SWTOR Forums “Off Topic” Section Gone Forever

On April 22 the “Off Topic” forum was closed at Star Wars: The Old Republic. While some might not consider this breaking news, there are others who beg to differ. Some forum regulars are in a huff over the takedown of their Off Topic forums; even going so far as to threaten to unsubscribe. The official notice of the closure of the forum states: Hello Everyone! As of today, it is no longer possible to create posts in the Off-Topic forum. We know some of you may want to preserve old discussions or posts, so the forum will be viewable until 4/22. After this date, the Off-Topic forum will no longer be available.Post all discussion about this topic in this thread. Please remember to follow the rules when posting about this subject! Thank you!   As you might imagine, it didn’t take long before posts of complaints over the decision…

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SW:TOR User Interface

As we sit and anticipate the release of SW:TOR, there are many things we are pondering as gamers. One big question in the minds of many is what the user interface (UI) will be like. To me, this is really important. It’s how you interact with the game and it can really make or break a game if it gets screwed up. So far from early impressions of the UI, does it look good? Do you think it flows well? Will there be addons? SWTOR community forums had this to say about early released information on the UI: The first look at an early Companion UI seen (Check out the image, not the videos) – Bioware The UI we are currently seeing is not the final product, there are big changes coming – AskAJedi Some settings seen while at PAX: Enable Color Blind Mode, Map fade while moving, map flashes…

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Drew Karpyshyn’s New Novel Revealed

If you love Star Wars lore, then you are going to be really excited about the news that Drew Karpyshyn’s new novel has been revealed. The new book titled, Raven will expand beyond the core game and into novels and comics of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.   Del Rey Books has already published two novels in the Old Republic timeline, Fatal Alliance and Deceived, and they announced last year that there would be a third Old Republic novel. Drew Karpyshyn, Principal Writer at BioWare would be the author of this book. Fans may know him from the Darth Bane series of Star Wars™ novels. In an exclusive Q&A, Karpyshyn shares some information about the book. This part will be rather interesting to those who are anxiously awaiting the release of SW:TOR MMO:   Q: In what ways will readers who have read Revan benefit when playing Star Wars: The…

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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Iconoscope

I love nerdy dedication – it is after all what makes the world go round. And Wayne Dorrington has taken the biscuit with his genius Iconoscope version of The Empire Strikes Back, the scale of which you can see below. Bear in mind that this is only the first half of the Iconoscope, thanks to Dorrington’s assertion that it needed to be lengthy in order to fit in the entire plot of the second of the original trilogy: …You realise how much more complex and in-depth the story was compared to first movie. The narrative is split into several sub-stories and keeps jumping between them – plus, in the first move there were virtually no costume changes for the main characters – but in this one, each had several, all of which are iconic. Anyway, here’s the second half as well… Oh you bloody clever person, you.

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Know your Lore: Arca Jeth

Arca Jeth was an Arkanian male who was a Jedi Master and Watchman of the Onderon system during the time of the Old Republic. He was known to have been one of the wisest Jedi of the Old Republic era, and trained Barrison Draay, Haazen, Ulic Qel-Droma, his brother Cay Qel-Droma, and the Twi’lek Tott Doneeta in the ways of the Force. He was also one of the first known Jedi to use the ability of battle meditation. In 4,050 BBY Master Jeth was part of a Jedi/Republic task force which was sent to the Hapes Cluster to eliminate the threat of the Lorell Raiders, who had been preying on Republic shipping lanes for decades. Following the defeat of the Lorell Raiders, Jeth took part in the Hyabb-Twith Campaign and helped drive the Nelori Marauders from the Hyabb-Twith Corridor. He served the Galactic Republic on Coruscant during the Great Droid…

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Strong Stuff’s Retro Star Wars Poster

I’ve said it before that the culture of fan-made alternate movie posters is one of my favourite developments of the internet era, and when someone like Tom Whalen turns his hand to a particular personal favourite movie my joy is untold. The very clever designer/illustrator who calls himself Strong Stuff on Tumblr, has been producing incredible Star Wars art for the past year or so, and has very recently released another, which you can see below… Whalen has tagged the image as the base card for topps’ upcoming “Star Wars: Galaxy 6” card set, a series which has also inspired some exceptional designs by Russell Walks (one of which is below). This card series now seriously has me excited.

