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A WoW player's guide to The Old Republic
Whether you're a longtime World of Warcraft player or someone who's just recently tried the game and fallen in love with it, you're probably aware that there are other MMORPGs out there. Recently, the game that's been getting the most press is Star Wars: The Old Republic. And if you've sat down and tried it out as a veteran on World of Warcraft, you probably had some idea of what was going on when you started playing, with the only initial speedbump being the lack of an auto-attack feature. But there's more to the game than combat and more things that might trip you up in the long run. So Eliot Lefebvre and Matt Daniel are here to help you out with a massive guide to coming into TOR when you're accustomed to the environment of WoW. Take a skip past the break to find out almost everything you'll need to know when converting from the world of Azeroth to the galaxy of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Star Wars: The Old Republic gets into the record books
It remains to be seen if Star Wars: The Old Republic will set a number of records in its lifetime, but it's already made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records for 2012. At over 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue, the game has scored a record for having the largest amount of voice acting not only for a video game but for any entertainment project. The record appears in the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition, on the stands now in the US and on sale in the UK on the 19th. Of course, considering the amount of press the game has received for its voice cast, we suspect this won't come as a huge surprise, but it's interesting to see. The book also includes a list of the best Star Wars games in the franchise's history, which unsurprisingly includes Knights of the Old Republic, perhaps a harbinger of SWTOR's future.
Star Wars: The Old Republic accidentally taunts potential testers [Updated]
What's the worst thing that can happen when you're waiting for a chance to play a highly anticipated game? Being inadvertently taunted about the fact that you aren't in the beta. Star Wars: The Old Republic recently sent out a short survey asking for beta testers to take part, in the hopes of improving the overall testing experience. The only problem was that it wasn't sent out to testers... it was sent out to everyone who had signed up to potentially be a tester. A thread on the official forums has already reached absurd length, causing server hiccups and intermittent inability to properly access all areas of the site. It's unknown how BioWare will apologize for this mishap (aside from a mention on their Facebook page) -- certainly it's not hurting anyone, but it's probably the last thing that most people not involved in the current beta would like to see. And if you see this message in your email, rest assured, it's no scam... just poor cross-pollination of mailing lists. [Update: BioWare has officially confirmed that the emails were sent in error. "We can't apologize enough for getting your hopes up. Sorry again. Those responsible will endure a thousand years in the Sarlacc Pit," said Stephen Reid over Twitter.]
Waging WAR: Tapping the keg
Mythic has released the Keg's End live event in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and this week in Waging WAR, after falling off the wagon and bumping his head, Greg talks about all the things to see and do in-game during this holiday season. Don't worry, though -- we were able to get him to stop singing carols after the swelling went down. It's that time of year again, and most everyone is celebrating something in some fashion. Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or Festivus, ultimately, it's a section of the calendar that many of us can appreciate and look forward to. On that note, I would like to extend my warmest and sincerest Season's Greetings to all Massively readers out there, wherever you are. And as fun as it is with the gift giving, merriment and world-peace-wishing, the best part of the season is when we get hammered and smack-talk our families. Wait, you don't smack-talk your family at your house? You mean... the season really is all about warmth, love, and mistletoe mischief? Hmm... well, it seems as though my family missed that memo. Behind-the-back dirt-dishing has been a staple at my house for as long as I can remember. But enough about that, let's talk about Warhammer Online and the Keg End live event -- something I can relate to. Forget about religion, politics, and corporate pan-handling; let's get out the gourds, chug a frothy or two, and loudly proclaim our bravest victories in that barrel-chested manner we're all so accustomed to (OK, maybe not all of us, but play along, will ye?). Read on after the cut to learn about all the fun things you can look forward to with WAR's Keg End live event.
