raiding fatigue, or as we call it in the business: “Croft-Syndrome”.Really, if you’ve seen one old Sith tomb then you’ve seen them all, but as my master had previously demonstrated a penchant for frying people with Force lightning, I figured that I didn’t really have much say in the matter.
Eventually tombs were raided, schemes were carried out and my master was all round happy with my performance, to the point that she gave me my very own starship (honestly I would have been happy with a fruit basket, but thanks!).

By the way, let me just say that the moment you get your ship is wicked cool and it fills you with an appropriate kiddie level of “oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!” when you first step into the space dock and see it sitting there.

My first destination in my very own ship was the planet of Balmorra.

Unfortunately I cannot remember a single thing that I did on Balmorra.Now this could just be a result of my memory not being what it used to be. After all I’m pushing 30 and I sometimes indulge in the occasional drinking spree. Or it could just be that whatever happened on Balmorra was simply not interesting enough to leave a lasting impression on me.It could also just be a result of my memory not being what it used to be.
Honestly, I don’t remember anything of what I did on Balmorra. Ask me anything about Balmorra and I’ll just go “I have no frigging clue”.You could hold me at gunpoint and demand that I give you information on what I did on Balmorra and all I could say was: “Dude, you seem unhealthily obsessed about the details of the Balmorra storyline. Maybe you should just chill out and play some Tetris”.

In any case I’m pretty sure it wasn’t offensively bad, though I have a vague idea that there was some tomb raiding going on at some point, but that may just be a ghost memory left by my experiences on Korriban and Dromund Kaas.

In all honesty I have to say that my Sith Inquisitor storyline took somewhat of a dive after I finished up on Dromund Kaas. The Prologue was extremely cool, but the start of Chapter 1 was not terribly interesting and my fondness for SWTOR itself kept me plugging through the game rather than the excitement of seeing what would happen next.
The gray amnesia haze of Balmorra behind me, I was off to the Hutt controlled moon of Nar Shadda, with its Blade Runner like neon lights and dystopian mega city setting.
And that’s where we’ll begin our story in the next chapter…

I was happy to find out today that both Firefall and Reddit.com were going to shutdown their sites, and in Firefalls case its beta testing, on Jan 18th to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act. I decided I must do something as well and will be canceling my SWTOR account after my pre-paid subscription comes to an end regardless of how I feel about the game, unless EA reverses its stance on SOPA. Neutrality is not good enough, EA must publicly state they are against both laws.  I will also be boycotting all gaming companies that support the Act which according to Reddit include the following:

• EA
• Capcom
• Microsoft (Not anymore)
• Nintendo
• Sony
• Sega
• THQ
• Square Enix
• Take Two
• Ubisoft
• Nival

Below is a great video that explains what SOPA is meant to do and what it will actually do. In essence it will allow any company to shutdown any website they “claim” are breaking their copyrights. I put claim in quotes because there is no due process or even a notification given to the website with the violation. The company also doesn’t actually have to prove they own the copyright.

A recent example was when Universal Media Group was able to shutdown MegaUpload because of a free song upload by various artist including P. Diddy, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, and others. The song was to protest SOPA and did not violate any copyrights, however just the request by UMG was enough to shutdown the site. Keep in mind MegaUpload is not some small website like MMOCrunch or many others, it’s the 72nd largest website in the world. Also keep in mind they were able to do this NOW and SOPA or PIPA have not even become laws yet. So just imagine what will start once these laws pass.

SOPA is not only supported by gaming companies, but by the movie and music industry as well, which in the past have had no problem suing 12 year old girls for downloading a song. So shutting down a website will probably mean even less to them. SOPA is the death of internet freedom and creativity and I hope you all will do your own protest or boycott in support of stopping SOPA and PIPA (Protect IP Act).

RockPaperShotgun also has a complete list.

Welcome to our sixth Star Wars: The Old Republic datacons guide. This time we reveal the locations on Tatooine which can be obtained by both Empire and Republic.

