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Update: TOR at Star Wars Celebration V

Although BioWare nor LucasArts have given any details about their presence at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Florida next week other than that they would be there,  the official Celebration schedule had 2 panels entitled “The Art and Writing of Star Wars The Old Republic.”

Well, that schedule has now been updated to include a bit more info about those sessions. It seems that among other things, BioWare concept artists and will be creating a piece of concept art live during the session:

The Art and Writing of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Drew Karpyshyn (Principal Writer, BioWare), Hall Hood (Senior Writer, BioWare), Arnie Jorgensen (Lead Concept Artist, BioWare) and Clint Young (Senior Concept Artist (Environments), BioWare) discuss what goes into creating the art and story in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming story-driven massively-multiplayer online role-playing game in development by BioWare and LucasArts. As an added bonus, Clint and Arnie will be creating an entirely original piece of concept art live during the panel, giving attendees a rare and exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the creative process. Don’t miss your chance to speak first-hand with the developers!

This should give fans of TOR an opportunity to see an entirely new process from the design team, and no doubt provide a teaser of what might come when the game launches.

Of course, we’ll be attending Celebration V all 4 days and will be attending all TOR related events!  Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay tuned for the latest exclusive developments during the convention!

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The Art and Writing of Star Wars: The Old Republic – SWCV

As many of you know, Star Wars Celebration V is coming up next month. It’s the official Star Wars fan convention, put on by no less than LucasFilm Ltd.

Today, the official Celebration site schedule was updated, and we got out first glimpse of what the TOR presence might look like there.

“The Art and Writing of Star Wars: The Old Republic” is a session slotted to occur twice during the convention, both on Friday and Saturday. There is no further description as to what this session might consist of, or the format of the presentation. We’re hoping that we might see some nice announcement surrounding this session, just as we did with Comic-Con and the announcement of space combat.

The official TOR community events page has not yet been updated with their plans for Star Wars Celebration, but it’s only a matter of time. As a matter of fact we’d put money on that being part of this Friday’s official update!

Ask A Jedi will be there for all 4 days of the convention, and we’re working to score some great exclusive info… stay tuned!

You can view the entire Star Wars Celebration V schedule here (PDF).

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Drew Karpyshyn – ComicCon and Star Wars Celebration Update

Long-time BioWare writer Drew Karpyshyn just tweeted that he had updated his blog, and sure enough, he’s given some details about his appearances at both this month’s Comic-Con in San Diego, and next month’s Star Wars Celebration in Orlando:

All the details (which hall we’re in, etc.) will be posted HERE on the official Comic Con website in about a week . We don’t have any other OFFICAL scheduled events (that I know of), but we might have a little unofficial “meet the fans” party on Friday night somewhere. I’ll try to post details here if I get them before my next update, otherwise I’ll send the info out on my Twitter account.

Read Drew’s full blog entry here. And be sure to follow him on Twitter @DrewKarpyshyn

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The Old Republic at Star Wars Celebration!

It was with great delight I read community manager Sean Dahlberg’s tweet this afternoon than announced a presence at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V convention next month in Orlando:

Actually, we will be there! We’re not quite ready to share what exactly TOR will be doing at #SWCV but we will soon #swtor

Why is this particularly exciting? Well, for one it’s the official Lucsafilm sponsored convention, and absolute ground-zero for all things Star Wars! But also because we are based in Orlando and are just minutes away from the convention center where the event is being held.

We’ve already prepared a quick-start guide for you, to help get up to speed on the happenings at the convention.

Be sure to drop us a line if you will be coming into town for the convention, we’d love to meet our readers!

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Star Wars Celebration V

Ask A Jedi’s own Katherinne takes a look at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V convention in Orlando, Florida, happening this August. It promises to be absolutely ground zero for all-things Star Wars.

While we certainly hope that Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a presence, at the time of this writing, nothing has been confirmed. So, even though it’s not exclusively related to our favorite upcoming MMORPG, we thought some of our readers might enjoy a quick-start guide as to what to expect!

As a side note, Ask A Jedi is based in Orlando, Florida – so we’ll be there, and we’d love to meet you! Drop us a line if you’ll be in town!

What: The official Lucasfilm Ltd Star Wars convention Celebration V
When:  August 12 – 15 2010
Where:  Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, US

Star Wars Celebration is an official convention organized by Lucasfilm Ltd. to celebrate the fantastic universe created by George Lucas nearly 35 years ago. The first one was held in Denver, Colorado in 1999 to celebrate the release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Since then, there have been 5 more (3 in the US, and 2 internationally) and this one promises to be the biggest and best so far!

The headline announcement for Celebration V is the attendance of the maker himself, George Lucas! He will be appearing on stage for a live interview/Q&A session with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. If you have a question for George (or Jon,) you can submit them here. Now’s the time to ask him when Episode 7 is coming out.

Other guests include the good guys:  Carrie Fisher,  Anthony Daniels,  Peter Mayhew and the bad guys:  Jeremy Bulloch,  Ray Park and the ones caught in the middle: Jake Lloyd and Daniel Logan along with many many more!  There will be special autograph sessions throughout the whole show in the special autograph hall.

Disney is hosting a special evening enetitled  “Last Tour of Endor” on August 14 to commemorate their closing Star Tours for a big overhaul (they’re ditching the Death Star Attack Run and gaining a Pod Race – but don’t get me started).  Starting at 8pm, after the close of the convention, this awesome event will last until 1am and will include themed party zones, Star Wars shows, Death Star Disco and those awesome Disney fireworks orchestrated to Star Wars music.  This takes place at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park and Tickets are $75. This includes round trip transportation to and from the convention center. I’m looking forward to it for sure!

Other events at the convention will be a R2-D2 Builders Display,  Costume Contests (rules are here), a One Man Star Wars show, Collector’s Panels and of course the  Exhibition Hall. Exhibitors will include such well known names as  Nasa, Scholastic, Dark Horse Comics, Hallmark, HASBRO and LEGO. A full list can be found here.

Just in case you want to get married (or something,) there will be a Commitment Chapel and if you like to make movies, there is a Fan Movie challenge but you’ll have to be able to travel back in time because the deadline was June 24th.

To leave your mark for posterity, you’ll be able to submit your own Star Wars experience with My Star Wars Story. During the convention, you’re invited to take 15 minutes and tell your story, sing your song, or otherwise share what Star Wars has meant to you in a video diary.  But it’s a first come, first serve line be sure to sign up early!

Also as you may know, this year was the 30th anniversary of everyone’s favorite Star Wars episode – The Empire Strikes Back. There are some special events surrounding this, and we’ll add more as they are announced.  Here is what we have so far:

Echo Base Diorama – Frank D’Iorio, once an Industrial Light & Magic Visual Effects Artist, will return to once again lead us all in building a diorama of Hoth’s Echo Base Station. He will set it all up and then fans will be able to come in and build (for free) a portion of the scene. The best part is that you get to take your portion home!  HASBRO is donating a quantity of action figures and vehicles, but in order to assure that there are enough for everyone, a special “figure fund” has been created.  Fans can bring their own action figures or can mail them to the address listed.

If you’re traveling to get to Star Wars Celebration this year, a special hotel search page has been set up, and there will be a convenient shuttle services available. For other things to do while in Orlando, check out the Orlando 101 page.

Tickets are available here.  Adult prices run from $48 / $54 per day to $128 for admission to all four days of the convetion. Tickets are also available at the door while they last.

Don’t know about you but we can’t wait, and hope to see everyone there! And be sure to bookmark this page to keep up-to-date.

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