I was able to get Adam to participate in the first interview I through together mainly to see how interesting it would be, and to also try interviewing someone. So far I'm fairly happy with the results as a lot of information was given as well as getting a few things out of him that I didn't know yet either, plus it's all from him personally, so seeing another view point is good too.
A few things I know I could change however is having a more structured list of questions to start out with, as I started the idea off pretty much as soon as I got it, I wasn't prepared with such a list. I do think I handled myself in a fairly timely manner on getting questions out fast to keep the interview flowing however. Lastly on the same note as timely manner, I believe I should keep on changing the subject to cover a more wide variety of things or at least choose a subject to start off with that isn't as vague as simply "First days in The Old Republic on live". Doing so will allow me to get more information out as well as keep the interview being a interview rather than simply a conversation that follows a thread to another and to another and so on.
Here is the interview however, and I while I don't have too many plans for it in the immediate future, I think I'll definitely figure out some way to implement them easier.
[18:07] Alyssa R.: How long have you been playing in Star Wars : The Old Republic?
[18:07] Adam: Since Tuesday at 6:15 am.
[18:07] Adam: But I played in Beta a few weeks too.
[18:08] Alyssa R.: And generally speaking, is there any MMO or similar game to The Old Republic that you would compare the experience to?
[18:09] Adam: Not really. SWG a little since it's Star Wars as well. But SWG was a sand box MMO, this one is a theme park MMO like WoW. But it plays and feels much differently than WoW.
[18:10] Alyssa R.: I personally am not sure what you mean by, theme park MMORPG, but I have somewhat of an idea of what you mean by sandbox, however what do those terms mean to you?
[18:12] Adam: Theme Park means you have a certain set of attractions to do or see and you're restricted.Like you can't build player cities, you can't craft gear with your own stats, and stuff like that. Theme Park is like WoW where you are continuously told what to do and where to go.
[18:13] Adam: SWG was also all open world PvP, where as in a theme park MMO you have set battlegrounds to go to.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: So in your sense, theme park would be linear and sandbox would be more free form exploring based such as single player games like the Grand Theft Auto series?
[18:14] Adam: Right.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: I see, onto questions about the game experience directly.
[18:15] Alyssa R.: Starting off, what is your current level, class, and faction in the game?
[18:15] Adam: Level 27 Jedi Guardian, Republic.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: I see, I probably would play a Guardian. Although honestly Sentinel looked the most preferable at the start to me at a glance.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: Did anything affect your choice to pick a Guardian?
[18:18] Adam: Sentinel is fun, but it is pure DPS. You don't really have flexibility like you do as a Guardian who can tank or DPS at end game. But Sentinel is the strongest pure DPS class. But I picked Guardian so I would have flexibility at end game and because I like using one saber over two.
[18:19] Alyssa R.: Good enough reasons as any. As guardian is also basically amongst the community known as the iconic Jedi class, how well do you think it lives up to fulfilling the Jedi legacy that people look to Stars Wars for?
[18:19] Adam: But there are a ton of guardians on my server, so it would probably be good to pick a sentinel.
[18:21] Adam: So far it lives up to it a great deal, you can feel pretty heroic jumping in and getting the attention of the enemies around you. Or force pushing away enemies that are attacking a friend. Force push seems to knock back the enemy 15-20m, so its pretty impressive. And your saber animation can block in any direction and deflect blaster bolts so it looks pretty fluid and neat.
[18:21] Alyssa R.: Based off your knowledge of the game currently, do you know if the Sentinel is able to do these as well or is it specific to the Guardian?
[18:23] Adam: I don't think Sentinel can force push, at least not as early on as the Guardian. I'm pretty sure the Sentinel gets a sabre throw early on, my Guardian doesn't have it yet. The Sentinel focuses on switching sabre styles and using Damage Over Time abilities to do damage over force powers.
[18:23] Alyssa R.: Would that mean the Guardian is more focused on burst and direct damage than the Sentinel is?
[18:25] Adam: I would say that yes, but the sentinel has 3 trees for damage so some may be more bursty over others.
[18:25] Alyssa R.: That may be true of course. Lastly on the topic of classes what role are you currently playing and specialized in as your Guardian?
