First of all I would like to apologize you haven’t seen a “Guild Sphere” column the last month. But hopefully we will be back at full strength through out the summer. Feel free to contact us if you want your guild featured on our website. Where did your guilds name come from? When we first founded it was initially named The Hidden Dragoons, taking two of the founders, another, and myself, as the two names that made up our guild name. Later though when we changed it to The Dragoon Brotherhood, we took the meaning of the light cavalry unit used in the 17th and 18th centuries. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? The Dragoons are a very unique guild that values the person and not the character. For many years we have played most major MMOs on the market, and strive for excellence…
Goodbye, SWG…
Fresh from bringing you the news that LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment have decided to pull the plug on Star Wars Galaxies (and rightly so in my opinion), we can now follow up with this slightly unhinged response to the news from Youtube user GoofyGrrl. GoofyGrrl, a long-time player and fan of the MMO game, is clearly upset at the news, having dedicated six years of her life to playing, and obviously felt compelled to air her grievances to the world. So, with her webcam switched on, and her skimpiest vest-top sought out, she had what psychotherapists might call a full-on breakdown. Way to go. And even better she blames the death of Galaxies on the appearance of the clearly vastly superior SWTOR for this Doomsday announcement – entirely missing the point that the new game would have rendered its predecessor redundant anyway. Two points spring up at this point:…
SkyMarshall Arts SWTOR Song and Video
Star Wars Norge: The Old Republic Fansite tipped us off to a great SWTOR song made by a group called “SkyMarshall Arts””. They created a music video to go with it and it’s a fun listen/watch for any SWTOR fan. I can totally see myself listening to this while playing the game. The first part is action-packed and exciting, with a slower rendition at the end. The video fits perfectly with the movie and it’s all very enjoyable. “This is a tribute to the upcoming MMORPG “Star Wars: The Old Republic” by Bioware, EA and LucasArts – as well as Star Wars in general. It is a compilation of the most popular themes from Star Wars wrapped in a sugary eurodance-ish coating. It was made entirely from scratch using Cubase, FLstudio and Audition.” Credits: Remix: SkyMarshall Arts (Eirik Blodøks Hafskjold) Video: Star Wars Norge (www.starwarsnorge.com) Original Score: John Williams (composer)…
The Lost Suns Comic Review
I was super excited to get my hands on my own copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic- The Lost Sons comic and just as excited to meet Alexander Freed himself. On the ride back home, I was already reading my comic. I can see why they said the comic would be of interest to anyone planning to play TOR as well. This is the first of a five-issue comic book series about Theron Shan and it contains a lot of lore and background for the game. As Freed said on the official TOR forums, “”I like to describe The Lost Suns as our ‘ninth story’ — every class in The Old Republic tells its own Star Wars epic, and Theron’s tale intersects with the other eight and pushes the greater game story forward, just as they do.“ Right from the first page of beautiful artwork, the comic sets up…
BioWare to Have Public TOR Demo at Comic Con
As if you needed one more reason to check out Comic Con in San Diego this year, BioWare has announced they will be setting up a TOR demo. David Bass, Senior Community Coordinator announced on the official TOR forums that they will be making an appearance at Comic Con. However, the best news is that you don’t even have to have a Comic Con badge to have a chance at trying the game. “Yesterday, BioWare made an announcement that we have a space at the Hilton Gaslamp hotel across the street from Comic-Con where fans can get their hands on Mass Effect 3 and the newest Dragon Age II DLC. Well, surprisingly enough, The Old Republic is planning on being there as well! Anyone (yes, even you!) can come to the Hilton and wait in line to play any of the BioWare games. Those of you who have Comic-Con badges,…
End of an era: Star Wars: Galaxies shutting down later this year
Later this year – December 15th, to be precise – will see the end of Star Wars Galaxies, the MMORPG first released by LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment back in 2003, and the more recent Trading Card Game (2008). So that’s the main “on-brand” competition for SWTOR gone then…. The official announcement – from the game’s official site – read as follows: We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game. We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online…
Previews Alderaan Group Mission
This week BioWare’s Director of Production Dallas Dickinson returns with an E3 2011 preview video of a mission to save the planet Alderaan in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The video is short but it makes its time count by serving up a look at one of the group missions that players can engage in on the Alderaan. And while there are no electrocuted Jawas in this one (that never gets old), there are plenty of blasters and lightsabers.
