Nice show, J-Man, and sorry to see you go…
but it seems your grasp of the Bartle System is a bit shakey. Let me tell you a bit more about the non-Achiever groups, which you may not undrestand completely.

Your grasp on the Explorers seems particularly weak. You think of them only as people who want to go to new places, but that’s only the tiniest bit of it. Explorers come to any game with the goal of understanding it, picking it apart as best they can without actually getting to see the code. On the forums, and in chats, you’ll encounter player experts in the game, the ones who truly know what builds work, what equipment is worthwhile, etc. These people are the Explorers.
Despite what you may think, Explorers would have a reason to play LoL. Like MMOs, the game undoubtedly has a complex system that Explorers would want to pick apart and understand. They’d want to know which Champions may be superior and why, or just what each one’s strengths and weaknesses are, perhaps to find that holy grail in their mind, the dark horse. The Dark Horse is that character or that build or such that the other players have dismissed, because it’s not cool enough, not flashy enough, or whatever, but has strong advantages, if used correctly. In STO, it’s science vessels.

Killers (or Conquerors, if you prefer) are not the sort who’d truly be drawn to LoL. The big reason is that fighting in games like that is relativly fair. Killers hate that. They don’t want a fair fight. They want to win. They want to pwn. As your guest mentioned, EVE Online has a huge Killer population. This isn’t because PvP in EVE is particularly fair. It’s because it can easily be made very unfair. Gate Camping, and other cheap tricks are common tactics for Killers in EVE. Also, EVE has huge Open PVP zones, which Killers like, and they put in a lot of effort on the EVE forums to lure newbies into the Open PvP zone so they can crush them. Fundamentally speaking, Killers are cowards, they would not enjoy the relatively fair, uncertain outcomes in a game like LoL.

Who does enjoy that kind of PvP? Social players want an intense experience they can share with others and talk about, so they enjoy it. Achievers, as you point out, enjoy the simple pleasure of improvement and character growth, which the game apparently satisfies well, and as I mentioned above, Explorers LOVE fair PvP fights. It eliminates unwanted variables, and allows them to test their characters, builds and strategies on opponents who should be competitive with them, so honestly, League of Legends appeals to everyone BUT Killers.

Maybe you can take some of this wisdom with you into your new job. Congradualtions, and don’t let the system corrupt you.

Congrats on the new job J-man, I guess
I will have to do a write up of my crafting mini game idea for STO
and get it to you, to add to the pile, before you start work.

Sadly I don’t have the technology or
the right time zone to join you in the next episode, but as a player
of SWG for several years after launch, here are just a few thoughts
of some of the things that were great in that game that sadly don’t
seem to have been reproduced in more recent MMO titles.

First of all, for all the praise that
some modern games get for their character creator, SWG has always
been the one I loved the most. It allowed for a huge amount of
variation, not just in creating a normal human but also allowed a
vast array of alien species, such as Mon Cals (fish type people),
Trandoshians (lizards) and Wookiees (raaaghh). What was great about
them is that they all had changing facial expressions based on the
emotes you entered. When you were shocked, you could enter the emote
and your eyebrows would raise, your eyes get bigger and your mouth
would shape into an o shape. When you were happy, you could make your
character smile.

It is this level of detail, combined
with the vast array of species, that makes you understand why SWG
fans are so disappointed with TORs apparent choice between humans,
red humans, green humans and blue humans.

However, the one thing that really
stood out to me in Star Wars Galaxies, at least in the pre-NGE days,
was the interdependency and the community that interdependency
created. Just one example is how the Doctor profession worked.
Doctors could grant long durations buffs (the effectiveness of which
was determined by the quality of the crafting process and the skill
of the doctor). Therefore Docs would set themselves up in the medical
centres in the major cities and sell these buffs to combat classes
that were going on hunts. There would be several docs in each centre,
who would have their own social interactions with each other, and
their own regular customers. Our guild started off with one Doctor
who did this, but we eventually recruited a few more just from the
people he met in the medical centre.

The last system I want to mention,
which really did increase that social interaction, was the way
players trained new skills. You could go to NPC trainers, who charged
you a significant amount of in game currency for the level, or you
could get trained by another player who already had the skill,
providing you had enough experience. This could develop an almost
master/apprentice system in some cases, while in others friendships
could develop.

For example, I started out by becoming
a Artisan and a Tailor, crafting social clothing for people. One day
I got a tell from an aspiring tailor who needed training in a lower
level tailor skill. I said I would happily train them for free if
they came over to my player city. That person not only got trained in
the skill, but liked the city so much she stayed, becoming a
resident, a member of the guild and eventually mayor of the town.

The truth is, the reason why so many
players left after the NGE was not in itself the combat changes, but
how this destroyed many of the community related aspects of the game.
The new Medic class wasn’t interacting with patients in the hospitals
and occasionally going on a few hunts of their own, they were simply
the group healer. If you wanted to be a crafter, no longer was that
an allocation of some skill points and the rest could be invested in
combat skills, it became your only profession. I really did enjoy my
time in SWG, despite the fact that there was very little in the way
of actual combat content like the kind of missions and stories you
get in more modern MMOs. However, for me, the game servers may as
well have closed down years ago.

Congrats on the new job.

As for SWG. As a trekkie first and a general sci-fi fan, SWG was my first MMO (i even imported my copy from the U.S. (UK here)). I am SOOOO glad it was my first MMO aswell. Creating my first ever mmo character, I remember walking out into Mos Espa and simply being literally BLOWN AWAY.. It truely was my O…M…G! moment. For the first hour I had no idea what i was doing, wondered round the tatooine town and LOVED every second of it. Eventually I found my footing, started exploring, leveling and the rest came A.B.C..

I realised its Sandbox nature long after, after trying many other mmos (even Fantasy types which i hate EQ2 etc) to try and regain the magic I once found in SWG (after SOE Literally killed it with gunshot to the head the with overhaul that killed all the classes and completely redesigned the game etc (i forget the name of the update,).  I am now greatly saddened with the lack of Sandbox mmos around, and the swing towards linear theme park styles.

Anyway, its greatest strength I felt was its immersive sandbox nature. You seriously was just living in the starwars universe. Ive never felt that way with any theme park mmo ever, they’re just too controled.

As for features, it had so many great features. my top 3 was the open nature of the skill system, which was so diverse it was mindboggling the combos and builds you could have, and i remember changing mine often. The openworld player housing was a great touch, and so added tons to immersion since you again were litterally living in the universe. I remember spending hours looking for my ‘spot’. Ok it got a bit crowded in the end but hey it was fun at first.
Lastly the crafting system was amazing, which i briefly tried (armoursmith) and was too overwelming (first mmo and inexperienced at the time). However, the resource management was a task in itself, and I was happy (a very successful) in being the go-to store that had all the resources you could need (mineral & Creature gathered).

All in all SWG (before its unfortunate bastardization) was my greatest experience with an mmo, and i fear due to the lack of sandbox style mmos, it always will be.

… and to be honest, im so happy with that cuz SWG truely was a legendary mmo.

Im so sorry for those that still play it that its closing..
Lets hope SWTOR carries the torch, in its own way….

but lets face it… the SWG we know and love died a long time ago

アバクロンビー＆フィッチ （多くの場合、A＆Fと呼ばれる）は、ジャックパーセルアメリカの小売業者は、monster beats dre同社の現会長兼最高経営オールスター コンバース責任者（CEO）マイク·ジェフリー·リ??ース、マイク·ジェフリーズ、です。アバクロ sf style米国ではA＆Fが300店舗を超えているだけでなく、アバクロ他の国で新しい位置を設定し続けた。 コンバースAbercrombie Fitchその3つの子会社のブランドはホリスター社とギリーヒックスのアバクロ（キッズ）、コンバース スニーカーであり、ニューヨーク、アバクロ 通販アメリカで1892年に設立されたアバクロンビー＆フィッチアバクロは、コンバース 通販米国の世紀の古いブランドです。abercrombie&fitch（アバクロンビー＆フィッチ）、CONVERSE高スタイル、高品質、超新鮮なスタイルは、アバクロ シャツ米国およびカナダでは、Converse All Star新しい世界のファッションの新しいConverse All Star指標を作成するには、アバクロ メンズ広がり続けています。コンバース ハイカット世界中の若者に愛される米国のストリートカジュアルスタイルに行くabercrombie&fitchは、これはファッショントレンドであることを考えるように、コンバース ローカットフィッチのアバクロを着て喜んでである。MBT ブーツAbercrobieフィッチは（阿部クローネ比率と手数料地区、timberland シューズ多くの場合、＆Fと呼ばれる）は、ミュウミュウ 財布1つ、1892年にアバクロンビー＆フィッチ）は、スケッチャーズ米国でアメリカ人とアメリカ人の余暇のpuma コート最初のビッグネーム世紀の古いされてきた靴 アディダスアメリカ·ニューヨークに設立され、プーマ スニーカー今日の若い成人が最も人気のあるブランドの一つである.