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BioWare defends its decision to not have individual SWTOR server forums
With the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic came a new and improved forum system for the community, and everyone lived happily ever after. Right? Yeah... not so much. It turns out that BioWare neglected to include individual server forums for its many, many, many shards, and this omission has rankled some players who were looking forward to talking amongst their new communities on the site. TOR-Talk got in touch with BioWare to ask about why the individual server forums were cut down to four ruleset forums. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman says the decision was a matter of practicality as there would be too many forums and not enough moderators to go around: "Generally speaking, server forums for many MMOs tend to be largely un-moderated and can become unpleasant to visit." Instead, BioWare hopes that server communities create and moderate their own server-specific sites and forums. "This is also a great opportunity for the community to come together in their own ways – on fan sites and through other resources," Barryman said. "Of course, we want people to visit the official forums, and will use them to provide information that's of specific interest to the community, but we also love to see the community coming up with cool stuff on their own."
Hyperspace Beacon: Star Tours [updated]
If you're a regular Massively reader, you're no doubt aware of the recent tour of BioWare Austin given to fan sites. For two fun-filled days, the staff members of Star Wars: The Old Republic fan sites were flown to Texas to play what is hopefully their favorite as-yet-unreleased game. I have to admit my slight jealously because I was not able to participate in this venture (or the similar press event because of scheduling issues). I am left to live vicariously through these very lucky individuals. The first day saw primarily PvE-related events. The developers let the fans play through about the first 10 levels of SWTOR with either the Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent class. Most players were able to progress to the Black Talon flashpoint, which is the infamous kill-the-captain/save-the-captain flashpoint. The second day was all about PvP and the Alderaan Warzone. After the break, I have gathered up an array of videos, articles, and even a couple of songs about this incredible experience. This way, I am not the only one imagining a tour of the BioWare studios; you can dream along with me.
Hyperspace Beacon: Wonderful, we are now part of the tribe!
Last week, we mentioned that multiple fan sites took a trip to BioWare to tour the Austin studio, play Star Wars: The Old Republic, and interview the developers. It is a daunting task to sift through all that information to find the golden nuggets, but I've done my best to pull the most useful (or least-covered) quotes from different developers. This is by no means an exhaustive list! If you are someone who gobbles up every last bit of SWTOR news, then none of this will be new, but for everyone else: This is for you. Before I begin, let me send my thanks to great fans of the following sites for putting this incredible information together. I cannot wait to read and hear about your PvP experiences when you release them a bit later this week: Ask A Jedi, Corellian Run Radio, Darth Hater, Fureur, Gamona, InGame, Mos Eisley Radio, SWTOR.EU, SWTOR-FR, SWTOR Life, SWTOR-UK, TOROCast, TOR-Talk, TORSyndicate, and TORWars.
