Machinima released a video interview with The Old Republic’s Lead PvP Designer, Gabe Amatangelo. They discussed in detail some of the PvP mechanics and what they’ll bring. Here are some highlights:

• There will be experience awarded for PvP
• There will be token awards to get “identifiable” gear (so you get recognized as PvP player)
• There are different levels of PvP gear (level 15 and level 50)
• Alderaan warzone usually lasts between 5 and 15 minutes
• Next warzone (derelict starship one) will have Assault type game mechanics

At the point of talking about whether there will be “seasonal updates” of PvP gear (so that it gets upgraded once first set of PvP gear gets “outdated”), Gabe Amatangelo mentioned that: “Yes there will be multiple level 50 PvP sets“. This leads us to believe that Level 50 is the max level we will be seeing in The Old Republic.

You can watch the interview below and the “multiple level 50 PvP sets” bit is around 2:22:

(Thanks @Adaram on Twitter for catching this)

All Bioware Twitter accounts just broad-casted links to images containing bar codes that you can scan with your mobile phone. You can find them at http://yfrog.com/b737bp and http://yfrog.com/7bj78p . Codes, when scanned provide a string of binary numbers

1. 001101010011010100101110001110000011010000110101
2. 0010110100110001001100100011100000101110001101011011000001000110

I made a small PHP script that converts binary to decimal and than decimal to ASCII characters and this is what I got:

1. 55.845 (Google says its the atomic mass of iron)
2. -128.5°F

Some sites speculate that his means the announcement of Mass Effect 3 that will be set on Earth. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.

You can see the teaser trailer for the Bioware announcement bellow:

In what is looking like one of the most epic Friday updates ever the new PvP Warzone Trailer got officially released by swtor.com. You can watch it bellow along with the screenshot gallery.

Officially a neutral world, Alderaan has become the focus of Republic and Imperial political maneuvering. Even as conflict between Alderaan’s noble houses threatens to turn into civil war, Republic and Imperial forces engage in a secret battle that could decide the planet’s fate. High in the mountains, both sides fight for control of Alderaan’s massive planetary defense cannon—a weapon powerful enough to devastate an enemy’s fleet and ensure domination over the planet’s skies.

The battle on Alderaan is our first detailed look at organized team Player vs Player (PvP) in The Old Republic™. To secure the planetary defense cannon, players must deplete the enemy transport ship’s shields, driving their forces to retreat or be annihilated. Players must work together to control the defense system’s artillery units if they are to protect their fleet and emerge victorious.

One of the more interesting classes of the Sith Empire got some Friday Update love yesterday. Imperial Agent is a mix of stealth, healing and high DPS, which is not something you see often in a class. The agent can specialize to be an Operative for close range combat/healing option or a Sniper for all you “assassination from stealth” type of players. Furthermore we found out that the starship you will be flying as the agent is X-70B Phantom-Class Prototype (very slick looking). Your “trusted” companion will be the petite, yet very tantalizing Kaliyo Djannis. Just to make this information-full Friday update even more rich we are treated with the Holonet page about the Chiss race that is apparently a natural pick for Imperial Agent players.

This Friday update also brings us back on track with information rich updates that the SWTOR community is longing for and we hope this trend continues. Enjoy the Imperial Agent Class Trailer:

Despite what was expected, this Friday update was not the Smuggler trailer video released earlier yesterday by Machinima.com. Instead we got a huge update containing a great “Designing the Light Side” Developer Dispatch video and a huge Fan Friday article containing a huge amount of fan created content.

The video is full of information on what decisions were made during the design process of the Jedi classes. We find out that you can choose to be a heroic type of Jedi like Luke or darker, more avenging Jedi like Anakin. There is a bunch of video footage of Tython (still one of the most serene environments I’ve seen in any game so far) along with discussion on why choosing earth tones for Jedi and “robed monk” look. Jedi Knight is all about action and adventure. Consular’s story will be more about diplomacy and you will be able to play a sneaky (stealth) role, or a more supportive (healing) role or even do some force damage (magic dps). The problem I have with each of these videos is that every time they release a new one I have to rethink what class I’m going to play as my main. I just have a need to live through all these stories and not miss out and that is going to be hard with 8 classes available. Anyone with a cloning machine wanna help me out? You can find the official video page here or just watch it below.

