The Australian Government Classification website has listed a new PC game titled “Paper, Scissors, Stone” that has some interesting similarities to what one might see under a SWTOR classification. Does this mean that the game might finally be headed down under? This mystery game is classified “M” and consumer advice says “Science fiction themes, violence and drug references; Online content variable”. The author is listed as BioWare & “Lucas,” and the publisher is listed as Electronic Arts. Based on this info, it seems pretty likely that SWTOR will be coming out in Australia. It’s great news for the Aussies but is it really such a surprise that the game would eventually be released there? It was bound to happen eventually and with us growing closer to launch, I’m not too surprised to see this news. The only downside is that this really only confirms the possibility that EA/Bioware may have…
Author: Lisa Clark
Official SWTOR Forums to be Wiped on December 10th
As we continue to count down the days to SWTOR launch, we will see different changes in the community. The beta testing period is over and the official forums will be getting a new facelift. This is reported to be more than just a makeover and in fact, a total overhaul that will wi pe all the current posts and private messages.Allison Berryman has announced the changes coming to the SWTOR official forums, including the data wipe. The changes will also include a new community blog. She explains: Another new feature we’re implementing is our Community blog, which will appear at the top of www.SWTOR.com/community. We’ll use this blog for important community announcements, updates, and to post articles of interest to our community members, so make sure to check it out frequently! Sounds interesting for sure and we can’t wait to see it. But what about all the current data…
MTSBWY: Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel – Steven Sharp Nelson
What happens when you combine the epic saga of Star Wars with the classical elegance of cellos? You get “Cello Wars,” a hilarious and visually stunning parody by The Piano Guys that has taken the internet by storm. This viral video masterfully blends music, humor, and the iconic Star Wars universe, creating a symphony of lightsabers and strings that will leave you both laughing and in awe. The Concept The concept behind “Cello Wars” is simple yet genius: take the universally loved themes of Star Wars and perform them on cellos. But The Piano Guys didn’t stop there. They added a visual twist by transforming the cellos into lightsabers and staging a duel that mirrors the epic battles of the Star Wars films. The result is a perfect blend of classical music and sci-fi spectacle, all wrapped in a package of playful humor. The Music From the opening notes, “Cello…
Lusinchi brings Some Clarity to Item Modification Issues
Associate Lead Designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi posted a very long revision today on the official SWTOR forums about the modification system patch notes. He says his patch notes were poorly written and that he wanted to make the post to clarify any confusion. It was a bit of wall of text, however, and I honestly don’t see how the modification system changes were so confusing in the first place. Lusinchi says: To start with, we’ve introduced a new color and item type: the Custom items. Those are shown with an orange border and are fully moddable. This change is purely cosmetic. What we have done is take all fully moddable Prototype items (blue) and simply changed their icon color. This helps us create a better and more unique identity for fully moddable gear. Ok, we’re with you so far. He then describes the main issues with the old modding system: The…
Thanks for the amazing beta Bioware
Now the SWTOR beta has officially come to an end and we are all awaiting the December 20th launch that is just a couple more weeks away. While some were able to game test for an extended period of time, others were at least given a weekend to check it out and the reaction from the community of testers was mostly positive. Nearly everyone who tested and was surveyed said they would recommend the game to a friend. In honor of the end of beta and the upcoming launch of SWTOR, we are asking you all to share with us your favorite moments or experiences of beta testing- no matter how long or short your experience was. Did you play with friends or solo explore? Did you rush to level as quickly as you could or take your time to experience all of the story line? Did you try different…
A 43-Year Old Gamer’s Rant about SWTOR
The thread, “Seriously!? (great wall of text from a 43 year old gamer)” is posted on the Official SWTOR forums and is well worth a read, despite the fact it’s roughly 1,000 words long. While it is a rant, the TLDR version will give you some insight to the game and it also makes you think for a minute before whining and complaining about SWTOR. Of course we get that it’s every gamer’s right to whine and complain when they don’t like something but then again, we have to be realistic about our expectations from the games we play these days. While I’m nearly half his age [EDIT: LOL Lisa 😉 ], I’ve been playing video games, including MMORPGs nearly as long as I can remember and I agree with much of what he has to say. A snippet: “I shake my head (but understand) at 90% of the poster’s…