Hands-on with SWTOR's Jedi Knight on Tython
Last month, Massively was invited to LucasArts for a whole day's experience with BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. One of the perks of living on the West Coast is that I get to attend all these awesome in-depth Silicon Valley events and really expand on Massively's sessions at various conventions! For all my enthusiasm, I have to admit I approached this hands-on with no small amount of trepidation. I'm a huge Star Wars fan (I still play Star Wars Galaxies!), but I fell out of "expert" range on the saga a decade ago. Like many of you readers, I've been wary of the hype and even warier of delusions of grandeur on the part of game companies trying to do justice to the IP. I was really afraid that it wouldn't be as good as I'd hoped and that I'd walk away disappointed. And given the parts I saw, SWTOR's not as good as I'd hoped. It's better. %Gallery-108535%
Waging WAR: White Lions ite domum
This week in Waging WAR, Greg shows off the rather large chip on his shoulder and talks about one particular career in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Despite the following column, Greg wants it to be known that he does indeed love kittens of all kinds and does not condone harming them in any way, unless it involves several Doom Bolts and a few handfuls of Flickering Red Fire, in which case he enthusiastically gives his approval. For the most part, I consider myself pretty easygoing when it comes to scenario PvP. I don't flip out when I die, I try to not take failure to heart since the next scenario is usually right around the corner, and DPS-healers don't bug me like they bug many other players out there (I used to play one, neener-neener). But recently, I've noticed a particularly aggravating trend growing among Order players on Badlands in the lower tiers. There is an inordinate number of White Lions being rolled, and objectively, it isn't difficult to see why. They're extremely mobile, they can cause outrageous amounts of damage in a very short time, and their pets represent more than mere harassment -- they actually hurt. Sadly, objectivity comes at a pretty hefty price these days. When it has run dry and all I find myself left with is the hot, bitter aftertaste of subjectivity, the result is something like the rant that follows. Read along after the break and enjoy my rant about White Lions.
TOR video talks crew skills and PvP
Ready for another look at crew skills and PvP in BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic? If so, G4TV has you covered in the form of a five-minute video featuring Daniel Erickson and extensive in-game footage. Erickson explains the gathering, crafting, and mission components that make up crew skills (which is basically BioWare's catch-all term for traditional MMO crafting). "Missions are something very different, and for missions to make sense, you have to understand the base concept of crew skills, which is that you are not the one doing this stuff. Your companion characters are the ones who are going hands-on and doing the crafting," Erickson says. In terms of TOR's PvP implementation, Erickson illustrates BioWare's goal of making the mechanic appropriately contextual to the Star Wars universe (as opposed to the kill-everything-moving-just-because mentality common to many PvP systems). He describes everything from slicing terminals to seeing turrets move in real time, painting a picture of an immersive PvP experience that makes sense within the framework of the license. Finally, Erickson talks a bit about the recently announced race/class combos, including the Sith pureblood. Check out the video after the cut, or at G4TV.
Waging WAR: Guide to addons
This week in WagingWAR Greg takes a look at the basic interface offered in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Well, he said he would take a look, but then he mumbled something about needing a blindfold first. Instead, he writes about all the great ways it can be changed via third-party add-ons and shows us why WAR's modding community really is just the bee's knees. Let's be honest with ourselves right off the bat and agree that the WAR default interface, although functional, is lackluster in some respects. That's not to say that the developers of WAR made a disastrous UI for us to play with; in fact, the truth is quite the opposite. The standard UI is functional, genre-standard, and provides all the necessary information at a glance. It gets the job done. It also offers a layout editor that allows for simple, easy customization. But sometimes, someone else's idea for a UI element is simply better. Thankfully, WAR supports the Lua programming language and enjoys a strong and talented modding community. Continue reading for the lowdown on what I consider to be the best of the best of what WAR's mod community has to offer as of patch 1.4.
TOR dev diary takes a closer look at crew skills
Crafting has been something of an afterthought in many of the MMORPGs released over the past half decade. Bucking that trend is BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, which recently made waves with the reveal of its crew skills system. Today the TOR team brings us a closer look at the mechanics via a new dev diary. Systems Designer Patrick Mallot is our host on this particular tour, and though he spends a good portion of it rehashing things we already know (like NPC companions performing your gathering tasks), there are some interesting nuggets relating to armstech near the end. Armstech is a crafting discipline that allows players to create blasters, rifles, and assault cannons. The scavenging skill provides the raw materials, and basic alloys and metals will let you get your feet wet immediately. Progression takes the form of both schematic complexity and item quality increases, and eventually vendor-bought materials and rare resources will come into play. Armstech features three quality levels (premium, prototype, and artifact), and Mallot hints at crafters playing an important role in The Old Republic's economy. "We've worked hard to ensure that crafted items have an important place in The Old Republic's economy, and that crafters will be well-rewarded for the effort they put into the crew skills system," he says. Check out all the details at the official TOR website. In other TOR news, BioWare also announced that the Jedi Wizard has been officially christened the Jedi Sage via popular fan vote.