Tatooine was one of the more fun locations thus far, particularly the Blue and Strength datacrons which are located at the same location. Mainly because I ran into Republic players during my journey, which was the first time I was able to partake in open zone PvP with multiple players.

Coordinates for the 5 datacons on Tatooine.

• Aim +3 X: -628, Y: -30
• Cunning +3 (Empire) X: 726, Y: 3137
• Cunning +3 (Republic) X: 2140, Y: -3671 (not shown in video)
• Willpower +3 X: 2115, Y: -596
• Blue Matrix Shard X: -2391, Y: -1381
• Strength +3 X: -2391, Y: -1381

The Blue Matrix Shard and Strength datacrons are located in the same locations, on a sandcrawler in the Dune Sea. To get on the sandcrawler you first have to travel to the south-west where you’ll find another sandcrawler that you can climb onto (see below screenshot). Wait there for a balloon which you’ll need to jump onto. If you just missed it you’ll have a 40 min wait for it to come back around.

Be aware both Republic and Empire players need these datacrons so don’t be surprised if see other player from the opposing faction there. When I did it, there was about 8 of us and we all waited peacefully, jumped on the balloon, but once it cleared the sandcrawler all hell brook lose. My faction, Empire, was able to knock off all the Republic players leaving them there to wait another 40 mins. I felt bad, but it was either them or us.  I didn’t start recording until I got to the sandcrawler with the datacrons, so unfortunately you won’t get to see that.

Below you can find the datacron video guide for Tatooine. More guides coming soon.

Be sure to check out our Datacron guides as well.

• Hutta datacron location guide
• Dromund Kass datacron location guide
• Balmorra Empire datacron location guide
• Korriban Datacron location guide
• Nar Shaddaa Datacron location guide

Welcome to our fifth Star Wars: The Old Republic datacons guide. This time we reveal the locations at Nar Shaddaa for the Empire, although two datacrons can be obtained by Republic also (Cunning/Yellow Shard). Datacrons are hidden items and permanent stat boost for your character. Since they are hard to find and get to, we here at MMOCrunch decided to create some video guides to make it easier on you.

Get ready, Nar Shaddaa has one very difficult Datacron that requires expert jumping skills.

Coordinates for the 5 datacons on Nar Shaddaa.

• Cunning +3 X: 1958, Y: 3288
• Yellow Matrix Shard X: 1781, Y: 3084
  You MUST obtain the Cunning Datacron before you get the Yellow Matrix Shard.
• Aim +3 X: -3699, Y: -1692
• Presence +3 X: 2930, Y: 400
  Hardest datacron to obtain thus far. Have fun.
• Strength +3 X: 2017, Y: 2441
  

Be sure to check out our Datacron guides as well.

• Hutta datacron location guide
• Dromund Kass datacron location guide
• Balmorra Empire datacron location guide
• Korriban Datacron location guide

Below you can find the datacron video guide for Nar Shaddaa. More guides coming soon.

So you hit level 10 and you feel like you could take on the whole Empire (or Republic) yourself? Star Wars: The Old Republic allows you to take the fight to the opposite faction via PvP battlegrounds called warzones. There are currently three warzones in the game, all with varying objectives required for victory.

Not only are warzones a fun experience, they also provide good rewards in the form of commendations which can be used to purchase equipment, weapons and consumables. Of course, if you want to get your hands on these goodies you’ll need to get amongst some blaster fire and earn your keep!

Here to assist you on your path to galactic domination and help you and your team to victory is a brief guide to each warzone and some basic strategies.

First up is The Voidstar.

The Voidstar is a derelict Imperial starship containing data that could be used in the war effort by either faction. Attacking players must gain access to the ships data core and download the information before time runs out.

The map is made up of three sections, each requiring one of two sealed doors to be destroyed with explosives before progress is possible. In addition to this, attackers must also activate various control panels to deactivate energy barriers or extend bridges along the way. The map is played over two rounds with players each taking a turn at attacking and defending.

