If you’re looking to catch up on the state of PvP in SWTOR, then you will want to check out this interview with Eric Musco. Snave and Musco get together and talk PvP and while it’s a long watch (or listen), it’s worth it to see Snave pick Musco’s brain for a bit. As always, PvP is a hot topic in SWTOR (isn’t it in any MMORPG?) so there are going to be a lot of varying opinions on this. Does Musco really give any new info or is it doing the typical dance of answering-without-really-answering? I’d say he’s probably paid for the latter but there are still some tidbits you can pick up from it and some people like to read between the lines and speculate on this or that. As usual, we want to know what you think. Here you can see it for yourself: “My second interview with SWTOR…
Interview
MMORPG Interview with James Ohlen
It has been an amazing year for Star Wars fans. With the new movie release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens arriving late this year and the new Star Wars: Battlefront game launching around the same time, it couldn’t get any better. Also, the latest expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic Knights of the Fallen Empire, will open on October 27th. Once the expansion launches, players will have nine new chapters of new episodic content to dig their teeth into and even more updates are planned after the holiday season. Gareth Harmer from mmorpg.com, caught up with James Ohlen, the Game Director on SWTOR over on Gamescom, to talk about more information on the new expansion. But, before we dig into that information, let’s talk about what has already been discovered. During the event in Cologne, he was shown content from Chapter 3, and this includes the Carbonite defrosting…
EA’s Fallen Empire Preview with Creative Director Jesse Sky
EA posted a snippet on the official EA site, of a preview with Creative Director on Star Wars: The old Republic Jesse Sky, on the upcoming Fallen Empire expansion coming in October. BioWare goes back to its roots for: Knights of the Fallen Empire What goes into crafting the new expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic – Knights of the Fallen Empire? Creative director Jesse Sky takes things back to the beginning. Back to basics Last year, I decided to re-watch The Empire Strikes Back® and write down everything that shocked the audience back in its original theatrical run. It’s a very long list. That film packs a real emotional punch—it’s full of twists, betrayals and revelations the entire way through. I’ve wanted to tell a Star Wars™ story like that ever since the first time I saw it. When we began conceptualizing Knights of the Fallen Empire, the story…
BioWare Writer Talks Gay Romances and Sexual Diversity in Gaming
BioWare’s lead writer and developer for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, David Gaider, has decided to address the popular topic of sexual diversity in video games. Gaider is a 16-year veteran of the RPG studio and he recently wrote for Dragon Age: Inquisition. He began his interview by going over his reaction after he learned that BioWare’s 2005 RPG Jade Empire would allow gamers to have gay romances. “I remember hearing about when they made that decision to put it in and I was floored,” Gaider told Video Game Sophistry. “I mean, I’m gay myself, so I felt it kind of odd when I heard about it, how shocked I was because I just never thought that part of my life had a role to play in work. Like I said, it just wasn’t done. I didn’t even really consider the idea, so when they made that decision it was…
Interview with BioWare’s Manager of Analytics – Stats and Game Design Decisions
Every now and then we get the privilege of hearing from representatives of BioWare quote player engagement stats in order to back up their game design. However, we have never been lucky enough to delve into the deep insight concerning their usage. If you have been curious or just flat out frustrated, Alex Tremblay from BioWare has all the answers you need in a recent interview. Olib: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Alex: Hi, my name is Alex Tremblay. I’m the Manager of Analytics here at BioWare Austin. I’ve been working on SWTOR since well before the launch of the game. This is the first time I’ve been asked to talk about the game and I have to say, I’m excited. Through data, I feel very, very connected to both our game and players, but rarely do I get to directly interact.
Interview with community manager Eric Musco
Twitch user Snave1208 had the chance to interview BioWares community manager for Star Wars: The old Republic, Eric Musco. It’s a pretty good interview, were Eric talks about what he do, and were SWTOR is heading. Snave1208 don’t let Musco off easy when he was trying to dodge answering some of the questions. But i do sound like the games PVP wont get much better in the future. Personally I am not surprised or remotely happy with the PvP answers but I partially understand where Musco is coming from. He has a rough job. Their “better than cross-server” is likely to be something like “Queue for 500 matches this month and get the rest of the Baron Deathmark gear!” This is the mentality that they have, and it’s harmful. Hopefully iy will change in the future though!
