Sep 5, 2011

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Off-TORpic: The Recent And Future Changes in WoW, Effects On MMO Gaming

Off-TORpic is our occasional peek outside the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes it’ll be Star Wars. Sometimes it’ll be games. Sometimes, something else all together. But all the time it will be Off-TORpic.

As MMO gamers, a vast majority of us have likely played World of Warcraft.  Whether you loved it or hated it, it set a new standard for the MMO genre.  This standard has created an atmosphere that has brought the development of many MMOs that have tried to emulate it in hopes of repeating its success.  One thing Blizzard isn’t afraid to do, however, is to make changes to its own tried-and-tested methods in order to stay ahead of the curve, and adapt to player behaviors.

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Aug 17, 2011

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Off-TORpic: Blizzard Adding “Appearance Tab” To World Of Warcraft

Off-TORpic is our occasional peek outside the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes it’ll be Star Wars. Sometimes it’ll be games. Sometimes, something else all together. But all the time it will be Off-TORpic.

A vast majority of those reading this have probably played World of Warcraft.  Whether you loved it or hated it, it set some new standards for the MMO genre.  This created somewhat of a “copycat” atmosphere in the industry which has brought the development of several titles that have tried to emulate its success, with varying results.  But one thing Blizzard isn’t afraid to do is change its own formula, flying in the face of their previous ideals.

At Gamerscon today, Blizzard announced its newest change to World of Warcraft: Transmogrification.  This vendor will allow players to change the appearance of their armor, matching the look they like with the stats they need:

Blizzard Developers:

Visiting a Transmogrifier will present players with a new interface that will allow them to change the appearance of an item while retaining its original stats. This means that you can raid in your paladin tier 12 Immolation set, but look like you’re wearing Lightbringer, while priests can bring Benediction back

There’s a huge, everlasting thread on the official forums dedicated to an “appearance tab” in TOR, but currently the only visual armor customization options we know of are being able to match the color of your gear to the color of your chest piece. In light of this new information, is this enough?  Should we expect more customization right out of the gate?

Love ’em or hate ’em, Blizzard is doing good work for all of us by pushing features like this out.

Transmogrification UI


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Aug 2, 2011

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Off-TORpic: In-Game Auction House With Out-Of-Game Money

Off-TORpic is our occasional peek outside the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes it’ll be Star Wars. Sometimes it’ll be games. Sometimes, something else all together. But all the time it will be Off-TORpic.

With the holiday season approaching closer by the day, there is a lot of anticipation for a variety of new games from every studio imaginable.  Bethesda is following up its next-gen system success with Skyrim.  Infinity Ward, an Activision subsidiary, is coming out with the next installment of the Modern Warfare series.  Of course, as we all know, BioWare’s first step into the MMO market with Star Wars: The Old Republic is slated for a holiday release.  One of the most anticipated games of the holiday season is also speculated to be some of SW:TOR’s biggest competition: Blizzard’s Diablo 3.

More than 11 years after its predecessor, Blizzard is in the process of beta testing its newest installment of the series which is set to launch sometime before the end of the year.  Today it was announced by developers of Diablo 3 that they will be implementing a new system to their (not-so-massive) multiplayer game.  They will be offering to users the ability to buy and sell in-game items for either in-game gold or real life money.

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Jul 27, 2011

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Off-TORpic: Sanctuary – A Star Wars Fan Film Set Before The Old Republic

Off-TORpic is our occasional peek outside the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes it’ll be Star Wars. Sometimes it’ll be games. But all the time it will be Off-TORpic.

We all love Star Wars.  Whether it’s the films, the books, the games, or the universe as a whole.  The original trilogy defined a generation and set the standard for modern day sci-fi movies, fostering the advancement of visual effects to the level of the photo-realism that we have today.

With what could be the last triumph of Lucas’ film making career, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was the closing of the series of Star Wars films; but now fans are left wanting more.  With over 100 novels written in the expanded universe of Star Wars, it is apparent that fans have a strong attachment to the world that Lucas created.

There is a problem, though: where are the films telling these stories?  Will there only be the six movies that take place before and after the Battle of Yavin?  What of the expanded universe that takes place after the demise of The Emperor?  Or more importantly to many of the fans of The Old Republic era, what happened before the time of Revan?

If filmmaker and avid Star Wars fan Brock Chandler has anything to say about it, there will be at least one more Star Wars movie.

Sanctuary is a film actually set thousands of years BEFORE The Old Republic in a time when not much is known.Chandler describes the film as “a story about faith. It is a story about what it means to lead. What it means to sacrifice. It is a story about how the choices we make really matter.” Sounds familiar! It’s clear that story is a very important element of the film he’s trying to make.

Chandler is trying to raise funding on IndieGoGo in order to help him with production costs. Selfishly, we’d really like to see this film get made so we wanted to help him out! You can too.

Brock sat down with us for a quick Q&A after the break.

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