Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Loendal]

Making any bet on a number of Subscribers as a "We have succeeded" line is dangerous territory. You don't need WoW numbers to survive. Unfortunately, everybody now seems to think they must be at that point to "win" the games industry contest.

The hype surrounding this game is monstrous; if it doesn't deliver it's going to be the cause of the 2012 World-Ender. Never mind Mayan Calenders and Solar Flares... SWOTR was a flop!

[Morreion]

I agree, Loendal. There is so much hype and so much money riding on this game that it will either be a great success or a failure with little room for a result in between. The ramifications of a failure this big would be ugly for the game industry IMHO.

[Morreion]

BioWare: WoW is the "touchstone" for The Old Republic (Massively)

"It [World of Warcraft] is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb," Zeschuk said.

Careful there...

Star Wars: The Old Republic Videos: Holorecord: The Great Hyperspace War (5:51) (MMORPG.com)



That's Lance Henriksen narrating!

Lore Update: Tython (Darth Hater)

With 17 currently announced planets and moons available to players for exploration, Star Wars: The Old Republic is challenged to deliver not only on the size and scope of these iconic locations, but also on the rich history of each in the mythology of the Star Wars universe. Last month, we brought you an update on the Smugglers Moon of Nar Shaddaa, a location known for its lawlessness and excitement. This month, we focus on Tython; a planet which, until recently, was considered a bastion of peace and enlightenment.

Hyperspace Beacon: For over a thousand generations... (Massively)

I know there are going to be some roleplayers who are going to disagree with me, but I believe you can know too much about the overarching story. Let's say you have played through Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Sith, and now you are aware that the Sith Emperor is, for instance, Gav Daragon. Is the average Republic soldier going to know who that even is? If you're thinking, "Sure, we would. Gav was the Sith apprentice during the Great Hyperspace War," I will ask you this: "Who was Abraham Lincoln's Vice President during the Civil War?" Don't look it up! I don't know off the top of my head. I would be hard-pressed to find someone who did, except for my uncle -- he's a history nut. The point is, knowing who the Emperor is can change our gameplay.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Is Romance Important?
In Bioware's popular RPGs, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, romance plays and integral part in the plot. Romance is big part in the Star Wars films. Now with Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton wonders if romance will play a part in the game. Check out his thoughts and then add a few of your own in the comments below.

Hyperspace Beacon: Rule of one (Massively)

Are you starting to see why the your-ship's-cargo-hold-is-your-bank statement is beginning to concern me? If you have no reason to leave your ship, the game, which had a persistent world while you were leveling, becomes a lobby with instances for the endgame. Crew Skills make the need for gathering raw materials off-ship pointless. A queuing system for Warzones and Flashpoints can be accessed from the pilot's chair. Crafting has already been confirmed to be something that your companions -- who are on your ship -- undertake. The bank is on your ship, now, too. What isn't there? I just hope there are some really attractive Twi'lek dancers in the cantina to help draw people out of their virtual caves. What do you think? Is my argument compelling enough? Or is there something I'm missing?

I'm concerned about this too. I'm really disliking the trend towards lobby co-op games being called MMOs.

Hyperspace Beacon: Rule of many (Massively)

In this issue of the Hyperspace Beacon, I'm going to give voice to the opposition. I would hope that everyone who responded to the last article wants SWTOR to succeed as much as I do...

...With everything in Star Wars: The Old Republic, features such as bank location and vendoring trash have been re-examined to see whether they still make sense as MMO conventions within the current game design, and the design team has decided that these features really served no purpose other than to inconvenience the players. As Zoeller said, "Frankly -- nobody has ever told me 'Man, I went to town to sell grays, it was soooo awesome!'" The same can be said for a trip to the bank.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Work in Progress
When a game is as keenly anticipated as Star Wars: The Old Republic, it generates a lot of discussion. Sometimes it seems difficult to remember that the game is, as MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton says, "a work in progress" and that what seems to be finalized content or a finished feature probably really isn't. It's all about maintaining perspective during development. Check out Mike's latest SWTOR column and leave your impressions in the comments below.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Gotta Go Sell
"OH LOOK! Junk! Let's pick it up!" Every game is filled with it and for some inexplicable reason, players pick up every gray (or useless) item to sell in town for ridiculously low prices. Would that happen in real life? In today's Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton climbs up on his soapbox to discuss the needless tedium associated with selling grays. Check out his thoughts and weigh in with your own in the comments below.

