In a fascinating 2,500 word interview, James Ohlen tells Games Industry all about SWTOR fans, the subscriptions and free to play to level 15. We’ve seen interviews with James before but this one is really a lot of fun. It comes across like two pals chatting and you’re really learn a lot more about James and SWTOR from this interview. Here is a snippet from the very thorough interview: Q: You’ve worked on so many epic, single-player games for Bioware where you’ve had almost free reign to produce entire worlds – switching to an MMO in one of the best known universes out there must have been a huge change, and a huge challenge. James Ohlen: Well the great thing is that I had experience of working in the Star Wars universe before, when I worked on the Old Republic. So I’ve had worked in the Old Republic era too. I…
The Guild Sphere: Alpha Strike Force
It’s been a while since our last Guild feature, but I hope we can start it up again. Get in contact with us if you are interested in getting featured on our website. We have interviews all kinds of guilds in the pasts, big and small, so don’t hesitate to contact us. Today Elrike the guildmaster of – Alpha Strike Force on the Jedi Covenant Server sat in the hot chair answering all our questions. Enjoy! Where did your guilds name come from? The guild was named Alpha Strike Force by our founder, ASF Zebra a retired NASA engineer and military veteran with tours of duty in Vietnam and Afghanistan. The selection of the name was influenced by his extensive military experience since an Alpha Strike Force represents an elite military unit. The name also fits well with the Star Wars mythos since Strike Force Alpha was an Imperial brigade during the Krantian Civil War.. Can you give me…
The LEGO SWTOR Sets are Now Available in the US
If you’re a fan of LEGO or Star Wars collectibles, you might already know about the Star Wars LEGO sets. We have several in our home and now, LEGO has released their newest two LEGO SWTOR and summer series sets. While Toys R Us is also carrying them, Amazon is the clear choice of where to get them because they have all the set in stock for retail price, no tax to most states and free shipping on orders above $25. My kids are huge LEGO fans and Star Wars fans so I’m thinking we’ll have to save up for sets for them and for us. These will make a fantastic collector’s piece. LEGO Star Wars 9500 Sith Fury-class Interceptor LEGO Star Wars 9497 Republic Striker-class Starfighter Amazon has both building sets and planet sets as follows in their summer collections. Building Sets: Desert Skiff (reg.$24.99) Saesee Tinn’s Starfighter (reg.$29.99) Republic…
SWTOR on Sale until the 10th- Great Time to Join!
If you’ve been thinking about finally joining SWTOR or maybe you want a second account or an account for a friend or family member, then there is no better time than now. There are great new additions to the game, free to play up to level 15, server transfers to increase server population and so much more. And now, for a limited time only, you don’t even have to pay full price for your copy. SWTOR on Gamestop on Sale If anyone was thinking about jumping in, Star Wars: The Old Republic is $19.99 at GameStop until the 10th. SWTOR on Amazon on Sale And if you prefer to make your purchases from Amazon, it’s also $19.99 on Amazon currently but it doesn’t say how long it will stay at that price so buy it now while you can. Remember Free to play up to level 15 starting the 10th of…
The Old Republic is Coming to Comic-Con!
