This is a spinoff of the story we just recently brought you from Gamasutra but it goes back to the original source, Damion Schubert and what he has to say about SWTOR and story as a mechanic in the game. It’s definitely a different approach than other MMOs have taken at the game mechanic and we know how important BioWare places their storyline so if anyone could pull it off, we suspect it would be them. However, I bet no one knew exactly how hard it would be to pull it off and to sell it to the gamers. At the Game Developer’s Conference right here in Austin, Schubert talked about this challenge in more detail. Massively had a nice story covering what Schubert says at the conference and their own take on it. Massively reports: At the Game Developers Conference in Austin, Texas, this week, Schubert spent an hour explaining the…
TOR TV: My Sith is a Jerk #9
TheDrunkAndThePwned is back with a new installment of “My Sith is a Jerk”. As always they are funny as hell. I’m pretty sure my next alt will be a sith inquisitor – because damn! they got some funny one liners. It’s also nice to see how the production quality from TheDrunkAndThePwned is improving. Anyways, check out the video below and learn to deal…
Are UI Mods Killing MMORPGS?
In the world of MMORPGs, there are many tools designed to help us advance in the game more quickly and enjoy the game more. Mods and addons allow us to do this and often take on a life of their own with the many things they allow you to do in the game. UI mods are especially popular, changing the look of the user interface and allowing you to personalize your game like never before. I have been playing WoW since beta and long before the days of mods that currently rule the game. GameSpy has a really interesting piece about World of Warcraft mods and how they are affecting the game which has me thinking about how they affect MMORPGs in general and how we see them. Have we become dependent on these addons to enjoy our games fully? While I’ve been one to enjoy my fair share of…
SWG Emulator- Check it Out!
Are you a Star Wars Galaxies fan who was sad to see the game go? Well, you’re not alone- which you probably know already- and there are actually many communities devoted to doing more with the game and making it live on in more than just our memories. If you want to learn more, just head on over to their website where they explain what they are all about: SWGEmu is an acronym/abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies Emulator. Star Wars Galaxies is a massively multi-player online role playing game introduced by Sony Online Entertainment in the year 2003. It is the game this project focuses to recreate at a specific milestone referred to as Pre-CU, or Pre-Combat Upgrade. The Combat Upgrade was a set of game changes which radically changed the game-play, to the dislike of thousands of players. These changes led to the founding of this project, in an attempt to “recreate”…
Game Update 1.5 on PTS!
Game Update 1.5 is now live on the public test servers. This is the one were we get our new playable companion: HK-51! This means BioWare really will be delivering new content every 6 weeks – nice to finally see them delivering on that promise!! below is the press release from BioWare, and below that is data dump of the new patch. It looks like HK-51 will be a ranged tank or dps from the new cybertech schematics data mined. Game Update 1.5 is Now Live on PTS! Game Update 1.5 is now live on our Public Test Server! For those of you that already have high level, copied characters on our Public Test Server, we encourage you to explore Sector X, Nightmare Explosive Conflict, and the other new features on the Public Test Server right now. Get on, check everything out, and give us your feedback by posting on the Public Test Server forum. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to…
Whiners Need to Quit Playing Video Games! Says Pachter
We’ve talked about Michael Pachter here before (many times) and one thing we know about the Pach man is that he does not hold back. He’s passionate about the video game industry and for several years now, GameTrailers has played host to Pach Attack, a weekly, 7-minute Q&A segment featuring games industry analyst Michael Pachter as he answers related questions submitted by viewers. But what he said in this week’s episode, hosted on Saturday, might strike a chord with some gamers. He talks about the closure of Pandemic and the departure of BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and says: “”I think that we’ve seen a lot of nasty stuff lately,” he said. “I think that the whining about the ending of Mass Effect 3 really very much could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for the doctors. I mean, if you look back at the BioWare…
Ask Mr. Robot Character Profile and Combat Logs are updated for 1.4!
