Why all the outrage about Dark v Light?

d_20

I haven't been following SWTOR for a while, but I've decided to go back and play some of my class stories while ESO is down for maintenance. I was at my account page and then took a look at the forums and see a lot of hubub about the Dark v Light event.

Can someone break it down for me in simple terms?

KissThaRing

Basically, to participate in the event - you must create a new character. None of your current characters are involved in the event, so that right there is where most of the outrage is coming from, vets who have done everything in the game are now being asked to make a new character and redo everything for the event, most people do not have enough character slots to make a new character so they are forced to either delete a character, spend money for additional character unlocks or start on a new server all together - so yea, that right there is where the bulk of the rage is coming from. Vets are taking this as BW screwing them over.

As for what the event is about and what you need to do to achieve all the rewards, all the info is on the main page.

makasouleater69

KissThaRing said:

Basically, to participate in the event - you must create a new character. None of your current characters are involved in the event, so that right there is where most of the outrage is coming from, vets who have done everything in the game are now being asked to make a new character and redo everything for the event, most people do not have enough character slots to make a new character so they are forced to either delete a character, spend money for additional character unlocks or start on a new server all together - so yea, that right there is where the bulk of the rage is coming from. Vets are taking this as BW screwing them over.

As for what the event is about and what you need to do to achieve all the rewards, all the info is on the main page.

Sounds like a gimmick to get people back who haven't played in a really long time. It almost got me, till i remembered the gambling boxes lol. Now if they made a new server, sub only, no cash shop or cash shop items, everything earned in game, with that event I would give them 59.99 plus a sub fee, but that is called dreaming

Lol yep, even if they didn't have the gambling boxes, i read further and now i am 100% never going to that land. 

• Receive a Free** Level 60 character*** as you start your Knights of the Fallen Empire adventure.
• Games that give free lvl 60 characters are worthless garbage. 
• Back to single player games for me I guess, spent the last 4 hours looking for a new mmo, sounds like it the same old garbage I left a year ago. Cash shops galore, free high level characters, no death pens, no hard anything, instant grad cash grab nonsense. 

fatears

makasouleater69 said:

KissThaRing said:

Basically, to participate in the event - you must create a new character. None of your current characters are involved in the event, so that right there is where most of the outrage is coming from, vets who have done everything in the game are now being asked to make a new character and redo everything for the event, most people do not have enough character slots to make a new character so they are forced to either delete a character, spend money for additional character unlocks or start on a new server all together - so yea, that right there is where the bulk of the rage is coming from. Vets are taking this as BW screwing them over.

As for what the event is about and what you need to do to achieve all the rewards, all the info is on the main page.

Sounds like a gimmick to get people back who haven't played in a really long time. It almost got me, till i remembered the gambling boxes lol. Now if they made a new server, sub only, no cash shop or cash shop items, everything earned in game, with that event I would give them 59.99 plus a sub fee, but that is called dreaming

Lol yep, even if they didn't have the gambling boxes, i read further and now i am 100% never going to that land. 

• Receive a Free** Level 60 character*** as you start your Knights of the Fallen Empire adventure.
• Games that give free lvl 60 characters are worthless garbage. 
• Back to single player games for me I guess, spent the last 4 hours looking for a new mmo, sounds like it the same old garbage I left a year ago. Cash shops galore, free high level characters, no death pens, no hard anything, instant grad cash grab nonsense. 

I agree, I have a very strong negative reaction to gambling boxes in games. It is enough to stop me playing, it stopped my playing both Neverwinter and SWTOR. I just find it a deeply unpleasant monetisation system, to prey on people's frustration, rather than rely on their enjoyment.  

Roin

d_20 said:

I haven't been following SWTOR for a while, but I've decided to go back and play some of my class stories while ESO is down for maintenance. I was at my account page and then took a look at the forums and see a lot of hubub about the Dark v Light event.

Can someone break it down for me in simple terms?

Not sure why they are upset. If they have played SWTOR for any amount of time now. They should know the  Bioware game play book entry number one is "make them regrind it, whenever possible".

