| David Bass Says “Go Nuts” on the Free Food. Woo! |
We headed over to BioWare Austin headquarters for lunch and studio tours. The building doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside it was rocking! They took us in about 15 at a time while everyone else had their pick of a few food trucks in the parking lot. This is one of the best parts of the design and scheduling of the Guild Summit. This is when we all have the chance to mingle and chat with one another.
Since I was invited here as a guild leader and not as a member of the press, I’m trying to make the most of my time here by talking to other guild leaders and representatives, finding out what other guilds are doing right (and what some are doing wrong), discussing what they love about the game, what they dislike about the game and in some cases, what they hate about the game.
| Front of BioWare Austin Studio |
There was a lot of talk about WoW- “the game that must not be named”. Every guild representative I have talked to here has played World of Warcraft and many still do. Some play competitively, some “hardcore” raiding or PvP guilds and some were just casual. Several of the guild leaders I have talked to played beta of WoW and also beta of SWTOR- just like me.
We all agree that SWTOR is much more polished at this point than WoW was at the same point in its inception and growth. The real problem lies in the fact that we are creating a generation of gamers who are used to the “WoW scene” and they come into any new game with one of two viewpoints:
- Expecting it to be just like WoW- or maybe better
- Hating WoW and wanting it to be nothing like it
However, no matter which side you’re on, there is one common factor that everyone shared- wanting to see SWTOR succeed. This is the real reason why we’re all here, after all. It’s the reason we were selected to attend and it’s what we’re all here to provide feedback on.
During lunch at BioWare, we had a fantastic studio tour (more about that in another post) and we spent a lot of time mingling in the parking lot with the food trucks discussing the game. Most guild leaders have a pretty clear focus on what they want to see done differently in the game. Some points that are brought up as lacking- combat logs, guild banks, looking for group functions, improved PvP and warzones, and more. After lunch, we would get a sneak peek of game update 1.2 which would answer many of these questions for us.
Now we’re back at DoubleTree for some more panels. We’re talking Operations and Flashpoints, PvP, Legacy System, Economy and Crew Skills, Roleplaying, Guild Features, User Interface in 1.2 and more.
