What can make a MMO great is its community. If this was the only standard TOR was judged for it would be pretty high up in the standings. The fan art we see on the forums and during regular Fan Fridays is absolutely amazing. We see a bunch of great community made fansites providing original content every day. SWTOR is probably the game with the highest number of podcasts, if nothing else, with the highest number of quality podcasts.

I wanted to share one more gem that comes from the community. It is a single page webcomic that the author was inspired to make because of the recently released “Fate of the Galaxy” trailer. That particular trailer features three seconds of a Sith warrior kicking innocent Jawa out of view… Author of the webcomic, Iconic from guild Sotor (Saints of the Old Republic), thinks this is what happened next:

GamesCom 2010 hands on Swtor booth being built

Although we are in the middle of packing for GamesCom and the excitement is almost palpable we wanted to bring you this week’s community news, at least the short version.

Star Wars Celebration V convention has ended and TOR was present with two panels. Darth Hater had the best coverage of the events and has exclusive interviews with writers Drew Karpyshyn (talked about the Jedi Knight) and Hall Hood (talked about the Smuggler) and concept artist Clint Young (talks about the artsy stuff).

Jedi Knight update was very exciting, especially with the cool trailer video that was released as well. Our friends at Jedi Archive Online did a very good dissection of the video, which you can find here.

Tor Syndicate, which we will be joining shortly, has their PodCast no.2 up and they yet again manage to provide loads of good information for anyone considering to make a SWTOR fansite or guild site. As if that wasn’t enough, they have an interview with ex SWTOR community manager Erick Adams. You can listen to “The Revenge of Darth Meow Meow” if you visit this page.

The sweetest thing as last. There is another SWTOR fan webcomic being created. Outer Rim stories just posted their first panel up and it is exactly the same idea I had for our comic when I heard about the details on space combat (including the Emo Darth Vader “Nooooooo”). Go, check them out here.

Although it is not technically a planet, it still is a celestial body we’ll be able to quest on. The largest moon of planet Hutta is also home for the smugglers of the Exchange. Put the Hutts and the Exchange on a moon full of casinos, bars and a black market located deep bellow the shining lights of the city’s exterior and you have a perfect place for a shady adventure. Nar Shaddaa is the next “planet” reveal we got during this Friday update. You can see its official HoloNet page here and you can view the planet gallery below.

This Friday also brought the continuation of the Blood of the Empire Comic.

Teneb Kel is confronted with a strange and frightening vision of the past, the future, and of his greatest enemy. As he lies broken in the Lenico wasteland, he must seek the truth about Exal Kressh and the Emperor’s goals within his mystical dream–or be utterly destroyed when he returns to reality.

Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now!

Yesterday was all about music on the official The Old Republic site. We first got a brand new developer’s dispatch video covering the music we’ll be hearing in the game and right after that we got to read the very first blog by Orion Kellogg, Audio Producer at LucasArts (awesome name btw). He begins his deb blog entry by quoting George Lucas no less and than he continues to talk about the voice acting, alien tongues, following in the footsteps of John Williams in regards to music and of course the creation of all the Star Wars sounds (in his own words: “the pew-pew of a blaster rifle”). You can read the full dev blog here.

To make yesterday the most awesome Friday update ever, Sean Dahlberg also announced the release of the seventh issue of Blood of the Empire™. Teneb Kel finds himself beaten and bloodied in the aftermath of the Lenico colony’s destruction. Trapped on a strange planet, he must draw upon the ancient Sith arts in order to ensure his survival–and to learn the secrets he needs to resume his vendetta against Exal Kressh. Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now!