This week could mean big news for SWTOR fans all over the globe as the first embargo on the SWTOR fan site summit drops this week. This means those site representatives who attended will be able to start posting information about what they experienced at the summit. Since there was a wide variety of people who attended, it should make for a good variety of opinions and viewpoints on the content from the summit and help all of us gain better insight into what we expect from the game. As we all anxiously await the release of SWTOR, any news is good news at this point and fans will scramble for even the tiniest bit of new information about the game. So what can we expect from the first embargo dropping? It sounds like we will see information on the content that was played at the event, which will include…
event
Will SW:TOR Release Be Announced at E3?
Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager for SW:TOR answers a forum question regarding more release date debate. GamewizX was trying to locate a quote from Reid regarding the release date announcement and a possibility of a connection to E3. Who would then pop into the thread to clear up the confusion? Why, none other than Stephen Reid himself: “Or I could just say it for you right here. I seem to recall I was trying to address the idea that the ‘only’ time a release date would be announced would be at a major show (this was pre-PAX). I have no idea where this idea started, but it’s not a definitive suggestion. It’s just a possibility. That said, if we chose to announce a release date at any show, E3 would be a good choice, as it’s probably the most high-profile games industry show on the calendar. (It’s not the…
SWTOR Fan Site Summit
They say everything’s bigger in Texas and there has yet to be a SW:TOR event as awesome as the upcoming, first-ever Fan Site Summit hosted by Bio-Ware. Early week, BioWare twittered from the official SW:TOR account with the following: “In one week, reps from #SWTOR fan sites will be in Austin, TX for the first Fan Site Summit. Official Twitter tag is #SWTOUR!” This is exciting news for Star Wars: The Old Republic fans everywhere! The first Fan Site Summit is scheduled for next weekend, from April 23-26. (Who’s skipping Easter for paddle boat rides with David Bass?) As several SWTOR fan sites are reporting their participation already, we know there will be a great deal of information coming out just after the event and we want to be the first to bring it to you right here on the site so stay tuned. We can’t wait to hear and…
London SWTOR Event roundup
Entryway to London Press Event Last week in London, some very lucky SWTOR fans were able to get a hands-on sneak peak at the game. The upcoming MMORPG from BioWare has fans in the UK and the US drooling for the opportunity to get their hands on it. This London event divided into two seatings of about 50 each and allowed players to go through about an hour worth of plan of the origin planet of the class of their choice. It was then followed by a quick Q&A with the developers, including Writing Director Daniel Erickson and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid. There are now more than 70 pages worth of content on the SWTOR community boards from people who attended this glorious event. Skimming through those posts will lead you to numerous reviews, news and opinion pieces about the user experience directly from those who…
Sith Speak in a British Accent
Jono Bradley posted an audio log and transcript of the second Q&A session From the SWTOR London Hands-on Event. The session has some interesting answers in it and definitely worth a read/listen. Here’s an excerpt showing a question about accents: Question: Erm; why are all the Empire characters British? Daniel Erickson: That was actually my decision; really early on I wanted too evoke really my memory of the original trilogy and in the original trilogy – although there are a couple of exceptions.. Stephen Reid: Some really weird exceptions; Daniel Erickson: Yeah; you know Kenobi and that sort of thing but all of the officers that are evil have that great sort of upper-class British accent and one of the things we wanted to do at the beginning was – we always have to look at the fact that we know where the history goes; so we know at some…
Another look at the character selection screen and London Hands-on Event Impressions