Bounty Hunting in Star Wars: The Old Republic (IGN)
Life as a mercenary in BioWare's upcoming MMO.

The Mercenary Bounty Hunter focuses on missiles and staying at range from enemies. Devastating attacks like Heatseeker and Fusion Missile and Rail Shot make the Mercenary a sight to behold on the Battlefield. The Powertech Bounty Hunter specializes in flamethrowers and close range attacks. Attacks like Flame Burst, Flame Sweep as well as the jetpack-assisted Rocket Punch are some of the signature moves of this advanced class.

Video at the link.

[Morreion]

PAX East 2011: Hands-on with SWTOR's Taral V (Massively)

We were finally on the ground and in the action. I took a quick moment here to run through my power set descriptions. Since this Smuggler was set up as a healer, the majority of my top row of actions were heals or buffs. Down the chain, I did find my drop-cover button, then on the bottom row were most of my attack specials. I didn't have time to truly inspect every one of the buttons, but I did notice that I had a bunch of skills: two types of straight heals, one heal-over-time, a range-increase buff, another unknown buff I clicked on randomly, and a couple of ranged and AoE attack specials.

Bring On SWTOR (Keen & Graev)

I complained a lot last year about SWTOR looking like it lacks the open-world feel or being really instanced. I’ve quickly reached the point of not caring. Seeing more of SWTOR from PAX East and realizing more and more every day that I am done with the WoW model of MMO’s, I’ve realized I don’t care what it is as long as it’s not more of the same.

Even if SWTOR were to be a completely instanced encounter, experienced by 5 people at a time, I’m not sure I would be bothered. Am I defeated? A little. More than anything though, I crave something that presents the multiplayer experience as more of a RPG. SWTOR could drop the MMO tag entirely and just be an online RPG and I would be happy. Luckily it looks like a hybrid between a Bioware RPG and a MMO which is a far newer than we’ve had in years.



Star Wars: The Old Republic: Flashpoint Thoughts
During last week's PAX East, new information was revealed about flashpoints in Star Wars: The Old Republic. While MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton was not able to attend in person, he devoured all available information about flashpoints and has some thoughts to share. Check it out!

Don't wait until launch; make a SWTOR guild now! (Massively)

A guild search and creation page was launched this morning on the official website to help you find the guild you're looking for or create one yourself.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Taral V & Jedi Guardian Impressions
Going hand in hand with Garrett Fuller's impressions of Star Wars: The Old Republic at PAX East, MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy has some thoughts about Taral V and the Jedi guardian. See what Bill has to say about these two aspects of SWTOR after his hands on time with SWTOR and then add your own comments.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Game Play Impressions
At last weekend's PAX East, MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller experienced Star Wars: The Old Republic first hand, something that many of us envy in a very green-eyed way. Garrett's got a few thoughts about SWTOR to share with our readers. See what he's got to say and then add a few of your thoughts in the comments.

Hyperspace Beacon: Community exposé (Massively)

Communities are what make MMOs as great as they are. From World of Warcraft to Star Wars Galaxies, games lose their flavor over time, but players stick around because of the friends and communities that have been built through the MMO space. The game has not even announced a release date yet, but Star Wars: The Old Republic already has one of the strongest and dedicated communities.

EA: The Old Republic not launching by July 1st (Massively)

...So, for the three of you who actually expected BioWare's Star Wars opus this summer, we're sorry. For everyone else, it's back to the guessing game regarding release dates.

EA talks tough on The Old Republic vs. WoW (Massively)

"You go and do your quests, but it feels more like doing a shopping list at times. [Our game] is more about talking to characters, learning what's going on, investing in it, getting emotionally attached to it," Gibeau says.

Studio Insider: Cinematic Animation (SWTOR official site)

To start off, the Animators get together with the Cinematic Designers to figure out what actions need to be recorded by the actors at the motion capture studio (you know, that place where people wear skin-tight suits with ping pong balls all over them). For this particular scene, we needed the player character to Force Push some guards away and slay a couple of Hutts. Each human’s action, from the player character thrusting his hand forward to the guards getting knocked to the ground, is then captured individually. You can’t exactly throw a human actor into a Jabba suit and expect to get a good result, so in this case the Hutts were animated by hand.

