If you were not in Paris for the SWTOR launch party, you can at least feel a little bit like you were by checking out these awesome photos from the launch party. There were droids and storm troopers and guest speakers and more! Details of the Paris Launch Party: Virgin Megastore Champs-Élysées 52 avenue Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris With Emmanuel Lusinchi, Technical Design Director. See all of the photos here. Other launch events: Austin, TX- UPCOMING Monday, Dec. 19th at 10pm CST – Tuesday, Dec. 20th at 1am CST Best Buy – South Austin 4970 Us Hwy. 290 W South Town Square Austin, TX 78735 With Studio Creative Director James Ohlen and Executive Producer Rich Vogel, as well as other members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team. London Wednesday 14th December 9pm – Thursday 15th December 100 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL With Alex Freed – Senior Writer…
Warning on SWTOR Bans
What will get you banned from SWTOR? That’s a great question as we ease into the pre-launch and the eventual December 20th launch of the game. Some players are finding out that the ban-hammer just might be more sensitive than we thought. It seems that there are some things that are auto-flagged as bannable offenses and many of them are integrated into the chat. This user on Reddit warns other players that the ban-o-meter is pretty sensitive in SWTOR right now (which might not be a bad thing, really): “i was having a conversation in hutta about Aion, and the terrible time we had with RMT and botters. I said (and got an email verifying it) “i just hope we don’t see aion-style spammers ala ‘W W W . B U Y T H I S’ its annoying!” got an email saying I was permabanned for “Harassment – Advertising (mass…
The Sith Inquisition: Firsthand Obliteration
As all of us eagerly shove our heads into The Old Republic as deep as we possibly can, there are a few things we’d like to mention. First off, make sure to thank the Devs for their hard work. Both on twitter and email, a nice way to make sure Bioware knows they did a good job is by letting them know directly. The more they see positive energy from the community instead of questions or complaints, the more likely they are to keep at what they’re doing and give us a few solid expansions. In addition we’ve had a couple major news updates come through to share with you all. The first is that regular maintenance has gotten under way, and we have a pseudo schedule to go along with for them. You can find the full post detailing those times Here. They aren’t extreme, but the last few…
SWTOR Security Key Vendor Items Available
As if you needed one more reason to invest in the SWTOR Security Key device or app and keep your account safe, there are awesome vendor items available as added incentive to those who get the security key devices. Yesterday I told you how the Mobile Security Key app is available for iOS devices. This means you can get that extra bit of security for your SWTOR account right on your phone or other device. But what I didn’t know then (before I had tried it myself) is that it comes with a bonus when you use it. it grants you access to an in-game Security Key vendor who gives you certain digital items you cannot get without it. You will find this NPC vendor in Carrick Station or Vaiken Spacedock (depending on your faction) and he’s found in the inner circle near one of the cargo hold pods. There…
SWTOR Stats: Start Choosing Republic- Imbalance in the Force
Uh-oh! It seems there is an imbalance in the force, my friends. Or rather an imbalance in the factions of SWTOR. Over on Taugrim.com, they provide some stats into the game and the faction choices that are being made on PvP servers so far. This is especially interesting to me since my guild is on a PvP server. The overall stats show 137,732 players have gone Empire and only 66,586 have gone Republic. This means that the Empire has 2.1 times the total population. That is a significant difference for sure. This is based on stats from the entire world population. Here is a snippet of the post that discusses this: Let’s take a look at faction and class data mined from the Pre-Launch Guild Program (PLGP): http://swtorprogress.com/members.php. This not a comprehensive set of data, but it is statistically significant set of data: 450k players, or ~30% of the predicted…
Upcoming SWTOR Maintenance Windows Announced – Tuesdays You Get Fresh Air
If you’re wondering just when the game will be unplayable and servers down for maintenance so you can go outside and see a bit of that thing called sunshine, then you’re in luck. The upcoming SWTOR maintenance windows have now been announced. Tuesday is the big day. So whatever it is that you do when you’re not playing SWTOR, this will be the day to get it done. An Official Community Blog post was made in regards to the upcoming maintenance windows that will help you know what to expect in the very near future. Tuesday is the big day and will most likely be the weekly reset day for the game but in addition to this, there will be some other times that maintenance will take place. Here is the listing of maintenance windows that are coming up: Maintenance Window #1 Date: Early hours of Friday, December 16th (CST)…
SWTOR Pre-Launch Waves Daily Update Thread: 8 Waves Today
