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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: 2010 Retro!
Wow... 2010 is almost over, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is not released yet. OK, I had speculated at the beginning of this year that we would not see it until 2011. But if you had asked me in October of 2008 (when the official site was launched), I would have told you that the launch was at the end of 2009. There was no way in my mind that a company would launch its website that early. Boy, was I wrong. Little did I know at the time that I would be sitting here at the end of 2010 (the year new life was to begin on Europa), not playing what I hoped would be my favorite game ever. However, this has all given me time to think back about what SWTOR has given us this year. The year 2010 was the year of SWTOR reveals. Some have questioned whether too much has been revealed -- or rather, hyped. We have had group combat videos, designers switching games, CEOs retiring, opinionated play-throughs, and many other news items. Would you say we have had a plethora of SWTOR news this year? Oh yes, we have had a plethora, El Guapo. I have my favorites and my not-so favorites. Let's explore a few of them in this little retrospective.
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!"
Sean Dahlberg moves on to Faxion Online development
For some of our readers, the idea of managing the community for Star Wars: The Old Republic would be a dream job. (How well this lines up with understanding what community managers actually have to do is debatable.) Sean Dahlberg, however, has apparently decided that he's had quite enough of that scene, so he's packed up and moved on to UTV True Games and Faxion Online. It's a bit of an odd move, and Dahlberg has put up a short entry on his personal blog explaining why he's moved on and what he's moving on to do. Faxion Online is a free-to-play game focused on the war between Heaven and Hell, with what Dahlberg describes as a sense of humor resembling that of the inimitable Dungeon Keeper franchise. He explains that while he enjoyed working with communities, he wanted to get back into designing fun systems for an actual game, and he felt that he could make a larger contribution by shifting focus to his current occupation of Senior Game Systems Designer for Faxion. For more details and a few more tidbits about what's planned for the free-to-play title, take a look at his full entry.
BioWare loses its SWTOR community manager [updated]
Today on the TOROCast forum, it was rumored that Community Manager Sean Dahlberg had left BioWare. Members of the SWTOR community did believe it odd that he did not show up to PAX, which was supposed to be the biggest event of the year for SWTOR. He even tweeted to the Jedi Archive on Saturday: "Nope, I'm back in Austin but Brian is there! Granted, part of me wants to just drive there but I'd be late." That gave everyone the impression that he had a lot of work to do. However, today he updated his twitter page so that it no longer reflected his BioWare title nor a link to swtor.com. Although there has yet to be word from Dahlberg himself, Joanne Laroche, the Senior Community Coordinator, recently posted this on the official Old Republic website: "Sean Dahlberg has recently left BioWare. We would like to thank Sean for doing a great job building the TOR Community and we wish him well in his future endeavors!" This confirms that Dahlberg has left BioWare, but it still does not answer why this has happened. Massively will keep an eye on this story and on Dahlberg's personal site for new developments. Until then, we wish the best for Sean and for the game. [Nice catch, "fo diddy" at TOROcast!] Update: Sean posted on his personal blog and wanted to let everyone know that he did not fall off the end of the earth. As for what's next for Mr. Dahlberg, he had this to say, "What's in the next chapter in the life of Sean... well, that would be giving out information and we all know I don't do that. I'd say just kidding but I actually can't talk too much about that at this point. Soon™ but not yet."
Space combat has been confirmed for SWTOR! [Updated]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Space_combat_has_been_comfirmed_for_SWTOR'; While at Comic-Con, the fan site Mos Eisley Radio tweeted a rumor that there will be space combat in SWTOR. Space combat has been strongly suspected since the announcement of player ships at E3, but there was nothing to confirm our suspicions. According to the folks at Mos Eisley Radio, James Ohlen said that each ship will be customizable, and, of course, that the player will be able to use this ship in space combat. Not moments later, this rumor was completely confirmed by SWTOR's community manager, Sean Dahlberg, on the official forum. He confesses in his announcement, "While we didn't quite make the numbers [of Facebook and Twitter followers], we definitely saw how excited the community is about this and how everyone came together. After all of that, there's no way we could hold back with our special reveal at Comic-Con!" So it seems the devs did not punish the fans for not reaching the social media goal after all. He reveals that further details will be available in the October edition of PC Gamer. [Thank you, Mos Eisley Radio, for keeping your ears open!] [Editor's Note: Brooks from Mos Eisley Radio just mailed us to say that all of his information is coming from Darth Hater's liveblog, so props to Darth Hater, and thanks for letting us know, Brooks! ~Sera]
Hyperspace Beacon: We hope this never makes it into SWTOR, but, knowing our luck, it probably will
The Hyperspace Beacon is a weekly guide and discussion by Larry Everett about the yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a world where speculation runs rampant, it seems everyone has his own ideas of what is going to be in Star Wars: The Old Republic. From swoop races to appearance tabs, we have heard them all, but, to be quite frank, it is very unlikely that most of these speculated items will ever make it into the final release of this highly anticipated game. Also, some of the ideas are so far removed from anything that would make sense in the game, that I have a hard time wrapping my wee-little brain around them. I won't name any here because I still want people to read the column, but if your friend's head twitches when you tell him your wicked-cool idea, then it probably will not make it in the game. In this week's column, I want to go the other direction. Sometimes producers, writers, and game designers will pitch ideas that cause uncontrollable ticks for the listeners, but, for some unknown reason, the design launches anyway. Every once in a while, I would like to turn our attention to some of these kooky concepts in series I like to call: We hope this never makes it into SWTOR, but, knowing our luck, it probably will -- or WHTNMIISWTORBKOLIPW, for short. Click "Read more" to read about the first couple of things I am praying do not find their way into the game.
Music, audio, webcomics and more: It is super-reveal Friday for SWTOR's fans
With Comic*Con less than a week away, BioWare is passionately preparing for the stellar event. And to tease us into wanting more, the development team threw us a gigantic Fan Friday for Star Wars: The Old Republic. What secrets were revealed in the newest issue of the Blood of the Empire? What can be divulged in a Developer's Blog about audio? How do we discover this secret the SWTOR Community Manager wants to tell us? And music in an MMO? Is that important? The Developer's Dispatch wants to show us. All of these and other important questions will be answered if you click the little "Read more" button below.
The official, official SWTOR game testing announcement
You've heard the rumors, you've seen the forum posts, but now it's official. Star Wars: The Old Republic has started game testing. SWTOR's Community Manager Sean Dahlberg made the announcement for this week's Fan Friday feature. Dahlberg expressed the developer's purpose in game testing in a post made on the official SWTOR forums: "Being able to have the community help us test The Old Republic is very important and valuable to the development process. The Game Testing Program allows community members to give us quality feedback so we can make adjustments and have a highly effective service and entertaining experience when we do launch." The announcement briefly explains that testing phases will be conducted, in small focused groups from North America, then later expanding to other areas. Sorry, Aussies and Euros, you will have to wait. If you are selected, an email will come to the address you entered in your swtor.com profile. Although we have not heard it from an official source, we have been told by others who are currently testing that just because you were chosen to be a part of one testing group does not mean you will be a part of the next testing group. So jump on that email as soon as you get it. If for some silly reason you have yet to sign up for testing, hop over to swtor.com now and do it right away! [Minor Update: Bioware is calling these sessions Game Testing not beta testing. We have updated the article to reflect that.]
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR hype in hyperspace
The Hyperspace Beacon is a weekly guide and discussion by Larry Everett about the yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a world where MMOs are now commonplace, it seems as though he who has the hippest hype wins. E3 was all about convincing the media that your game or toy was the latest and greatest thing to hit the electronics industry since Pac-man. The media, being the attention-fiends they are, ate it all up. Even Massively wasn't exempt from basking in the spoils of temporary celebrity. I mean, really, did we do a featured news story on Gaia? Yes -- one. But we did no less than ten articles featuring SWTOR coming out of E3. According to some, we're now "Massively: Your daily news about SWTOR and some of these other games over here." So with all this hippity-hype everywhere, pouring from all the latest sites popping up and just longing to be the your best source of SWTOR news, how do you determine which is the best? What do you read? What do you ignore? Which is rumor? Which is truth? Who is that masked man? And did you find the Sith Inquisitor in the midriff top as cute as I did? I know, right?! The answers to these questions aren't easy. Sometimes you need a guide to help you through the hype, a hype(rspace) beacon, if you will. This Beacon is here help you calculate the jump. So strap yourself in, kid. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Hyperspace Beacon: E3 -- extravagant extraterrestrial exhibition
The Hyperspace Beacon is a weekly guide and discussion by Larry Everett about the yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic. We have been teased, taunted, and tantalized this week before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, so much so SWTOR fans don't know topsy from turvy. In this Hyperspace Beacon, released just hours before Electronic Arts' press conference at the Expo, I will hopefully give you the lowdown on the latest news and perhaps help you appreciate the magnitude of the startling reveals. On the surface they may seem like hyped-up teases with very little to latch on to, but I believe they have exposed quite a bit. As Massively reporters packed their bags to head to Los Angeles, Bioware did not stop tossing tidbits at its diligent disciples. First, we were treated with a hands-on walkthrough from Gamespot detailing the beginning quest for most of the starting classes. Twi'leks and chiss were cited as playable species in this revealing report. Also, Gametrailers.com probed the path behind producing an exciting E3 trailer. Besides touring Blur studios, the interview taunted us with a brief look into this year's animated short story. Continue on after the break to find more insight into the extravagant extraterrestrial exhibition that is this year's E3.
