Stephen-Reid
Latest
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR and the transparency dilemma
This past week on The Republic, I talked to prominent community members about transparency and broken promises in regard to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Both Heather from Corellian Run Radio and Redna from Ootinicast agreed that BioWare's community team has communicated too little and too infrequently with the players and has actually driven people away from the game because of that lack of dialogue. Also this past week, former Operative Class Representative Snave interviewed Community Manager Eric Musco, asking why the community team has been so quiet as of late and why it promised to deliver information by the end of September but it didn't. Snave also asked why there hasn't been more transparency from community team, especially when Musco specifically said that one of the things that he wanted from the community team was more transparency. Snave accused Musco of speaking out of both sides of his mouth when he said that he wanted more transparency but then wouldn't reveal what was going on with the announcement. Compounding recent events was a kerfuffle over the ongoing Cantina Tours. Players became upset when the Cantina Tour date for Las Vegas was moved from November 7th to November 15th, even though back in February, Community Coordinator Courtney Woods posted the planned dates of the Community Cantina Tour with the caveat that they were "subject to change." As a community, SWTOR players don't seem to be happy with or without transparency. The SWTOR community team cannot, as the saying goes, win for losing. What is the solution here? Let's discuss the details and maybe a solution or two.
Hyperspace Beacon: Why do I still play SWTOR?
Given how many people have quit Star Wars: The Old Republic and how many of those people still follow me in other media, I should really not be surprised at the number of people who ask, "Why do you still play SWTOR?" Usually, that question is followed by some snide remark about how the game sucks and will close down in less than a year, so I don't answer. However, I know there are some people who after reading my latest article about Damion Schubert have been legitimately concerned about playing SWTOR and legitimately wonder why anyone still plays the game. Several months ago, I talked about the three major reasons I play SWTOR: Star Wars, BioWare, and MMOs. Interestingly, those three major components have been called into question within the last couple of months. Beyond them, are there any other compelling reasons to keep playing? And is there anything that will stop me from playing?
Stephen Reid is 'on again' with Gazillion Entertainment
Stephen Reid, most recently one of the folks steering the consular ship that is the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, has found a home (once again) with Gazillion Entertainment. The industry vet has worked as Gazillion's Community Director previously and says he's both really happy and "strangely nervous" to be back to the job and working on Marvel games. "The future of gaming isn't certain and a 'job for life' doesn't exist. All you can do is follow your passion and your heart and hope it leads somewhere great. That's what I've done for my entire career, and I'm not going to stop now." Reid's now working on the up-and-running Super Hero Squad Online and the soon-to-be-launched Marvel Heroes. If you want to know more about the move, hit up his Tumblr post or listen in on this TORWars.com podcast.
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: Outbreak
A year ago at PAX East, I spoke to Community Manager Stephen Reid about events in Star Wars: The Old Republic. He asked and answered a popular question at the time: "Will [SWTOR] have events where we randomly spawn NPCs for players to fight? No, but we will have events." He couldn't elaborate, but it did leave me wondering what that could possibly mean, especially when later at PAX East, Lead Writer Daniel Erickson said that SWTOR would not break the fourth wall by holding holiday-type events. Earlier this year, Update 1.1: Rise of the Rakghouls brought us a new flashpoint called Kaon Under Siege. A ship crash landed in the heart of the Tion Hegemony, taking the Rakghoul virus off the planet Taris and spreading it to a new world. Both the Republic and the Empire sought to find the source of this outbreak. Like all flashpoints, Koan Under Siege is instanced and separate from the rest of the open world. Relatedly, and quite surprisingly, BioWare started its first world event without announcing it on the official website or even letting anyone know that it was happening. On Sunday morning, everyone who was stopping by Carrick or Vaiken station could overhear an announcement that the planet Tatooine had been quarantined due to an outbreak of the Rakghoul virus. So started my investigation...
