interview

SWTOR Release date and EA Lousegate

Eurogamer has an lengthy interview up with Doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk from BioWare. They talk about a number of things, including Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 2, and more importantly for MMORPG fans, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Regardign SWTOR they discuss that EA Louse business from a while back, But what’s most interesting is that they’re asked about a release date and oddly no longer seem to want to commit to a spring 2011 release date: Eurogamer: When will Star Wars: The Old Republic be out? Ray Muzyka: Next year. Eurogamer: Can you at least say whether it’ll be the first half or the second half of the year? Ray Muzyka: No. We’re just saying 2011. That is quite different from what they’ve been saying in the past where they’ve always stated “spring 2011″”. Signs of the release having slipped perhaps? Regarding EA Louse gate, Zeschuk and…

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James Ohlen reveals a few secrets in the new Star Wars Insider

In the Recent Star Wars Insider Magazine #121, James Ohlen revealed a lot about almost every aspect of Star Wars: The Old republic. For hard-core followers of the game, there isn’t much new information, but there is a few interesting statement, concerning casual content: “A lot of people are scared of massively multiplayer games because a lot of MMOs can become a grind… We’ve chosen to avoid that. We always give the player a story to drive the game forward. One of the more Interesting part of the Article is where Ohlen is speaking about the Sith Storyline. He explains about one of the first tasks that need to be done will be to kill your master. When that is done you need to locate a jedi and corrupt him. Furthermore he is outlining how the decisions you make affect the story you experience but also effect your character customization….

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James Ohlen Interview

Danish gaming site Gamereactor had the chance to speak with Bioware’s creative director James Ohlen at this years gamescon. I know it’s abit late to post more stuff from this event, but it was just published yesterday. The interview gives us some more info about the end game, as well as some info about how it it’s like to work with a game this big. We have already been told this before, but once again it’s explain how this is not only the biggest game Bioware have ever made, but also the biggest game EA have aver made. James Ohlen got a team with more then 70 people alone. If you are little into this kind of stuff, you would know it is allot of people.

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A Conversation with Damion Schubert

The guys over at  Darth Hater had the opportunity to speak with Damion Schubert, the Principle Lead Systems Designer of Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this years GDC Online. The interview is an interesting read, were Schubert discusses topics that include character creation, animations, the design of planets, class stories, and the “Legacy System”. “””One of the questions we ask of our focus groups and in our player surveys when we give them is ‘Does this pace feel correct? Does this feel like a grind to you?’ I am actually incredibly gratified to find that most people give an answer of ‘this is about right’ with ‘little too fast’ and we get like a five-five which is actually good because players feel a little like they are cheating, and that is kind of where we want to be, and hopefully that feeling will extend throughout the experience of the…

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Wookiees won’t be a playable species

Daniel Erickson has made a post on the official forums with some clarification. Apparently, in a conversation with a fan at PAX, he said something like (when speaking about what species players will be able to play): “If you can’t imagine it making out with Princess Leia, you probably won’t be able to play it.” People got confused over that since a lot of people tend to have a pretty strong imagination and can imagine all kinds of things making out with Princess Leia . So Daniel posted: Hey Folks, Sorry for the confusion. Booth chat is, let’s be clear, not an official information release. What you got was one line of an extended conversation that was had between me and one of the players at the booth. We started talking about what made a hero in Star Wars and then, once that was clear, there were some jokes about…

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Star Wars Retroperspektive: Rare 1977 Harrison Ford Interview Emerges

Yesterday, the New York Times posted a story about a rare 1977 Harrison Ford video interview conducted by a Dallas-Fort Worth news channel reporter just as Star Wars (A New Hope) was making waves across the country during its initial release: Wearing lapels as wide as the Millennium Falcon itself, Mr. Ford actually seems gracious about the budding fantasy franchise and complimentary to its creator, George Lucas, telling his interviewer that though he doesn’t regard himself as the Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon type, the film works because “it’s finally about people and not finally about science, so the energy of the movie goes towards exploring these human relationships.” The interview, which apparently had first been posted to the original reporter’s website bobbiewygant.com back in July (and contains scores of other filmed interviews), presents a rare peek at the actor on the brink of super-stardom in 1977. Check out the…

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Gamescom 2010 Wrap-Up

Today’s official update consists of another issue of Blood of the Empire… and that seems to be it. Luckily I’ve also still got the Gamescom wrap-up to do, so I’ll add that as well to spice things up. But first the comic; here’s the official news: In the tenth issue of Blood of the Empire™, a battle between Republic and Imperial fleets rages over Korriban as Teneb Kel chases down his foe. The fate of the Sith homeworld and the Children of the Emperor is in the hands of one young acolyte and his slave–but duty and patriotism aren’t the only forces guiding them… Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now! As for Gamescom, I felt that The Old Republic didn’t have quite as strong a presence as I was expecting. Maybe it didn’t stand out as much anymore after its E3 presence, but to me…

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Gamespot Interview with Daniel Erickson – GamesCom 2010

As we continue our coverage of GamesCom 2010, Giancarlo Varanini from Gamespot interviewed Daniel Erickson about space combat and the advanced classes. Lot’s of new tidbits were revealed including: Space combat may not be entirely optional There will be access to rewards and other things through space combat Advanced classes are “total class systems” not just little offshoots Described advanced classes as very much “works in progress” (no word if that means the names as well) Companions will factor in a big way into your class built Companions may be assigned their abilities by “kits” you give them – for example, any companion can be a healer with the right kit Daniel remarks that the Force is not magic, which makes the choice of the name Wizard for one of the Jedi Consular advanced classes all the more curious

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BioWare’s Daniel Erickson Talks on Star Wars History

Creating a MMOG for a franchise such as Star Wars is likely to be quite the balancing act. For the writers of Star Wars: The Old Republic, they must draw their knowledge and inspiration from so many sources and you can be certain that if a mistake is made, one of the many SW fans will find it! So where does a SWTOR writer get their inspiration? Techland.com interviewed BioWare’s Daniel Erickson, the Writing Director of SWTOR to learn more about his Star Wars background and what it’s like to write for a game with such a rich storyline. Writing for Star Wars is always a delicate piece of surgery. We must carefully carve out the archetypes, rhythms and overlaying themes of the movies and then place them in a completely new body of work. Players want to feel what it’s like to live as Han Solo did but they…

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Star Wars: The Old Republic nears completion

BBC has an interesting interview with Greg Zeschuk from Bioware. We don’t get an exact release date, but it seems like spring 2011 is still the goal. The interview mostly made for people that are new to the MMORPG scene, but it is till an interesting read. The massive multiplayer online role-play game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic is nearing completion. While the Canadian developer BioWare would not be drawn on an exact date, it said that spring 2011 “was not unrealistic””. “”It’s getting closer, it’s coming down the pipe,” the firm’s founder Greg Zeschuk told BBC News. At present the MMORPG market is dominated by World of Warcraft, which boasts more than 10m players. Star Wars: The Old Republic is set 4,000 years before the events in the movies, which gave the developers almost a free hand in creating a unique persistent Star Wars universe. “The only requirement…

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Interview with Alexander Freed – Questing and choices

Massively brings an interesting interview with Managing Editor on Star Wars: The old republic, Alexander Freed. The interview is mainly about what the different types of quests will be available in SWTOR, what compelling choices players have to make, and what it takes to write for a project of this magnitude. Here us a snip: We’ve got four different kinds of quests. We’ve got our class quests, which is what we’ve really focused on when we’ve talked to the press about story. It’s traditional BioWare storytelling in an MMO space. The other three types of quests that we’ve got are all group quests. We’ve got world quests which are essentially like the side quests that you’d see in Dragon Age or Mass Effect. They can be played in a group. That is where you see our multiplayer dialogue system in action. Then we’ve got our flashpoints, which are our big,…

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Sean Williams Interview

Author Sean Williams talks about “Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance“, his other books (“The Force Unleashed, New Jedi Order: Force Heretic”)and blogging! at Comic-Con in 2010. Remember to check out our Fatal Alliance Review Update;: You can now read the first 50 pages of the book here.

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The Guild – Talking with Krom

Last week I asked for people to write me about their guild experience, and it didn’t really matter if you were a leader, officer or simply a member – all we’d like to know was your experience in mmo’s. Luckily I encountered Krom, who was so friendly to share some of his thoughts and experiences through several mmo’s and over several years. He was also so kind as to answer some of my questions. What you read below is uncut. You can visit Krom’s guild here: www.crimsonnova.net And now, on to the interview! Hello. I go by the name of Krom in most of the games I’ve played. I got into guild leadership in 2001 as a third tiered officer in a Diablo 2 clan. Eventually, I became one of the tier one officers in that guild, KLS, and remained so until I left d2 for SWG at its launch….

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More making of the Music for Star Wars: The Old Republic

GameSpot brings an extra dose of yesterdays goodies, as they go behind the scenes at Skywalker Sound. The website interviews, the 5 full-time composer who work on the music for Star Wars: The Old Republic, about the challenges and the excitement of not only writing their own pieces for the game, but also how they had to look at the music John Williams composed 30 years ago without copying his music and style. We have some really, really talented people working on this project. I think it’s going to sound spectacular. – Will Roget, Composer Check ut the full movie below, or watch it at Gamespot (Video also available in HD) Update: One sharp-eyed fan, Chronium,  in the official swtor forums caught the title of the sheet music in Gamespot’s video documentary about the music of TOR.  At the top it clearly says, “Corellia Intro.”  Could this mean that Han Solo’s home planet will…

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Bioware: thoughts on game development

BioWare is a company that’s known for its big titles, like Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age. The one thing all these have in common is their size; in terms of length, depth, and scope, BioWare adventures and RPGs are all epic. But BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk says the company is currently working on a small-scale MMO and is looking at titles for non-console platforms. Dr. Greg Zeschuk was on stage at this year’s Develop Conference in Brighton yesterday, providing wisdom culled from over 15 years in the development trenches at the top-tier developer. Over the course of the keynote, Zeschuk warned against new developers aiming to create blockbusters, stating “Striving to do triple-A console development right now is the wrong goal for most developers.” Zeschuk also spoke of the drastic changes that come with success, noting that BioWare has had a tough…

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TOROcast Exclusive with Deborah Shin and Rob Cowles

They guys over at TOROcast have put up an excellent interview with Deborah Shin, Marketing Manager for BioWare, and Rob Cowles, Marketing Manager for Lucas Arts. I wasn’t aware that this was interesting people until I found out they work closely with Darth Dahlberg on what, were and when new info is being released on Star Wars: The old republic. While at E3 2010 Brandon and I had the chance to sit down and talk with Deborah Shin, Marketing Manager for BioWare, and Rob Cowles, Marketing Manager for Lucas Arts. The first thought through your mind is most likely, “why in gods name would I want to watch an interview with the Marketing Managers for a video game?” Well, the answer to that question is this, Deb and Rob work closely with Sean Dahlberg in picking out what and when something will be released about TOR. The three of them…

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Daniel Erickson: “Star Wars: The old Republic is your dream game”

ComputerAndVideoGames.com posted an interview with lead designer and story writer Daniel Erickson. In it Daniel claims that Star Wars: The Old Republic  is “the dream game” for BioWare fans and for MMO fans: “”If you are a hardcore, traditional Bioware fan – a Mass Effect or especially Dragon [Age] fan – this is the dream game. It is an RPG forever. It is an RPG that at the speed and pace that I play RPGs as a gamer, five or ten hours a week, I could never finish this game,” Erickson says. He doesn’t stop there though. “If the idea of story and context really turns you off, if what you want is [just the] complete Disneyland experience, where you run on the rides and repeat the stuff, this probably isn’t your favorite MMO,”. Check out the original post at CVG. And if you’re lucky enough to be attending the…

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BioWare Has Plan For Star Wars End Game

BioWare has told IncGamers that gamers who are worried about the ‘elder’ game – once you’ve completed levelling up your character – in Star Wars: The Old Republic, shouldn’t be worried. Speaking to IGTV, Ohlen said that a game of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s scope “has so many features” that it’s hard to talk about them all. He confirmed the team were aware of the frustrations gamers feel when they level up to the max and complete all the quests, and said that SWTOR will not be like other MMOs out there. “I know some people are worried, for example, about the elder game [and are asking] ”what happens in the elder game, what happens when you get to the highest level?’ We do have a plan for that and we will be revealing it the future.” Ohlen says that because the team are all MMO gamers, their concerns…

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BioWare team totally rebuilt conversation system after seeing Mass Effect

In an interview with CVG  lead designer and storywriter Daniel Erickson revealed that BioWare had to re-think the Conversation System in Star Wars: The old republic after seeing Mass Effect. Originally the game was built far more like Dragon Age as far as Conversation System went,” he said. “”Our player characters were not going to be voiced because it’s a massively insane expenditure and hugely complicated to do. You have to cast 16 of the best actors ever and then hold them for eternity. He goes on to illustrate how the original Mass Effect caused the TOR team to adjust their thinking, as it debuted very early in the latter’s development cycle. You can read the full article at CVG.

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Brian Arndt Video Interview

The guys over at Torocast, have released yet another video interview from E3 2010. This time it’s the interview is with Media Designer for SWTOR – Brian Arndt. Much like our last interview, we focused on asking questions that were outside of the box to get to know the people behind Bioware and what their job is like. So we didn’t ask those juicy questions that only get a “We can’t talk about that now” answer and focused on the behind the scenes peek at what is going on with the game and how things are done. As a result we have our interview with Brian Arndt about his role as a Media Designer for SWTOR.

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