Here we are in Austin for Day 2 of the SWTOR Guild Summit. At 9am, crowds were already gathering in the lobby, getting ready for the big day of events. The doors open to the main ballroom at the DoubleTree hotel at 9:30am and at 10:00am, we begin the welcome and introductions. Many things on the schedule for today so stay tuned here and to our Twitter to keep up with all the latest news and happenings. To kick things off today, we hear introductions from Stephen Reid followed by James Ohlen with a state of the game address and a sneak peak at Game Update 2. (Video to follow) This new update is HUGE. It will be one of the largest free updates ever seen in an MMORPG. It’s the type of content you would find in an expansion to most MMOs. Some highlights: New Warzone New Operation Part…
SWTOR Guild Summit Day 1
3:45 PM – Day 1 of the SWTOR Guild Summit is here! I recently registered at the DoubleTree and there are crowds forming around the lobby as others get settled into their rooms. We’re super excited but for those of you at home anxiously awaiting updates, there isn’t too much to say yet. Tonight is more of a social event as we will leave the DoubleTree at 6pm for a screening of Star Wars: Episode 1 in 3D at the Alamo Drafthouse. Those of you not from Texas may not be familiar with the Alamo Drafthouse so I will tell you, it’s one of the coolest movie theaters around. We will eat dinner there (they serve it right to you in your movie) and it’s a lot of fun. The atmosphere is always great, fun and relaxed at any Alamo Drafthouse I’ve been to. But you won’t be getting any…
Memes of the week: February 27 – March 4
Last week we posted a weekly rundown of SWTOR Memes we collected around the web. The article was well received, but some people asked us about what this meme thing is, so here’s a more than a little information on that. I pronounce it so it’s rhymes with ‘dream’; some pronounce it so it sounds like ‘mem’ (from mem-ory). An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word “more” as “moar” or “the” as “teh”. The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs ( such as this), direct email, news sources, or other web-based services. An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or by…
Star Wars conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie dies
Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who committed George Lucas’ ideas to canvas when he was trying to drum up interest in ‘Star Wars,’ has died at the ripe old age of 82. If there’s any justice in the world, he’ll turn into a blue-tinted ghost to hang out with Yoda and Alec Guiness. McQuarrie’s role in getting ‘Star Wars’ onto the big screen can’t be overstated. Lucas was getting shot down left and right by studio heads when he went in to pitch ‘Star Wars,’ but after commissioning McQuarrie to generate some concept art, his next meeting — with 20th Century Fox — was a success. From that, we get John Williams’ classic score, ILM, Indiana Jones and Pixar, plus a countless number of future writers and directors inspired by ‘Star Wars.’ How cool would it be to put “Designed Darth Vader” on your tombstone? It should be said that these…
A Second Look at SWTOR from Rival Tide
As SWTOR has been out for a couple of months now, players are taking a second look at the game to see if their early impressions were spoken too soon or if the game still lives up to the expectations we all had in the beginning. Rival Tide takes a second look at the popular MMO and tells us what they think about it as it stands today. There are many things that have changed from the early impressions of the game. For one, online gameplay can change regularly. Patches and game updates will change and the dynamic player community will affect the game as well. SWTOR is no exception and Rival Tide takes a look at some of the changes in the game and the community. Some positive points: the story, the voice acting, the planets and their unique quest lines and more. Some down points: the crew skills,…
SWTOR Guild Summit Update- Got Questions?
The big day is almost here- the first even SWTOR Guild Summit kicks off tomorrow evening (for a social gathering) but the real good stuff begins on Monday morning. I’ll be there live in Austin, Tweeting from the scene and also live-blogging so check in throughout the day for updates, photos and more. So before I head out for all the fun, what questions do youhave? What do you want to learn from the guild summit? I’m going to be diggingin my heels and getting all the info I can share with you and I will try to askany questions I get the opportunity to. We’ll also learn from the questions ofother guild representatives and of course, there’s also a chance to play 1.2 livefrom Austin. Here’sthe full livestream schedule: 10:00AM CST (4PM GMT) – Welcome and Introductions 10:30AM CST (4:30PM GMT) – State of the Game and Game Update…
Georg Zoeller Talks Economic Changes in Patch 1.1.5
If you missed his blog post on the official forums, Principle Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller had a very interesting post that talks about the changes in Patch 1.1.5. Basically, he gives the players a look into changes to the economy coming soon and how this will affect us. He provides it in-context and also with some lore. (He’s always been great at the story-telling.) Here is a piece of what he said in the blog post about colorcrystal changes: It’sbeen reported that Operatives of the Republic Strategic Intelligence Servicehave recovered several new variations of color crystal prototypes during adaring raid on a cutting edge Imperial Science Bureau outpost on Ilum. Amongthe items recovered are a number of rare, purple-hued color crystals, usuallyexclusive to Imperial-held worlds. Republicscientists are confident that they will be able to reverse-engineer andpotentially replicate the captured Imperial technology, including the colorcrystals, in a matter of weeks….
