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Courtney Woods Leaves the SWTOR Community team

February 14, 2015May 7, 2021 Soeren Kamper

Courtney Woods Leaves the SWTOR Community team to become a writer for BioWare. It’s unclear what game she will be writing on, but it is a big step up for Courtney Woods. This isn’t goodbye… 02.13.2015, 11:56 AM Almost four(!) years ago, I joined the SWTOR Community team. It’s been an amazing ride and I’ve learned so much not only from my teammates (yes, even Musco ), but all of you. Your constant enthusiasm and passion for SWTOR has been a daily motivator for me. From Cantinas to livestreams, I’ve enjoyed meeting some of you and chatting about everything from string cheese to our favorite companions. I would only give up these daily interactions with all of you for a truly great opportunity. I am happy to announce that I have been offered my dream job of becoming a writer at BioWare. This has been my career goal ever since I first…

Courtney Woods explains (again) that the Class Representative system is just a simple Q&A and nothing more

August 27, 2013November 22, 2020 Soeren Kamper

BioWare said this from the beginning, but some players didn’t understand it — They should have made it clearer i guess. Apparently some people were under the impression that the class representatives would have some kind of larger role, yet their sole purpose was to collate the mass number of questions into the 3 that would be given to Bioware for answering… and nothing more! It doesn’t take a genius to see how this have now turned into a shit storm on the forums…. First DevPost by Courtney Woods Hey everyone, I think the expectations for the Class Representative program kind of got lost along the way this week. While I totally understand and expect that there will be a multitude of opinions towards the responses we post, I do want to reiterate what we originally posted when we started this program: “Our number one goal is to get your…

What’s Happening to the Women of BioWare Austin?

March 17, 2015May 13, 2021 Lisa Clark

In the past month, we have seen an exodus of SWTOR staff from Bioware Austin, much like one we saw a couple years back. Of these were Courtney Woods from the community team and Hillary “Pokket” Nicole, the Community Coordinator. While specifics were not released, we are given the impression their contracts just ended and Bioware was not interested in renewing them. As a female gamer and someone who has worked within the industry for a number of years, it’s great to see other females taking a leadership role so I am sad to see them go. That said, it has many asking the question “Are there any females left out there at Bioware Austin?” and of course, there are. It would seem that SWTOR is getting rid of their community team once again (remember when this happened last time?) and the fact that Courtney and Hillary are female was…

SWTOR Community Cantina Tour Schedule for 2015

February 4, 2015April 21, 2021 Soeren Kamper

Lead Community Coordinator Courtney Woods, was so good to e-mail us BioWares plans for upcoming Community Cantina events this year. The plans are below. The next event will be at PAX East next month in Boston, MA on Saturday, March 7th at the Hyatt Grand Regency. Please let us know if you will be attending any of these events. April Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, CA July San Diego Comic-Con August Gamescom in Cologne, Germany September PAX Prime in Seattle, WA October New York Comic-Con Related Posts Changes to the Cartel Market — Monday July 01 2019SWTOR At PAX East CoverageStar Wars: The Acolyte – Sith Lord Inspired by Naked Elden Ring PlayersNew Double XP Weekend Coming 5/2 – 5/5 Know your lore: Uthar WynnCommunity Cantina Tour – Atlanta, GA – 2/28SWTOR: Revised Huttball changes3 countries that can’t get enough of Slots

Community Stream updates fans on in-game commendations changes

October 25, 2014February 21, 2021 Editor

Bioware shared some additional details on upcoming commendation changes during the regularly scheduled Community stream. The SWToR ommunity team made up by Eric Musco, Courtney Woods and Hillary Nicole shared information about what’s going to happen to in-game commendations after Shadow of Revan goes live. In detail: Ultimate and elite commendations are staying the same: While Musco admitted this is subject to change, he reassured that fans won’t lose any commendations either ways. Earning commendations: Some slight changes will occur impacting how fast you can earn the before-mentioned commendations. More details will be released next week. Three types of commendations become one: Every other type of commendation (excluding warzone) – classic, basic and planetary will be collapsed into a single type of commendation called basic. As mentioned above, Musco was quick to point out that these changes are not confirmed and could change as a result of testing before Shadow of Revan goes live….

