Yesterday we told you the story about David Bass getting a new job for WildStar at Carbine Studios. Now we can tell you that Stephen ‘Rockjaw’ Reid has also got a new job! Great news for the Community Manager let go from BioWare Austin. It was a sad day for me because I really liked Stephen. I have a signed poster framed on my wall from him. That’s not the kind of thing you get every day. He’s funny, he’s personable and his passion for video games emanates from his pores (nope, that’s not sweat!). Stephen is blogging “while not really blogging” over on Tumblr these days and if you want to keep track fo what he’s up to, you can follow his posts. His recent post explains a bit about what he’s been up to and where he is now working: I’m back at Gazillion Entertainment, back working on…
Stephen Reid
BioWare layoff updates
It has been a sad couple of days for many BioWare employers as many have to look for a new job. Today we can confirm that Stephen Reid was in fact one of the of the team members who have to look for a new job. On his Facebook and Twitter he gave the following statement: Today my life’s next chapter starts. Lost track of how many chapters so far… but time to turn the page. I was one of those affected by layoffs at BioWare Austin yesterday. I got to build an amazing team while I was there, and miss them already. I’m also going to miss #SWTOR and the community we created. Sure, I know some of you hated me, but hey, I still worked hard for you. 🙂 I’ll be Twitter-quiet for a bit, but I’ll be back soon-ish. Doing something, somewhere, and talking about it here. I hope we keep talking. Last but…
Official dev response regarding blurry high quality textures: Shit storm incoming!
Almost since the first release day of SWTOR, users at the official SWTOR forum have raised concern about missing high quality graphical textures that was in the game during Beta. After investigating the issue, Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid responded to the problem and thereby started a tsunami on the official forums. Check out Reids answer below and follow the debate over here, but embrace yourself, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than there! Hey everyone, thanks for bearing with us as we investigated the concerns raised here.After investigation, it seems that the confusion here is a combination of a UI issue that’s been resolved and a feature that’s working as intended, but the reason why it’s ‘working as intended’ needs explanation. First, the UI issue. The preferences menu as it is seen on the Public Test Server for version 1.1 of the game is correct…
BioWare Says No Plans for Cross-server PVP Queuing in Near Future of SWTOR
We told you recently how BioWare plans to implement a separate level 50 warzone into the PvP queue, and while it sounds like a great idea, it’s not without its cons- just like anything. A downside to this new plan that many players have pointed out is that queue times for warzones can now become even longer than they already are to level 50s. So some have brought up the idea of cross-server PvP queues like other games have (think WoW). However, BioWare says they won’t be implementing this tactic, at least not any time in the near future of SWTOR. So instead, it looks like level 50s will just have to wait for other level 50s to catch up to them so queue times could be very long- at least at first and while the game is still new. “Cross-server queuing for PvP is something that the development team…
Stephen Reid Clears Up Confusion Over SWTOR Bans
We posted recently about the confusion over SWTOR bans and also mentioned that Stephen Reid put word out that an official update and response was soon to come on the forums. Well, in case you missed it or you’re still wondering what is up with those aforementioned SWTOR bans, here’s the official SWTOR forum thread on the topic from Stephen Reid himself: Our Terms of Service team recently took action against some accounts playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we wanted to give you some insight into what happened and why. First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what’s commonly known as ‘gold farming’ – or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these…
AMA on Reddit with Stephen Reid
Ask Me Anything! AMA on Reddit with Stephen Reid @Rockjaw today was really exciting, lots of fun and brought us some fun and interesting stuff. My only complaint is that many of the questions were regarding issues that have already been publicly discussed. I would have preferred to see more personal stories, insider info and insights into the game and the making of the game. Anyway, it’s still good info. If you missed it happening live, that’s a-ok because I caught it all and we’re here to give you the highlights. Reid started the event with a few caveats: I’m not in charge of any design decisions on the game – if you are looking to get something changed, ask nicely on the official Forums 🙂 I’m not aware of every single bug in the game, or the status of their resolution – although I am happy to hear about…
Stephen Reid AMA – Wednesday, December 28th @ 2pm (CST)
Stephen Reid, the Community Manager for Star War: The Old Republic, known to many of you as @rockjaw, has agreed to do an AMA at /r/swtor – this is exciting news for anyone looking to gain more info about the game, BioWare and other game-related info. What are you doing this upcoming “hump day”? On Wednesday, December 28th at 2pm (CST), many gamers will still be off for holiday vacation and it’s a great time to get in a little more SWTOR action. As much as you can in between visiting or traveling that you might have planned, you can also learn more about SWTOR and the experience as a whole in a variety of ways. If you’ve ever wanted to ask Reid something specific, here’s your chance. The AMA will work somethng like a question and answer format. According to Reddit: “The format is simple: Ask Mr. Reid a…
Interview with Stephen Reid
TotalBiscuit (The Cynical Brit) Interviews Stephen Reid from Bioware. In the interview they talk about the launch issues with SWTOR, queues and a bit on their future plans. An interesting interview with some hefty background PVP action. The interview is quite long, but really important what he talks about from 20 minutes onward. Basically saying that they’re not going to take WoW’s approach of, “if you’re bored, go roll on alt,” but instead keep building on your main character’s storyline. Good to hear that.