[18:26] Adam: I am leveling up in the defense tree as a tank.
[18:27] Alyssa R.: How vastly different would you say your play style would have to be if you were leveling up in the DPS tree instead? Outside of the standard group mechanics that of course come with being a DPS or tank, primarily would you be using different abilities often other than what you're currently doing?
[18:29] Adam: Not too much different, in the pure DPS tree you would do more damage as a Guardian but even the tanks in this game do a fair amount of damage. You just have a good bit more survivability. You can also "guard" players in PvP to take damage off them, as well as using taunt in PvP to minimize damage to other players.
[18:30] Alyssa R.: Very interesting, also one more question on the topic of classes before we move on and it just came to me.
[18:30] Adam: Yes?
[18:30] Alyssa R.: What are you looking forward to seeing more of as a Jedi Guardian game play wise? more damaging skills? utility skills? that sort of thing.
[18:31] Alyssa R.: As you level up that is.
[18:31] Adam: Uhhh hmm... I guess seeing what kind of new force powers I get and how well I can horde off enemies and protect people. I'm more interested in the story though I guess.
[18:33] Alyssa R.: As am I. Moving onto that aspect in fact, thus far how interesting has the story been? And how well does it mix in with the game still being a MMORPG rather than just simply a single player RPG.
[18:34] Adam: The Jedi Knight story line is pretty excellent. Your story does change if you make dark side or light side choices as I have experienced both paths up to level 30. And it mixes into MMO by if you are in a group other players can interact in conversations and affect the out come of quests and those decisions stay with you. So it adds a bit of realistic randomness that you would get from traveling in a group of different personalities and motives.
[18:36] Alyssa R.: As I personally have talked to you about this aspect numerous times I apologize for doing it again, however do you see people being in a group together while questing being undesirable for some unless the group happens to be a couple of friends? as opposed to random people.
[18:37] Adam: Yes, if you are playing a mix of both light and dark choices then people who only play for Dark Side or for just Light Side points would probably mess up the RP choices you want to make. It's happened to me once in Live.
[18:38] Alyssa R.: Would you be able to retell that experience without giving too much of the story element away?
[18:41] Adam: You get information about someone allying themselves with criminals temporarily to do something good. The light side option is to turn this person in, the dark side option is to let the person go. I wanted to let her go because while what she did was wrong, her motivations were pure and she said she would make up for her mistake. but my team mate won the roll and turned her in
[18:41] Adam: Its a side quest and not a main story quest, but still affects things
[18:42] Alyssa R.: You later on had the choice that your team mate come back to you in someway?
[18:42] Adam: Not yet, sometimes things don't happen til much later. I only got an in game mail updating me on the situation so far.
[18:43] Alyssa R.: And that email definitely did say that the person involved was turned in?
[18:43] Alyssa R.: well not email, in game mail rather.
[18:45] Adam: Yes. It did, it didn't register my dark side decision.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: That seems like a very interesting way that SWToR did things, it'll definitely deter some people away from grouping, but only time will tell. Moving on however, speaking about decisions, how logical are the dark side and light side choices in the game? Just from your example and my limited experience in the Beta myself, it seems like the game walks either a very obvious good and evil path but then when it gets to a grey decision, it's almost like someone at Bioware couldn't figure out which to put onto light or dark, so they just flipped a coin to sort it out.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: What do you think?
[18:51] Adam: The dark side and light side choices seem to go with "whats better for you" or "whats better for the people" or "whats better for the republic" or "whats the most sadistic". I think they are pretty spot on on whats dark or light. Just because something is dark sided doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.
[18:52] Alyssa R.: So if someone wanted to play a good character, they should do what they think is right rather than simply following light sided decisions?
[18:53] Adam: Right, that's what I've been doing.
[18:53] Alyssa R.: and how are your light sided and dark sided totals looking?
[19:01] Adam: I have 2200 light side and like 200 dark side I think
[19:02] Alyssa R.: Well it still registers light side being as the primary good side then I suppose. Also I think that'll do it for the interview. We'll talk more about the world and more standard MMO things that the game has later. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
[19:07] Adam: No, I think that about covers it.
[19:07] Alyssa R.: Alright then. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you in game soon.
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