SWTOR Senior Community Manager responds to high-res texture concerns
Many keen-eyed Star Wars: The Old Republic players noticed that, while there were "low," "medium," and "high" options for the game's texture quality settings, there seemed to be only two different sets of textures, and neither of them includes the high-resolution textures seen in the game's cutscenes and conversations. As it tends to go with the MMO community, the forums were soon filled with cries of "WTFM8?" And thus did BioWare's own Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid appear on the scene to clarify what exactly was happening. The low-medium-high texture quality scale is, he says, a bug, and the medium choice was never supposed to exist. So yes, the game has only two sets of textures, low- and high-resolution, but even the high-resolution textures don't look as shiny as the ones featured in SWTOR's cutscenes. And so the chorus repeated, "WTFM8?" Reid drops a ton of technical information to explain why players can't run around with conversation-quality textures 24/7, but the fact of the matter is that an MMO could potentially have anywhere from one to who-knows-how-many people on-screen at any given time, and BioWare "discovered that using [...] 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs." That's the short of it, but if you'd like the full, unadulterated technical breakdown, just head on over to the official forum post for more info and screaming.
BioWare responds to SWTOR's Ilum exploits
The Star Wars: The Old Republic open-world PvP zone of Ilum is intended to be an area where high-level players duke it out for planetary control. However, many players spend their time just standing around and not actually engaging each other. Some even go so far as to use their low-level alts of the opposite faction to cap nodes and help their mains gain PvP currency. Recently, some of these players were surprised to find their accounts temporarily suspended. Normally, we do not contact gaming companies because of bans, but there was some confusion in the community regarding a section in the rules of conduct that states: "You may not engage in any conduct or practice that results in an Account containing items, objects, currency, character attributes, rank, or status that are inappropriate for the level or rank of the character contained in the Account, i.e., 'item loading.'" Community Manager Stephen Reid pointed us to a forum post he created after we contacted him, in which he comments about the suspended accounts: It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken. In the post, Reid clarifies that only accounts suspected of gold farming were actually banned. Only a small number of accounts were temporarily suspended for the Ilum exploit, and also any action taken against an account may be appealed.
SWTOR's Reid hosting Reddit AMA tomorrow
Got a few burning questions for BioWare on the heels of Star Wars: The Old Republic's blockbuster launch? Get them ready, because community manager Stephen Reid is throwing himself to the wolves preparing a Reddit-based AMA event for this Wednesday. What's AMA? It stands for ask me anything, and it'll be interesting to see if Reid is able to answer the slew of questions sure to be forthcoming. The tomfoolery starts at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on December 28th, and the Reddit posting features a few preliminary notes. "The format is simple: ask Mr. Reid a question and he will do his best to respond to as many as possible within his area of expertise; he is not a game designer but still has many interesting things to share about the game," it explains.
Stephen Reid addresses SWTOR server load issues
Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to prove itself overwhelmingly popular as the official launch day progresses. Perhaps a little too popular, in fact. Stephen Reid stopped by the official forums today to post a short warning on high-population servers. Many players are experiencing extended queues to log in to their servers, but Reid focuses on a few "consistently high-population servers... [which] are closing in on their absolute population cap." These servers have reached or nearly reached the maximum amount of players the server can handle and "will likely have a queue to enter even at off-peak playtimes." The servers in question, organized by region, are The Harbinger, The Swiftsure, and The Fatman for North America, and Bloodworthy, Frostclaw, Legions of Lettow, The Red Eclipse, Tomb of Freedon Nadd, Darth Revan's Mask, Darth Traya, Jar'Kai Sword, and Hrakert Rift for Europe. Reid adds that server transfers are a common request, but even though the ability to transfer servers is being worked on, "there is no ETA on when it will be available." Also of note is the announcement that SWTOR will be launching in Australia and New Zealand in the spring of 2012. Reid states that right now the team is aiming for March 1st, though that may change. And if you've already imported the game, don't worry. Reid says that "[BioWare] will be investigating solutions to allow you to continue to play on a local server once they come online in March." For the full details, click on over to the SWTOR official forums.
