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BioWare names Stephen Reid the new SWTOR Community Manager
A few months back -- just after PAX -- community manager Sean Dahlberg stepped down from his position at BioWare to join UTV True Game's Faxion design team. In the intermediate time, his Star Wars: The Old Republic duties have been filled by community representatives like Joanne Laroche and Alyson Bridge. But now Sean's empty seat has been filled by none other than Stephen "Rockjaw" Reid. You may know Reid as the Community Director at Gazillion Entertainment or maybe the Senior Community Manager at Trion World. Either way, Reid's experience is well-known in the MMO world. And prior to his work in the States, British-born Reid specialized in public relations and community-related projects for NCsoft UK. His voice has been heard on the Yellow Spandex podcast as well as the official NCsoft Europe podcast before that. It's safe to say the Force is strong with this one. Reid has been a regular reader of Massively and has been known to comment on our stories via his twitter account Rockjaw. We'd like to congratulate Stephen on his new position, and we look forward to hearing the latest SWTOR news from him. Be sure to send him a warm welcome on the SWTOR forums, and don't miss our interview with this new addition to the SWTOR team coming in the next few days. In the words of Han Solo in A New Hope, "Don't get cocky" -- I mean, "Here's where the fun begins!"
Hyperspace Beacon: Testing the SWTOR waters
If you didn't know already, just over a week ago three writers from Massively, including me, traveled to Seattle, Washington for PAX Prime. During that time, besides catching the flu, we were able to catch a glimpse of some of the games that have yet to be released. We were able to play games like TERA, The Force Unleashed II, Guild Wars 2, RIFT, End of Nations, and many, many others. Some were pretty good; others, not-so-much -- but most seemed very polished and perfect for presentation. Of course, you all know I was there to see Star Wars: The Old Republic. I caught a lot of it. There were six of the eight classes available for demo at the gorgeous LucasArts booth. (BioWare did have a booth there, too, but the team was displaying some small game it was trying to get off the ground called Dragon Age 2.) Visitors had a chance to try out the smuggler, trooper, agent, bounty hunter, and both Sith classes. Because of the enormous lines that constantly encircled the booth, I was only able to play three of the classes: smuggler, trooper, and Sith inquisitor. For this edition of the Hyperspace Beacon, I will give you my impressions of the gameplay for those classes. However, I want to take a slightly different look at them. At E3, Massively's editor Seraphina Brennan was able to give her impressions of the smuggler class -- she covered the mechanics and so on. Although I will touch on the combat mechanics, I have decided to focus on some of the features BioWare is famous for: cinematics, character development, and overall storytelling. Follow after the break, and I will give you an honest breakdown of how SWTOR measures up to its predecessors.
Hyperspace Beacon: PAX holo-journal
You are reading your guide to Star Wars: The Old Republic and beyond! The scoop on EA-BioWare's next great MMORPG is brought to you here in the Hyperspace Beacon. As everyone should know at this point, Penny Arcade Expo exposed players to the latest video game experiences this past weekend in Seattle, Washington. Three representative from Massively attended this extraordinary event. Contributing editors Justin Olivetti, Rubi Bayer, and I braved the cross-country travel to the "sleepless" city. Although we were there to get interviews and impressions of all MMO games, we each had our own specific games that we wanted to see in action. Justin came to see Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine was demonstrating its free-to-play model. Rubi wanted to see DDO and, of course, Guild Wars 2. In fact, we could barely tear her away from GW2's booth for more than five minutes at a time. And I had one goal in mind for the weekend: play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Follow my daily adventures in SWTOR at PAX after the break.