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Guild Headquarters= Awesome
Not too long ago, Bioware and the Star Wars: The Old Republic dev teams announced that guilds could pre-register on the official site. This allows guilds to get set up and running as well as gives them the ability to take advantage of cool guild features on the site. MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton says this is AWESOME! Find out why and then leave us your comments.







Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Jedi Trooper
Some Star Wars: The Old Republic controversy began shortly after PAX East when it was revealed that players would be able to put on any 'wearable' armor even if it changes the look as created in the pre-existing lore. MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton has a few thoughts to share about this issue. Read on!

Star Wars: The Old Republic: For Better or Worse
MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood has a thought or two about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The amount of money being used in the game's development will either serve as a warning for developers and publishers about the folly of big money investment should the game tank or it will be a shining example of what big money can do if it succeeds. Check out all of Jon's reasons behind these thoughts and then add your own voice to the mix in the comments.

The Perfect Ten: Predictions for The Old Republic (Massively)

5. By 2015, everyone will call new MMOs "TOR clones"

The Old Republic will not only be a crushing success and revitalize the subscription model -- it's my column, I can't hear you, la la la -- but as it becomes the most-recognized MMO on the planet, every subsequent game will be judged against it and labeled as a clone of it. Plus, let's face it: "TOR clone" sounds so much cooler than "WoW clone."

News > Developer Blog
Advanced Classes Update (SWTOR official site)

As you level up, your character will gain abilities from three sources:

* Through trainers, from their base class (e.g. Sith Warrior)
* Through trainers, from their advanced class (e.g. Marauder)
* Through skill points spent in the skill trees of their Advanced Class

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Star Wars The Old Republic: Pick a Role, Any Role
In his latest column about all things Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton takes a look at last week's information about Advanced Classes in the game. See what Mike thinks about Advanced Classes and then add a few thoughts of your own in the comments.

Analyst says one million subscribers are attainable for SWTOR (Massively)

Gaming business website Gamasutra quoted Hickey as saying that Janco "suspect a willingness from investors to believe [500,000] to 1 million Star Wars MMO subscribers is an attainable target." Hickey has been focused on games and the gaming industry for some time now, specifically on EA, so the rise and fall of EA-published Warhammer Online cannot be off his radar when he makes his predictions about SWTOR. Ultimately, Hickey states that one million subscribers will mean $161.9 million in gross sales and up to $35 million in total profit for EA if his prediction is true.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: PvP Interview
During a recent visit to EA's Redwood Shores studio for Star Wars: The Old Republic "Immersion Day", MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton had the opportunity to sit down for a PvP-centric chat with Bioware's Emmanuel Lusinchi. Check out the discussion and then leave a comment or two below.

News > Developer Blog
Introducing the Codex (SWTOR official site)

For The Old Republic, we took the best of both systems, using our codex to not only elaborate on the settings you fight in and the creatures you kill, but also to plant seeds of knowledge relating to key personages and concepts from your class story and long-lost lore meant to give more feedback at large. We sketched out what we wanted, and told the writers to get to work.

How much work? Current estimates of our codex are around 120,000 words of text. By comparison, the average Star Wars novel comes in at around 100,000 words.

Analyst: EA Invested Roughly $80 Million In The Old Republic (Gamasutra)

"Given that the game was in development for over four years, with an estimated 200 full-time developers working on it, we estimate that EA’s investment exceeds $80 million," Pachter said in an investor note this Thursday.

Hyperspace Beacon: The hybrid (Massively)

The Trooper is not the only class that can possibly fill every role of the group dynamic. In fact, we know four of the eight classes have the choice of being full DPS, healer, or tank: Trooper, Consular, Bounty Hunter, and Inquisitor. There is much debate on what this means for group dynamics and boss fights as well. Although most of the community would agree that having these hybrid classes isn't going to stop anyone from buying or playing the game, they might have an impact on the staying power of the MMO.

WSJ Reports SWTOR Exclusive To New EA Download Service (Darth Hater)

The article reaffirms players will be able to purchase SWTOR in retail stores as well as from Origin, but the EA service will be the only internet-based one to digitally distribute the game.