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Paid to Play SWTOR?

Would you love to get paid to play SWTOR? Who wouldn’t, right? Steven Reid, the Senior Community Manager from BioWare tweeted some news you’re gonna get excited about. If you live in or near Austin, Texas (me, me!) and have an interest in working in QA at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic, here’s some news you’ll definitely be interested in. Make plans to head on over to Austin Books this upcoming Saturday and you may just get your chance. In fact, it may be the big break you’ve been waiting for to get into the gaming industry and what better video game to do it with than SWTOR? This Saturday is a very special day for gamers wanting to make their presence known within the gaming industry because Austin Books tweeted some information all gamers will be interested in. They will be holding a special Star Wars Day…

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Old Republic Action Figures Incoming?

A new rumor is floating around and creating a lot of talk amongst Star War fans. RebelScum, from the “Star Wars action figure site”, has passed on a rumor that he’s heard recently concerning new action figures for Star War fans to collect. Rumor has it that a new Hasbro video game pack containing five action figures is on the way to being a reality. It’s believed this action figure set will be taken from either “The Force Unleashed II” or “The Old Republic”. You can refer to Hasbro confirms The Old Republic action figures, to read where this issue has been discussed before, in which Hasbro’s Derryl DePriest confirmed plans to create action figures from one of these two video games in the near future. It looks as if now these plans may be taking shape. The question on everyone’s mind is which characters will be selected? Could it…

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The Guild Sphere: Jensäarai

  This week I sat down with the leadership of Jensäarai, a group of hardcore PvPer’s with a strong core of Raider’s/PvEer’s, one of if not the longest running guilds on the Star Wars: The old Republic forums. I hope you all enjoy reading the interview as much as I did doing it. Where did your guilds name come from? We were looking for something original that hadn’t been seen on the Star Wars: The old Republic forums and searched the Sith language and found the word Jensaarai, meaning hidden followers of truth. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild? We are a laid back group that likes to joke around and have fun, but when it’s time to get serious then we bring the pain. In gaming terms we are an end game PvPvE, Raiding Guild. How did your guild come about? The majority…

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Star Wars The Old Republic Release Date

Well, it’s official- at least for now… The May 2011 issue of PC Gamer states the release date of SW:TOR will be “Autumn 2011”. While not an exact date, it’s a pretty narrowed down timeframe and well, that’s good enough for me. The cover of this upcoming issue promises to reveal a lot about the much-anticipated MMO from Bioware and EA, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Of course we all know that things could change as the game goes on in production. There are always potential holdups and delays, which is why they are holding back on giving us a definite date for release. But Autumn timeframe being officially announce in PCGamer as well as the hands-on event at London recently shows us that they are pretty darn close to being ready for a release. There’s still no official word on if or when there will be a beta but…

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StarWars.com forums closing down

It’s official that the StarWars.com forums will be closing down. At the end of this month, they will become read-only so it’s time to save, copy or print anything that you deem important information because come Friday, June 3rd, it will disappear from cyberspace forever! An official announcement by Pabawan reads as follows: At StarWars.com, we are always evaluating the various features of the website in order to provide the best experience to our users. As we review new community-based interactive features for the future, we have decided that the Official Message Boards at forums.starwars.com will no longer be part of the site. April 2011 will be the last month of active message boards on StarWars.com. On Friday, April 29 the forums will be locked into a read-only mode, so that users can look through older posts and copy any they may wish to keep for posterity. On Friday, June…

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Facebook Image Of The Week #9

It’s wednesday again and time for a new Facebook Image update for Star Wars: The old republic. THis week we get a glimpse of the a dark temple on the Sith Planet Dromund Kaas The Dark Temple is forbidden ground on Dromund Kaas. Rumors circulate constantly among the Sith of what might be inside, hidden by the Emperor himself Remember to check out the rest of BioWares Facebook updates here.