Hyperspace Beacon: Community guide to SWTOR
The Hyperspace Beacon is a weekly guide and discussion by Larry Everett about the yet-to-be-released game of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Welcome, Massively readers! You, too, must be itching like a freshly shaved Wookiee for the latest news about the greatest thing to hit the MMO world since Al Gore invented the internet: Star Wars: The Old Republic. This game hopes to be the pinnacle of modern storytelling and gameplay. Of course, you can count on me -- along with the rest of the Massively team -- to be on the lookout for the latest news and producer propaganda. But the Hyperspace Beacon will take you beyond the hype and hoopla and delve deeper into the story behind the story, the people behind the production, and the meaning behind the mechanics. (Is that enough alliteration for you?) So if you're ready, angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to lightspeed. Hyperspace beacons are unmanned outposts in space which freighters and other starships use to traverse the reaches of the known galaxy in Star Wars. Just like one of those buoys in the black, this first installment will guide your Internet-class cruiser past the space debris to what I believe to be some of the best places to find the SWTOR information currently available for your consumption. Okay, Chewie, punch it.
SWTOR testing portal discovered, confirmed by BioWare
No other community is perhaps more enthusiastic about their upcoming MMO than the one surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic. Recently, they found what appeared to be a testing portal for the game and coupled with the countdown clocks on every other BioWare site (except for Star Wars: The Old Republic's site) the discovery created a fervor of speculation and discussion on the official forums -- mostly surrounding whether or not beta was near. Shortly after these events, SWTOR community manager Sean Dahlberg confirmed that yes, this page is in fact a "Game Testing Portal". While we don't have even the slightest clue as to what this means, it may be a good time to update your hardware scan for the game's beta application. As for us? We'll be keeping our eyes locked on the game and perhaps we'll even stalk BioWare staff at PAX East like an Imperial Agent ready to strike.
Bioware confirms 2011 SWTOR release
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Bioware_confirms_2011_SWTOR_release_Massively'; Yesterday we talked about a rumor that had been floating around thanks to Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, who had mentioned the spring 2011 launch of an unnamed MMO on a recent conference call. Of course, the Star Wars: The Old Republic rumor mill sprang into action, with good cause as it turns out. Sean Dahlberg of Bioware confirmed the rumor on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums earlier today: While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. We've got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It's not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can't wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details. While it may not be quite as soon as many fans were hoping for, the extra time gives Bioware a chance to add all those final touches and roll out a nicely put-together game for 2011.
Final SWTOR classes revealed: Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor
Fans of BioWare's much-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic received some good news today with a reveal of the game's final two classes: the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor. The Jedi Consular is a support class specialized in healing, but with ranged offensive capabilities as well. The Sith Inquisitor, not surprisingly, is primarily a damage dealer. It seems the first word of the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes came from a fan translation at Star Wars MMO.net of the German magazine "PC Games". The classes were confirmed earlier today by SWTOR Community Manager Sean Dahlberg who wrote: "Fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic will be in for a treat this week! Several magazines in North America and Europe will have articles that not only talk about The Old Republic but also reveal our final two classes: the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor!"
