I guess I was wrong when I wrote we were nearing the tales end of E3 interviews. Our friends over at TorWars got to interview James Ohlen about all the upcoming stuff we have discussed the last week. The interview is in two parts and you can read what TorWars had to say about it here and here and you can also check it out below. Good stuff ahead:
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Pokket from MMORPG Interviews Daniel Erickson at E3 2012
Pokket from mmorpg.com had the chance to speak with Daniel Erickson at this years E3. In the interview Daniel Erickson answers questions regarding all the upcoming changes BioWare showcased at the press conference last week. Check it out below:
New Star Wars: The Old Republic Novel Cover Revealed!
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation from New York Times bestselling author (and Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ writer) Drew Karpyshyn was revealed at last year’s New York Comic-Con and scheduled to be released in November 2012. It’s his second novel and now the cover has been officially revealed. In addition to the cover image reveal, SWTOR.com brought us a great interview with Karpyshyn about the new book. *SPOILERS AHEAD* Here’s a snippet of the interview: Do you recommend that people finish their storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic before picking up the book? Annihilation is set after the events of the class stories in Star Wars: The Old Republic, so there are things that I reference and mention that may serve as spoilers to people who haven’t finished the storylines. The balance of power between the Empire and the Republic has changed quite a bit by the time…
SWTOR Patch 1.3 Interview with Daniel Erickson
BioWare’s Daniel Erickson, Lead Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic revealed some interesting information in an interview with SWTOR Hub about patch 1.3 and what we can expect in the future of the game. With many players and skeptics questioning whether or not there will even be a future of the game, this is as good a time as any for BioWare staff to come out with more info to keep players interested. Here is a snippet: Ten Ton Hammer: Is the developing team satisfied with the current direction of the game or can we look forward to the game moving into another direction, like harder content with more prestige items? Daniel Erickson: The best thing about a live MMO is that you have a living, changing game. SWTOR will continue to evolve and improve across the board. Harder content outside the operations is a personal passion of mine…
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 1.3 Patch Revealed
We finally have some more details about the next SWTOR game update. Patch 1.3 is coming this summer (soon) and we have a bit of information to get us started regarding what we can expect from the game. IGN has an interview with BioWare lead game designer Daniel Erickson that gives us some more detail about 1.3 and what it has coming with it. Here is a snippet of that interview: IGN: The recent Rakghoul Plague Outbreak was the first world event in The Old Republic. How did you expect players to react, and how did that compare with the actual reaction? What are your plans for future world events? Daniel Erickson: We were hoping for three things: to surprise the players, to create community interaction, and encourage open world PvP on the PvP servers. All three were far more successful than we had any right to hope for. The…
Patch 1.3 Crew Skills Changes: Q&A with SWTOR Systems Designers David Hunt and Patrick Malott
Inquisitor Roadhouse has an excellent Q&A with SWTOR Systems Designers David Hunt and Patrick Malott and has shared that with us on their site. This is by far the clearest interview/explanation I’ve seen yet on this topic and it’s well worth the read. Complete with screenshots and answers directly from the BioWare staff, you can get a clearer explanation of the Crew Skill changes incoming with 1.3. Anexxia posts: Q: On the official SWTOR podcast, we heard that Augment stations were going to be added to the game with Patch 1.3. Could you talk a little bit about what they are and how they will work? A: Our goal with the modification system has always been to allow players to use any gear they choose and have it function at maximum statistical efficiency. Most of the major itemization changes we’ve added have been moving towards this goal, such as moving set…
Force Junkies Interview Emmanuel Lusinchi – PAX East
