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?…
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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…
BioWare’s James Ohlen on SWTOR’s launch and beyond
ZAM Editor-in-Chief Chris “Pwyff” Tom spoke to SWTOR Game Director James Ohlen about launch day preparations, legacy system updates, SWTOR’s short-term development plans, and much more and they have brought us this fun interview so we all can share in the news and excitement. We’re getting closer to the days of Early Game Access, many of us are looking for ways to contain our excitement and find something to occupy us until we get in the game for ourselves. Interviews like this are one way to do that and it won’t be long now until we can say “see you in game!” ZAM asked James Ohlen if he was nervous about the big launch day. His reply? Not at all! It’s been six years of working on MMORPGs down here in Austin, so it’s been a big part of my life. Biggest I’ve ever worked on! SWTOR is definitely BioWare’s…
IGN’s SWTOR Interview: Bioware Spills about Star Wars MMO
Starting today, those who preordered BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic will be rolled into in the live game before the official launch date of December 20. The time has officially come. There will be no more beta testing, no more character wipes and no more waiting. We are down to the wire and it’s nearly time to being playing. With that said, it begs the question “What has Bioware learned from this experience?” In this exclusive interview with IGN, Bioware’s James Ohlen talks SWTOR, lessons learned, future changes in SWTOR and more. The interview is over 2,000 words long but well worth the read (or at very least a skim over the questions that interest you most). Here’s a snippet from the start of the interview: GN: During beta, which are some of the elements that changed the most and in ways you didn’t expect? I mean I saw…
MMORPG Dallas Dickinson Interview
MMORPG has an interesting interview with Dallas Dickinson for your enjoyment as you count down the days to SWTOR launch- coming oh so soon! This interview with Dallas Dickinson features post launch content, server announcements, empire/republic player ratio and more. Here is an interview snippet: MMORPG.com:Let’s kick things off by talking a bit about Game Testing. The last few weekend tests have seen a huge amount of players hitting the servers. What can you tell us about what you’ve learned from having so many users hitting your service? Were there any surprises or revelations in terms of what the service will be able to handle? Dallas Dickinson:There were actually, there were mostly positive surprises. There were way fewer surprises than we were bracing for. The servers actually did really, really well. Those who participated in the testing found the experience was relatively smooth. I think, the first night, we had…
Actress Adrienne Wilkinson discusses working on SWTOR (and Force Unleashed!)
Even if you don’t know her by name, you’ve probably heard Adrienne Wilkinson in game. She has been doing vocal performances since 2003 in games like “Command and Conquer 3”, “Star Wars The Force Unleashed” and “Saints Row 2”. She’s done some amazing work in the past and continues to make quite an impression in the gaming world as she takes on the voice of several characters in SWTOR. Pop-Gamer brings us an awesome interview with Adrienne Wilkinson about her acting experience in SWTOR as well as Force Unleashed! Here’s a snippet: PG: It certainly showed! Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out this month. How do you feel about being part of what many are saying is possibly the next World of Warcraft?’ AW: I’m thrilled to be part of the project. The enthusiasm the Star Wars fandom is already showing The Old Republic is quite prolific –…
Star Wars Books Interviews Drew Karpyshyn
As we celebrate the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan today, Star Wars Books, has released an interview with author Drew Karpyshyn. In the interview, Drew Karpyshyn Talks about every thing from his work on the Mass Effect series, new Darth Bane stories plus goodies about the new SWTOR Book we talked about a few weeks ago. Can you reveal anything about next TOR novel you’re writing, currently set for a Fall 2012 release? I can’t really say anything right now, other than that it will take place after the events of the game. One of the criticisms of The Old Republic, based on the cinematic trailers we’ve seen, is that the technology is too similar to that of the Original Trilogy. What do you think about that? Should the technology used 4,000 years before A New Hope be extremely primitive compared to what we see in Episode…
Republic Trooper interviews Georg Zoeller about Trooper Combat
If you want to learn more about the Trooper in SWTOR, the guys over at Republic Trooper have hooked you up. They have an exclusive interview with Georg Zoeller about Trooper combat and other class aspects and they are kind enough to share it with the rest of the Trooper fans out there. They’ve asked him some great questions and really know how to get to the root of what the players want to know and they have some brand new Trooper intel you haven’t likely seen anywhere else. It’s more than 1,00 words of communication with Zoeller. Some samples of the questions the Republic Trooper guys ask in their interview: What were some of the challenges of developing ranged tanking for the Vanguard Advanced Class? We’ve spoken with some large guilds that are intending on running exclusively with Troopers. How viable would it be to attempt Flashpoints and Operations…
Sith Inquirer Interview with Daniel Erickson
Don’t you wish you could learn more about the Sith Inquisitor? Would if you could have a behind-the-scenes interview with the lead writer and ask them whatever you wanted about the class? That’s exactly what our friends over at Sith Inquirer did and they’re sharing it with us. While they originally wrote David Bass to ask some questions about the Sith Inquisitor, it was Daniel Erickson who actually gave the answers in the form of an exclusive interview with the site. Some of the questions they ask: Where did you start when thinking about what you wanted the Sith Inquisitor story to be like? What stories were your inspirations? Do any main characters tie into our own story? People like Darth Malgus, Baras and Angral from the comics and Deceived novel, Darth Jadus, or anyone else of note? Describe some of the companions, if possible? We know of Khem Val and Xalek…