Or not . . .

Well, Hikarinoko made it to Voss before my subscription ran out.  I had hoped to have her finish the Agent storyline before this happened.

Unfortunately, I've got so much going on at work, I can hardly play at all . . . so I guess it's not worth paying the money for the subscription right now.  I had hoped I would have more free time, which might have made paying the subscription worthwhile.

But at this point in time, Real Life is rearing its ugly head, and one of the things he (it?) is saying is, "You've got to watch your pennies right now."

When free to play comes out, I expect I'll be able to reacquaint myself with my agent.  Until then . . .

More Adventures?

The other day, I expressed the concern that once Hikarinoko (now 45) hit level 50 and finished her class quest chain, I might find myself in a dilemma similar to that which surprised me as Anachan reached max level:  boredom.

"I'm worried that once I reach level 50, I won't have any reason to play anymore," I told my husband.

"Why don't you make another character?" he responded.

I rolled my eyes.  "Which one?  I didn't enjoy the Smuggler story . . . 'Hey, let's all go treasure-hunting' . . . I saw the Trooper story when I played with your Trooper, and I have no interest at all in playing Jedi Knight (not a healer).  And I've already discovered I can't stomach playing a Sith.  Should I just make another Agent?"  (After all, the story's good enough.)

"Well," he said, "why don't you try a Bounty Hunter?"

I was skeptical.  But I remembered hearing from other bloggers that the Bounty Hunter playstyle could be very customizable, from a Light/Dark perspective, as well as the choices in general, even if the general idea of "The Great Hunt" hadn't yet caught my imagination.

Just in case I ended up concluding it was a good idea, I decided to go create a Bounty Hunter and think about it.  She's a Chiss, skinny--as I like to make most of my characters and wish I looked like, myself--with mid-length hair loose around her face.  Following my more recent trend of character naming, I pulled out my Japanese dictionary . . .

A couple of page flips later, she had her name:  Karinoko.  Yes, it's a lot like Hikarinoko, but the meaning is different.  While Hikarinoko is "Child of Light", Karinoko is "Child of the Hunt".  I figured it was appropriate.

So now I have a level 3 Bounty Hunter to stare at on my character screen.

Poor girl . . . she probably won't get much attention until Hikarinoko is level 50 . . .

Update:  Incidentally, I did make another Agent, because my husband decided he wanted me to make a new character for him to run around occasionally with his baby Bounty Hunter.  He's still amazed I want to make this one an Operative, too, but then, I'm the kind of person who reads books over and over 20 times, too . . . while he's a serious altoholic . . .

Her name is Kaminoko, "Child of God."  (One letter is all it takes to change it from "hunt" to "God".)

Yep, I like a certain look, don't I?

Interestingly enough, although I know the story already, I still don't want to skip the voiceovers in the class quests . . . They're still that good . . . (And I'm occasionally making slightly different choices than I did with Hikarinoko . . . Darth Jadus didn't kill me this time.)

The one complication with this arrangement is . . . will I still decide to play Karinoko when Hikarinoko hits 50?  After all, I'm now seeing the BH story, too . . .

We'll see if I have any time at all by then, with all the preparations needed for my new job.  (If you've never done student teaching, you have no idea how much time outside of school teachers actually work . . . We've just started school, so I don't have my pace set yet, but right now, I leave at 6:00 am, return at 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening--remember I have an hour commute--and work until 9:00 or so, planning lessons and stuff.  Oy vey.)

How Does Free Work?

/trumpet fanfare . . . Hikarinoko, Imperial Agent, is now Light Rank V!

The other day, my husband pointed out to me the announcement that SWTOR would be transitioning to a Free-to-Play (F2P) option sometime in the future.

(This is not something we have told our eldest daughter . . . You see, she'll be heading to college in a couple of weeks, and she's got a shiny new laptop . . . The last thing we need her to do her freshman year is jump into SWTOR F2P when it comes out . . . This means, of course, I will not be asking her to read this through before I publish it and tell me if it makes sense.)

Right now, when my daughters play, they use either my or my husband's accounts.  There's no way we can afford accounts for all five of them, especially when we only have two desktops in the family which can run the game, so some of those accounts would be used very little, indeed.  This means, of course, that some of my daughters can't play with me, some can't play with my husband, and some can't play with each other.

But with the proposed F2P format as currently listed, each of the girls could have her own account.  None of them play enough to reach any restriction caps on warzones or flashpoints, and this way, they could play with either parent (or any other sister), without worrying about which accounts they are using at that moment.

As a completely casual player, not running Operations, not running m(any) flashpoints, not on the cutting edge of content, and only running a couple of warzones a day, the F2P option would even work for me.  I'm not so hung up on vanity items that I have to plunk down a bunch of money for points to go get them.  I also don't use the auction house terribly much.  The only really annoying things would be the limited travel capabilities and the constant advertisements, if it is anything like the LoTRO I tried out and which quickly bored me.

(A side note about the auction house restrictions . . . In a way, wouldn't this penalize the subscription players, who are trying to make a few credits, by limiting their potential purchasers?  Just a thought.)

I'll be honest:  I'm not sure what I will do when the game goes F2P.  I figure if I am playing a game often, it is worth supporting, and therefore maintaining my subscription would be the better way to go.  But another part of me recognizes that unless something captures my imagination sufficiently between now and that time, I may not be playing enough to justify the subscription, and perhaps, from Bioware's point of view, having someone play infrequently on a F2P account is better than having them completely quit playing.  (Because, after all, as long as they are in contact with the game, the chance is still there they may pay money for points or resubscribe.)

There is still so little specific information out about it, there is no way to make a decision now.  Time will tell . . .

(Postscript:  I've never mentioned in a blog before now about my minors sharing my account, because I used to worry that game companies would end up banning my account if I did . . . not like any of them ever read my blogs.  But if Bioware is making SWTOR F2P, they have no reason to ban me, at this point.  It wouldn't be a good idea to alienate a wavering subscriber--one who, if it happened, would simply walk away, taking her husband with her--over something so trivial as this, when their subscription numbers are already so low.  It might be the one thing which would make me tolerate WoW pandas . . . /pained expression . . .)