Is SWTOR bringing back retro sexism issues for women gamers? One self-professed female gamer thinks so but can she back up her accusations? L.A. Harte, of Yahoo! Contributor Network takes issue with how SWTOR portrays females in the game. When I first saw the title, I thought she was going to accuse BioWare of objectifying women or some such… it wouldn’t be the first time such accusations have been made on a video game. But what she was actually complaining about took me by surprise a bit. She says: “Female characters in most MMORPGs including World of Warcraft, (and even the spin off cellphone app game Order and Chaos), provide us with a beautiful but strong woman — Star Wars The Old Republic falls very short.” Um… so WoW has beautiful female characters and SWTOR doesn’t? I’m betting L.A. Harte plays a Night Elf. So anyway, just how does she…
Kaon Under Siege – Video Guide from Pokket
It’s been awhile since you needed a 6-minute video to explain encounters in an MMORPG but the new flashpoint in SWTOR can be difficult, particularly the first time you do it. With the right technique involved, your group can get through the content efficiently and enjoyably. If you’re not sure just what that correct technique would be, you’re in luck because MMORPG has us all covered with a great video tutorial. Pokket gives us all the run down on the Hardmode Kaon Under Siege Flashpoint and how to survive the nightmarish place in Game Face from MMORPG.com. This is an especially good guide for healers who before this, probably did not have to work too hard at healing but this flashpoint and bosses can challenge the healers more than previous encounters you have probably had. Pokket explains each fight with voiceover as you watch the video of the boss fights…
SWTOR Servers Down on a Friday Night- Plus Scheduled Maintenance Jan 31st
Players were shocked by unexpected downtime last night right in the middle of Friday night/ Saturday morning gameplay for SWTOR. The forums went down, too, meaning frustrated players couldn’t even go rage about why they were kicked off their favorite game. Some took to Twitter to complain about it while we awaited the return of the servers and an explanation as to what had happened. A forum post explained it earlier in the day but few people caught it. Most of us were informed of the server shut down by the in-game notifications as we were playing. That post on the Official forums goes onto explain the upcoming scheduled maintenance: Scheduled Maintenance Date: Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 Time: 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET) All game servers and swtor.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more…
Rakata Weapons to be fixed in future patch – Not 1.1.1
As the original poster explained, there has been an issue with Rakata weapons for some time now. Players can raid hard mode EV for weeks and get Rakata weapons that are rank 126 when they would already have much better weapons at that point. The Rakata weapons should be level 140. They look cool with their black-red lightsaber crystals btu it doesn’t change the fact that they are basically useless at that level. So plenty of players complained and at first, it didn’t seem like BioWare was listening. Then they came in to say it would be fixed in 1.1.1. But alas… it is still not fixed. So what’s the deal? Well, the weapons will be fixed in an upcoming patch instead. Sorry to those who have them or were working towards them who are not benefitting from it right now. If you already have them, they will be upgraded…
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…
Ideal Guild Quiz – Find and Recruit Players for Your Guild
Are you looking for new applicants for your guild? This is the best way for your SWTOR guild to find and recruit quality applicants. It’s a handy quiz that helps you set parameters for your guild to aide in recruiting the most suited players as members. As a guild leader, you know that your guild is unique from the many other guilds out there. This is why choosing members is so important. Quality guilds are selective and don’t just let any player who asks into their guild. Instead, you want to search for players who meet certain qualifications or expectations of your guild. Personality is also important when seeking a guild in SWTOR – or any MMORPG. Your personality should flow well with the rest of the guild and with the overall guild mission and objectives. This is why this handy quiz is so great at helping applicants find the…
BioWare Story is So Good in SWTOR- Could it Be Too Good?
