One of the most popular parts of an MMO is the gear you can get for your character. It just goes with the genre and nearly every MMORPG has gear and gear sets that your character can earn, buy or loot in some manner in the game. SWTOR is no exception and there are several types of gear in the game and different ways to get it. One of these is social gear- which you get by earning social points and rank as you level up in the game. But getting social rank is not as easy as you might think- especially if you tend to play solo a lot. The more grouping you do, the more opportunities you will have to build your social ranking. Here is a great chart of the social gear by social rank and location. It also includes the pricing of the different pieces. This…
Author: Lisa Clark
Visual Chart on How to Get PvP Gear
Are you looking for information on how to get PvP gear? In SWTOR, you can get PvP gear by gaining commendations. You can start this at level 10 when you are first able to enter the warzones. You can get warzone commendations and mercenary commendations. By level 50, there are more ways for you to get PvP gear that you need and want. After level 50 you can get the champion gear back, do daily and weekly quests such as warzones and Ilum, get the Battlemaster Gear Bag and more. This chart gives you a great visual on what you can get and where. Whether you want to PvP as a main or just do some on the side when you have free time, these charts give you an easy way of looking at what you need to do. Get geared up today and be ready to rock the warzones….
The Lights of North America as Seen on Tatooine
These are the types of things that make an ordinary game extraordinary. When we find little prizes like this in SWTOR, it just reminds of us how much time and effort actually goes into making a game of this caliber. Sometimes those little extra touches make all the difference in the experience for the gamer and that’s how we feel about this. Here’s a fun little Easter egg in the game. You can clearly see the United States, Mexico and South America here. The planets rotate so you won’t see the same section each time but as you are coming in for a landing on Tatooine, you can see these lights and familiar silhouettes. About Tatooine: Tatooine (pronounced /tætu’in/) was a desert world and the first in a binary star star system that had three moons and was in the Arkanis sector of the Outer Rim Territories. It was inhabited…
Time Magazine’s Techland Reviews SWTOR
It seems these days that everyone is getting their own little piece of SWTOR. People are talking about it everywhere and nearly every publication in the gaming, technology and Internet genres is covering SWTOR in stories and reviews. So it’s no surprise then that Time Magazine would review the game for their Techland section. But how they rated it is anybody’s guess before you read the review for yourself. It turns out they say that fresh stories propel SWTOR and create a fresh, fun game that anyone can get into but especially Star Wars fans. Time explains: Most of all, it makes you feel like you’re part of a huge narrative that’s at once personal to your character’s journey, but also part of a wider, unfolding epic between the Republic and the Empire. Quests and story arcs appear to end, but don’t. Your character may finish a mission, only to…
SWTOR Patch 1.2 Content Leak Info
Are you looking forward to patch 1.2 coming soon to SWTOR? Are you wondering what future patches might hold for the game, when certain fixes will be enabled and what kind of level 50 content and dailies might be added? Good news for you because there is some content leak info available to help us learn more about the upcoming patch. We will see a new flashpoint called Lost Island, some fun new dailies and more. Torhead has some very interesting information about the next upcoming patch for SWTOR: We already know from interviews with BioWare Employees that we are getting a new flashpoint in 1.2, but what we have uncovered are missions relating to the flashpoint… along with new dailies on Corellia and an all-new Operation called Explosive Conflict! Dailies NPCs Commander Mericci General Konya Private Taia Sergeant Karloss Councillor Torvix Ensign Navrata Agent Carhart Corsec Officer Holonet Reporter…
EA Stock Surges after SWTOR Subscriber Numbers are Revealed
More good news for those holding stock in EA and more rebuttal for the nay-sayers that SWTOR is tanking and that it is causing EA stick to drop- EA stock reportedly surges after the recent Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call in which it was revealed that SWTOR now has over 1.7 million active users and growing. DualShockers brought us the story that quite honestly, was not a surprise to ushere at all. YesterdayEA stock closed at $18.44. Today, on the closure of the market a few minutesago, the shares of the publisher from Redwood were priced $19.565 showing avery solid 6.1% climb. By comparison the whole NASDAQ index gained only a 0.4%. Mostof the growth actually happened yesterday during the after hours tradingsession, that started as EA’s conference call was closing. Both in the afterhours trading session and this morning in the pre-market trading session EAstock was one of…
