SWTOR Beta Screenshot of the day: End of Beta

Saying goodbye to my Beta toon is not easy; I've spent hundreds of hours with this guy ingame and editing videos looking at him and although I'm not finished with videos that I have shot with him, it's still sad saying goodbye. SWTORFACE the Jedi Consular will live on and continue to teach 1000's of Jedi as they stumble through the world that is SWTOR! Look out for him over the next 10 days in some new and helpful videos.

Big Profit Expectations for The Old Republic

As December has gotten underway, we’ve already been lucky enough to enjoy a few beta testing sessions ahead of The Old Republic’s highly anticipated release on the 20th. With a number of positive reviews in thus far, there has still been a bit of objectivity levied from a few, including Activision’s president Bobby Kotick, who is said to believe that Electronic Arts won’t benefit much from the holiday release. This assessment has little basis on the game play and selling numbers that are expected, but it’s still a bit misguided. 

Just this past week, Eurogamer was lucky enough to speak with a few major industry analysts who see strong profits on the horizon for both LucasArts and Electronic Arts. One of the analysts spoke of an expected $300 million in revenue generation, which would result in an excellent take home for both Star Wars the Old Republic developers. 

Because Electronic Arts will be taking home about 30 percent of the total revenue for The Old Republic, they would stand to take in nearly $80 million if numbers came anywhere close to what some analysts are predicting, which would surely be a very good achievement. Subscriber totals are expected to be the driving force behind the possible revenue for both developers.

Subscriber estimates are ranging anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million expected in the early months of 2012. If The Old Republic can garner in subscribers anywhere near 3 million in total, the end revenue could possibly reach the height of $500 million, which would be outstanding for both LucasArts and Electronic Arts.

Early doubt, especially that from Bobby Kotick has been totally based off the revenue and license share levels between Electronic Arts and LucasArts. Game play and the early reviews have been positive for the most part, especially after strong responses to the game play and storyline following the initial beta testing sessions, which saw over one million hours logged by hundreds of thousands of gamers.

With the strong initial reviews in hand, expectations have grown with the fact that the game will be released during the core of the holiday gift buying season. Many families are choosing to take advantage of this timing by pre ordering the game, instead of waiting to purchase it after the wide release on December 20.

There is only a minor risk of failure expected for The Old Republic, especially after the beta testing sessions throughout the month of November. Developers have set goals for The Old Republic to compete in long term users and sales with other MMO mainstays like World of Warcraft. Even though this level of success still remains questionable, the game looks to have a strong combination of inviting factors. If it is able to appeal to both casual gamers and the dedicated Star Wars fans, expect the franchise to assert itself as an MMO powerhouse in 2012 and beyond.

By : Justin Taylor

Update To Upgrading Armor And Mods In SWTOR Video

Using the 12/1/11 patch this is a guide that shows the difference between weapons of different levels and what you can do with upgrading the mods in weapons. We take a close look at the stat changes on multiple lightsabers, and show you the raw hard facts. This guide is designed to help you understand the weapon upgrade system in greater detail. The weapon upgrade is done by a level 49/50 Jedi. Footage was taken from SWTOR Beta and is subject to change.

8 Year Star Wars Galaxies Veteran Gets His Feet Wet in SWTOR (Finally)

In June of 2003 I began playing Star Wars Galaxies. Having been fascinated by the Star Wars Universe since I was a child, and being a very avid console game player, I had played just about every Star Wars console game title released to that point. PC games were still quite new to me however, as most of my gaming had been done on the Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sony Playstation. The thought of playing an online game where I would interact with others was very new and exciting to me.

At the recommendation of a friend, I decided to give Star Wars Galaxies a try. Being a console gamer, I had no idea Star Wars Galaxies was even in development, let alone set to be released soon. I had played games like StarCraft and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, but this was my very first experience in the MMORPG world, and the first game that actually had a monthly subscription attached. It was Star Wars, I simply had to be there I told myself. To my delight, I was completely amazed with the game itself and seeing hundreds of other players in just one area, moving about like ants, doing their missions, forming massive battles. I was very impressed. I spent countless hours and endured alot of sleepless nights attempting to unlock my Jedi character slot, which I finally accomplished on Mother's Day of 2004.


Throughout it's very checkered history due to unwanted changes in the combat system, a massive player exodus when World of Warcraft was released, the shutdown of SOE services for nearly two weeks due to intrusion by hackers back in April of 2011, and countless game updates attempting to restore the game to it's former glory, I had maintained 5 accounts until the very end. September 15th, 2011 was the last day subscriptions to the game were accepted.

I cannot even begin to list all the people I met during that time from all over the globe. I even learned that one of my cousins in Australia had been playing it for years as well. The game was simply amazing. I had put much time and effort into my characters I had created, which equaled thirteen in total in the end.

