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.

This week in OpsCom, we'll be focusing on the new content on Ilum.  For full coverage, as well as your Community Spotlight, hit the jump.

News and Discussion

In what is quite possibly a World First, the guild <Friendly Fire> killed Xenoanalyst II on 16-man Hard Mode.  What's more, is that it was a one shot.  Congrats and kudos to you folks!

In addition, yindaka on the official forums wanted to point out the lockout period on Xenoanalyst II.  Story Mode and Hard Mode don't share a lockout, but the 8 and 16 man versions of each do.  So, you get one HM and one SM clear each lockout.

xGBox on the official forums has an interesting look at the new Ilum World Bosses.  For a great post, as well as the information contained within it, head over and have a look.

The mystery of the cave in TFB has finally been solved, and the World First credit goes to Carnage Gaming.  After getting a 10 stack kill of Dreadtooth, they moved onto the cave, where they encountered, and subsequently defeated, the Dreadful Entity.  Grats and kudos to them.

Community Spotlight

In this week's Community Spotlight, we'll be taking a look at a combined effort between <Pax Imperius> and <Unhinged> to take down two of the new World Bosses.

Op-Ed: Working Together

With the release of the new event on Ilum, players are seeing an increase in group activity across the game, as they team up to take down the many challenges that await them on war-torn Ilum.  Whether it's the standard dailies, PvP area quests, or the World Bosses themselves, more and more players are finding reasons to rub elbows with other players in order to accomplish a singular objective.  I personally love seeing this kind of interaction between players, as I think that it provides an interesting commentary on both the strengths and weaknesses of the community and gamestate as a whole.  Banding together in the face of difficult odds with players you may or may not have known previously is a great way to get to know the people you share a space with.

It really serves to highlight many things about the personality of the person behind the keyboard, and gives us insight into player to player interaction.  Some players who previously may have been hesitant to join up with a group may have discovered new friends and allies for the future.  Other players have found delight in fighting and opposing the actions of players on the planet.  While each side could make arguments as to why their particular action is better, I'm just glad to see so many players in the same area, teaming up and facing off against one another.  It lends a new kind of life to the game, and one I'm happy to see return.  Granted, there are issues with how this system works, and many players have gone to great lengths to advertise the flaws; but overall, I'm pleased with this new content and can only hope that more is coming down the pipe.

I guess what it comes down to for me, both as a player and as a writer, is the fact that I genuinely enjoy seeing players interacting with one another on so large a scale.  New friendships are forged, new rivalries are born, and at the end of the day, many players will feel that they've done something meaningful and enjoyable with their time and effort.