Gamer Monkey » The Old Republic

BioWare finally sends apology for email blunder

Lifebane — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:28:00 +0000

In an effort to calm the angry masses of The Old republic fans out there in internet land, BioWare FINALLY got around to emailing their list of members again to retract the blunder that was made 2 days prior. It is sad to see that a company trying to hype their title up as much as BioWare has that they would have taken 2 days to send out a formal response to everyone who had received the previous emails which caused so much outrage 2 days ago. Below you can find the content of that retraction/explanation email:

“On September 29th, you received two emails regarding the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Game Testing Program. These emails were sent to you by mistake. This was due to an internal error and not the result of hacking or malware. Please be assured that no personal information was compromised. We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Please note that receipt of these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game at a later date.

Between now and launch, we will be conducting additional large scale Beta Testing Weekends where we will be inviting more people than ever before. Additionally we will be releasing even more information about the game as we gear up for launch in December. If you haven’t signed up for game testing yet, you can still do so at www.swtor.com/tester.

Thank you for your understanding,The Star Wars: The Old Republic team.”

While it may seem utterly impossible to allow everyone access who was impacted into the beta it sure as heck would be nice to see some type of bone thrown at them for the annoying series of events surrounding this blunder and the lackluster response to it. If not a beta invite then perhaps an in game unique title for every player affected, “the Sucker” or “the Psyched” perhaps?

BioWare discovers how to anger the fans of The Old Republic!

Lifebane — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:02:54 +0000

In an unexpected and very annoying move, BioWare accidentally found the perfect way to anger their fan base for their upcoming MMORPG, The Old Republic. It seems that some clumsy intern or employee sent out a pair of emails over the past 12 hours that made many people who are anxiously waiting to get into the beta for this MMORPG believe that they had in fact made it in yet misplaced the invitation.

Here is the text from the first email received from BioWare (pretty pictures removed of course):

“Don’t Let The Adventure End Yet!

Now that you’ve had a chance to experience your own Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ saga, make sure you don’t miss out when the game launches. Pre-order* for Early Game Access and lock in your copy today.”

Based on the above email you would obviously think that you were in the beta but somehow perhaps misplaced the invitation since you had not in fact been playing the beta at all. Many people began frantically digging through their spam and deleted item folders desperately seeking that elusive beta invitation that went missing. Of course their efforts met with frustration but just when they thought that this was all just a mistake another email popped in shortly after the first one that stated the following:

“Tell Us What You Think
We hope you are enjoying participating in the Game Testing Program and want to thank you for helping shape the most anticipated MMO to date.

We’ve posted a fun short survey for game testers, and the results have been really interesting so far. Answer a few questions and see what your fellow testers are thinking. After the survey, hit the forums to talk about your experience or get gameplay tips.”

“Bam! This has to be confirmation that I am in fact in the beta, so back to hunting for that elusive invitation email again!” Well so people thought anyway. People started to compare notes and share their frustrations which inevitably led to a mass attack of gripes by disillusioned players on the Official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. The enraged masses were so numerous that it literally took down the official forums for a time. The forums eventually cam back up and their was an official statement made by BioWare confirming the tragic mistake:

“Earlier today, two e-mails were sent to members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. These e-mails were sent to a larger group than intended, and have caused some confusion in the community. We can confirm that these e-mails were from EA and BioWare and apologize for any confusion they have caused. Please note that receiving these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game. Thank you all for your understanding!”

Gee whiz! Many thanks for getting a million fans excited about the beta but then smashing their little digital dreams. Uncool to say the least folks. Not even a retraction style email for the folks who received the original two emails has been sent out yet which is poof form since not everyone follows the forums/fansites.

The Old Republic will release with Achievement system

Lifebane — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:43:21 +0000

Daniel Erickson confirmed the release of The Old Republic with a first stage achievement system. They are taking a different tactic than some other MMO Developers in that they will release the achievement system in phases it seems. The first one will be for big heroic events/accomplishments. Later they will add the more traditional danced naked in the moonlight or whatever type of meaningless yet quirky achievements common in other titles right now. This is a summary from the folks over at Darth Hater:

“Achievements have made ship in fact. They’re not going to be the achievements, the crazy achievements that you have to place everywhere, that are like, “Hey if you drink 6 beers and fart in a cantina,” those are not going the achievements to go in. Version 1 of the achievement system which go in, which is actually doing big, heroic stuff, because there’s a ton of great optional content in The Old Republic, like, “Hey, I went to every world and kicked the world boss’s a$$.” Those kinds of achievements. That’s going to be the level one system. People need reasons to go back to planets and run around and do that other stuff, so that will come second. The first system is, “Hey, here’s my bragging rights, here’s the bad ass stuff I did in-game.”