Trolling BioWare to Ruin SWTOR
Are Internet trolls out to get SWTOR? It would appear so based on some of the bad publicity the game has gotten as well as other trollish activity such as bug reports for glitches that don’t exist and players claiming they were banned for odd reasons only to have BioWare staff come in and confirm they were not banned at all. It’s all a bit odd but it seems like there are some trolls out there just looking to make BioWare/SWTOR look bad. Maybe they are disgruntled SWG players? /shrug Remember I brought you that story about the Technorati blogger who was hating on SWTOR? Well, there’s a new story that’s a bit of a counter to this one but they have more of their facts straight. Team Asunder Magazine brings us The Internet vs. Bioware: How Trolls Set Out To Destroy The Old Republic. “The undeserved negative publicity that…
Clear Favoritism of Republic in TOR
We’ve heard the accusations of favoritism in SWTOR. In fact, I remember the same thing from the early days of WoW (and actually it never ended in WoW). I’m hearing all this talk now of BioWare clearly favoring the Republic in TOR and before I just didn’t believe it. That is until… I came across this image and it’s so glaringly obvious now. BioWare, yes, you are definitely showing favoritism to Republic. What other explanation could there be for this? That’s right- what you are seeing is correct. The Republic get more cleavage, more leg skin and less pointy elbows. This is serious business, ya know. It’s apparent from these dancer’s outfits that the developers prefer Republic to Imperial and want to spice up the eye candy more for one side over the other, right? Of course I mean this only for a chuckle but do you think there really…
IGN Gives SWTOR a Second Look
You may remember reading a review on IGN a few weeks ago written by Nick Kolan on Star Wars: The Old Republic (we brought you the recap). Kolan had a lot of good things to say about the MMO but some of the commenters called him an idiot (commenters are prone to such things, ya know) so some of the other members of the staff decided to review it, too. They wanted to give readers a second opinion of the game. It’s a pretty fun read if you want to check it out for yourself. Here are a few of their comments. Anthony Gallegos – IGN PC Editor had this to say. “Maybe it was because I knew I’d be addicted, but I really was opposed to Star Wars: The Old Republic early on. So many of the early demos I saw of it made it seem like “just another…
Announcing The Old Republic Guild Summit
Good news in from BioWare this week. They have announced the first ever SWTOR Guild Summit, hosted right here in Austin (where I just happen to be) in March of this year. Guild leaders from around the world will gather with developers from BioWare Austin to talk about the game and its future. It’s by invitation only but yours truly is hoping to be there (*cough* cough* BioWare) and if not, I will at least bring you all the updates as I find out about them. The update was announced on the official News feed for SWTOR: Guild leaders (or a designated officer in the event of a guild leader being unable to attend) will participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions, and will get a preview of some upcoming game features. The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the…
Escapist Magazine Zero Punctuation Reviews SWTOR
This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Star Wars: The Old Republic. Escapist Magazine did not have nice things to say about SWTOR. It’s a 5-minute, fast-paced rant about how much SWTOR sucks (in short) but self-admittedly is nothing more than a “preview” as he doesn’t spend enough time actually playing the game to give it a real review. Ben “YAHTZEE” Croshaw is notorious for not liking MMOs. In fact, his criticism was somewhat mild considering his distaste for the genre. It’s amusing, I’ll give him that, but I really don’t think he gave SWTOR enough of a chance. Since he doesn’t like MMOs, it feels like he just went into the game wanting to hate it and where do you get with an attitude like that, really? You get just what you ask for. Yahtzee chose a Smuggler as his class but doesn’t seem too impressed with it. My Smuggler is…
SWTOR Developer Blog: Busting Bugs and Fixing Exploits
The developers of SWTOR announce they are in the business of busting bugs and fixing exploits to make the game more fun and fair for everyone. This is a big job in an MMO as large as The Old Republic but apparently, there’s a large team available to deal with these issues and to create new content for SWTOR. Rich Vogel, the Executive Producer of SWTOR talks about how servicing the “live game” comes first and that everything else such as creating new content comes later. He also explains how fixing some of these issues can be very tricky and how they go about determining which issues need to be fixed first. Here is some of what he has to say. “If an exploit is discovered that threatens players’ experience in the game or the in-game economy, we will usually try to create an Emergency Patch to fix that exploit….