Basic strategies for any defensive team include calling out incoming threats to either door, and using AoE abilities to interrupt players planting explosives. Games can be won and lost on people calling out enemies so keep your team aware of what is happening at all times. Inform incoming allies if the area has been cleared of threat for example, allowing them to apply pressure in other areas instead. A fluid team that balances players between objectives with good communication is a hard team to beat, even with a premade group.

AoE abilities are also very useful for the attacking team. Spreading damage out amongst as many enemies as possible gives the defending healers too much to handle, allowing attackers to thin out the crowd. The classic “bait and switch” tactic can also work to great effect in Voidstar and is often the only way past a good defensive team. Applying constant heavy pressure to only one door can sometimes draw all the defenders to one side to help teammates, leaving the second door unguarded for someone to stealthily take without drawing attention. Be ready for a large surge of enemy players once they realise what has happened however and defend the explosive, or use the opportunity to plant explosives on the other door if possible.

There are also plenty of terrain obstacles around the map that can be used by both teams to break line of sight and health pickups in various locations that can help turn the tables in a tricky fight.

Next up is Huttball. If you play Empire, be prepared to see a lot of this warzone depending on your server population.

Huttball is a capture the flag game mode with a twist. The ball carrier can pass the ball to any team mate within range, and the enemy team can intercept passes or kill the ball carrier to take possession. The team in possession of the ball has to make their way to the enemy goal line to score. Along the way are various environmental hazards such as acid pools and flame vents that can be used to hinder the enemy, or be used as an advantage in some situations.

The ball is obtained from the center of the map and is reset if a pass misses or a team scores a goal. The map features raised areas and walkways that need to be crossed in order to score a goal, but the walkways sport timed flame vents preventing progress for a short amount of time. Underneath the walkways is a pit area that players can be dragged or thrown in to that is time consuming to exit.

Passing is one of the most important things to remember here. The second is to pass wisely. Passing works via targeting an area to throw the ball, the player being passed to must be standing inside the marked area on the ground to receive it. When passing, try to be aware that moving players may not see the pass and run by it, so try to anticipate where a moving player is going and throw the ball in their path.

Using the terrain to your advantage is also of high priority. Punting/dragging players into the acid pools or flame vents is a quick way of dispatching them with minimum effort, and applying crowd control to players navigating flame vents can also be used to force players to take environmental damage. If you have any grapple abilities these can be used to drag the ball carrier into the pit area, forcing a pass or a lengthy exit from the area.

If all else fails, name calling is encouraged…

Lastly we have the Alderaan warzone.

A battle is taking place above Alderaan, yet the key to victory lies on the planet. Secure and hold ground-to-air laser turrets to provide offensive support to your faction and blast the enemy out of the sky!

Alderaan is a control point map that requires at least two of three laser turrets to be captured and held to win. Teams are flown into opposite sides of the map (north & south) via speeder bike and can immediately access two of three turrets from the start location. The northern start point can access the west and center nodes, while the southern start point can access east and center. Connecting the east and west nodes is an underground tunnel, located within are speed boost pickups enabling quick access to either side of the map.

As with The Voidstar warzone, calling out incoming threats is the key to a good defense and should be done at every opportunity. A successful strategy is to send a few players to the east or west (depending on your start point) control point, while the rest of the team assault the middle node. Once this has been achieved, split the team between the two nodes and call for support whenever needed, however always try and keep at least one person at a node to inform the team of capture attempts.

Once again AoE abilities can be used to create a large amount of work for healers, and also to interrupt players attempting to capture a node. With this in mind, be aware of your positioning when capturing nodes as you can often use line of sight to achieve a successful capture. Once again, the ‘bait and switch’ tactic can be used to great effect here. Providing heavy pressure to a node will often draw more enemy players in to defend it, leaving other nodes less guarded and available for capture.

Have fun, and stay tuned for my follow up guide dealing with some basic strategies for tanking warzones and effectively providing valuable support to teammates.

It’s always fun to try to predict what’s going to happen over the next year so here is our list of 2012 predictions for MMO gaming.

Guild Wars 2 will gain more players than Star Wars: The Old Republic – I’m having a great time playing SWTOR, but it’s just not different enough to hold my attention in the long run. I predict players will flock to GW2 and before 2012 ends, Guild Wars 2 will have a larger active player base than SWTOR.