The Old Republic Release Date Finally Announced!

Lifebane — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:29:01 +0000

It if official folks… We have a release date for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic! The release date is December 20, 2011! Yes folks, this year, not pushed back to 2012 as many feared. Here is a quote from the announcement: “This is no Jedi mind trick. The most heavily anticipated MMO to date will launch on 12.20.2011.”

“The most heavily anticipated MMO” sounds a tad cocky though but whatever. The game definitely has a following so believe the hype. So prepare yourselves for some Xmas stocking stuffers and gifting for your gamer buddies, give the gift of The Old Republic, well if you don’t mind spending $ 59.99 for your buddy to get him a copy of The Old republic.

Below is the official announcement on their site:

BioWare and LucasArts are pleased to announce that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will launch on December 20, 2011 in North America and on December 22, 2011 in the European Launch Territories! The announcement was first made by BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk during their keynote address at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, England. Speaking to a packed room of press and fans alike, Dr. Muzyka acknowledged the weight of the moment and the patience of the fans.

“This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release.”

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will come with 30 days of subscription time, after which you have the option to continue playing with one of the following monthly subscription fees:

1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

Those who have pre-ordered the game and entered their pre-order code on StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com are eligible for Early Game Access. If you haven’t yet reserved your copy of the game, be sure to visit our Pre-Order page and secure your place in the Old Republic now!

We want to thank you for your continued passion, dedication and support. Though one part of this incredible journey is coming to an end, we are confident that you all share our excitement for this new beginning. Be sure to check back to StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com as well as our Twitter and Facebook pages for all the latest news and updates on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Allowable Player Races by Class in The Old Republic

Lifebane — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:07:13 +0000

Below is a grid showing the possible race and class combinations for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some of them seem like obvious restrictions, hrmm… Sith Purebloods can only be Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitors. imagine that. There may of course be additional races and classes added at a later time but for the moment this is the possible combinations based on the rumor mill.

	Allowable Player Character Races by Class
	Human	Cyborg	Rattaki	Chiss	Mirialan	Two-Lek	Zabrak	Sith Pureblood	Miraluka
Republic Trooper	x	x			x		x
Jedi Knight	x				x	x	x		x
Jedi Consular	x				x	x	x		x
Smuggler	x	x			x	x	x
Imperial Agent	x	x	x	x			x
Sith Warrior	x	x					x	x
Sith Inquisitor	x		x			x	x	x
Bounty Hunter	x	x	x	x			x

The Old Republic: Same Gender Romance will be included Post-Release

Lifebane — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:07:04 +0000

As you may recall, Gamermonkey.com reported on this topic back in late August. At the time BioWare had come under heavy fire/criticism for announcing that same-gender relationships were not going to be allowed between players and their npc companions in the upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. We were even quoted on the forums for posting about the topic! Go Gamermonkey! On to the point, much drama surrounded BioWare’s community manager, Sean Dahlberg, when he openly stated on the official forums that these terms (Gay and Lesbian) do not exist in Star Wars and then he closed the thread. This was further confirmed by producer Cory Butler who stated that same-sex relationships won’t be an available option to players.

Ongoing Community pressure and discontent seems to have finally won the day though. An official forum post confirmed that a post-release update will allow companions to conduct same-gender romances. Here is the official statement:

Official statement follows:

Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

New Smuggler Video released for The Old Republic!

Lifebane — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:06:54 +0000

The good folks over at BioWare released a new game play trailer for the Smuggler Class which shows some aspects of progression up both he Scoundrel and the Gunslinger trees. The class looks fairly fun and my hopes are that we will see many folks playing something other than a JEDI or a SITH! But what are the odds on that.. oh I know, I know.. “never tell you the odds”

enjoy the video!

The Old Republic still aiming to launch in 2011

Lifebane — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:55:13 +0000

Eric Brown, CFO of EA, spoke at the Citi 2011 Tech conference and based on his speech it was made known that although there is no official launch date that has been given publicly, they do in fact have a date set internally for Q4 of this year. This is vague to say the least but at least it initially gives us the hope that the game will not be pushed back to 2012. But the one-two punch came a bit later when he also stated that the release date may in fact slip into 2012 since “they are not done until they are done”.

This fits in with previous statements made by EA where they made it clear that the release date will be impacted by the type and nature of feedback they receive from the beta testers that are currently testing the game out. Recall that they recently started up their beta weekend period so more players are getting their first glimpses at the game in its current state.