Producer Rick McCallum Hints At Star Wars TV Series Details
More news on upcoming Star Wars TV projects, as producer and long-term George Lucas collaborator Rick McCallum has given up some details to Czech Position about the long-awaited and hotly-anticipated live-action TV series. First up McCallum said that the show is likely to be shot at least in part in the Czech Republic, following on from “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” TV series, which was also partly shot in Prague and the upcoming Red Tails, which was mostly shot in the Czech Republic with a local crew. He then got into some more exciting territory, giving a little more info on the expected ETA for the project: The TV series is on hold, but that has nothing to do with the Czech Republic; it has to do with [the episodes being] so ambitious. We have 50 hours of third-draft scripts, but the problem we have is there is a lot…
BioWare brings Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II DLC to San Diego Comic Con
On BioWare Social, Chris Priestly announces that Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II DLC will come to San Diego Comic Con. “BioWare is once again returning to the San Diego Comic Con and this year, we are bringing Mass Effect 3 and a never before seen, Dragon Age II DLC with us. Comic Con begins Thursday July 21 and runs through Sunday July 24 and we will have all sorts of awesome BioWare coolness at our base in the Hilton Gaslamp hotel. This will be the first opportunity for fans to play Mass Effect 3 as well as the next Dragon Age II DLC. In addition, we will be hosting the first annual BioWare Costume Contest on Friday, July 22 for the best BioWare inspired costumes. We’ll be giving away awesome convention swag, opportunities to meet members of the BioWare staff, and we’ll have a special designated area…
Moral Issues in SWTOR and more Tidbits from the Forums
The Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums were abuzz yesterday with talk about dark/light side morals and choices, rumors of a release date and more. Damion Schubert stepped in to add more insight to the topic as well. Zoeller talked about questing and how it will operate within SWTOR and explaining that there will be some repeatable quests/content within the game but that the game won’t rely on it completely. Zoeller also discussed where we will be able to fly within the game: “Once you have your ship, every planet in the galaxy can be flown to. Of course, flying to a level 40 planet at level 12 might not be the greatest idea, but still, you can do that.” Then Stephen Reid also talks about morals and light side/dark side choices: “The Light Side / Dark Side symbols only appear when using a mouse to hover…
20 min Jedi Knight Class walk through
FTWBroadcasting has just posted a 20 min Jedi Knight Class walk through video, containing all confirmed and speculative information from all over the web: Jedi Knight Class Story Companion, Armor Weapons Abilities Advanced Classes Star ship and More. The video contains all the latest footage, wallpapers, promotion videos, and website coverage edited into the video. Enjoy!
Facebook Image of The Week #17
It’s the next best day of the week. The day were BioWare spoils us with a new screenshot of the game. This image was published on their Facebook page earliere today. Jawas, notorious tinkerers and collectors of discarded desert junk, carefully inspect an astromech droid at one of Anchorhead’s many trading posts.
Retail dates SWTOR for September?
