The gathering of SWTOR fansites in Bioware’s offices in Austin is in progress. 13 of the most prominent sites have been invited to spend time with the developers “in their natural habitat”. We are not sure what is in store during the visit, but we wanted to point out the most exciting news that come out of the event. First off the girls from Corellian Run Radio, Kathy and Roxanne, have had some solo time with Lord Malgus:
Request of the week via twitter: @Astrates sent: @dawnsrose Games as art?
What is art? (From Wikipedia): Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, whereas disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.[1]
So, by that definition I think games can truly be art, and even more so in this day and age where players seem to be craving more and more of an escape from the real world. A game will include almost every part of the modes of expression.
One of my favorite articles to write is about the addition to the staff here at Swtor-Life. Today I have the pleasure of bringing you our latest columnist Rosie! Rosie has an interesting take on the MMO gaming world and will bring a female perspective to the crew here.
She has come up with a creative idea for a weekly column that takes topics from the community and allows her to write off the cuff about the issues you the community find interesting.
Be sure to submit her your ideas for a swtor related article by using the contact us link with the subject of “Rosie article idea” and you might just get an article written on a topic you requested!
Now lets hear a bit from Rosie about herself,
When the Pre-Launch Guild Program was announced by Bioware it caused a largely positive response in the community. Bioware provided basic tools for people to organize themselves into guilds so when the game releases you are starting the adventure together with your friends. With tens of thousands of guilds being made within the first months it is clear that the community welcomed the Program with open hands. This great mass of guilds makes it kind of hard to find the right one though. With the launch getting closer and the Guild Program in its third and final phase I thought it would be a good idea to try and present a few prominent guilds so you might find a guild you could call your home. The honor of being the first guild to be presented on SWTOR Life is a guild from my own country. I thought it would be interesting to share a story about what it’s like to create a guild and be in the Red Zone country (countries that are not in the initial launch list) and still manage to gather a fair number of members. Here’s the Guild Story of Balkan Force as told by its founders Branislav and Bojan.
Click here to read the interview with Balkan Force founders
According to Best Buy’s Gamer Magazine, “A Flashpoint mission will be available at level 10, 16, and then every four levels up to level 48, with two Flashpoints awarded at level 50.”
Is that too many? Too few? Just right? Are they too close together? Too far apart? Remember, once players reach Level 50, they can go back to each Flashpoint and do a Level 50 version of that Flashpoint according to the most recent information from BioWare. Let us know what you think.
The PDF of the swtor Article from Best Buy’s Gamer Magazine is located here.
Future Imperial Agents, your prayers have been heard. Bioware finally released the Character Progression video for this class. We can see different skills and armor for different Advanced classes the Agent can pick (Operative or Sniper). There are some blades being pushed into people’s chest. Some orbital bombardment devastation is present. Resurrection of companions was not left out either and at the very end – I will just say “BOOM, headshot” and all you Counter Strike veterans will know. One thing about this video that really “rocked my world” was the music. It is so epic it instantly reminded me of the most epic scenes form the movie Matrix. Enjoy the video below.
Oh yeah, they’ve also put up two chapters from the upcoming TOR novel “Revan”.
Comments Off on Boom! Headshot! Imperial Agent Video
Thanks to Zosha, member of the swtor.com official forums, we might now have the maximum length of early access for the game. Everyone that pre-ordered the game will get early access to the game, prior to official December 20th launch date. Fans have been wondering about how much of a head start will they actually have. Zosha managed to spot in the small print of the US pre-order page that it clearly states that “EARLY GAME ACCESS MAY BE UP TO 5 DAYS”. Until this is officially confirmed (and we are guessing it might get announced even today) treat this as a rumor.
((The RP XP with MJ #11))
The Zabrak Padawan Force-pushed aside the door and entered the dank back room of the warehouse, his lightsaber beam illuminating the space with a soft blue glow.
A chair sat in the middle of the room, torn bonds around its legs and hanging off the back. The crates and boxes stacked around the room all stared out with the crescent-shaped Czerka logo. There were no signs of anyone else nearby, though Tarik didn’t think to reach out with the Force to take a closer look. Instead, he found himself attracted to small dark speckles on the floor near the chair.
