Keeping Up With the Joneses in the Anoat Sector

I've thought a bit lately about the general consensus on the forums that Uprising is now on "autopilot," and I unfortunately have to agree. Although, to say so requires some sort of explanation, right? Right. Uprising is a MMORPG and, as my previous post suggests, the MMO half of such an equation has fallen relatively flat. But what about Uprising's RPG characteristics? RP what now? Oh yeah, story. 

In my previous post, I touched upon the lack of multiplayer Raids with the release of 3.0, as well as the end of the cartel competition and the "meh factor" of current SBs and IBs. Maybe Daniel Erickson's "M" refers to Massively "Meh" Online game? In all seriousness, there are also other issues to address, which I've posted about numerous times in the past.

For instance, while the Lando Missions are cursorily a unique and interesting tie to the Star Wars universe, the missions themselves are lackluster at best, if only because the rewards are generally garbage.  Which is a technical term! Personally, I haven't taken out the trash for Lando in awhile. As far as I can tell, however, the real problem lies in the lack of new story content.

Obviously, the engine of any RPG is story content. At times compelling and at times nonsensical, the storyline of Uprising has been an interesting one to date. In fact, I've written about the Hero arc of Uprising in "The Story So Far." Be that as it may, Kabam missed a significant opportunity to genuinely expand upon story content with both the Raids and the Lando Missions.

But there's something bigger and badder at stake here, and it's a point that Erickson, the Senior Director of Game Design, touches upon in the aforementioned "Behind the Scenes..." article. In a nutshell, the problem begins  with the players. Let me explain.

In the article, Erickson expresses nothing but enthusiasm for Endgame players. And rightly so. But have you ever wondered why, for example, the Raids are tiered in a manner that makes progress so  terrifically difficult? The answer is Endgame players.

While there are many 100 level players around, Endgame players -- who, by the way, mostly populate the top 50 cartels -- are many  cycles of development ahead of everyone else. Why? Well, they've been playing longer. It's as simple as that. Keeping this in mind, the Raids seem specifically designed to challenge Endgamers, many of whom already  have full sets of 7* Raid gear. So what does any of this have to do with story content?

Generally speaking, the main interest of Endgame players has been consistently twofold. First, beat the game. And second, beat the game faster than any other player. In short, they want to win, to finally finish that last piece of 9* Raid gear that completes their final set. While such a desire is far from ultimate fulfillment, the Raids must  keep Endgamers grinding away in circles.

Keep in mind, storylines are generally linear, not circular.  If given the opportunity, Endgamers would simply devour any new story missions with mechanical efficiency, hit the end of the line, then clamor for more. Raids keep them occupied. They wont be clamoring for more Raid content anytime soon, I can tell you that much. They're all quite busy keeping up with the Joneses.

Again, I'm speaking generally. I've met plenty of Endgame players who are genuinely interested in exploring the use of Force Powers, for example. But the above explains why Uprising seems stuck on "autopilot." While a sadly understaffed Kabam scrambles to develop new content, their prodigal children, the Endgamers, have plenty to accomplish before they ever hit the 9* wall that's so far away it seems unimaginable.

A Bad Feeling About "M"

I recently discovered an article, "Behind the Scenes with 'Star Wars: Uprising'...," which appeared just before the game's release. While the article itself isn't notably stellar, I found it interesting in light of Uprising's present state, especially since the article features Daniel Erickson, the Senior Director of Game Design.

Once upon a time, Kevin Kabam posted on the forums about the decision to release the 3.0 update with non-multiplayer Raids. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find that post again to reread it. [And I did after this present post went live. You can read Kevin's explanation here.] In any event, Erickson makes a number of insightful comments about Uprising, which, coincidentally, have a lot to do with the social aspects of the game, such as the potential for multiplayer Raids. For instance:

That’s the magic that Erickson hopes fans come to find in Uprising.  The mentality that a group effort breeds group rewards. “Having a goal where the entire player base got together and said, ‘You know, we are going to push the borders. We are going to open up this game. We are going to decide what is happening in our world.’ [Our driving focus is on] making the ‘M’ part of the MMO much clearer and much more a part of the core game.”

The view Erickson articulates makes me wonder, too, about the recent demise of the cartel competition, as well as Kabam's general unresponsiveness to obvious issues with Sector Battles, arguably the  major social event of Uprising on a weekly basis. If the "'M' part of the MMO" is supposed to prove "more a part of the core game," then I wonder what precisely happened to Erickson's vision, since, more and more, "the core game" entails merely leveling up gear with no clear teleology. What's more, the Kabam Game Team has ultimate control over the entire MMO Battle system, not the players, as I surprisingly found out.*

All of this is as much to say that Erickson's original -- and really quite remarkable -- vision for Uprising has indeed changed. As it stands, the game is part of the Star Wars universe, and it's unfortunate that, despite a staggeringly high degree of potential, Uprising's part in that universe has contracted rather than expanded after the 3.0 update. Which "M" did Erickson refer to again? Apparently not to "Multiplayer," maybe "Massively"? Perhaps Uprising is now a Misguided Multiplayer Online game? Sheesh. I've got a bad feeling about this.  

