TotalBiscuit interviews the Lead Writer of Star Wars: The Old Republic and multitalented Bioware veteran Daniel Erickson on how to tell a story in an MMO as well as information on the morality system of The Old Republic. This is the first time we are seeing what biscuit looks like I believe. First I thought he was going to be the guy on the left before i played the video, but then I saw the tophat and I was like yep thats him. The ending made me laugh a bit when Daniel Erickson said that the first chapter would take longer to complete than KOTOR. And there’s 8 of them. Theres three chapters, eight trilogies Kind of misleading, but thats what he meant.
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Bioware’s Charles Boyd Shares Intel About The Story Of The Trooper
It’s a great day for interviews because the folks over at Republic Trooper also have an interesting piece with BioWare’s Charles Boyd that gives us some real insight and intel on the Trooper. Charles is the lead writer at Bioware Austin for the Trooper class in Star Wars: The Old Republic so he is the go-to guy for anything Trooper related. He has real info on the story arc, inspirations, romance arcs, and even some origin information about a certain Trooper you may know from the TOR cinematics! This is really cool because Republic Trooper was able to sit down and ask some one-on-one questions for the rest of us. Example questions: Republic Trooper: Are there any particular sources that you drew inspiration from for the Trooper Storyline? RT: When compared with the other class storylines how high is the surprise factor throughout the Trooper story arc? RT: Are you…
TORWars Interview: SWTOR’s Damion Schubert Reveals New Game Details
Our buddies over at TORWars have an excellent exclusive interview with SWTOR Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert that includes some great new game details. This is an exclusive chat with Schubert that you will not find anywhere else online and it has some pretty juicy details along with the usual “we can’t talk about that” answers. Here are some examples of what they ask: What system are you most looking forward to watching a million players get their hands on and why? What game system has been the most challenging to get just right? Did any system come together more easily than you expected? Could we get some more information/clarification on the way the individualized loot bags work in Flashpoints and Operations? Any update on the Twi’leks as armor-wearing classes? We heard about issues with lekku and helmets. Is creative lekku tucking being implemented? What’s the verdict? Have any…
Drew Karpyshyn Interview: Expanding Star Wars and Mass Effect Universes
Newsarama has a great interview with Drew Karpyshyn expanding STAR WARS, MASS EFFECT Universes that gives us a little more info about Drew and the behind-the-scene happenings with the stories and how things work. This nearly 2,000-word interview is very thorough and well worth the time to read it. Drew Karpyshyn has written novels of the Star Wars universe and is now also writing for the upcoming SWTOR MMORPG. He also worked as lead writer on the first Mass Effect, co-lead on the second and was writer of three novels on ME. So you can see how he would be of interest to fans of either game or series. The interview covers a lot of fun stuff like the challenges or writing inside established worlds, the differences of good and evil, and what is to come for both of these major BioWare properties. Here is a snippet from the interview:…
Gamereactor interviews Greg Zeschuk
Gillen McAllister from Gamereactor asked Bioware Austin head – Greg Zeschuk – a few questions about Star Wars: The old republic. The interview took place at this years Gamescom but is still interesting eaven though it’s a few weeks old. Check it out below:
Interview with Gabe Amantangelo and James Ohlen
During last weekend’s PAX, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy managed to corner Bioware’s James Ohlen and Gabe Amantangelo to talk about PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The interview covered a wide range of interesting topics and brought us a few tidbits of info we didn’t already have. The interview is a good one and is listed in its entirety on their website. Here’s what James had to say in general about PVP in TOR. James Ohlen: But all the really cool stuff we’ll show off at the panel and into the next few weeks too. I think people will be really pleased with world PVP in TOR. The interview talks about Warzones and what we as players can expect to see when the game is released and another great question they ask, “Warzones are the more structured form of PVP, so will you guys be doing anything with…
Interview with SWTOR’s Georg Zoeller
The guys over at TORWars are famous for giving us good interviews on SWTOR from time to time. They recently posted an exclusive interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller. It’s not the first interview we’ve seen with him but this one is really in-depth- 1,500 words worth, actually. Zoeller is full of information and knowledge about SWTOR, game design and the industry in general. This is one of the many reasons why fans love to read his interviews. He’s a class act and this interview with TORWars is direct and full of great juicy details and not your typical boring answers to the same old questions again and again. Here’s a snippet: TORWars: How do you go about designing a combat system that will keep players excited and motivated for numerous hours a day, potentially over a number of years? Zoeller: Options. The…
Guild Ships and Mini Games
MMORPG.com has an interesting article interview with Emmanuel Lusinchi up that is really worth the read. The Gamescom Q&A has a lot to offer- including info about guild ships and mini games and more. One might start to wonder what else we could possibly learn from these interviews that we don’t already know about SWTOR but usually there is a tidbit or two in each one that we find interesting. Those are the stories that we pass on to you here. At first, Lusinchi tells us what he finds the most exciting aspect of the game and again, it comes back to the story, something that BioWare is pushing hard with this title: “We wanted to make the game feel more like a story then just another level grinder, we wanted you to care about your character, so that you aren’t just playing to get more experience instead you are…
PAX Prime 2011: Cory Butler Interview
Nvidia got an interview with BioWare’s Cory Butler regarding details on the Beta and the limited release roll out. Check it out below:
PAX Prime 2011: Gabe Amatangelo interview
The Totally Rad Show has uploaded an interview with with Lead PVP and Endgame Content Producer Gabe Amatangelo (My god he has a long title these days). The interview contains a lot reconfirming stuff, but also has some new info on social mechanics in the game, that BioWare is working on right now. Basically we can expect to see stuff like Space Station Hubs to gather your team before you jump into Flashpoints or Operations. Not a bad idea that I actually like rather than LFG+Teleport type approaches many other MMORPG’s use. Though he did mention they may look at queuing if needed after launch Seasoned WoW player Alex Albrecht reviews the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG, The Old Republic. But what we really are interested in is the specially-created endgame content, and we’ve got all the details!