Are you still waiting for your pre-launch email? At least one went out already today and Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid is updating everyone on the status on today’s SWTOR Pre-Launch Waves Daily Update Thread on the official forums. His original post this morning: “Morning everyone! We’re starting to send out more invites for today. Here’s the good news: overnight we decided to send out more invites than we had originally planned. However, we’ll be spacing those invites out, which means we’ll have more ‘waves’ than the previous four-per-day. We are inviting more people today than we did during yesterday. I’ll update this thread as we send invites. As a reminder, we’re also updating our official Twitter accounts (@SWTOR, @SWTOR_FR and @SWTOR_DE) with the invites as they sent; that’ll be more up-to-the-minute than this post. For anyone who’s not yet been invited, remember to have the email address no-reply@bioware.swtor.com…
The Guild Sphere: World Renown Legion
It’s Thursday and time to look at a new SWTOR guild. This time the “World Renown Legion” took the time to answer our questions. If you want your guild featured on swtorstrategies.com drop us a line. Where did your guilds name come from? The creator of the clan gave the original name “world rich leaders”. A year or so later, we changed the name World Renown Legion as the best name that we could come up with to match the WRL acronym. We pretty much go by {WRL} now. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? We are a brotherhood. We are a group of friends who value loyalty and respect regardless of the game we are playing. How did your guild come about? A young man from the Netherlands started the clan in late 2005, originally as a player hosted server on Star Wars Battlefront II….
Mobile Authenticator for iDevices Now Available!
Attention iPhone and iPod users, you now have an option for an additional layer of protection for your SWTOR account and who doesn’t want that when the game is as popular as it already seems to be? Nothing is more frustrating that putting a lot of time and money into a game and having your account hacked. The authenticator gives you that extra layer of security so you can worry less about someone else being able to get into your account. But if you already use an iDevice, it makes it easier to keep your authenticator right on your device instead of having to keep up with that little keychain thingy. “Keep your Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ account protected with the official Star Wars: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app for your iPhone and iPod Touch! The Star Wars: The Old Republic Mobile Security Key app is an…
Some More Statistics on Where You are in the SWTOR Pre-Launch List
Yesterday we brought you some info about pre-launch order status and how to tell where you are in the list. We commented that it was based on incomplete data but it was pretty much the only thing out there. Well, now we have some more stats for you- also likely incomplete but what the heck? You have nothing better to do while you’re waiting to get in anyway, right? This Reddit poster says: “Based on the responses in jscoppe’s Early Access Tracking Thread (take 2), I’ve created a graph to show the distribution of preorder registration and Early Access acceptance.” The stats are designed to help you get an idea of where you stand on the list and when you might be able to get your invite for early access to the game- something that everyone who preordered and is not in yet is waiting to find out. …
Warning! Cannot be Unseen: Francis Awaits SWTOR Access
It’s day two of pre-launch for SWTOR and while several waves have gone out already, not everyone who preordered has gotten in yet. In fact, a great number of players still have not gotten into the game and some are not too happy about that at all. If you’re feeling bummed out as you wait for your early access, here’s someone who can relate. Francis called in sick for work, prepped his lightsabers and probably stocked up on loads of gamer snackages as he awaited the early access he was “guaranteed” to get on day 1 of the pre-launch. See what happens as he waits to get in… But be warned: once you’ve seen this, it cannot be unseen. Watch at your own risk (don’t say we didn’t warn you!) Francis is Upset about No Early Access to Star Wars the Old Republic
748 Pages of Rage- Why You Are Not in the SWTOR Pre-Launch Yet
If you’re still anxiously awaiting your chance to get into the pre-launch Early Entry experience, you are not alone. Two of my friends who pre-ordered on the day the game was available for order got in on the first wave of the first day. A few other friends made it in later the same day and some others got in today but lots of people I talk to are still waiting. If you’re feeling like a straggler, don’t worry; your time is still coming. For some people, this isn’t good enough. There are some very angry SWTOR fans who shelled out a great deal of cash up front to be able to get into the game as quickly as possible and some are mad they are not in yet. We were told by community staff that we would receive daily updates as each wave goes out until all pre-launch waves…
Early Access Developer Chat with Best Buy