If you’ve been waiting on an update from Ask Mr. Robot, it’s here now. Ask Mr. Robot Character Profile and Combat Logs are updated for 1.4! So now you can insure that you are getting the right gear for your toon and taking your gear in the proper direction. Newly updated for 1.4 so you can stay up to date on your characters, use their character build, browse the armory or even use the SWTOR skill calculator to plan your character or see that you are making the right choices in your character. Ask Mr. Robot is a fantastic tool to have in your SWTOR toolbox. Their team works very hard to stay up to date and give you what you need, when you need it. Mr. Robot’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Tools: Character Builder Build your SWTOR character! Includes gear, companions, skills, crew skills, guild, server, and more….
SWTOR’s Complex Challenge: From Gamasutra
“BioWare’s Damion Schubert is a systems designer, not a writer. Yet he ended up dealing with those elements anyway, as the first designer with MMO experience on a team of traditional BioWare writers. His job was to tell them what elements of an MMO need to be considered in the story design process.” This is from an intro to a story from Gamasutra about SWTOR and the challenges they have had to face with the game. They talk about the complex challenge that SWTOR faced- BioWare story in an MMO world. One thing that I love so much about Gamasutra is the quality in which they can make a point. Some will say that SWTOR failed, although there are still many hardcore fans who stand by the game. There are others who believe it failed on a subscription model but is going to do just fine as f2p. But when…
BioWare Wins four out of its six nominations for Star Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare won 4 out of six nominations for Star Wars: The Old Republic at this years Game Developers Choice Online Awards. This is the third annual award ceremony, and the awards spanned from live services, technology, game updates, online game design,” etc etc etc. After all the votes was counted, BioWare took home four out of its six nominations for SWTOR: BEST NEW ONLINE GAME Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin) BEST ONLINE TECHNOLOGY Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin) BEST ONLINE VISUAL ARTS Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin) BEST ONLINE GAME DESIGN Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin) I guess we can finally stop the debate about what the best online game – ever – is 😉
Developer Spotlight: Jesse Sky
BioWare just started a new series of developer blogs called Developer Spotlight. The idea is to interview members of the SWTOR development team letting the playerbase getting to know the faces behind the game. In this first interview, BioWare interviews Jesse Sky, Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer. Here’s a snip: What specifically attracts you about Flashpoints and Operation design? Flashpoint design is a lot like running a tabletop roleplaying game with a massive audience. You get to explore a lot of different kinds of storytelling that aren’t really feasible outside of a video game. I’ve always felt that our Flashpoints and Operations were aided by the fact that you have a very personal story. You actually form a bond with your character, and then you take him on these really wild and dangerous adventures. Every time my Dark Jedi pairs up with a bunch of do-gooders for a Flashpoint, I cackle when I win the…
NY Comic Con Starts TOMORROW!
Just your friendly neighborhood reminder that NY Comic Con officially kicks off tomorrow! If you are near, remember to stop by the Star Wars: The old republic Community Cantina Tour at Houndstooth Pub Address: 520 8th Avenue New York, NY 10018. We won’t be going unfortunately, but we would love to see your pictures, so so please upload them to our facebook page if you are going. Of course there will be plenty of Star Wars represented at the 4-day con. If you are planning to go to the con, here is your guide to things related to The Galaxy Far Far Away. Celebrities Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in the films) will be at the convention on Friday thru Sunday. She will be doing autographs, photo ops and will even be moderating a panel. Autographing Friday, October 12th 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM, Hall 1B Saturday, October 13th 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Hall 1B Sunday, October 14th 12:00…
TOR TV: Terror from Beyond is a beautiful operation
Youtube user heltidsluffare created this short film of his very first run in Terror from Beyond. As he mention in the title of the movie, Terror from Beyond is a beautiful operation- and so I agree. Personally I thought it was like a breath of fresh air loading in for the first time. It really had that big open feel that I was hoping more of the planets/zones would have. I also think this has been my least buggy experience with an operation to be honest. My ops group have not hit a single bug that stopped our progress… The only one I’ve seen at all is when the adds on the first boss don’t despawn after a wipe, but we were able to kill them without triggering the boss, so no worries really.