BioWare updates fans on staggered SWTOR launch
If you're still not in Star Wars: The Old Republic's early access phase, you're not alone. In fact, BioWare's Stephen Reid took to the forums today to update impatient fans on just how the staggered pre-launch will continue to roll out over the next few days: Today, we invited people who had pre-ordered up to the very beginning of October (roughly). Tomorrow, we're going to be inviting the same number of people again; that will take us up to the last week or so of November. On Friday, we'll be inviting even more, and we'll give you an update on that tomorrow. You'll see more servers coming online tomorrow, and almost certainly there will be some queuing. That was always expected. As a reminder, our plan here is to maintain healthy server populations post launch, and during the excitement of launch that will mean queues. That said, we'll be working hard to keep those queues reasonable. That's good news for those who pre-ordered late and who otherwise might have thought they'd have a much longer wait.
GAME announces exclusive SWTOR CE contract, Walmart accidentally cancels 'nearly all' pre-orders
Whenever a major MMO nears launch, tensions and anxieties grow to a fever pitch among players -- particularly in regard to their pre-orders. There are worries that a game won't install right, ship on time, or allow proper access to one's account. Today, there are a few more issues to be concerned with in regard to Star Wars: The Old Republic if you've pre-ordered it. Over in the UK, GAME (and Gamestation) has announced that it will be the sole retailer for SWTOR's physical Collector's Edition in the region, even though EA previously said that companies such as Amazon, Play.com, Zavvi and ShopTo were going to be selling them as well. UK players can also purchase non-CE versions of the game through EA's Origin service. In other news, several players who secured their copy of SWTOR through Walmart found that their orders -- both regular and CEs -- were canceled over this past weekend. A Walmart customer service representative appeared on the SWTOR forums to say that this happened due to a "data error" that forced the company to nix most of the pre-orders. SWTOR's Stephen Reid said that BioWare is investigating the situation, but he confirms that any players who have already added their pre-order codes into their accounts will have locked in early access for the launch.
Star Wars: The Old Republic approaching the final phase of testing
It's hard to believe that after all this time, Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching in less than a month. As you would expect, the game is making its final testing pushes for players. According to Stephen "Rockjaw" Reid's Twitter feed, players selected for the final testing weekend will be seeing schedules sent out over the next 12 hours, with players allowed to start testing either Friday or Saturday, starting at 11:00 a.m. EST. Existing testers and visitors to the site will also have to contend with some degree of maintenance trouble, as the site is experiencing an understandable groundswell of traffic. The final push also means that the deadline is approaching for players to get in on the Pre-Launch Guild Program, which ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on December 2nd. This means that players who fulfill all the requirements will be able to transfer their guilds straight into the live game -- but they'll have to finalize everything before the deadline. So if you're a guild leader with a few things left to finish up before launch, the holiday weekend might be an ideal time.
SWTOR launch day questions answered
The community team at BioWare told us that we would know when the train was coming, but it came crashing through our house when half of us were still sleeping. As we reported earlier, Star Wars: The Old Republic set its launch day for December 20th for North America and December 22nd for Europe. All the fans exhaled in relief, then promptly started asking more questions. First off, the Australian and New Zealand launch dates have not been set, and BioWare cannot commit to a launch day yet for that region. However, back in August, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid posted on the official forums that "There are no plans to 'region lock' or 'IP block' players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you're not playing in a launch territory." This still holds true today. To prevent signup issues on launch day, log-ins will be throttled. However, pre-order customers will still gain early access to the game. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman reported on the official forum: "The beginning of Early Game Access will depend on a number of factors, including results from our Game Testing Program and Pre-Orders, but there will be multiple days of access." Lastly, in case you missed it earlier, BioWare did announce the subscription costs. It comes as no surprise to most MMO gamers that the first month is free with the purchase of the game. After that it's $14.99 per month (£8.99 or €12.99), $41.97 for 3 months (£25.17 or €35.97), or $77.94 for six months (£46.14 or €65.94). There have been no lifetime subscription announcements as of yet, but we will let you know if we hear anything.
