SWTOR: Something A Little Different

  Up until now, I've been talking about health issues. Right now, they're a dominating force in my life--I have to arrange my life around my chronic disorders as well as the various doctor's appointments for my family member going through dialysis. I'll be going to training with her, as well as continuing to visit all of her appointments to act as a second set of ears as well as an advocate if she needs it (unlikely since she's already out of surgery).

  So let's do something a little different! I'm going to talk about SWTOR, also known as Star Wars: The Old Republic.

  It's a fun game for me. I hadn't really played the game until a bit ago, despite having an account since nearly the beginning of the game. My highest character prior to all the stress of my family member's kidney disease was level 7. Now I have multiple level 65s (the level cap). One day I intend to have one of each type of character up to 65. However, as a roleplayer, I keep getting fun ideas for characters and making new ones. Ack! It's really hard to get every character class to 65 when I keep restarting.

  I have trouble with credits (money) in the game. As a friend said, "Easy come, easy go." Since I have a fascination with fashion and creating outfits--most of which my characters don't wear, since I tend to settle on one outfit and wear that the most often--I spend a lot of credits on the GTN (Galactic Trade Network for you non-TOR players, also known as a broker or auction house) purchasing various fashion items. And because I like to use pieces of various sets across multiple characters, I try to purchase an entire set of clothing, since if you've equipped every single piece, you can buy an unlock for it from the "Collections" page that allows you to claim as many copies of that armor on any of your characters that you want. The way they prevent GTN bloat is that any copy you claim is already bound to your character.

  Did I mention that clothing that can be unlocked only comes from the cartel market (cash store)? You might think that's a bad thing, but it's not bad. People who want to spend money for instant gratification can buy the armor. But the armor unlocks its bound status (as long as you don't equip it) after two days. So if you want to make easy money on the GTN, you purchase a set of armor, wait two days, then toss it up on the GTN. For those of us who don't like spending real life money on in game items, we check the GTN for the items we want, and buy them that way.

  So, my credits tend to go out rather than in. The most I've had at one time has been 7 million credits, which sounds like a lot, but you have to realize that credits are the only type of currency in the game. In something like EQ2, that'd be 7 platinum (if I did my math correctly). It's not a perfect exchange, of course. Credits have a bit more worth than platinum in the game. Still, while 7 million sounds like a lot, it isn't. And of course, I spent 6 million of it the day I hit 7 million, so that didn't last long! (500000 credits per clothing item eats up millions very quickly. Of course I have expensive clothing tastes.)

  I'd post screenshots of my character, but I'm a little distinctive in looks--I'm not sure how I managed that--so while I may post images of various things I'm doing, you won't be seeing me in any of them. One day when I'm not quite so keen on remaining anonymous, perhaps.

  OH OH OH! Did I mention one of the best parts, at least as far as I'm concerned? Every single quest has a cutscene. That's right. You get a mini movie every time you go to do a quest (or in TOR, mission). It's great the first time, and some people (like me) like to watch them every time. But for those people who think, "Once is enough!" there's an option to turn off the cutscenes. So it's the best of both worlds.

  All right, back to TOR. I'm in the process of crafting a bunch of items for the friend who introduced me to the game. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Once a crafter, always a crafter!