SWTOR Unleashed – RamDisk Game Launcher with Massive Performance Increase
What if there was a way to play SWTOR without using up all of your computer resources? What if you could play from a RamDisk and have better performance and faster response? Well… now there is a way and it’s not a hack. It’s BioWare approved. It’s actually really cool to see players getting into a game and finding new and better ways to enjoy it or enjoy it better and of course, sharing that with the community is greatly appreciated as well. Learn more from this post: Approved By BioWare A program to automate the setup and removal process to use this game (SWTOR) with a ramdisk. This includes creating a ramdrive, copying file and creating the needed links. You as user can select what files you want to have on the ramdrive, depending on your needs and maximal available ram. Please click the link below for details about…
SWTOR 1.4.1 Patch Notes 10/9/2012
Servers are back up after this weeks scheduled maintenance. They did fix alot more things that I thought they would this time. Crew missions are back to full yields, but Bounty hunters are still dealing with random Unload/buff/4pce issues. Check out the full patch notes below: Classes and Combat Jedi Consular Shadow Kinetic Combat Stasis no longer prevents Force Lift from breaking on damage and making its target take less damage. Sith Inquisitor Assassin Darkness Eye of the Storm no longer prevents Whirlwind from breaking on damage and making its target take less damage. Companion Characters General Companions now respect “hide helmet” settings in cinematics and when speaking. Companions Xalek The “Unify Color” option now works with Xalek’s Pants in combination with Neophyte Robe. Crew Skills General Crew Skill Missions now return the correct (higher) amount of materials. Players can no longer consume schematics that they already know. Flashpoints and Operations Flashpoints…
SWTOR Political and Moral Survey by the National Science Foundation
Have you ever wondered where politics come into play in SWTOR? Most Star Wars fans are aware of political and moral undertones in the series which then transcend into all versions and variations of the original story- SWTOR included. But here is a very interesting survey by the National Science Foundation that will shed some more light onto the issues of politics and morals in SWTOR. From New World Notes: Click here if you play Star Wars: The Old Republic to take a short and fascinating (in my biased* opinion) survey on the MMO’s political and moral choices, and how they relate (if at all) to your real life values. It’s for a report funded by a US government grant from the National Science Foundation which seeks to explore ways in which MMOs “provide experiences of meaningful accomplishment and how this engagement may portend the social use of digital technology for mass persuasion and…
Star Wars Angry Birds Revealed
There have been a lot of rumors going around for a few weeks now about Star Wars Angry Birds but now they’re finally here with some official info and even some pictures. We’re finding details around the Web about the new Angry Birds line of products from Hasbro and Rovio featuring a Star Wars theme. Some of the items include: Star Wars Angry Birds Jenga Death Star – This one is supposed to have an exclusive Chewbacca figure! Star Wars Angry Birds At-At Attack Battle Game – Not much more to say about this other than it looks awesome. It looks like a Lightsaber bird launcher and an At-At with holes for pigs to hide in and a platform to build your collapsible construction. It comes with 12 figures: Birds featuring an X-Wing Pilot, Han Solo, Hoth Rebel, and exclusive Luke Hoth Rebel, and Pigs featuring Darth Piggy (not his name but…
TOR TV: SWTOR NEWS Episode 24
Here is Episode 23 of SWTOR News by ashermoore. All news in this video is from the week starting September 16th 2012. We will start featuring ashermoore swtor news once a weeks as they give a pretty good round up of what it’s going on. Hope you will enjoy it as much as we do:
Alexander Freed Leaves BioWare
And now another BioWare staff member bites the dust… Alexander Freed (my favorite BioWare writer) as officially announced on his Twitter (yes, he’s on Twitter now) feed that he is leaving BioWare and joining me in the ranks of freelance writers. It’s kind of a bittersweet announcement, really. While I love freelancing and I encourage other writers to do the same and explore the freedom of being able to work on different projects at once, try new things and do what you want, instead of what you are contracted to do. So as a friend, I’m really happy for Alex. He’s incredibly talented and I believe he’s going to love the opportunities that come his way now that he is not on BioWare’s payroll anymore. Big news! As of today, I’m departing BioWare to go freelance. It’s been a wonderful six years, but time to move on. More next tweet….