June 24th, 2011 will be forever remembered as one of the most depressing and disappointing days of my life. Sony Online Entertainment released a statement that all Star Wars Galaxies services would be closing down on December 15th, 2011. I was simply heartbroken. My characters had become an extension of myself. I knew of Star Wars the Old Republic long before the shutdown was announced, but I simply did not want to abandon the work I had done in Star Wars Galaxies, even though the writing appeared to be on the wall already when SOE has laid off their entire Denver Colorado office staff on March 31st, 2011.

I resisted. I became one of the very vocal players who voiced their unhappiness with the decision to shut down SWG. I posted on the SWG forums, Lucasarts forums, SOE's Facebook pages, and even helped circulate a petition that was created by another player in an attempt to alter this decision to shut down the game. We had reached close to 5,000 signatures, but it became apparent that our efforts were falling upon deaf ears. I became angry and frustrated, and even voiced my displeasure towards Star Wars the Old Republic, blaming it as the main cause for the game I loved being taken away. My friends and guildies stopped logging into SWG, perhaps sharing my frustrations, and the game lost alot of what had made it so special to me.

In July of 2011, Pre-Orders were started for SWTOR. I had come to the realization that the best way to continue on was to take my legacy and guild to another game. I pre-ordered the collector's edition for SWTOR. I came to terms with reality and accepted the fact that SWG would not be around forever.

While waiting as patiently as I could, in August 2011 the same friend who had introduced me to SWG asked me to try World of Tanks with him, a free to play battlefield type game with World War II tanks. It helped pass the time perfectly, and I still am playing it to this day. It is a very quick and action packed game which reminded me of some of the console games I had played in earlier years. My best description of it was "Twisted Metal with WWII tanks". My guildies and friends started playing it as well. There was video game life after SWG I realized.

After months of checking through my email, and very jealously listening to a guildie who was in the permanent beta describe the game, I finally recieved an invite to the beta test Star Wars the Old Republic last weekend, which began on November 25th, 2011.

I was not disappointed. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of things to do in the game. It really did make Star Wars Galaxies seem very small and redundant. People had said the graphics were "cartoon-like" and "outdated" which I fully disagreed with. I heard that the questing became tiresome, which I did not find to be the case either. I was also concerned how the game would run on my PC, being that it was a little bit older. Smooth as silk I found when I logged in the first time.

By Friday evening I was completely hooked on the game and very engrossed into my character's storyline. Each day I played I kept learning new things about the game and progressed to level 22. I tried the other classes for a short time to get a small feel for them but simply could not stop wanting to play my Jedi Knight. No need for 5 account subscriptions, as the game allows a total of 8 characters to be made on any given server. This alone made the game seem so much more rich to me with content.

I am now a firm believer that everything in life happens for a reason. Star Wars Galaxies was on the decline for years. My guild which used to consist of hundreds of members who would log in on a regular basis, became just a shell of it's former self, with under 20 people logging in regularly. I was losing touch with them all and the game had lost it's appeal to alot of people.

Star Wars the Old Republic will be around for quite some time, and I suggest that any Star Wars fan completely embrace it for what it is. The music, while not composed by John Williams, follows in the same tradition of the movies. It has that very epic Star Wars tone to it and I am very happy that I will be getting a copy of the soundtrack as well with the Collector's Edition.

The combat is much more complex than I had ever thought, almost to the point of being on par to some of the console fighting games I had played like Namco's Tekken series. There are counters, combos, and enough of a challenge to make me keep wanting to come back for more.

The character story kept making me want to see what happens next, with enough side quests to keep my progression on par to handle alot of the content on my own, while I was overwhelmed at the amount of Group Missions and Heroic Encounters that I would need to call upon my guildies to complete. None of which seemed necessary to pass a certain point and I never got stuck to the point where I could not progress. There is so much to do that I could not possibly squeeze it all into one weekend, or see everything it has to offer.

The space combat was very action packed and fast. It did remind me of StarFox for the Nintendo 64, like many people have said, which I always had loved. After a few upgrades to your spaceship it should be alot of fun and enough of a challenge to make you want to come back for more.

Another thing I noted that was unlike SWG was that there was nothing your character did to leave a lasting impression on the server. There is no player housing to be tied down to, or player cities. While I did not like this idea at first, I come to realize now that when the game launches there may be close to 50 servers running for the game. Who knows what might happen say maybe five years from now. It should be a very painless transition should they have to merge servers, close servers, or introduce character transfer. Many of my frustrations in SWG were rooted in real estate squabbles, not finding enough room for my structures, or simply getting there too late to take advantage of resource spawns or prime spots for housing. Not to mention also that some of the less populated servers became ghost towns, before SOE finally allowed free character transfer to a more populated server of our choice. This service was previously charged at a whopping $50 or more per character, depending on whether you wanted to take your items with you or not.

Every game ultimately is defined by how well the Player vs. Player aspect is done, and how much content there is after reaching maximum level. While I myself did not try any of the Player vs. Player Warzones, the jubilence of my guildies who did participate in them over our Teamspeak server assured me that this game has gotten it right in pretty much every aspect.

I very much look forward to the game's launch and sharing my experiences with you all. It's going to be a very fun ride. Star Wars Galaxies was indeed a very good game for years and years past, but I feel we are in good hands with BioWare and Star Wars the Old Republic.

