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Wild Space: No NDA = Live Streams
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
This week the unthinkable occurred: the SW:TOR Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) was lifted which released a torrent of videos, content, impressions, and opinions. Normally, this article would focus on analyzing the material put forth by the various fansites, but honestly I think that you all are interested in only one thing this week: finally being able to watching the game.
For those of you waiting patiently until next week for the last beta testing weekend, you finally have something to fill your time: SW:TOR live streams! So, without further ado, here is a not-so comprehensive list of live streams that I was able to find online. Enjoy!
SW:TOR Fansite Live Streams:
Darth Hater – http://www.livestream.com/darthhaterlive
Red Rancor – http://www.redrancor.com/rrtv
Force Junkies – http://www.twitch.tv/junkienation
Other Live Streams:
Twitch.tv
Justin.tv
Livestream.com
And if you know of any more high-quality of streams we should be aware of, post in the comments below!
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Wild Space: Fan Site Summit Post-Mortem
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
With the Second Fan Site Summit having come to a close, I thought I would take this opportunity to point out some information that you can check out about what the fansites who attended saw and learned.
First up, TORWars posted two great photo galleries of the summit. Not so much information about the game, but you get a cool glimpse inside the BioWare studios and into the office where the magic happens! Developers, office decor, concept art, workstation setups, and fan site personnel are all on display. Check out the photo galleries here and here.
TORWars was also able to score the first un-boxing video of the SW:TOR Collector’s Edition! Check that video out here.
Over on Darth Hater, they managed to transcribe the Q&A session that Gabe Amatangelo, Lead End-Game Designer, gave to the assembled multitudes regarding PvP, Flashpoints, and Operations. Some of the more interesting tidbits were:
Q: How long would it take to maybe go through one Operation if you have a successful run?
A: Three hours.
Q: As far as Ilum [the open-world PvP zone] goes, did you say it was going to be persistent like constant?
A: It’s constant. It’s not a timer. It’s always going on. The timer is when you destroy the other vehicles, and your vehicles are able to fly in, it’s five minutes before your vehicles are vulnerable to attack, that’s the only timer. But other than that, if you want to wake up at 3 AM and take it from the Empire, who seems to be dominating it, and you’re Republic, by all means you can do that.
Check out the full Q&A transcript on Darth Hater.
The ladies of Corellian Run Radio posted a nice summary of the Q&A with Game Director James Ohlen. Of note:
- Guild banks are the first feature to be added for guilds post-launch.
- The designers intend for light/dark conversation choice to be mostly about RP concerns and don’t want you to be concerned about your stats when making those decisions.
- Not many people are skipping through the fully-voiced dialog.
Most gear is modifiable. For example, you could take your starting lightsaber all the way to level 50 just by changing the mods to keep up with the stat increases. - There are no abilities that only work inside or outside; all abilities work everywhere(!).
Lastly, Mr. Ohlen was asked why he thinks other MMOs fail? He said that a terrible launch, security issues, and a tendency to go too far either to the MMO side or to the single player side all contribute to why MMOs fail. Rest assured that BioWare is working hard to avoid all of these pitfalls. For the full summary of the Q&A check out Corellian Run Radio.
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Wild Space: The Calm Before the Storm
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
Several lucky fansites were invited to the second Fan Site Summit at the BioWare studios in Austin, Texas. That caused a relatively calm week in terms of fansite content as they undoubtedly prepare to bombard BioWare with questions about the game, but that didn’t stop several sites from posting great articles worth checking out. Let me tell you about them!
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Wild Space: Questing, Beta Testing, and Mobile Apps
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
First up this week, is great article from Force Junkies about the not-so-heroic quests that all “theme park” MMOs have players partake in. Author Laura H. does a really good job of explaining that this is all going to be different in SW:TOR because in this game, you actually care about what you are doing. As Ms. H explains, you aren’t just killing 10 wolves to get some experience and a minor reward, you’re killing 10 wolves in order to save a village from the persistent, feral attacks by the wolves and in return, the leader of the village pledges his support to your cause.
Making a player care about what they are doing from a story perspective certainly makes doing it much more fun. It’s the motivation for doing the quest (i.e. story context) and the presentation of it (i.e. interactive voice acting) that makes these “mundane” quests not so mundane anymore. Be sure to check out the full article over at Force Junkies.
Amid all of the Warzone update information that came out as part of the Friday Update this week, EA released their Fiscal Year 2012, Quarter 2 Earnings call. These calls are snooze-fests for the majority of the time, but every once in a while we get a pertinent bit of information out of them. Some poor soul over at Darth Hater (author Jaspor, I assume) had the dubious honor of listening to the Earnings call for that bit of information. What he found was even further confirmation (from EA Chief Operating Office Peter Moore, nonetheless) that the SW:TOR beta is going to eventually get downright massive:
“…the Old Republic is in Beta right now and players are blown away by the immersive story, dynamic combat and authentic Star Wars feel. In the coming weeks we’ll invite hundreds of thousands of players into our biggest Beta test to date.”
So if you haven’t gotten into the beta by now, you’re going to have a pretty good chance in the future. Keep tuned to www.swtor.com/tester to see if you’ve been selected for beta testing and head over to Darth Hater for the full article which links out to the official EA remarks and webcast.
What do you all think of one or more SW:TOR mobile apps? Marshall Carr from TORWars think that it’s a pretty good idea and has some suggestions for BioWare about what he wants to see in a mobile app. One idea that quickly jumped to his mind was a crew skills app. Since your crew can be working on Crew Skills while you are offline, an app to modify your Crew Skill queue and send companions out of missions would be extremely convenient. Other apps for in-game communication would also be really handy and I could see even becoming a necessity.
Another thought that I just had is something that the successful MMO Eve Online is already doing: build API tools and let the community create their own mobile apps. With access to an API, the amount and variety of apps created would only be limited by the community’s creativity, skill level, and commitment (and I think that the SW:TOR community can summon up droves of all three).
However, Mr. Carr is quick to point out that there is a concern with creating mobile apps and that some players could have a significant gameplay advantage over others just because they have a better phone. Still, smartphone ownership is on the rise and BioWare is surely thinking about how to approach mobile app development very carefully. Check out the full article over at TORWars and let us know what you think about SW:TOR mobile apps in the comments.
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Wild Space: TORMag, MER, and SW:TOR Addiction
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
I’m sorry that I missed this one last week, but I had to get my previous issue of Wild Space done a little early and I missed the release of the new issue of TorMag, my favorite SW:TOR online magazine! This month’s articles include interviews with two prominent community members, Dimbo and Ysme, TORMag’s usual Class and Guild highlights, a feature on the recent Eurogamer Expo and release date announcement, and an editorial about why SW:TOR should be more Star Wars than MMO. The magazine format continues to be very appealing and the production value is off the charts. Also, it’s really nice to see the amount (and creativity) of guild advertisements increasing from issue to issue. If you haven’t been downloading this gem every month then you have been sorely missing out on some great content. Check it out here.
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Wild Space: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Release Date
It’s a big galaxy our there, and Wild Space can be a dangerous place. Worry not, explorer – each week we’ll navigate you safely through the lost hyperspace routes of the Deep Core and track down the great articles and entertainment from around the SW:TOR fan community, all in less than 12 parsecs, of course!
I’ll just come out and say it: I’m a huge fan of Austen Courpet’s video blog series Yufmelt Shot First on his website Yufmelt.com. The series has been on hiatus for a while until this week when Austen and co. shot (see what I did there?) episode 9. The episode introduces a new cinematography style that looks less like a webcam and more like a professional interview (but where are the awesome posters?!). Since they haven’t released an episode since the release date was announced they devoted this 5:33 gem to talking about it. In short, having a release date is good, but a release date five days before Christmas is not so good. Lots of people who want to be there for release won’t be able to simply due to the release date being so close to a major holiday.
The video is nice and quick, gets to the point, and is done with a terrific sense of humor which keeps it entertaining. Check it out here.
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