The Bittersweet Moment

There always comes a moment when a well-loved story ends.  Whether it's a matter of decades, as Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series, or only the matter of a trilogy, as "Lord of the Rings", sooner or later, the story has to end.

Reminds me of this parody:

/sigh.

Hikarinoko finally finished her class quests.  The story was satisfying all around, with surprises to the very end, an emotional roller-coaster of events.

But although she is not level 50, I feel no incentive to finish that last level.

The strength and the weakness of SWTOR is, I believe, the system of class story lines.  The strength of those story lines is what propels a player to continue leveling, despite times of plateau where the player may find themselves running warzones or grinding less interesting quests, just to reach the point where he can once again progress his class story line.  But after the story line is complete, what incentive is there for the player to continue playing?  (Hmmm, I think I've said this before . . . or was it the complaint that if one didn't have friends, there was little incentive to remain in MMOs . . . well, that's the complaint at max level, anyway, after the story line is completed.)

Never again will Keeper or the Minister of Intelligence speak with her.  For that matter, never again will her husband, Vector, speak with her with any sort of personal touch.

It's kind of lonely at the top . . . of the leveling chain, that is.

So now what?  Well, the only real cure for the loss of a good fantasy is another good fantasy, or reliving the one lost.

If I can get my husband to log on, I may level Kaminoko, my other agent.  (Which I'd actually really like to do . . . and see how that one big choice I made in chapter 2 which was different than Targeter's would really change the ending, because I suspect it may have been significant.  I've already changed one choice I made early on in Hikarinoko's chain, and I'm wondering how that will change the story line in Chapter Two, if at all, given that it was cited as the reason for certain events . . .)

If not, I may find myself leveling Karinoko, the bounty hunter, or the baby Annachan (yes, another consular) I created on the Republic side on the off-chance I actually find myself logged on the same time as my old guildies from WoW.  (Side note:  They have so much more time to play than I do that they charge past me in level while I'm waiting for time to log on . . . One minute they're my level, and in a virtual blink, they're 10 levels ahead.  So I really have to be playing for the personal joy of it all, because if I'm playing for other people, it will end up in frustration.)

I am subscribed until a bit beyond the end of Christmas break, at least.  We'll see what has happened by then.