SWTOR Brings in 2 Million Game Testers
We know that SWTOR is popular. In fact, unless you’ve been living the past few months under a rock, you are aware of the hype that surrounds this upcoming MMO. What you might not know is just how much interest there really is in the game. There is such a strong interest in SWTOR that Bioware has broken records with pre-orders and possibly records with game testing as well since they brought in 2 million game testers- all volunteer testers at that. Testers averaged 12 hours each over Thanksgiving, according to Gamespot.com. Instead of enjoying turkey with the fam (or maybe after enjoying their dinners) there were still tons of gamers who found time to pop in and check out SWTOR for themselves. EA says more than 725,000 unique players joined the game over the Thanksgiving weekend, making it “one of the biggest beta tests in history.” 2.4 million gamers…
Macro Possibilities in SWTOR
One of the biggest complaints to come out of SWTOR testing so far has been the lack of auto-attack. Another “issue” with the game so far is that there is no ability to create macros. As any MMO vet will tell you, macros are essential to play the game to its fullest potential. There are also certain games and classes that would be nearly impossible to play efficiently without great macros (think of warriors in WoW). The only way to do this currently in SWTOR is with the Razer keyboard and while it (and the mouse) are pretty darn nifty, we don’t all have the funds to spend on such items just to get the most out of our game. They can be very pricey- after you’ve already paid a great deal on the game itself. When staff was asked if they would change this in the future, they did…
SWTOR Mosaic – What to Do with 13,000 SWTOR Screenshots
So what would you do with 13,000 SWTOR screenshots from the beta? There are probably a lot of ideas you can come up with but will any of them be as cool as what this player did? Michael Guy (t0liman) created a fantastic SWTOR mosaic out of all of this screenshots from the final beta weekend. He captured over 24 hours of game time on the final weekend of SWTOR beta and also created a 35 minute montage video from the screenshots: This is how he says he did it: “Using “Foto-Mosaik-Edda” to do the heavy work of rendering the mosaic, I then reduced the size to fit the 10mb file limits for twitter using Photoshop (Plus, finding the point between juggernaut 200 megapixel posters and “instantly crash all apps in windows” with 8GB RAM, 400 megapixel’s, then working out how to resize 900mb PNG’s to 9mb, is fun) the…
Walmart SWTOR Pre-Order Fiasco
Uh-oh! Sounds like Walmart has goofed on gamers who pre-ordered copies of SWTOR from the retail giant. Great concern surfaced today from customers who had preordered their copies of SWTOR from Walmart only to find out that the retailer had cancelled their status but failed to notify buyers of the news. The official forums for the game were set ablaze overnight with complaints from gamers who say they preordered from Walmart but that when they went to check on their order it said they were cancelled on Saturday “due to a lack of product availability.” You can imagine the panic that ensued as gamers worried whether or not they would be getting their copy of the game, especially with the launch date quickly approaching. Bioware’s Online Community Manager Stephen Reid also acknowledged the issue on the Old Republic forums: “Hello everyone, We will investigate this issue ASAP, although we may…
SWTOR Pre-Launch Guilds Are Locked
Its official now- SWTOR pre-launch guilds are locked. If you didn’t get your info in on time, you will now have to wait until after launch to sort out your guild. Per SWTOR official news: “Today we are announcing that the Pre-Launch Guild Program for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has come to an end. Guilds that have met the prerequisite of having four members redeem their Pre-Order Codes at our Code Redemption Center are now locked for transfer into the game in time for our December 20th launch. If your guild has qualified for import, you can expect to receive an email at some time over the next several days. This email will give you further details on how to check the status of your guild as well as further details about how to join your guild once you’re in the game. Your email will also tell you which…
Amazon Germany Showing SWTOR Ship Day December 15th
Possibly due to stocking days when most stores fill up their shelves, some reports are saying that SWTOR will ship to Europe on December 15th. This news came after the confirmation that SWTOR would, in fact, be a worldwide release on December 20th and that European players would not have to wait days after North America to get the game for themselves. Some gamers are reporting stores in Europe letting them pick up pre-orders on the 13th as well as having email alerts of shipping on the 15th or arrival by December 15th. One poster on Reddit had this to share: I just got an email from Amazon (Germany), stating that the “release date” of SWTOR has been moved up to the 15th and that they will ship it earlier because of that. However, the email also states that the official start is still the 20th and only preorders will…