BioWare's Old Republic policy on homosexuality reconsidered
Recently, Star Wars: The Old Republic's Community Manager, Sean Dahlberg, stated that he'd filtered out words like "gay" and "lesbian" from the game's forums because "these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars." ... And the internet gasped.Turning things around faster than the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel Run, Dahlberg issued an apology to accompany BioWare's removal of the filters. Although Dahlberg likely had the best of intentions in forming the policy, it helps if MMO community managers learn from a time not so long ago nor far, far away -- World of Warcraft tripped over a similar drama three years ago. More recently, Microsoft's Xbox Live handled a less clear case of discrimination just this year.
BioWare CM on community management then and now
If the community is on board with your game and/or message, they will help propel your game toward success. That success can be temporary, however, because if they're not on board, they may turn on you quickly and sharply. Word of mouth travels fast, especially on the Internet and the primary job of the community management team is to keep that voice with you, not against you.How do they do this? BioWare Austin Community Manager, Sean Dahlberg gives us some insight after ten years in the field. The SW:TOR CM explains that in the past, community management mostly entailed administrating game forums and passing developer messages along to the players. Because the job wasn't taken as seriously as it is today, CMs were often the last to know about major game changes or the rationale behind them, which made the job very difficult.While the job is still difficult today, community managers are now informed of major changes in advance and actually given a voice with upper management. They are essentially the liaison between fans, consumers, developers, and the publisher. They also facilitate communication, help retain customers, and even gain new ones. Sean says the field of community management is still in its infancy and that he's interested to see where it will go from here.
Defining the design process for Star Wars: The Old Republic
Every Friday like clockwork the fine folks at BioWare Austin offer up a new tidbit to sink our teeth into. Last week was kind of a blowout, with the enormous video of Tython and how it was made. If you haven't had a chance to check out the best look we've had to date at Star Wars: The Old Republic, you owe it to yourself to do so. This week's offering was quite a bit more focused, delving into the design process used by the team to create a piece of the gameworld. Dallas Dickinson, Senior Content Designer for the game, walks us through the numerous steps required to get even one planet prepped for play.Beginning with the all-important research phase, the designers and developers iterate endlessly on the dialogue, writing, area layout, and art of a planet. What's striking is the sheer amount of interdependency and coordination required for something of this scale. Get a sense of that scale by reading through Dickinson's entry and mulling through the enormous amount of content the developers released last week to accompany the Tython video.Plus! Sean Dahlberg drops in near the end of the comments on the post to let us know something is coming. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for a special announcement!
Limited Edition Podcast interviews SWTOR's Sean Dahlberg
After the official announcement was made from BioWare confirming their new Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, Community Manager Sean Dahlberg suddenly became a very busy man. Appearing in a recent web interview, Dahlberg has been keeping us informed on how the game is progressing so far, but we believe this is the first time his voice has been heard on a podcast discussing his new role at BioWare.Over at the Limited Edition Podcast, Dahlberg talks a bit more about his current role and how he got here. You may also remember the Limited Edition Podcast as the one with former Tabula Rasa podcast hosts John and Matt from TabulaCast, plus former NCsoft EU community guru Stephen "Rockjaw" Reid. They've covered a video version of the City of Heroes character creation process (which may be especially helpful to thousands of Tabula Rasa players in a few months) and more on everything comic book related. Check out Episode 6 for the 35-minute Sean Dahlberg interview.
Star Wars: The Old Republic interview with Community Manager Sean Dahlberg
In a recent interview with Allakhazam, BioWare's Sean Dahlberg discusses their newest MMO project, Star Wars: The Old Republic. As Community Manager for the project, Dahlberg was able to give some great insight into the game's storyline and direction, or at least as much as he could say for now.One particularly interesting part of this interview is the discussion on PvP. As Allakhazam points out, the Republic and Sith Empire are not exactly friendly towards each other, so PvP would be an obvious game feature. Dahlberg explains that PvP is definitely part of the game, yet points out that TOR "is not looking to be the jack-of-all-trades game. Instead, we are going to focus on what we do best and make sure the game and all its elements are fun and entertaining." He goes on to explain away what may have sounded like a suggestion that the game will be PvP-heavy by saying, "TOR will offer fun and rewarding gameplay no matter what your play style is. If you're not a PvPer at heart, there are definitely other things within the game to do." Sounds very promising, and we're excited to hear more about the game, and relay it all to you, when more news becomes available.