[Loendal]

Ut oh... They started putting numbers and dollar signs on their predictions and such. More fuel for the flames should expectations not be met. This thing better deliver whenever they release it! I'm amazed at the continuing hype on this!

[Morreion]

Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik speaks his mind about SWTOR (Massively)

Sometimes being a celebrity in the gaming world has its perks. Take Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade, for example. People instantly recognize him, they want his opinion on everything, and he can get in on any beta he wants. All right, that last bit was a stretch, but he did get into game testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. And after much begging, the marketing team at BioWare gave "Gabe" the chance to publicly sound off about TOR. Guess what? He loved it.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: 17 Hours with the Bounty Hunter (PC Gamer)

Around level 8 your abilities round out. It’s still awkward to be out in the open, but the combinations you can pull off are fun. For a tough mob, I’d start by hitting the most dangerous enemy with my missile launcher. That knocks him and the surrounding enemies to the floor, giving me a chance to close the distance while blasting them.

If the threat has got back to his feet by the time I’m there, I hit him with a stun dart to immobilise him, then Rail Shot him – a sniper blast that does extra damage to stunned targets. Then I move to the edge of the mob, target the nearest enemy, and let off the flamethrower. It catches everyone in its cone of effect, first hurting then immobilising them as they thrash around in the fire. If anyone’s left alive, I can use my jetpack to deliver a thruster-powered uppercut.

Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order is live! (Massively)

Along with the fact that the initial rumors were true (including that Gamestop price for the 150 USD Collector's Edition), we get information on a Digital Deluxe Edition (79.99 USD) and a Standard Edition (59.99 USD), for those who don't really care about the physical extras.

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Beta Test Weekends this September (MMORPG.com)

As anticipation grows, BioWare also proudly announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will open "Beta Test Weekends" starting this September. These weekend play sessions will be open to selected players worldwide and create an opportunity for fans to get a sneak peek of the epic stories, worlds, quests, battles and characters in the game.

EA proclaims SWTOR preorder breaks records (Massively)

"In September, we will be in a position to call the ball and give you a hard ship date" following the major beta testing push.

[Morreion]

SWTOR beta test weekends to begin September 2nd (Massively)

Old Republic release date is 'definitely tied to the beta' (CVG)
"We don't want to happen to us what happened to WoW," says EA


EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau told CVG that EA does have a date in mind for the MMO launch (the official stance is "holiday 2011") but fan reaction to the beta - which has so far seen two million sign-ups - will be the deciding factor.

"We're driving towards a date, but the very issue you raised is why we're not announcing a date yet because you want to make sure that these services can last a decade," the exec said.

New predictions for SWTOR sales: 3M units! (Massively)

Gamasutra reports that Cowen and Company originally predicted sales of the Star Wars MMO to be approximately 1.5 million units with subscription retention at about 1 million players. However, Cowen and Company has now increased that prediction to 3 million unit sold in the first year with 2 million steady subscribers.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Imperial Agent Interview
During a recent visit to EA's Redwood Shores studio for Star Wars: The Old Republic "Immersion Day", MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton had the opportunity to sit down with Lead Writer Daniel Erickson to chat about the Imperial Agent. It's a great interview that delves into the "meat and potatoes" of the Imperial Agent. Be sure to leave us a comment or two.

MMORPG.com:

What’s a spy without his gadgets and gizmos? What are some of the more interesting gadgets the Agent can utilize?

Daniel Erickson:

So as the Agent goes on, especially the Operative, ends up with a whole lot of the little—you got to see a little bit of the droids that pop out. So, he’s got beyond the poison dart and the things you’ve got to see already, he’s got a whole lot of little, very specifically engineered droids. So he has ones for healing, he has ones for distraction, so you end up with a bunch of these little ball droids that will just fly out everywhere and end up being super fun.

The Daily Grind: Did BioWare make the right call? (Massively)

BioWare made something of a stink last week with its decision to limit Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-orders (both in terms of total numbers and in certain regions around the world). Here at Massively, we received dozens of angry emails entreating us to take up the cause of the common gamer.

While limits on digital goods do seem a bit artificial, it's also worth noting that recent popular MMO releases were beset with server overcrowding and lengthy login queues (we're thinking of both Aion and RIFT here).

Star Wars: The Old Republic: 'Welfare Epics'
MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton discusses the recent revelations regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic's Operation loot distribution in this week's The Old Republic column.

