And now another BioWare staff member bites the dust… Alexander Freed (my favorite BioWare writer) as officially announced on his Twitter (yes, he’s on Twitter now) feed that he is leaving BioWare and joining me in the ranks of freelance writers. It’s kind of a bittersweet announcement, really. While I love freelancing and I encourage other writers to do the same and explore the freedom of being able to work on different projects at once, try new things and do what you want, instead of what you are contracted to do. So as a friend, I’m really happy for Alex. He’s incredibly talented and I believe he’s going to love the opportunities that come his way now that he is not on BioWare’s payroll anymore. Big news! As of today, I’m departing BioWare to go freelance. It’s been a wonderful six years, but time to move on. More next tweet….
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Irish BioWare Support Center for SWTOR Converting to General EA Use
The BioWare facility that was just built last year in Galway, Ireland to be a support center for SWTOR is now expanding and will become the home to EA’s European customer service needs. Basically this means that it will be general EA use and not strictly SWTOR support. They will offer support from this facility to all of EA’s major titles. They have dropped the BioWare Ireland name and will be hiring more than 300 new employees over the course of the next few months. The Irish Government looks at this as a good opportunity for job growth and is supportive of the expansion and what video games can do for their economy and job force.
Coming Soon from BioWare: Dragon Age III
One of the most popular BioWare series is Dragon Age. There are those who love it and those who loved only one (the original but bit DA2, for example). The game series has a large following who are probably excited to hear about Dragon Age III: Inquisition. There is now more information coming out about this latest title from BioWare and what we can expect from the game. On the official site of DA3, we can find an open letter from Mark Darrah the executive producer. In this letter he confirms the game is coming (not completely news to all of us): I am pleased to confirm that we are, in fact, working on the next Dragon Age game. Not a big surprise to most of you, I know. We have been working on it in some way for about two years now with the bulk of our efforts ramping…
BioWare and LucasArts LiveStream Q&A Event
With patch 1.4 just around the corner, BioWare and Lucasarts will be holding a LiveStream event. In this, the they will answer questions from the community concerning the content within each Game Update. The first LiveStream Event will discuss Game Update 1.4 – Terror From Beyond, and the team will be taking questions via Twitter, Facebook, and the Official Forum. LiveStream Event #1 BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce a new monthly LiveStream Q&A Event. The objective of this new LiveStream event series is to answer any questions our Community has concerning the content within each Game Update. Below is all the information you need in order to watch and participate in the first monthly LiveStream Event. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ – LiveStream 9/21/2012 4:00pm to 4:30pm CDT The first LiveStream Event will discuss Game Update 1.4 – Terror From Beyond. This Game Update brings a brand new…
EA’s Gamescom Press Conference 2012
EA’s Gamescom had some things to say about SWTOR this year and we know how excited everyone is to hear the next new piece of information. If you watch the video starting from this point, you can jump right to the talk about SWTOR with Bromberg. EA’s Gamescom 2012 Press Conference replay from the Cologne Palladium in Germany featuring the new GM of BioWare Austin, Matt Bromberg. The highlights: Free to play this fall Cartel coins (virtual currency) More frequent content updates New operation: Terror from Beyond New series of space missions New Warzone: Ancient Hypergates More dynamic in-game events The video also features a trailer for The Grand Acquisition, the current in game event as well as a sneak peak of the video we brought you yesterday (confirming it is official). See the full press conference video below:
What Are Bioware Fans Looking For?
Apparently, there are a large number of people who are claiming that Bioware is ruined forever and that they have betrayed their fans. Some are so upset they’ve vowed never to purchase a game with the name Bioware on it ever again. Why are they so angry, and what does the company need to do to satisfy the fans who have alleged betrayal? Bioware has a great history of getting things right. Obviously they’re not going to knock one out of the ballpark every single time, but many fans are concerned that Bioware thinks they can get away with making rushed products only for the sake of the dollar instead of cranking out games where there was obviously a lot more effort put into the final product. In Eric Cain’s blog at Forbes.com, Cain admitted he was “extremely harsh on Bioware,” and added, “I was biased, and while I stand…
Georg Zoeller leaves BioWare
Georg Zoeller just updated his google+ about him departing BioWare It’s time to say goodbye…. Friday marked my last day in the office at BioWare. After almost a decade and spending almost quarter of our lives in Canada and the US, my wife and I have decided to take on an exciting new adventure on the other side of the world – Singapore. It’s been an honor to work on so many amazing games with so many talented people and good friends, you will be greatly missed. If you’ve circled me because of my involvement with SWTOR, please understand that I will not be providing any more information regarding the game from this point forward and uncircle appropriately. If you stay, don’t complain about getting hit with pictures from the other part of the world from time to time. To Adventure! I kinda guessed this was coming, Georg Zoeller was one…
Get off the dead servers and have a cookie!
BioWare just announced that they will be giving away goodies to people who transfers to the new destination servers ( super servers) by July 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM CDT. “”hundreds of thousands of players have already taken advantage” of this service, so if you feel lik,e you are alone in the world, get your finger out, and do the transfer now! All characters that transfers to a qualifying server (including all destination servers), get’s a Gannifari pet as well as 25 Black Hole Commendations that you can use to to buy high-end gear, so what are you waiting for? You can find a full listing as well as further promotional details on the official SWTOR website, or read our enormes copy paste from the official website below: ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Earn Rewards for Free Character Transfers The response to the Free Character Transfer Service so far has been fantastic. Hundreds of thousands of players have already…
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Collection Coming This Summer
LucasArts is about to re-release the KOTOR series to stores. GameStop and Amazon have listed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Collection as a bundle pack for the two single-player role-playing games. It’s only weeks from release, too. The compilation has appeared on GameStop’s internal system and is listed as a PC exclusive carrying a $20 price tag. The first game in the series (developed by BioWare) was released to critical acclaim in July 2003 for Xbox, and later for PC. KOTOR came to Mac via Steam just a few months ago. Obsidian developed the game’s sequel, which launched on Xbox in December 2004. They are both excellent games, that I recoment you try out, if you haven’t played them yet. After all, they are the prequels to Star Wars: The old republic. If you can’t wait until the games are re-realeased, you can check out the first part…
LFG Tool Bonus with a Pre-Made Group
You can use the new LFG tool with a pre-made group and still get the bonus. Awesome! Here’s the official work from the SWTOR community blog: Yes, you can queue for Group Finder with pre-made groups. However, only the Group Leader can queue your group as a whole. Once you are a part of a pre-made group, you will not be able to queue individually until you leave the group. If you are queued as a group and you are not the Group Leader, the Group Finder will display the content that the Group Leader queued you for. You can queue with a full group that is valid for the content. For example, for a Flashpoint, you’ll need to have characters to fill the tank and healer roles. If your Group is not valid when the Group Leader attempts to queue, it will display a message and give you the…
Clarification on the SWTOR Server Transfers
Server transfers are coming- this we know. Most of us are really excited about that fact. Now there are a few questions that remain and BioWare is setting out to make us all aware of the specifics, as much as possible. First, we know that there will be only one destination allowed. Allison Berryman | Senior Community Coordinator said on the forums: We do have more information about character transfers coming, and we’ll post a detailed FAQ that will answer many specific questions. As for being concerned about not being able to transfer to the same server as your son during free transfers, you don’t have anything to worry about. Each server that becomes eligible for transfers will have just one destination server, and you’ll be able to move all your characters from your origin server to that destination server. We’ll announce these servers at the start of the program…