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* At Starwars.com, the ad for SWU tells potential players that they can participate in "massive Sector Battles to dictate the expansion of in-game content." While not false, it's unquestionably questionable. 

1 Year Anniversary

Star Wars: Uprising was released a year ago on September 9. There was much buzz on the forums about what kind of celebration Kabam had in store for its trusty player base. There were many speculations, including the release of a new Vanity set, akin to the Scout Trooper set that Kabam gave to players a long long time ago in a galaxy no so far away. Others suggested that they would be happy with a simple communication from Kabam, especially on the forums.

So why am I posting all this several days late?

Well, I have to admit I was so disappointed that Kabam did absolutely nothing  for the anniversary that my only response was to shrug and sigh. Uprising is a fantastic game, but the recent radio silence from Kabam has been deafening. In a recent conversation with another Uprising player, I was told that a Support representative wouldn't even confirm or deny any kind of anniversary event when answering a ticket about the matter. At this point, Kabam seems a real embodiment of this guy:

Governor Adelhard IS Kabam.

While the optimist in me says that we shouldn't give up hope for Kabam to do something truly special for the anniversary in the fairly near future -- something cool -- my pessimism keeps telling me that hope is for suckers. One way or the other, we'll all find out if Kabam has something in the works. For the moment, I'll play the sucker.

Hoth SB

We just can't win against these things.

I should just copy/paste my last post on the last Hoth SB! Although, in this battle, we ranked 81 with 15,679,620 VPs. Great effort, everyone!

And, again, the ultimate battle was lost. Kabam needs to do something  about this, sooner rather than later. Although, with their current skeleton crew, I doubt any changes will happen ever.

Anyway, I might as well note that, for the last three SBs on Hoth, I've received dupe Snow Trooper gear. Ugh. Anybody have an extra pair of gloves so I can finish the set? lol.

Keep your eyes open for future posts on the use of Alternative Heroes, also known as Alts, as well as Attacker ability builds. Until then, good hunting!

Anoat IB Update 4

At long last, I finally received a fairly clear answer from Kabam about the internal structure of IB and SB triggers. As you may recall, I was less than enthusiastic about the last response from Support about the recent change to the IB trigger schedule. As a follow up, I asked a quick question: "Can you tell me *how* SB/IB clock triggers change according to battle results?" The reply:

You'll note that the reply doesn't actually answer my question in full. I mean, how does the Game Team make this "internal decision"? More pointedly, not only is the schedule determined by the Game Team, but also the rate  of IBs and SBs. Which means, of course, that Kabam controls the entire Sector Battle system. And all this time we were under the mistaken impression that running assaults on particular planets to trigger a SB -- or earning  planetary Freedom Ratings, for that matter -- actually mattered.  

Gundarks, Guns, and Money

In less depressing news than Kabam's general ineptitude, Captain Winter Vos has a recent post in the Uprising Forums, "Gundarks, Guns, and Money: Force Powers, Standard Abilities, and Melee Play." In his post, Winter reiterates two key concerns that -- if you recall -- he expressed to the Kabam Game Team awhile back; namely, that 1) Force Powers are "merely alternatives to Standard Abilities" and generally aren't as effective against Bosses, and that 2) a Rank 1 Standard Ability Set for ranged combat works almost as effectively as a very pricey Force Power melee build.

Winter's bigger point, though: "As far as I can tell, the larger issue at stake is that Uprising has hardly ever been kind to melee players." If I've made this point once, I've made it a million times over the past year or so. You're welcome, Winter! What's particularly on point about this larger issue, though, is his suggestion that Force Powers "should prove more powerful than they are currently." I absolutely agree.

But this isn't about making Force Leap do more damage or extending the range for Dark Poison. "I mean to suggest," Winter explains, "that Force Powers should give players significant melee and block bonuses when equipped." Good point. Such a change would not only begin to bridge the obvious gap between ranged and melee play, but it would also incentivize the investment in Force Powers above and beyond any cool factor.

Think about it. Doesn't it make sense that budding Jedi receive melee bonuses from equipped Force Powers, especially considering that they're finally ready to put down that blaster and really use their lightsaber as a primary weapon rather than merely carry it around for the PR increase?

Anoat IB Update 3

Well, I finally heard back from Kabam about the recent change in the IB clock on Anoat. Here we go again:

A few things. First, the "schedule themselves"? Really?

The sentence should read: "The schedule itself can fluctuate depending on the varied results of Battles." Though, which "Battles"? Just IBs? SBs too? Wtf. I've been playing this game for nearly a year and this is the first I've heard that present battle results will change the clock triggers for future battles.

Next, there didn't "appear to be a pattern," there was  a pattern. Big difference. And that's "for some time," not "at some time." Whew. It's like I'm talking to a child who insists that the cookies are called Pig Newtons, not Fig Newtons.

What this response really  says is that Kabam can do whatever they want, whenever they want, for whatever self-justificatory reason or reasons they can dream up, without warning and without accountability.  Did my last post mention fascism?