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Wild Space: Immersion, “Digital Disappointment”, And Companion Gifts

It’s a big galaxy out 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!

Over on Corellian Run Radio, they have posted an interesting column that deals with immersion in TOR with respect to pop-culture references. BioWare has mentioned in the past that they don’t want to include obvious pop-culture references in TOR because they feel it would break immersion. In contrast, World of Warcraft has made a living with all of the pop-culture references that can be found in their game. The author of the CRR article, Thom, describes a rather elaborate reference featuring the A-Team that can be found in World of Warcraft.

By now, you almost expect a new cultural reference in World of Warcraft whenever you play it, so much so that pop-culture references have become part of the experience of playing the game. It can almost be considered its own game feature. TOR, on the other hand, seems to be keeping references to a minimum. Thom has only seen pop-culture references appear as part of quests and they are often quite subtle. Personally, the only references I have found have been Star Wars related (check out Nem’ro’s cantina on Hutta, there are a few good ones in there) and those types of references only serve to enhance my immersion and pull on my nostalgic heartstrings.  What do you all think? Have you found any pop-culture references that are immersion breaking for you? Do you like or not like pop-culture or Star Wars references?

Be sure to make your opinion known on those questions below and check out the full article on Corellian Run Radio.

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Posted by Cormeister | 4 Comments

Wild Space: Weather, History, and Quick Tips

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!

If you have been following SW:TOR for a while, you know that there are no random weather effects in the game. Sure, there are localized weather effects depending on your location on a planet that are constantly active, but nothing that occurs randomly. Only scripted weather in SW:TOR.

An article by our friends on TORWars tries to convince BioWare to turn on some more weather effects. Author Anthony Sproson argues that the literary device “pathetic fallacy” could be utilized much more by BioWare to enhance the SW:TOR story via the weather. For example, when something sad happens BioWare could cue some rain or storms; when something good happens, BioWare could stop the rain, throw up some sunshine, and add a rainbow.

By having the weather mirror your character’s emotions, BioWare could really augment the story and make it even more immersive. It’s a really interesting concept for a video game (it has been used in books and movies forever) and I would recommend that you all check out the full article over on TORWars.

History in general is very interesting to me and I have always been excited to learn more about the history of video games ever since I read “Masters of Doom” way back when. Darth Hater released an editorial this week which gave a brief history of the MMORPG genre.

Starting from MUDs (multi-user dungeons), progressing through the 2D (Ultima) and 3D (Everquest) MMORPGs of the recent past, and ending up with the World of Warcrafts and Rifts of today, author Raiden goes to great lengths to explain where MMORPG video games came from. It’s not entirely about SW:TOR, but it’s really cool to learn about where the genre came from and where it is going. Definitely check out the full article over on Darth Hater.

Georg Zoeller pointed this next fan creation out on Google+ and I think that it’s worth reposting here. YouTube channel TOR Hangout has (so far) posted two Quick Tip videos to show you how to manipulate the SW:TOR user interface.

The first was about using the focus target feature in to cast healing spells or buffs on a single target that you “focus” on. For those unfamiliar with focus target, you designate a player and they get their own special unit frame and key modifier that you can use to cast spells on them. The second video was about enabling and configuring healing frames for when you are in a Flashpoint or Operation.

Both videos are really well done so I would encourage you all to check them out. Lets hope we get more tips like this in the near future!

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Posted by Cormeister | 5 Comments

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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Posted by Cormeister | 0 Comments

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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Posted by Cormeister | 7 Comments

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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