Information Overload is a new feature geared towards bringing you all the gaming news you care about, in one easy to digest post. Here you'll find topics ranging from developer updates and dispatches, maintenance statuses for the upcoming week, and various things from throughout the Community at large that didn't really fit in with any of our specific columns. So, for the latest news from the galaxy at large, hit the jump.
SWTOR News
Server Maintenance
SWTOR servers will be coming down for two hours on January 15th, and a patch will follow. For more information, check the image below or visit this link.
Anniversary Celebration Gallery
Having reached it's first birthday, The Old Republic celebrated with big style! The Anniversary Celebration kicked off, and there's a wonderful gallery of player-submitted photos from the event up on the community Facebook page. Visit this link to a take a look.
Cartel Market Updated: New Items
Recently the Cartel Market was updated with brand new goodies for your characters. These include: the brand new Skip Tracer's Cartel Pack, featuring rare bonus items only obtainable within the pack itself; a Newcomer Bundle, aimed at helping new players; and much more. For the low-down on these items, head to the official site.
Testers Wanted for Rise of the Hutt Cartel
If you live in the Austin, Texas area and are looking to test the new digital expansion for SWTOR, you're in luck. Bioware needs you to help them make the next chapter of this epic story even better by providing testing and feedback. Follow this link for more information, and to sign up for testing.
Other Gaming News
Curse Weekly Round-Up
Be sure to check out Curse's Weekly Round-Up for all of your gaming related news and updates by visiting this link.
A40 Gaming Headset - ASTRO Edition
For those of you looking to upgrade your current headset, or are looking to purchase your first quality headset, look no further than the A-40 ASTRO Edition. This fully featured headset provides peerless audio, as well as a comfortable fit. Curse Premium members can enter a giveaway at this link for their chance to win a free headset.
Sister Site Spotlight
For news and information related to other popular online games, as well as a fantastic place to discuss gaming in general, take a minute to check out MMO Champion.
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Posted 1/16/2013 10:04:41 AMFor those concerned, MMOChamp did just post a general update for several games, including 1.7 on SWTOR, and did link to Darth Hater as the place to go to check out all the latest information.
-Valyrius Dasea | Operative | The Bastion
https://twitter.com/DrWatticus
http://epochgaming.wordpress.com/
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Posted 1/16/2013 1:48:42 PMWe're moving up in the world.
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Posted 1/17/2013 12:24:49 PMYay!
Vox, are you going to have to do what you did in IO for every article or just for the IO piece? I assume the latter since the article about the release of 1.7 didn't have the adverts/links at the bottom.
I don't mean to be pedantic; just want to let people know what they're in for. Change is hard for folks, but if they know the nature and extent of change, then they can adapt more quickly (a point Bioware is only barely understanding even now--though they are doing better than at the outset).
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Posted 1/17/2013 5:46:47 PMInformation Overload will be the article to contain cross-promotions.
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Posted 1/15/2013 5:39:08 AMWhile i appreciate that this is a business, can we get some open dialogue around what has transpired? We dont want finer details, but it would keep a few of us long term readers / listeners happy.
Now for some feedback on this new Article.
Ditch the non swtor info - put it in another post if you have to, i dont want it poluting a decent news article. Yes, drop a sly mmo champ link in if you need, but a massive fuck off logo? no thanks .... a lot of us have had a gut full of WoW and its related fan sites (personally read mmoc daily for many years).
One thing that mmochamp does a little better - blue posts (yellow in SWTOR's case). If you are going to do a weekly round up / review. Lets get some of the yellow posts from the official site. Yes i know its a bit slower when compared to WoW, but having anything in a central place is really convenient.
Finally, prizes deserve their own little news article (not that all of us can even enter)
More posts at least give the illusion of activity on a somewhat dead site.
just my 2 cents, glad the site hasnt been canned....
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Posted 1/15/2013 2:33:02 PMAs I've said before, I have certain criteria to follow when making certain posts. There's not much I can do about it, but I will attempt to integrate the suggestions I've received.
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Posted 1/14/2013 5:10:15 PMGuys, lets give Vox a break here. He's trying to get things back up and going after a lot of transition and two weeks without an update. I've obviously worked with him on this stuff before, and he's a great guy who's passionate and really puts his best foot forward. I don't know anything about new policies that he has to go by, but as he mentioned some of this cross-game advertising happens to be one of the expectations placed on him. That probably won't change, but you can make suggestions on what you'd like to see and I know he's the guy to do his best to meet those expectations.
