Posted by Lethality | 0 Comments

Gamespot Hands-On Reveals New Info

Well, it appears the deluge has started!  Gamespot has posted a new, extensive hands-on with the game at about 8:30pm EDT. It’s unclear if they got an early-hands on this week, or if this took place a few weeks back at the EA London press event.

There do seem to be some story spoilers in the article though, so if you click through, be warned!

At any rate, here’s some of the highlights:

• “As we found, several classes are linked by their initial starting area and quest sets, though their differing powers and combat styles make playing each one a unique experience” – This seems to indicate as expected that certain classes are paired together on certain starting planets. But what’s interesting is that they seem to share at least some quests in these areas, which seems counter to what we’ve known so far.
• “Yes, the Twi’lek are playable” – species # 3 confirmed! Twi’lek.
• The Trooper resource system is “ammo” as opposed to previously seen action points. It’s unclear if that literally means you can run out of ammo, or if it’s just a metaphor for the resource system in place.
• “In the case of the Imperial agent, we played as a member of the Chiss race–a species of self-reliant, blue-skinned, red-eyed humanoids that aren’t normally prone to direct acts of war” – Playable species #4 confirmed! Chiss.
• Hunter’s Mark for the Imperial Agent – “From cover, the agent gains the snipe attack, which deals tons of damage, as well as the laze target skill, which marks a target and makes it much more vulnerable to damage–not unlike the Hunter’s mark skill from World of Warcraft.”
• There seems to be a “conversation bonus” to talking things out as opposed to just shooting.
• We finally see a Smuggler in the wide brim hat ;)

One thing’s for sure, this is just the beginning… I’d count on seeing more sources overnight and over the weekend revealing, or at least having their own take on these things, ahead of the official start of E3.

Even though it’s summer, it looks like Christmas for fans of The Old Republic!

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Posted by TwinHits | 3 Comments

United We Stand: What’s In A Name?

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

My name is technically not TwinHits. For unless one has very strange parents, one would expect a more normal name for a person. However this is the internet, and here on the internet we name ourselves.

Not so much in the tribal sense of the word, there is no ceremony where the elders gather around the youth about to venture onto the web for the first time, lay their hands on his shoulders and declare him ‘Starman2000’. Instead, naming is a very personal act. It’s what comes to mind when you stare at the required and empty name field when you are rolling a new character, sign up on a new website, or even name your computer so it’s recognizable to you on your home network.

These names define the cyber-citizen because it is the name that divides the online person and the offline person. With a name comes a personality, completely separate from your real offline identity. These personalities can take on a life of their own making actions of that name entirely different from the actions of your real name, completely unconnected to each other. Separate identities lets one become separate people, different personas for different situations.

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Posted by Lady Republic | 2 Comments

Council Chambers: Take Me To Your Leader

Council Chambers is all about the ins and outs of guild leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Each week, we’ll look at running and managing a guild through good times, bad times and everything in between.  

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Council Chambers. We took January a bit “off” in terms of our primary purpose of guild leadership and advice, to spend some time focusing on new or prospective guild leaders and officers and cover some basics about how to start a guild and look for people to help you with that project. This week, it’s back to our core mission of working with guild leaders, officers, or members to help solve their guild challenges and dilemmas.

Chief of Staff

Since we ended our last entry talking about officers, I’ve decided to pick up again with an inquiry that concerns guild officers – and in particular, officer burnout. Overworked writes,

I’m having a blast playing SWTOR, but after just two weeks, I’m getting a little something like burn out due to my guild. This guild has been a labor of love for me, and was truly driven during the pre-game to create something special that would attract tons of members and be a really successful guild to last for years to come.

Even though I’m not the GM, I was the one in the forums trying to create energy for the guild, get members involved in creating the guidelines, decide how the guild would work and interact with the rest of the community. Now, the game has launched, and on top of all the work that goes into setting up the guild, I’ve discovered that no one was doing anything to recruit – so I’ve taken up that job as well, spamming in general to help grow our membership. I feel like I’m running the whole guild by myself, and even though it’s small right now, I feel like there’s a ton of work to be done if we want it to succeed.

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill here, or is there something I can do to encourage the others to step up? How do you cure officer apathy?

Officer apathy, officer burnout, officer inactivity – while these may all happens for different reasons, the end result is often the same. There’s still a ton of work that needs doing for the guild – recruitment, forums maintenance, scheduling, roster maintenance, member management, plus any other activities that the guild runs – but for whatever reason, there are fewer hands on deck working on it. This often results in those remaining officers shouldering more and more of the work to keep the guild afloat – and the frequent result of that is even more officer burnout, as those officers become overwhelmed and can no longer keep up.

So, what’s an overworked officer to do?

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Posted by Lethality | 10 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Would You Attend A “BioCon”?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Today’s BM&C was seeded by an idea from Zach Lee on Twitter… thanks Zach!

Gaming conventions are always a big deal every year, and Star Wars: The Old Republic along with EA, BioWare and LucasArts attend many of them. Some are for players such as PAX or gamescom, and some are geared for the industry such as E3. These are generally huge stages upon which publishers can catch the eyes of the public, and shine the lights on their wares.

A few years back in 2005, Blizzard sort of redefined the idea of a gaming convention by holding their own – Blizzcon. Since then, they’ve held it every year except 2006 and attendance has grown exponentially. In 2005, just over 8,000 people (including myself) were there. Last year? Over 29,000. And they’ve worked to make it accessible not only on the Internet but also on pay-per-view over DirecTV.

So that got me to thinking… BioWare has plenty of franchises and some equally passionate and numerous fans. Would something like a “BioCom” be possible? A gathering of all of the BioWare games and gamers, focused on letting fans see and play the future? It’s possible that with this week’s announcement of the Guild Summit in Austin, the seeds have already been planted… come on David, 200 people is no different than 20,000! :)

Anyway, would you attend a BioCon if there was one? Would you travel to get your hands on Mass Effect 3 early? How about an early peek at the TOR expansion race? Let us know!

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Posted by Lethality | 17 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Have You Changed Your Class?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Many of us have been following the game since it was first announced on October 21, 2008. Some of us, even longer than that in our own speculative minds! During this extended gestation period, we’ve thought long and hard about what class we would like to play. Would we side with the Republic or the Empire? Do I want a ranged class or do I prefer melee combat? Does my species determine what classes are available to me?

Even though there were so many options, and so many “decisions” we could make without ever laying hands on the game, many of us were absolutely sure we know what class we wanted to play when we finally got the chance to log in and play. Whenever that was going to be!

For me, that notion was turned on it’s head. I have always played a melee character, but was sold on the Smuggler based on what we knew of him and his story. Plus, the only melee option was a Force-weilding class, which not only am I not crazy about, everyone and their brother would be playing Jedi and Sith. But once I rolled my Smuggler, got him to about level 15, I just wasn’t feeling it. It seems my heart was with melee after all, and even though everyone was doing it, I rolled a Jedi Knight. I haven’t looked back!

What about you guys? Is your main class now different than what you thought it would be? What made you decide to change it? Let us know!

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