Mass Effect 3 Voice Actors
Martin Sheen, Freddie Prinze, Jr, Seth Green and more join the ranks of Mass Effect 3 voice actors. Tricia Helfer plays EDI and there’s Jessica Chobot with a cameo as a news reporter. Check out the video below to learn more and see clips. It’s easy to see why so many people are geared up and excited for ME3. They’ve also said that it was scripted so that you don’t have to have played ME1 and ME2 to jump right into the 3rd game and know what’s going on. Pretty smart on their part, for sure. This is a great time to remember why we’re playing SWTOR and why we love it- because of the story and the voice casting. Even if you’re already a Star Wars fan, it takes a little something extra to really make a game stand out. BioWare goes that extra mile with the voice acting…
SWTOR is Growing- Now More Subscribers than Ever!
I wrote yesterday about how some observers think SWTOR is sinking and that its subscribers are dying off. There are gloom and doom prophecies and even a haters Facebook group but no one really knew for sure how well the game was performing. However, the numbers are now out and it looks like SWTOR isnot doing so bad. In fact, they have more subscribers than ever before andboast 1.7 million active subscribers. DualShockers shared some insight on the story today. Electronic Arts had its Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call and CEO JohnRiccitello explained that SWTOR is actually doing quite well after all. He explains: “Star Wars: The OldRepublic is developing a committed community of players withmore than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.” And the game also sold more than 2 million copies. This isbetter-than-expected results from the popular MMORPG, something that EA reallyneeded as skeptics feared their stock value would…
Are SWTOR Sexual Encounters Shallow?
An article on VideoGamer.com explores the notion that BioWare is becoming a bit crass in their approach to sexual encounters in their games. Many actually agree and the article explores some scenes that eventually lead to sex (if you choose the appropriate options) in the game. It’s not the sex itself that is bothering some players but rather the way in which it is embedded in the story line. Do your own Google search for more “interesting” pics. The writer explains: These are just some examples of the stranger notches on BioWare’s bedpost since the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite the studio’s effort to create “real human relationships”, TOR is a juggling act between two different approaches to mature content, and only one of which follows in line with BioWare’s typical style. It then explains further: The Old Republic maintains the same companion relationships that exist in…
MMOMFG.com Reviews SWTOR after Level Cap
What happens when you reach the level cap in an MMO? This is what many refer to as the “endgame experience”. For many gamers, they never reach this level cap, especially if you’re not a big MMORPG fan. Some gamers pick up an MMO and grow bored of it before they reach this cap. Still others, accustomed to the WoW-style of play, will power level to the cap and then try to experience all the end game aspects before growing bored and moving on to a new game. One self-professed non-MMO fan has made it to the level cap in SWTOR and this just might be saying something about BioWare and their ability to create a game that all types of gamers can get into. A review over at MMOMFG.com explains: As I’ve mentioned time and again, MMOs are not my favorite genre. While I was a big, big fan…
Technorati Blogger Says Star Wars is Sinking Fast
Are you happy with SWTOR and the post-launch outcome thus far? While many gamers are completely satisfied, there are others who feel let down by the game and EA has been facing some problems lately in terms of broker concerns. But is it really as bad as it sounds? A Technorati blogger thinks SWTOR is sinking fast and has this to say about the sinking ship: And there is quite a bit of solid evidence that people are abandoning ship. But what about those who say there is no problem? Many are calling it the TORtanic, and this is the fated maiden voyage. But let us explore how and why this game is failing so hard and fast. Hmm.. I’m not sure I completely agree with his evaluations but he might have a few good points. First, he explains that the initial launch sales boomed the game to an unreachable height…
Imperial & Civilian Pilot Sets added to S-1A0
Are you looking for more armor sets? Imperial & Civilian Pilot Sets were added to S-1A0 after the patch. Some players are still complaining about the customization of the armor sets in the game. Personally, I think the Imperial sets look pretty good compared to some of the other sets. What do you think? There is also some discussion on the official forums about where and how you get Imperial and Civilian Pilot Sets in the game. So now that you’ve seen the sets, what do you think about them? Thoughts?You can also check out the Sith Social Armor Set here and more Level 50 Gear Here.