Diablo 3 will be delayed until early July – Blizzard has never released a game or expansion in the first or second quarter past Jan 16th and since no release date has yet been announced, I’m going with an early third quarter release.

Warhammer Online will go Free-to-play –  I still can’t believe they haven’t so I’m guessing 2012 will be the year.

Blizzard will reveal their Titan MMO project – We all know it’s going to be a new IP, but that’s basically all we know right now. I predict that this years Blizzcon, they’ll spill the beans.

Black Prophecy will be shut down or sold – The game is seriously lacking players and while it still has promise, it has no change to turn things around in its current form. I predict Gamigo either shuts it down or sells it off.

End of Nations will be a flop - I love the concept that Trion is doing with End of Nations, but I just don’t see it being a hit and predict it will be a failure in 2012.

Eve Online will rebound from 2011 and continue to grow – I’ve never played the game, but it’s my favorite MMO I to hear about. I predict CCP will get back to basics and subscription numbers will continue to rise in 2012.

Mythos Global will shut down…again – The third attempt to run a successful version of Mythos will fail and the game will close down yet again.

The Secret World will go free-to-play by the end of 2012 – Not that I don’t think it won’t be a good game, but it doesn’t have the pull other titles like D3, SWTOR and GW2 have. I predict it will have a great launch, then peter out like so many other MMO games, changing to free-to-play only months after launch. That or it will launch as a free-to-play title.

There you have it, my nine predictions for 2012 and I’m going to say I’ll get more than half right.

One of the biggest driving forces for players in MMO games is to do better than everyone else or at least most people. Whether this means being the best PvP player, getting the best gear, crafting or just making more money than others, there’s always a constant pressure to do better. This tends to lead to players taking advantage of the game through “cheap” or unfair tactics and can eventually lead to cheating through the use of exploits, bots or other means. However there is a huge difference between cheating and taking advantage, although it often blurs the line.

I recently came across an area in SWTOR that provides a player with thousands of credits for little to no effort, so I decided to take advantage of this and farm the location manually for a few hundred thousand credits. (I want to make it clear that no bot or macro was used) Is this cheating or just taking advantage? I’ll give you a hint, I don’t think it’s cheating.

Another example came out today, again in SWTOR, showing a method where by using the /getdown dance move, players can make themselves un-targetable in combat. This of course is an exploit as the developers never intended for a social dance move to become an invincible skill in combat.

So why do I state that my credit farming in the first example is only taking advantage while the combat dance move is an exploit? I don’t think anyone would argue that a social dance move was never meant to have any impact on combat, so of course it’s an exploit. However the credits I received were meant to be a reward for the activity that was accomplished, so they do not fall in the same category. The problem is that reward is either too large or the cooldown timer needs to be much longer.

While there is no mention of “farming” in the EULA or Rules of Conduct, BioWare does meantion something vague about this in their Rules of Conduct.

You may not engage in any conduct or practice that results in an Account containing items, objects, currency, character attributes, rank, or status that are inappropriate for the level or rank of the character contained in the Account, i.e., “item loading,”

So yes, the area in question is meant for level 40 characters, so if your level 10, I guess that could be considered cheating by BioWare’s definition, although it still wouldn’t in my book. Where do you draw the line then? Is a level 30 or 39 player cheating?

Farming, as long as it is not done with bots or marcos since they are both against the EULA, in my eyes cannot be considered cheating. The rewards system is run and controlled by BioWare, so if they create a reward that they themselves consider unfair if farmed, they can simply change it. Yes, I’m taking advantage of BioWare’s mistake of creating too good of a reward, but that’s not the same a cheating.

Think of it this way. If you were running a raid to get some epic item and one day you find a shortcut that takes you straight to the end boss and it’s not an exploit, wouldn’t you use it?  Of course, who wouldn’t. So if you find a mob or box that has 100k credits in it and respawns every min, aren’t you going to sit there and farm it? I like the meet the person who wouldn’t.