SWTOR companions will have same-sex romance options... eventually
It's been debated across the MMO blogosphere and casually confirmed in interviews, but today it's been announced formally (and you know it's official because it's in yellow ink): Star Wars: The Old Republic's companion characters will not offer same-sex romance options -- at launch. But such relationships will be making an appearance sometime after launch. In a statement on the forums, SWTOR Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid posted the following: Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options. (Emphasis ours.) This plan is certainly in line with other BioWare titles while setting it apart from other MMOs. Hopefully this option won't end up in the "never got around to it" bin like housing in a certain other MMO.
Hyperspace Beacon: Nuna bites
If you happened to be in San Diego this weekend then you may have noticed a large gathering of geekery known as Comic-Con. Usually, this mecca of nerdom focuses on comic book related publications. Although Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't exactly comic book gold, Dark Horse comics rose through the ranks of pulp royalty because of its vast library of Star Wars-related publications. It only seems right that TOR presents itself to this audience. Besides the panel in Comic-Con proper, BioWare developers hosted three separate question and answer sessions focusing on Star Wars: The Old Republic. As with most Q&As, the majority of questions asked have been answered already in the past. If you were hanging out in Darth Hater's Ventrilo server like I was during the live broadcasts, then you heard a lot of "We knew that already." That being said, there were some pieces of juicy meat tossed to the crowd that we had not heard before. I will call them nuna bites, and you can find your slice after the break.
LucasArts releases an official statement to Star Wars Galaxies fans
For a majority of MMO players, the announcement that Star Wars Galaxies was shutting down came as no surprise. However, many SWG loyalists have been extremely upset by the turn of events, blaming everything from the hacks on Sony earlier this year to the impending release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. SOE CEO John Smedley stated in his interview with us that the security breach and SWG's shutdown were unrelated. Furthermore, Community Manager of SWTOR, Stephen Reid, stated emphatically on the TORWars podcast that there was no relationship between the date of SWG shutting down and the release of The Old Republic. Lastly, GamePro posted a statement directly from LucasArts about the efforts put into keeping the MMO alive: The decision to shut down the game has not been an easy one. SOE and LucasArts investigated every option to keep the game open, including taking it to a free to pay model. However, that model just isn't financially viable. Changing the business model for an experience like Star Wars Galaxies takes a major investment and overhauling of the existing infrastructure of the game. We're unfortunately at a point in our life cycle where a change of this magnitude is just not possible. The harsh reality is that we've reached a point where the game is no longer a sustainable business. None of us wanted to see this point, but we're extremely proud of the last eight years of the game and the community that has supported it. We have a lot planned between now and December and we want to make sure that from now until then, we send off Star Wars Galaxies in a style befitting such a great game. We'll be right there in the game with everyone else, counting down until the end, making sure we connect with all the friends we've made over the past eight years. It may be bittersweet, it may feel like it's happening before it should, but we have approximately five months remaining where we can all enjoy the game together. We sincerely hope the community will join us. Read the article on GamePro and check out Massively's full interview with Smedley for more information.
