By John Walker on January 2nd, 2012.
Well this is all jolly interesting. Remember the story about Star Wars: The Old Republic banning a player because he’d been to Ilum at too low a level, and been looting the containers? And remember how it looked pretty dodgy, and was probably a fake? Well here’s the thing: it wasn’t. It was real. But, as you might imagine, there were a few details missed out.
By John Walker on January 1st, 2012.
Oh goodness me, can this really be true? A pic of an email is circulating this morning purporting to be a communication from EA, informing a player that their account has been banned from playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, because their character visited, and looted within, a high level area. Because, they say, this violates their terms of service. If this proves to be the case, and that’s purely the reason, it may be the most ridiculous EA ban yet. However, there are a lot of reasons to assume it’s either a fake, or things are a lot more complicated. Take a look.
Hate leads to the fun side
By John Walker on December 22nd, 2011.
Ever since I became the Bastard Of The Old Republic, I’ve found it an awful lot easier to delve into the crueller side of gaming choices. So it is that I’ve chosen to spend my time with Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Sith. And not some stupid do-gooding Sith who just happened to be born on the wrong side of the galaxy. I mean a Sith, cruel for the sake of being cruel, delighting in mindlessly murdering innocents and needlessly upsetting everyone I meet. And in the game. And in doing so, I’m discovering that making an entire race of baddies is a pretty tricky challenge.
By John Walker on December 22nd, 2011.
Edit: Turns out you can’t redeem codes anyway, as that’s broken at the moment. A lot of players are a touch upset that their 30 days free with the game aren’t actually accessible until you enter payment details to pay for the next month.
Aaaand now my patience has run out. As if the extensive hours-long queues to get in to play Star Wars: The Old Republic weren’t frustrating enough (that’s if the game’s online to let you play, of course), now BioWare/EA’s infrastructure can’t cope with people trying to visit their website. I have never, in my life, ever seen a queue to visit a website before. Yet that’s the position I’m in, trying to enter a code so I can carry on playing the bloody game. A queue I can’t seem to win at.
By John Walker on December 22nd, 2011.
Fancy a game of Star Wars: The Old Republic? Well tough, because the servers are all down this morning until 12pm, for scheduled maintenance work. And this isn’t the first time. In what appears to be a very strange decision for such a high profile game, European servers are all being taken offline for hours during the daytime, for a game that’s only just launched. And even more strange – doing this takes down the entire www.swtor.com website too, meaning anyone wanting to say, learn about the game, can’t. And then you notice this is an international thing, and Europe starts to look a little unloved.
By John Walker on December 21st, 2011.
We at RPS know what it’s like to be too popular. Unable to walk from our Limousines to the exclusive clubs and restaurants we frequent without being assaulted by mobs of screaming, frantic fans, we completely understand the challenge it offers. And BioWare/EA are discovering the same with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The queues: they are long.
Which is a bit of a shame in your first week. With queues for servers sometimes stretching to over two hours, it is a bit offputting. And BioWare are warning it’s not going to get better soon.
By Alec Meer on December 20th, 2011.
Today’s the day, then. The day the world finally discovers if EA’s long-gestating, mega-hyped Star Wars MMO is KOTOR 3+, WoW in space, Galaxies without the madness, a Wookiee or a Jawa, a winner or a loser, an Empire Strikes Back or a Phantom Menace, a Sarlaac or a Hutt. (I don’t even know which of those is better). Many John Walkers died to bring us thoughts on the game, which we hope to have next week. I too have a copy I plan to look at as soon as humanly/wookieely possible, though I’ve been too busy breaking my beloved record player today to get started as yet.
So, who’s in, who’s out, who’s Light side, who’s Dark side, who’s loving it, who’s hating it and who’s going to waste everyone’s time by posting ‘meh’ and having it silently deleted a few seconds later? Also, below is an eight-minute ‘launch documentary’, which is a fancy way of saying ‘advert.’ Warning: it seems to auto-play, which I can’t work out how to stop. Sorry.
Read the rest of this entry »
By John Walker on December 8th, 2011.
If you’re one of the lucky ones able to access your Origin account, and you’ve pre-ordered The Old Republic, you’ll be pleased to learn you’re going to get access to it a week early. Which is in five days! Five days! Coo lummee – it feels like this game’s been in development for over a thousand years. I’ve certainly been to a thousand preview events. And it’s any pre-order that gets you early access, not just one of the fancy special editions. You also get 30 days of “free” play (I love the idea that it’s free, after you’ve just spent £30 on the game), before the tithing begins at £9 a month (with discounts for buying in lumps).
By Jim Rossignol on November 30th, 2011.
Seems like the Activision bossman thinks that Electronic Arts aren’t going to be printing spacebucks with their forthcoming Star Wars MMO, and said as much to his investors. As reported over here by Reuters, Kotick poured scepticism onto the up and coming MMO, saying: “Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars. We’ve been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts.” He went on to say “”If you look at the history of the people investing in an MMO and achieving success, it’s a small number.” And his company are, of course, one of that number, and must be a little nervous about possibly losing subscribers to the enormous Star Wars project. EA, meanwhile, claim that SWTOR will be a success if it hits just 500k subscribers, a figure that looks to be well within their reach.
By John Walker on November 28th, 2011.
Given the choice between being a Jedi Knight (nahyt) n. a mounted soldier serving under a feudal superior in the Middle Ages, and a Jedi Consular (kon-suhl) n. an official appointed by the government of one country to look after its commercial interests and the welfare of its citizens in another country, it seems hard to imagine why anyone would choose boring Mr. Government for Star Wars: The Old Republic. But the video below attempts to show you why melee lightsabre combat might be something worth avoiding in favour of making people dangle in the air like twits. And the sneaky-sneaky.
By John Walker on November 17th, 2011.
You know how we’re giving away 12,000 beta keys for a weekend of Star Wars: The Old Republic? (There are still a few left, although not many – you need to claim yours before Friday at midnight – go here for all the details.) (Well, not all the details, or there’d be no reason for this post.) We finally have a date for it. It’s the weekend after this one. Things kick off on the 25th Nov, and come to an end on the following Monday, 28th. So there you go.