Even though no news sites are allowed to posts images or write reviews about the UK Press Event a few pictures has already shown up. This one was posted by Stephen Reid, who buys his contact lenses online, via Twitter just before guests showed up: I expect many interesting reviews, pictures and movies to show up the comming weeks, until then, we have to settle for the hands on that was posted on the official forums Many of you are aware of the UK Community Event we’re holding at Gamerbase, where community members get some hands-on time with the game. If you got to play, we want to hear your impressions! If you’re one of the lucky folks who attended the event, let us know how it went for you and share your impressions with your fellow community members. I know everyone is eager to hear your stories, and the whole…
SWTOR PAX East 2011 Highlight Video
BioWare just published a short video showing some of the highlights from this years Pax East. The video provides footage of fans rushing to the SWTOR booth, as well as fans standing in line and talking about what they experienced. We also get to see clips of Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid at the Space Combat Demonstration. The video definitely captures the excitement of being at PAX East. Check it out below:
SWTOR UK Community Event – April 5th
Last night BioWare’s community manage Stephen Reid Tweeted about a special announcement coming Tuesday for UK fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the entire community has since been discussing what it might be. Now we know. BioWare will have a special “one-night-only” party in London, on April 5, 2011 were fans will be able to play the game. The event will be held at gamerbase, inside HMV at the Trocadero – here is a map of the location. This is a great opportunity for UK gamers to get their hands-on the SWTOR, but hurry, BioWare states that the capacity is extremely limited, and based on reservations/invitations. REad the full forum post below and find out how you can be included: Hello to all my fellow countrymen in the UK… We have a late-breaking, limited quantity, super exclusive community event for you to potentially attend. Read on for more information,…
Pax East 2011: BioWare Developer Meet And Greet
TorSyndicate posted a few movies from the Developer Meet And Greet at years Pax East. People were attendance had a chance to ask the devs questions about SWTOR. It seemed like all the guest had a good time, and the camera man was good at getting footage of some of the larger upcoming guilds like “Eternal Vigilance”, “Saints of the old republic”, Requiem etc as well as bloggers from the SWTOR fansite sphere. Check it out below:
BioWare panel appearances at PaxEast
BioWare Senior Community Coordinator Stephen Read posted an update regarding Bioware staff appearances at PaxEast earlier today. In this he stresses that there will be no panels or events dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic at PAX East, but several BioWare employees will be taking part in some more broad panels: Hello from Boston! With PAX East 2011 just a day away – well, give or take about eight hours, given my late post – I’m very pleased to tell you about a few guest appearances BioWare staff members will be making on various panels over the weekend. Please note, these are not official panels for Star Wars: The Old Republic. They are panels on various subjects that we were asked to provide speakers for. If you attend any of these panels, there is no guarantee that The Old Republic will even be spoken of… well alright, it’s pretty…
Damion Schubert On Designing For Loners
Jef Reahard from Massively have made a very detailed writeup of Damion Schubert‘s recent talk at GDC 2011, entitled “The Loner: Why Some People Play MMOs Alone:” One of the seeming paradoxes of MMO design is that there is a large contingent of players who would prefer to play these games alone. Gamers who want to play this way are often derided by other players and sometimes even designers for their playstyle, but it isn’t as odd or exotic as it seems. This talk discusses the rationale for this playstyle, the necessity to cater to this playstyle from a business point of view, and the design intricacies of providing solo play without invalidating the ‘massive’ parts of your game design. Jef Reahard has made a great rundown of Damion Schubert’s points in his speach, and extracts some interesting quotes from the talk as well: Schubert states that MMOs feature “hardcore…
Friday update: Bounty Hunter PAX East Plans