Waging WAR: On the distant horizon
It's that time again! Yes, Greg's imagination has escaped its tiny 3x3 cell and is off spreading ruination and ruffling feathers across the countryside, armed with absurd notions and a not-so-surprising lack of reason and logic. This week's Waging WAR attempts to follow along in its wake as we take another look at the potential future of Warhammer Online: The Age of Reckoning. WAR released with an impressive lineup of playable armies and careers, setting the stage for the Age of Reckoning with a 3v3, two-sided RvR layout. In the summer following the official release of WAR, we got our first free content expansion featuring the Tomb Kings in the Land of the Dead. Just recently, we finally, at long last, got our Skaven wishes granted. In the spirit of the holiday season coming up, I've decided to look ahead at what may come in the future as we approach new horizons in WAR. Even if we discount Brettonia as another flavor of civilized human (akin in many ways to the Empire), the Daemons of Chaos as being already represented in some form or another as a part of Tzeentch's Warhost, and the Ogre Kingdoms (and other assorted Dogs of War) as being more-or-less an NPC army, we're still left with some excellent offerings from Warhammer lore as far as where WAR can go in the foreseeable future. Follow along after the break as I take another look at what's left on the table to play with for future packs and expansions for WAR.
BioWare releases new TOR inhabitants entries
It may be the biggest shopping day of the year, but that hasn't stopped BioWare from coming through with its traditional Friday update for The Old Republic. Today's calibrated leak focuses on some new inhabitants made available in the Holonet database: the terentatek, the vine cat, the Sith pureblood, the M3-M1 med droid and the S3-F5 probe droid. Staying true to our fanboy training, we jumped right to the Sith pureblood page and found out that this humanoid is a descendant of the original Sith species and features a long history of involvement with the dark side of the Force. The rate of Force sensitivity among purebloods is near 100 percent, and these individuals exhibit many of the visual characteristics of the original Sith race. Check out the Holonet inhabitants page for more info.
Waging WAR: Inside patch 1.4
The Verminous Horde game update aka patch 1.4 for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is pretty much old news by now. Despite that, Greg takes a look at some of the highlights from the patch as well as the RvR Packs in this week's Waging WAR. Wow! What a patch! There are so many new little tidbits, toys and tweaks in this patch that it's really sort of hard to describe them all in the space of a single issue of Waging WAR. On top of all the free content in the patch itself, there are also the progression and personality packs available on the EAStore ($10ea/$15combo). In fact, there is so much new content in WAR right now, it's going to take quite a bit of time for us to exhaust it all and start complaining about stagnation again. Follow along after the break as I talk about some of the highlights from the patch.
Massively's in-depth interview with SWTOR Community Manager Stephen Reid
Last Friday, Star Wars: The Old Republic finally revealed the Crew Skills crafting system. In a slightly less important announcement, BioWare also announced its new Community Manager, Stephen Reid. OK, I'm teasing. It is very important announcement. Since Sean Dahlberg stepped down, the community team has been without a face and voice to the community. Those left behind had to put in extra effort into providing the fans with the latest releases from the SWTOR news room, and for a while, the community was unsure who, if anyone, would be able to fill the shoes. Now, Stephen Reid has taken the helm of the massive community starship. Now since we have a new voice of the SWTOR community team, Massively thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on the game, on the community, and on how we, the fans, could best make Star Wars: The Old Republic the game it should be. Massively Senior Editor Brianna Royce sat down with Stephen at a recent LucasArts event for an in-depth interview -- join us past the break to see what he had to say!
Waging WAR: Battle for Badlands season 3 finale
With so many awesome things happening for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning lately, with the Verminous Horde expansion, the new store, patch 1.4 and all the rest, Greg has decided to turn his all-seeing eye sideways, to a land called the Badlands, and take Waging WAR along to explore a community-driven event that has been held there for nearly a year now with great success. Since launch, WAR has enjoyed a great community. With every great community, a great event is inevitable. I've been around the block since WAR was released and have experienced the game on several different servers. I originally rolled my first character, a Swordmaster named Xiimmel, on Iron Rock. Later, I rolled an Archmage named Feiyen on Dark Crag, who I eventually moved back to Iron Rock where she was renamed Veeo. I never did get a chance to explore Phoenix Throne, which was collapsed along with Dark Crag some time ago. Recently, I joined the Badlands community on the side of Destruction with a variety of new characters, and the community there has been good to me so far. Part of that experience the last few weeks has been the opportunity to participate in a community-driven phenomenon known as the Battle for Badlands. Since this is all quite new to me, I decided to do a community spotlight on the event in today's Waging WAR. Read on past the cut where I play 6Qs and deliver the details about the Battle for Badlands while I try to answer your 5Ws and maybe an H.