Yesterday Lisa wrote about Course of the Force, an Olympic torch style relay run with lightsabers, where participants will make a journey from Santa Monica to San Diego while benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The vent is leading up to San Diego Comic Con that starts later this week. BioWare is co sponsors of this event,. and will also be at Comic-Con, having a few events. Check out the press release below: ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- San Diego Comic-Con, the single largest pop culture event in North America, is only a week away! With hundreds of thousands of passionate comic book, movie, and video game fans converging on the San Diego Convention Center, BioWare and LucasArts will be there to represent Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ in a big way! Throughout the four-day show, attendees will be able to come by the Star Wars: The Old Republic booth located inside the Star Wars™ Pavilion (booth #2913). Throughout…
Course of the Force with Video ‘Nerdist’s Journey’
Lucasfilm Ltd., Nerdist Industries and Octagon have teamed up to present Course of the Force, an Olympic torch style relay run with lightsabers, where participants will make a journey from Santa Monica to San Diego while benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Here’s a fun event for a very good cause. In the days leading up to San Diego Comic Con, the official Course of the Force will take place. On July 7, Course of the Force will kick off with an event at the Santa Monica Pier at 10:00 a.m. The relay will start later in the day and end at Redondo Beach. As the Course makes its stops along the iconic California coast, Star Wars™-themed parties, contests and live Nerdist shows will cap off each day for fans to enjoy. There will also be ways for fans to take part in this history relay event with special sponsor promotions. July 7, 8 and…
Comunity Q&A July 6th
This week’s Community Q&A is now live and the BioWare Devs discuss New Playable Species, story, Fixes to PVP, and some other stuff (Blizz buff incoming, Yay!). This is one of the shortest Q&A’s so far, but it is definitely still worth a read. Check out out: CelCawdro: If Cathar are successful, what kinds of species can we expect to see? May we see anything beyond the current selection of near-humans? What is the process behind selecting new species and gauging community interest? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): We’d like to open the selection of future species to the community as a whole with clear positives and negatives provided for each selection. That way we can go a bit further afield in our species selection. Lurtzello: Are the various stories ordered? Meaning, when does the storyline of each Republic planet takes place compared to the Imperial storyline and the storylines of the…
Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Podcast Episode Two
The official podcast for Star Wars: The old republic is now live! This time the hosts Eric Musco and Brooks Guthrie interviews Jesse Sky, George Smith and William Wallace. about Flashpoints, Operations and other future content along with game update 1.3. Hte podcast also includes discussion on future content coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic, such as upcoming Nightmare Mode for Explosive Conflict and the future Operation Terror from Beyond You can listen to the full 25 min podcast here, along with the full transcript of the discussion. Posted by: Eric Musco Hello everyone! My name is Eric Musco and I, along with Brooks Guthrie are happy to bring you episode two of the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ podcast, “Nightmare Mode”. You can listen by using the embedded player, by downloading and listening on your preferred MP3 player, by subscribing and listening on iTunes or check it out on…
Play free to level 15 coming July 10th
SWTOR’s Facebook page updated their timeline cover photo to this today. No statements form the official website yet, but below image speaks for it self: We will update this post as we learn more.
Get off the dead servers and have a cookie!
BioWare just announced that they will be giving away goodies to people who transfers to the new destination servers ( super servers) by July 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM CDT. “”hundreds of thousands of players have already taken advantage” of this service, so if you feel lik,e you are alone in the world, get your finger out, and do the transfer now! All characters that transfers to a qualifying server (including all destination servers), get’s a Gannifari pet as well as 25 Black Hole Commendations that you can use to to buy high-end gear, so what are you waiting for? You can find a full listing as well as further promotional details on the official SWTOR website, or read our enormes copy paste from the official website below: ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Earn Rewards for Free Character Transfers The response to the Free Character Transfer Service so far has been fantastic. Hundreds of thousands of players have already…
EU now Allows the Sale and Purchase of SWTOR Accounts
Is it legal to sell your SWTOR account if you are no longer playing it? If you live in Europe, it will be. A European court has now deemed it legal to resale the rights to used software licenses, no matter how or where they were obtained. This includes video games like SWTOR. “A European court has ruled that it’s permissible to resell software licenses even if the package has been downloaded directly from the Internet. It sided with a German firm in its legal battle with US giant Oracle.” Basically this means that you can buy and sell your SWTOR account as you please in Europe. But what does this mean for items or credits? That we are not sure on yet. The article explains: “The ruling made it clear that trade in used software was permissible even if the software had not been shipped on a physical medium…
Happy 4th July
Wishing all our Readers and friends in the USA a very happy and safe July 4th.. Here is a bunch of E-cards from StarWars.com and the video below is the Mustafar Squad of Alpine Garrison from the 501st Legion of Imperial Stormtroopers, with a selection of Idaho Members of the Rebel Legion, in the 2005 4th of July Parade in Idaho Falls Idaho.
How to call BioWare customer service for free
At some point you might need to get in contact with the BioWare customer service. You might have forgotten you security answer ( like me) or something ells. If you don’t want to call the customer service in the states or in Ireland becourse it might cost you some money, here is a trick. You can use skype without buying credits and call any toll free number, and that includes swtor’s CS. All you have to do is add a contact and type the number in the phone number area Here are the numbers if you need them: USA, Canada: 1-855-GO-SWTOR (1-855-467-9867) UK, Germany, France: 00800 0246 9273 (008000 BIOWARE) Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore: +800 0246 9273 (+8000 BIOWARE) For calls originating from countries not listed above, please call the following number: +442035642555 * using a landline or mobile phone, or 1-855-GO-SWTOR (1-855-467-9867) using your VoIP service (such as…
The Official SW.com Blog Returns
It’s baaaaccck! The Official Star Wars blog tells us: “It’s been just about two months since we put this blog on hiatus to update its design and develop a new approach to content. It took a bit longer than we had hoped, but we’re glad to say that starting today, we’re back… with a few exciting changes.” I know a lot of fans have been waiting a long time to hear this. So what kind of changes can you expect to encounter now that it’s back? Here are some changes: Supervising Director Dave Filoni will be sharing insights and stories from behind-the-scenes of The Clone Wars, along with other cast and crew. We’re going to open up the Lucasfilm archives, with J.W. Rinzler and others sharing never-before-seen images, videos and stories from the making of the films. Resident Star Wars experts Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee will be sharing details about…
BioWare teasing “exclusive new item” on Facebook.
BioWare have updated the official facebook page with a new image; hinting new cool stuff comming to SWTOR. Can you guess what the image is? Here’s a hint! It’s coming to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ soon! Stay tuned for more details on how to get one of your very own. What do you guys think it is? An event?, are we finally getting pod racing? is it the speeder you get from the “refer a friend” program or something ells? What do you guys think?
1.3.1 patch notes – 7/3/2012
Servers are back up after this weeks maintenance. Many people speculated about a 4th of July event, but looking through the patch notes, it’s not the case. If you take in mind that 4th of July only is relevant in the states, it isn’t that hard to understand why they choose another date for next event. Below are the patch notes: Group Finder The Group Finder no longer displays multiple “Travel Now” dialogs when the group searches for a replacement while a player has the “Travel Now” dialog open already. Categories that player has not queued for no longer appear in the “Queued For:” tooltip. The Group Finder button is no longer visible when a player logs out of a higher-level character and back in to a character that is lower than level 10 (and therefore unable to use the Group Finder). A confirmation dialog now informs players that they…
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Collection Coming This Summer
LucasArts is about to re-release the KOTOR series to stores. GameStop and Amazon have listed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Collection as a bundle pack for the two single-player role-playing games. It’s only weeks from release, too. The compilation has appeared on GameStop’s internal system and is listed as a PC exclusive carrying a $20 price tag. The first game in the series (developed by BioWare) was released to critical acclaim in July 2003 for Xbox, and later for PC. KOTOR came to Mac via Steam just a few months ago. Obsidian developed the game’s sequel, which launched on Xbox in December 2004. They are both excellent games, that I recoment you try out, if you haven’t played them yet. After all, they are the prequels to Star Wars: The old republic. If you can’t wait until the games are re-realeased, you can check out the first part…
1.3 Augments: How to Add Augment Slots to Gear
It’s a common question going around now because everyone wants to do it but it’s not as easy or as obvious as you might think at first. How to add augment slots to gear? Once you figure it out, you’ll say “duh!” but let’s do a quick little overview of the process. What gear slots can be augmented? All of them! How do you do it? Well, you know Dulfy has a guide for that! Here Dulfy gave us the overview (from PTR): Hey everyone, I am sure you all know by now that there is a new way to add augment slots to gear in 1.3. I am going to walk you through the process currently on PTS right now so you will be well prepared once 1.3 lands on the live servers. What is happening to my current augmented gear? Your current augment slots on existing gear will…
