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...

The Grand Experiment

I know I have been a little bit quiet about Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) of late. I have been playing it for just over a month now, and it has been something of a roller coaster of an experience. Overall, I have to say that I actually really dig the game itself, and I am very curious about how the story will play out.

But. 

I have come to realize I am not in it for the long haul. SWTOR is my first experience with a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). Even though I tried to ignore that quiet little voice in the back of my mind as I followed the game's development and then tried the beta and then started the game proper, I have always known that there was a chance I just wouldn't turn out to be an MMO kind of girl. I think I thought if I hoped hard enough, I would be able to enjoy that aspect of the game, or that I would be pleasantly surprised to discover I really actually enjoyed it. Sadly, I don't.

As I said, I really do dig this game. If it was a single-player game it would have skyrocketed right up to my top three favorite games of all time, beating out Mass Effect to take its place with Dragon Age and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. The gameplay is pretty solid. Some of my initial concerns from the beta quickly started to make sense once I got the hang of how all of the pieces fit together. The story is amazing, the voice cast is incredible, and the setting is, of course, perfectly Star Wars. Hell, I even actually enjoy the space combat missions. That came as an incredible surprise, let me tell you. I normally loathe the driving/flying portions I am forced to endure in any RPG. 

My ship, the Defender, is pretty snazzy too. Not quite the Normandy but no small shakes.

I think it is safe to say that everything I don't like about this game can directly be attributed to it being an MMO. Now, if I had a regular guild of people I know, in real life, who had a gaming schedule that coincided with mine, that I could go through the game with together? I might not dislike the multiplayer aspect so much. Then again, it might still drive me nuts, there's no telling. In an matter, I don't have such a group. More often than not if I want to do a heroic area quest (I have already given up on flashpoints), I have to send out a message in general chat to see if anyone is up for joining me. This is, quite literally, a crapshoot. Occasionally, I'll find myself in a group that turns out to be a lot of fun, we work well together and get a little bit of nice chat in the process. Usually, I end up with a disjointed group of people and for some reason we can't seem to coordinate our attacks. Sometimes we try to remedy this using chat and can't because they keep using traditional MMO shortcut speak and I have no idea what they are saying to me. Bleah. It is also not uncommon that I'll be ready to do a heroic area and there are no biters at all. I find it incredibly frustrating.

But the heroics are optional, more or less, and I could get by without dealing with that. Yesterday I looked at my quest list, and the closest quest to my position was a heroic. I thought about sending out a message to see if anyone was up for it, thought about it some more, and then just removed the quest from my list. I instantly felt better about the game. I can't avoid other players completely though. I can't even tell you how many times I've arrived in an area to do a solo quest and three other people got there right before I did, meaning my objective enemy or item is already dead/used and I have to stand around waiting for respawns. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of fighting an enemy blocking my objective, and another player will just run up, use the objective, and run off. Or players will stand around in the middle of an area I need to be doing something in, totally in my way. So there's that. Occasionally it works out to my advantage, in that someone will be trying to tackle the same boss I need to get and will see me and invite me to group with them, and then we both have an easier fight. But that is pretty rare, most of the people are either jerks or just oblivious to everyone else. 

Also, this game just feels like work to me a lot of the time. I now completely understand the term "grinding." There is so much to do, and there are so many quests, that I also don't really feel like I have the luxury of just exploring the worlds. I keep fearing I will fall behind. I mean, right now I am level 32 and I have only received two of my five companions (one of which is a droid and as cool as he is, he isn't much in the way of a conversationalist), and I haven't even finished Act One of the game. Also, I looked up my one potential love interest, and he has a seventies porn 'stache. Not cool. I get that it has to be a broader story and that it is designed to be played for, well, years, not weeks. But that just makes it feel like a never ending slog when I stop to think about it. When a game doesn't feel like fun anymore, I don't really see the point in continuing to play it.

So, my hope that I would end up loving this game despite (maybe even because of) the fact that it is an MMO has turned out to be in vain. This makes me a bit sad, I'll admit. Like I said, I am really curious about the endgame and the outcome of the story. I don't think I'm gonna get to find out how that plays out. I'm going to continue playing this game (on the days when it feels like fun and not work) for at least another month. The demo for Mass Effect 3 drops on Valentine's Day, and I am going to take a break to play that. Then, I will either renew my account for one more month and get as far as I can before ME3's March 6 release date, or I am going to cancel it then and finish my two active Dragon Age games while I wait for my new game to release. But until then I am going to get as far as I can in the story and try to forget that there are other players unless I really feel like doing a heroic area or unless my friend is online and on the same planet as me. (Though, by "forgetting" the other players, I do not mean to say that I will be a discourteous player.)

Now let me say for the record: this is not meant to be a complaint-fest. I do think SWTOR is a really awesome game. Also, from what I can tell, it is a really awesome MMO. The complaints I have seen about that aspect of it (largely in comparison to World of Warcraft) are almost all about things that Bioware has flat out said that they are working on addressing/fixing/updating in future game patches. It's just that I, personally, am, as it turns out, really not cut out to play an MMO. It doesn't fit my gaming style or my life right now. Maybe one day that will change. I am not sure I could bring myself to cancel my account if it meant deleting my character entirely, which thankfully it doesn't.

To end on a positive note, here are some of the things about the game I have found amusing of late:

Nar Shaddaa seems to have an abundance of TARDISes. Tell me that's not a Timelord transportation device, I dare you.
Someone at Bioware must be a fan of the Doctor, is all I'm saying.

That's my companion Kira and her wonderfully ridiculous hat that she picked up on Tatooine. I love this hat. I am never
letting her take it off. EVER. 

Alderaan has flying fish (upper right-hand corner) all over the place. This one is wearing a saddle, suggesting that on
Alderaan, people ride their flying fish. How is that not awesome?

Despite a lot of griping I have seen on various places in the internet, I also do not feel that this game tramples all over the canon of either of the Knights of the Old Republic games. I have really been digging the random references to the other game that I have come across. I feel like, yeah, it's been a few hundred years, and stuff has changed, but that doesn't mean that the events of the other games didn't happen.

Also, there is a whole set of gear called Mabari. Mabaris are the breed of hounds from Dragon Age. Picking up some Mabari loot never ceases to make me smile (even if I have yet to find any I can/would wear). 

So it's not all bad. It really isn't. It's just not me. 

Sigh.

A Star Wars Christmas

As you may have guessed, Star Wars has been on my mind more than a little this holiday season. I mean, I'm not gonna go so far as to watch that holiday special of which we will never speak again, but it's definitely in the air.

Along with the launch of The Old Republic, I also stumbled across a Lego Star Wars advent calendar. Of course I bought it. Twenty-four little assorted minifigs and kits for my December building pleasure? Heck yes!

The minifigs are definitely my favorites, but I also think some of the ships are pretty cool (and creative, to get them down that small). There are also a few completely random items in there, but it's all good. I still get to start every day with a little bit of Lego building, and I will definitely take that!

Without further ado, I present to you, the Lego Star Wars days of Christmas!

Day 1: Republic Cruiser

Day 2: Angry Neimoidian (Nute Gunray)

Day 3: Nute's Walking Mechano-Chair

Day 4: Homing Spider Droid

Day 5: Slave I (Boba Fett's ship)

Day 6: Chewbacca!

Day 7: Chewy's Workbench

Day 8: X-Wing Pilot (I'm calling him Wedge, whether he is or not)

Day 9: X-Wing

Day 10: Lambda Class Imperial Shuttle

Day 11: Separatist Pilot Battle Droid

Day 12: Snow Speeder

Day 13: Astromech Droid (R2-Q5)

Day 14: Mouse Droid

Day 15: Republic Attack Gunship

Day 16: Clone Pilot

Day 17: Weapons Rack

Day 18: Y-Wing

Day 19: TIE Pilot

Day 20: TIE Fighter

Day 21: Millennium Falcon (!)

