It’s the last day of the month and of course speculation is high about what the next SWToR expansion announcement is going to be. Fans have been talking about it in various places, including the official SWToR forums where Bioware is always keeping a close eye on what’s going on. One SWToR fan’s excitement caught the eye of Bioware and solicited a response from Senior Producer, Bruce McLean:
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SWToRStrategies: The Wall of Crazy….or…it was a dark and stormy night!
SWToRStrategies: Wall of Crazy (WoC) is the latest column that aspires to look into certain concepts and ideas that could make into our favorite game. The term “Wall of Crazy” is something that Bioware used in the past to describe crazy ideas that developers have during meetings and could eventually materialize if given the right resources. The most recent example, is the implementation of the Guild Capital ships and Guild Battles.
There is no death, there is the Force..
For some who never considered playing games like The Old Republic, the act of gaming is considered a wasteful task. On the other hand, some others might engage in gaming just to seek out a few hours of enjoyment. In many cases however, playing games like SWToR is all about the community around the game and the connection between people who share a common interest and passion in Star Wars and, in extension, SWToR. When a member or a group within this community experiences hardship then in many cases the community steps up and offers assistance or sympathy.
TOR Radio: A galaxy of podcasts!
We’re back once again to cover the latest and greatest SWToR podcasts from the always active community. With the (rumored) launch of Patch 3.0 a lot of podcasters are wondering what Bioware has in store for them and their favorite MMO. It’s definitely no surprise that most of the shows that aired over the last week, focused on the upcoming expansion teaser trailer.
SWToR up six spots in Raptr’s August Rankings
The latest expansion of Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR) seems to be paying dividends for Bioware. The recent content release called Galactic Strongholds, pushed the Star Wars themed MMO to the 14th spot in game rankings for the month of August according to Raptr. Other notable MMO appearances in the list include World Of Warcraft (no.2), Guild Wars 2 (no.12) and Final Fantasy XIV (no.1o). It’s worth noting that WildStar dropped off the list for the first time.
Bioware addresses network connectivity issues
Bioware’s production community coordinator Tait Watson was once again at the official forums today addressing server issues that affected SWToR gamers today (9/24/2014).
In specific…
SWToR Miner and (possibly) SWToR fan sites get a challenge from Bioware
You might have never heard of his name before, but if you have a moderate interest in SWToR you probably read about his work somewhere. SWTOR Miner is one more passionate fans of the game with a special skill. Every now and then he data mines SWToR source files for clues of what Bioware has in store for us next. In many cases, his findings get published In fan sites that are eager for more information about Bioware’s MMO.
Results for Conquest Week 4 – The Dread War
I run swtorconquest.com and I have been asked to be a guest writer summarizing the conquests each week. Full reddit post here Week 4 of Strongholds are officially over. I wanted to point out a few interesting bits. The Harbinger once again shows that have some seriously dedicated guilds. Their lowest score by the wampa stampers beating the highest scores on most other servers. Once again on Jedi Covenant; Rancor Bait , Working as Intended , Hellbent , and Holocron get early leads on each of their planets and never drop below first place. Early on in the week they had first place secure. On Jung Ma the battle for Section X and Oricon were close. Until Sunday Umbra seemed to have first place secure. But late on Sunday the remnants of hope finally managed to get past them and get first place. On Oricon, Uncharted Space and nightmare squadron kept going back and forth for first place. Few…
SWToR Community delivers once more; Sniper’s PVE guide!
It’s always great to see certain members of the SWToR community coming forward and sharing their knowledge of the game. The latest example is, SWToR forum member “DieGhostDie” who posted a very interesting PVE Marksmanship guide for the Imperial Sniper. He is currently part of the 8-man progression group in the Intrepid guild of the Harbinger server and he decided to share his experience and expertise with the rest of the community. Even though he admits the guide is work in progress, his work starts with the basics, and expands to key abilities and rotations among other things.
TOR TV: Lose yourself to dance
Who said Imperials are too stiff, formal and don’t know how to party? Want proof? Then watch this awesome SWToR video shot under the tunes of Lose Yourself to Dance by Daft Punk (ft. Pharrell Williams). The clip is extremely well-made and it’s primarily shot in Nar Shadaa and the Harbinger server.
Former Electronic Arts (EA) CEO predicts free-to-play model evolution
Former Electronic Arts (EA) CEO, John Riccitiello is a controversial figure among gamers, especially with SWToR fans. During his tenure at EA, he spearheaded the strategy to develop and promote free-to-play games, an approach that Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR) fully embraced. During a recent interview with Gamespot. Mr. Riccitiello predicted that both premium and free-to-play pricing models will continue to exist with the later possibly evolving. He also stressed out that both models (and possibly others we haven’t seen), will continue to co-exist without one gaining the upper hand over others.
TOR Radio: A galaxy of podcasts!
We’re back again this week for another round of SWToR podcasts! The release of Patch 2.10 as well as the upcoming expansion trailer from Bioware prompted a lot of discussion in the community and, in extension, the SWToR podcasters!
In detail…
Cartel market bug leads to Slot Machine sale!
Bioware recently released a new cartel market pack called Constable Stronghold’s pack as part of Patch 2.10. The pack includes the Smuggler’s Gambit Slot Machine that apparently a lot of SWToR fans were eagerly awaiting to become available. Unfortunately, yet another bug prevented cartel market shoppers from obtaining their slot machine as community manager Eric Musco confirmed at the forums earlier today.
SWTOR Players- What Keeps You Coming Back?
SWTOR has been out for awhile now and like many games today, it has had its changes since the early days. Not only has the payment model changed from subs to free-to-play, there have been many content updates and expansions and even graphical changes to keep the game fresh and new. But, as with any game that has been out awhile, some people get tired of it. It is not usual at all to find fans who quit for periods of time (months, even) and then return. So this brings up the question: what keeps you coming back? As most of us who have been gaming for a long time know, even an excellent game can get tiring or boring. Even if we love it and we play it every day, we are not immune to burn out. Some players realize that it helps to plan ahead for game fatigue…
TOR TV: Galactic Starfighter Basics
I will be the first one to admit that even though I find Galactic Star Fighter (GSF) as one of the more interesting SWToR expansions, I never really got into it. The expansion always felt that it required a significant amount of time spent on it before one can do something useful in the battles. While there is nothing wrong with this concept, it does make it difficult for people with limited time to master it.
Is Yavin IV the next planet to be realized in SWToR ?
Since the “SOR” teaser trailer was released two days ago, SWTOR fans have been trying to discover what the future holds for their beloved game. One of them, going by the name Darth Wicked, dissected the teaser trailer and looked for possible visual clues pointing what we’re going to see next.
Preferred access for Strongholds has an eventful start
Today was the day that Preferred access members were going to receive access to the latest SWToR expansion called Galactic Strongholds. Unfortunately the roll out wasn’t uneventful… Early Tuesday, gamers took it to the forums to inform Bioware that the much-expected expansion wasn’t available to them. This problem elicited a quick response by Bioware’s community manager, Eric Musco.
Conquest Week Watch – Results for week 3
SWToRConquest.com compiled the final results for week 4 of Conquest Battles in SWToR. As a reminder the battle lasted from September 9 to September 15 and saw multiple guilds fighting over planet dominance.
Out of the five planets that were available for invasion this week (Tatooine, The Black Hole, Quesh, Nar Shadaa and Makeb), two (Tatooine and Nar Shadaa) offered the most closely-fought-battles. The closest-one, took place a the Harbinger server where more than 5 guilds went neck-in-neck right up to the last minute.
Expansion Initials Revealed – SOR Teasers
We have some exciting expansion news today as we look at the teaser images and video file names, we see some leaked hints at the expansion title. This isn’t data-mined info but rather what Bioware themselves put out on the official news site. You’d think they had learned their lesson about this sort of thing in the past, or maybe they did it on purpose to stir up some more hype for the new expansion. If you at the file names for the images in the news post, you will see they are saved as “SORTeaser”, meaning the new expansion will be called SOR. See for yourself here: http://www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/vc/09162014_SORTeaser/SORTeaser_550x120.jpg http://www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/vc/09162014_SORTeaser/SORTeaser_854x480.jpg http://www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/vc/09162014_SORTeaser/gt_sor_FINAL_US.mp4 So what might it stand for? Forum members and Redditors are taking their guesses and we have one of our own. Shadow(s) of Revan sounds like a good bet to us since it also fits well to the Forged Alliance…
No patch Tuesday & other news!
Community production coordinator Tait Watson, took to the forums today (Monday) to confirm some information that was already known for the most part.
In detail Watson, highlighted that…
TOR TV : Soloing the Legacy of the Rakata
Spoiler alert!
Youtube user, Vulkk has recently posted a video showcasing his solo(!) effort on “The legacy of the Rakata” using his level 55 Marauder. The video is segmented by boss fights so you can quickly scan and skip through the three fights pretty fast. While the video only focuses on these encounters, you can also watch his complete run on a separate video linked on the video below.
SWToR streams and vids!
SWToR streams and vids is the newest SWToRStrategies.com column covering the latest videos and streams from SWToR community. Its intent is to highlight all the different videos and streams that might slip through the cracks and never get the attention they deserve.
SWToR class forums getting a makeover!
Eric Musco announced today that SWToR class forums will be getting a makeover soon. The change will help to consolidate the content and make it easier to receive feedback on SWToR. You can review Eric’s post in detail below:
SWToRConquest.com releases conquest tracking widget
Want to show off your guilds’ accomplishments at your guild website and don’t know how? Fear not – SWTORConquest.com has got you covered! They recently announced a very cool plugin that allows you to show your guild’s conquest score at your website.
We tried it with our guilds’ WordPress website and it works very well with both pages as well as BBPress forums (you can embed it within forums posts very easy).