Anthony Daniels C-3PO in SWTOR
If you thought you heard a familiar voice coming from one of the droids in SWTOR, chances are you were right. If you keep your ear out for it, you will be able to hear and confirm that Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO in all of the Star Wars films is also in SWTOR. IMDB lists him in the full voice cast but doesn’t specifically list the character(s) that he plays but many people have recognized the voice while testing the game. IMBD also says of Anthony Daniels: In addition to playing C-3PO in all six “Star Wars” films, he played the part in the NPR radio dramatizations of “Star Wars” (1981), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1983), and “Return of the Jedi” (1996). See more trivia » He was born February 21, 1946 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK and his voice acting of C-3PO is probably his most…
Mirrored Classes According to MMORPG.com
Michael Bitton from MMORPG.com has been sharing their own opinions and updates about SWTOR. Recently they wrote about five “not-so-great” things about SWTOR. This is actually refreshing with all the good news going around and all the hype about the game. Seeing negatives keeps the balance and it keeps it real. No game is perfect, even if it seems close. However, they later admitted that they forgot one important thing on their original list so they wrote a new feature and dedicated it all to this one omission- mirrored classes. Here’s what they had to say about mirrored classes: Having mirrored classes generally implies that each class has a counterpart on the opposing faction, but in Star Wars: The Old Republic this idea is taken quite literally. SWTOR’s class mirrors are actually not just extremely similar, but identical. For example, if you’ve played a Smuggler, you’ve played an Imperial Agent,…
Razer’s TOR Peripherals Available Soon
Are you a SWTOR-aholic? You’ll be happy to hear that computer hardware designed by Razer for The Old Republic will soon be on sale. We know it won’t be long now because Amazon launched product pages for the items that will be available. You can’t place any pre-orders at this time but you can look through the photos to get an idea of what your options are so you can decide which ones you want to invest in. At this time, there are 4 gaming accessories available from Razer. TOR Gaming Headset- All gamers need a good headset to keep up with all the action within the game. This particular headset features a 5.1 surround sound with three-dimensional audio that will surely give you a tactical advantage. The sound is clear and precise so you can keep up with everything around you and the suggested retail price is $129.99. TOR…
New Level 10 Ability – Emergency Fleet Pass
For those of you in game testing, you might have noticed something pretty cool when you leveled back up to level 10 on your new characters. There is a new ability, although there is some confusion about its actual purpose. As the Reddit poster explains: “This should make some people happy. Decided to level a Sith Warrior on the friends & associates beta server tonight while the main beta servers were down, hit level 10, and this popped up. Edit: Here’s the downside – it currently has an 18 hour cooldown.” So what do you think of it? Personally, I’m thinking the cooldown is way too long to really be useful. It might help you out if you get stuck and want to avoid killing yourself and it could be a quick way to get back to your hub city when your hearth isn’t up. It could be helpful to…
SWTOR Original Music Tracks on Facebook
Are you counting down the days to December 20th yet? There are any hyped up fans who wish they had a time machine to take them to the 15th-20th so they can begin playing immediately. You are not alone because I am right there with you. The folks who run the official SWTOR Facebook page want to help us on the countdown to launch so they have a treat in store for those who follow them on Facebook. As they posted on their Facebook page: As we are on our final stretch to launch on December 20th, we have a special treat for all of you! Starting today, and continuing every day until launch, we will release one music track from STAR WARS: The Old Republic right here on Facebook! Spread the word and don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook so you don’t miss a single track! We will…
SWTOR Will Have Time Cards
It’s getting closer to launch day and if you’re part of the many getting prepared, you might be ready for stocking up on game cards now. For those who were concerned about whether or not they will have a credit card to use for SWTOR subscriptions, Stephen Reid had some useful info to pass along via Twitter: @streamingpirate We’ll have time cards. As we said in the pre-order FAQ… from July. 😉 That pre-order FAQ he’s referring to states this: “I don’t want to pay my subscription using a credit card. Is there any other way to purchase subscription time? You can use your PayPal account to pay for your monthly subscription. You can also purchase 60-day pre-paid subscription cards through your preferred video game retailer.” And can be found right here. This is great news for anyone who doesn’t have or doesn’t want to use a credit card for…
