What with the recent ‘blackout’ conducted by Wikipedia, Reddit and a whole host of other websites in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), I thought it was worth taking some time to highlight a couple of other issues.  Whilst I wholeheartedly support any opposition to SOPA and PIPA, and fully accept that legislation passed within the United States has wide ranging consequences that not only affect internet usage outside US borders but also basically set the ‘world minimum baseline standard’ with regards to internet freedom, I was somewhat disheartened and frankly annoyed to see so many British bloggers, youtubers and websites so actively supporting US activists’ efforts to get the US Congress to reconsider these acts.

Totalbiscuit blacked out his youtube page and posted a highly informative video about why SOPA is bad, Yogscast blacked out their page and linked back to TB’s video etc etc.  And all of this is great, I’m not denying that.  It shows a bright new future where the internet community is not divided by country or flag, where we can all stand up and speak in one voice and it showed the power the voice of the internet has when we bother to work together.  Obviously I say that in the knowledge that SOPA and PIPA could still be passed into legislation, but the White House is actively against SOPA meaning that a veto is highly likely.  Building on that, considering the very public backlash against SOPA it is extremely unlikely that SOPA at least would get the 67 votes required for a supermajority in the US Senate (allowing the Senate to supercede any presidential veto).

Wait.  You’re pissed at fellow Brits opposing SOPA/PIPA but simultaneously applauding their efforts?  WTF RUNZ????

(Warning: Very minor spoilers about the Sith Inquisitor story but nothing that will ruin your experience.  I can't, however, guarantee the spoiler free status of links so beware!)

I have done something terrible, something absolutely heinous and I feel awful about it.  I didn't for it to happen, events conspired against me so as to make my final course of action inevitable.  It's really not my fault, I mean he would have killed me wouldn't he?  It happened on Balmorra, a planet recently conquered by the Sith Empire deep within the galactic Core Worlds.  I'd been sent there by my Master to retrieve a powerful artifact but upon my arrival I quickly learnt that this was no pacified planet.  A brutal guerilla war had been ongoing since the Republic's withdrawal as the local population was less than chipper about have a bunch of sadistic force users as their lords and ladies. On top of, judging from the state of the place, it was pretty clear that the Imperial Governor had reduced trash bin collections to once a fortnight.  Daily Mail readers would be incensed by the whole thing.  So being a responsible member of the Sith Empire I resolved to clean up the mess my fellow Sith had created, bring an end to the conflict and pick up that artifact along the way.  They'd call me Runz the Peacemaker!  Well that's the plan anyway.

You see I'm no conventional Sith.  I am Runz, a Sith Assassin with a heart of gold and an eye for the ladies.  Oh I talk big about crushing my enemies but that's mostly to impress my Dashade companion.  You see I am secretly a member of the Revanites, an outlawed cult within the Empire that believes that Revan's mastery of both the light and the dark sides of the force is the true way and will bring both power and peace to the galaxy.  Really I didn't even want to be Sith, I'd originally set my sights on being a Jedi Sage, but all my friends were being Sith and I just wanted to be one of the cool kids.  Funny, this story seems to sound exactly the same as the story of why I started smoking, oh hum.  So I spend my days trying to advance myself in Sith society, pleasing my somewhat twisted master whilst attempting to maintain some sort of moral code.  It boils down to this;

Killing defenceless civilians is bad.

Killing Rebels/Republic soldiers is fine if they're on the field of battle, they knew the risks.

Killing Jedi is justifiable if they conflict with my goals and will not stand aside, but I won't go out of my way to start a fight with them.

Killing fellow Sith is completely acceptable as they're a big bunch of arseholes who will kill me given the opportunity.  Most of the time I don't have to go out of my way to start a fight with them, it just happens and shouting "SAME TEAM, SAME TEAM" appears to have little effect on the situation.

A TALE FOR THE AGES

You'll notice that so far I've mostly been talking about me and my character and not very much about the actual game but that is for one very good reason; the story of your character is inextricably linked to the game and it's mechanics.  Many of the game's mechanics are used to drive the story, and the drive of the story propels you through the more traditional game mechanics that might otherwise be somewhat uninspiring.

Let's be very clear and get this said right at the start; for all its glitz and glammer SWTOR is essentially another WoW clone, it is another hotkey MMORPG based on statistics, gearscore and RNGs.  There's no escaping that fact and aside from some elements of gameplay it is not a player skill based game.  Granted gaming basic skills are still required, such as not standing in the fire and being able to position yourself behind the enemy to backstab but, much like WoW, a lot of your performance is more likely to be based on how good your gear is and how you've built your spec.  Those with greater spatial awareness and faster reactions are more likely to be better at the game but these personal abilities are not essential to have in great abundance to play the game well.  As long as you have an awareness of where to stand and what your abilities do, your spec and your gear will likely carry you through the rest of the way.  This is generally how MMORPGs work, we all know this so this will unlikely be a surprise to anyone.

