Ok, first let me start by saying like many other followers I’m stocked that we have a release date at long last.
But could SWTOR have picked a more awkward date to release a MMO ?
Also the way it was announced was very strange indeed, with no sign that the formidable train was entering the station.
It was reported two days ago, by various fansites, that Star Wars: The Old Republic received Teen rating from ESRB. This means ESRB believes that the title is suitable for ages 13 and older. Upon review they found the title contains Blood and Gore (combat with lightsabers – what can you do), Mild Language, Sexual Themes( companion lovin’ FTW), Violence (I think this relates to the Sith Warrior – he feels to be so violent). Getting an ESRB rating also means that release is in sight, because for ESRB to give a rating, the product they are reviewing must be very close to the final, release version.
I am reporting on this because for the first time now I have seen the ESRB rating on SWTOR advertisements that have popped up all over the net today (in line with the Eurogamer Expo). I’ve included the screenshot of one of those ads above, but you can see it for yourself here, here or here.
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Every time the CFO of Electronic Arts, Mr. Eric Brown, has one of his financial conferences with the investors community managers at Bioware get a headache. This is because Mr. Brown always talks about the hottest topic on the block, and that is release date and beta details. This was the case yesterday as well. As you all know the release window (for now) is Holiday 2011. The running joke in the community is that we would at least like to know of a date when they will tell us what the release date will be (release date of a release date – is that a dateception?). In that regard Eric Brown said:
In terms of timing, again, we haven’t given a street date yet. We won’t do so for some time, possibly at our next upcoming earnings call towards the end of October.
Click here to read the rest of statements as well as Stephen Reid’s reactions
Before I get into this anyone who whines about the CE being too expensive and are from the US “SCREW YOU ALL”.
*Rant Set To Maximum*
You already have one, if not the lowest priced CE additions on earth how dare you. You only pay $150, I’m paying £129, which is around $200. And then I’m a lot better off than those poor Australians who have great trouble just getting the game and after import tax and such are looking at over $300. So, stop it, right now.
*End Rant*
Now to address all this bitching.
For everyone waiting for this game for 2+ years, making it available for pre-ordering was a dream come true and a sign that finally, the wait is over. Unfortunately, things have not been as satisfying for all the fans around the world. Here’s the story. If you want to purchase SWTOR in digital form, you can only do that from Electronic Arts’ online store called Origin. For boxed version you can order online or go to many of the major retailers around the world, full list to be found here by clicking on the pre-order button.
The problem is that if you do not live in one of the 22 countries listed here you will not be able to make a purchase of the digital version on Origin. Retailers in your country might, or might not carry any copies of The Old Republic come launch day. Retailers in countries listed on the links provided above might not ship to your country or you will not get the game on time because of shipping abroad. In short, everyone not in the countries that are in the “Green zone” might encounter significant troubles in acquiring a copy of the game.
This has made a lot of people angry and there has been a thread going on in the official forums that reached several incarnations (because of the 1000 posts per thread limit) and had more then several hundred thousand views so far. In all honesty there is a lot of trolling going on, but there are some legitimate concerns and posts there as well.
Now that the initial tantrum has passed most people outside the “Green zone” are looking for alternate ways to get their hands on the copy of the game. Australians have been making orders through Amazon.com, although shipping to them will probably be delayed and the game will arrive post-launch. European countries that have been left out are mostly ordering through European version of Amazon sites like amazon.co.uk, amazon.de (which still has boxed collector’s editions available) and amazon.it. I must warn all that Amazon has its own shipping policies and you should look at their help pages to see if they will ship PC games to your country! There is currently no info available on how Brazilian (and South American in general), Asian and African gamers can successfully get their hands on the game right now. If any of you have any valid methods of getting SWTOR to those areas of the world please let me know and I will update this article with new info.
What remains to be seen is whether they will go as far as blocking the countries outside the “green zone” from accessing the game servers or being able to pay with local credit cards. This is highly unlikely, but just to be safe I’d recommend everyone to monitor the situation closely until official information on this has been made available.
I would also recommend patience and not being tempted to look at unverified and shady offerings that are bound to pop up to take advantage of this situation. Your credit card info, game account info and other sensitive and personal information may be put at risk if you succumb to some random offer by some unknown web store or retailer.
The title of the article is actually the title of the panel that will be held at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego from 3:30 to 4:30 on July 21. The panel is hosted by BioWare and LucasArts and it is dedicated to talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic. There will be several other Star Wars panels at the show, but this one is the most important one for SWTOR fans. The title is so filled with underlying meanings that I just don’t know whether to get really excited about it or just chill so I don’t get disappointed like with some other, previously held, big conventions. You can read the full announcement at the San Diego Comic Con official site and here’s the announcement of the SWTOR panel:
Star Wars: The Old Republic : Join Us, It Is Your Destiny— BioWare and LucasArts are creating the most immersive MMO experience you’ve ever played with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Hear from BioWare developers as they discuss development of a story-driven MMO, debut new gameplay footage, and perhaps spring a few surprises along the way. Exclusive reveals, giveaways, guests, and Q&A! Room 6BCF
For good measure here’s the Facebook image of the week that was released yesterday.
