SWTOR: Waving goodbye.

Star Wars: The Old Republic was supposed to be the game that I truly invested into and played for the next 5+ years. Or at least, that was my intention, along with many others, when the game was announced. I started off strong, being one of the top PvP’ers on the server with really no intention of diving into the PvE scene that I had been so fond of in prior MMO’s. Alas, I found myself with the opportunity to create a guild with some of the best players on the server and we quickly dominated PvE progression, landing server firsts and even a world top 5 and a couple world top 10’s.

However, despite our resiliency to the plethora of bugs and lack of overall challenge and depth, we found ourselves last night all agreeing to suspend our raid schedule indefinitely and move on to bigger and better things. For us, it was a matter of beating our heads against bugs over and over and the lack of recognition from Bioware to those who put in the effort to be among the best. The encounter bugs, along with one of the worst crafting models I’ve ever seen (I’m looking at you augments), the welcomed changes in 1.3 are simply just too little, too late.

I’ve done my best to help the SWTOR community, running TrooperCommando.com, but we are simply looking for more of a gratifying challenge with more competition. We had some really phenomenal times on our server, The Jekk’Jekk Tarr, and without SWTOR, we wouldn’t have formed the great group of players we have today. So for that, and the effort of the Bioware Austin staff, I am truly grateful. I wish those affected by the layoffs and also those continuing to be employed, the best of luck in the future and I’m sure they’ll be able to turn things around.

In regards to Trooper Commando, as you may have noticed, it now redirects to here – Accomp.me. As my guild, The Tantalus, strays away from SWTOR, we are aiming to spread to multiple games – namely World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, and Guild Wars 2. We’ve created something really great with this guild and plan to grow into something of greater depth and value to the community. Accomp.me will serve as a means of communicating what we learn in each of these games and as Trooper Commando was, serve as a means of educating gamers about end-game. I’m extremely excited about the potential of this community and I hope you all are equally optimistic.

If you are interested in joining our progression guild in any game we play, feel free to get in touch. Something to keep in mind is that we are a progression guild at our core. Each of our players is passionate about conquering content as efficiently as possible, doing research outside the game, learning their classes, other classes, and the encounters involved. Whether it’s stabbing dragons in PvE, nuking others in PvP, or shooting the shit in chat, we’re a family of competitive, quality players. We’d love to have you.

So in conclusion, I wish the best to all of our friends made on The Jekk’Jekk Tarr in SWTOR on both the Republic and Imperial sides. And I apologize to those in the SWTOR community who enjoyed the guides I wrote for the end game encounters. I wish the best of luck to everyone and I plead you to keep in touch and continue to participate in the community and help build this up into something more meaningful and valuable to players across the world.
Cheers ~ Accomp

Accomp

Accomp is a Software Engineer by day, MMO enthusiast by night, full-time dad, and part-time content creator. He's been writing guides for MMOs for years and has a strong passion for user experience and helping other gamers improve. You can follow him on Twitter to keep up or join his Discord to hang out with his community.

13 Responses

  1. I can relate to those feelings that maybe many others feel also, I can understand the point your making in there. But still I do not think that this “event” or turn of the “events” will sink Bioware / Lucas or Swtor, I don’t even think that they make it F2P. I keep logging in (were small Guild and we manage because we love the game it self.) depending the future development of course. At the same time I do keep my mind open for other games and projects.
    As I said to @Rockjaw – Best of luck in future endeavors –
    Article it self was well written. I was glad that some keep still a good taste in their posts even though there has been loads of bad press on the #swtor lately.

    • Accomp says:

      Oh, definitely. Don’t get me wrong – SWTOR itself is very polished and is a phenomenal game for those who are not progression raiders. For alt-o-holics or people who play casually or in small group, SWTOR is absolutely great. I remember saying at one point, SWTOR is the best single-player MMO on the market.

      Unfortunately, it lacks any real depth or challenge on the end game side – which is what we’re all about. That and server population dwindling simply make it unrealistic for us to keep pouring our time into the game, albeit just a few hours per week.

      Regardless, I wish everyone the best and if the game does go F2P, I’m sure most of us will be back to enjoy the new content and features they have prepared for future updates.

  2. Simonsez says:

    “Each of our players is passionate about conquering content as efficiently as possible…”

    It could be argued this is what’s killing various MMOs. Particularly in a game where the developers went through enormous lengths to create solid stories, voice act the entire thing, etc. And yet multitudes of players are in such a rush to finish it, get their toon leveled almost over-night just so they can get to the endgame content. What’s the damn rush? People dying of cancer? If you go to a restaurant for a nice meal, do you just wolf it down and sprint for the door before the fork even hits the plate? On a great many MMOers, the devs time is completely wasted. We’re talking mmoRPG not mmoPVP. If people don’t even enjoy the leveling process, than what is the point? Why not just do a shooter online and skip the leveling all together? What would be the difference?

    Instead, as the latest example, we have people beating Diablo in 3 days by playing in teams who think they’re proving how skilled they are, but really they’re just proving how fast they can waste the money they spent on the game. And we see this time and time again.