May the Force be With You!

Stephen Cefai
Goji-Phen
Guild Leader of Eternal Empire

SWTOR Beta Screenshot of the day: Hello, can I eat you?

So, I finally made it to level 50 and found my new favorite creature in the game. You have to agree, this guy is uber-cute. Too bad he was looking at me in my stealth mode, trying to work out how he could eat me. This guy wanders the frozen wastelands of the planet Ilum. You'll get to know him and his buddies really well, as it's where you'll end up doing a lot of your dailies.

SWTOR Advanced Class Re-specs in the Future?

The discussion is raging on again about the lack of a re-spec option in the current build for Advanced Classes. Read the latest post from the developers below if you need to catch up.

Let me start off by saying that I totally disagree with the proposed option of being able to re-spec a character with an Advanced Class already established. The reason is that what a lot of people don't realise is that your Advanced Class IS your class if you compare it to a game like WoW. Using WoW as an example, should a Rogue be able to re-spec to a Hunter? No! Within your Advanced Class you have the ability to have three very individual builds, just like a Rogue in WoW. I think that people are upset because they haven't got past the way it has been named in SWTOR.



The class system in SWTOR allows you to get the feel for your character and the game before making your final decision on your actual class. You play until level 10 with a generic set of skills and the flexibility to try different things. Then you decide on your Advanced Class. In WoW by comparison, you start as a Hunter and you have three trees and you choose to put your points in one of those skill trees. In SWTOR you don't get skill points until you reach level ten. You then choose your Advance Class and are at that point given three trees to put skill points in. These three trees provide you with three very different playing styles which you can re-spec in the current build. The way the system is that the moment just prevents one character from being able to do every job in the game. Most Advanced Classes give players the option for two different play styles: Healer/DPS or Tank/DPS.   The other Advanced Classes optimise damage output but give you choices of play styles, as in burst DPS or sustained DPS over long periods of time. If one Advanced Class is able to be a Healer, Tank or DPS it could potentially imbalance the game, with players being forced into roles they don't want to play.

A perfect example is the game Global Agenda. Most people in the guild I was in had one of each class as it doesn't take very long to level. Even though I hate the role of healing, every time I logged in on a Raid night I was left with one choice: heal or don't Raid. I have seen this happen in WoW with Palladins and Druids too. I've even had friends quit the game because they have hated healing or tanking but were forced to do it.

I plead with BioWare to truly think this through before considering it in the future. I do beklieve though that once more players have got to level 50, like I have, they'll understand why the need to re-spec an Advanced Class is not necessary or a good option for the game.

Gold post from SWTOR.com forums:
Folks, please don't overreact about the possibility of something happening in the future. Advanced Class switching (or re-speccing, take your pick) was, at one point, potentially going to go into the game. Right now, it's not in the game. It could potentially be added after launch. Like, frankly, anything else. To quote Georg "we reserve the right to change our minds based on feedback and testing". This thread is feedback. It'll be taken into account by the developers, along with the usual metrics we look at. I'll say this much - any sort of Advanced Class changing is not under discussion for launch, or even right after launch. Absolutely anything in the game is potentially open to change in the future. That's part of what an MMO is about. Your feedback on those changes is absolutely welcome, but just because we say that yes, something may potentially happen in the future... that doesn't make it a certainty.

SWTOR Beta: A Video Tour of Corellia

One of the coolest things in this video and on Corellia itself is the bullet tram system. It's fast. The planet itself has been devastated by war and the scenery is what you expect from any major city in a war zone, right down to escaped zoo animals running rampant.

With this video, I've uploaded in high definition 1080p. Is this something people want, or do most people watch at 720p? The reason I ask is that there is about a 3 hour difference in the upload time.



All Screen-shots are 1920x1080

SWTOR Beta Screenshot of the day: Carbonite is Common

Freezing people in carbonite is common place 3000 years before Han Solo got cubed by Vader and Fett in the Empire Strikes Back, it looks like it might be a bit of a shock to the system too! I would get them to tie my hands up so some fool didn't break one of them off when I was frozen! But then again hand cuffs didn't work on Han right? How the hell did he get out of them? Han Houdini! This screenshot is of one of the many people you'll find frozen on carbonite throughout the galaxy in SWTOR.

SWTOR: Guide to Upgrading Weapons with Mods Video

There are multiple threads in the Beta forums at the moment, discussing stats on weapons and the difference mods can make. due to limited time some people have had in Beta, there are a lot of miss-conceptions about what you can and cannot do with the weapons upgrade systems. So to help people out I've done this advanced video guide showing the facts on weapons upgrades ingame at level 47.

SWTOR Beta Screenshot of the day: Amazing Horizons

One thing an Alien galaxy has that never ceases to impress me, is the variety of horizons. Everything from multiple moons, large planets and asteroids can be found rising or setting on the horizon line. It certainly sets the scene for the game. This particular show was taken on Voss, a level 40-45 planet.