Emmanuel Lusinchi the Technical Design Director of Star Wars: The Old Republic also had a lot to say at PAX East 2012 and Force Junkies have published their interview for all of us to see. Here’s a snippet of their chat with Lusinchi: Do you coordinate your gear based on armor type? It’s based on color sets that we created intitially. Every piece of gear belongs to a set. And what happens, when you coordinate [your gear color] we’re actually going to read the color from that set and apply it to that gear. Let’s say you have a set of gear, and your chest is blue and you coordinate the rest of your gear, the rest of your gear is going to use the data from the blue chest piece? Yes, exactly. The fact that you can disable it per slot is important because if something doesn’t work you might…
PAX East 2012: SWTOR Interview with James Ohlen
James Ohlen had a lot to say at PAX Easter about SWTOR, the Legacy System, future game updates and more. It’s really interesting to take the time to listen and read these interviews because we get insider information about what’s coming up in the game. This is great for those who are playing it and loving it and also interesting to those who have possibly quit SWTOR or grown bored with the content already. There is a lot of new stuff coming with game update 1.2 as well as other future updates throughout the end of the year. BioWare wants to gauge the fan reaction on this content to see what needs to be changed, upgraded or nixed altogether. It just makes sense to check out the new content and other upcoming future features. If you’ve already spent money on the game, why quit before you’ve even seen what’s coming?…
Interview: Gabe Amatangelo, Lead PvP Designer BioWare
As part of the local launch festivities, the guys over at TOROZ had some time to talk with Gabe Amatangelo, SWTOR’s Lead PvP designer. The Oceanic community had a lot of questions and they were able to get most of them asked in the time they had with Gabe. There were some things of interest to all of us in this interview. For example, there will new PvP changes and additions, the introduction of ranked PvP, UI changes (everyone has been asking for) and much more. See below for the official video of the interview. Thanks to TorBoard for the giving us the notes because the video is a bit difficult to hear: Gear/Warzone/Commendation Changes Lesser end-game commendations (Champion, Centurion, etc.) will not be exchangable. There will be two levels of warzones. Regular and Ranked warzones. Regular warzones will give out regular WZ commendations, and Ranked warzones will give out ranked…
Interview with Jennifer Hale
Have you seen the face of the voice behind Satele Shan? What about the female Sheppard in Mass Effect? Or the femtrooper in SWTOR? Yup, all voices are done by Jennifer Hale. She is an amazing voice actress who always goes above and beyond in the roles that she plays. If you are a Jennifer Hale fan, then you’re going to appreciate the exclusive interview over at TORWars this week. Recently, Deirdre from TORWars was able to sit down and pick the brain of the beautiful and talented Jennifer Hale and they’ve been kind enough to post the two-part video series on their site for fans to enjoy. Some topics of conversation? What it’s like to do voice acting for one of the biggest names in the video game industry, her singing career and more. There are two parts of the ongoing series now live and they say to check…
Penny Arcade Report Interviews BioWare Founders
Penny Arcade’s Report column has an interesting interview with the BioWare founders. Drs. Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka visited with Penny Arcade editor in a nice hotel suite in Las Vegas doing yet another interview for the press. These guys never seem to mind talking about what they do and sharing info and fun with the fans. Ben Kuchera interviews the doctors and talks about TOR launch, ending a trilogy and what many people are asking- will there be a Mass Effect MMO: “We’re the fastest-growing MMO in history, and it’s really a credit to our fans,” Muzyka said. “The launch was fantastic.” Taking on World of WarCraft was considered a near impossibility in the world of online games, but Bioware has the strength of the Star Wars brand alongside the company’s ability to tell wonderful stories. It’s a hard game to say no to, even for MMO beginners like…
Intergalactic Intel: An interview with Vodka
Graywulf has joined the party. “What the hell Niggles?!” “What?” My friend questioned in chat. “Yeah what?” Graywulf had no idea he had just intrrupted my interview. “I’m interviewing Niggles, I still have three more questions…” I added an emoticon to display my annoyance. “Why is he someone famous?” Niggles was silent. “Yeah. He’s ex-vodka.” Today I have a very special guest, a member a long time member of the renowned wow guild, Vodka. For those of you who don’t know Vodka is one of the top US guilds and previously one of the top world guilds for end game PvE content. So without further ado: Me: Let’s start with the basics. Who are you? Niggles: Niggles 😮 Oh, a real answer? Okay. I’m an ex-vodka member Veiled to be exact. Me: So why did you pick sage? Niggles: I wanted to have a class that could heal and put…