Boston Cantina Tour and Jack Wood Interview
MMORPG.com had the chance to interview Producer Jack Wood, at the BioWare cantina tour in Boston earlier this month. The full interview can be read here, but Reddit user bstr413 made A summary of the Q&A not relating to strongholds: Why is there a sabacc table on The Esseles when there isn’t any sabacc? “Good question.” (No mention of adding sabacc to the game.) Why was Op/Scoundrel knockdown now a root?: That and the assassin skills would keep the player stunned for 1 second if they used a stun breaker due to the animation. More Same Gender Romance: Yes in future content. No in past content due to it breaking a lot of things. In retrospect, they should have made it possible to add it to all romanceable characters. EA/BioWare will not remove any Same Gender Romance in the game and romance opportunities in the future will be Bisexual. Moraband vs Korriban:…
MMORPG – Interview w/ Jeff Hickman & Bruce Maclean
MMORPG.Com had the chance to interview Jeff Hickman & Bruce Maclean from BioWare, about Star Wars: The old republic. The article contains lots of new great info, and here is the most imortant information from the article put together by Thrives: *Both warzones and GSF will see updates, GSF in the form of new maps, new ship roles, and new ships, new Huttball arena (Quesh), will be a more vertical/three dimensional space to maneuver through. *Class combat team is very busy. *They offered the interview because of her previous article, the slightly negative F2P review posted here a few weeks ago. They disagreed, responses from player with no prior SWTOR experience were characterized as ‘generally super positive’, they have metrics to support this statement. Subscribers are their priority but they’re always looking for opportunities to improve the F2P experience. *Interviewer thought the tour stops weren’t a huge opportunity to ‘drop some…
Jeff Hickman Interview
The guys and girls over at TORWars got an Exclusive Interview with Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s, Jeff Hickman. In the interview mr. Hickman answers questions from the readers of TORWars and while he do dodge a few questions, he also answers some questions so well, that it get’s me very confident in the future of the game we all love so much. TW: The studio has seen some staffing changes over the past year. Do you feel you are at a good staffing level now? JH: Absolutely. The core of what makes the game and studio great are still here; quality in our game and in our workplace, people that are passionate about both, a camaraderie with each other that helps us support one another, and people who continue to help us carry the banner of BioWare and who are dedicated to help evolve and improve…
Corellian Run Radio Interviews Rob Hinkle
The good people over at Corellian Run Radio had the chance to interview Senior Systems Designer, Rob Hinkle. In the interview Mr. Hinkle answers questions regarding upcoming and current mechanics in PVP. What struck me the most about his answers to the questions, regarding gear. He personally felt gear had mattered too much up to this point. He spoke of having progression without having such a large gear gap, i.e. tightening up the gear gap. This seems like a good way to go. Here is a snip: Question 4: Are there any plans to ever change from the vertical progression of PvP gear to horizontal, especially with free-to-play? (i.e. will gear in the future still be a large factor in performance?) Rob: As we move forward, we want to tighten up the minimal gear level and maximum gear level power gap while inside PvP. ToR is an MMORPG, so we feel that players need some…
Massively: Interview Hall Hood
Massively’s Larry Everett had the chance to to an interview with Lead Writer of Star Wars: The old Republic – Hall Hood. This guy is approaching politician levels of question dodging, and answering questions regarding the upcoming planet Makeb, Hall Hood don’t really sheds light on anything new. It seems to me that going forward, at least for the foreseable future, the concept of 8 distinct class stories is gone, even if we may have different cutscenes for the same main story depending on our class. No word about “Rise of the Hutt Cartel” story, that was datamined a few weeks ago either. When Makeb was first announced, we were told that it was not a continuation of the class story. Yet in a recent interview, Jeff Hickman said that Makeb is the continuation of your story. I think there might be a bit of confusion in semantics. Can you clarify and perhaps expound on what…
EUCantina Interviews Drew Karpyshyn