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!"
BioWare reveals The Old Republic crew skill details
Curious about crafting in BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMORPG? We are too. We're so curious in fact, that we're bringing you not one but two crafting-centric stories today. In addition to our exclusive dev interview, BioWare has also updated its official The Old Republic website with a hefty dose of info on crew skills. In a nutshell, your hero character will have the ability to assign crafting, gathering, and even mission skills to various NPC crew members. While you're out saving the galaxy, chasing attractive Twi'leks, or whatever it is that heroes do these days, your faithful companions will be doing all the grunt work involved in keeping you competitive when it comes to crafting. Gathering skills include bioanalysis, scavenging, and slicing, while crafting skills break down into armormech, artifice, and biochem categories. Last but not least, mission skills feature diplomacy and treasure hunting. That's not all either, as the web page features a few tantalizing question marks indicating further skill reveals in the future. We'll tell our astromechs and slicers to keep a sharp lookout, and in the meantime, you can view the crew skills video after the cut.
Massively interviews BioWare on SWTOR's crafting and PvP
This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to head down to LucasArts in San Francisco to check out the current build of Star Wars: The Old Republic and chat with some of the BioWare developers. While my hands-on with the game won't be out until next month, we can deliver a couple of smaller interviews on two of the recently revealed systems in the game. And I think you'll want to hear what the interviewees have to say! Join me past the cut as I ask lead writer Daniel Erickson and lead PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo all about the Alderaan Warzone, the PvP reward system, avoiding battleground design pitfalls, companion tradeskilling, player-made gear, and hardcore crafting in SWTOR.
Waging WAR: Warhammer's new online store
This week's Waging WAR catches a whiff of recent happenings on the internet and with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Greg dives in face-first, grabs a fist-full of the news, and delivers a fast-ball rant on the issue. Well, apparently the RMT has hit the fan, and the resulting spackle is starting to plaster the proverbial walls of the blogosphere and beyond. Recently, some information was released about what players can expect to buy at EA-Mythic's new store. Although only a few items are actually available now, there's a pretty extensive FAQ on the server transfer service, and we'll have to wait a little longer for the Progression and Personality packs, as they're set to be released along with patch 1.4. Naturally, the drama is building up some nice momentum, and it will be interesting to see how the whine will affect this particular cheese over at the Mythic official forum. For now, you can read past the break and enjoy my rant.
BioWare doctors "disappointed" in EA Louse
BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka recently sat down for a lengthy interview with Eurogamer. The doctors discussed Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 2, and more importantly for MMORPG fans, Star Wars: The Old Republic. In terms of a release window, Muzyka confirmed 2011 for the Star Wars opus but wouldn't commit to the first half, second half, or any other portion of the year. The interview also addressed the recent rant by EA Louse that, in part, predicted The Old Republic would be "one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs" and that also decried working conditions at BioWare-Mythic. Zeschuk and Muzyka mentioned the fact that BioWare recently won a top 100 employers award and invests both time and money into bettering the workplace environment for employees. When pressed as to the credibility of the anonymous poster, the doctors dismissed the posting as difficult to act upon. "We sit down and do an open forum with all the employees and get feedback from them. We welcome one-on-one feedback. When we get stuff we can improve and act on we do it," Muzyka said. Finally, the interview touches on the financial gamble that TOR represents for BioWare and Electronic Arts, and neither founder comes across as particularly concerned. "We know millions and millions of people out there love this universe, and we're delivering a great game experience in that universe," Muzyka said. Head to Eurogamer for the full article text.
Waging WAR: Guide to defensive stats
Greg takes us through to see the dark side of our character sheets, and explains the various defensive stats found in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. He trudges through this week's Waging WAR with the stubborn stoutness of an Ironbreaker, and the cunning pre-determination of Tzeentch's Chosen to bring us this guide... For every 10 tanks running around with gigantic two-handed weapons and the Focused Offense tactic slotted, there is one tank with a shield. And for every 10 of those tanks, there's that one who will step onto the battlefield and shake its very foundations with his/her ability to soak incredible amounts of damage and survive. What makes those tanks so indomitable? It is their preference for and understanding of defensive statistics. Sure, they may not hit as hard as others, but their ability to stand defiantly in the face of an entire warband is what makes them so fearsome. With confidence, these rare titans stride onto the battlefields knowing they could put up a fight against death itself and stand a chance to win. Continue after the break as I explain the defensive character statistics of WAR.
