Mark

I run a Casuals Guild for SWTOR, for us as we define it being casual is nothing to do with want or enthusiasm for gaming as we are all "gamers", but is instead about availability and free time to do it.

In my casual guild we play when we want, do what we want without any expectation other than being sociable with the other guild members when they around.

There are no demands on time, activities or grouping people are literally free to do whatever they want. If folks need help or want to group they ask or suggest it on our forums and if enough people are interested we do it. We have those who like to raid, those who like to PVP and those who don't.

That to us is what a Casual is and what a Casuals Guild is all about.

Of course we get the odd person applying who erroneously expects people to be around when they want them for grouping or say not enough folks are online at any one particular time, but those people don't really get what a casual truly is as far as we go. Indeed I have had to lay it out in clearly defined terms a few times for some new members just to get them on the same page as everyone else.

But as noted above for us "casual" is nothing to do with wanting to game or what type of gaming you want to do (i.e. pve, pvp, raiding etc..) but purely about time, real life commitments and availability to do. We are avid gamers but purely with limited time and a desire to play the way we want without the mainstream expectations and demands on time or activity.

Im super excited by the prospect of a Wasteland 2, back in the day I bought every Interplay game ever as they were one of my (if not THE) favourite producer of computer games.

Bards Tale was the first CRPG I ever tried and Fallout pretty was pretty much digital crack for me I loved it and still do. Baldurs Gate..Icewind Dale.. loved them all.

Its really great that projects like this can be revived in ways like this and definitely makes you wonder what the heck any production company out there who hasn't heard of Interplays games is even doing in business but it does go a long way to explaining many of the shockingly bad games that are produced today lol

You heard it here first folks.. "SWOTOR has dropped its pants" lol

Great show Rubi and Justin, made me chuckle.

I like the idea in principal but it has a number of significant flaws.

Every character I had planned had a different name, no relation to each other now I am forced to associate them with each other even if they are a different faction because we can only have ONE legacy name on a server. It would have made much more sense to have 1 for Republic and 1 for Empire per server.. heck it would have made more sense not to tie legacy to names at all.. but it is what it is. :(

UFO Online makes one classic turn based error and that is that enemies automatically move to you irrespective of LOS etc.. as if they always know where you are.

This makes it all but impossible to maintain a combat at range and use any element of surprise.

shame I used to love the Xcoms was hoping this would be similar..but not so much :(.

Im a big fan of alts but I don't multibox or anything like that. I love alts because primarily I like to be self sufficient when it comes to crafting. If I want new gear I don't have to pay exorbitant AH prices I can just make it myself.

Plus I find Alts help prevent me getting burned out on a game, which invariably happens I find when I just play one thing over and over for too long. Playing alts lets you mix it up, keep things fresh so you don't get that burn out.

I've also never used an alt for auction houses or extra bank spaces as many I know have but thats largely because the idea of having a character I dont play just doesnt sit well with me heh

Always sad when a game closes down but tbh LEGO as a brand only really appeals to kids and kids don't typically have much in the way of money TO spend, so it seems like it was a forgone conclusion it would have sturggled to generate revenue being f2P.

Thanks Larry very interesting read. and a HUGE thanks for the craft-gather-mission connection ifno it has helped me plan accordingly.

@Caerus

Thing is you can kind of (on one level) sympathise with the plan as so far as it relates to the F2P'ers who will join

But this is then out of the window because the plan then turns around and slaps the previous subscribers (who will now be gold members) and lifers by now making thier lives in game and crafting etc.. exponentially more hasslesome as well.

with crafting the dilithium costs on lower level stuff are negligible but with the higher tier stuff your talking many thousands, which in turns means many days of grinding dailies and events and stfs etc.. the overwhelming achievement of which is doing what we did before but ten times more hassle and masses more grind.

Its difficult to see the up in that. :(

Im just glad I Maxed my crafter long ago and already made an AEGIS set and needed Kits for every character I have ahead of time as now it seems it will save me a GAJILLION dilithium and EOns of grind to get it :)

Yay forward planning!