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Hyperspace Beacon: Previewing SWTOR's Shadow of Revan
When I was first introduced to the expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, there were two things I wanted to see: the continuation of the class story and Yavin 4. And I'm happy to say that this expansion delivered both of those in a satisfying way. When I spoke to studio game director James Ohlen and lead writer Charles Boyd about the expansion a few weeks ago, they told me that Shadow of Revan would close one major chapter and open a new book for SWTOR. After seeing the expansion, I have to agree that Shadow of Revan does put a great cap on a class stories and opens the door for an exciting future for the game. I don't want to give you the impression that everything in the expansion is exactly what I wanted, though. There is a surprising lack of exploration, the amount of content fell short, and parts of the maps felt slapped together. The screenshots depict beautiful scenes, but sometimes form outweighs function. Before I continue, I feel obligated to tell you that there are spoilers of previous content in this piece, but the important parts of the new content will remain unspoiled.
BioWare on SWTOR's Revan expansion, upcoming species, and class stories
Star Wars fans are super excited about the next digital expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic releasing on December 9th. First off, it's Star Wars, and second, it deals with one of the most iconic Star Wars figures outside the movies: Revan. I recently talked to some key figures at BioWare to ask them about Shadow of Revan. On the phone call and livestream, Charles Boyd, the lead writer for the expansion, not only gave an overview of the story but played a bit live. Producer Bruce Maclean discusssed the production side of the game. And even Game Director James Ohlen popped onto the call to let us know how much this expansion means to him.
BioWare talks KOTOR tenth anniversary, influence on SWTOR
If you haven't felt old yet this week, here's your punch in the gut: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare's beloved RPG, turns 10 today. The studio is celebrating KOTOR's birthday in a number of small ways, one of which being a loving blog post from studio creative director James Ohlen that talks about how KOTOR influenced the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. According to Ohlen, BioWare put a premium on bringing several core components of KOTOR into SWTOR. He mentions epic narratives set in the Old Republic era, cinematic storytelling, being a Jedi, owning a starship, traveling to different worlds, an internal conflict between good and evil, and hanging out with companion characters that actually matter. Here's a clip from the post: All of these were key elements that we knew we wanted included from the very start of development. The good news is that all of these elements are featured prominently in SWTOR. These features also make SWTOR unique amongst MMORPGs, and helped forge what has become one of the strongest game communities in the history of online RPGs. Players of SWTOR can join in the celebration of KOTOR's birthday by purchasing the Revan's Heir title from the Cartel Market for 10 Cartel Coins. The title will be available only until 3 a.m. EDT, July 16th. So, tonight. Additionally, you can read through some of the memories offered by people who worked on KOTOR and score yourself a handful of wallpapers on this official BioWare post.
GDC 2013: James Ohlen on how F2P saved SWTOR
If you've been following BioWare for any length of time, then you know James Ohlen. When I interviewed him a couple of years back at PAX East and again last year at the Star Wars: The Old Republic guild summit, I could feel his sincere passion for the game. Ohlen joined the SWTOR project at its inception and held the creative director position for well over half a decade. SWTOR is as much his game as anyone's. As is common at the Game Developers Conference, developers speak candidly to other future game-creators about the inner workings of their studios' biggest projects. Sometimes those tales are cautionary; some are inspiring. This time, Ohlen's told the story of SWTOR, the game that currently holds the record as the second largest subscription MMO ever, and how free-to-play turned what could have been a tale of utter failure into a story of success.
Hyperspace Beacon: A 2012 SWTOR reflection
To say that this year has been interesting for Star Wars: The Old Republic would be a major understatement. I think it's safe to say that in the course of this year this game has gone from being one of the most loved games to one of the most hated. Maybe I just like rooting for the underdog, but I still love the game. (There are other reasons, of course.) Love the game or hate it, 2012 has been a wild ride for the game and this column. As this is the last Hyperspace Beacon of the year year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on some of the past opinions and predictions I held, then test them against my current stance or the truth behind what happened. Before I get into the meat of this column, I want to make mention of an event. The Imperials of The Ebon Hawk server are holding a gala in the name of Darth Nox, commemorating the one-year anniversary of her ascension to the Dark Council. Players are invited to come ready to roleplay and participate in in-character games. Nox will conduct a scavenger hunt, items will be up for raffle and auction, and every participant should walk away with something. If you were looking for an opportunity to get into roleplay or just have some fun, be sure to visit the market area of Dromund Kaas (instance 1, coordinates: 20, 200) at 6:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 5th, 2013.