Day 22: A-Wing

Day 23: Life Day Christmas Tree

And, because I don't normally post on Saturdays, I went ahead and sneaked a peek at tomorrow's for you. Behold:

Day 24: Santa Yoda (Complete with a sack of presents!)

A very good mix of original trilogy and prequel flavors in there, I have to say. The box it came in is a little bit destroyed because of how the flaps for each day open up, but I am thinking about saving it nonetheless to use again when Baby Girl is a little bit older and we can enjoy assembling each bit together.

Anyhoo, that's me out for the rest of the year. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas (or your holiday of preference) and Happy New Year's. Regardless, have a wonderful week, and I hope you get some time to enjoy with friends and loved ones as well as some much deserved relaxation. No posts next week, I'll see you back here on Monday, January 2.

Ta ta for now!

Another Post About SWTOR??

Why yes. Yes it is.

Well, it's officially launched. Whoo! I've been having fun exploring and leveling up and questing and such. Now I am about to be without access to the game until next week while I am out of town for the holiday. Should give all those latecomers a chance to catch up to (and probably surpass) me by the time I get back. Sigh.

Oh well. It's not like I am actually playing this as a competition anyway. I really really am digging the story and I want to play through and see how it pans out.

The social aspect is starting to grow on me. A little. I have already gotten in the habit of keeping my eye on the chat window while I play. I have learned how to sort out the general discussion from private chats with my friend or with my group. I actually have been seeking out groups, too. I am kind of proud of myself for that. When I did the first Heroic Area on my class homeworld (these are short quests where you are encouraged not to go alone--basically you have to fight your way through a slew of baddies to get to your objective), I actually hopped onto the general chat to see if anyone was interested in joining me. Ended up with two buddies and we sliced through it pretty quickly. It was surprisingly fun.

I really like how the loot and conversation options work with a group, too. With loot, if a fallen foe just has credits, then it's first come first serve, or sometimes the loot signal will only come up if you personally killed the guy. But if there's an item, everyone in the group gets a choice between "need" or "greed," and the game rolls for it for you, with the highest group member winning the item. If you select "need" then it is more likely to go to you (I guess it weights the "dice" or something), but if everyone chooses "greed" then it's a fair roll and everyone's got an equal chance. I was a little confused by this at first. I thought maybe those two would have been reversed (with "greed" meaning "I want it now" and "need" meaning "Give it to whichever member needs it more"). With conversations, when you get to a dialogue option, every group member makes a choice and again the game rolls for it, with the highest roll's choice getting played out. That means that in a conversation, usually each group member's avatar gets a chance to speak up, which is nice. If you want to make sure that there are no unpleasant surprises in how the conversation turns out, you can just hop on the group chat and make sure everyone is on the same page with which dialogue options to choose.

There are still a few drawbacks, of course. When I did my first attempt at the game's first Flashpoint, I found a pretty decent group fairly quickly. We got about two-thirds of the way through, however, and I managed to run my avatar off the edge of a random bottomless pit (in the middle of a spaceship! the Star Wars universe is randomly fond of bottomless shafts and pits in spaceships and stations). After a loading screen, I was at the start of the area again, but it took me a few minutes to figure that out. Then, my computer when kind of nuts and I couldn't get my character to move or get my chat to work. By the time I did, and was moving toward my group again and able to message them, they had already been waiting and the group leader had booted me from the group, thinking I had buggered off. I mean, I don't really blame them, but it was incredibly frustrating and annoying. I felt kind of like a loser. When next I logged in to try that Flashpoint again, there wasn't anyone around who was up for trying that particular mission. Which didn't help with the feeling like a loser bit. Still, the third time was the charm, and I was able to find another group the next day and get through it all. I have also now learned how dying works in Flashpoints, as well as what to do when my avatar freezes up like that. So, learning experience.