Could Star Wars: The Old Republic be coming out in September after all? According to ShopTo, an online UK retailer, it might be. After a recent update to the site, it now lists upcoming EA MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic with a release date of September 9th in the UK. What does this mean? MCV wrote about the topic today, describing the update on ShopTo that added this release date for the game. Back in January, MCV also wrote about the fact that EA executives were planning for a September release of the game. Disgruntled fans had a lot to say about this delayed release date that later seemed to be pushed ever farther into 2011. After recent events and E3 news, most fans would be delighted to hear about a September release since a release any time before the end of the year was starting…
Species of Starwars: Rodian
The Rodian are a bipedal race with tapir-like faces and multifaceted eyes, native to the planet Rodia, which is located in the Tyrius system. The skin of a Rodian is green in color, and there is very little physical variation within the species. Thus, non-Rodians often cannot tell two Rodians apart. The Rodian race has ears that swivel in their sockets, allowing them to hear in several directions. There is a ridge of spikes which crests their skulls, and their long, flexible fingers are tipped with suction cups. They are a race of hunters by nature, and bounty hunting seems to hold a place of high esteem. As a race, they evolved as hunters, surviving their planet’s tropical environment and establishing a series of war games which lasted for thousands of years. When an Old Republic scout team landed on the planet, the Rodians were there to meet them, armed…
Lego Star Wars Coming to TV In September
Odd but exciting news has just come to my attention (after it was announced at the recent Licensing International Expo 2011). According to ComingSoon.net LEGO Star Wars is set to land on screens this Autumn (likely late September) as a TV special. The site discovered the upcoming project thanks to the poster below, and announce that it will be based on the video game series, which is itself based on the TV show. Don’t think about that too much, it gets a little confusing. ComingSoon also ran with an official update on the upcoming Star Wars cartoon series: Today, George Lucas is hard at work on a second animated series that will complement ‘The Clone Wars’, taking ‘Star Wars’ in a completely new and fun direction. What with the release of the Star Wars blu-ray collection, and the 3D cinematic re-releases that I personally will only watch begrudgingly, it’s an…
Replayability of SWTOR
Georg Zoeller spoke on the official SWTOR forums this weekend about the replayability of SWTOR and same class replay. Many have questioned this and the issue of mob grinding in relation to SWTOR. MMORPGs are famous for grinding and mindless quests telling you to go here and kill x number of ___. This mindless, repetitive gameplay is what BioWare says they are trying to avoid in SWTOR. The discussion that ensued on the forums was an interesting one on this topic. Orcron posted: “Well thanks for clearing that up. But why is it you made the class quest far more richer with goodies so to speak then taking side routes to level up? Such as flash point running or random mob killing an so on.” Zoeller came in to answer the question: “I wouldn’t say richer – after all Flashpoints, PvP and other activities have…
Star Wars: The Lost Suns signing by Alexander Freed
501st Stormtroopers, R2-D2 and Alexander Freed signing SWTOR: The Lost Suns comic! This week I wrote about the Star Wars: The Old Republic- The Lost Suns author signing event but yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to attend and it was every bit as awesome as I expected. As a video game writer myself, I was super pumped to meet Bioware Senior Writer Alexander Freed. We talked about SWTOR (sorry guys, nothing new that we didn’t already know. :/) They weren’t going to let him divulge any spoilers, even if he wanted to. We talked about gaming in general and how exciting it is to be behind the scenes of a game’s development, especially a game as big as SW:TOR. Alexander was everything I expected- a really, chill guy, creative and a huge Star Wars fan. While we were chatting, my husband disarmed a Stormtrooper and my daughter…
What If Those Scanner Guys Weren’t Such Wimps?