Along with the Developer Dispatch article we were also presented with this month’s Fan Friday. I recommend everyone visits the official news post, because it has loads of great Fan made art along with some great looking capital ship concept art presented in another Developer Corner. New wallpapers and official forum avatars are presented as well.

Guys at Machinima.com just released a Smuggler class trailer video as part of their new show called Machinima Realm. They got the privilege to release this video a day ahead of everyone else, which probably means that this video was going to be this Friday’s update. The question is: now that the Friday update has been released on a Thursday, what news will I post tomorrow? Despite my editorial troubles, you should enjoy the video. the video shows some smuggler gameplay and I think first shots of how stealth will work and what it will look like. Oh, and there’s a Wookie involved (do I smell a companion character for our Han Solo prototype?). There is a nice dissection of the video over at JediArchiveOnline.com for all you detail loving fans out there. One more thing before the video, there seems to be no “kick in the groin” action in the smuggler trailer, which kind of sucks. We all know its the best move by a video game character, like, EVAR!!!!1one11eleven!

Smuggler trailer leaked

The biggest event for The Old Republic fans was SWTOR panel. We got loads of new media and information and AskAJedi.com was there to cover the whole event and provide us with a video showing all the great stuff revealed. Here are some of the things you can see in the videos below:

• Jedi gameplay and backstory on Tython (Part 2 video)
• Awesome footage of your Jedi character’s lightsaber being created (reminiscent of the deleted scene shown at this year’s Celebration V) (Part 2 video)
• More Republic group gameplay and dialogue footage (Part 2 video)
• Empire group gameplay and dialogue (Part 3 video)
• Companions seen in group action (Part 3 video)
• PvP(vE)? There is some Empire group footage that ends with Empire group meeting up with Republic group after some PvE content (Part 3 video)
• Live multiplayer demo with members of the SWTOR fan site community controlling the characters. Darth Hater, TOROCast and LordHammer representing Guild Umbra and TORSyndicate were the ones involved (Part 3 video)

I would like to point you to Ask A Jedi’s article on the whole thing here. They deserve a visit.

Within the next few hours Penny Arcade Expo, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the North America is about to begin. It is a very big convention for all the Star Wars: The Old Republic fans because, traditionally, it is the place where big reveals happen. Last year we got some gameplay footage and all attendees of the SWTOR panel got a copy of Knights of the Old Republic game. This year we’ll be having the first hands on event in the North America and all the PAX visitors will get what is called the SWTOR virus that can only be cured by more “gameplaytimis”. Some gamers will be lucky enough to get the elusive “betainvitis”, but for all of you out there that lack any of these rare and expensive medicine, we bring you the last of our gameplay videos we shot at this year’s GamesCom. This is the longest video we have and it features gameplay from most of the classes. You can see some cool Inquisitor action where he one shots some enemies with force lightning (at around 1:50). Present are also cutscenes and some more combat.

We’ll continue to monitor all the information pouring in from PAX and we’ll keep you updated with the most important news and footage. For now I would like to draw your attention to Jedi Archive Online, that have their man Lordhammer, from Guild Umbra, on the spot. They have the first images from PAX available here. Also covering the event are Darth Hater and ToroCast.

GamesCom 2010 ended over the weekend and I can’t say that I won’t miss it. You get drawn in into the whole convention madness. Free swag, people doing crazy cosplay, meeting Darth Vader in person and games, games, games everywhere. If you are a gamer in heart (like me) you surely would appreciate the atmosphere. To share some of the atmosphere of the show we present you with a video of the crowds at the SWTOR booth (that is the place we hung out the most after all) and a gallery of images. We hope you enjoy them.