I actually ended up joining a guild that is focusing on leveling and Flashpoints. They are friendly to noobs, and hopefully that will make it easier to find buddies when I need help with a mission. Also, will hopefully give me less of a chance to make an utter fool of myself, because I can just ask. I was kind of amused when the guy who recruited me sent a welcome comment and then added to just let him or a few of the other guild leaders know if anyone in the game is bothering or bullying me. I mean, grown woman, mother and all over here. Still, it's nice to know someone has my back.

So, yeah, I am having a ton of fun so far, more than I was hoping for, I'll be honest. I am really looking forward to continuing the journey.

Now, just because, have a whole bunch of screen shots!

Is it just me or do the Flesh Raider Boneguards look a wee bit familiar?

Crafting my lightsaber!

Heck yes!

I have the power! Wait...wrong franchise.

Group combat.

Two lightsabers, baby, heck yes!

Tearing it up...

Meeting up with a real-world friend in-game, yay! Aw, T-7 party!

Just chillin' in my speeder.

Even though the game didn't officially launch until Tuesday, Amazon went above and beyond making sure that everyone got their physical copies in time for the launch. Mine came last Friday, and it is pretty spectacular.

Next to Baby Girl so you get an idea of scale.

The loot: A cool book, security key, the soundtrack, a map of the galaxy,
and of course, the game itself.

Also included a pretty awesome Darth Malgus statue. 

So yeah, that's what's been going on over here. Expect to hear more for a while folks. Anyone else out there playing? Or hoping Santa brings them a copy?

Bonus Post! Star Wars: The Old Republic Early Access

As an incentive to pre-order the game, Bioware decided to offer early access to anyone who did. The early access start time was determined by when you registered your pre-order code on the SWTOR site. The first announcement about when early access would begin had it starting tomorrow, but someone at Bioware decided to push it up and it actually started yesterday. Given that I had Amazon set to alert me as soon as the game was available to order, and that I also have been paying close attention to the game's website and Facebook page, well, you know I ordered this game about the second it was available. Also, I registered my pre-order code as soon as I got my order confirmation email.

So it is no surprise that yesterday I was in one of the very first waves granted early game access. Even though I am in the middle of a playthrough of Dragon Age II, I scrapped all of my other gaming plans yesterday to fire up SWTOR as soon as I could. I might have even gone ahead and created my character (yeah, they didn't let us keep our beta characters, it's okay though, I had already decided to start over) and played through all of the opening cut scenes in the morning while my daughter watched Sesame Street.

My new character, Skirata.

I have a confession to make. After I wrote up my post about the beta weekend, I had a brief exchange with a friend that almost made me cancel my pre-order then and there. A lot of the factors related to this being an MMO are still making me hesitant about the game. I had a lot of soul-searching debates with myself, but in the end, I realized I am just too excited to try this thing out to give up before it even gets started. At the very least, I want to experience the story at least once. Also, it is good for me to try new things and to put myself a little bit outside of my comfort level, dagnabit.

So, I fired up the game yesterday and I have to say, I am feeling much much better about it already. Many of my complaints from the beta seem to be non-issues anymore. Part of this is that I was expecting them or have gotten used to them, part of this is stuff that was changed between then and now.

I have already made it to level seven and am doing much better financially in-game, and with keeping my equipment repaired and my character leveled, than I was the last time around. Knowing I can afford to level up and that my weapon and armor won't go kaput before a boss fight makes playing a lot more enjoyable. I do still find the battle engine pretty clumsy but that might just be my own personal preferences getting in the way there.

I still suspect I might only play through once--I have no real desire to play any of the other classes. I want to be a Jedi Knight Sentinel because I want to be a Jedi and I want to have two lightsabers. I think those things are pretty self-explanatory, really. Although, it did occur to me last night, that the game allows for your light side character to go dark. If it also allows for your dark side character to go light, that sure might be a fun way to play...

Also, I am not gonna cease to be amused by this particular side quest, ever:

Why yes, that quest title is "Flesh Eating Baby" and there is in fact a Flesh Raider Baby in my backpack.

Anyhoo, all of this is just to say that I am actually really having more fun with this game already than I had expected, which is a huge relief. I have also been leaving the general chat window open so that I can follow along with the player conversations and get a feel for the people on my server for when I do need to find a group and my buddy isn't available.

I did decide not to do the extra blog about the game though, but I will of course likely blog about it oodles over here.

There's still time to pre-order the game if you're interested, or it comes out next Tuesday if you feel like braving your local video game shop. I've got my server and character name up over there on the side of the page for anyone who is playing and wants to look me up!

My SWTOR Beta Experience

So, among the many distractions I faced during my November writing were not one but two open beta weekends for the forthcoming MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR). The game launches on December 20, with early access being granted to anyone who pre-ordered it. To stress test their servers and try to find any last minute glitches or bugs, Bioware opened up their beta testing to everyone who had signed up to be a beta tester for two different weekends last month. They also gave out a bunch of codes for people who hadn't signed up already to be able to get in.

If you have been paying attention to this blog over the last year or so, it should be quite obvious to you that of course I had signed up to be a beta tester as soon as I learned that was an option. Then I sat on my thumbs for a year and a half kind of sad that I was never invited. Then I got my first invite at the start of November. After that initial rush of "hell yes!!" faded, I started cursing the bejeezus out of Bioware because, well, you know, November is kind of a no-video game month for me. BUT. I have a wonderful husband and he helped to make it work for me to participate in both weekends by keeping an eye on the kiddo so I could play during times I wouldn't normally be on the computer (so as to not detract from my designated writing time). As of this past weekend's beta, Bioware also lifted the non-disclosure part of the beta policy, which means I am free to share with you my thoughts on the game so far! Yay!

Meet Vakarian (named for Mass Effect's Garrus), Jedi Knight.

I have to say, there were certainly some frustrating moments, just getting into the game (stress test on the servers, yo) and then with the actual gameplay.

All servers full all the time. There was much waiting in queues. Let's hope that isn't normal.

Here is my laundry-list of complaints after two weekends of playing:

• Cool down periods on items and abilities. Okay, I do expect there to be some cool down period after using an item before you can use another like item, or before you can use an ability again after using it once. That being said, the cool down period on med packs (which is how you heal yourself in battle) is way too long. It just is, especially considering that the only med packs I ever tried to use were crazy low-level anyway. The other thing I didn't particularly care for is that if you use any ability or item at all, every item and ability becomes unavailable for you to use for several seconds. That is NOT COOL. 
• Your equipment takes on damage over time. This means you either have to find/buy something to replace it with, or you have to pay to repair it (which really isn't that cheap). I understand that this may be a nice little touch for those players who really crave a challenge. This is not the kind of thing that enhances my personal gaming experience, however. Especially when loot is so scarce in this game to start with, and the credits don't really flow for a Jedi who follows the code. It took me forever to realize that I even could repair my items, so I was prepared to get really pissed off about the fact that I would have to be constantly switching out my gear (which doesn't do good things for your inventory if you always have to have replacements on hand). I would love to see more loot in the final release of the game. That would mitigate this annoyance a lot.
• Leveling up your character is completely unsatisfying. When you get enough experience to gain a level, you do get a nifty little fanfare and a flashing neon display around your character, yay, hooray. But you can't click on your character as soon as you are out of combat and choose your new skills and attributes. Nope. Your attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.) as far as I can tell are automatically leveled up for you based on your class and specialization. You get a few automatic passive skills with each new level, but to get a new active skill (such as a new lightsaber attack or force ability) you have stop what you're doing, go find a "trainer" and actually pay him credits so you can have that new ability that you freaking earned with your experience. DO NOT LIKE. Grrr. Once you hit level ten and choose your class specialization (for a Jedi knight you become either a Sentinel or a Guardian), you get a skill tree and with each level you get to pick a new ability from the tree.
  