Ever since the internet allowed fans to start sharing their own takes on scenes from their favorite movies, a number of fan re-edits have appeared to various successes. The most infamous example of course was The Phantom Edit, in which some Mike J Nichols re-jigged The Phantom Menace, “fixing” scenes featuring Jar-Jar Binks, removing the Battle Droid dialogue and generally recutting the film to match the style of the original trilogy, to resounding success. But there are others, ranging from full recuts to humorously re-edited single scenes like the one below. YouTuber OneMinuteGalactica – who also edited the Existential Star Wars clip we brought you a while back – has this time turned his attention towards the Imperial scanning crew sent onto the Millennium Falcon to search for anything untoward. Obviously in the film, they last roughly ten seconds before tasting Wookie knuckles, but OneMinuteGalactica’s cut ask an important question: what…
SW:TOR Updates: Writer Blog and Fan Friday
Writing is one of the key elements to crafting a living world and few understand that better than BioWare and the vision they have for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week’s update is all about those guys that shape the world and keep it evolving to fit the lore – the writers. This week BioWare Writer Ian Ryan takes us through the writing process and how writers continue to shape the game world long after the final piece of the story has been written. The writers continue to play the game and examine each area for subtle details that need improving. One example given is the vast improvements made to the planet of Nar Shaddaa, which has been given quite a new glamorous look to better match the taste of the Hutts thanks to writer feedback. If you’re curious to see the impact that these talented writers have on…
18,000 Accounts Compromised in BioWare Breach
BioWare has joined the illustrious club of the recently violated after a hacker gained access to a decade-old community server system associated with their Neverwinter Nights forum on June 14th. According to a post from BioWare’s Edmonton Studio GM Aaryn Flynn, hackers breached the server and may have gained access to the account details of around 18,000 users that include user account names and passwords, email addresses and birth dates. But if you linked your legacy BioWare account with an EA account, additional information may also have been compromised that includes: your name, mailing address, billing address, language, game entitlements and games played, and other game-specific account information. Luckily, the BioWare investigation has determined that no credit card information was lost in the breach. As a security precaution, BioWare is suggesting that players change their passwords. Yesterday (June 14), we learned that a hacker gained unauthorized access to the decade-old…
Stephen Reid clarifies on EA Origins
If you had questions about EA Origins and how it relates to getting your own copy of SWTOR, Stephen Reid has made a lot of clarifications on the official TOR forums. We’ll save you the trouble of hunting and sum it all up for you here. Q: Do I have to install Origin to play the game, get updates and more if I purchase a boxed copy? Reid answers: “No, you won’t. While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (in other words, if you want to buy it online and download it, you’ll do so through Origin) that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic. Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals. However, you won’t need to launch…
Damion Schubert: Story Does Not Kill Community
Damion Schubert takes some time out for a long post on the official forums about community and how story does not kill it. The TLDR version: “What is going to be good for any particular MMO’s community is going to be wildly divergent between MMOs, depending on each MMO’s focus and feature set. We’re continually keeping an eye on our community to be sure that they remain healthy, but for the most part, there are some really neat interactions going on.” This is a great post to read over although commenters have varying opinions on how they feel about the topic. Some people feel the forum moderators and staff do not have the interest of community as a top priority but others feel strongly about the positive SWTOR community, stating it as a big reason they want to purchase and play the game. Schubert says they want it to be…
Cross-Faction Chatting
One question going around the forums this week was in regards to cross faction chatting in SWTOR. While there are obvious reasons why it might not be good to have cross faction chatting, there are also some reasons why it would be beneficial. Many of the RP elements of the game would be taken out if players had no capability for cross-faction chat at all. So some fans are asking if there will be cross-faction chat in certain local chat or in shared towns and cities. Many believe that local chat should be open to both sides. Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager addressed this issue on the forums stating, “That’s one of the options that’s being looked at right now. As I said, a final decision hasn’t been made, and this is a feature that’s in testing. Your opinions on the topic are welcome, as long…
How To Turn To The Dark Side
Ever wanted to follow in the footsteps of Darths Maul and Vader? Ever had a hankering to liquidate a whole community of Jedis? Well do we have the instructional video for you?!! Thanks to the guys over at Howcast (who posted this brilliant video on their YouTube channel), we can now bring you this enlightening public interest film on how to master the skills needed to become a bona fide Sith legend in double-quick time. Feast your eyes on this, just make sure your boss isn’t looking over your shoulder – I’m pretty sure a desire to wipe out all the goodness in the world is classed as gross misconduct these days. Bloody bureaucrats.