The guys over at EU Cantina had the chance to sit down and interview Drew Karpyshyn. The interview is mainly about his new book Annihilation, but Drew Karpyshyn also answers questions regarding Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil. Unfortunately the interview don’t touch his work on Star Wars: The old republic, But Mr. Karpyshyn love to see it make the jump to TV or the big screen someday. EUC: Aside from The Tales of the Jedi and Knight Errant, most of The Old Republic novels and comics tie directly into video games. As you peer into the future, where does The Old Republic era go from here? DK: I think the Old Republic era is going to continue to grow. It’s proven quite popular with the fans, and it still has so much untapped potential for authors and other creative types to explore. In addition to more games, books and graphic novels, I’d love to see it make the jump to…
SWTOR F2P & Future content interview with Damion Schubert
Dulfy had the opportunity to interview Lead Designer Damion Schubert regarding the F2P option launching yesterday. Dulfy was good enough to take questions from the readers of her blog. reading through the interview I found some of the most interesting key points to be: Armor dyes seems to be in the pipeline No new items to the VIP/Collectors Edition vendors Cathar race will be by purchase only Returning events (i.e. sell your rakghoul items now before the word gets out) Check out the full interview over at dulfu.net or read our small snippet below: What was the biggest challenge in converting such a massive MMO into a FTP model? It would have to be giving away as much as humanly possible to our free to play players, while still ensuring that our subscribers felt like they were getting a great value. Both populations of players are a key component to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s path forward,…
Developer Spotlight: Jesse Sky
BioWare just started a new series of developer blogs called Developer Spotlight. The idea is to interview members of the SWTOR development team letting the playerbase getting to know the faces behind the game. In this first interview, BioWare interviews Jesse Sky, Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer. Here’s a snip: What specifically attracts you about Flashpoints and Operation design? Flashpoint design is a lot like running a tabletop roleplaying game with a massive audience. You get to explore a lot of different kinds of storytelling that aren’t really feasible outside of a video game. I’ve always felt that our Flashpoints and Operations were aided by the fact that you have a very personal story. You actually form a bond with your character, and then you take him on these really wild and dangerous adventures. Every time my Dark Jedi pairs up with a bunch of do-gooders for a Flashpoint, I cackle when I win the…
BioWare pledges six-week content update schedule for Star Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare Austin General Manager Matt Bromberg recently spoke with AusGamers about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free-to-play option and future content updates. PC Gamer has more on that story and what it means to us. With the free to play model coming soon, many existing players want to know what we can expect from future updates to the game. So PC Gamer asked about the timelines for future updates to Warzones, Flashpoints and Operations. PC Gamer reports: “We’re committed to a roughly six-week schedule for major updates — a new Warzone, Flashpoint, Operation, and event — on a regularly frequent cadence,” Bromberg said. Bromberg also reiterated planned incentives for recouping paid subscribers with closed accounts when The Old Republic’s new account system executes this fall, saying, “We announced that subscribers who have lapsed are already qualified to get Cartel Coins, which will be the in-game currency in the game once…
Noxxic Gaming Guides and Interview
Here at SWTOR Strategies, we’ve been bringing you great SWTOR news and info as well as Star Wars and MMORGP news and info since before SWTOR’s release. Well, we found something else really cool in our research- gaming guides from Noxxic guild. In particular, we found their SWTOR guide but then we saw they also have guides for many other great games, some of which you might also play. The crew over at Noxxic were nice enough to take some time to talk to me about their guild, their website, their guides and what they are all about. So here’s the interview for you to learn more yourself and be sure to head on over and check out their guides! Lisa: Can you tell us a little about Noxxic, the games you play and what you’re all about? At Noxxic, we only have one goal and that is to provide…
Interview with Matt Bromberg about F2P model
The move from SWTOR’s pay to play model to the free to play model may be a blessing in disguise for those gamers who want to try the game but who do not want to pay. For the company, BioWare, this switch may not be a blessing for the company or the current players. While the company does want to make money, this is not the sole purpose of offering free to play to the public. What is more important is having the game played by a wider audience. According to an interview in Game Industry International with Matt Bromberg on Thursday, he stated: “”’My primary intention is to make as many people play this beautiful game that we’ve made,’ he added. ‘It just so happens that the business will naturally grow as more people come to play the game, but we’re not trying to squeeze every single penny out…
Jeff Hickman Interview
With the news of SWTOR going free to play, there are many who want to learn as much as they can about the game or any changes being made in the upcoming updates to the game. Even those who are already fans are listening with eager ears to anything new. This interview with Jeff Hickman didn’t have any big secret reveals over the game but it did have some very interesting topics and some insight into the very experience Jeff Hickman and his work on SWTOR. RPG Site says: With a background rooted in Mythic Entertainment, Hickman has a long history with MMOs – first on Dark Age of Camelot and then on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. We quizzed him not only on the future of The Old Republic, but of the MMO genre in general. Here’s what he said. They came prepared with some great questions and Hickman…
Gamescom 2012: Interview with Matthew Broomberg
German Gaming site gamesaktuell.de has an interesting interview with Matthew Broomberg General Manager at BioWare Austin. Here is the highlights: First answer to question some people love it, some people hate it, what do you think of F2P… answer, read straight from the PR briefing “It brings new players, I don’t think that’s a bad thing””. Fluff…. 3:05 “F2P is not as big a deal as people make it” A lot of people make too much of the business model change. Question “no free-to-play did it withing 9-11 months”. answer “you should be innovative and aggresive”. “the game is lightyears on from where it was at launch.” They want to bring players “back”“. Some waffle about Warhammer Online. ~6:00 “pay-to-win”? “We would never want to do anything to harm the game, obviously” “vanity, convenience, that’s easy” “save time, new players, speed up levelling” “that’s a long way-a-way form play-to-win, we would never do…
SWTOR- What Does F2P Mean?
Everyone is talking about SWTOR going free to play. It seems everyone has a theory and an opinion on the topic and whether or not it’s a good thing for BioWare/EA. The big question seems to be whether or not the F2P model is chosen because SWTOR flopped on release or just because it makes more sense and is better for the current economic market in the world today. MMORPG.com had a few words from Richard Aihoshi on the topic. In addition to this, they did a poll with some other experts in the field: Hendrik Klindworth is the Founder and Managing Director of InnoGames (Forge of Empires, Grepolis et al) Jay Choi is the Chief Operations Officer at Gravity Interactive(Ragnarok Online, Dragon Saga et al) Jungsoo Lee is the Vice President of Live Development atSG Interactive (formerly Ntreev; Pangya Golf, Trickster Online et al) Flaviio Daneil Caracasis the Chief Marketing Officer at Rock Hippo Productions (Brawl Busters, MicroVolts) Here…
E3: James Ohlen Interview b y TorWars
I guess I was wrong when I wrote we were nearing the tales end of E3 interviews. Our friends over at TorWars got to interview James Ohlen about all the upcoming stuff we have discussed the last week. The interview is in two parts and you can read what TorWars had to say about it here and here and you can also check it out below. Good stuff ahead:
SWTOR Allies Update: E3 Interview with Daniel Erickson
Pico from curse gaming also had the chance to speak with SWTOR’s own ead designer Daniel Erickson. As in the other interview coming out from E3, they discuss the upcomming changes in patch 1.3 I think we might be near the tales end with e# interviews, but if we find any more, I’ll make sure we post them. Let us know in the comments, if we missed any
E3 Blaine Christine interview
Lucas Siegel from Newsarama.com goes in-depth with senior live producer Blaine Christine about SWTOR. They cover new features in the latest Star Wars – The Old Republic update including companion characters, social hubs and the future plans for SWTOR.
Pokket from MMORPG Interviews Daniel Erickson at E3 2012
Pokket from mmorpg.com had the chance to speak with Daniel Erickson at this years E3. In the interview Daniel Erickson answers questions regarding all the upcoming changes BioWare showcased at the press conference last week. Check it out below: