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…
interview
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…
‘Oh Lisa’ Interviews Cory Butler at NYCC
Here is a slightly different view from some of the other stuff we covered on NYCC and if you have not seen it yet, it’s worth the four minutes to watch it. ‘Oh Lisa’ Interviews Cory Butler at NYCC Lisa Oh! Actor, host and voiceover artist brings us a fun interview with Cory Butler (Bioware producer) from NYCC and in addition, some interesting and fun feedback on her website about her experience at NYCC and her dive into the world of MMOs with SWTOR. Cute girl- first MMO – fun interview- and apparently she’s going to blog/vlog her path from “MMO Newb to Competent Gamer”, sounds good to me! Lisa says she’s never played an MMORPG before and that she’s excited SWTOR will be her first. She writes: “As part of my jedi training, I went to New York Comic Con to play the beta version of TOR, listen to…
Interview: Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid
Kay White had the privilege of interviewing Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic at NYCC and allowed TORWars to print the story. I love Erickson and the fun and humor he brings to every interview or chat about SWTOR so I was definitely interested in giving this one a read. On Saturday at New York Comic Con, in between some hours of being shoulder-bumped by geek-crazed New Yorkers, I got to enjoy some minutes with Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mr. Erickson, with grace and animated humor, gave out details of the writing process, resolving questions that have gnawed at me since I played my first BioWare game, Dragon Age: Origins. He also discussed content balance, titles, voice actor availability, character surnames, and a skinny little bit about slave bikinis. You will need to head on over to TORWars…
BioWare Talks Future of RPGs and Narrative Maturation
What does the future hold for Bioware? They have made a name for themselves in the world of RPGs with titles like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars. What might the future hold for them and the genre? The game environments are changing dramatically and companies that want to keep up will need to be able to move with the progression. Can BioWare continue their trend of successful RPGs? In speaking to Sarcastic Gamer during the Eurogamer 2011 Expo, BioWare boss Ray Muzyka said they intend to “broaden the genre.” These days, there are different approaches to take and more options available. “The vision for us is a broadening of the genre. We see a lot of other genres incorporating features of RPGs and in turn RPGs are incorporating features of other genres. There are more action elements, there’s different ways to tell a story, there’s different ways to…
Daniel Erickson interview with a French fan site
The French guild Chimaera uploaded a video with Daniel Erickson from his French community visit last week. Here’s the recap for you: Daniel Erickson walked onto the stage with two Storm Troopers (fun!) to talk about Star Wars the Old Republic. He started by listing off many achievements they have reached with this game including one of the Guinness Book of World Records for “Biggest Voiceover Production” in entertainment history. With accomplishments like that, there’s no wonder why so many fans are amped up for this game’s release in December. The release date for Europe is December 22, 2011. Erickson was quoted as saying “The biggest story RPG in history”, which gives me a lot of hope for the depth of the lore that we will find when we boot up our computers and run Star Wars: The Old Republic for the first time, and hopefully every time thereafter. In…
BioWare Founders say “We make the decisions, not EA”
Many fans are critical of BioWare when it comes to certain inadequacies that blame on Electronic Arts. But the founders have a stern message for those doubters- they are still calling the shots on the games they make. “I always chuckle because we are EA, we’re BioWare — we’re both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do,” co-founder Greg Zeschuk recently told Eurogamer. BioWare founders say they make the decisions, not parent company, EA. They appear passionate about the fact that they still have a direct hand in the games that they are creating. There are some things that have changed, however. “Way, way back, years ago, we didn’t even consider those [commercial elements], we just made stuff,” Zeschuk explains. Point well taken. Back then, the commercial elements also did not matter so much. Video games were not such big business. The market was smaller…
BioWare: ‘We have an aggressive post-launch plan’
SWTOR fans have been asking “When will the game finally launch?” and now that this massive question has finally been answered, we see new questions creeping up in the minds of players everywhere. One thing that players want to know is what is going to happen post-launch. We already know how much is being put into launching a fantastic game but is it going to last? What happens next? How many other MMOs have we seen launch successfully but fall short post-launch? In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk discussed their plans for the future of SWTOR and they definitely have a post-launch plan. “””We have a really aggressive plan post launch to build content and take the feedback to heart that we’re getting from players and what they want for continued expansions, and use that feedback to build new content,” Muzyka promised. The…
Interview with Chris Collins
The guys over at www.swtor-europe.com did an interview with Chris Collins about European Community during Eurogamer Expo. It’s great to see some info other then the release date coming out of the Eurogamer Expo, but I guess Chris Collins don’t have much experience doing interviews, or he just weren’t allowed to give out any new information. With blessings from www.swtor-europe.com we are posting the full interview below, but joine the discussion on the article right here! Hi Chris, thanks for taking some time to talk to us, I know it’s very busy here today. No problem, good to hear from stwor-europe, I like the site. Now firstly I’d like to kick off with some questions that specifically concern the European fanbase, one of which is whether the Red Zone territories will have access to the game, or if they will be IP blocked. Any official word on this? So, if you check on the FAQ, anything official is held within that. I…
Totalbiscuit interviews Daniel Erickson
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.
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: