MMO Invitation (Star Wars), Again

[The Other Dave]

I know not a lot of people here are into MMOs, but what the hey.

So I play the Star Wars MMO pretty regularly, and it's good fun (and free to play!), but more fun with other people. And since my work / life / having a three-year-old schedule means I don't get to hang out with you fine folks as often as I'd like, or indeed do very much "traditional" gaming at all, I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in playing some virtual light sabers one evening a week or so.

Like I say, it's pretty fun, especially if you hop on Skype or Steam voice chat or something and BS while playing, and it's free. Anyone interested?

(Something I'd want to do is set aside time to play, and have characters we only play in group with each other - that'd guarantee we're always at the same level, in the same zone, and at the same stage of missions, which is a big thing for keeping this kind of thing going. But logistics can wait till we see if anyone actually wants to play, heh.)

[Lovejoy]

Can a 6 year old Mac run it? I'm thinking not but might check.

having a three-year-old schedule means I don't get to hang out with you fine folks as often as I'd like

Your schedule is 3 years old? Time to update it.

[The Other Dave]

Meaning a schedule dictated by the needs of a three-year-old, heh. Probably could have phrased that better.

It doesn't run natively on Macs, I'm afraid - you'd need Boot Camp. A 6-year-old machine might be pushing it, too. At launch (2 years ago) I ran it on a then-two-year-old machine and it did OK.

[Lovejoy]

@ToD, Just my little joke. My mac is too creaky I reckon, hope you find some gamers. Looks fun.

[me_in_japan]

Hmmmmmn. Free, you say?

I might be able to do that. I've never played a mmorpg before, but if it's the kind of thing you can do once a week in the evening, particularly just with folks you know, aye - I could be up for it. What kind of time commitment are we talking here?

[The Other Dave]

Hmmmmmn. Free, you say?

I might be able to do that. I've never played a mmorpg before, but if it's the kind of thing you can do once a week in the evening, particularly just with folks you know, aye - I could be up for it. What kind of time commitment are we talking here?

Eh, an hour or so, sometime after 8? Something like that. I'm all flexible-like.

[me_in_japan]

Possibles, possibles. Maybe a bit later would suit me better. Kids are usually in bed by 9, 9:30 on a troublesome day. What's the actual name of the game? And, is it on Steam? If not, where do I find it?

Also, if it's free, how do they make their money? Just curious, like

[The Other Dave]

10 or so is also fine for me - I'm basically free after my daughter goes to bed at 8.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the name - feel free to download the client and give it a whirl if you like (if we do get around to playing I'll ask you to make a character on a particular server, where all my characters and loot are, heh). Technically it's set a couple thousand years before the events of the movies, but the SW universe is so static it's probably most useful to think of it as an alternate universe with a Galactic Republic and jedi and stuff and also a Sith Empire run by sith. Light-sabers for everyone! Anyhoo, the site has lots of info and junk.

It's free to play, but subscribers and people who have paid money for stuff on the cash shop get some quality-of-life bennies (free players can't change the color of their outfits or choose whether or not to display hats, have a slight experience penalty - which won't matter if we're playing in a group - and can't display titles, that kind of thing). They also have an extensive cash shop, mostly of cosmetics that don't effect gameplay - different speeders, different costumes, differently-colored light saber crystals, and the like - which people seem to be prepared to pay a lot of real-world money for, heh.

[YellowStreak]

I played it a bunch at launch, but pretty much stopped before I came to Japan.

I could be tempted back...

[The Other Dave]

I played it a bunch at launch, but pretty much stopped before I came to Japan.

I could be tempted back...

Tempt! Tempt!

As you probably know, 3 players will make it a bit more fiddly, at least to get started, since we'd want to be different classes which means one of us would start on a different planet - but we could hook up and do the group thing once we hit the fleet.

How long after launch did you quit playing? Quite a bit has changed, especially in the quality of life area.