Hyperspace Beacon: Expecting a living world
The other day I was talking to some friends about Star Wars: The Old Republic, of course. As of late, it seems to be the only thing I'm talking about. My friend isn't a guy who follows the game that closely, but he is an MMO player and has certain expectations for the game. Specifically, we talked about Crew Skills and space combat. He is an EVE player. EVE Online has one of the most in-depth crafting systems in any MMO to date, not to mention the game is completely set in space, right? On the other side of the fence, I was talking to some roleplayers in Star Wars Galaxies, who also don't follow the game as closely as I do. These MMOers are expecting SWTOR to be filled with the best roleplay tools available in the gaming industry. It's BioWare; after all, that team created Never Winter Nights, the most customizable RPG ever. (Of course, this doesn't take into effect that latest games to come from the developer were pretty linear and not very sandboxy.) As arm chair developers, we sometimes believe that implementing ideas in an MMO is a lot easier than reality. On the official forums last week, a player made this statement: "I, and 14 other guildmates, really want to plan on rolling on an rp-pvp server. It's such a trivial game feature to confirm for us, I don't understand why they wouldn't just mention it and be done with it." After saying that he would look into it, Community Manager Stephen Reid made the statement that "A good rule of thumb with MMO development is to never assume something is trivial." What are some other "trivial" expectations players are placing on this game? Which ones can BioWare deliver on? Which ones aren't as trivial as suggested? Why can't Star Wars: The Old Republic give us everything we want? In this week's column, let's talk about setting.
The Old Republic maps out success
The BioWare developers have always talked about polish and immersion when designing Star Wars: The Old Republic. They have described some of the challenges of perfecting the game in their many developer blogs. Everything from art design to combat has been discussed. In the center of it all are the game testing metrics that everyone from Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller to Community Manager Stephen Reid have talked about. What do the metrics tell us is the most important part of the SWTOR user interface? Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert tells us in the latest dev blog: When Georg told the design team that maps were the most-opened part of the user interface in the game, our map specialists just nodded in understanding. They already knew that being able to find your way around the world was going to be hugely important to our success. Thanks largely to the enduring efforts of those on the map team who believe passionately in the importance of what they are doing, our maps system are a core, essential part of the adventuring experience in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Schubert tells us the details of making a proper map should not only be esthetically pleasing but dynamically help the player move about the complex environments of The Old Republic. Check out everything else Schubert has to say in the blog on the official site.
Hyperspace Beacon: Man in the mirror
On Friday, our friends on the BioWare community team gave us a second progression video for the Bounty Hunter in Star Wars: The Old Republic. As with anything on the internet, the video wasn't above scrutiny and complaint by followers. The complaints ranged from "we already have a Bounty Hunter progression video" to "why don't we have a Jedi Consular video yet?" But that doesn't hit on the real issue: There were no fiery explosions for the Bounty Hunter to walk away from in slow motion! He just can't be cool unless he turns his back on the destruction like he just doesn't frelling care. Despite the lack of carnage in the class progression video, we did glean insight into many of the class powers, some of which mirror its Republic counterpart: the Trooper. I know for marketing reasons and to keep from confusing the potential player, it's not a good idea to use the word "mirror" when describing The Old Republic classes. But it's hard to deny that the Imperial Bounty Hunter and the Republic Trooper are very much mirrored insofar as combat roles and abilities. After the break, I will explain to you what I see that is the same and what is different between the two classes. Then, in the end, I will let you decide whether the classes are truly mirrored or not.
Hyperspace Beacon: That can be arranged
I have definitely been on a bit of a high horse about the social side of Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you have been following this column, then you know that, despite the statics to the contrary, I believe that one of the greatest dynamics of MMOs is the social system built strictly via human interaction. I always thought that one of the coolest things I ever saw in this type of game was the organic growth and change of these games. EVE Online interested me most in that regard. The cycle of corporations and rivalries of individual players seems to be the crux of the stories coming from the game -- with CCP acting as a type of god, throwing in elements to see how its subjects would react. Although I understand that SWTOR is a themepark game (to be honest, I don't want it to be anything but), that social element will still exist, if for no other reason than that there are hundreds of thousands of people running around occupying the same space. I also find it very interesting that the social aspects of the game were pushed pretty hard in recent news, even up to last week with the April Fools' Day Wookiee jokes -- the emotes of the characters were the actual update. BioWare wished to show us that it realizes how important social elements are to players. After the cut are some quotes and impressions I have received from developers regarding the more social aspects of TOR.