US PvP Server Population Statistics and Data
Just as promised recently, Dulfy has some statistical data on US PvP and RP-PvP server population for us. If you want to know which PvP server to join, how many people are on your PvP server or what the server balance is between factions on your server then this data will help you out. From Dulfy: Thereare only 44 PVP/RP-PVP servers so the data collection took a bit shorter, butit got delayed by a day cuz I didn’t know typing “fleet” and”the fleet” in the who list window give different results – I wastyping in “the fleet” after typing in all the warzones – “thepit, the civil war, the voidstar etc” – this gave much lower numbers (atfirst I thought it was cuz the players on PvP servers are less “lazy”and don’t sit around on the fleet as much hehe). I had to erase all the dataand start over. 7planets…
INC Gamers Reviews SWTOR after 2 Months
SWTOR has been out for about 2 months now and some of us have been playing since beta or since the launch. If you’ve ever played a newly launched MMO before, you know that the first few months are sometimes the rockiest. There are usually game bugs and other kinks to iron out. Sometimes the community is out of balance or has not had time to stabilize yet. The economy can be wonky as servers balance and players learn how to work things and what the value of things are. So here we sit, two months in and what better time than now to take a look at what is happening in SWTOR? The crew over at INC gamers have an in-depth review of SWTOR- 2 months in. It’s more than 1,800 words of thoughts and impressions on the game thus far. While they published a positive early review of…
May the schwartz be with you: Star Wars Yoga
Are you looking for something to do when the SWTOR servers are down? Are you searching for ideas to help you keep in shape when you spend many hours a day on the computer in a galaxy far, far away? Holy Kaw has something great for you: Downward Darth: Star Wars yoga
Jedi Consular Shadow PVP Build – Solid PVP Build For The Jedi Shadow!
Hey guys, Another build coming at you courtesy of http://www.swtorsavior.com. This one is for PVP and the class we are going to be running through is the Jedi Consular Shadow. Now for those of you that have played World of Warcraft you will find it easier if you think of the Shadow as a Rogue. Your job is to get in and out without being seen and cause as much damage as you can! Essentially you want to get to the back lines of the enemy and take down all the healers and squishy DPS players. If you have just started PVP with a Jedi Shadow it can be tough though so here is a solid build to use: Jedi Consular Shadow PVP Build: The main skills that you will be using with this build in PVP are the Spinning Kick which although it requires stealth it will allow you…
SWTOR Legacy System Guide: The Basics
The Legacy system in SWTOR can be a bit confusing even to those who have already chosen their surname. This guide is designed to help you understand why the system was put in place and how it can benefit players. There will be changes to the legacy system in the future and we will update this guide and provide additional guides as needed to help you understand. The legacy system is one based on the principal of family. Many of the characters in the movies were related in one way or the other so the guys that made SWTOR decided to make it where the characters you create in the game are related. Some of the main relations are brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, wives and husbands but there are a few others. When you choose the relationship between your main character and a new one that you make, it has…
BioWare Wants YOU! (To Test Game Content)
It sounds like BioWare is working on endgame content. Joveth Gonzalez , Associate Online Community Manager has some good news for SWTOR fans in the Austin area: The Star Wars: The Old Republic team is looking for skilled SWTOR players in the Austin area to test out brand new content in the BioWare Austin office. We are looking for players that are experienced with endgame Operations, Warzones, and Flashpoints. Players that meet this criteria may fill out this survey and qualifying candidates will be contacted for more information. This is a temporary paid position and will require at least a weekend a month of your time. Thank you! This is really cool for those of you who live here in Austin with us- a chance to check out new game content AND get paid for it. It also shows us that BioWare is serious about finding out what the players…
SWTOR Game Review by Capsule Computers