Official Q&A Thread for June 8th, 2012 Q&A Blog Post
For our Question of the Week, we want to ask you what you would ask BioWare about SWTOR. The official Q&A thread for questions to be answered for the June 8th, 2012 Q&A blog post is up and now is your chance to get your questions in but BioWare has a few guidelines before you post your question. If you want to have a higher chance of getting your question answered, then consider these guidelines. From BioWare: In order to increase the chances of having your specific question answered and to help us keep the thread manageable, here are some guidelines on asking questions: Keep your question relatively short. Background details are welcome, but don’t go overboard. Please actually ask a question. We want to hear constructive feedback elsewhere in the Forums. Use common sense – we cannot answer everything, especially on far-reaching content. This should go without saying, but…
SWTOR Server Merges and BioWare Austin Layoffs Bring Out the “I Told You So’s”
With SWTOR server mergers imminent and the big layoffs at BioWare Austin, many SWTOR haters are coming out to say “I told you so!” This really has me thinking, is SWTOR really that bad or are some people just bored or vindictive and looking for something new to troll? While some circumstances do seem to show SWTOR on a decline, there is no solid evidence at this time that the game is sinking, going under or failing. There are still many active players and subscriptions and with all the new promised content, there’s no reason many more players won’t join or come back on board. BioWare responded to the layoffs but as Massively reports, the response was a little weak: Despite the layoffs, Lusinchi said that the development team is still “one of the biggest” in the industry and has detailed plans for SWTOR’s future. Still, that didn’t make dealing…
A Quick Update about SWTOR Server Transfers
If you’re like most of us, you’ve been waiting anxiously for an update about server transfers. You’ve probably been feeling a little lonely on your server (or maybe it’s just mine) and you’re really ready for some more players to interact with on a regular basis. It’s coming, according to BioWare. Joveth Gonzalez, SWTOR Online Community Manager gave this update about server transfers: “I know you are all eager for information regarding character transfers and I just wanted to let you all know that this is definitely a studio wide priority. We’ve just about finished up on the development side of things, but in order to ensure a high quality service, the system needs to undergo extensive testing. The testing cycle, as some of you may know, is variable and highly dependent on a number of things. With that being said, as soon as this process is complete and we…
Q &A for Friday May 28- Ranked Warzones is on track for 1.3!
This week’s Q&A is a special edition because we have great info on the upcoming 1.3 game update. One thing that many players are very excited about is the inclusion of ranked warzones. But that’s not all that we should expect for game update 1.3. Let’s see more of this special edition Q&A to find out. Here’s a snippet: >llesna: Can you please tell us why the upcoming Legacy additions for Game Update 1.3 are character-specific rather than Legacy-wide? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Legacy Perks have a different purpose than global unlocks and are specifically designed to enable players to customize each individual character. Since you may not care about Space XP or running the Bonus Series missions on one character it is important that you’re not paying a premium that is calculated at the expense of 8 or more characters all gaining this benefit. This also means the…
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…
BioWare Layoffs
It’s not news that Electronic Arts was about to layoff a large amount of people in the future. It was mention at the EA conferance call. What we diden’t know though was going to affect BioWare and Star Wars: The old republic. Today we learned otherwise as the doctors posted on the official SWTOR Forums. Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect. Looking back at launch, we all came together and did something historic. We executed one of the largest, most successful and stable launches of any MMO yet in industry history. That is not an easy…
SWTOR on the Rise and More Incoming PvP and Endgame Content
Is SWTOR seeing its last days? According to who you ask, the answer might be yes but I am not fully convinced it’s time to weep for the death of the game just yet. In fact, I think there is reason to believe that its popularity is really just getting started. For those who have heard the rumors that SWTOR is dying, here’s some evidence that it’s not. Daniel Erickson, BioWare’s lead designer on the project said that rumors of the game’s demise are incredibly premature — and outright wrong. Massively has some info straight from Erickson himself: Following Update 1.2 and the Rakghoul Outbreak live event, Erickson reports that player activity in the game is increasing. He said that the studio is working hard to keep its customers happy: “The community has generally been excited about the direction the game is going as we finish up our last must-have…
Does SWTOR Suck Or Are the Standards of Measurement Unbalanced?