I do understand the position of gamers who took great pride in the time and effort they put into acquiring awesome gear in games past, but at the same time, the genre has broadened and the demographic is getting older. If a AAA studio is going to spend a significant amount of time and money on developing raid content for their game, they are going to want more than 5-10% of their player base to be able (and willing) to experience it, and frankly, there are a lot of barriers to raiding as it is. The days of raiding being an activity generally exclusive to those with copious amounts of time and patience aren’t realistic anymore, especially given the time and cost of developing the content.

SWTOR Crew Skills unleashed (Massively)

When BioWare introduced us to the system a long while back, only eight crew skills were revealed. However, on Friday, the Community Team gave us a stealth update to the Crew Skills page, revealing all the categories. For example, Archaeology is now listed under gathering skills. Crafting skills will apparently grant players Armstech, Cybertech, and Synthweaving. And finally, we will be able to send our companions on Investigation and Underworld Trading missions.

SWTOR's James Ohlen says no cross-faction communication [Updated] (Massively)

'We had the big argument that this isn't like Horde and Alliance, we all speak Galactic Standard so we should just allow it. So we actually did allow it for a little while. The argument against it was that, what happens is people start saying inappropriate things to the other side. That's just the way it is when you're on a different side and you gank each other, people tend to say inappropriate things.'

The Soapbox: The Republic must stand, the Republic must fall (Massively)

SWTOR's failure would basically be a gutshot to the industry, showing that it flared in interest and then died. It wouldn't kill future titles, but it would make things a lot less attractive. But its success would essentially suggest that you must have at least this much money to compete, and that's just for a shot at player attention.

Neither option is really a good one. Both are going to have large effects on the industry as a whole for years to come, just because the project in question is so large and has been running for such a long time. I'd like to hope that all of my potential doomsaying for both scenarios is overblown, but at the same time, I can't help but see the fate of this game as having a big impact for the industry one way or the other.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: PAX Interview - PVP, Voidstar, and Replayability
During last weekend's PAX, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy managed to corner Bioware's James Ohlen and Gabe Amantangelo to talk about PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic. They covered a wide range of topics with regard to PvP that you simply must not miss. Keep reading and then let us know what you think in the comments.

Oh yeah, the Voidstar. That really is the bridge between the cinematic and PVP. It’s like a boarding party type warzone, where you go into attack and defense a bit more and in a bit more original way than other fights. It’s a derelict starship, and it has tech that both sides want. One side gets there before the other and the other side’s trying to take it, boarding the ship and charging the hold. You have to defend from room to room to room, open doors, get across bridges to eventually get to the data core. We really try to pull from the original trilogy and the canon in how the fights play out.

PAX 2011: SWTOR PvP hands-on impressions (Massively)

Pros:
* Graphics are smooth and polished, and animations are fluid
* Class balance seems to be coming along well; no terribly obvious imbalance
* Warzone design encourages teamwork

Cons:

* PvP and combat gameplay is nothing new (yes, I know, not necessarily a con. Just my opinion.)
* Some minor environmental problems can be frustrating
* UI needs a bit more polish
* Classes can be hard to distinguish, making it difficult to focus priority targets

[Morreion]

Massively's SWTOR Beta Previews- and more!



Lifting the beta curtain: Larry's hands-on with SWTOR's beta (Massively)

...On the other hand, the Smuggler was more than interesting to me. As I said, originally I was not going to play the Smuggler because I didn't want anything to be spoiled for me at launch, but I had to at least start it so I could see the changes to the cover mechanics since my Taral V playthrough at PAX East. But once I started playing, I could not stop -- hats off to the creator of the Smuggler storyline. I found the majority of characters to be interesting and surprisingly unpredictable at times. The most unpredictable character was mine! Some of the best lines weren't delivered by the "funny" NPC, as is the norm, but by the snarky, condescending mouth of my own Smuggler.

A certain point of view: Jef's hands-on with SWTOR's beta (Massively)

At the end of the day, TOR surpassed my expectations a wee bit. I loved the world design and enjoyed the leveling gameplay for what it was, but I found the story elements unnecessary at best (and downright distracting at worst). Ultimately the early portions of the game are well-made and it's likely going to keep Star Wars nuts and themeparkers happy for a while. For those of us who realize that MMOs were meant to be more than casual combat games, though, I'm afraid Sir Alec Guinness said it best when he said this is not the MMO we're looking for.