Dr. Ray Muzyka: We are Beta Testing the crap out of SWTOR
pcgamer.com spoke to Bioware co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka at Gamescom this year about Bioware’s impressive lineup of upcoming games. Apparently BioWare are “testing the crap” out of Star Wars: The Old Republic, trying to squash every bug and glitch that they can find in TOR’s enormous world before it’s eventually released. Send over a few Beta test and we will be happy to help out:) Checfk out the full interview below:
Gabe Amatangelo Interview
Swtor.eu did an interview with Gabe Amatangelo at this years Gamescom. The website is normaly in french but they did this interview in English ( A French man interviewing a German guy in English – what do you know). The two main highlights of the interview is that we can expect Mechanics to prevent ganking lower levels, and Daily quests on Ilum in SWTOR. 6 dailys on a frozen daily planet. I guess we can call it cool grinding…. Mechanic to prevent ganking lower levels that they’re not ready to talk about? Hm, I’m skeptical. With Bioware’s reasoning on their death system (“It’s not fun … “”) I’m a little worried they’re listening to people whine about it not being fun getting killed by a higher levels in PvP. Warzones already level bolster (which is fine, IMO). Personally, I would never overly harass lower levels (I’m too nice). But showing…
VideoGamer.com Interviews Daniel Erickson on SWTOR
We’re all about fun stuff related to SWTOR and getting to send that info on to you. This is why we especially love Q&A sessions and lots of them come out at events like Comic-Con or shortly after. We found a great interview with Daniel Erickson over on VideoGamer.com and even if you think you already know everything he has to say, there may be some new bits in this article. Here, Erickson talks design decisions, negative responses and the future of SWTOR which has yet to launch but is selling pre-order records for BioWare. It’s an MMORPG making records before it’s even been released. How is that for awesome? So anyway, here’s a snippet of the interview, courtesy of VideoGamer.com: Q: At Comic-Con this year, one of the Star Wars: The Old Republic developers said the team hopes the game will last for decades. Can any game legitimately have…
James Ohlen Q&A: More SWTOR Info
Many great things came out of SDCC and of the exciting news and interviews, we found one with James Ohlen. An in-depth question and answer session that answers so many questions. This Q&A posted over at Newsrama, is well worth the read. They spoke with Game Director James Ohlen about the new features, release dates, and how fan feedback affects development. The interview starts off with a reference to and question about the incredible success of the pre-order. Newsarama: James, obviously the big news of the convention for you guys was the pre-order going live. Were you expecting any level of the response you got from the pre-order, with Origin.com and Amazon.com selling out in one morning? James Ohlen: The truthful answer is, yeah. Yeah, we know we have a ton of hype. Right now, we have a ton of hype and that puts a lot of pressure on…
James Ohlen: Companions, Release Date Talk
James Ohlen says large component of SWTOR still un-announced and he explains to Newsarama why this is the case. With all the hype and anticipation that’s been building for this game since it was first revealed, BioWare wants to make sure it lives up to its expectations. The director says “it would be terrible if something went wrong just as the game was getting going,” especially after BioWare has put so much work into TOR for several years. They want to ensure the launch goes smoothly without any major issues. Ohlen also states that any catastrophe such as the games servers going down would be upsetting and disappointing for everyone from the players to the team developing the game, which has worked diligently to get things ready for the big release day. He also said there is more to The Old Republic than what gamers know about so there will…
Exclusive interview with BioWare’s Gabe Amatangelo
German magazine GameStar.de scored an exclusive interview with Gabe Amatangelo of BioWare to discuss Operations which has fans across the globe excited. Operations are the SWTOR version of raiding and guilds and individuals alike are anxious to see any info they can about it. The September issue of this German magazine looks like a lead-up to gamescom, coming up in August in Cologne, Germany. This could mean more new reveals about SWTOR, possibly even about Operations but we’ll have to wait to know for sure. Forum user Cebo has a thread on the official forums about it with people jumping in to help translate. If you speak German, you can go straight to the original source and check it out for yourself. Cebo offers a partial translation that confirms some fun details about operations such as: 8-man and 16-man raid/Operation sizes Badges to purchase items Different difficulty settings based on…
Interviewing Vette
Being a gamer girl and Star Wars geek myself, I was excited to see this exclusive interview by TORWars with actress Catherine Taber. If you don’t know who she is by looking at her, you’re sure to know her voice. She played Mission Vao in KOTOR the voice of Numa in The Clone Wars, and she’s also the voice of Padme Amidala in The Clone Wars. Now she has a new role and it’s a pretty important one for upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. Taber plays Vette, the blue skinned Twi’lek companion character that we have all seen in advertisements and videos for SWTOR. Taber was at SDCC and was kind enough to take the time to give TORWars an exlcusive interview which they have up for the rest of us to enjoy as well. They talk with Taber about the roles she’s played, her voice acting and what…