There is a lot of talk going around about SWTOR being a letdown. We’ve already hashed and rehashed the comparisons to other MMOs, WoW in particular. While some say that SWTOR is just not measuring up, there is one who makes a very valid point: maybe we’re not measuring with the same ruler. I, like many others, have had a pretty critical eye when it comes to SWTOR. We have all earned that when we purchased the game I guess. As consumers we review just about everything we buy. We make purchases on eBay, Amazon or even in-store and we are often asked to give a review of our product. Or at the very least that option is there for us if we so choose. Just like every other game in the last 10 years SWTOR went through the review process from all the big name videogame sites on the net. The…
BioWare Studio Tour
G4TV presents a tour of BioWare’s TOR studio in Austin, Texas with your host Morgan Webb of XPlay. We are little late on this story, but for some reason I just came across it today. Oh well.. Better late then never I guess. Morgan Webb goes behind the scenes at BioWare Austin with the crew that brought us Star Wars: The Old Republic, getting a tour from Community Manager Stephen Reid, Art Director Jeff Dobson, and Lead PvP and Endgame Designer Gabe Amatangelo.
BioWare: SWTOR subscriber numbers have remained steady
While we keep hearing the rumors that SWTOR is a sinking ship or that it is not as popular as BioWare claims. BioWare continues to deny these rumors and recently said in an interview with PC Gamer that the subscriber numbers have remained steady since launch. BioWare lead writer Daniel Erickson told PC Gamer: “”Nothing is off the table when it comes to making sure our communities are strong and active on each server.” This response came as a reaction to a prediction by Cowen analyst Doug Creutz that upset some fans who say the game is doing great. Last week Cowen analyst Doug Creutz ruffled a few fanboy feathers with his prediction of declining subscription numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare lead writer Daniel Erickson responded by saying that subscriptions are not dropping but that the number of concurrent users at peak times has gone down. So…
Over 50% of SWTOR Players Play Warzones
Have you ever wondered just how many players are playing warzones? I’m in a PvP guild on a PvP server and pretty much all of us do warzones on a daily basis. I typically do not have to wait too long to get into a warzone but I have noticed a trend that I start to see the same people over and over again. You start to learn who people are and discover their personalities. You spot the full-time PvPers fairly quickly. Lead designer Daniel Erickson over 50% of TOR players take part in PvP matches, dubbed Warzones, on a daily basis. Erickson said in an interview with GamerZines: “It’s not actually giving players something additional to do, I mean it does that, but it isn’t the motivation,” he explained. “What happened was that we also brought in the guys that had worked on PvP for Warhammer Online. Those guys…
SWTOR Launches in the rest of Europe and in the Middle Eastern Countries
Star Wars: The Old Republic has now officially launched in the rest of the European countries that missed out at launch, as well as throughout the Middle East. If you live in any of the following countries, you can now buy the game via buy.swtor.com or pick it up at local retailers. Europe Albania Andorra Belarus (only available at Origin.com) Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Estonia (only available at Origin.com) Gibraltar Iceland Kazakhstan (only available at Origin.com) Latvia (only available at Origin.com) Lithuania (only available at Origin.com) Luxembourg (not available at Origin.com) Macedonia Malta Moldova Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Turkey Ukraine (only available at Origin.com) Middle East Afghanistan Algeria (not available at Origin.com) Bahrain Egypt Israel Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Tunisia (not available at Origin.com) United Arab Emirates Yemen Check out the official statement below or at the official webiste We are excited to announce…
BioWare releases answers to SWTOR Community Q&A
This last community Q&A, BioWare had to put off posting the answers to the questions. Now they have finally released them along with this statement: Two weeks ago, we asked for your questions and unfortunately, we had to delay posting the answers to the Q&A until today. Please note in some cases we’ve combined multiple questions into one, and we have edited some questions for clarity. We have now opened an official thread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CDT on April 24th, 2012 (12pm PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST/9pm CEST/5am AEST). We welcome your questions in that thread and hope you enjoy the answers below. If you want to discuss any of the answers given, please use this Forum thread! So here is a snippet of the Q&A. To read the full list of questions, visit the official post from SWTOR.com. BlackMink: Could you please explain SWTOR’s threat mechanics?…