Hyperspace Beacon: Will free-to-play save SWTOR?
Last week, I discussed the reasons I still play a game that literally a million people have quit playing. I believe a huge part of that discussion stemmed from my expectations of the game. I truly believe that many people expected Star Wars: The Old Republic to be the answer to all MMO problems and Wookiees. Of course, no game could ever live up to that dream. I attempted to curb some of those expectations in a few of my articles, but some community desires were just beyond the scope of BioWare's plans for SWTOR. This led to disappointment and a lot of unreal prospects for the game. On that note, I'd like to take a look at the free-to-play plans for our Star Wars MMO. Many players hope that F2P will finally launch SWTOR in the right direction. Others believe that if SWTOR had launched F2P, we wouldn't have seen the mass exodus that we saw in March. (Of course, there are also those who claim that F2P is just the next step toward fail and that the game will shut down in less than a year.) Personally, I'm a fan, so I'm hopeful. However, I take that hope with the realization that this could definitely be the beginning of the end for SWTOR. Ultimately, the potential for success hinges on the disparity between what the players want and what BioWare delivers. Will F2P save SWTOR?
Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches
The fourth major update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is live right now, but some players may find patch 1.4 a bit lighter than previous updates. According to a new development blog, this isn't by accident but by design. Creative director James Ohlen explains that the development team's previous strategy of launching a single big update every few months did result in big patches but at the cost of long stretches without anything new for players. Starting with 1.4 and moving onward, the team is moving to prioritize more frequent updates. Ohlen places a rough estimate of every six weeks but notes that it's only an estimate and a target rather than a firm schedule. He goes on to state that the team is planning on three more patches by the end of the year in addition to the free-to-play conversion, with more large-scale improvements and updates due in 2013. If you're mostly just interested in cutting through 1.4's new raid mode, of course, most of this is immaterial, but you can still check out the trailer for the patch just after the break.
Hyperspace Beacon: It's time for free-to-play, SWTOR
I'm a positive person, generally. I'm loyal to my favorite franchises even when George Lucas can't make up his mind about who actually shot first. But I don't like it when my loyalty to a product is taken advantage of when I'm told I will get one thing but am ultimately sold another. That's why I say to EA and BioWare, "Make Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play already." When EA was voted the worst company in America by the Consumerist, it was not because the products suck. If a customer has a constant feeling that she is not going to get what she pays for from a specific publisher, then it will start to wear on her. Now whenever someone from EA speaks, we have to ask ourselves whether there is any double meaning to what was said. I believe SWTOR will be free-to-play by the time the first expansion comes out, and not directly because of subscription numbers or rumors. My evidence comes from those who speak for SWTOR and the actions of BioWare's management. I can also guess as to how the studio is going to spin it.
SWTOR's Ohlen: F2P 'not super easy to do'
Does BioWare think free-to-play can work for Star Wars: The Old Republic? It's probably a bit early to know for sure despite the scuttlebutt circulating in the gaming press recently. If you're looking for further insight into what many see as the inevitable, though, you should check out PC Gamer's recap of an E3 interview with game director James Ohlen. "I think [F2P] can work for different games. It really depends on how you go with your game. Games that have been built to be free-to-play from the start definitely work out," Ohlen explains. "Now, there have been games that weren't free to play from the start and transferred over to becoming free-to-play that have worked as well. But it's definitely not something that's super easy to do."
Hyperspace Beacon: PR nightmare
It's my sincerest hope that we never again have a news week like we did last week. Every mistake that could be made in MMO development was made this past week. Obviously, the biggest news revolved around the 38 Studios fiasco. Perhaps it's hard when you're in the midst of a development cycle and concentrating on deadlines and milestones to see the larger picture and the proverbial writing on the wall. It should have been obvious to the developers behind the scenes the project was doomed, but I say that with 20/20 hindsight. Of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic won't be outdone by 38 Studios. BioWare had to flood the feeds with its own bad news in the form of layoffs. Then almost in the same breath, it announced that the game will be merging servers. I guess SWTOR couldn't be outdone by itself, either. It had to add insult to its own injury. Although the timing of the layoffs was a bit surprising, those of us observing from the outside could see the server merges coming. The stories in Star Wars aren't just about good conquering evil, but they are also about redemption and good coming out of a bad situation. The tragedy of Luke's aunt and uncle being killed was the catalyst that started his journey to becoming a great hero and Jedi Knight. Darth Vader was ultimately redeemed when he killed the emperor. But is there the same redemption for SWTOR? Will it ultimately become the great game everyone was hoping that it would be?
