Posted by Lethality | 3 Comments

BioWare Ireland Opens As Global Customer Service Center For Star Wars: The Old Republic

Electronic Arts and BioWare announced yesterday the opening of their new state-of-the-art global customer service center in Galway, Ireland. Known as BioWare Ireland, they’re hiring for 400 customer service positions in the location in support of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

This backs up, in a big way, what BioWare has been stating for some time in regards to their desire to have the quality of service match the quality of game.

BioWare Co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka had this to say:

“MMO launches are complex, and we are determined to set a new standard for a high quality, stable, smooth launch for our fans. Our new BioWare facility and team in Galway is critical to ensuring we deliver on that goal.”

BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid added to the excitement yesterday Tweeting about the news and the potential to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic team:

@Rockjaw: Watching the Irish PM / An Taoiseach announce that @bioware Ireland is going to expand to 400 jobs! Want to work for #SWTOR anyone?

They’re not only looking for English-speakers, but German and French as well. If you’re interested in applying to work in Galway, head on over to BioWare’s career page and check out the openings for yourself!

 

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Posted by Lethality | 6 Comments

BioWare Emerges As Own Label Out Of EA Reorganization

Today, Electronic Arts announced somewhat of a reorganization of their business units as well as re-assignment of some top executives.

Of most interest to fans and followers of Star Wars: The Old Republic would be the emergence of BioWare as its own label under the new EA Labels division (consisting of EA Games, EA Sports, EA Play as well as BioWare.)

Dr. Ray Muzyka will head up the BioWare unit, and former EA Games President Frank Gibeau has been tapped to lead EA Labels overall.

Also of note is Dragon Age Legends studio EA2D now falls under BioWare, and will be part of BioWare San Francisco.

While the changes are noteworthy due to the pay grade of those involved, it seems to be business as usual, at least for our favorite upcoming MMO. We’ll report any more details as we learn them.

Source: Gamasutra

 

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Posted by Lethality | 1 Comment

SDCC 2011: BioWare Base Q&A #4 Video

BioWare just wrapped up their 4th and final Q&A session of San Diego Comic-Con 2011, and while it was live-streamed, it’s now available for playback on the BioWareTV channel on Livestream.

Game Director James Ohlen and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid subjected themselves to over 40 minutes of torture by taking questions direct from fans at BioWare Base, but also from Twitter.

We’re compiling some notes, but in the mean time, enjoy!

 

 

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Posted by Lethality | 15 Comments

SDCC 2011: BioWare Base Q&A + TOR Reveal

The first of of 4 developer Q&A sessions held at BioWare Base has just concluded, and we’re treated with a few more “golden nuggets” of information. Some of it is new, and some of it is stuff we thought we knew but has been changed!

James Ohlen was joined by Rich Vogel, Dallas Dickenson and Stephen Reid to host the Q&A which was streamed on BioWare Pulse. Here are the highlights:

• Collector’s Edition store is actually an exclusive location that only CE owners have access to!
• Items from this store however will not give people an advantage in power, though weapons and armor will be available
• Color Stone is gold in addition to adding effects
• Sharding may be used on launch day, only if absolutely necessary (the practice of creating multiple copies of the same area)
• Advanced Class change is in the game. 1st swap is cheap. After that it gets expensive
• Companion AI – off-limits for talking about! James Ohlen is in trouble.
• Companion customization is flexible, but you can’t swap their genders. You get customization kits to do this, and get more unlocked later
• Speeder bikes and land speeders in direct response to player and fan feedback
• No plans for a Mac version currently, Boot Camp suggested :(
• An unannounced feature may get you access to different species/class combos
• Ship interior customization – it’s in the design plan, but not in for launch
• Lots and lots of titles in the game

As for the reveal, David Bass introduced a very lifelike statue of Darth Malgus. It looks like he’ll be their convention companion for years to come!

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Posted by Sentinel | 0 Comments

The Doctors Speak To Gamasutra

Gamasutra has posted a nicely done, full length interview with BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. You can call them The Doctors.

In the interview, they muse about the everything from Dragon Age to Mass Effect, the BioWare process and what sets them apart from other development studios, including the importance of  their employees.

But of course, what interview with the Doctors would be complete without some talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic? Here’s just a preview:

Gamasutra: There are a lot of experienced people that have worked on MMOs in the past working on The Old Republic, but it’s just hard to imagine how incredibly difficult it could be for a company that hasn’t released an MMO yet to support an MMO. I think players trust the design choices that BioWare is going to make, and innovations in that area, but the support for a game like that — a game as a service — how are you guys approaching that leading up to launch?

Greg Zeschuk: The preparations are as massive as the game. It’s interesting. It’s a good point. It’s something that’s been foremost in our minds for quite a while. Obviously, we have a certain level of confidence on the game side, because that’s very familiar territory for us. There are subtle nuances of how it’s different, server-based gameplay and that sort of thing.

But the whole service piece has probably been the thing we’ve learned most about. And I think the good thing there, though, is we have a lot of people who really do have a lot of experience. The folks at BioWare Mythic, a lot of them are part of the team, and they did it for 10 years, 15 years. They ran game services.

Head on over to Gamasutra for the whole read!

 

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