Emmanuel Lusinchi Says Shame an Anger Aided Development of SWTOR
Speaking at the Vancouver Game Design Expo, the Associate Lead Designer of SWTOR Emmanuel Lusinchi had some interesting things to say about the development of the game. He described his experiences summarized from six years of development on Electronic Arts’ high-profile MMO, what many consider to be the most expensive MMO to date. Venture Beat shares the story: Lusinchi started his insightful and entertaining lecture off with the advice “You are not working enough on your development tools”. He emphasized the return on investment for tool optimization because of the development time-savings, especially in the MMO genre, where content creation continues long after the game launch The more I hear from this guy, the more I’m starting to like him. He went on to cover lessons two and three of communicating with the fan base: “Everything you say can – and will be – used against you” Yup, sounds like…
SWTOR White Saber Crystal Uncovered
At first, SWTOR coveted the magenta crystal but now there is a new favorite item in a galaxy far, far away. One high level character has been seen sporting around with a sparkling white lightsaber. The owner of this whitesaber, Catch Deathwalker, posted about it on the official forums: I would like to let everyone know that the live servers still do have the white crystals. It’s a server first for us on Prophecy of the Five… might be a game first after live? Edit: So you can see the stats. There was an instant buzz about the crystal as everyone wanted to know where Catch got it (of course) but later in the day, staff dropped in with some startling (or not-so-startling) news about Catch and his flashy lightsaber. This was released by BioWare staff: We’ve done some investigating and discovered that CatchDeathwalker did not obtain the white crystal…
What Do Storm Troopers Do When Not at Work?
The life of a Storm Trooper must be tough. Have you ever wondered what they do when they get a day off? What about spending time with the family, celebrating the holidays or even doing the laundry? Yes, Storm Troopers are people , too and one photographer has captured so many beautiful life moments of Storm Troopers just well… doing what they do. Sometimes they hang out with their children. Sometimes they play in the snow. They even fight in protest against SOPA and PIPA. Kristina Alexanderson, Storm Trooper photographer catches them in their weakest moments, their strongest moments and everything in between. She shows us what it is really like to live the life of a Storm Trooper. Some of what you see may shock you, some may inspire you but all will impress you. See more at Kalexanderson’s photostream on Flickr.
Is SWTOR Bringing Back Retro Sexism Issues for Women Gamers?
Is SWTOR bringing back retro sexism issues for women gamers? One self-professed female gamer thinks so but can she back up her accusations? L.A. Harte, of Yahoo! Contributor Network takes issue with how SWTOR portrays females in the game. When I first saw the title, I thought she was going to accuse BioWare of objectifying women or some such… it wouldn’t be the first time such accusations have been made on a video game. But what she was actually complaining about took me by surprise a bit. She says: “Female characters in most MMORPGs including World of Warcraft, (and even the spin off cellphone app game Order and Chaos), provide us with a beautiful but strong woman — Star Wars The Old Republic falls very short.” Um… so WoW has beautiful female characters and SWTOR doesn’t? I’m betting L.A. Harte plays a Night Elf. So anyway, just how does she…
Kaon Under Siege – Video Guide from Pokket
It’s been awhile since you needed a 6-minute video to explain encounters in an MMORPG but the new flashpoint in SWTOR can be difficult, particularly the first time you do it. With the right technique involved, your group can get through the content efficiently and enjoyably. If you’re not sure just what that correct technique would be, you’re in luck because MMORPG has us all covered with a great video tutorial. Pokket gives us all the run down on the Hardmode Kaon Under Siege Flashpoint and how to survive the nightmarish place in Game Face from MMORPG.com. This is an especially good guide for healers who before this, probably did not have to work too hard at healing but this flashpoint and bosses can challenge the healers more than previous encounters you have probably had. Pokket explains each fight with voiceover as you watch the video of the boss fights…
SWTOR Servers Down on a Friday Night- Plus Scheduled Maintenance Jan 31st
Players were shocked by unexpected downtime last night right in the middle of Friday night/ Saturday morning gameplay for SWTOR. The forums went down, too, meaning frustrated players couldn’t even go rage about why they were kicked off their favorite game. Some took to Twitter to complain about it while we awaited the return of the servers and an explanation as to what had happened. A forum post explained it earlier in the day but few people caught it. Most of us were informed of the server shut down by the in-game notifications as we were playing. That post on the Official forums goes onto explain the upcoming scheduled maintenance: Scheduled Maintenance Date: Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET) All game servers and swtor.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more…