SWTOR news guide,Conspiracies and Scavenger Hunts

The Kowakian Monkey-Lizard: the undisputed king of intellectual discourse

Yes, friends and fellow TORWarriors, it’s that time of week again – time for another TORWars podcast!  What’s on the agenda for this week’s show?  Well, all kinds of Star Wars-y goodness, that’s what!  Of course, we talk all about the recent changes at the very top over at BioWare Austin, and we discuss what it means that Matthew Bromberg is now running the studio.  We also dish out the latest scoop on what’s to come from Gamescom 2012, Europe’s biggest games convention.  Beyond this, we discuss what the Chevin are up to, and why they want you to scour the galaxy, picking up knick-knacks for them, and why BioWare’s Community Q&A is now going away.

Here are the actual show notes, if you’d like to read along as Deirdre, Brian, and I all chatter away like Kowakian monkey-lizards.  Thanks for listening and, as always, leave us a comment after the show!

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GM Changes at BioWare Austin

• Out with the old, and in with the new?
• Dr. Greg recently told Gamasutra that Matthew Bromberg, former head of Major League Gaming, is taking his place, which is supported by his LinkedIn profile.  “I handed off the leadership of the studio to Matthew Bromberg quite some time ago (back in May). Ray and I picked Matthew to take over and he’s been doing a great job with the studio. My time in Austin was always planned to have a finite endpoint (my family was still living in Edmonton throughout my time in Austin) and now that I’ve handed the baton to Matt, I will be able to spend more time on a wider range of BioWare games rather than focusing on just one as I did with SWTOR.”

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ heads to GamesCom 2012

The official word on from the Community Team about heading off to GamesCom:  The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ team is excited to be traveling again this year to Cologne to take part in one of the largest gaming conventions in the world. More than 275,000 people are expected to visit the GamesCom show sometime during its run from August 16-19, and we hope to see some of you there. Here are some of the great things planned for the week:

• Play the New Warzone: Drop by Booth B-082 in Hall 6 on the show floor where you’ll find 32 PC stations dedicated to playing The Old Republic™. Convention participants will be the first to get hands-on with the new ‘Ancient Hypergates’ Warzone. We will give people the chance to play their own character or try the game for the first time by signing up for the Free Trial and playing one of the Origin Worlds. Show up at the right time and you might even get to play the new Warzone against members of the Development team!
• Pictures and Prizes: As always, you can also take a picture with some of the colorful Star Wars™ characters on hand from the 501st Legion. We’ll also be handing out collectibles and codes for unique in-game items.
• EA Press Conference: Fans and Press should expect to hear some exciting new details about the future of The Old Republic during the presentation on Tuesday, August 14.
• Community Meet & Greet: If you’re in Cologne, why not come by for drinks and lively conversation with the development team? Apply for an invitation here! The Meet & Greet is scheduled for 8pm on Thursday, August 16 at a secret location. We look forward to seeing some of you there, but even if you can’t make the show, we hope you’ll be following closely online to hear about some of the new announcements and reveals we have planned.

The Chevin Live Event

Hey everyone,

Rumor has it that the Chevin are making their move and that their presence will soon be felt on the Smuggler’s Moon, Nar Shaddaa. The only hint we have is this Imperial News Network clip. It is yours to share.

Tell the galaxy that the Chevin will soon be in our midst.

Last Community Q&A Pick Of The Week (EVERRRRRRR)

Several players asked:  Can you give us more detail about the restrictions on Free-to-Play members? If not, when can we expect more details?

• Damion Schubert: “Giving more information about these limitations is a core part of our communication efforts over the next few weeks. Our goal is to allow Free-to-Play members to play the game from levels 1 to 50 and encounter most of the class and world content along the way. However, it is equally important to us that the subscription members will have access to a significant number of convenience features that make the game easier to play – leveling speed, bank access, inventory size are all good examples. Once these details are published, I think that most players familiar with the game as it is now will agree that while Free-to-Play members will be getting a good experience andthe subscription members will be getting a substantially improved gameplay experience.”

 

Then there was this announcement about the future of these Q&As: 

 

• “We’ve been listening to your feedback, and as of today, we’ll be discontinuing the Community Q&A blog as a weekly feature. However, this means that going forward, we will be focusing on bringing you more frequent and consistent developer responses in the forums to your questions and concerns. Make sure to watch the dev tracker to make sure you don’t miss anything!  We’ll definitely do a Q&A like this whenever we have big announcements in the future, but again, we won’t be doing a weekly Q&A blog post.”
• “This is a part of our new overall community goal of increasing communication. If you haven’t read Joveth’s recent address to the community, we encourage you to check it out.
• “And for those of you wondering, you can continue to expect big news and announcements as standalone blogs.”