Community Interview with James Ohlen
Of all the interesting interviews coming out this week and past weekend from SDCC, there was a great on one the SWTOR forums from community members GamewizX and Montybrython. If you’ve spent any time at all on the SWTOR, you probably know these two. Well, they were able to interview James Ohlen, Game Director of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and barrage him with questions directly from the community. You can find the entire lineup on the official forums and even post your own comments to the discussion. Here are some of the highlights: XYondaimeX asks: Will there be a Guild “tabard” (not an EXACT guild tabard ala WoW, just something to display a guild symbol.) or some other way to dis play a guild emblem? James Ohlen: Currently there is no sort of Tabard or emblem however it is something that is huge that we are missing. Jooki asks:…
BioWare Base Q&A #3 Video: SDCC News and Updates
Gamespot talks to Cory Butler, Bioware Producer, at San Diego Comic Con in one more piece of their great coverage of SDCC so far. Butler gives some general information about the game, most of which we already know, but interesting anyway. While this video doesn’t say a whole lot that hard-core fans of SWTOR don’t already know, it’s a great video nonetheless and it’s also very helpful if you’re still trying to convince your significant other of why you dropped that $150 on the Collector’s Edition pre-order. Check out the video here:
Dallas Dickinson Interviews from Comic Con
There’s lots of cool stuff coming out of San Diego Comic Con this week, part of which are great interviews with Dallas Dickinson, Director of Production on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first, with fansite TORWars, has a lot of great information. Here he discusses some of the reveals from SDCC such as the speeder bikes, the model they are based on and the fact that they are now tweaked so that the rider does not get knocked off so easily (although it is still possible to get knocked off). While he could not go into a lot of detail, he also talked about the customizable companions and teased about some new changes such as being able to interact with the companions and control them during combat scenes in the game. To what extent this will be, we do not know yet but he says it will be released…
Daniel Erickson Interview from Gamereactor
As part of their ongoing coverage of E3, Gamereactor has a pretty interesting video interview never before released with Daniel Erickson that’s worth the time to check out. It’s the longest video they’ve filmed at E3 and we’re all about hearing anything from SWTOR lead writer Daniel Erickson. The interview talks about story, end-game and also the possibility of a closed or open beta. It’s a 15-minute sit down with Erickson just released. “It’s our launch year,” Erickson says, “so I finally get to quit saying — for the most part — I can’t talk about that.” We are happy to hear when you can talk about that, Daniel!
E3: Interview extravaganza
Another day of E3 has gone, and another round of interviews has hit the internet. Yesterday we posted 5 interviews with Daniel Erickson as it seemed like he was the only BioWare employee who was allowed to talk to the camera. I mean no disrespect to the good Mr. Erickson, but it becomes quite annoying here him answer the same questions over and over again. So it was nice to finally see an interview with some of the other top dogs at BioWare Here is a rundown of all the interviews we haven’t covered in other post’s today: CVG – Dr. Greg Zeschuk interview Bioware Greg Zeschuk Interview “Making a different game” GamerLiveTV – Daniel Erickson interview Newsarama – James Ohlen interview James Ohlen thinks you may not ever go back to any other MMORRPG once you play SW Old Republic. It’s epic combat wherein you can play both light…
E3: Frank Gibeau Interview
Frank Gibeau, The President of EA, sat down to talk Old Republic, Battlefield 3 and much more during GT.TV’s All Access Live Coverage of E3 2011. It’s Obvious that Mr. Gibeau doesn’t follow SWTOR that closely as he says the game has 6 classes etc. but I guess that’s ok when your CEO for a firm as big as EA. He does spill a few beans though as he mention the game already have thousands of beta testers already and they will be beta testing all summer long. He also confirms yet again that the game WILL come out this year. The part about SWTOR is in the beginning of the interview so knock your self out below:
BioWare Pulse ep2 – SWTOR & Mass Effect at E3
BioWare have it’s own online show named Pulse now. The show is available via EA’s new online service Origin.com and EA’s official Youtube channel, and is published each Monday. The second episode of the show was released this week, and has an interview with BioWare Co-Founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk. The interview was made immediately after the EA press conference held a last Monday, so it’s up to date stuff! In the interview the doctor talks about what we get to see at thus years E3, as well as his own personal faction preferences in the game. The SWTOR section of the movie starts around 3:40. Check it out below: