MMORPG.Com had the chance to interview Jeff Hickman & Bruce Maclean from BioWare, about Star Wars: The old republic. The article contains lots of new great info, and here is the most imortant information from the article put together by Thrives: *Both warzones and GSF will see updates, GSF in the form of new maps, new ship roles, and new ships, new Huttball arena (Quesh), will be a more vertical/three dimensional space to maneuver through. *Class combat team is very busy. *They offered the interview because of her previous article, the slightly negative F2P review posted here a few weeks ago. They disagreed, responses from player with no prior SWTOR experience were characterized as ‘generally super positive’, they have metrics to support this statement. Subscribers are their priority but they’re always looking for opportunities to improve the F2P experience. *Interviewer thought the tour stops weren’t a huge opportunity to ‘drop some…
interview
Lukewarm Tauntauns, Star Wars The Old Republic Ranked Guild Interview
It’s a long interview but one I recommend people watch, especially if they want a glimpse into the world of high level ranked PvP and the players behind it. Play it in the background while playing SWTOR or something. 🙂 Good questions asked and hopefully Bioware actually sees this to see what some of their ranked players are saying and thinking.
Cory Butler speaks on the future of SWTOR
mmorpg.com has an interview with BioWare’s Cory Butler discussing customization options coming in Game Update 2.1, Cathar race and Free to play restrictions. Most interesting parth of the interview are the last few questions regarding server transfer which include some new information about upcoming stuff that will be adding. MMORPG.com: Are for-pay server transfers coming? If so, when can players look forward to this service? Can you talk about any additional for-pay services players can look forward to? Cory Butler: Paid Character Transfers were originally slated to be part of Game Update 2.1, but we ran into a few bugs with the new Legacy Achievement system. You can expect Paid Character Transfers to be coming in hot on the heels of Game Update 2.1. No new announcements for paid services to make at this time. Other interesting info from the interview is Cathar Species unlock priced at 600 Cartel Coins for the entire account. This price will be the same for both…
Carrie Fisher to be in New Star Wars Film
The Internet world has been buzzing about whether or not Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill (which confirmed there are talks) and Harrison Ford will return to the big screen for the next installment in the Star Wars story. In an interview with Palm Beach Illustrated, Carrie puts some of those questions to rest. When asked if she could confirm whether or not she would play the role of Princess Leia, she said “Yes.” The interview was fun (in typical Carrie fashion) and went something like this: What do you think Princess Leia is like today? Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs]. I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle. And still wearing the bagel buns? The bagel buns and the bikini, because probably she has sundowners syndrome. At sundown, she thinks that she’s 20-something….
Star Wars Rumor: Mark Hamill on Spinoff Movies and Returning to Star Wars
Mark Hamill’s movie “Sushi Girl” just went to DVD and Blu-ray this week and ET Online did an interview and talked to him about this release as well as his involvement in the upcoming Star Wars films. Specifically, they asked him what he thinks about those proposed spinoff movies. “It’s all very, very exciting and so unexpected,” says Hamill. “I think that’s the quality I like about it most – it’s like getting a pair of pants out of the closet you haven’t worn in three years and finding a $20 bill in the pocket. It’s just so unexpected.” They go on to ask him questions about whether or not he will appear in Star Wars Episode VII and he says “They’re talking to us” and that “George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast…
Jeff Hickman Interview
The guys and girls over at TORWars got an Exclusive Interview with Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s, Jeff Hickman. In the interview mr. Hickman answers questions from the readers of TORWars and while he do dodge a few questions, he also answers some questions so well, that it get’s me very confident in the future of the game we all love so much. TW: The studio has seen some staffing changes over the past year. Do you feel you are at a good staffing level now? JH: Absolutely. The core of what makes the game and studio great are still here; quality in our game and in our workplace, people that are passionate about both, a camaraderie with each other that helps us support one another, and people who continue to help us carry the banner of BioWare and who are dedicated to help evolve and improve…
Corellian Run Radio Interviews Rob Hinkle
The good people over at Corellian Run Radio had the chance to interview Senior Systems Designer, Rob Hinkle. In the interview Mr. Hinkle answers questions regarding upcoming and current mechanics in PVP. What struck me the most about his answers to the questions, regarding gear. He personally felt gear had mattered too much up to this point. He spoke of having progression without having such a large gear gap, i.e. tightening up the gear gap. This seems like a good way to go. Here is a snip: Question 4: Are there any plans to ever change from the vertical progression of PvP gear to horizontal, especially with free-to-play? (i.e. will gear in the future still be a large factor in performance?) Rob: As we move forward, we want to tighten up the minimal gear level and maximum gear level power gap while inside PvP. ToR is an MMORPG, so we feel that players need some…
Meet the Developers: Jonathan Crow
Cool interview with Jonathan Crow, with some insight into what they keep tabs on. Quite an enjoyable read. Man would love to see the queries he runs on all that sweet sweet data he has access too. What does a typical day look like for you? Most days I work on two activities: 1. Monitoring the health of the game via a series of dashboards that we developed to track some of the important key performance indicators for the game (keeping track of daily logins, game economy, engagement in Operations and Warzones, etc). 2. Working on deeper-dive analyses associated with specific areas of play (such as comparing player deaths to boss kill rates between Operations) to help the development team assess whether a certain feature or piece of content needs to be modified to maximize the engagement and enjoyment of the player base. Can you share some interesting statistics with…
Massively: Interview Hall Hood
Massively’s Larry Everett had the chance to to an interview with Lead Writer of Star Wars: The old Republic – Hall Hood. This guy is approaching politician levels of question dodging, and answering questions regarding the upcoming planet Makeb, Hall Hood don’t really sheds light on anything new. It seems to me that going forward, at least for the foreseable future, the concept of 8 distinct class stories is gone, even if we may have different cutscenes for the same main story depending on our class. No word about “Rise of the Hutt Cartel” story, that was datamined a few weeks ago either. When Makeb was first announced, we were told that it was not a continuation of the class story. Yet in a recent interview, Jeff Hickman said that Makeb is the continuation of your story. I think there might be a bit of confusion in semantics. Can you clarify and perhaps expound on what…
EUCantina Interviews Drew Karpyshyn
The guys over at EU Cantina had the chance to sit down and interview Drew Karpyshyn. The interview is mainly about his new book Annihilation, but Drew Karpyshyn also answers questions regarding Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil. Unfortunately the interview don’t touch his work on Star Wars: The old republic, But Mr. Karpyshyn love to see it make the jump to TV or the big screen someday. EUC: Aside from The Tales of the Jedi and Knight Errant, most of The Old Republic novels and comics tie directly into video games. As you peer into the future, where does The Old Republic era go from here? DK: I think the Old Republic era is going to continue to grow. It’s proven quite popular with the fans, and it still has so much untapped potential for authors and other creative types to explore. In addition to more games, books and graphic novels, I’d love to see it make the jump to…
SWTOR F2P & Future content interview with Damion Schubert
Dulfy had the opportunity to interview Lead Designer Damion Schubert regarding the F2P option launching yesterday. Dulfy was good enough to take questions from the readers of her blog. reading through the interview I found some of the most interesting key points to be: Armor dyes seems to be in the pipeline No new items to the VIP/Collectors Edition vendors Cathar race will be by purchase only Returning events (i.e. sell your rakghoul items now before the word gets out) Check out the full interview over at dulfu.net or read our small snippet below: What was the biggest challenge in converting such a massive MMO into a FTP model? It would have to be giving away as much as humanly possible to our free to play players, while still ensuring that our subscribers felt like they were getting a great value. Both populations of players are a key component to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s path forward,…
Bioware Executive Producer Jeff Hickman on SWTOR’s upcoming move to F2P
The team over at Zam spoke to BioWare’s Executive Producer for Live Services about introducing a free-to-play option, future updates and the impact of Hero Engine. In this interview, they talk about the upcoming f2p model for the game as well as how they will be attracting new players to the game with a premium experience. They talk new updates, additional content brought to the game and more. It’s a good read while we await these changes. Here’s a snippet: I started off by asking about where the idea for SWTOR’s free-to-play option came from, and what influenced the team in deciding to offer it alongside the existing subscription. Hickman explained that, while they’ve been aware of what other MMOs were doing, it was player feedback that encouraged them to choose this route. “We knew that there were other models out there, and they’ve been successful, and it’s kind of been…
BioWare pledges six-week content update schedule for Star Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare Austin General Manager Matt Bromberg recently spoke with AusGamers about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free-to-play option and future content updates. PC Gamer has more on that story and what it means to us. With the free to play model coming soon, many existing players want to know what we can expect from future updates to the game. So PC Gamer asked about the timelines for future updates to Warzones, Flashpoints and Operations. PC Gamer reports: “We’re committed to a roughly six-week schedule for major updates — a new Warzone, Flashpoint, Operation, and event — on a regularly frequent cadence,” Bromberg said. Bromberg also reiterated planned incentives for recouping paid subscribers with closed accounts when The Old Republic’s new account system executes this fall, saying, “We announced that subscribers who have lapsed are already qualified to get Cartel Coins, which will be the in-game currency in the game once…
Interview of Gabe Amatangelo
SWTOR Life visited Gamescom this year and also had the great opportunity to interview Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo about SWTOR. We have seen other interviews with Gabe but it’s always great to see what else he will say and do. Here some info from SWTOR-Life about the interview and then check out the video below to see it all for yourself: “”The first booth I visited at Gamescom this year was Star Wars: The Old Republic booth. I was curious as to what will I find there. What I found were people playing the new warzone Ancient Hypergates and, to my surprise, Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo himself chilling and waiting for the press to come. I spent more than half my time in SWTOR playing PvP on the maps this man designed so I opened with: “You ruined my life by wasting sooooo much of my…
Noxxic Gaming Guides and Interview
Here at SWTOR Strategies, we’ve been bringing you great SWTOR news and info as well as Star Wars and MMORGP news and info since before SWTOR’s release. Well, we found something else really cool in our research- gaming guides from Noxxic guild. In particular, we found their SWTOR guide but then we saw they also have guides for many other great games, some of which you might also play. The crew over at Noxxic were nice enough to take some time to talk to me about their guild, their website, their guides and what they are all about. So here’s the interview for you to learn more yourself and be sure to head on over and check out their guides! Lisa: Can you tell us a little about Noxxic, the games you play and what you’re all about? At Noxxic, we only have one goal and that is to provide…
Interview with Voice Actor Marc Thompson Narrator of Star Wars Audio Books
Voice actor Marc Thompson who is the narrator of the Star Wars audio books was at the Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando Florida for their annual get together. This event took place on August 25th 2012. He was gracious enough to give an interview and he spoke about how exciting it was for him to be the “voice” of the Star Wars audio books since he is such a huge fan of the series. He also explained his technique for coming up with the different voices and the processes that take place to make each character an individual. It is very interesting to learn that he actually looks at illustrations of characters and takes their race into account when choosing the right voice or tonal quality for a character. As a bonus, he even offers a couple of character voices and explains the difference between doing a cartoon voice…
Interview with Matt Bromberg about F2P model
The move from SWTOR’s pay to play model to the free to play model may be a blessing in disguise for those gamers who want to try the game but who do not want to pay. For the company, BioWare, this switch may not be a blessing for the company or the current players. While the company does want to make money, this is not the sole purpose of offering free to play to the public. What is more important is having the game played by a wider audience. According to an interview in Game Industry International with Matt Bromberg on Thursday, he stated: “”’My primary intention is to make as many people play this beautiful game that we’ve made,’ he added. ‘It just so happens that the business will naturally grow as more people come to play the game, but we’re not trying to squeeze every single penny out…
Jeff Hickman Interview
With the news of SWTOR going free to play, there are many who want to learn as much as they can about the game or any changes being made in the upcoming updates to the game. Even those who are already fans are listening with eager ears to anything new. This interview with Jeff Hickman didn’t have any big secret reveals over the game but it did have some very interesting topics and some insight into the very experience Jeff Hickman and his work on SWTOR. RPG Site says: With a background rooted in Mythic Entertainment, Hickman has a long history with MMOs – first on Dark Age of Camelot and then on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. We quizzed him not only on the future of The Old Republic, but of the MMO genre in general. Here’s what he said. They came prepared with some great questions and Hickman…
Interview with SWTOR Lead Writer Hall Hood
Last week TORWars had a great interview with SWTOR Lead Writer Hall Hood via their podcast. There are some amazing details in this hour-long interview and they cover topics like: ~ Character development that keeps players interested~ Why some classes are clearly Republic, and some are Sith, and some walk a very gray line~ Drawing inspiration from Episodes 4, 5, and 6 (and not so much from 1,2, and 3!)~ Why humor is important to Star Wars~ Writing characters and NPCs that people care about~ Why the Sith aren’t completely evil~ How does one write for players who like to be smartasses?~ Where do the stories go, now that players have leveled to 50?~ Why plot twists are essential to the Star Wars universe~ Can great villains (or heroes) truly die, or can they re-appear? Give it a listen and check it out for yourself. It’s definitely worth it and…
GamesCom 2012: Interview with Gabe Amatangelo
During the first day of GamesCom, DarthHater had the opportunity to get a quick interview with BioWare’s Gabe Amatangelo. Since it was short, they focused on some of the key areas that BioWare has presented at the event – Ancient Hypergates Warzone, future Operation content, and more. It’s a fun interview and I always like hearing from Gabe. The DH crew know how to ask just the right questions, even when pushed for time and they know how to try to dig up those little pieces of information we don’t already have (whenever an interview subject is willing to give it). Here is a snippet of that interview: First of all, you’re showing Ancient Hypergates at GamesCom right? Gabe Amatangelo: Correct. Yes. It’s the first time for many of the fans seeing it so it’s somewhat of a mystery. Give us the general idea of the Warzone and its gametype if…
Peter Moore Gives BioWare Vote of Confidence
BioWare has had a challenging year of ups and downs. There has been a lot of criticism of BioWare after the launch of Star Wars: The old Republic. In fact, the last 18 months have been rocky for BioWare. First, there was the disappointing release of Dragon Age 2 and then SWTOR did not perform as well as predicted and finally, there was the drama over the ending of Mass Effect 3. So it’s safe to say this has been a challenging year to year and a half for BioWare. However, this doesn’t mean the company has sunk. They are still a leader in the industry and Peter Moore, EA COO, has a lot of confidence in the future of BioWare. Eurogamer reports: BioWare has called on player feedback as it creates Dragon Age 3, released free downloadable content to add context to the divisive Mass Effect 3 ending, and…
Jeff Hickman Interview from GamesCom
During the biggest gaming event in Europe, GamesCom gaming convention in Cologne, Germany, SWTOR Life had the opportunity to interview Jeff Hickman and ask some questions about the game. Mr. Jeff Hickman, the new Executive Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic sat and answered some interesting questions. You can see the video here: And here are some highlights of the interview from SWTOR Life. Introduction of Mr. Jeff Hickamn and his previous work as well as his tasks in the future His thoughts and plans on how to make the Free to Play model a reality When will Free to Play launch? Correlation between announced content (new warzone, raid etc.) and launch of Free to Play Once Free to Play goes live, will subscribers ever have to pay for anything (like a big expansion/content pack)? Will Makeb increase the level cap? How do you introduce a cash shop into a…
Gamescom 2012: Interview with Matthew Broomberg
German Gaming site gamesaktuell.de has an interesting interview with Matthew Broomberg General Manager at BioWare Austin. Here is the highlights: First answer to question some people love it, some people hate it, what do you think of F2P… answer, read straight from the PR briefing “It brings new players, I don’t think that’s a bad thing””. Fluff…. 3:05 “F2P is not as big a deal as people make it” A lot of people make too much of the business model change. Question “no free-to-play did it withing 9-11 months”. answer “you should be innovative and aggresive”. “the game is lightyears on from where it was at launch.” They want to bring players “back”“. Some waffle about Warhammer Online. ~6:00 “pay-to-win”? “We would never want to do anything to harm the game, obviously” “vanity, convenience, that’s easy” “save time, new players, speed up levelling” “that’s a long way-a-way form play-to-win, we would never do…
SWTOR- What Does F2P Mean?
Everyone is talking about SWTOR going free to play. It seems everyone has a theory and an opinion on the topic and whether or not it’s a good thing for BioWare/EA. The big question seems to be whether or not the F2P model is chosen because SWTOR flopped on release or just because it makes more sense and is better for the current economic market in the world today. MMORPG.com had a few words from Richard Aihoshi on the topic. In addition to this, they did a poll with some other experts in the field: Hendrik Klindworth is the Founder and Managing Director of InnoGames (Forge of Empires, Grepolis et al) Jay Choi is the Chief Operations Officer at Gravity Interactive(Ragnarok Online, Dragon Saga et al) Jungsoo Lee is the Vice President of Live Development atSG Interactive (formerly Ntreev; Pangya Golf, Trickster Online et al) Flaviio Daneil Caracasis the Chief Marketing Officer at Rock Hippo Productions (Brawl Busters, MicroVolts) Here…