Darth Hater

This is OpsCom, where we bring you a weekly dose of Operations-related content from the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. This column will serve as an inside scoop on new content, developer feedback and community gossip. Stay tuned in the coming weeks, and we will keep you up to date on all the news you need to stay on the cutting edge.

In this week’s OpsCom, we’re celebrating the 1 year anniversary of our favorite MMO, and taking a look at your favorite Celebration moments. Also, we’ll take a look at the importance of your feedback, especially now that the game has switched to Free to Play. For all of these, your weekly community round-up, and more, hit the jump.

Weekly News Roundup

This month marks the 1st Year Anniversary of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Fleets on many servers are alive with celebration, and this thread wants to know how you feel about it! Drop on over and weigh in with your opinions and stories.

With the switch to Free to Play, the community managers and development team are more focused than ever before on your feedback. In a thread over on the forums, Courtney Woods wants you to check out their blog, as well as weigh in with your thoughts on the matter.

For those players who are still making their way through Nightmare Mode Explosive Conflict, Denchet has a guide just for you, go have a look.

Recently over on the official forums, user Whitescarab made a request for a Hard Mode version of Taral V. For discussion related to this topic, and to give your own two cents, head on over and check it out.

Community Spotlight

For this week’s Community Spotlight, we’re taking a look at the guild Ascension Strikes Back on the Begeren Colony server. They recently decided to go into a Story Mode Explosive Conflict with stealthers only, a very interesting makeup for sure. Check out the video here, and if you’re looking for a home on Begeren Colony, check out this thread for more information.

Are you interested in having your guild featured here? Send me a private message and give us a general run down. Submissions should include Guild Name, Faction, Server and how far your guild has progressed. Bonus points for a YouTube video of any boss kills that we can feature in this section.

Op-Ed: In The Meantime

It happens every week. Inevitably, you’ll run out of Operations to run, on your main or one of your many alts, and you’ll have to turn to some other facet of the game to keep you entertained. For some it’s chasing an elusive Valor Rank in PvP; for others, it’s leveling an alt in the opposite faction, even if it’s just to enjoy the story. And yet there are even more that just like to hang out on the fleet, do laps, or watch some duels.

Player created events are becoming a big thing in this game, and they only grow with the passing of time. With the addition of Free to Play, we’re seeing an influx of more players than ever before, and even if they don’t all subscribe they’ll still get to experience a large portion of the game and inhabit the same rich universe that we’ve all come to enjoy.

I suppose in the end it’s important to derive entertainment from the things you enjoy most about the game, and avoid the things that you don’t particularly want to do. Whether or not you’re a subscriber, you’re putting an investiture of time and energy into this game, and so you should be the one in charge of that enjoyment. Whenever the game stops being fun, or whenever you feel that you just “need a break”, don’t hesitate to do so. The best thing about a persistent universe is that it’ll always be there when you get back.

In this week’s poll, I’m curious about what kinds of things you all do in between Ops time. Feel free to discuss it in the comments below as well.

Poll