Hyperspace Beacon: Crafting preview (Massively)

...The gathering categories divide into four different skill sets: Archaeology, Bioanalysis, Scavenging, and Slicing. Archaeology focuses on gathering from nodes of artifacts, or more importantly, crystals. Bioanalysis allows you or your companion to examine and extract biological agents from various plants and creatures. Scavenging gives you skills to sift through piles of junk or recently defeated droids to find useful materials. Star Wars defines slicing as hacking. In SWTOR, a player uses Slicing to access electronic safes and data stations.

...Missions are fairly simple to explain. You have companions. Most of the time they are sitting on the ship doing nothing. Why not have them do something? That's where missions come in. Missions are projects you assign to your companions while you are out adventuring. They are totally "off screen," and you gain rewards for them. There are four different types of these missions: Diplomacy, Investigation, Treasure Hunting, and Underworld Trading. I will talk about the breakdown of materials in the crafting section, but all missions can gain you crafting materials as well as companion gifts and possibly schematics. Diplomacy contains the extra ability to gain you Dark or Light Side points.

BioWare says gamers find it hard to go back to other MMOs after playing SWTOR (Massively)

As Star Wars: The Old Republic's release date looms larger on the calendar, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are starting to be seen with increasing frequency on the PR circuit. The latest sighting comes courtesy of The Gaming Liberty, and the dynamic doctor duo offers up some interesting commentary on SWTOR and the logic behind setting up BioWare's new customer service center in Ireland rather than Canada or the U.S.







TORWars Interview: SWTOR’s Damion Schubert Reveals New Game Details

TORWars:
Will there be naming rules and will they be enforced? Will we be playing alongside “IPwnzJoo,” “Drizzt666” and “XplaguesX”?

Schubert:
There will definitely be naming rules that will be automatically enforced (first letter only capitalization, no numbers, for example). Profanity will be weeded out, and our customer service staff will also be working to weed out offensive names that manage to get by our automated filter. That being said, everyone has a different idea on what constitutes a cool, stupid and/or roleplaying-appropriate name, and so we probably won’t try too far to make judgment calls beyond ‘offensive’. My advice for players of any MMO is, if naming standards are important to you, find or form a guild with likeminded people who share your standards.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Column: SWTOR's Story Will Change Questing Forever
Exclamation points and walls of text are the standard for quests in MMOs today. In his latest column, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy takes a look at innovative new quest features that Bioware is bringing to the table with Star Wars: The Old Republic. See why Bill thinks questing will change forever and then let us know what you think in the comments.

If there is nothing else BioWare's take on MMOs does for the industry, it will be this. Story is what they have always done best. I haven't played enough to know how the rest of the game's features stack up, but I have seen enough to know that I will be getting the game on day one if only to experience the tale. It's bound to be epic in scope, for each of the game's classes to boot, and I'll get to share it with my guild no doubt. What happens after the story is over? Well, we don't know yet. But I'm okay with putting down some cash on TOR to experience the best story in Star Wars since the Original Trilogy.

Star Wars: The Old Republic talks instanced regions and hubs at NYCC (Massively)

The Flashpoints will not all be story-focused, according to Reid, with some focused more heavily on the puzzle or gameplay aspects. All of them, however, can be replayed at higher difficulties in the endgame. In addition, Reid showed off the upcoming fleet hubs for the game, the central gathering areas for players that feature vendors, auction systems, and a special "VIP Lounge" for people who purchased the Collector's Edition. With only a little over two months remaining until the game's launch, there's not much more time before these promised features become a reality.

BioWare announces launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic (Massively)

Coming December 20th, 2011!

SWTOR launch day questions answered (Massively)

To prevent signup issues on launch day, log-ins will be throttled. However, pre-order customers will still gain early access to the game.

Subscription is $14.99 a month.

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Five Days of Early Access (MMORPG.com)

Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews: Republic Companions Preview
As the next Star Wars: The Old Republic beta weekend looms close, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy, Garrett Fuller, Mike Bitton, and Chris Higgins had an opportunity to chat with one another about their experiences with companions during their game time recently. They've got a few thoughts to share with you about companions so keep reading! What are you most looking forward to companions-wise in SWTOR? Let us know in the comments!