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's James Ohlen shares the formula behind PvP nerfs
When Update 1.2 launched for Star Wars: The Old Republic, most players witnessed some major changes to their classes. In my opinion, these changes weren't game-breaking, but they did require that some players re-evaluate how they played. Some classes were changed so drastically in this patch players claimed they felt as if they were truly playing a completely different class. Major changes like this do not happen without reason, and from my time spent with SWTOR developers, I know that they are passionately interested in making their game the best it can be. So I asked Game Director James Ohlen some questions about these mechanical changes. In true James Ohlen fashion, he was more than happy to answer in intricate detail, and I'm excited to bring you those answers here in the Hyperspace Beacon.
PAX East 2012: SWTOR 1.2 coming next week
We've been telling you about Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.2 Legends patch for a while now. Thankfully we've finally got a release date to share as well. Actually, let's call it a release window, and let's call it next week, thanks to statements made by BioWare's James Ohlen at PAX East earlier today. "We have our update 1.2 coming in the next week, and then after that, it's going to continue to roll out month after month. It's exciting," he told Boston-area convention-goers. Ohlen's optimism springs from what's to come in SWTOR over the next few months. "The scope of our game updates in 2012 is going to be unimaginable. You're going to see so many changes and additions to the Star Wars Universe; it's going to be impressive," he said. Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of April 6-8, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2012. Whether you're dying to know more about TERA or PlanetSide 2 or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!
Epic in scope: SWTOR's James Ohlen explains plans for the future
As the Star Wars: The Old Republic guild leaders lined up to get a taste of the Lost Island flashpoint, I was at BioWare studios getting my hands dirty with deeper PvE and PvP content as well as speaking with developers like Combat Designer Georg Zoeller, Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, Art Director Jeff Dobson, and Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi. However, the best part was at the end of the day when I was able to speak one-on-one with Creative Director James Ohlen. Ohlen touches nearly every aspect of the game's development. It was important to me to find out why this game is as popular as it is and what BioWare was going to do to retain its current playerbase. The first stop was the latest game update, which should hit test servers really soon.
Massively's hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 1.2
Goodness, I hope you have heard that Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing a new patch soon. It's been jokingly dubbed the "Jesus Patch" because it's supposed to contain everything, and incidentally, it may "save" the game. Many critics have written off the game because developers missed some essential MMO ingredients when it launched. Despite that, SWTOR currently stands as the fastest-growing MMO ever and retains the second largest subscription base, according to Electronic Arts' investor calls. During the recent Guild Summit, while the guild leaders and fan site press were shuttled off, the press made its way to BioWare studios to try out the new content in Update 1.2. Each member was given his or her station to tool around with. Immediately, I noticed that the two Bounty Hunters in the character selection screen wore armor I had never seen before: Black Hole armor and War Hero armor. We were about to step into the new flashpoint called the Lost Island as well as the new Novare Coast warzone.
Star Wars: The Old Republic posts new video for future content updates [Updated]
It's safe to say the past two days haven't been the best for the nascent Star Wars: The Old Republic, with its bugs, breaks, and bearish concerns. That doesn't mean that BioWare is packing it in and heading for the hills, however; the studio has just put out a new video detailing the content slated for the game in the coming months. Director James Ohlen lays out several new additions planned for the near future, several of which are features players had been asking for. PvP will see the addition of a new Warzone as well as an overall ranking system for avid PvP players to track personal progress. UI customization is also coming, starting with a fully resizable and reconfigurable layout. And the Legacy system is being rolled out in full, complete with the promise of new races being available as Legacy rewards for the factions. So if you're a Star Wars: The Old Republic fan and have been feeling a bit down with recent news, this might help perk you back up. [Update: A reader named Jon has tipped us off to an article on Gamesradar in which BioWare's Daniel Erickson confirms that the character in today's video is "definitely a Miraluka Sith," which suggests that the Miraluka may be ported cross-faction as part of the Legacy system rewards.]