Less than a week after saying I wouldn't be playing SWTOR I went out and bought it.  I'm a weak willed fool I know but I just couldn't help it but there was no way I could pass up playing the biggest MMORPG to be released since WoW was first released back in 2004 (2005 in Europe).  Plus, LIGHTSABRES PEOPLE, COME ON... LIGHTSABRES!  Don't worry, don't worry I'm not giving up on WoW or anything I have far too many commitments in Azeroth ranging from my closest friends in guild to my mission of crafting our PvP'ers into well honed killing machines and finally of course my continuing task of writing basic mage guides for all of you.  But I have to be honest with you all here and admit that, with the exception of PvP, WoW has gotten a little stale for me.  It's not Blizzard's fault (or maybe it is, this is something I hope to explore), but rather it's an inevitable fact that after five years of playing (and seven years of release) and basically being the unchallenged king of MMOs for pretty much that entire period.  It's difficult to see how you can do things better when you're already doing everything in that genre better than everyone else.  But at this point it's where Blizzard's flaw came in, they were doing everything already better than everyone else and largely everyone else just tried to copy WoW with only relatively minor changes.  Blizzard stoppped innovating, and with that glaring that in mind along came Bioware - a primarily single player company but one with a strong franchise with the Knights of the Old Republic - who genuinely have strived to do things differently and so far I have to say it's paying off.

In the next few weeks I'm hoping to give you guys a full first impressions article of my starting bid to rule the universe but I have to say that straight off the bat Bioware has made the questing experience far more enjoyable in SWTOR compared to anything in WoW.  Yes ultimately it still boils down to kill 10 X and collect 15 Y quests, but the presentation of these quests as they built into your personal story (based on your class) is amazing.  At first I was wary, how can it be a personal story when a chunk of the server population is doing the same questline as you?  But with dialogue options, the lightside/darkside meter and the fact that your choices actually affect how your story plays out, the story feels intensely personal.  Currently I'm playing a Sith Assassin with a heart of gold but s streak of arrogance, and you know what?  Through the dialogue options I've experienced so far I can totally play that.  That feeling of personal connection with your character and the development of his/her story is something I really feel has been missing in WoW for a long time.  Now I say that as someone who is not a roleplayer, and dedicated roleplayers may feel differently.  Ultimately in WoW roleplayers can craft their entire story in their head, and not being a roleplayer I don't know how much the dialogue options restrict genuine roleplayers' immersion.  But personally, as someone who enjoys PC games with strong storylines where I can build a connection with the characters and can direct how their story plays out through various options without having to worry about generating an entire backstory, dating profile and and local dialect of obscure language for my toon, this is awesome and one of the biggest steps forward in MMORPGs I have seen.

Ultimately I still love WoW and will never abandon Azeroth but this is the first other MMO I've played that has grabbed my attention and I'm hoping that Blizzard learns A LOT about how to innovate within the genre from Bioware ahead of Mists of Pandaria.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for my full first impressions/review article and some gameplay videos.

Runz

HELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Welcome to 2012, did you all have a great Xmas and New Year's?  I did, Mrs Runz got me Skyrim and I have not stopped playing it since I departed the UK to go back to work.  In return I got her an iPhone 4S... my inner excited teenager did not stop to acknowledge the slight imbalance in present cost here lol.  I jest of course, this was exactly what I asked her for.  She also got me a pretty kick ass leather jacket (motorbike cut) which I'm very happily wearing.  On top of all this, my in-laws cooked Xmas dinner this year so all I had to do was turn up, eat, drink their beer, pass out on their sofa whilst my kids ruined their house, then I left.  BEST XMAS EVAH!

Sadly of course this has not left me a great deal of time for either playing WoW or blogging but the break has done me the world of good.  The end of November saw my guild establish our first ever RBG team with me being made up to officer level to organise and run it; it's been a pretty mixed bag so far.  Xmas was never going to be a great time to recruit or organise matches, in fact the Xmas disruption has had some pretty negative implications for our 3v3 team with none of us having the free time to competitively play so magnify that to 10 people and we have not been having a great time of it when it comes to RBGs.  Strangely, our best element is the element that we'd have most trouble with - Healers.  Our healers are absolutely awesome, and I'll take this moment to thank Nairne, Nasserkwt and Rudeboii for their tireless dedication to turning up over the Xmas period only to be let down by one DPS member or another.  Like I said, this isn't a dig at the DPS because it was Xmas and we all knew it would be a difficult period, but seriously the effort made by our kick ass healers went above and beyond so thanks guys.