Jedi Knight – T7-01

Who doesn't want their own R2-D2? Sure Jedi have to avoid attachment to things, but they can attach themselves to a droid… right? T7-01 is the Jedi Knight companion and finding the little droid is one of the coolest parts of the opening story. One of the best things about T7 is reading his dialogue. I don't want to give too much away, but T7 is a welcome companion on your journey as a Jedi Knight. With some great lightening blast skills and the ability to hold off multiple opponents while you can finish some heavy hitters with your lightsaber, T7 is just awesome. I've never seen such devotion in myself towards a droid before... if that makes any sense. You will find yourself totally digging T7's ability to help your character as well as his part in the story.

Class Preview: Bounty Hunter (Ten Ton Hammer)

Having already defended the Republic as the Trooper it wasn’t much of a surprise that their Sith counterpart the Bounty Hunter played quite similar, at least for the first ten levels or so. Fire off an explosive attack to knock down enemies and pepper them with blaster fire worked on most bad guys who crossed my path.

Later on in the levels however things became a little less clear, more specifically in regards to my role in flashpoints. Being a Powertech I was called upon to tank in flashpoints like the Black Talon, only I couldn’t hold any threat and my crowd control abilities are restricted to standard or weak enemies. This made for an awkward first few levels in my new advanced class, and steered me away from flashpoints until I picked up the taunt ability a few levels later.

The Old Republic NDA is No More (Ten Ton Hammer)

Legacy System Revealed (Ten Ton Hammer)

* Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters, on all servers – so choose carefully!
* Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase yourLegacy Level.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews: Full Beta Preview
Today marks a big turning point for Star Wars: The Old Republic with a partial lift of the embargo for members of the press and we here at MMORPG.com have a full slate of articles covering the Republic side and levels 1-15 today. Community Manager Mike Bitton has a comprehensive look at the overall beta (that we can write about!) that is a must read for any and all fans of SWTOR. Check it out and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Let’s just say that if you enjoyed mowing down people in Fallout with a minigun or love the feeling of the Heavy in Team Fortress 2, the Commando really doesn’t disappoint. The whole dynamic of the Trooper gameplay immediately changed once I became a Commando, transforming me into a walking harbinger of death and destruction, able to clear entire rooms with sweeping hails of blaster fire and ordnance. I’m being literal here. There were times when I’d walk into a large room filled with enemies and between myself and my companion (who also wields an autocannon), we’d honestly just blow the whole thing up. There is something seriously satisfying about pumping unrelenting high speed blaster bolts into some poor guy's chest and watching him convulse like Chunk doing the truffle-shuffle in The Goonies. The few enemies who managed to survive the blaster fire and run up to my face were often treated to an awesome cone lightning attack from the end of my weapon that felt incredibly satisfying and was also visually appealing with some wicked particle effects. If for some reason they managed to survive, I could beat them in the face with the business end of my cannon or detonate a Concussive Charge to get anyone around me out of my face.

SWTOR Beta Impressions (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)

Overview (Read this, if nothing else)

SWTOR is a themepark through and through. If you hate WoW for the kind of game that it is, don’t bother with SWTOR; however, if you simply hate WoW because it’s cool to hate WoW or you’re simply tired of playing in Azeroth, then you might want to give SWTOR a chance.

As a new game being released, SWTOR does nothing to change what we’re all familiar with in games. It’s the same RPG story-telling we expect from Bioware and it’s the same WoW-clone we expect from MMO’s. SWTOR does it well, though, and that’s where I justify wanting to play.

A line I have used in the past is, “If [MMO] is like WoW, but not better in any way, why not just play WoW?” I like to use Rift as an example. Rift is not a terrible game, but it does nothing better than WoW; content was boring, combat was stiff, etc. That’s why I saw no reason to keep playing Rift. SWTOR has fun and interesting PvE content that keeps me interested and wanting to see what happens next. I’m confident that I will feel the drive to see every area and encounter the game offers.

Outlaw’s Den: I only see problems ahead (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)

Tatooine’s Outlaw’s Den is a zone recently revealed that will feature complete FFA PvP. Your only allies are those in your group or guild. Outlaw’s Den will have the best gathering nodes and treasure chests containing the currency necessary to buy PvP and special cosmetic gear. There are no objectives to capture or reasons to hold the zone, other than the resources. It is, at its core, a zone for ganking and that is why I feel this zone will have potential problems.