No new beta weekend planned this week for The Old Republic

Lifebane — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:02:38 +0000

BioWare confirmed that there may be additional beta test weekends in September but that will definitely not be happening this coming weekend (Sep 10-11). With the upcoming client changes that will cause all current testers to re-download the 27 gig game client again it is understandable why the folks at BioWare would be hesitant to let more folks in at this point.

Here’s to hoping that I’ll be joining you all soon in testing out this MMORPG, IF I ever get my invite that is Read below for the original announcement made by BioWare’s Stephen Reid.

Hello all,

There is no Beta Testing Weekend scheduled for this weekend. There may be further Beta Testing Weekends during September, but we’re not going to guarantee it. The weekend that just finished was really our first dry run of Beta Testing Weekends as a whole, and we have plenty of data to crunch, and decisions to make before we start things up again.

Further to that, as Chris Collins explained in another thread, we are about to roll out a major new build for The Old Republic. That build won’t be ready for this weekend. Just as we did not feel it was a good decision to ask potential EU testers to download our client only to have to download it again, the same applies for this weekend.

That does not mean, however, that as soon as our new build is available we’ll be rolling out a Beta Testing Weekend immediately. As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes.

We rolled out this previous weekend as a relatively small scale event; from now we will do bigger and bigger events, but that doesn’t mean it happens every weekend. When we do resume, we’ll be inviting many more people in.

While many of you are excited and anxious to know what’s happening regarding Testing Weekends, I want to point out that a lot of posts on the subject with a lack of corresponding posts from us does not mean that we’re not listening, or not aware of your interest. It shows your interest in the topic, which is understandably high, but we will not always be able to react instantaneously.

In the past couple of days we’ve been preparing a comprehensive FAQ regarding Game Testing Weekends as a whole, along with some details about the weekend that just happened. We’ll post that tomorrow – in all languages, as we know the subject is of interest to everyone.

BioWare says Europe will wait to test The Old Republic

Lifebane — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:42:43 +0000

Chris Collins the European Community Manager for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, delivered some less than joyous news today regarding the folks over in Europe hoping to test out The Old Republic now that the beta test weekends have begun and as of yet no beta test invites have been received by European players.

Apparently the bigwigs over at the BioWare offices made the decision to postpone the game testing invites for EU players for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, there is a big new update to the game is coming soon that will force ALL current beta players to download the ENTIRE game client all over again and oh yes, wipe of all current beta characters… OUCH. In case you were not yet aware folks, the current client download is around 27GB in size! If every US beta player and then another stack of EU beta testers were to all want to download that mega client at the same time, well suffice it to say BioWare’s servers would likely go BOOM or at the very least crawl along.

Secondly, this new game client build will bring about the first localized versions of Star Wars: The Old Republic… AKA those of you that speak French and German will have the chance to play the game in those languages!

Please keep in mind that there was every intention previously to send out EU invites for the beta weekend but due to system problems that did not happen as planned. Once it was resolved they found themselves in the current predicament so made the decision to wait. It is unfun to be certain but understandable really.

The final word though is that the batch beta invites will happen, you’ll just have to wait a little longer. And of course, if you missed this game test weekend, there will be more around the corner so hope is not lost.

BioWare working damage control on Same Gender Relationship

Lifebane — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:33:51 +0000

It seems that what was a minor issue previously in BioWare’s eyes has blown into a big stink at this point. The debate has gotten quite heated and players are lining up on both sides of the fence regarding this topic. Will Maddock, BioWare’s Community Representative for The Old Republic, closed this lengthy thread with the following comments:

“Hello all,

As this thread has reached 1000 posts, we are going to restart it.

You can find the new version here

Please do take a moment to review the rules and guidelines as outlined in the opening post of the thread.

Thank you”

The current poll attached to that new post currently stands at:

I would pursue an opposite gender romance arc 11     18.97%
I would pursue a same gender romance arc 21 36.21%
I would pursue all romance arcs                              22     37.93%
I would not pursue any romance arcs                  4    6.90%

Seeing as how 74% of the counted votes are interested in same-gender romance in-game it would seem that BioWare has plenty reason to take this matter far more seriously than before.

It is an interesting topic to follow for certain since it will in all likelihood influence future game development.

TOR beta weekends start September 2nd!

Lifebane — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:40:44 +0000

Very much-anticipated news from the folks over at BioWare has finally arrived! Starting September 2nd, Star Wars: The Old Republic will begin its beta test weekends for a select few who previously registered on the official game site. This exciting news was announced at PAX Prime.

For those of you who did not already pre-order and expect to not be allowed to “play in all the reindeer games” BioWare has made it clear that even those who did not already pre-order will have an equal chance at being chosen to participate.

Good luck folks and may the Beta Force be with you…