Reddit, SWTOR and an Autistic Student Who Needed Help
With some students, it takes a teacher willing to go the extra mile to really reach them and help them. In a truly heart-warming story, we see just how far one teacher would go to try to connect with a new student. When Lyobel got news of a new student with little time to prepare, we see how an entire Internet community came together to help via a video game and Reddit. BioWare, first to respond to the post, also sent some signed posters to the teacher and student. What a wonderful memory they will always have together! This post on Reddit gives the full story: Hoi! Some of you might remember me, if that is the case I congratulate you on excellent short-term memory! I am, for those who don´t, a special education teacher, who got a new student dumped on me without much time to prepare. What I…
Understanding Ranked Warzones
What are ranked warzones? Ranked warzones are a new form of structured PVP ins SWTOR which offers 8-player teams the opportunity to face others in competitive, ranked matches. It’s a step up from regular, random PvP. Ranked Warzones is the new way for players to take part in PvP play; it’s BioWare’s answer to the next step in competitive PvP. It gives teams a chance to compete against each other in ranked matches. If you want to take part in Ranked Warzone matches, you’ll need to put together a team that has at least 8 players. This rule may change later but as of now, you cannot compete in these matches if you don’t have the required number of players. So it’s time to start rounding up your best PvPers in the guild or at least, your best buddies that you know you work well with. How It Works To begin, your…
Stephen ‘Rockjaw’ Reid’s New Job
Yesterday we told you the story about David Bass getting a new job for WildStar at Carbine Studios. Now we can tell you that Stephen ‘Rockjaw’ Reid has also got a new job! Great news for the Community Manager let go from BioWare Austin. It was a sad day for me because I really liked Stephen. I have a signed poster framed on my wall from him. That’s not the kind of thing you get every day. He’s funny, he’s personable and his passion for video games emanates from his pores (nope, that’s not sweat!). Stephen is blogging “while not really blogging” over on Tumblr these days and if you want to keep track fo what he’s up to, you can follow his posts. His recent post explains a bit about what he’s been up to and where he is now working: I’m back at Gazillion Entertainment, back working on…
David Bass Senior Community Manager for WildStar at Carbine Studios
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for David Bass. We met, we chatted, I have a pics of him in my phone… but he’s bid adieu to Austin and moved on to new ventures after leaving BioWare/SWTOR. Personally, I’m super happy to see he’s landed a great new job and doing what he’s so great at. If you’ve been wondering where he went, you might be happy to know he is now the community manager/coordinator for Wildstar! Massively even scored this awesome interview with him if you want to learn more about his new job and what the position entails. Here’s a snippet from the interview: At BioWare, you were the Senior Community Coordinator for guilds and fansites. How does this job differ, and what experiences will you pull from your past work into this one? Carbine’s strength is that the community team is intimately involved…
Gotye Meets Star Wars
Two internet memes collide in a galaxy far far away this week, as Star Wars and Gotye are crammed into one spoof. If that sounds crude, it actually works surprisingly well, with some pointed swipes at the Star Wars prequels and a George Lucas-alike who sings about “all the times I screwed fans over””. The Force is strong with this one, just don’t expect this to be released on Blu-ray any time soon.
Community Q&A: 6/29/12
As always, BioWare have released this week’s Q&A. This time the devs discuss changes to a tied game of Voidstar, new species and more. Hit the jump for the full Q&A. Posted by: Community Q&A: June 29th, 2012 Lesai: When it comes to planning content and game direction, how much of it is based on the developers’ plan for the game, and how much of it is based on community suggestion and feedback? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): As we come to the end of our big must-have features (like Group Finder), updates are driven more and more by the community. Expect to see far more of the smaller quality of life requested features (color matching for companions, chat bubbles, etc.) start to get real traction under them in the near future. CelCawdro: What are your long-term plans for implementing playable species? Are Cathar merely the first of semi-regular species additions? Daniel: Like all…