Torhead Launch Contest
We are all about bringing you cool and awesome stuff so we had to make a post to tell you about Torhead’s launch contest where you have a chance to win some really neat prizes. There will be a grand prize and first, second and third prizes just in time to help you get the most of your gaming experience with SWTOR. Grand prize features the Astro A40 Gaming Headset and Razer Naga. I currently use the Naga and I love it. These are really awesome prizes and it’s easy to get your own chance to win. As explained by Torhead: “With the big Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Test Weekend kicking off soon, we are celebrating the launch of Torhead with some awesome loot. Even though Torhead is able to garner a lot of TOR’s information automatically what really makes the site great are the user contributions. This…
LucasArts to Take “around 35%” of SWTOR Revenue- EA Still to Have Profit
We know that EA will not be pocketing all of the profit from SWTOR, which looks to be a very successful game but has also been quite a large investment. They will have to share with Lucas Arts, who owns rights to the Star Wars name. some have said that EA may not have much to gain in the way of profit from the deal but one analyst said there is plenty to go around. (Isn’t this what I just said yesterday?) According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, LucasArts will take “around 35 per cent” of the revenue from forthcoming SWTOR MMO after EA earns back its investment in the game. “I think [EA] will make a profit,” said Pachter, who has proven to be right on these types of things in the past. He adds: “The revenue split is around 35 per cent to LucasArts after EA earns…
A detailed SWTOR Beta Review by a MMORPG veteran
When it comes to SWTOR reviews, we’ve got you covered. In addition to writing our own, we like to bring you the best of what we find on the Internet from other fans, game sites and more. We stumbled across another SWTOR beat review from an MMORPG veteran who has a lot to say about the game. And when we say a lot, we really mean it! Merecraft of Far Beyond My Capacity wrote over 8,000 words about SWTOR beta. That’s like a small book! If you want to learn more about the game from someone who has firsthand MMORPG experience, this one is worth your time. Even if you just skim over the sections that interest you, it’s worth it to check it out. Merecraft is a 12-year veteran of MMOs who has been playing the game for some time now and the drop of the NDA means he…
SWTOR New Build Deployment- Game Testing
If you’ve been game testing SWTOR, you probably noticed that you couldn’t get in to the game today. This message was posted to the SWTOR community: Hello Testers! We are preparing to deploy a new build of the game for testing! At 12:00AM CST (6:00 London, 7:00 Paris/Berlin) on 11/29, we will be bringing the all game servers and SWTOR.com down for extended maintenance. Note to weekend testers: Your phase of the Game Testing Program has now concluded, and you will no longer be able to play the game. As part of the internal testing and deployment process, the game servers will remain unavailable for ongoing testers after the website is up at 12:00PM CST (18:00 London, 19:00 Paris/Berlin) on 11/29. We will update the stickies in this forum to keep you informed about when the servers will be available again. While we do not currently have an ETA, we…
No Need to Uninstall SWTOR Client if You Tested This Weekend
Have you recently beta tested SWTOR? If you were one of the weekend testers this past weekend, you will not need to uninstall the SWTOR client before playing the actual game. Pretty much everyone seemed to be in this massive scale SWTOR game test this past weekend so if you were dreading having to re-download the game client afterwards, you are in luck. As long as you have the most recent version of the game client installed from the Thanksgiving weekend test, you can save some bandwidth and time and just patch the game client, rather than deleting and starting new. Stephen Reid tweeted today: “FAQ: if you played this weekend you do NOT need to uninstall the #SWTOR client. We are planning to patch it to Early Game Access / Live.” Not only is this good news for those who plan to play but it’s also one more sign…
Activision Questions Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Chances at Profitability
The days are counting down to the December 20th launch of SWTOR and as many are getting excited about the upcoming MMO, there are others who don’t quite fall into all the hype. Some are predicting SWTOR might not do as well as predicted and that even if it does, there won’t be much room for profit for EA with such an expensive game that they also have to share licensing rights with to Lucas Arts. Will there be any room left for profit from SWTOR? Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick says EA Will Lose Out with The Old Republic but could he be right? There’s no surprise that there are skeptics when it comes to SWTOR. In fact, with any big thing, there are going to be those who oppose it but how much truth might there be to the questioning? Kotick made his remarks about SWTOR at the Reuters…