Galactic Living Ep3 Livestream Q&A Notes

July 18, 2014January 10, 2021 Soeren Kamper

BioWare had another livestream yesterday, showing of gameupdate 2.9. This time Eric Musco and Courtney Woods showed how decorating will work. You can check it out below, but if you are more a reading type of person, Dulfy have put together the Q&A notes. These are readable below the video. Tomorrow the team will do a First Look Preview on Customizing a Dromund Kaas Skyrise Apartment with SWTOR Fansite OotiniCast. Q&A Rooms already exist inside a house but you cannot access them unless you unlock them first by interacting with the door of a specific room and pay the unlocking cost. Stronghold items that give you buffs? No items like that. Strongholds do give you rested XP. Fleet chat in strongholds or riot? Our current decision is still planetary chat. Can you become Kephess? Yes All strongholds have massive hooks to fit in ships. Some of them have roofs that…

Be the Weapon! Be the Asteroid!

April 1, 2014December 28, 2020 Soeren Kamper

BioWare posted one of their infamous April fool jokes today – The ultimate noob killer! Be the Weapon! Be the Asteroid! 04.01.2014 Take your Asteroid to Space! Who needs blaster bolts, ion cannons, or missiles, when your ship itself can be the weapon? Thanks to new Czerka technology, pilots can now jump into the cockpit of The Asteroid and take out their enemies head on. Blend into the battleground and lock onto unsuspecting enemies. The Asteroid specializes in tractor beams that reels their victims in. By the time the target realizes the situation, they will be blown to smithereens across the Asteroid’s rocky hull. More aggressive pilots will enjoy ramming into their foes with deadly accuracy. They won’t know what hit them until you hit them! Pilots should keep in mind that like the Bomber, the Asteroid is a big target with low maneuverability, blending into the terrain is a…

Boulder Cantina Tour News and Info

March 23, 2014December 28, 2020 Soeren Kamper

Non of us here at swtorstrategies were at the Boulder event, so the information below is from Lumberj, and all credits goes to him. The tour was just like most others, a Q&A round, followed by trivia to a room full of nerds and then a meet and greet. Who was there? Courtney Woods, some Australian dude who lost a arm wrestling match, Blain and Cory Butler. First off, they said they could not talk about strongholds other than what was originally announced. The exact details of what the legacy storage could hold was still being worked out in response to a ? about placing bound items in them. Guild ship battles is on the Wall of Crazy (WoC) Space PvE — WoC and no current plans Open space Pvp – WoC Class Story – Not at the moment, would rather have story that all classes can experience such as what they’ve…

Atlanta Cantina Tour News and Info

March 6, 2014December 28, 2020 Soeren Kamper

mmorpg.com have an article on what went on on last weekends Atlanta Cantina Tour: Last week, BioWare sent Star Wars: the Old Republic’s Community Specialist Courtney Woods, Community Manager Eric Musco, Producer Andrew Horowitz, and Lead Engineer Johan Allanson to Atlanta with swag and drink tickets in hand for the latest Cantina Tour stop. The now-traditional flashdrive that was handed out contained a series of images from upcoming content, and as expected, there was a Q&A session with Courtney Woods moderating the party. Many thanks to Dulfy of for the flashdrive assets, and Youtube user Mike Goeppner for capturing video of the event from which I culled the basic questions and answers. As is fairly standard at these things, players asked a lot of really good questions that we all want to know the answers to, but the BioWare folks weren’t going to reveal anything before its time. New playable species…