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Greedo Didn’t Shoot First! A Petition to George Lucas

Who shot first? Three simple words, and yet they mean so much more. The issue of whether Greedo or Han shot first is one of the most contentious in the Star Wars universe, and has come to represent for some the fractured and frictional relationship between Star Wars purists (i.e. those who wholly invest in the original versions of the original trilogy as the be-all-and-end-all of the franchise) against the new-bloods. In some ways it is also indicative of the love/hate relationship fans have with George Lucas, and an analogy for the two perceived versions of the director (old and new). And one thing is for sure- none of the die hard fans who debate the issue endlessly are going to be quietened on the matter any time soon. And now Paperclip Films have released a video petition via YouTube addressed to Mr Lucas, in a bid to have him…

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The Guild Sphere: Imperial Army

This week I sat down with the guys from the Imperial Army, a role playing guild that focuses on all aspects of the game. Q: Where did your guilds name come from? A: When the guild was created it had the goal of representing the Army of the Empire. So it was named after that Army. Q: Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentencedescription of your guild? A: A mature close knit group of dedicated playerswho share the same passion for creating their own piece of the Star Wars universe. Military themed RP guild that partakes in all styles of play. Q: How did your guild come about? A: A group of players decided it would be fun to RP Stormtroopers, and the men and women of the Galactic Empire Military Q: What kind of play style do you focus on? PvE,PvP, RP A: The Imperial army was created…

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What is BioWare’s Mysterious New Project “Zulu”?

BioWare is working on a new secret project that might now be slightly less secret, at least according to some reports that say an entry on Microsoft’s PartnerNet service has leaked details about the game. “BioWare presents an adventure beyond your wildest imaginings – fantasy role playing action adventure in space!” The mysterious title reportedly appears on debug Xbox Live with an image and the above description. BioWare fans are all abuzz about what this new “project Zulu” might be. It appears to be episodic and does not appear to have multiplayer or co-op modes. The first episode is referred to as “Episode One: Too Many Cooks: Spoil the Broth” and there is a teaser to the second episode as well- “Episode 2: Another fun adventure to download and play.” Various sources are reporting that a new BioWare title, ‘Project Zulu’ has appeared on the development version of Xbox Live…

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SWTOR Art by NitWhit

It took me awhile to appreciate the work of NitWhit. First I thought the style was way to cartoonish in a turnoff kind of way. If you got small kids like me, your your properly getting tired of kids cartoons in the morning to. But a few days ago I changed my mind. Looking through deviantart.com I kept pushing the back button and going through her art again and again. There is something about this art style that I really appreciate. It’s definitely not cartoonish as I first thought. Maby you can describe it for me. Check it out below, and remember to stop by her deviantart.com profile and say hallo. Little Red Button Fall of Coruscant Darth Drador Relic Unknown You’re Next Flying Twilek Kirali Comic Experiment Zelkin Infinium Kirali Lady of Lightning

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SW:TOR -Will Darth and Lord Be Player Titles?

A long awaited question was finally answered; will Darth and Lord be player-achievable titles and if so how rare will they be?  Yes. And fairly rare from what we can tell.  Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic answered the anticipated question on the official SW:TOR forums just a few days ago.  The post reads: Hey Folks, Darth and Lord are ranks in the Old Republic time period and while they represent an increasingly smaller percentage of overall Sith, they are clearly not at as rare as only having one or two running around in the galaxy. There are already numerous Darths (Baras, Malgus) we’ve seen who are not on the Dark Council. It will likely not come as a surprise to most people that the titles of Darth and Lord are story-based rewards (one does not become a Darth by grinding frog-dogs) as are Master, etc….