Elaland

I've been playing SWTOR continuously since it launched, and I think this is something to look forward to.  I'm admittedly an altaholic, but I had no problem deleting a few characters that I hadn't used in quite some time (there are 21 potential character slots per server per account).  The main website gives all the details, but in a nutshell you create a new level 1 character, level them up, go through the primary story lines, do some flashpoints and other accomplishments and the game rewards you at I think 6 different tiers as you go up the progression.  The "story" aspect of this endeavor is that all the light/dark moral choices by all the players with the newly created characters are tallied by Bioware, and will affect the SWTOR universe come fall as well as determining whether a few rewards are "light" themed or "dark" themed ones.  I can imagine some players are wondering why they have to go through the same accomplishments they've already done multiple times, but I view this as simply a nice twist that encourages people to take a new alt through the game.

psiic

makasouleater69 said:

KissThaRing said:

Basically, to participate in the event - you must create a new character. None of your current characters are involved in the event, so that right there is where most of the outrage is coming from, vets who have done everything in the game are now being asked to make a new character and redo everything for the event, most people do not have enough character slots to make a new character so they are forced to either delete a character, spend money for additional character unlocks or start on a new server all together - so yea, that right there is where the bulk of the rage is coming from. Vets are taking this as BW screwing them over.

As for what the event is about and what you need to do to achieve all the rewards, all the info is on the main page.

Sounds like a gimmick to get people back who haven't played in a really long time. It almost got me, till i remembered the gambling boxes lol. Now if they made a new server, sub only, no cash shop or cash shop items, everything earned in game, with that event I would give them 59.99 plus a sub fee, but that is called dreaming

Lol yep, even if they didn't have the gambling boxes, i read further and now i am 100% never going to that land. 

• Receive a Free** Level 60 character*** as you start your Knights of the Fallen Empire adventure.
• Games that give free lvl 60 characters are worthless garbage. 
• Back to single player games for me I guess, spent the last 4 hours looking for a new mmo, sounds like it the same old garbage I left a year ago. Cash shops galore, free high level characters, no death pens, no hard anything, instant grad cash grab nonsense. 

I would be right there with you!!! Amazing game.. HORRIBLE management decisions. 

sumdumguy1

I get why they are doing it, I don't necessarily agree with the decision.  My issues are the following:  Most of my gear is character bound.  Even if I delete a character, I would lose good gear for their level and lose money, both credits and potentially cartel coins.  I know the arguments, you will gain both if you sub over time.  While true, I still feel like if I delete a character, I should have the ability to reuse what I already invested in. It would also be nice if I could expedite my leveling experience if I wanted, like the 12x EXP leveling.  I am on the fence, but the one thing that stops me is I start the character, lose interest and it becomes a dead character slot which I will eventually delete.  I also have the games from the Steam sale I bought calling out to me.

Elaland

sumdumguy1 said:

I get why they are doing it, I don't necessarily agree with the decision.  My issues are the following:  Most of my gear is character bound.  Even if I delete a character, I would lose good gear for their level and lose money, both credits and potentially cartel coins.  I know the arguments, you will gain both if you sub over time.  While true, I still feel like if I delete a character, I should have the ability to reuse what I already invested in. It would also be nice if I could expedite my leveling experience if I wanted, like the 12x EXP leveling.  I am on the fence, but the one thing that stops me is I start the character, lose interest and it becomes a dead character slot which I will eventually delete.  I also have the games from the Steam sale I bought calling out to me.

While you can't transfer the character bound gear you can sell it.  Before I delete a character I transfer all crafting materials to other characters (or legacy storage), sell all bound gear, transfer or sell unbound gear, and then transfer the resulting credits to another character.  I deleted 5 characters this weekend, and transferred over 5 million credits to one of my other characters.  When I delete a character they are naked and flat broke - lol.

d_20

Thanks for explaining. I'm not participating in the event, so it doesn't bother me personally. I'm just there to do some of the class quests I've never finished.

But it does sound like the event could have been better thought out so as not to alienate much of their core community of long-time players who presumably have been spending money.

Octagon7711

They lost me when the new storylines were the same for every class.  Plus I've done a lot of alts already so redoing everything for the 10th or so time would not be fun.

Bakgrind

Speaking for myself, I feel that this  Dark vs Light is an event in name only as it offers no new content for it. And for someone like myself that  already has 30 level 65's I really do not see the value in it for me to grind out anymore characters at this point and time. But the main reason is why is this "event"  only going on for 4 months and not labeled as the new way that Bioware is going to reward new  player creation going forward from now on.

 But, let me put on my tin foil hat and say that I also feel that the  specific reason for this event is to collect metric data  while using it's carefully laid out syllabus that was put forth by Bioware on the very specific  goals  and road map that needed to be met.

And while all this is going on they will be gathering a lot of data  about the leveling ,popular class  ,credit  and a whole lot of other player choice and gaming data that I can only imagine during it's 4 month long beta test period.  And interestingly enough I don't feel that this testing is for the benefit of SWTOR , but rather a totally different game that EA is working on.