We’re all about bringing you SWTOR news here and part of that involves capturing the opinions of others. If you play, you have to decide for yourself how you feel about the game but it’s still good to hear what other players have to say about the game. Do you have complaints? Maybe someone else has the same complaints? Are there things you love about the game? Maybe others feel the same. Still haven’t bought the game yet? Then reviews may have an even bigger impact on you. Capsulecomputers.com has a few things to say about SWTOR as it stands now: “Star Wars: The Old Republic follows the individual tale of each player character inhabiting the game within the games universe. This means that players will get a more personalised experience from the games story, unlike other MMORPGs that seem to skimp in this department. Using the warring galaxy as…
Interview: Gabe Amatangelo, Lead PvP Designer BioWare
As part of the local launch festivities, the guys over at TOROZ had some time to talk with Gabe Amatangelo, SWTOR’s Lead PvP designer. The Oceanic community had a lot of questions and they were able to get most of them asked in the time they had with Gabe. There were some things of interest to all of us in this interview. For example, there will new PvP changes and additions, the introduction of ranked PvP, UI changes (everyone has been asking for) and much more. See below for the official video of the interview. Thanks to TorBoard for the giving us the notes because the video is a bit difficult to hear: Gear/Warzone/Commendation Changes Lesser end-game commendations (Champion, Centurion, etc.) will not be exchangable. There will be two levels of warzones. Regular and Ranked warzones. Regular warzones will give out regular WZ commendations, and Ranked warzones will give out ranked…
Drew Karpyshyn New Novel Coming Soon
While he recently announced his official departure from BioWare, Drew Karpyshyn hinted he has a new novel in the works. Before now, there was not a lot known about the next novel in the Star Wars The Old Republic series but an announcement on publisher Del Ray’s Facebook page indicates otherwise. Del Ray announced on their Facebook page: First, DARTH BANE and REVAN author Drew Karpyshyn is cranking away on his next novel, STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: ANNIHILATION. Republic agent Theron Shan and his Twi’lek compadre, Teff’ith (from Dark Horse Comics’ STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: THE LOST SUNS) must contend with a Sith Empire counter-attack against the Republic, spearheaded by the lethal apprentice of Darth Malgus. Satele Shan and Jace Malcolm co-star in what will be a fast-paced and tension-fraught tale based on the award-winning video game from BioWare and LucasArts. This is great news for Karpyshyn fans…
Players Created a Premature Oceanic Server with Guild System
Gamers often go a long way to get what they want and this story from Massively explains just what some SWTOR fans will do to get their server to play on. We are never lacking for creative and ingenious gamers who find workarounds for all of their problems and issues. The early lack of Oceanic and Asian servers led some players to get creative and find their own method around it, using BioWare’s own system to their advantage. Many MMOs have unofficial servers for regions and rulesets, but pulling them together can take an incredible amount of work and still end up halfway done. However, Oceanic and Asian players wanted to make sure that they all rolled on the same server right on launch day, so guilds began to get in contact with each other and use BioWare’s own guild registration system to link Republic and Empire groups together in…
Species of Starwars: Nikto
The Nikto were a reptilian humanoid species from the planet Kintan in the Si’Klaata Cluster with many subspecies. They have tan, leathery skin and flat faces with multiple breathing holes on their cheeks and jawbones. Radiation from a nearby nova is believed to have sparked rampant mutation among the animal life of Kintan, and has resulted in the Nikto species encompassing a number of distinct sub-races. Four small horns protrude from the Nikto’s forehead. Nikto can be found throughout the galaxy, often involved with shady activities in the galaxy’s fringe. Of all the “client species” of the Hutt Cartel, the Nikto are regarded as the most dangerous, especially due to the actions of a fanatical and fatalistic cult that has long plagued the Nikto people. The Kajain’sa’Nikto, or “Red Nikto” are probably the most common. These desert dwellers are characterized by reddish pigmentation, small horns along the forehead and orbits of the…
SWTOR Flashpoints: New Player’s Guide