2014 Community Cantina Tour Locations

February 19, 2014December 27, 2020 Soeren Kamper

BioWare’s Courtney Woods updated the forum community with a list of locations the Community Cantina Tour will be visiting through out 2014. Below is the list of locations as well as the estimated date time frame for the events. When we come closer to the event they will post a blog with further details for that Cantina Tour – until then these are subject to change! Atlanta, GA – February 28th Boulder, CO – March 21-23rd Boston, MA (PAX East) – April 11-13th Vancouver, Canada – May 23-25th Los Angeles, CA (E3) – June 10-12th San Diego, CA (SDCC) – July 24-27th Cologne, Germany (Gamescom) – August 13-17th Seattle, WA (PAX Prime) – August 30th – September 2nd New York, NY (NYCC) – October 9-12th Las Vegas, NV – November 7-9th Austin, TX – November 21-23rd It’s interesting til notice they only will visit Europe once, and no meetings a…

Changes to the Friends of SWTOR program

June 19, 2013October 28, 2020 Soeren Kamper

Courtney Woods has some news regarding the refer a friend program. The program will stop on July 12th, and it will no longer be possible to get the current rewards. As someone who have 8 max-level characters — That speeder you received when a friend joined via your invitation, have saved me a massive amount of credits that would have otherwise been spent on speeder training. Whatever they do to the referral program, it’s going to be hard to top what they have in place now. Here’s to hoping they nail this one! Check out the statement below: Hey Everyone, Just wanted to clear things up about some of the changes coming to the Friends of SWTOR program. Starting June 11th, we began our “transition time” and you are no longer able to refer friends. If you had referred a friend before June 11th, they have until July 12th to…

Companions 101: Aric Jorgan

January 17, 2013June 23, 2024 Soeren Kamper

It was a busy day yesterday, so somehow we totally overlooked the newest installment of Companions 101. This time BioWare’s Courtney Woods talks about our all time favorite Cathar – Aric Jorgan. Jorgan is a male Cathar and a companion for the Trooper. He joins the player at the end of the Trooper’s Class quests on Ord Mantell. His primary role is that of Ranged DPS, and he is a romance option for the female Trooper. Meeting Aric Jorgan Efficient, loyal, and a perfectionist, Aric Jorgan is the ideal Republic soldier – and he knows it. Raised to be an officer, Aric is confident in his skills and doesn’t waste his time with niceties or politics. His credentials include four years in the academy and seven years in the field. Most notably, Jorgan was a part of the illustrious Dead Eyes, the finest sniper squad in the Republic. Eventually he was offered a promotion and a…

Companions 101: Vette

November 29, 2012September 25, 2020 Soeren Kamper

BioWare just posted the third installment of “Companions 101″”. This time Community Production Specialist, Courtney Woods, wrote an article focusing on the Sith Warrior companion – Vette. Beloow is a snippet, but if you are into Twi’lek’s, you should also check out our own article about this Exotic race Vette is all about the extremes. When she likes something, she expresses it immediately. If she is angry at someone, she will flare and snap at them. She will always let the Warrior know how she feels about a decision or the situation, which can be a delight or a pain. If you want to gain Vette’s trust and respect, keep in mind that her three biggest dislikes are needless cruelty, suppressing the weak, and anti-alien sentiment. Since the Empire is known for committing all three of these, it is no surprise that she has little love for the Sith and Imperials. So what are her motivations to help a…

Companions 101: Kira Carsen

October 23, 2012September 14, 2020 Lisa Clark

Here we are for a new installment of Companions 101 and this week it’s all about Kira! Courtney Woods is our guide into the world of Kira Carsen and everything you need to know about her backstory, emotional attachments and understanding Kira. Be warned that all of these Companion segments could contain story spoilers. Here is a snippet: The best kind of padawan should challenge their master… or at least, that is what Kira Carsen believes. Kira is not your typical Jedi, raised on Korriban in the Sith Academy, she has witnessed the brutality of the Empire first hand. After escaping from Imperial Space, Kira had to look out for herself until Master Bela Kiwiiks found her and brought her to into the Jedi Order. It isn’t surprising that Kira and Kiwiiks share a special bond, but Kira was afraid to share her past until she could prove herself as…