Leaked Details of New SWTOR Content: World Boss, Daily Area, Space Missions, Pets, Mounts
With the number of subs on the decline, it’s not unusual at all to see a game company allow some leaks in order to get more people interested or back in the game. There is some new and upcoming content to SWTOR, a great deal of which includes new minipets and space missions. We cannot be sure, however, just when this new content is coming. It could be in the next game update or in several game updates, spread out over a period of time. Just because the game is showing files for some of this content does not mean that all of it will be coming out at one time. There is a thread on the community forums that has compiled all of the known upcoming content in one area to make it easier to see all that is coming. Here’s a snippet from that thread: NEW DAILY AREA:…
Be a Gamer Wife; Not a Gamer Widow
A common problem amongst many who game (especially MMORPGs) is “wife agro” or that the spouse/girlfriend of the gamer doesn’t like them playing or how much time they spend gaming. As a wife and gamer myself, I was lucky enough to be married to a person who has also loved gaming since childhood but a common problem we see with friends and family (and co-guildies) is that when only one is a gamer, the other often feels left out. They actually have support groups for this sort of thing; “WoW widows” for those who feel they have lost their husbands to World of Warcraft and even SWTOR has some hate threads on the Internet from disgruntled women who feel they have lost their men to the game. But one blog post I stumbled across was a little different. This wife talks about how she worked through the struggles with her…
Rich Vogel to Head New Austin Studio
Bethesda Softworks has announced the formation of a new studio in Austin, Texas. Called “Battlecry Studios“, the development team will be headed by ex-BioWare/SWTOR veteran Rich Vogel. – via MMORGP.com. Right now they are working on an unannounced project but it should be very interesting to see what they come up with. Vogel has a long history in the video game industry and recently works as executive producer of development of SWTOR for BioWare. He also worked on Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies as well as other online and console titles during his 20+ years in game development. I’m really interested in seeing what he will do with Battlecry Studios and what kind of projects they will put out. It could also be a good thing for the gaming industry since The new Austin studio announced they are currently hiring other experienced game developers to fill key roles for this upcoming and unannounced project….
New Star Wars Game: First Assault Coming to XBLA?
There could be a new Star Wars game on the way and while it has not been officially released yet, there is some info going around the gaming communities about it. The mysterious LucasArts project that has had rumors flying for some time, appears to be an Xbox LIVE Arcade title. Back in August, it was discovered that LucasFilm had purchased a series of domain names related to something with Star Wars and this unknown title. Now, according to a listing on Xbox.com, via NeoGAF, Star Wars First Assault will be an XBLA game but it has not been officially confirmed by LucasArts yet. GameSpot provides some more information: A new Star Wars game is headed to Xbox Live Arcade, according to an eagle-eyed NeoGAF forum user. The game has not yet been announced by LucasArts, but it is not entirely a mystery. In August, the company filed a trademark application for Star Wars: First Assault for…
Companions 101: Kaliyo Djannis, featuring Alex Freed
Every secret agent needs a femme fatale, right? Well, the Imperial Agent gets Kaliyo- an interesting and compelling companion in many ways. For the first installment of their new Companions 101 blog, BioWare gives us more insight into this companion, her background and what she’s all about. Please Note: This blog contains spoilers for the Imperial Agent class story. Lead Writer, Alexander Freed (a really awesome guy, by the way), drops in to share some more info about Kaliyo and why she leaves her life on Hutta and joins Imperial intelligence: “When Kaliyo first joins up with the Imperial Agent, she sees two possibilities. Either the Agent is a mark–someone whose coattails she can ride, someone who’s going to diligently follow orders while Kaliyo plays him (or her) for every credit he’s worth–or the Agent really is as clever, confident and manipulative as he lets on. In the former case, the Agent is…
Confirmed – Daniel Erickson leaving BioWare
A few weeks ago we wrote the story that Daniel Erickson was “Actively looking for new opportunities” . Today Mr. Erickson confirms this rumor via twitter as he has started his new twitter account for job hunting and design thoughts. Back in early September, we saw via Erickson’s LinkedIn profile that he was looking for new opportunities. We speculated about what this might mean but warned against jumping to conclusions and thinking this meant he was leaving BioWare. However, with so many BioWare Austin staff members making their exits, it wouldn’t be a big surprise. Well, now we stumbled across this Tweet and this new Twitter account from Daniel Erickson and it’s clear that he has officially left BioWare and is on the job hunt. So he has known for at very least, the month of September that he was leaving or was already gone. So now that we do know it…