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…
Another James Ohlen Interview: Challenges of Creating SWTOR
James Ohlen is pretty good about talking to the press and fan sites. In another of many interviews he has done, he talks to IGN about the challenges of creating SWTOR. Ohlen, Game Director, has a huge part in the game and his work doesn’t end now because the game is launched. He also has to oversee updates, future content and more. But with this title comes great responsibility and Ohlen shares with IGN some of the challenges he has faced. Here’s a snippet: IGN: What were you trying to accomplish with this first BioWare MMO? James Ohlen: I really wanted to bring in the three BioWare pillars to the online space. Those are represented by story, by the player’s choice in story, and by characters. Those are the three big things that I felt weren’t really well represented in the MMO space. I felt that it was the smartest…
Dualshockers Interview: BioWare’s Cory Butler and the Future of SWTOR
You know how we love bringing you great SWTOR news and interviews so here’s a good one from DualShockers with BioWare’s Cory Butler. In this 2,000 word interview with Butler, we learn a lot about the future of SWTOR. Here’s a snippet: Giuseppe: As you may have seen from my review, I really like the game, and so do many others. I gather that the launch was a definite success, but what are your personal impressions about this first month of The Old Republic? Cory: It’s gone really really well. We’ve been preparing for this for a lot of time, running fire drills, planning for the worst and working for the best. We were pleasantly surprised with the server stability and just how smooth the launch went, knock on wood. G: Star Wars: The Old Republic is a direct sequel to Knights of The Old Republic, but it’s obviously an…
Gabe Amantangelo Interview
Totalbiscuit aka The Cynical Brit got an Interview with Gabe Amantangelo up at his youtube channel. Topics Covered Flashpoints (2:00) Questing/Immersion (5:00) Balancing skills PvP/PvE (10:00) PvP Level Brackets (13:00) Faction Imbalance/Ilum issues (14:30) UI Customization (17:30) Crafting Professions (21:15) Endgame Character Development (23:00) All of the right questions were asked, nothing new or concrete was given in return. Due to this, TotalBiscuit has mentioned that he might not do any more BioWare interviews, as it is impossible to get any interesting answers our of the company employees.
Ohlen to Eurogamer: SWTOR More Innovative Than an FPS
Some people don’t believe that SWTOR is all that innovative in terms of the gaming industry but game director James Ohlen begs to differ. He says to Eurogamer that SWTOR is more innovative than an FPS and then discusses the ways they have made strides in the industry but also why as an MMORPG, SWTOR is not too different. “It’s been a little bit of an unfair characterisation,” Ohlen remarked to Eurogamer. “”Because if you look at other game genres, if you look at a Battlefield or a Call of Duty or a Gears of War or even a Half-Life – those games use the same tried and true interface and the same tried and true game mechanics of the first-person shooter genre that’s been around for 20 years. Again, all very valid points. So many comparisons have been made between SWTOR and WoW and some believe that SWTOR is…
Ohlen Shares Details of SWTOR Legacy System
Lots of people are talking about the SWTOR Legacy System and I have to admit myself that it is a pretty cool implement to the game. I have seen far too many people (on my server, at least) trying to abuse it by creating names that are in violation but other than that, I really like the idea of it and the concept itself. But if you have questions about the Legacy System, you are not alone. Due to this, James Ohlen took some time to sit down with the guys over at GameSpot and answer some questions about the Legacy System now and plans for it in the future as well. Here’s a snippet: GS: In terms of the legacy system, how much can you say about the features we can expect out of that? JO: So the legacy system, it’s kind of inspired by the fact that the…
The Empire is Winning in The Old Republic’s PvP
