Darth Hater

Star Wars: The Old Republic News, Interviews, Media & Podcast

Darth Hater @ GDC Online

Darth Hater returns to Game Developers Conference again this week, but this time we head to Austin, TX. Below is a short list of the panels we'll attend to look for potential clues about Star Wars: The Old Republic:

DH GDC Content




External GDC Content




How Online Gaming Has Adopted the Grind
Speaker/s: Damion Schubert (BioWare Austin)
Day / Time: Thursday 11:00-12:00
Description: 'The grind' isn't just whacking rats in men-in-tights fantasy MMOs anymore. Like a plague, it has escaped that genre, and now infects other genres, ranging from Web and Facebook games all the way to triple-A XBox titles. This talk will explore the grind, why so many designers turn to it like a crutch, and in what situations grindy gameplay may actually improve your game.

Lessons Learned Creating Team Cultures
Speaker/s: Gordon Walton (BioWare Austin)
Day / Time: Thursday 11:00-12:00
Description: Every team has its own unique culture, and culture will have a material effect on the results your team produces. Environment and context combined with how you acculturate incoming people will affect how your team culture evolves. This roundtable is for sharing experiences in creating and shaping team cultures.

Strategies for Successfully Running an MMO from Launch and Beyond
Speaker/s: Rich Vogel (BioWare), Jeffrey Steefel (Turbine, Inc), Jeff Hickman (EA Mythic), Lorin Jameson (Sony Online Entertainment) and Nathan Richardsson (CCP)
Day / Time: Friday 9:30-10:30
Description: Launching MMOs is hard enough, much less keeping them viable after their first year. Acquisition and retention are the two most important levers that are used to keep an online game alive and viable. This panel will discuss strategies that help move these two levers. On the panel are people who have been running MMOs for more than five years. What are their secrets to successfully running and maintaining these MMOs for so long?

You Studied Game Design, Now What?
Speaker/s: Elizabeth Stringer (The Guildhall at SMU), Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra.com), Kyle Garner (BioWare), Jeremy Roden (Richland College, Game Technology) and Eric Weiss (Madison and Minneapolis Media Institutes)
Day / Time: Friday 1:30- 2:30
Track / Format: Game Career Seminar / Panel
Description: A program of game design-related studies is only one piece of the puzzle when developing a career in games. A panel of design professors and professionals from Guildhall, Richland College, Bioware and Madison Media Institute will discuss what students need to know during and following their education to enter the game industry.

It will be interesting to keep watching and see if Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm release date of December 7, 2010 has any impact on Star Wars: The Old Republic's 4Q marketing or testing schedule. (thanks to TIIME for the head's up)

Comments

Page 1 of 3
  • Granados's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #37 Granados Posted 10/7/2010 8:31:36 PM
    updates coming later?
  • Raul's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #32 Raul Posted 10/5/2010 9:27:01 AM
    Tbh there is no real point in having a big marketing campaign to try and 'counter' Cataclysm. Cataclysm is RELEASED. That means if people want to try it they'll try it no matter how much info/hype they give about SWTOR. They're better off just letting people try it and then around the time they'll get bored of it (and SWTOR will be looming then anyway) give it a delicious marketing campaign that'll pull all those players off of WoW and into SWTOR
  • ArcherAvatar's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #21 ArcherAvatar Posted 10/5/2010 2:52:24 AM
    I've always thought that they were (internally) planning for a release date that would correspond to the anniversaries of the original movies (ie; May) and I still think that will end up being the case unless more time is needed. May 2011 ... possibly on the anniversary of the very first movie...

    What Blizzard chooses to do with WOW or Cataclysm will most likely have no effect on their decision making on this topic.
  • knyght's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 44
    #23 knyght Posted 10/5/2010 3:10:30 AM
    That has always been my thoughts as well. May 25th is a Wednesday...possible "early access" going on the 19th or 21st.
  • Xavier's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 497
    #29 Xavier Posted 10/5/2010 4:19:19 AM
    Knyght, I've always thought the 24th. If you check any of the big releases, they always come out on a Tuesday.
  • shadowfyre's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 78
    #30 shadowfyre Posted 10/5/2010 5:18:04 AM
    What about international Star Wars day - may 4th?
  • Chronx6's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 189
    #19 Chronx6 Posted 10/5/2010 2:43:24 AM
    If Cata crashes horribly moving the sell date closer to that would make it easier to soak up the people who leave. Granted you don't want to sacrifice quality to do so but it is an option.
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #22 chronium Posted 10/5/2010 3:09:00 AM
    WoW always crashes after a major content update. it wouldn't affect anything.
  • Chronx6's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 189
    #34 Chronx6 Posted 10/5/2010 2:10:10 PM
    Crash as in fail and burn. And from what I've heard from the heavy players I know and the people they know most of the community that plays a lot is not happy with what they've heard about Cata. But we'll see what it does to the server populations.
  • knyght's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 44
    #18 knyght Posted 10/5/2010 2:17:25 AM
    If anything. Blizzard decided to release Cataclysm based on TOR's schedule. The game is already circling the bowl for its fans, they need to cash in one last time before TOR is released. From everything I have read online the general conception is that everyone is hoping TOR is the WoW Killer.

    In other words...the ball has always been in Bioware's Court.
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #24 chronium Posted 10/5/2010 3:13:38 AM
    Sorry, but nope it wasn't difficult to calculate when Blizzard was going to release Cataclysm. Fan sites were only off by like 7 days or so.
  • knyght's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 44
    #26 knyght Posted 10/5/2010 3:24:30 AM
    Not sure where I said it was difficult to calculate... All I said is I'm pretty sure TOR had a hand in affecting the date.
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #27 chronium Posted 10/5/2010 3:31:22 AM
    Being able to calculate the date shows that TOR had no effect on the release date.
  • knyght's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 44
    #28 knyght Posted 10/5/2010 3:39:13 AM
    Are you serious? Accurate Scientific and Mathematical calculations include all Variables. TOR release date is a variable in that calculation. May 25 - Dec 7 = aprox. 6 months.
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #33 chronium Posted 10/5/2010 1:41:26 PM
    Except TOR = 0 because there is nothing that it effects. When Cataclysm was announced you just add a year for the general time frame but when they start beta it's usually 6 months , which ended up being December.
  • To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Page 1 of 3

Most Commented Articles

Go to Articles

Tag Cloud

More