Not everyone will find the life of a Jedi or Sith appealing in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). Some will find the rugged lifestyle of a Bounty Hunter more to their liking. After all, one of the favorite characters in the Star Wars lineup is Boba Fett. How can you not have a class fashioned after one of the Star Wars galaxy’s most infamous Bounty Hunters? While Boba Fett is thousands of years from birth in SWTOR, his profession is well intact and BioWare revealed a new look at the SWTOR Bounty Hunter at GDC 2011. The latest reveal offers a look at Mako, a companion that can join young Bounty Hunters on their adventures and a notorious slicer, the Rattataki race, a violent species well-suited for bounty hunting and the D-5 Mantis Patrol Craft ship, built for a true Bounty Hunter. Lastly, a brand new Bounty Hunter class…
First Person Experience
Writer Nick Kolan from IGN received some solid gaming time playing Star Wars: The Old Republic during the recent “Jedi Immersion Day. His first experience was playing the Sith Inquisitor class at last years E3 but wasn’t given the time that is needed for such an involving game, but luckily he was able to play a second time as the Jedi Consular the exact opposite of the previous class with much more time. He experience an array of Force attacks that the Jedi is equipped with as well as he noticed that the Force Points regenerate with out the need of Mana potions. As a fellow gamer he barked upon some kill and gather quests that for him didn’t seem to bother him at all which in other games are known to be quite the chore. “My experience with the Consular was ultimately far more positive than my brief time…
Machinima Realm goes to the Jedi Immersion Event
I belive we are starting to see the end of the Jedi Immersion Event reviews, but I don’t wan’t to cheat you for Machinimas “Realm” were Hundar and Grit try out TOR’s Jedi classes:
Ten Ton Hammers latest impressions after a story-driven six hours with the Jedi Knight
Ten Ton Hammer donned their Padawan robes for their first feature length, hands-on, ten level preview of the Jedi homeworld, Tython. They tell us about one of the game’s most anticipated classes, the Jedi Knight, whether SWTOR’s story-driven approach is fun or frivolous, offer you a first-ever hands-on glimpse of how multiplayer works, and give you the low-down on the first round of SWTOR morality missions like this one: “And just like that, I stumble into my toughest morality mission yet. It’s not because my job is to break up the happy Jedi couple – Jedis lead a hard knock life – but because Moracen offers me a sweet crystal for the lightsaber I hope to build soon. In return I’d simply go off and tell the Master that everything was nice and passion-free again. Grimacing (in real life), I stuck to my guns, imagining I’d just turned down one…
TOROCast: Jedi Immersion Event
TOROCast as promised has published a wealth of information from the Star Wars: The old republic Jedi Immersion Event. The guys got an Interview with Daniel Erickson that you can check out below, and a great job collecting player stats and NPC info: Nothing is more important to any MMO players efficiency than their stats and understanding how they affect your character. Min/maxxers especially care about stats since it is through stat optimization that we can set ourselves apart. Below you will find a complete breakdown of everything we learned from our playtime. Each level, main and primary go up by 4, secondary goes up by 1. It is possible that their is a rotation we can see this by looking at the increase in primary stats. So they go up by 4, then they go up by 4, then they go up by 3, and rotate like that. Unfortunately…
More reviews from the big gaming sites
Reviews are still pupping up all over the interwebs. With in the last few hours, Massively, VideoGamer, Eurogamer, and some of the more “hardcore” Star Wars the old republic fansites such as DarthHater and TOROCast has posted their reviews of the Jedi Immersion Event. Here is an update and a snip from each site. Firstly we got Massively that spoils us with a long review plus a few ingame movies: And for the people worried that SWTOR is going to be a Star Wars-themed World of Warcraft, you can rest easy too. The dialogue system guarantees that returning to your quest-giver isn’t just a mad dash of clicks. Your quest choices actually matter. The NPCs talk to you, and you’re going to want to talk back. I never once had the urge to skip the quest text (in fact, I was terrified I’d miss something if I looked away!), and…
Massively’s 2010 Player’s Choice Awards – VOTE SWTOR!
