The Jace Hall Show is a video game show hosted by Jace Hall consisting of interviews with celebrities and those involved in the video game industry. The Jace Hall Show is a production of HDFILMS and is distributed by IGN Entertainment. In this episode Jace Hall took a trip down to Austine to visit Bioware. Out of that came some strange stuff, along with some new space footage at end. Enjoy:
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Interview with Georg Zoeller
Torocast hat a chance to sit down with Georg Zoeller, the lead combat designer at Bioware and ask him a bunch of questions. TOROcast: Early in development, BioWare said that they were doing something unique and special with healing. What is happening that is different compared to a typical MMO design? Georg Zoeller: In Star Wars: The Old Republic, improving your character’s Presence attribute, which governs healing ability, also improves the character’s active companion in various ways. Coupled with the ability to adjust companion behavior and equipment, this enables the player to function as a healer; even in solo situations.
SWTOR’s Lead PvP Designer talks about warzones and PvP
With every Star Wars fan eagerly awaiting the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare, Ten Ton Hammer’s own Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle traveled to BioWare’s favorite spaceport cantina to learn more about the PvP aspects of the game. Quaffing a few bottles of Tusken Banthan Sweat with Gabe Amatangelo, lead PvP designer, he learned some interesting tidbits about the Alderaan warzone and PvP in general. Gabe Amatangelo: The major thing is that it’s an immersive experience and that the Alderaan war zone has a visceral mechanic or it has a visceral coding to every MMOG mechanic. You’re seeing ships go down, you’re seeing damage to the ship, you’re retargeting guns. I’m holding that philosophy to PvP in general in The Old Republic. Learn more about PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic in TTH’s interview with Gabe Amatangelo.
Interview with Stephen Reid
SWTOR-ESP.com brings us an interview with Stephen Reid. Honestly Mr. Reid hasn’t said anymore than what we (the fans) already know, other than the fact he likes playing as a debonair smuggler as he woes the ladies at one of the local cantinas shooting one of Greedo’s ancestor right between the eyes than he does playing the celibate Jedi; although, wielding a lightsaber and the Force is super fun. Mr. Reid is from Britain who is the Senior Community Manager for The Old Republic and has only just moved into the U.S. last year, but has worked for U.S.companies for the past 2. He has had his hand in various game industries for the past 12 years but he’s been working with MMORPG’s for the last 6. To those that need TOR to be subtitled in another language other than English they’re currently working on French and German. Answering questions were tough, since…
More reviews from the big gaming sites
Reviews are still pupping up all over the interwebs. With in the last few hours, Massively, VideoGamer, Eurogamer, and some of the more “hardcore” Star Wars the old republic fansites such as DarthHater and TOROCast has posted their reviews of the Jedi Immersion Event. Here is an update and a snip from each site. Firstly we got Massively that spoils us with a long review plus a few ingame movies: And for the people worried that SWTOR is going to be a Star Wars-themed World of Warcraft, you can rest easy too. The dialogue system guarantees that returning to your quest-giver isn’t just a mad dash of clicks. Your quest choices actually matter. The NPCs talk to you, and you’re going to want to talk back. I never once had the urge to skip the quest text (in fact, I was terrified I’d miss something if I looked away!), and…
NowGamer interviews Daniel Eriksson
NowGamer had a chance to sit down with Daniel Eriksson and get some community question answered. Here is a snip: You’re entering a market that’s dominated by World of Warcraft – other than the license, what’s going to draw players to The Old Republic? I really think the unique selling point is going to be the storytelling. One of the great things about storytelling is it’s universal, it’s easy to get into – when you first played it you just clicked on a guy and started making choices in a dialogue, and it was easy to understand how to do that. It’s a great way to very gently introduce somebody to an MMO that has maybe not played something like that. Because we’ve taken the focus off the grind and the levelling, if you’re not that sort of player you can play our game for a couple of hours and put…
New SWTOR Video interviews from G4TV
G4TV have added two new Star wars the old republic video interview to their library. The first one is with Daniel Erickson in witch he explains the gathering, crafting, and mission components that make up crew skills. There is not much new information coming from Mr. Erickson in this interview, although he mentions some race/class combos. The Second interview is with BioWare Co-Founder Dr. Ray Muzyka. This interview is more or less the same as the one gamespot did, but have some information on Dragon age 2 also. Check em both below: Video Description: Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the largest Star Wars game ever and will feature PvP. Morgan Webb here visits with BioWare Lead Writer Daniel Erickson for a look at Gathering, Crafting, and Missions, and the Warzones these battles will take place in. Video Description: BioWare Co-Founder Dr. Ray Muzyka could have coasted along for…
Daniel Erickson & Gabe Amatangelo Interview by Game Revolution
Game Revolution Posted an interview with Daniel Erickson and Gabe Amatangelo the other day. The interview don’t bring anything new to the table, but it is still worth a watch – at least you get to check out this chick Alex and Mr. Erickson’s very benevolent arm resting behind her ( Hope you got her home safe buddy). Some small notes: Purple items mentioned (in regards to Treasure Hunting crits). “No crafting in PvP”. PvP is: “players fighting other players” (groundbreaking!) Philosophy to always be able to progress your character being described as “Multi-path playing” (through PvP, PvE, Space Combat etc).
Gamespot interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka
Gamespot had the chance to do an interview with BioWare’s Ray Muzyka at this years EA Winter Showcase. The interview is mostly about how the game is shaping up, but there is an interesting part about the recent announcement on EA being named the sole publisher of the game. Aparently this haven’t changed the development process of the game, and with EA focusing on worldwide publishing, Lucasarts can concentrate on adding ideas to the game and help out with the marketing end of it.
All about The Old Republic’s PvP with TOR’s Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo
Hundar from machinima.com awkwardly cornered Gabe Amatangelo and roughed him up for all of Star Wars The Old Republic PvP info he could wring out of him. They discussed in detail some of the PvP mechanics and what they’ll bring. Swtor-life.com has summed up the highlights: There will be experience awarded for PvP There will be token awards to get “identifiable” gear (so you get recognized as PvP player) There are different levels of PvP gear (level 15 and level 50) Alderaan warzone usually lasts between 5 and 15 minutes Next warzone (derelict starship one) will have Assault type game mechanics At the point of talking about whether there will be “seasonal updates” of PvP gear (so that it gets upgraded once first set of PvP gear gets “outdated”), Gabe Amatangelo mentioned that: “Yes there will be multiple level 50 PvP sets“. This leads us to believe that Level 50 is the max level…
Everything about The Old Republic with Daniel Erickson
Picture stolen from swtor-life Hundar from machinima.com talked with Daniel Erickson about everything we can expect to see in The Old Republic… and we do mean everything!
Interview with Stephen Reid
Star Wars – The old Republic has a new Community Manager. His Name is Stephen Reid and everybody wants to have an Interview and of course everyone wants to know : ” how is the game progressing and how do you like it ?”. Massively is introducing the new guy on the ship and his opinions about the game. Massively: We just had an article come out that was about whether or not the community should be agitating for the devs to change things to suit future players’ desires. That’s like the big community debate now… do you think it’s a worthwhile effort? Reid: This is kind of an eternal debate, especially for MMOs, which tend to have long development times, and especially for games like this one [that] have had a long announcement cycle, too. I absolutely think that healthy discussion and debate around a game’s development is fine…
Interview with Daniel Erickson on companion integration
In a recent Interview with Darth Hater Daniel Erickson covered the Crew Skills. Now he is going a little deeper into the companion integration and recipe mechanics.
SWTOR – Crafting and Crew Skill Interviews [Update]
Both Massively and Darth Hater, spoke to Lead Writer Daniel Erickson about the Crew Skills and the Crafting component of Star Wars – The Old Republic. Bioware revealed a new Trailer yesterday, which was introducing the main facts that were announced at EA’s Winter Showcase last week. On Darthhater, Daniel Erickson is speaking about everything from the video with some ingame references while the massively interview is more like a Question and Answer talksession with a comparison of SWTOR and SWG crafting , and more insight in PvP and Recipes. So we would get recipes that are super rare? Yes. There are elite, rare recipes. People who want to dabble in crafting, can, and can be successful in it and make themselves a little bit better. People who are not terribly interested in crafting can do the mission system and still get some cool stuff out of their companion characters….
Bigpoint CEO claims SWTOR won’t be profitable
Bigpoint is one of the Biggest Publishers for F2P and Browser Games and CEO Heiko Hubertz recently stated that he believes that Star Wars – The Old Republic will never be profitable with it’s current financial concept. “If you look in the traditional industry there are still a lot of big bets there,” said Hubertz, keynoting the London Games Conference this evening. “Still there are companies investing $20-40 million for a game. These companies have to be profitable after one or two months. They don’t have 12 months or even more. I think these companies are really in trouble in the future if a user can play online games for free. “If you look at a game like Star Wars from EA and BioWare, they estimated a development budget of more than $100 million. This is an online game for many million of subscribers, so a big publisher does not…
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…
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….
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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
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…