James Ohlen hits back against critics, defends SWTOR's innovation
Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Director James Ohlen isn't surprised that the game's received the flak it has from a segment of reviews and fans. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Ohlen addresses both the issues of being a "big target" for critics and the claims that SWTOR's lacking innovation. For the most part, players and critics have praised the game, Ohlen shares, and BioWare is seeing an "exceptionally high" desire among its playerbase for continued subscriptions. But was BioWare prepared for the backlash as well? Ohlen says it was: "We knew that there was going to be people who wanted us to fail. But that's just the nature of the game. If you're going to build a huge game and try to go out to a lot of people, you're going to have people who just react poorly." He does push back hard against claims that SWTOR failed on the innovation front, stating, "We wanted to take the lessons that have been developed in that genre over years and years and years and basically refine them, much like other companies do with other genres. So, I don't know, it's just the way it is, but I don't see us as not being innovative. We're actually a lot more innovative within the MMO space than comparable games in other spaces like the first-person genre, the action genre -- games like that."
BioWare responds to The Old Republic performance issues
Many Star Wars: The Old Republic players have raised complaints on the official forums about the game's technical performance. A disconcertingly large number of users report poor framerates despite lowering the game's graphic settings or running the game on a high-end PC. BioWare, however, is not convinced that there's anything wrong with the game, and instead the company asserts that users' lame rigs must be to blame. OK, not really. But game director James Ohlen told Eurogamer that "most players aren't really having performance concerns" and chalks the reported performance issues up to low-end hardware. He goes on to add that "[the team] knows that it's important that there is a smaller group of people usually with lower end machines that are having problems in some areas. And one of the most important things for [the team is] to grow [its] service is to continue to bring in more players, including those players who only have low-end machines." In light of this, the studio has a team of developers who are devoted to fixing performance-inhibiting bugs, so if all goes well, we poor low-end-rig-users will be able to play the game comfortably soon enough.
SWTOR goes bug hunting with 1.0.2 and prognosticates PvP improvements
With the abundance of bugs and glitches in Star Wars: The Old Republic, fans are looking to James Ohlen's promise of weekly patches to shore up the faults. Yesterday we saw patch 1.0.2 go live with some -- but certainly not all -- of these fixes, as well as an increase in the PvP lockbox rewards and allowing players to emote while mounted. In addition to yesterday's patch, today BioWare plans to roll out an emergency fix to address a few important issues: players crashing to desktop at character select, a problem with the chat channels in which they would stop functioning for some people, and the now-infamous /getdown bug. PvP Lead Gabe Amatangelo also emerged from the BioWare fortress to chat about plans for the future of the game's PvP combat. According to Amatangelo, the team is working on level 50 brackets for warzones, vastly improving open world PvP on Ilum, a new same-faction vs. same-faction warzone, team vs. team queuing, ranked warzone matches, and more. He says that to date, over a million warzone matches have been played, with 39% of those matches played being Huttball and the Empire winning 53% of every match fought.
BioWare's James Ohlen: Bug fixes coming weekly
Any new MMO, even big-budget behemoths like BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, is often fraught with bugs and exploits that can keep the game from living up to its full potential. The Old Republic's game director, James Ohlen, recognizes this and has stopped by the official forums to let players know how the company will be handling the game's bugs, glitches, and exploits. Ohlen states that "almost every week [BioWare] will be releasing a new patch." These pseudo-weekly patches will be focused almost entirely on fixing bugs, exploits, and glaring balance issues within the game. Ohlen does remind players, however, that bug-fixing is not always a simple task. "There are issues that we will fix immediately," he says, with the caveat that "these are rare and not every issue can be fixed in this manner. We usually reserve these 'emergency fixes' for bugs that are stopping players from playing the game or to exploits that could unbalance the entire game if not corrected." I'm sure players have a few things in mind to which an emergency fix could be applied, but we'll just have to wait for the next patch to see what the devs have cooked up.
Hyperspace Beacon: Sensing the future
I like making predictions. When it comes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, I've been spot on about several things, but I've missed the boat on some too. "Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side," Yoda warned the young Jedi Knight in Revenge of the Sith. It's a good thing I don't have anything to lose by guessing what I think will happen in the future for this game. In 2011, we saw TOR launch with astronomical numbers, and all you have to do is look at our front page to realize how much people have been talking about this game. Hopefully, the future of the game is just as bright. Thankfully, developers at BioWare have been very talkative about what's coming in the future. Let's combine what players have said with the plans developers have spoken about to predict the future of the game. After the break, I'll mix the news with my Force powers to see in the the future... the future... the future... echo... echo...