While I was working for Hater LLC, I really appreciated all the support you guys showed this site and the podcast we did. I know things are going to be different, but I hope you can give the same support moving forward. I still plan on visiting the site regularly and keeping up with the latest articles and news here, as well as chiming in as a regular member of the community. =)
-Valyrius Dasea | Operative | The Bastion
https://twitter.com/DrWatticus
http://epochgaming.wordpress.com/
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Posted 1/14/2013 3:53:13 PMNo need to get all worked up guys and gals.
It's a new team trying out a new feature; give them specific, constructive criticism instead of knee-jerk, ragenerd outbusts. The SWTOR news was at the top, with the Curse and MMO-Champion bits at the bottom. Given that Curse owns both MMO-Champion and Darth Hater, it makes sense they'd advertise their own network and sites. It's not that big a deal.
This is directed at the new folks at the helm: I could've done without the other gaming news bit as well. It made the article too long and diffused the purpose which should be SWTOR-focussed. I understand you want to entice more folks to the Curse Premium service and to the other sites in the Curse network. I suppose those who also play other games might benefit from Premium but you need to make the case for it; otherwise it's just visual spam.
If you want to offer a "what's happening in other games" feature, I would take a cue from WoWInsider which has a periodic article that gives us the highlights about other games, gleaned from their sister site, Massively.
What's the future of the podcast looking like? Will it be coming back as well?
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Posted 1/14/2013 4:14:07 PMThis is intended to be a once a week "highlight" article, aimed at showing off some of the things outside of SWTOR. Without being too specific on the subject, I do have certain criteria to follow for the week's posts, and this is one of them. I'll attempt to tailor the article to better suit you guys, but there's not much I can do on the cross-promotion side.
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Posted 1/14/2013 4:53:16 PMDon't call it "Information Overload" because this is neither. Call it "The Week in Review" because you're just spitting out information from the past week as filler.
Everyone knows there were new cartel items on the store. I can guarantee there will be new items tomorrow morning. If you can beat Dulfy with posting new cartel pack items you'll be making headway. Otherwise you'll be late to the show and generating just another post with late and useless information.
The one year "celebration" is a sore subject for players because BW gave us a crappy pack of fireworks and said "Have a blast!". There was nothing "big style" or "wonderful" about it. You wanna do something "unique" then interview a guild GM and post up a recount of their player run festivities because that's what it was.
Not caring about the Curse weekly roundup thingy. Not gonna read it.. not interested.
You tried to sell me headphones?! Seriously? This is a SWTOR site and not a hardware marketing site. If I wanted good information on headphones I'd go to Engadget like everyone else. I'm certain they at least tested them.
Lastly.. know your audience. The bulk of SWTOR players came from WoW or know it in some form or fashion. Most players know what MMO Champion is and they don't need or want an advertisement to go there. Why would they?! When was the last time MMO Champion advertised Darth Hater on the FRONT PAGE?! I'm guessing never.
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Posted 1/14/2013 5:02:10 PMI'm trying to play catch-up because of our extended absence, so you'll need to be a bit more lenient when it comes to that. We're coming back from an extended lapse for various reasons, and now we're trying to come back to the forefront of the news and information side, so bear with us please.
Not everyone is going to like 100% of the content that we throw out, but we're going to do our best to keep things the way they were. If you don't like something, provide constructive feedback and feel free to ignore features that you don't like.
Darth Hater and MMO Champ both belong to the Curse family of sites, and some cross promotion is inevitable. It's not going to change, it's not that big of a deal, and it's really no reason to get up in arms.
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Posted 1/14/2013 5:17:19 PMYou do know they don't owe you anything right? Why is everyone such a whiney diva on the net, pretty sure you wouldn't act like a disrespectful punk ass to someone just doing their job if you guys were in same room. Help Vox out if you got problems but don't feel you are entitled to anything.
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Posted 1/14/2013 7:43:54 PMNice second post.. ever... today.
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Posted 1/14/2013 9:26:04 PMHeh nice burn bro. /thumbs-up
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Posted 1/14/2013 3:22:05 PMWhat's going on with this site? People have been fired? And now we get this? "Other gaming news" instead of detailed SW:TOR information?