Scheduled Maintenance: September 5

September 1, 2012September 9, 2020 Soeren Kamper

Due to Labor Day, Next week’s scheduled maintenance will occur on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Check out the the official forum for more info or see our Copy past below: Courtney Woods We wanted to inform you all that due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 3rd, 2012, we will be moving next week’s scheduled maintenance to Wednesday, September 5th, 2012. We will be performing scheduled maintenance for four hours on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 6AM CDT (4AM PDT/7AM EDT/12PM BST/1PM CEST/9PM AEST). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but could be extended. Related Posts Guide: How to Run SWTOR on OS X Using WineStar Wars: The Old Republic Celebrates 12th Anniversary with Exciting Updates and Holiday EventsStar Wars Galaxy of Heroes: Rey’s Hero’s JourneyStar…

A Message from the Community Manager

August 9, 2012September 5, 2020 Soeren Kamper

Community manager JovethGonzalez Took the stage yesterday as he posted a rather lengthy post on the official forum. The post updates the community on the future plans of the community team, without really saying much. He does go on promising more communication from the team in the future. The last few months have probably been crazy at Bioware and has been very hard on the staff. But at this point, all we want/need to hear is about the future of SWTOR for paying subscribers. We want to know what is in the works for Operations, flash points, space “secrets”, Warzones, class balances and designs, dual spec, world pvp, achievements, expansions?, pazzak and other mini-games, and a million other requests and possible upgrades that could come to the game. With respect and gratitude, we would love to hear about any of these as soon as possible!! We need to know that Bioware (and especially EA) hasn’t given…

BioWare Announces New Community Team Members and Position Changes

June 1, 2012October 7, 2020 Lisa Clark

There are some changes happening at BioWare after certain staff members were let go and the BioWare SWTOR team want to let us know about these new team members, new positions and other changes we have to look forward to. In this Community Blog Post they shared a general update as well as introductions of different members: As many of you may already know, Community Coordinator Eric Musco will be taking over for Sr. Community Coordinator David Bass as the community liaison to fan sites and guilds. Eric and David have been working closely together over the past few weeks to ensure a smooth hand off. While we’re sad to see David leave, we wish him all the best in his new endeavor. They go to share some introductions: My name is Joveth Gonzalez and I’m the Online Community Manager. I’m currently overseeing the development of our new community initiatives,…

SWTOR Early Access Starts December 13

December 8, 2011August 17, 2020 Lisa Clark

“Early Game Access* for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is only a few days away! Starting December 13, 2011, The Old Republic will begin emailing invitations to start your Early Game Access.” This just in from the official website news section- are you ready to play? The announcement adds: “To ensure that players can get into the game as quickly as possible when their Early Game Access begins, we are now allowing everyone who has redeemed a Pre-Order Code at our Code Redemption Center to pre-load the game to their computer”. Bioware’s Courtney Woods announced that the game is available for pre-load to anyone who has already redeemed their pre-order codes. Stephen Reid also clarified the announcement on Twitter, and notified the community that the Early Access section of the Preorder FAQ had changed. You can now preload the game if you pre-ordered by visiting the SWTOR official website and…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Game update – Charles Boyd leaving BIoware

July 19, 2022July 19, 2022 gingetattoo

Here is a new game update for Star Wars: The old Republic. Bioware assures fans that they still have big plans for SWTOR despite Charles Boyd’s departure. As many of you know, Star Wars™: The Old Republic recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary this past December, which is an incredible milestone for a game. On the heels of that anniversary, we released our seventh expansion, Legacy of the Sith, in February. Our next content update for that expansion, Game Update 7.1, is slated to be released on August 2nd. This update will incorporate a host of new content and fixes, including: New daily mission arcs for Republic and Imperial players on the planet Manaan. A challenging new Operation for 8-player teams. Improvements to our Weapons in Outfitter system. Key revelations about Darth Malgus and the Sith lord whose relics he has been pursuing. We’re excited for you to experience all of this…

Battlefront Footage Shown to Retailers Behind Closed Doors…Oh, Come on!