Have you ever watched a great movie that moved you in some way but after it was over you felt a tad sad that it had ended? Sure, you’re glad you watched it and you’re thankful for the opportunity but you’re left with a slightly empty feeling of “what now?” Could this be a problem with SWTOR? IGN writer CharlesOnyett has some thoughts on this very topic. He talks about “fear of the finale”and how absorbed he is in the story- but that maybe this could be a bad thing. CouldBioWare have done too good of a job with the story in SWTOR? Onyett says: Mymain concern is what happens when the story ends. I’ll meet no new quest giverswho care what I do or fear what I say. I’ll run through the same corridors ofenemies time and time again for a percent chance to achieve a reward. I’ll playthe…
Family Research Council against Gay Relationships in SWTOR
You will remember that some time ago, some SWTOR players complained that the game did not give the option for same sex companion relationships. BioWare first defended this decision by explaining that homosexual relationships did not exist in the original Star Wars worlds, at least not that were known to us from the storyline. However, it seems they have changed their tone to meet the demands of the fans as they have announced that they will be launching a same-sex romance component to the game in a future patch. This is completely optional and players will choose whether or not they want to romance companions of the same sex or not. Many gay fans are celebrating the news but of course the voices of those against it are just as loud (maybe louder?). The Family Research Council (FRC) is speaking out against the gay relationships in SWTOR and had this announcement…
Kinect Star Wars Funny Duel with Darth Vader: Video
One reason I got a Kinect was for Star Wars, I admit. My son seconded that decision as the 5-year-old is a huge Star Wars fan. He has Lego Star Wars for his DSi and was thrilled when he found out about Kinect Star Wars. So anyway, for those of you who maybe don’t know what it is all about yet, there is a great video to show you what it’s all about. Kinect Star Wars Funny Duel with Darth Vader is a great video for laughs and also to get people talking about the game. Remember, with Kinect Star Wars, YOU are the controller.Check it out:
Maximizing Medals in PvP
I just wanted to share a few tips that I use in pvp to make grinding commendations and valour more efficient and making those losses not bad as they seem. I’m a vanguard tactics spec trooper so other vanguards will find this pretty helpful as well as some other advanced classes. Damage medals There are a few in this category and they come at 75k and 300k damage done plus the 2.5k single shot. The 75k should be easy for dps classes and 2.5k in a single shot isn’t unreasonable. Pick up a power up, use stim/adrenals if you’re biochem and it is an easy medal. Obviously aim for low level players and use any cooldowns together with relics for extra attack. On my right bar I have my adrenal, relic and 25% crit ability. I just activate these at the same time and I can hit upwards of 4k….
TOR TV: What Do Smugglers Do?
Youtube user Zadenk made this little gem of machinima. Vidoes like this mame me realize that most Jedi dialog is pretty boring, compared with the stuff you get away with as a non-Force user. I also love the fact that people are being super creative on top of BioWare’s creativity. I mean it’s a win, win. Great game and cool videos from people. Interested in SWTOR Movies? We have new movies most weekdays here on swtorstrategies! Have suggestions for movie we ought to feature? Get in contact with us here
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…
Georg Zoeller Answers Player Asking for Ship Droid Weapons
If you’ve played SWTOR long enough to get your ship then you have met your ship companion. These lovable droids live to please their master but C2-N2 (and 2V-R8) do not have weapons and they tell you when you meet them that they are not armed for combat. One player asked a question in the forums: I have got alot of weapons and cant see a weapon I can equip for C2N2. I tried looking on the web but no answers could someone help me plz. Thanks And while other players attempted to explain that C2-N2 is a non-combat companion best suited to going on missions for you, the real fun began when Georg Zoeller came in with an official explanation. The official response: Dear Sir, I am writing to you in response to your complaint about our product, the C2-N2 droid. We regret that you are experiencing difficulties with…
TOR TV: Star Fleet Dental kill some guy over and over
Star Fleet Dental has uploaded a new movie. This time it’s all about killing, grieving and corpse camping.You might wan’t to check this forum thread before this video make any sense. Members of Starfleet Dental were given the extraordinary chance to test their skills against the self-declared top player of Veela and SWTOR forum loudmouth “Territo. A hard fought battle that ultimately ended in sadness as sweet, sweet Arus foolishly challenged Territo to a duel.
The Guild Sphere: Martial Cadence
League of Legends anyone? Today I had the chance to speak with Eroth from Martial Cadence. The guild is currently recruiting people on Darth Bandon and raid primarily on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:30p.m. est (7:30 central). they are a guild formed by real life friends and currently the most progressed that they know of on the server, Republic side. They have all but Hard Mode Soa down, and they are looking for skilled players to fill some slots. They are currently looking for ranged DPS especially, and if enough interest is had they will start looking into 16 man. Check out the interview below: Where did your guilds name come from? When we were getting ready for the game to release, we had to deliberate on what the guild was going to be called. After getting some of them shot down that were my favorites, (Serious Business was my…
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.
Is SWTOR Too Big for its Britches?
There’s been a lot of talk about SWTOR, its cost, its expectations and whether or not it is actually too big for its britches in the gaming scene. LA Times recently covered a piece which questions whether or not SWTOR could be the “costliest game of all time.” LA Times says: With a price tag approaching $200 million, Star Wars: The Old Republic is likely to be the most expensive game of all time to produce — and a colossal gamble for the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts Inc. And they go on with: BioWare, the EA studio responsible for the online game, had spent close to six years on the title, hiring hundreds of programmers, writers and artists, as well as a legion of contract workers. The hope is that The Old Republic will attract millions of players, each willing to spend $60 to buy the game and $15 or…
Is the SWTOR Launcher Issue Keeping you from Playing?
