Social Implications of Galactic Command

I've already had my moan about why I don't like 5.0's new design philosophy of moving all gear progression into random loot boxes and the many ways in which this is frustrating for the individual, but it's only over the last couple of days that it has really hit me how much the new Galactic Command system is affecting relationships between players as well.

You don't have to be particularly competitive to feel a certain pressure whenever an expansion launches and raises the level cap. Even if you don't want to rush, there can be something awkward and uncomfortable about seeing your friends level up much faster than you and hearing them tell tales of the exciting new content that lies ahead - especially if there is a risk of being left behind and having a harder time finding friendly group mates for the same content later on. Fortunately though, most of the time these issues don't last long, because the new level cap isn't far, and once you hit it, personal progression tends to slow down significantly, allowing slowpokes to catch up.

In my first post about Galactic Command I noted that the way it was described made it sound like a process of endless levelling, and so far that impression has certainly held true - but keeping in mind the scenario I just described above, that isn't entirely a good thing. While Command level by itself isn't displayed and doesn't increase your power, psychologically there is still something unsettling about watching the growing gaps between people's levels. Since we're only a few days into early access of the expansion, all my guildies are still relatively close together, but already one can see certain players shooting ahead and others lagging behind. It stands to reason that once the gap widens enough, some characters will be ready for hardmode/nightmare progression way before others... with limited ways to help the ones at the bottom catch up.

I'm really bothered by this because I don't like the thought of falling behind in such a manner, yet as someone who works full time these days and gets home late I'm likely to be among the ones ending up near the bottom sooner or later. I've been playing like crazy for the past couple of days, and still there are guildies who are already more progressed. I wonder even more about the ones who usually play less than me and often only log on for operations - they will be perpetually behind and really risk dragging the team down, effectively enforcing a certain segregation of players by available amount of time to play instead of by skill or friendship if you are at all interested in progression.

This also turns alts from something almost universally beneficial to guilds into a guilty pleasure, because any time spent on an alt is now effectively time "wasted" not working on your Galactic Command level. This didn't used to be an issue because the actual time spent on progression through operations was pretty limited, leaving people with lots of opportunities to do other things without impacting their performance in group content. You know something has gone wrong then raiding - so frequently derided as the bastion of the unpleasantly hardcore - comes out as the more casual option in a direct comparison!

And in all of this, we are only talking about the way players will be progressing on average - because the RNG-heavy nature of the thing also creates additional opportunities for conflict. When one person in the guild keeps getting nothing but greens while another gets a set piece every other level, without any way of "sharing" their wealth, this breeds frustration and envy that players have no way of actively countering, no matter how good their intentions.

I am annoyed because it feels like this change has moved progression raiding - something I'm very much interested in at a basic level - into the realm of the stereotypical "no-lifer" only. The time investment required for gearing up for harder content is just too great. As if raiding in SWTOR needed the odds stacked against it any more than they already are right now...

Many of you who mostly play solo might say: "Why do you even care so much?" And the truth is: I don't care that much about having the best gear for the sake of having the best gear. But I do care about bringing the best I can to group content with my guild, something that Galactic Command will make unreasonably hard going forward. And I'm already tired of the tension created by the constant conversations about who got what from their crates.