Best Buy is trying to connect with gamers more than ever before and SWTOR might bring them that opportunity. The big box electronics retailer is trying to outdo smaller operations and specialty stores like GameStop for some time now. Fans of SWTOR had a great opportunity today, thanks to Best Buy. To help celebrate the beginning of Early Game Access, Best Buy hosted a developer chat with Game Director James Ohlen, Writing Director Daniel Erickson and also Lead End-game Designer Gabe Amatangelo. It all happened at 7pm Austin time on the Best Buy site. If you missed it, the transcript is now available to help you catch up on the details. Here is a snippet: Guest-197: What is your deployment schedule for future content? Gaming-BBY: >>James: We’re going to have a regularly cadence with our content updates, but we’re not going into specifics. Updates will include Flashpoints, Operations, Warzones, Solo Content,…
Intergalactic Intel: Building A Community
Intergalactic Intel: Creating a community “So the class previews are done?” My brother asked me as I began typing out the next week’s article.“Yeah. We’ve gotta get ready for release.” His eyebrow raised.“Really? Like what?”“Podcast, reviewing the spread sheets on sithwarrior.com, recruiting the empire team for world bosses…” Even I was surprised about the amount of work we had to do. Welcome back to Intergalactic Intel! I apologize for another late blog post, but I do come bearing something else! The first ever Galactic Transmission! I hope those of you who are in early access are enjoying. This week we’re talking about how to create an awesome community. Thus far we’ve covered a ton. But this week I’d like to look at a project. A project that requires everyone’s help. I’m talking about building a community. One of the reasons World of Warcraft has lasted so long is it’s…
When Will You Get SWTOR Early Access Invite?
Yesterday was the big day for a good number of excited SWTOR fans. For others, the time has nearly arrived but they must wait just a bit longer to find out when they will get their early access to the game because the early access invites are coming in waves, as Stephen Reid explains. Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid posted on the official forums (which are back up, by the way) about how the waves of invites for SWTOR will go out. Basically, it will work in the order in which your preorders went in (and were registered with the code). The first people to register their preorder copies will be the first people to gain access to the game. You are ordered according to when you input the preorder code, not when you actually preordered the game so unfortunately, if you were one of those first people to…
BioWare Staff Show SWTOR Dedication
How do you show dedication to something you really care about or something that has made a big impact on your life? For some of us, a little bit of body ink is just the thing to keep those memories strong and also to show off to others something that has meant so much to us. Some key members of the BioWare team have the same thinking about SWTOR and launch day is indeed a very special day for them as well. Dr. Greg Zeschuk (@DoktorZee) and Cory Butler’s (@BlazeofCory) have a permanent reminder of SWTOR and their role in the game- or rather the impact has had on their lives. The two showed off SWTOR-inspired tats via their Twitter feeds recently. BioWare’s Dr. Greg tweets: “SWTOR Launch Tattoo (and Launch Beard)… for reals.” Live Producer Cory Butlet tweets: “SWTOR launch tattoo!” That is dedication right there, am I right?…
BioWare’s James Ohlen on SWTOR’s launch and beyond
ZAM Editor-in-Chief Chris “Pwyff” Tom spoke to SWTOR Game Director James Ohlen about launch day preparations, legacy system updates, SWTOR’s short-term development plans, and much more and they have brought us this fun interview so we all can share in the news and excitement. We’re getting closer to the days of Early Game Access, many of us are looking for ways to contain our excitement and find something to occupy us until we get in the game for ourselves. Interviews like this are one way to do that and it won’t be long now until we can say “see you in game!” ZAM asked James Ohlen if he was nervous about the big launch day. His reply? Not at all! It’s been six years of working on MMORPGs down here in Austin, so it’s been a big part of my life. Biggest I’ve ever worked on! SWTOR is definitely BioWare’s…
SWTOR List of Slash Commands and Emotes for In-Game
With prelaunch coming, what better time than now to come across this list of slash commands and emotes for in-game SWTOR? Slash Commands: Assuming they are still accurate when the servers go live (which we cannot guarantee at this time), here are some slash commands you can use in-game: Numbers like /0 /1 /2 /3 will represent chat channels /coverbar /date /dismiss /dnd /duel /e /emote /flag /follow /friend /gabdicate /gdisband /general /ginvite /gkick /gquit /gremove /group /grp /guild /hideui /inspect /invite /lag /logout /me /nameplates See the complete list for more slash commands. If you are a veteran MMORPGer, you will probably be familiar with many of these already so a good policy is just to test slash commands you know to have worked in other games in the system of SWTOR and see if they work for you. Chances are, they probably will (if nothing changes on launch)….