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SWTOR Fan Site Summit

They say everything’s bigger in Texas and there has yet to be a SW:TOR event as awesome as the upcoming, first-ever Fan Site Summit hosted by Bio-Ware. Early week, BioWare twittered from the official SW:TOR account with the following: “In one week, reps from #SWTOR fan sites will be in Austin, TX for the first Fan Site Summit. Official Twitter tag is #SWTOUR!” This is exciting news for Star Wars: The Old Republic fans everywhere! The first Fan Site Summit is scheduled for next weekend, from April 23-26. (Who’s skipping Easter for paddle boat rides with David Bass?) As several SWTOR fan sites are reporting their participation already, we know there will be a great deal of information coming out just after the event and we want to be the first to bring it to you right here on the site so stay tuned. We can’t wait to hear and…

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Total Film’s Epic Vintage Star Wars Images

Flicking through this month’s Total Film magazine (and being wowed by their preview of X-Men: First Class in the process), I came across their website links page and a link to something tantalisingly called Vintage Star Wars Images. My interest naturelly piqued, I logged on as soon as I got home and what I found was some of the greatest manipulated images to feature a Star Wars flavour ever to hit the web. Seriously, they are a bloody gorgeous things. Now, I’m not going to steal their thunder by posting all 14 here, but I thought I’d share three of my favourites (as well as the preview image to the left there), and then direct you all over to the Total Film website to enjoy the others. That is some bloody clever Photshopping right there. Follow me on Twitter: @SiTheMovieGuy

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Possible new SWTOR Warzone- The Voidstar!

A German magazine recently revealed a possible new warzone called The Voidstar, as mentioned in a SWTOR post on the official forums. The article says, “Warzones, these are the PvP Battlegrounds translated in The Old Republic. So far, only one was known and that the civil war on Alderaan (more on page 18), but now Bioware still the PvP battlefield “The Voidstar” announced that will offer a Conquest mode. More will follow as we lead designer told PvP month, Gabe. (Google Translate).” Hmm… does anyone reading speak German? Perhaps you can give us a better translation. It was then covered on the official forums in a post by Elboc and opened up for discussion. The information found on a SWTOR forum post cannot all be verified as fact so before you read, be aware that much of this is speculation. There might also be some translation issues since the post…

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Know your Lore: Cay Qel-Droma

Cay Qel-Droma was a Jedi Knight during the Great Sith War. Born to a great warrior family on Alderaan, Cay and his brother, fellow Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma, were instructed by Master Arca Jeth at his training compound on Arkania. Cay’s first mission came in 4,000 BBY, when, along with his brother and fellow trainee Tott Doneeta, he was sent to Onderon to put down an uprising of the savage Beast Riders. The Jedi succeeded; however, Cay’s career in combat was just beginning. He fought in the Great Sith War not long after, a galaxy-spanning conflict that started when the Krath attacked Onderon, home to the dark side-using Naddists. During the war, Ulic turned to the dark side, becoming a Sith, and second-in-command under Exar Kun. In 3,996 BBY Cay was forced to duel his brother on Ossus. Ulic killed Cay; however, this act stunned Ulic enough that he abandoned the…

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Star Wars/Rebecca Black Parody “Primeday”

You have to admire when inter-net creatives like those behind the TeddieFilms YouTube channel apply their obviously considerable talents to parodying one of the worst songs ever to come out of a human mouth, especially when the result has the kind of impressive production values visible in the video below. And add to that the fact that they have turned their attentions to melding Rebecca Black’s horrendous, ear-bleed-inducing “pop song” with the Star Wars universe, and you have yourself a recipe for much mirth. I’d even suggest that the dude playing Leia has more charisma than Black does in her original version… Seriously, while the original song needs to be exterminated immediately, this spoof is actually pretty damn hilarious- and the lyrics arguably make more sense than Rebecca Black’s obviously chimp-on-a-typewriter version as well (they’re helpfully listed on the video’s Youtube page if you want to sing along). Seeing Boba…

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BioWare Auctioning Off Exclusive Goods for Japan Relief

If the thought of donating to charity for Japan relief without getting something in return doesn’t really sit well with you, Bioware have you covered. BioWare is holding a charity auction, and all proceeds go to the Red Cross to aid Japan and it’s citizens in light of the recent disaster. The items being auctioned are as follows; two Dragon Age 2 custom painted PS3′s complete with signatures from the founders of BioWare Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, two Dragon Age 2 custom painted Xbox 360s also signed by the founders and ten Mass Effect hoodies signed by the team that created Mass Effect. All of these items are exclusive to the auction, so be sure to check it out and bid on these incredible items for a worthy cause. If you’d like to help out, the auctions can be found here.

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