Old Republic PvP’s rage quit subscriptions after 1.1 Ilum catastrophe

Yesterday, I wrote my first impression of Star Wars: The Old Republic 1.1 PvP Ilum changes – I’ll admit I was a bit negative about them.  My overall point was the system fails due to server imbalance.  If you have more of one faction they will crush, camp, and make the other faction’s life hell.  Well guess what, that’s EXACTLY what happened.

My first impression was literally from the first half hour of the servers going up yesterday.  While it looks like I was dead-on in everything I said I missed soooooooooo many of the things that have enraged SWTOR players.  Oh, and they are enraged.  So mad.

The main topic of rage is the enormous Valor gaining potential which occurred yesterday from Ilum farming and turret destroying.  This exploit only really affected the faction with the greater numbers.  People were rumored to get as many as 20 Valor levels in approximately 4 hours from fully exploiting.  If you want to see some rage, go to the SWTOR PvP Forums.

Free Valor, why the rage?  Simple.  Those who have earned their Valor ranks through days and days of PvP grinding feel cheated from people who took a few hours to surpass them in rank.  Let’s face it, PvP is competitive.  If one faction has a large amount of 60+ Valor and now can get Battle Master gear, the scale is going to tip in Warzones.  Not to mention Hutball is faction vs. faction so not even one faction will fully benefit.  This is a nightmare.

The solution that is being cried out for is a valor ‘rollback’ from yesterday’s exploits.  A rollback would take away the valor gained from fudging the system and return those players to their former rank.  I have to admit, this seems to be the best answer.  If you patch a game and there is a huge exploit like this, you need to fess up to it and remedy it immediately.  So far none of the patch notes have mentioned doing a rollback.

I recall a time in World of Warcraft when the PvP venders were bugged and anyone could buy gear for free.  Of course everyone did and the hut where the venders were was swarmed with players.  What did Blizzard do?  They hot patched the game and removed all those purchases.  It seems like the only logical answer.  The longer BioWare takes to fix this problem the worse it will get.

The servers have gone down today for an emergency maintenance.  An official statement will come once they go back up.  Players are waiting to see just what BioWare decides.  As of now, many many players have decided to unsubscribe to SWTOR not only from this whole ordeal but the fact that BioWare hasn’t really done anything to fix or comment how they will fix it.  While rage quit / unsubscribes are usually just hot air – it seems different this time.

Is quitting from this event too much or fair?  I’m a huge fan of SWTOR and I’m a huge fan of PvP.  Warzones are all I’ve done since I’ve been 50.  I’m not rank Valor 60 yet.  The fact that people have put hours into exploiting to get more Valor than me instead of weeks of Warzones is frustrating.  If BioWare truly does nothing about this I can see unsubscribing as justifiable if that is what is most important to you.  In this scenario, the Valor gain wouldn’t be the insult – it would be the lack of fessing up and fixing the issue.  It also shows they aren’t interested in theses sort of changes so it gives you an impression of their stance for future issues.

I have faith in BioWare though.  I love the company – I’m a huge fan of their franchise games.  The SWTOR servers are down right now, they are aware of the problems, they will make an official statement, and hopefully all will be good.  However, while many players have said that they have unsubscribed and will only re-subscribe if there is a rollback – many players have already said that since this has happed they are done regardless.