SWTOR Launch Events Incoming
There are some exciting events coming soon to SWTOR. You can be a special part of the launch experience on December 20th with the community events announced here on the SWTOR news page. There will be events in both North America and Europe to help you celebrate the launch of the game along with BioWare and LucasArts. For example: In the US, we have partnered with Best Buy to host launch night events at the Best Buy Union Square in New York City and the Best Buy South Austin in Austin, Texas. Members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic development team will be on hand at each location, including BioWare Co-Founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk in New York, as well as James Ohlen and Rich Vogel in Austin! Fans attending these events may be able to get their hands on swag, take part in Q&As with…
Pre-Order Breakdown: Where are You on the Pre-Launch List?
If you’re anxiously awaiting when you will get into the game, here is some interesting information about the pre-order breakdown, number of people who have pre-ordered and where you might be on the list. Now you can see a very generalized guesstimation of where you might be on the list. While it’s fun and interesting to see it in graph format, we say “guesstimation” because these stats are not 100% accurate. This is only box sales from North America. It does not include digital copies or copies from Europe. That’s a great deal of numbers missing. In fact, it could be only half of the actual numbers of the game that have been preordered. Anyway, the stats from vgchartz.com may not be completely accurate. It also includes the disclaimer that it is just intended to give a general idea of where you might stand on the list. For that purpose,…
IGN’s SWTOR Interview: Bioware Spills about Star Wars MMO
Starting today, those who preordered BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic will be rolled into in the live game before the official launch date of December 20. The time has officially come. There will be no more beta testing, no more character wipes and no more waiting. We are down to the wire and it’s nearly time to being playing. With that said, it begs the question “What has Bioware learned from this experience?” In this exclusive interview with IGN, Bioware’s James Ohlen talks SWTOR, lessons learned, future changes in SWTOR and more. The interview is over 2,000 words long but well worth the read (or at very least a skim over the questions that interest you most). Here’s a snippet from the start of the interview: GN: During beta, which are some of the elements that changed the most and in ways you didn’t expect? I mean I saw…
Server Assignments are Here! Guild Pre-Launch Deployment
Today is the big day for everyone awaiting pre-launch guild server announcements, as we told you earlier. The emails finally came in so if you’ve been sitting there refreshing your inbox over and over, you can now relax. The emails are out and not just guild leaders/guild masters got them. Anyone registered in a pre-launch guild who pre-ordered should have gotten the email. In addition to checking for the email, you can skip a step and go straight to the guild page for your status: http://www.swtor.com/guilds You should be able to see the page title: Guild Headquarters The Pre-Launch Guild Program has Ended Member of: (Your Guild) Assigned to Server: (Your Server) NOTE: The official SWTOR site is so busy today that you will probably get put in a “waiting room” as you try to enter but mine was only 20 seconds long at the longest point so I didn’t…
Guild HQ Update Coming Today
SWTOR tweeted this weekend, “Eager to find out what server your #SWTOR Guild will be placed on? Your Guild HQ update is coming on Monday!” So we’re all awaiting the news but boy are they cutting it close on this one! Since early access is supposed to begin on Tuesday, this is cutting it really close for guild leaders to get the info and organize things with their guild. However, it doesn’t really matter since as soon as you log in your character that is signed up with that guild, you will gain access to wherever the guild is at. Your guild will be assigned to a server, not the player so when you log in to the server (and faction) your guild belongs to, you will be automatically in the guild. You are still free to make alts and place them on any server you choose. SWTOR Twitter feed…
MMORPG Dallas Dickinson Interview
MMORPG has an interesting interview with Dallas Dickinson for your enjoyment as you count down the days to SWTOR launch- coming oh so soon! This interview with Dallas Dickinson features post launch content, server announcements, empire/republic player ratio and more. Here is an interview snippet: MMORPG.com:Let’s kick things off by talking a bit about Game Testing. The last few weekend tests have seen a huge amount of players hitting the servers. What can you tell us about what you’ve learned from having so many users hitting your service? Were there any surprises or revelations in terms of what the service will be able to handle? Dallas Dickinson:There were actually, there were mostly positive surprises. There were way fewer surprises than we were bracing for. The servers actually did really, really well. Those who participated in the testing found the experience was relatively smooth. I think, the first night, we had…