Category Archives: community

What’s Keeping me Busy in SWTOR…or Why This Blog Doesn’t Get Updated as Much as I’d Like

24 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in administrivia, commentary, community

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My buddy Steve brought it to my attention that I just haven’t been updating the blog as frequently as I used to. And lest that perception be expressing itself to folks as a lack of interest in the game, I thought it would be a good time to catch folks up on what’s been keeping me busy SWTOR-wise, both in and out of game.

Many Alts, Handle it!

First and foremost, getting all of my alts transferred to their new servers then stalking tracking down their guilds and getting into the groove of the new server (including looking around for some new guilds for some of my alts) has taken more time than I would have expected. For those of you keeping track at home, here’s what my alt life looks like, in terms of guilds:

  • Canderous Ordo (PVE)
    • No Sleep Till Kessel a.k.a. #NSTK (Republic)
    • Nonstop Disco Jetpack (Imperial NSTK guild)
    • Ewok Dance Studio (alt guild for wee baby Republic toons w/@psynister, @fynralyl, and @the_wrenz)
  • Ebon Hawk (RP)
    • Republic Mercy Corps (Republic)
    • unguilded Imperial side and level 47 marauder needs a new home, PST!
  • The Bastion (PVP)

If you are in need of a guild on any of the above servers, follow the links and check ’em out. You’ll see that I haven’t dealt with my fourth and final server yet. Not sure if my level 17 sorcerer is going to be moved along or not at this point. It’s a little overwhelming already dealing with the above three active servers to be frank.

Same Story, Different Station

You are hopefully aware by now that this is not the only place to hear me ramble on about Star Wars: the Old Republic, yes? In addition to this blog, I also share through a number of other social channels:

But Wait, There’s More!

Then there’s a fun little SWTOR podcast you may have heard about — TOR Reporter. We record every Thursday night at 7:30 Pacific, with a live audience in our chat room. Prepping for the podcast is probably a prime contributor to my not blogging as often. Plus, I don’t want to steal the thunder from the podcast by preemptively publishing thoughts I’m planning to share there.

I hope to get the balance right on this in the future, and do a little more cross-pollination of topics from the podcast fleshed out in a little more detail here as well so that those of you who prefer your SWTOR news in text don’t miss out. I have to admit that recording the podcast is one of the highlights in my week each week– getting to chat about a game I love with other folks who feel the same way. It gives me a warm happy feeling, much like this blog…

So what’s been keeping you busy in and out of game as of late?

Guess What? We’re ALL Newbs in SWTOR!

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in community, silly

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The other day, a guildie shared in gchat that his Flashpoint had just fallen apart, after a wipe, with the departing members calling him a newb and dropping group.

I have to tell you, this provoked an actual laugh out loud IRL moment for me.

“ZOMG you SUCK Newb! Peace out!” …says one 3 or 4 week old character to the other.

Really? Really???

Oh, I know, some folks are such old pros because they were in BETA since wave 1 of BETA. And all us new players are such bads. Because we only started during early game access. Or worse yet, at launch. What a bunch of newbs!

GET OVER YOURSELF, NERD!

BETA is not live game. Live game is the real deal with the final talents and the final class tweaks and a whole slew of new folks playing the game for the fun of it. Some of these folks were World of Warcraft players. Some play(ed) other MMOs. But many are just huge Star Wars fans stepping into their first MMORPG and learning the ropes.

But the fact remains, mister elitist player, we’re ALL newbs, including you because it is a new game! So get over yourself. Wipes will happen as folks learn content that is new to them. It will be some time before everyone is over geared and PUGS are able to faceroll content.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the newness of the game.

Highlights from Stephen Reid’s reddit chat

29 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in community, SWTOR team interviews

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In case you weren’t already aware that Stephen Reid, SWTOR’s Senior Community Manager, has the patience of a Saint, you should see how many questions he fielded yesterday in his reddit chat. 954 comments –amazing!

Here were some of the tidbits I found to be most interesting.

On guild banks and guild housing…

Guild banks and guild ‘housing’ (of some type; ships are most popular as people know) are both on the list for future development. As always it’s a question of priorities and so on, but they’re definitely discussed. I will say that guild banks are higher priority.

Guild banks… pretty soon, but my definition of soon is probably different from yours. I’ll say before E3 or PAX East, that seems fair.

On the guild housing/ship thing, I’ve had this conversation a few times with folk in person – the thing is the basic idea seems simple, but the actual reality of doing it can be hugely complex.

For example – and this is entirely me, personally, making stuff up: it’s possible guild capital ships could be just open spaces for people to hang out in. Cool, but likely ‘not enough’ for many people. So then you add on, say, the ability to customize that space. Then maybe you want to move those ships around – maybe put them in orbit over planets, or go fight with other guild capital ships. Woah, did we just add a space combat game? You can see how it easily gets bigger.

The short version: something like guild capital ships sounds super cool and the development team likes the idea. There’s a big distance between ‘likes the idea’ and ‘is fully developed and in the game’.

On the lack of neutral gear…

As I understand it neutral gear was harder to implement than first thought, and was unfortunately moved out of the launch window. It’s not ‘dead’, and James Ohlen brings it up as something he’s a fan of quite often, so.. chances are pretty good it’ll make it in someday.

On the constant pleas for UI customization…

UI customization is coming for sure. 🙂

On the requests for Advance Class Respec’ing…

Currently AC respeccing is not ‘on the table’ – ie, it’s not seen as being a feature we’ll be adding in soon. It’s back at the philosophical discussion stage, AFAIK.

Even if you’d need to reroll, having been through the story once (and I’ve been through Ord Mantell a few times myself!) you’ll go through a lot faster. Experiment with different moral choices, I enjoy it myself. 🙂

For the whole 900+ comments, read the thread on reddit.