The blog.

I figure now's a good time. There's a wrestling PPV in an hour and a half and I'm at an impasse when it comes to my pile of paperwork. I'd love to talk more about that, actually! I can't, though. It's not really something I'm supposed to mention. I can segue from this, though.

I don't really consider myself an adult. Hell, look at the past 100 entries. It's all video games, caps lock and anger, when it isn't stories based on tabletop games. Or video games. My point is, I'm hardly a mature, responsible person. I keep coming to the fact that, despite this, I'm actually getting responsibility like one. The new job is going swimmingly, and I'm on my way up the ladder, so to speak. This is strange. They're investing a lot of resources and effort into making sure I can get a fair shot at a more secure position, but... Given my history of employment, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I keep thinking that I'm going to get fired or let go or something. That's not the case, knock on wood.

I don't think I'm going to get used to this, though. My mentality when confronted with damn near anything is to find amusement in it, and if I can't, mock it relentlessly. I tear down the things I love, for Christ's sake. Having to not make fun of stuff, or make jokes? Out of my element.

I spend a lot of time at work reading things. I answer phones, which leads to a lot of downtime, so I read A LOT of stuff. Mostly TOR threads on their official forum. It's a strange land of the walking dead there. People who bought time cards and are stuck with a sub to a sub-par game that's doomed to go free to play. People who refuse to see the game being bad. The illogical optimists who maintain that the next patch will make things better.

I'll spare the details, but every single patch since launch has been heralded as the God Patch. 1.1 was supposed to fix bugs from beta that made it to launch and add a host of features the game should never been lacking in the first place. 1.2 was supposed to add more features that were missing. 1.3 was supposed to be a ton of new content and bug fixes that, inexplicably, were still in the game from the beta. Then E3 happened.

At E3, EA presented a bunch of new content. HK-51, an assassin droid in line with the beloved (gag) HK-47 character. A whole new planet full of new quests for everyone. Patch 1.4, the God Patch!

HK-51 isn't present in 1.4. Neither in Makeb, the new planet. Neither are the Cathar, the "new" playable human-palette-swap "race." These features, despite being shown as "coming soon" at E3, suddenly have no date. In the face of the free to play announcement, EA swore that those who kept up a subscription would never have to pay for content. Suddenly, it was unsure whether or not HK and Makeb and Cathar were considered "content" and not "cash shop items."

Especially damning is the fact that HK was in the beta, as a companion for the Sith Warrior. Or so they say.

The whole thing stinks. The new content that DID and in 1.4 is a bunch of new raid gear, all palette swaps from gear from 1.2. Raids in TOR come in three flavors: Story Mode, Hard Mode and Nightmare Mode. Existing raids that are missing Nightmare settings didn't receive one, despite them being worked on and coming "soon." Now there's a new tier of equipment that is going to be inferior to the NEXT set, which itself is going to be in OLDER content. This is not fun, or wise.

I say all of this, mind you, while paying a subscription fee to play the game. The one thing that they did well (sort of) is the single-player component. You really can tell the game was supposed to be KOTOR3 at times. I mention this because it's worth some special attention.

At times, the game assaults you physically with the fact the game is in the KOTOR canon. The Endar Spire, the ship you open the first game on? That's in TOR. Despite having crashed on the surface of Taris 300 years prior, huge bits of the ship's remnants are present. Of course, NPCs tell you all about it. This could be handwaved because the Empire bombarded Taris shortly after that, so the clean-up could have been slowed by that.

Except, of course, that this was THREE HUNDRED YEARS ago. The planet wasn't glassed; You visit it in KOTOR 2 and it's doing alright for the most part. KOTOR 2 is not long after the first, maybe a few years at most? So despite having incredible technology and already being on the way to repairing the damages, the remains of a huge-ass ship get left around. Okay, TOR. I get it. Star Wars and all.

There's also the fact that the head of the Jedi Council is Satele Shan. Of course, she is a descendant of one Bastila Shan. You know, a jedi from KOTOR? See, this universe is connected.

It doesn't compare to the fact that there's a Senator Organa on Alderaan. Of course Leia's family has been part of the on-goings there for THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Of course. Politics are hereditary. They may as well introduce a Republic pilot named Antilles.

PPV is starting. Note to self: Add more caps.