Skill Tree for the Jedi Sentinel

• Everything is just so darn expensive. Points two and three really all add up to this. Every time I started to save up enough credits to stock up on med packs, I had to use them all to purchase new skills, or vice versa. My poor Vakarian was always freaking broke. I can't imagine that the Jedi Order really wants to send their people out into the galaxy unable to actually afford to be able to do their jobs, but there you have it. I find myself wondering if Bioware has some scheme in mind where you can pay real world money for in-game credits. It would explain a lot.

All of that being said, please don't mistake me, this game is AWESOME from what I have seen of it so far. I made my way up to level ten through the Jedi Knight origin story (or prologue). I got one companion (my droid, T7) and made it to Coruscant before the test ended. For the most part I had a blast playing it. Yes, there were a few times early on when I was so frustrated I contemplated canceling my pre-order of the game altogether and just firing up Dragon Age again, but those moments were fleeting. I fully acknowledge my noob status at MMOs. I know a big chunk of my frustration can easily be attributed to the overwhelming feelings of starting an entirely new game for the first time and figuring out just what the heck is going on. I suspect a lot of the other frustration can be chalked up to my unfamiliarity with online gaming (as well as my hermity nature). 

The graphics in the game are absolutely GORGEOUS. It is the Star Wars universe come to life in an amazingly beautiful way. See for yourself.

Lovely day for a hike in the mountains, don't you think?

I had to harvest meat from these guys to feed a baby Flesh Eater. Note the quest title in the upper right corner.

Pretty Jedi Temple is pretty.

The Jedi definitely have style when it comes to buildings.

The light fixture's a bit over the top, but it sure is nice to look at.

I really felt like these glowing mushrooms should have been lootable.

Squee! Assembling my lightsaber!

Another day, another temple.

T7 likes to ride the banister. He's crazy like that.

Coruscant.

You know, I bet if a dude equipped that same vest, it would reach his belt. Just saying.

The story is also pretty darn engaging from what I got to play of it. I guess it helps that I have been reading all of the comics for the game's back story, and I am also familiar with the events of the two Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games, which set the table for this one. But the game gives you plenty of opportunity to delve into the rich mythology of the universe. The codex entries are very detailed and interesting. 

Interesting and informative.

You also get the typical Star Wars scroll-screen setting up each "chapter" of your story. It updates as your game progresses.

I am not sure if this is a game I will play multiple times. I might play it through once and keep my character on hand for when new expansion packs come out, and leave it at that. Who knows? I might get absolutely sucked into the whole MMO experience. It's always possible. Though at the moment it just really reminds me that even my geekiest of friends are not the same kind of geeky I am--I only have one friend who is also planning to play this game. He lives in St. Louis and keeps a very different schedule than I do, we couldn't ever manage to meet up in-game to play together during the beta weekends. So I am definitely very nervous about the "social" aspect of this game. But here's hoping I end up pleasantly surprised by that. (Hey, if any of you are playing and want to meet up in-game, let me know!)

All in all, at the end of two beta weekends, I am really excited for this game to come out and to get to play it through. I think that, as much fun as the character creator is, if my beta character is still available to me when the game launches, I will probably continue her story. But if not, I can start over and play through Tython again. At least I will be a little bit better prepared to play through that area. 

Once the game does officially start, I will launch a new blog to run concurrent with my playthrough called Jedi's Journal. There's not much there at the moment, but please feel free to bookmark the site if you're interested. My plan with that blog will be to write a short form entry each day I play (or maybe after each major story quest is completed) from my character's point of view. Her perspective on the events of the game and the people that she will come across in her journey. It should be a fun experiment, and I'll remind you about it when I start posting there. I will still talk about the game on this blog, but that will be my thoughts on the game play or its effect on my life (or lack thereof) in general, I think. 

Eighteen days and counting, folks. Is anyone else as excited about this as I am?