    Which ever one you’re talking about, it’s a game, not math homework. How long before the “power gamers” screw GW2 over as well?

    • Accomp says:

      Well, I think there are a variety of play-styles out there. Some are more casual and enjoy the lore and the thought and quality put into that. While others, like myself, enjoy the challenge of end-game encounters. I play MMO’s to raid and progress with a group of what I consider friends – that’s really it.

      I’m the guy who space bars all the dialogue and skips all the lore stuff. And I promise I’m not the only one out there with this playstyle. While I can obviously appreciate the quality and and amount of effort put into that experience in SWTOR, it’s simply not my cup of tea. The developers know there are a variety of personalities and playstyles out there and that’s why MMO’s are so well rounded with different activities to partake in. Whether you like leveling alts (legacy), PvP (ranked wz’s), or PvE (tbd?), there is usually something that will tickle your fancy for your particular playstyle.

      When it boils down to it, there are really two types of gamers in MMO’s – there are hardcores and casuals. Hardcores thrive on progression and conquering challenges in a timely fashion. It’s a competitive mindset. Casuals tend to take a more relaxed approach and take time to enjoy the game and will usually have a much lighter schedule and usually a lighter atmosphere as well, since most of the players are easy-going. If someone isn’t the best player in the world in a casual guild – no problem. If someone is lagging behind in a progression guild – they probably won’t be there for very long.

      I guess my point is that MMO’s today aren’t as they were back pre-2005. And it’s not even the MMO’s, to be honest – it’s the MMO community evolving. More and more people want to learn and become more involved and invested in their characters. They are beginning to want to understand the questions “why?” and “how?” Through concepts such as theorycrafting, we get a glimpse into the developer’s life and it allows us to understand game model decisions and how to play the game as well as possible.

      But what it really boils down to is: do what you enjoy. For you, it appears to be “Take your time, enjoy what the developers built, and have fun. You’ll see it all eventually.” For me, it’s “Let’s hurry up and get the casual aspect of the game behind us (leveling) and let’s get to the challenging stuff (nightmare modes, heroic content, etc) and see how we compare to others on our server and across the world.”

  3. Shane Ledford says:

    Hello. I don’t know if this is the best place to contact you about this, but I didn’t see any “contact me” area.

    I am also tired of SWTOR end game (also frustrated with how Diablo 3 turned out) and have started following Guild Wars 2. I would be interested in joining you or your guild in that game if you would have me.

    I’ve really enjoyed your SWTOR strats and have tried to contribute where I could. Best of luck with your future endeavors.

  4. Captain Dorja says:

    Does this meant he end game guide stuff you already had up is gone now? It was wicked helpful.

  5. Kerwyn says:

    As a hard core WoW raider, I too note the end game is very shallow, but I would remind all of you so was WoW back when it started. The end game consisted of one dungeon limited to 40 man raids for a very long time.

    Although the end game content does not meet my needs, I cannot compare SWTOR to another game that has had 7 years to develop. Hopefully, SWTOR will quickly address the issue as I know many who would return if they do.

    I too am very disappointed in Diablo 3 and the other games that are coming out do not appeal to me very much.

    Our Clan is still looking at several games while we still play Wow, SWTOR and diablo 3. I can only hope you will continue the wonderful guides you have produced for the gaming community at large.

    • Accomp says:

      I 100% agree with you. And I’ve tried not to compare the two games, but simply address what SWTOR is missing and why it doesn’t fulfill my needs at this point in time. We have evolved as players over the last 7 years and if WoW was to re-release in it’s launch state, today, it would not survive.

      The bar has been raised over the years and it’s harder and harder for MMO’s to satisfy players’ needs at launch.

      I’m definitely in a “purgatory” type state at the moment, as I’m not really playing anything. I’d love to get back into WoW progression raiding, but I’m honestly having trouble putting a solid team together. GW2 looks interesting, but I’m a hardcore raider at heart and I’m truly having withdrawals from not raiding in weeks. Hopefully things turn around soon, as I don’t know what to do with myself at the moment 🙂

      Not having anything to write guides about is driving me nuts!

  6. Mysidia says:

    Accomp, it’s unfortunate to read this. We had the best of times (oh PVP madness against Faux!), and I really do regret having jumped ship on you guys. I was thrilled to read how far along you all got after, though! Here’s to maybe seeing you in GW2. It was an honor to be one of the founding members of Tantalus, even if I was stupid and jumped ship for a guild that was set to fail before it was even started.

  7. Savior says:

    As the former guild leader of Genesis, I want to offer my best regards. I’ve been away from the game for almost 10 months and am just coming back for some casual play. I remember competing with Tantalus for Server Firsts, those were the times that made me want to raid. We are still around now but nowhere near the guild we once were, and I think that was due to guilds like yours pushing us. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

    -Savior

    • Accomp says:

      Thank you for the kind words! Competitive raiding on TJJT was the most fun I’ve had in an MMO to date. Despite us all fighting the bugs of the game itself, the community was great and the friendly competition was even better. Hope y’all are doing well!

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