Do you PvP in SWTOR? If you’re not part of the Empire, you might be getting owned. While it varies according to server, just like in any game, overall the Empire is winning PvP in The Old Republic. An article over at IGN.com tells us more about why and how the Empire is leading the warzones in SWTOR. IGN tells us: According to Gabe Amatangelo, lead PvP designer, Empire players beat Republic players in 53 percent of Voidstar and Alderaan Civil War contests across all servers combined. He said a same faction versus same faction version of Huttball, The Old Republic’s most played Warzone, will also be included. At some point in the future, BioWare will let players select which Warzone they want to play, though a timeline isn’t yet set. As it is now, when you queue up to enter a Warzone, you could be potentially dropped in any…
SWTOR Race Issues Explained
Many SWTOR gamers have questions about the race choices in the game and why we can only play certain races. One of the biggest questions “Why can’t I play a Wookie?” Well, good for us, VideoGamer.com has a telling interview with BioWare writer Alexander Freed (a personal fave of mine since I had the chance to meet him this summer). In this interview, Freed tells us a little more about the races in SWTOR and why many of them are so human-looking. Basically, it all comes down to relatability. Freed says: “You know, the reason for our humanoid range of species, it’s a matter of relatability to a large degree. The further you get from human the more difficult it is for players to get into their mindset, the more difficult it is for all the other characters in the game to relate to them the same way. There are…
BioWare’s Muzyka and Zeschuk defend subscription model of SWTOR
While no one actually asked them this time, the BioWare docs found reason to defend their subscription model once again, according to joystiq. In an interview with the BioWare figureheads, they spoke up with a defensive explanation of their subscription model for SWTOR, although the interviewer didn’t actually question them on it. Perhaps they are just so used to be grilled over the subject, it’s like a canned response to interviews. Nonetheless, it was pretty fun and their answers/explanation was interesting. “”You look at the online space in general and it’s fragmenting into all these different areas, but the core still works. The subscription model still works,” Zeschuk said. “”We know a lot of people say, ‘Oh, everything’s just going free-to-play.’ But that’s just one slice. There’s one slice that’s free-to-play, there’s one slice that’s social, there’s traditional subscription still going.” He goes on to talk about the differences between…
Interview with Stephen Reid
TotalBiscuit (The Cynical Brit) Interviews Stephen Reid from Bioware. In the interview they talk about the launch issues with SWTOR, queues and a bit on their future plans. An interesting interview with some hefty background PVP action. The interview is quite long, but really important what he talks about from 20 minutes onward. Basically saying that they’re not going to take WoW’s approach of, “if you’re bored, go roll on alt,” but instead keep building on your main character’s storyline. Good to hear that.
Daniel Erickson interview
Ryan and Jeff from Giant Bomb did a really good interview with Lead Writer Daniel Erickson on Everything from from queues, instancing to LS/DS permanence. Daniel is great at doing these interviews, as I personally would jump up and punch Jeff for constantly interrupting me. Remember to listen to the part around 11:15 -12:15 as it is pretty much cut and paste what was happening on forums and websites as people were hearing about the game for the first time, and I still see people expressing concern that they’ll just be playing a single-player game presumably because “it’s Bioware.”””
Game Hunters USA Today brings us Interview with BioWare Doctors
SWTOR is big news these days and with the launch of Star Wars: The Old republic – we heard about it all from all directions. USA Today’s Game Hunters had a fantastic interview with BioWare doctors Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka about the game and its development. The article by Mike Snider would draw interest to even those who have not already bought the game. First, they talk a little about the undertaking and the development process for SWTOR. Then they tell us about how big of a project this is for BioWare, something that those of us who have been following the game for years definitely know already. Muzyka says “It is probably bigger in content than all prior BioWare games put together. The volume of content is going to give players a ton of different things to do and many different kinds of activities, too, so it’s really…