Keep Calm and Continue Testing

So with a little less than a month until Mass Effect 3 hits stores, and less than a week until the demo is available to download, I think I am officially done with Star Wars The Old Republic. I haven't canceled my account just yet, but I am thinking that will be happening sooner rather than later.

On Monday I got to a pretty good stopping point: Done with Act One and the interlude, back on my starting planet. I was thinking I would mess around a little and pick up some extra commendations (world-specific currency) so that I could actually spend the few I had left for that planet. They can't be used with commendations from other planets, sadly, and I didn't have enough left over from my first run-through to zero them out getting something available from the commendation vendor for that world. Tuesday afternoon game time rolled around and I just couldn't bring myself to log in. I just really didn't feel like it.

So I fired up a new game of Portal instead. I needed a break from SWTOR, and I wanted something different. Portal is about as different as it gets. I played that Tuesday afternoon and evening and as I was getting ready for bed I though to myself, Yeah, it's okay if I don't get any further in SWTOR, I had a pretty decent run. Like I said, I had hit a good stopping point.

I think the straw that broke the camel's back, for me, was when I finally leveled up my Artifice crafting skill to full power and was looking at schematics to make lightsabers--the whole reason that I chose that particular crafting skill. I figured out which lightsabers I wanted to make for me and for my companion. Sure, I wouldn't be able to use them until level 47, which I probably wouldn't get to, but I could at least have fulfilled the goal of making one. Also, I could make a few for my friend who is also playing in thanks for being so patient with me and for making me so much awesome armor. I looked up the crafting materials required for lightsabers (which are actually pretty much the same across the board no matter what kind of lightsaber, which is cool), there was one material that I wasn't sure where to find. All of the other materials I actually already had or knew where to get and could easily send my companions for more. But that one item, when I went to look it up, turns out to only be dropped in group quests by level 50 bosses.

You guys know I had already decided on an end date for playing the game. I have also mentioned that I've more or less been skipping the group quests. Even after finally joining a guild with my friend and friends of his, my heart sank a little as I saw the discussion boards about that particular crafting material. There was just no way I was going to be able to procure it through my regular game play, not by the time I stopped playing. I could try to buy it on the Galactic Market, I am sure, but I can only guess how pricey such a hard-to-obtain item would be, and as I have mentioned before, my in-game money management skills have not been great (largely due to two things: the requirement to pay for new skills as you level, and the ongoing repair costs for equipment).

That was kind of the last thing I was holding out for, I think, being able to make and customize my own totally badass lightsaber. With that out of the question, I just didn't feel any compulsion to play again. I feel a little bit like a failure for crapping out so spectacularly on this game, if I am being honest with myself. Because I am quitting. But when the game is meant to keep going, even after its end point, there comes a time when you just have to walk away. Mine just happens to be a bit earlier than most, I guess. I feel like I am letting my friend down, and my guild, because they all seem like really cool people from the brief interaction I've had with them. But I can't keep playing a game out of a feeling of responsibility to someone else. That's not fun. They are all much better gamers than me, I know they will be okay.

Anyhoo, so for now, I'll play Portal, and probably Portal 2 after that. They are short games, and fun, even when I am banging my head against the wall in frustration because I can see how I need to get out of the chamber but I just can't make it work.... There will be the ME3 demo too, of course. I'll probably do a write-up on that for you guys next week. Then I am just gonna bide my time until the full game drops.

Yesterday I found this little gem on the internet. I think it is a very relevant cross-section of my current interests:

(Spoiler Alert for most of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2!!)

Who knows? Maybe between now and March sixth I'll get bitten by the bug and pick up SWTOR again for a furious frenzy before I put it away for good. I kind of doubt it, but hey, you never know. For the record, again, I do want to say that the game itself is absolutely AMAZING. It is just not for me. I think I'll just stick with fictitious promises of cake and saving Earth from the Reapers for now.

Although...if I happen to stumble across a mod for ME that makes Fem!Shep look like SWTOR's Master Satele Shan (both voiced by the super awesome Jennifer Hale), I would not say no to that...