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 Targets November 25-28 for Last Beta Weekend
Earlier today , the official Star Wars: The Old Republic Twitter feed, and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid (AKA @Rockjaw) confirmed that the ‘everyone is invited‘ beta weekend is on track for November 25-28. This is basically an open beta event and the invites should be coming this upcoming week. But now we also know when we will be playing in this massive beta event. Some have asked if this date for the weekend was intentionally chosen on Thanksgiving weekend, a holiday for those in the United States. Maybe they were thinking fewer people would play during this time? Or maybe the exact opposite was true and they were thinking that people would be off for the holiday season, giving them more time to play and enjoy the weekend. Will you be changing your holiday plans in order to beta test SWTOR? How much time do you think you will…
SWTOR OPEN BETA!
Still not in beta yet? Are you itching to get your chance to try SWTOR for yourself before launch? You are in luck because we found a great little piece of info today straight from the source himself, Mr. Stephen Reid. Stephen Reid tweets: “Everyone who signed up for #SWTOR testing (yes – everyone), including those redeeming keys from our partners, will get invited next week.” This means everyone! Basically this is now going to be an open beta situation where anyone who is interested in getting to play, will get to play. It’s beneficial for them to do it for a variety of reasons. For one, they get to test the servers and make sure they have stability for the loads of people who are going to want to play. Another benefit is that this will give more people the chance to be sure they want to fork out…
Stephen Reid tweeted a pic of SWTOR CE Box
Are you wondering what the Collector’s Edition of SWTOR is going to look like? Have you pre-ordered already or asked Santa to pretty-please bring you a copy for an early Christmas this year? If you’re anxious or curious to see what it’s going to look like, you are in luck. Stephen Reid tweeted a pic of the SWTOR Collector’s Edition box as a fun little teaser for us all to see and drool over. One thing that strikes me right away is how solid this is, which is great for the high price you’re going to pay for it. My office contains a large collection of video game collector’s editions from both myself and my husband. As avid video gamers, we have built a bit of a collection over the years and this box is going to look great added to our shelf. The pic from Reid doesn’t show us…
Interview: Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid
Kay White had the privilege of interviewing Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic at NYCC and allowed TORWars to print the story. I love Erickson and the fun and humor he brings to every interview or chat about SWTOR so I was definitely interested in giving this one a read. On Saturday at New York Comic Con, in between some hours of being shoulder-bumped by geek-crazed New Yorkers, I got to enjoy some minutes with Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mr. Erickson, with grace and animated humor, gave out details of the writing process, resolving questions that have gnawed at me since I played my first BioWare game, Dragon Age: Origins. He also discussed content balance, titles, voice actor availability, character surnames, and a skinny little bit about slave bikinis. You will need to head on over to TORWars…
Try out SWTOR at New York Comic Con
We previously wrote about all the Star Wars events and guest attending to this years New York Comic Con, but yesterday BioWare posted an official update regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic presence there. Players who come by the booth will have the opportunity to try out both the Alderaan and Huttball Warzones. New York Comic-Con attendees will also have the chance to play through some of the Origin Worlds content on the showfloor. In addition, three separate panels will be held to give fans and medium more detailed information. Those who come by the booth will have the opportunity to experience both the Alderaan and Huttball Warzones. New York Comic-Con attendees will also have the chance to play through some of our Origin Worlds content on the showfloor. If your not able to attend the the official avent, BioWare will be holding a Meet and greed on Wednesday, October 12th 2011: The BioWare team…
All SWTOR beta invites have gone out
Stephen Reid tweeted this announcement today, “All invites for SWTOR Beta Testing Weekend 2 have now been sent.” He added that further info could be found on the official forums. The announcement has brought about mixed emotions. There are many who are disappointed as they didn’t get an invite to beta testing and this news seems to mean that they will not get their chance- at least not now. While we are counting down the weeks until the game’s official release, many people are hoping to get to play that week of beta. With Weekend 2 invites out, many people are flocking to the boards hoping to find new information released by weekend 1 players. It’s currently unclear whether or not there will be future weekends of beta play testing available or how many more, if any, players will get to experience the game before December. Reid previously announced that…
September SWTOR Beta Weekend Testers Re-Invited
Last night Stephen Reid posted a very important statement regarding Beta testing on the official forum. The first group of beta weekend testers will be re-invited to the test the latest build of Star Wars: The old republic: Why are they being re-invited? Because we feel for a significant proportion of those invited to test during Beta Testing Weekend #1, they did not have an optimal testing experience. As I mentioned before, we had some issues, including some people not receiving an invite, and others being unable to get the client in time because of issues with their acceptance of their invite. With those factors in mind, we felt that because many people did not experience the game, it was worthwhile to re-invite everyone. So look after this in your mail:
Official statement on same gender romance arcs
Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager, made an official statement on the SWTOR forums about the previously debated issue of same gender romance arcs and relationships with companions. A lot of players or would-be players didn’t like the idea that the game only seemed to allow for male-female relationships and romantic encounters. Bioware seemingly listened to the feedback and have issued a statement on the matter. Official statement follows: “Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more…
SWTOR will not require Origin
It’s been a topic tossed around the SWTOR communities for some time and Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager for SWTOR finally clarified it once and for all on the official forums. SWTOR will not require Origin to be played: “Regardless of what other games may choose to do in their integration with Origin’s desktop client, here’s what our situation is: You are not required to use the Origin desktop client to download, patch or play the game client for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This applies whether you purchase The Old Republic via Origin.com or from a retailer in boxed form. You will not be forced to install the Origin desktop client. There are still various consumer benefits to the client itself, but it’s not required for The Old Republic.” So there we have it, folks! The issue is done but surely, some people will still find something…
Stephen Reid Clarifies Details on Operations
Stehen Reid posted in the official forums to clarify some issues and details about Operations. “To clear some of this up… First of all, loot containers. After every boss is defeated during a normal difficulty Operation, every player will receive a loot container. Inside that container each player gets a chance for loot specific to them, or commendations that can be exchanged for other loot. So to be specific (because this seems to be confused by PC Gamer) that happens after each boss is defeated in a normal difficulty Operation, and not just once at the end of the Op. (There are multiple bosses in Operation: Eternity Vault for example.) Second, Gabe was misquoted a bit on the lockout thing (it’s a bit loud here on the show floor!). There are lockouts, but they are designed to be ‘flexible’. This means, for example, if I have killed Boss 1 in…
25 mins of the Sith Warrior starting zone from Totalbiscuit
This fun video gives us Steven Reid playing a Sith Warrior in the origin world for a full, exciting 25 minutes. If you have yet to play the game for yourself, this is one of the best gameplay videos to come out so far that will really show you what it’s like to play for yourself. “Totalbiscuit is joined by Stephen Reid (@rockjaw) for an exclusive look at Star Wars The Old Republic and the Sith Warrior starting zone, ft. in-game audio feed, full voice acting and double-British action. Filmed off-screen at Gamescom 2011 with full permission from Bioware.”
RE-Live TV from BioWare Base at Comic-Con
Yesterday BioWare had a live Q&A with Stephen Reid, James Ohlen, Dallas Dickinson and Rich Vogel. unfortunately I was sleeping like a baby while it was on, but WeekendJedi and SoMuchMass has made sure the full Q&A is now on Youtube. Here are the highlights ( Thanks to Ask a Jedi): Collector’s Edition store is actually an exclusive location that only CE owners have access to! Items from this store however will not give people an advantage in power, though weapons and armor will be available Color Stone is gold in addition to adding effects Sharding may be used on launch day, only if absolutely necessary (the practice of creating multiple copies of the same area) Advanced Class change is in the game. 1st swap is cheap. After that it gets expensive Companion AI – off-limits for talking about! James Ohlen is in trouble. Companion customization is flexible, but you can’t…
SWTOR Beta Testers MAY be getting Buddy Keys to invite friends to Beta
Do you have a friend in the SWTOR beta? It’s possible the “friends and family” beta mode may be expanding to friends of friends and family. According to a Tweet by @Kruczinski, beta testers were getting a number of beta keys to share with friends starting today. Of course, Stephen Reid (@Rockjaw) set him straight real quick with a reminder that “any information within Game Testing is under NDA” so he most certainly should not have been Tweeting about it. Anthony then replied to Reid with: “@Rockjaw Unfortunately, I haven’t been invited to any of the Game Testing phases which means I can’t really break any NDA can I?” Some question the authority of his leak since his previous tweet included a racial slur and the latter tweet admitted he was not part of Game testing, therefore, may not actually have any solid information regarding buddy keys or TOR at…
Moral Issues in SWTOR and more Tidbits from the Forums
The Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums were abuzz yesterday with talk about dark/light side morals and choices, rumors of a release date and more. Damion Schubert stepped in to add more insight to the topic as well. Zoeller talked about questing and how it will operate within SWTOR and explaining that there will be some repeatable quests/content within the game but that the game won’t rely on it completely. Zoeller also discussed where we will be able to fly within the game: “Once you have your ship, every planet in the galaxy can be flown to. Of course, flying to a level 40 planet at level 12 might not be the greatest idea, but still, you can do that.” Then Stephen Reid also talks about morals and light side/dark side choices: “The Light Side / Dark Side symbols only appear when using a mouse to hover…
Stephen Reid clarifies on EA Origins
If you had questions about EA Origins and how it relates to getting your own copy of SWTOR, Stephen Reid has made a lot of clarifications on the official TOR forums. We’ll save you the trouble of hunting and sum it all up for you here. Q: Do I have to install Origin to play the game, get updates and more if I purchase a boxed copy? Reid answers: “No, you won’t. While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (in other words, if you want to buy it online and download it, you’ll do so through Origin) that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic. Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals. However, you won’t need to launch…