Click image for full size
These class progression trailers are immense fun. They are one of the few things forum trolls do not hate or fuss much about, which just goes to prove my previous sentence. There was a big squeee in SWTOR Life virtual office because 80% of staff are planning to play Bounty Hunters at launch. SWTORCrafter even managed to play the first levels of it during the Fan Site Summit, so you can check his hands on impressions to complete your overall impression of the class.
The progression trailer shows some great footage of new armor and skills. I particularly liked the last armor they show in the video. It is very “savage” looking. There’s flamethrower AOE-ing, carbonite freezing, rocket launching, jetpack flying, knife in face action all over the place in the video and I am sure you will enjoy it. I have one objection though. I know they’ve done this only to show the skills and that action is a bit staged, but I still can’t get it out of my head. There is no way in hell that anyone or anything, including Bounty Hunters, can one shot Jedi (padawan or not).
Flack from E3 is still being published and as part of it we got the Alderaan group quest video during this Friday update. This seems to be a shorter version of the video we’ve seen during live presentation at E3. For those of you that have not been following, here’s a recap of what this video actually shows. On planet Alderaan you get a chain of quests that is only doable by a group. The last quest in this chain requests of you to kill Bouris Ulgo, the usurper of the Alderaan throne. After taking care of some trash there is a final fight with Ulgo and his adds. There is a mechanic where while fighting waves of enemies you need to pick up rocket launchers standing around and destroy 4 shield generators that protect Ulgo himself. Upon doing so you finally get a chance to take down the naughty general and claim your reward. The curious thing is that it seems we will be seeing a lot of these group quest chains with special story backgrounds throughout the game, so in addition to the instance mechanic that brings people together we will have these world quest arcs to also provide content you can beat only with your friends.
On a completely unrelated note; how about that epic beard on Dallas Dickinson?
Click for full size image (1600x900)
Wednesday has two things in store, official screenshot released on Facebook and some community news by yours truly. The facebook screenshot is rather cool, because it has Jawas in it and everything with Jawas in it is cool in my book. These kinds of screenshots are what excites me so about this game. A possibility to have my character move among those Jawas and in that market.
Cantina Cast, SWTOR dedicated podcast, has made its dreams come true by upgrading their website with new looks. It is much better than the previous one and I really like their logo, but it could still use some web design work. However, I believe that everyone that invests their time in creating something for the community needs to be commended for what they are doing. It is, after all, more than what 99% fans are willing to do.
There is investing time in creating something for the SWTOR community and than there is Ask a Jedi. They have a new daily column on their site called “Blue Milk & Cereal“. The column discusses interesting questions and asks the community to participate through voting in a poll and leaving comments on the daily subject. So far they haven’t had a single poll I didn’t want to participate in and I left quite a few comments and thoughts as well. That is how engaging this new column is. Have I said that they post a new article every day! Let me tell you, that takes some time and dedication.
If you still need something to read, what better way to lighten up your day than read some SWTOR comics. Tor Wars has started publishing their webcomic called Fail Hunter and let me tell you, it’s a winner. They are up to page 6, but you can find all of them at this here link.
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It is that time of the month again, time for another Fan Friday. The honor of being featured as a spotlighted Fan Site goes to Ask A Jedi, a great site for all The Old Republic fans to visit regularly. If you don’t have them set in bookmarks and as part of your regular rotation you are at loss. They have some of the best columns out there and are very knowledgable and just nice guys overall. They get my full recommendation. You can read their interview for the official swtor.com site here.
As part of the fan friday we also get to enjoy some great fan art, new icons and some surveys. Due to all the recent E3 happening there was no time to do the regular Q&A session with the developers, but we do get a nice article about polishing the world of the Old Republic based on writer’s feedback. Ian Ryan, writer for SWTOR, gets a chance to tells us about the process of improving the overall feel of the worlds player will be able to visit in the game based on writer input. Turns out that writers are the first that finished their job. Based on their writing other teams started working. Once the first version is done, writers go back and give suggestions on how to improve the looks and feel of certain places to better reflect the storyline that they are trying to convey. There are some great before and after screenshots in this article so I wholeheartedly recommend you read it. Personally, I love the huge golden statue of a Hutt on the main promenade of Nar Shaddaa better than what they had before the writer’s input.
SWTOR managed to grab a few (well deserved) rewards from the press at this year’s E3. About this and overall impressions from the biggest gathering of gaming professionals you can read in the article on the official site.