An irritating launcher issue is affecting some SWTOR players and they are unable to play the game at all. Due to a problem in the recent 1.1 update, they are unable to launch the game Complaints on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forum explain the problem and BioWare staff do try to offer a solution until a more permanent fix can be found. “”We are recommending anyone who is encountering problems with installing main assets to use the ‘repair’ option in the launcher,” said a BioWare spokesperson. “I know some of you have mentioned that you have tried it and a similar error occurs but it can sometimes take multiple passes for the repair to fix the problem files. “When you run the repair option it will appear that it is going to download the full 12gb assets. This is not the case. The repair function will scan…
BioWare Bans Old Republic Player for Using Internet Meme
“I’m 12 and what is this”. Is BioWare meme-ignorant or was this an awesome case of self-owning? Here’s an interesting story of a recent SWTOR ban. Apparently, this user/gamer was banned for using an Internet meme: “I’m 12 and what is this”. According to the reports this player posted the popular meme in a forum post and was then “permanently suspended” for age violation, as the game requires you to be 13 or older to play. (The writer in me loves that Kotaku pointed out that a “Permanent suspension” is a bit of an oxymoron.) Here is an image of the Community Support message regarding the alleged ban: While many readers are calling this outrageous, we have to be realistic about it. How is BioWare to know that the user was, in fact, using an Internet meme and not actually 12 years old and violating their terms? Even if the…
SWTOR Ability Delay Fixed after January 24th Patch
This is the fix a great number of people have been waiting on and it’s finally here and confirmed by players. The ability delay bug is reportedly fixed, according to players. What a relief! Of all the players happy to see this fix, snipers seem to be the happiest as it greatly affected their class play. While I am not surprised at all that they fixed it, I amimpressed that they fixed it so quickly. As Massivelyreports: PrincipalLead Combat Designer GeorgZoeller announced today that theinfamous ability delay should be clearing up nicely, thanks to an overnight1.1.0b patch. He says BioWare didn’t want to wait until the next big patch toroll it out, opting to instead deliver it as quickly to players as possible. However, Zoeller also notes that the team “is not done improving combatresponsiveness” and has several other tweaks and fixes in the work forpatch 1.1.1. Other areas of…
1.1.0b Patch Notes – 1/24/2012
BioWare used todays maintenence to patch a few issiues. The most important this time was fix that should help out on the ability delay that has been hevely debated. Check out the patch notes below: 1.1.0b Patch Notes – 1/24/2012 General Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Republic and Imperial Fleets. Classes and Combat Significantly improved the delay when activating player abilities, particularly when in lower framerate situations. This allows for improved ability responsiveness in hectic combat situations. Operations General Operations will no longer allow more than 16 Operations Group members to enter concurrently. Karagga’s Palace Operations Groups will no longer be forced to reset the Operation if the group wipes when attempting to defeat G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator. Fixed an exploit that would allow players to repeatedly loot the chest after defeating Jarg and Sorno. Miscellaneous Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that could cause graphical inconsistencies, which most often manifested as…
May the schwartz be with you: Return of the Jedi – Missing Elevator Scene
Footage of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the elevator on the way to the Emperor’s throne room. Vader: So… What happened after you left Bespin? Luke: What happened? I was without a right hand for 5 hours. What kind of a father cuts off his son’s writing hand? Vader: This is Star Wars, Luke. Nobody writes anything in this universe. The only writing I ever see is that Aurebesh junk on Coruscant. Luke: Dad, what are you saying? Vader: I never learned to read, dumbass.
The Guild Sphere: Piratehookers
First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of guild features, but SWTOR has gotten the best of my spare time, but we are back with some new features. This time the guild “Piratehookers” to the time to answer our questions. Piratehookers are located on the server Bondar Crystal – US PvP East Coast and is currently accepting new members who are interested in hardcore radiding. Where did your guilds name come from? Piratehookers is the name of our Counterstrike: Source team which competed in ESEA-Main along with various LAN’s and tournaments. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? Our guild is a semi-serious raiding guild dedicated to clearing endgame PvE content which includes 8 & 16 man operations in nightmare difficulty along with Hardmode flashpoint runs. We will also have fun doing PvP and dailies together. We are still building our raid roster but have high hopes and big…
George Lucas to Retire from Star Wars: Blames Disgruntled Fans
Have you ever felt unappreciated in your job or maybe in some other role in your life? As a full-time writer, I can tell you that I definitely know the feeling. However, someone you might not expect to know that feeling is George Lucas. At 67, he’s created an empire of himself, namely with his Star Wars legacy and also four popular Indiana Jones films. So you can imagine Lucas’ surprise when he pitched his new film, “Red Tails” and no one from Hollywood even wanted to take a peak. The New York Times reports on what must have been a new feeling for George Lucas: “He made a movie about a plucky band of freedom fighters who battle an evil empire — a movie loaded with special effects like no one had seen before.” In an interview with the New York Times, Lucas explains why he is retiring from…
