Do you actually know the Rules?
EA/BioWare has published their Rules of Conduct: — Very important and useful documents that most players skip over in their excitement to get into the game. I’ve already covered the EULA in a previous Article
Most of the rules are pretty common among MMOs, and if you are a veteran MMO player, you won’t blink twice at them. However, a few of the items are a little different than you may be used to, and are worth looking at a little closer, so that you don’t run afoul of any of the rules once Early Access (and Launch) hits and you find yourself actually playing the game.
One of these items that deserves a closer look is the Naming Policy. Now, we have known for a while that BioWare isn’t going to enforce Role-Playing Naming, even on RP Servers. To many RPers that was a disappointing decision, but those names can be subjective at times, so I can understand their stance. But, what rules ARE they going to enforce? Well, if you read the Rules of Conduct, and make your way down to Section D, you will find out. It reads as follows:
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Since it is the holidays, and we are coming up on Launch Week, we will all start obsessing about ONE thing…
FOOD!
…What? You thought I was gonna say something else? What are you…gamers????
Well… even gamers need high-quality, easy-to-fix (or just tasty) morsels to fill their bellies between the slaughtering of the evil (or not so evil) in the universe
We are going to start with EASY in this installment. And, as a reminder, I would love to hear what you cook for gaming. Continue Reading »
I found this interesting tidbit in the current EULA for Star Wars: The Old Republic – (verified identical in both the one from last Beta and the one currently downloadable at www.swtor.com/download ). In this Article, I will be speculating on the meaning of a specific section of the EULA:
Section 2, Part C reads as follows:
C. Transfer.
You may make a one time permanent transfer of all your rights to install and use packaged Software on physical recording media to another individual or legal entity provided that: (a) you transfer or delete all copies of the Software ; and (b) you retain no copies of the Software. You may not transfer your Account and/or any associated subscriptions to a third party, and EA may require that any subsequent end user of the Software register the Software online as a condition of use, and will not be responsible should you not be able to transfer the right to access game play, receive updates, upgrades, dynamically served content, any achievements and/or items already purchased or otherwise acquired by you through micro-transactions whether or not paid for, or the right to use any online service(s) of EA. It is your responsibility to ascertain the ability of any person to whom you intend to transfer the Software to receive the Software and/or open and utilise an Account, including by consulting any applicable Terms of Service to determine the conditions that may be applicable for the use of an Account, if applicable.
Now what exactly does this mean? Let’s take it one tidbit at a time.
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This article was submitted by a member of our community, Justin Taylor. We are happy to publish him and we hope that you the SWTOR community enjoy him as well, thank you Justin! 🙂
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With multiple beta testing sessions and some positive reviews already flowing in, Star Wars The Old Republic has already been tabbed as one of the major releases of the holiday season. Even though previews have mostly been positive, there was a bit of skepticism coming in focused on the profits for the game by the president of Activision. The assessment looks somewhat misguided; especially considering some industry analysts doubt it already.
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There was one fear that every BioWare and Star Wars: The Old Republic fan had about the upcoming MMO. We knew that the game would have story. We knew that it would have quality. From all the footage we’ve seen, we knew that the game would have everything a modern MMORPG had to have. We knew BioWare made good games and we were optimistic that they would deliver with SWTOR. What we didn’t know is whether BioWare’s inexperience in making Massively Multiplayer Online games would show when millions of users started playing the game. Will their server technology fail?
The short answer is – BioWare Won!
They handed out hundreds of thousands of beta keys. They invited everyone that applied within the last three years to test their game. My best guesstimate is that they had around one million beta testers hitting their servers at some point. Things were not 100 percent smooth, but they were 90 percent good. I tested how the whole beta went myself by going to a European server right from the start. These were hit very hard because there weren’t enough of them early on. I logged on the very minute the servers went live. It took about 10 minutes to get through the whole login procedure, but I got in and started playing. Things in game might not have been as smooth as they were when the regular game testing happened, but they were very playable. There were a lot of issues the first few hours and BioWare addressed as many as possible right away, trying to get every single player into the game. That is what beta testing is all about — discovering problems you weren’t aware of before. We had a patch of the launcher on Saturday and several more fixes in the meantime. In the end, BioWare passed the test of technology with flying colors. Now they have a good game and have the technology that will support all of its players.
Before closing this article I wanted to address one more issue. There must have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, of players that had problems during this weekend’s beta test. Based on my experience during all three days, nothing happened that was out of the ordinary. There were server disconnects and queues and login problems. All of this falls within the scope of a beta stress test. The beta was not staged so that people could fully enjoy SWTOR as a finished product. This was meant to uncover bugs that may pop up so that people may enjoy SW:TOR in December. As such, this test was a great success. Also, if they had 50,000 “unsatisfied” customers, that may seem like a huge number. In fact, that is only 5 percent out of the guesstimated 1 million testers. This is an OK number to me.