A few days ago we asked you to vote for Star Wars: The old Republic in the annual Reader’s Choice award over at MMORPG:com. Today Massively have posted the list of nominees for their Player’s Choice Awards as well, and not surprisingly our all time favourite upcoming mmorpg SWTOR is nominated. As we approach the end of 2010 (yes, already), we look back at not only an interesting year for MMOs, but also an amazing decade for such a young genre. We’ve had our highs and lows since last year’s awards, including the now-hilarious choice of APB as Most Anticipated for 2010 by the Massively staff. This year we have a new survey format, new categories and new nominees. We also have a new title, changing it from Reader’s Choice to Player’s Choice, to reflect the fact that you don’t necessarily need to be a Massively reader to vote. This…
Gamespot interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka
Gamespot had the chance to do an interview with BioWare’s Ray Muzyka at this years EA Winter Showcase. The interview is mostly about how the game is shaping up, but there is an interesting part about the recent announcement on EA being named the sole publisher of the game. Aparently this haven’t changed the development process of the game, and with EA focusing on worldwide publishing, Lucasarts can concentrate on adding ideas to the game and help out with the marketing end of it.
Jedi classes hands-on preview
Eurogamer, Gamespot and pcgamer weren’t the only gaming websites visiting this years EA Winter Showcase. Apparently the frensh gaming website jeuxvideo also took a trip to London to cover the show. Hopefully there will be even more media outlets reportingfrom the show the comming days. The entire article on jeuxvideo is in French so you have to turn on the google translator if you don’t read this language. I wtill recoment you to check it out, as it gives lot’s of new info on the Jedi classes: The impression of power generated by his avataris in fact what immediately jumps to the face. Graphically, the game is doing quite well indeed. The lighting effects and animations accompanying the blows of the Jedi give thanks to their power. Special mention to one of Knight’s attack which allows him to make a leap of fifteen feet with air to spin the key…
EA Winter Showcase Update: Crafting Revealed
Gamespot is present at this years EA Winter Showcase in England. Earlier this morning they published an interview with Blaine Christine and Gabe Amatangelo from Bioware about crafting, collecting and PVP. Here is a snip of the crafting part: The crafting and collecting, for starters, is designed to fit the player’s experience in a way that is credible in relation to fiction. As Christine puts it, more or less, it does not make sense for a badass Darth Vader-like Sith skin WOMP rats in a new pair of boots in between conquering worlds. And yes, the coherent fictional basis for the low, the crew skills system. “You are the hero,” says Christine. “You make your crew work for you.” The crew consists of companion characters work as you play with your spaceship as their base of operations. From the ship, your comrades sent to collect materials and commanded to crafts while you go…
EA Winter Showcase: Big Update Tomorrow?
Electronic Arts and Bioware are back in Europe again with the yearly EA Winter Showcase. The last time we saw the Star Wars: The Old Republic team on this site of the Atlantic, was way back in May this year. Last night, BioWare’s community team took to the social networks to tease fans about “juicy” new information: We’re in Europe where we’ll be announcing new details about The Old Republic™! Stay tuned to http://www.swtor.com/ this Friday for juicy details. Is this announcement directly linked to Europe? Will they announce European testing – wich we all over here desperately are waiting for? Maby.. Details on Crafting and for many, pvp are yet to be revealed also. What they got for us time will tell, but since we normally get updates each Friday, and they’re making a special callout for this one, we hope that it might be something special.
A Conversation with Damion Schubert
The guys over at Darth Hater had the opportunity to speak with Damion Schubert, the Principle Lead Systems Designer of Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this years GDC Online. The interview is an interesting read, were Schubert discusses topics that include character creation, animations, the design of planets, class stories, and the “Legacy System”. “””One of the questions we ask of our focus groups and in our player surveys when we give them is ‘Does this pace feel correct? Does this feel like a grind to you?’ I am actually incredibly gratified to find that most people give an answer of ‘this is about right’ with ‘little too fast’ and we get like a five-five which is actually good because players feel a little like they are cheating, and that is kind of where we want to be, and hopefully that feeling will extend throughout the experience of the…
GDC Online Presentation: Slave to the Grind.
Principal Lead Systems Designer for SWTOR – Damion Schubert – has posted his full slide presentation from this years GDC Online on his blog. The presentation is mostly about Gamedesign, but if this is your thing, you will enjoy his PowerPoint presentation wich can be found here. Ask a Jedi covered the whole convent – check it out here.