He crouched and reached down, smearing a finger across the spots before raising it to his nose and sniffing. Blood.
Then something heavy landed hard on his back and flattened him against the warehouse floor. His lightsaber extinguished and clattered off between two large boxes.
As suddenly as the weight hit him, it was gone. Tarik heard shuffling footsteps and looked up in time to see an orange blur rush toward his lightsaber. He reached out and Force-pulled it into his hand before getting to his feet.
“Ah! Damn!”
He recognized the woman’s voice immediately, but ignited the lightsaber to see her. “Yulel?”
“Who did you expect, Tar? Man, Kendris really has to work on your training. I can’t believe you didn’t sense me up there.” The Twi’lek nodded to a stack of crates next to the door, on top of which she had been waiting while the bombardment leveled half the quarter outside.
Tarik stretched out a hand toward the room controls and turned on the lights. Then he switched off his lightsaber. “You ok, ‘Lel?” he asked in a soft voice.
The Twi’lek pouted and tilted her head as she saw him in the light. “You’re hurt.” She stepped up to him and gently reached up to touch one of the scarred horns on his head. “Were you caught in the bombardment?”
Tarik swallowed and nodded, unable to speak as his heart thudded painfully to match each bruise and cut on the Twi’lek girl. He reached out slowly and touched her cheek, then managed, “I’m not so bad off, but… but you.”
“Meh,” Yulel smiled. “I pretended to be in pain through most of it. Narcos do wonders for pain blocking.” She turned away and moved to the crates on one side of the room, checking the numbers and manifests attached to each one.
The pain in the young Padawan’s voice was personal. “You’re not still on the Narcos, are you? You promised me you’d get off that poison.”
“Here it is!” Yulel ignored him and crouched before a footlocker-sized box on the floor. “One-one-three-eight.”
“Yulel.”
“Tarik.” She ignored him and produced a small folding tool from her belt. She tapped at the keypad on the box as she waved the tool in front of the box latch.
Tarik watched her for awhile before stepping closer and crouching next to her. Overcome with curiosity, he decided to let the conversation about Yulel’s drug addiction wait for another time. “What are you doing?”
“Picking a lock. What does it look like?”
“Why?”
“Because the stupid bounty hunter and ignorant Chiss who held me here were looking for this. It was under their nose the whole time.”
Tarik glanced back at the chair just two meters away. “Why didn’t you tell them so they’d stop torturing you?”
Yulel stopped and looked at him. “Because it was funny.” She offered a crooked smile before turning her attention back to the box. It opened with a click and a snap.
Tarik reared back a little surprised. “How’d you manage that?”
“I used to be a locksmith for Czerka before I got into spice running.”
Though it does not show up too often in the extended universe, Tython is one of the most important locations in all of Star Wars. The reason for this is simple. Tython is the planet where the Jedi Order was first founded and where the natures of the Light and Dark side of the force were first explored. From this planet emerged the beginnings of what can be considered the most influential and powerful group to exist in the known universe. Yet despite this, Tython has not been explored in great detail by the various lore weavers who have built the Star Wars universe into what it is. Starting planet of both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular, it has had less information revealed about it than any of the other Origin Worlds. Today we are going to dive into what info is out there in the final installment of our four part series featuring the Origin Worlds in The Old Republic. Continue Reading »
Server Types Announced For SWTOR
Continuing in the trend of basking us in SWTOR knowledge on a day that’s not even a Friday, Bioware’s David Bass made an announcement of the server types in Star Wars The Old Republic MMO!
This is information I have been wanting to hear for quite some time. To allow me to plan ahead is always something I am thankful for and with this knowledge at least we can be ready for which server type we want to choose at launch. This information also coincides nicely for guilds who just a hour ago found out the news that guild phase 3 was beginning.
Be sure to read the article in full and comment on the SWTOR.com official forums here.
Here is what was posted by David, choose your server armed with this information!