As a new SWTOR player, you need the basics of flashpoints so you can get started in the game and learn the ropes. This guide is designed to help you do just that. Here you can find all the information you need to get started and to advance in the game to become an intermediate player. It includes the basics to get you started. What this guide is not: This guide is not a specific breakdown or walk-through of any specific flashpoint. Rather, it is an overview of what you need to know to succeed in flashpoints, especially if you are new to the game. Let’s begin… First, you should know that flashpoints are the same thing as dungeons in other MMO games. This is where you’ll find the best loot drops and it’s where the hardest fights take place. Normally, you’ll get a quest for the flashpoint before entering…
Asia Pacific Server Names and Launch Timing
Are you looking for more information about launch timing for SWTOR launches in Asia? Now that the game is launching in several new territories, players from these regions are trying to learn more about the launch times, servers and more. Stephen Reid posted in the official forums about the Asia Pacific Server Names and Launch Timing: Good morning, or to those of you on the other side of the world, good morning… for tomorrow. This week we officially launch Star Wars: The Old Republic in several new territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Lots of more information on all aspects of the launch will be released tomorrow in an update to our official FAQ, but as we’ve heard requests for server names and timing, we thought we’d give you those details a little earlier. Here’s our official launch timing. All servers will be online simultaneously at approx…
Jedi Consular Shadow Leveling Build – Use This And RACE To Level 50!
We Got another build for you today courteous of swtorsavior.com. This build also includes full rotations so you will pack a punch when using the Jedi Shadow. This is a leveling build (PVE) and is more geared towards DPS… Jedi Consular Shadow Leveling Build Here is a quick run through of the point allocation: Level 10 – Shadow’s Respite (1/2) Level 11 – Shadow’s Respite (2/2) Level 12 – Infiltration Tactics (1/3) Level 13 – Infiltration Tactics (2/3) Level 14 – Infiltration Tactics (3/3) Level 15 – Misdirection (1/3) Level 16 – Misdirection (2/3) Level 17 – Misdirection (3/3) Level 18 – Security Breach (1/2) Level 19 – Security Breach (2/2) Level 20 – Shadow Technique (1/1) Level 21 – Vigor (1/1) Level 22 – Circling Shadows (1/2) Level 23 – Circling Shadows (2/2) Level 24 – Masked Assault (1/1) Level 25 – Profundity (1/3) Level 26 – Profundity (2/3)…
Interview with Jennifer Hale
Have you seen the face of the voice behind Satele Shan? What about the female Sheppard in Mass Effect? Or the femtrooper in SWTOR? Yup, all voices are done by Jennifer Hale. She is an amazing voice actress who always goes above and beyond in the roles that she plays. If you are a Jennifer Hale fan, then you’re going to appreciate the exclusive interview over at TORWars this week. Recently, Deirdre from TORWars was able to sit down and pick the brain of the beautiful and talented Jennifer Hale and they’ve been kind enough to post the two-part video series on their site for fans to enjoy. Some topics of conversation? What it’s like to do voice acting for one of the biggest names in the video game industry, her singing career and more. There are two parts of the ongoing series now live and they say to check…
SWTOR for $39.99 on Amazon Deal of the Day
This just in from Amazon’s Deal of the Day today- SWTOR for only $39.99 and it ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. If you’ve been waiting to buy SWTOR until the price comes down, thinking about buying it for a friend or a family member or wanted to get yourself a second copy, this is the perfect time to get the savings on the initial purchase. You save $20 on the game when you buy- today only- from Amazon.com. This special price is for the standard edition. It is in stock and ships immediately after purchase. Platform: PC (Windows Vista / XP) Product Features (from Amazon listing) Platform: PC | Edition: Standard · Define Your Star Wars Saga – Choose from one of eight iconic roles · Choose the Light or Dark Side – Meaningful choices throughout your journey will determine the light or dark side · Adventure with Companions –…
TOR TV: False Emperor Hard Mode – 2 Man
The False Emperor takes place right after the Battle of Ilum and your faction obtaining Darth Severin’s stealth fighter. Your party uses this to invade Darth Malgus’s space station in order to take the fight to him. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! Do not watch this unless you are ready to have the higher levels of Star Wars: The Old Republic shown to you!! Fappy and Dreary of the Krath Server walk you through the False Emperor flashpoint in SWTOR — 2 MAN!