March 5, 2015May 13, 2021 Editor

For the commoner, the last (and first) glimpse at actual Star Wars: Battlefront in-game footage came at the 2014 E3. Since then, while the team behind the project was obviously busy churning out content, not much else saw the light of day about the game, save for some rumors here and there, just enough to keep the hype-machine chugging along. A few days ago though, a select few were granted the privilege to take in some Battlefront magic, as retailers were finally shown some game-play, and fortunately for the community, at one of these events organized for GameStop, EA COO Peter Moore decided to fire out a few rousing tweets. According to him, the audience gave a “superb ovation” to the footage shown, which is pretty much what happened back at the E3 last year too. Having said that much though, Moore didn’t bother providing any other details, leaving the…

STAR WARS: The Old Republic: Where Were You…3 Years Ago!

December 18, 2014June 9, 2024 Soeren Kamper

What do you know… This upcoming Saturday, Star Wars: The old Republic ( SWTOR) have been around for 3 years. I still remember when I started this blog about the game back in 2008, right when I heard about the game the first time. Now BioWare want’s you to share where you were 3 years ago when we launched. Or, share a happy memory of yours from the past 3 years! We will also have devs, other members of the community team, etc. swinging into the thread to share there memories! Check out the announcement’s below: Hey folks, In case you don’t recall, December 20th, this Saturday, will mark the 3-year anniversary of STAR WARS: The Old Republic. As part of that, we thought it would be fun to start a thread so all of you can share where you were 3 years ago when we launched. Or, share a…

Why BioWare Can’t Officially Support Fan Sites, Podcasters, Etc.

October 10, 2014June 9, 2024 Lisa Clark

Some people might be curious why Bioware never seems to show a lot of support for the fan sites and fans that work so hard to promote them. This can be very frustrating if you don’t have a solid understanding of how these things work and why. It’s very important that Bioware doesn’t show any favoritism to a particular fansite or podcast, as this could cause some serious issues. There’s also a little matter of some liability issues that could come into play. Bioware is definitely not the only company to take this very same stance. But recently, they explained the reasoning why. In a recent live-stream, Courtney and Pokket explains why Bioware cannot officially support 99% of the streamers, podcasts and fansites. Basically, the fansite agreement says they can not have ties with any site that has advertisements of any kind. Streamers have Twitch adds Youtube has preroll adds Podcasts…

Bioware’s SWToR Cantina Tour Report-out (Seattle, Grand Hyatt Hotel, August 31,2014)

September 1, 2014February 6, 2021 Editor

SWToRStrategies.com had the opportunity to attend Bioware’s SWToR Cantina Tour at Seattle’s Grand Hyatt hotel yesterday (Aug.31,2014) and bring you the latest information from the meeting.

New Community Team Member Introduction at the official forums

January 6, 2014December 20, 2020 Soeren Kamper

BioWare have added a new member to it’s community team. Meet Tait Watson. Tait will be taking over some of Amber Greens work ( Not sure what she is up to now). Check out the announcement below: EDIT: Added Posts 2 & 3 Post #1 TaitWatson Is this thing on? | 01.06.2014, 01:44 PM Hey everyone! My name is Tait Watson and I am the newest member of the Community team here at BioWare Austin! I will be taking over a number of the things that Amber Green did previously, so I just wanted to stop in and introduce myself before you started seeing me show up on the forums. One of the many things I will be doing (and the part that will be most apparent) is gathering information for the development team through the Bug Report forums, so you will primarily find me hanging out in there. I have been gaming…