SW:TOR Beta Weekend Review (Tales of the Aggronaut)

A Story that Matters

The biggest thing is that the story matters. When you get betrayed you feel it, you actually care about the characters and your interactions with them. When someone dies, it sucks, because over the course of a story arc, you have come to be attached to them. Lord of the Rings Online is a similar game where story matters, but when you mix it with Biowares superb voice acting and story telling it is a truly amazing experience.

All this said, I have gone from being deeply skeptical about the game, to being completely pumped about it and anxiously awaiting the launch. I am looking forward to having fun with you all again, and looking forward to recapturing some of that magic that WoW sucked out of me. All in all for me, it was worth every bit of hype that I had heard leading into beta weekend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Levelcapped)

So some people are going to love it. Some people will absolutely hate it because it doesn’t deviate enough from the themepark MMO design. Some people will be on the fence and will probably buy it and give it a shot for the free 30 days of play time (strangely, I just questioned whether there would be a free 30 days…don’t know why…) and will make their decision in that time. It’s a polarizing game, which is good and bad because regardless of how you personally feel, it is doing some things to move the ball down the field which can only mean a march of progress for the genre that hasn’t really progressed by leaps and bounds over the past few years. We had this kind of minor shift with Warhammer Online’s public groups, the introduction of LFG tools, and other features that we now take for granted. I do hope that future MMOs integrate deeper conversation mechanisms, because I think then they can start to really tell the stories that they’ve been trying to tell all these years, and make more people take note of them.

SWTOR NDA Has Dropped (Nomadic Gamer)

For all that I did enjoy it overall, I was also annoyed by a ton of it as well. I had better ping times than in my lag-free Rift (89 in TOR vs 109 in Rift) and yet I had a sluggish response when using abilities, dropping into cover, and especially when looting. That was pretty annoying. The 5-10 second delay while loading the conversation cutscenes was a bit of an immersion-breaker too. good thing I’m not really THAT worried about immersion. It’s definitely not the 2nd coming of the MMO, but I didn’t expect it to be either, so I’m not canceling my pre-order either.

Old Republic Unleashed (Hunter's Insight)

And that is my big takeaway from the beta. I can play this game despite its reliance on old fashioned basic quests. It feels like a Bioware game despite the change in mechanics and other players running around. I like the game overall but I’ll talk about some of the things I don’t like along with other interesting notes in another post.

Reflections on a Bioware MMO (Casual is as Casual Does

I think that rather sums up my experience playing this and other Bioware games rather succinctly. I’ve missed the plot. I wanted to like it, I’ve heard such excellent things about it, and I’m not terribly opposed to the traditional MMO-ness of it (I am still playing LOTRO, after all). I’m just out of phase or something, stubbornly immune to, or incapable of appreciating, Bioware’s charms. I’m sure that every one of the negatives I listed above have made their way onto someone else’s “must have” list, and so, with something like a kajillion pre-orders, I’m sure Bioware can do just fine without my support.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – First Impressions (Mana Obscura)

Overall, Star Wars: The Old Republic is a great game with some really enjoyable content. Like all games it has some shortcomings, some more severe than others. Whether they make the game worth buying or not is up to you, but it’s worth looking at it with both eyes open. For what it’s worth, this game is one that I’ll be playing at launch.

What will be interesting to see is how SWTOR stands the test of time. Will it be a game that people pick up for a few months as they play through the levelling content, or will there be enough to hold people for the longer term? This is a much more difficult question to answer as endgame is currently a big unknown.

There’s also the question of fresh content. By using heavy voice acting and a deep storyline, producing new content for players is going to be both expensive and time consuming. In an age where some MMOs are churning out content patches every month can BioWare afford to spend three to six months creating new quests for us to play?

Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Impressions (Gamer BC)

Overall, Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t revolutionary but what it does do however, is bring a sense of meaning, a purpose to the journey to max level. This is a game that I feel I could sit down and enjoy it for what it is and not feel like I have to X this and X that. For a while playing a MMO felt like a chore and thing I had to do. Playing this game a few times, although with the rough start and disappointments seems to be able to break that mold just enough for me.