All I have to say in the end is Congratulations, BioWare. Our faith in you through all these years turned out to be justified. We are sorry we doubted you… at times ;).
James Ohlen (updated)
Hey Everyone,
This build has our first iteration of the Legacy System! At its core the Legacy system is about allowing players to create a family tree of characters. Family is pretty important to the Star Wars universe, with the Skywalker family having one of the most interesting dynamics in movie history. This version is just the foundational components that we will use to build upon in the future. Here are the features of this iteration:
- Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters on that server – so choose carefully!
- Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase your Legacy Level.
We already have plans for how we will expand the functionality of the Legacy System in one of our major post-ship patches. This will include being able to shape your Legacy’s family tree, and give you a reward for all those Legacy Levels.
We look forward to reading your feedback on the Legacy System!
–James
So announced today is a Legacy System. This system is going to allow you to choose a legacy name for your character, once they complete chapter 1. Now up to this point we have heard that last names will not be available in game. I get the feeling this particular feature has been on and off the table so many times that saying it is not going to happen is the safest route, cause then if it does it is a bonus. Continue Reading »
Keyfob-ulous!
Most of you have probably already been notified of the changes being implemented on the official forums regarding account security. Besides changing your password (regularly, as they suggest), the other option that will be available to us will be the custom branded Security Authentication Key:
Just like any other user account you have, changing your The Old Republic password on a regular basis is one of the simple measures you can take to protect your personal information. Another way to ensure a secure account is to get the official custom branded Security Authentication Key, available in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Edition. The Collector’s Edition is still available in limited quantities at select retailers. Watch for more information on other ways to obtain The Old Republic Security Key soon!
So, what does it do?
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NOTE: I wrote this Article originally on October 20th. The next morning, just before I was about to publish it, I saw the Article MJ published on our Site, “The Female Character, The Male Player” which – while not identical to mine, covered much of the same ground. So I decided to hold off publishing my Article, at least for a little while. Well, the topic has popped up again on the swtor Forums, and it has been a couple weeks since his Article, so here is mine. I hope you enjoy.
One topic that I have seen come up again and again on MMO Forums is the subject of females in MMOs and “gender bending” – or playing a gender that you aren’t in real life. A male playing a female or a female playing a male. The old joke goes that GIRL stands for Guy In Real Life – and maybe that was true not that long ago, but is it true today? And does it matter if it is? Let’s start by finding out just who it is that actually plays Video Games – and more specifically, MMOs.
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“There is no formal diagnosis of video game addiction in current medical or psychological literature. Inclusion of it as a psychological disorder has been proposed and rejected for the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).”
I have seen several lengthy discussions about SW:TOR, parental controls, gaming addiction, and what responsibility, if any, BioWare has to protect us from ourselves. I would like to take this opportunity to present my opinion:
There is a difference between addiction and obsession. Addiction is when you have to do something due to a physical or mental craving and suffer from withdrawal symptoms when you are deprived of the subject of your addiction. Obsession, on the other hand, is a persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly : compelling motivation. And while you may have obsessive thoughts about the subject of your obsession for a long time, there are no actual withdrawal symptoms present – as there are with addiction.
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Inspired by SWTOR fans on Twitter I’ve started playing League of Legends, DOTA clone or what people now call a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It is a competitive PvP game where you completely rely on your teammates to win a match and it is a gathering of the worst type of gamers in the world – caps lock, nerd rage, griefing, intoxicated, noob calling type that plays these kind of games since Warcraft III. Why would I subject myself to something like that you might ask. The magic that makes me sit down every day and play a few games is the existence of levels in this game. Whenever you play a match, whether you win or lose, you get a small amount of XP which goes towards leveling your “account”. Higher the level, more things get unlocked for your characters to use. The carrot at the end of the stick is level 30 and who knows what wondrous things await me once I reach that fabled place called end game. Ranked matches? My personal army of hot babes? Cookies?
Whatever awaits at the end of the rainbow we are compelled to fill that XP bar. This is so noticeable that almost every game company out there is now making their games in such a way that unlocking something through some form of leveling is present in their games. We have shooters with levels and better guns, we have logic games setup that way. Facebook casual games are mini MMOs these days. Even Gandalf the Grey leveled up to Gandalf the White once he killed that Balrog in Moria. I predict with the next incarnation of Windows we’ll probably see a new version of Solitaire with leveling and RPG elements.
Click here to read more thoughts on the leveling game and how SWTOR will handle it
