Darth Hater

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

Interview: BioWare's Cory Butler

Interview: BioWare's Cory Butler

Star Wars: The Old Republic's Cory Butler, Associate Producer, took some time out of his hectic schedule to speak briefly with Darth Hater about the game testing program and handling tester feedback. He also broadly addressed other initiatives the developers are taking to reassure potential players about The Big Day.

What is your role at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic?

Cory Butler: I'm an Associate Producer at BioWare. My primary role is to serve as the liaison to BioWare/EA and LucasArts/Lucasfilm. I work closely with everyone to make sure everyone is involved with the creation process of the game. And then my secondary responsibility is to help manage our external testing and live services of the game.


Hit the jump for more.
Is there anything specific you'd like to mention in regards to Taral V?

Cory Butler: Taral V is a great Republic story-driven Flashpoint where essentially you're breaking out a Jedi prisoner who is key to the Republic's war effort, so it is built up in a way that focuses on teamwork and strategy. We have our Advanced Classes spec'd out in a non-typical way this time. We have our Smuggler doing a lot of the healing, and with the Jedi Knight moving in as an off-tank. Our Trooper is tanking for us, and the Consular with the Sage Advanced Class does a lot of ranged damage for us.



What are the key differences between Star Wars: The Old Republic's Flashpoints and a typical MMO dungeon?

Flashpoints in Star Wars: The Old Republic are action-packed, story-driven adventures that put a group of players up against difficult foes in sticky situations. Every Flashpoint begins with an exciting story and contains difficult decisions which have meaningful impact on the challenges you'll face, the enemies you'll fight, and the outcome of the Flashpoints.

What is the technical challenge implementing multiple concurrent Flashpoints in a MMO's server infrastructure?

Flashpoints don't really introduce any new technical challenges. The vast majority of the game takes place in an open world. Players will enter instances, like Flashpoints, when it wouldn't make sense for others to be in the same place at the same time.

How is the Live Services team working to address MMO players' concerns over Flashpoint latency, queue, resets, etc.?

There are several "under the hood" initiatives underway that should completely alleviate these concerns.
  • Previous
  • Next
  • Page 1 of 3

Comments

Page 1 of 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • Montross's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #22 Montross Posted 4/21/2011 2:34:03 AM
    "Cory Butler: I think it is important to keep the fans engaged and people have short attention spans. Six, seven months go by and if you haven't seen any new content, then people may start to drift. I like the trend the industry is coming up with more recent or patching more often to get content updated."

    This was a high point for me, I'm glad to see at least someone within the organization with this viewpoint. I'd really love to see BW continually supporting this game rather than saving content for a big expansion every year or so. Now if they want to do both I'll be even more happy =).
  • DarthShnooky's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #24 DarthShnooky Posted 4/21/2011 6:23:34 PM
    I think in the post-WoW MMO landscape you really have to do both. For all its flaws, WoW has done some things very right (most of which have contributed to it being on top), and the way in which the game has been updated has been one of those. Even players who do not like expansion or patch content still recognize that WoW delivers content on a fairly regular basis.

    To compete with that, I think it would be smart for TOR to give us 2-3 decent updates as patches each year, combined with a new expansion every 18 months to 2 years. My hope is that expansions could even move the story of TOR forward, perhaps including an outbreak of full scale war once again. I know it's a bit early for that for a game that hasn't released yet, but i'm sure Bioware are already planning future patch and expansion updates.
  • Godsphoenix13's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #21 Godsphoenix13 Posted 4/21/2011 12:21:25 AM
    Trickle some of those invites this way!
  • Anticleric's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 250
    #20 Anticleric Posted 4/20/2011 7:35:16 PM
    Great interview Dover!
  • Kaluahmon's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #18 Kaluahmon Posted 4/20/2011 6:56:42 PM
    "It is just that we are working on plans and backup plans and backups to the backup plans for quite some time now, so we're ready to execute all these plans at launch."

    This one sentence alone was worth reading the entire interview. For some reason, it put many of my fears to rest.
  • JediJoeK's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 75
    #17 JediJoeK Posted 4/20/2011 5:15:52 PM
    So... May I ask when this interview was conducted?
  • Brixz's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #13 Brixz Posted 4/20/2011 2:26:54 PM
    "It is just that we are working on plans and backup plans and backups to the backup plans for quite some time now, so we're ready to execute all these plans at launch."

    This to me speaks volumes as to the amount of effort going into a smooth launch and not rushing to get a game out that is not ready. My only question to this is.... how long can you plan the back up plans for the back up plans in case the back up plan of the back up plan goes astray.

    It almost sounds as if he is saying they are getting their ducks in a row.... as if a launch would be sooner than later?
  • adelaar's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #9 adelaar Posted 4/20/2011 1:51:28 PM
    I find the whole "game testing" issue a little strange... They've had the invitation to test the game open forever and yet the truth seems to be that they are really only internally testing. This interview mentions "a bunch" of external testers which indicates a small number. The quote from the VP of EA mentioned "friends and family" were testing and that it should be expanded. This also indicates either employed testers or a very small core is currently testing.

    Why keep refering to the game testing signup? The EA VP recommended expanding to test funnel points in the quests and to test server stability. I dig this because I feel it's really going to be the only chance for an average shmo like me to try out the game. They say they are doing small specific tests to gain specific feedback, but I haven't really seen any TOR forum people announcing they are in the testing (yeah, I know, they can only say they're in it but can't give details - so why bother even saying you're in it).

    Anyway - when the game testing started, there were many who signed up and then kept refreshing their inbox to see if they got an invite. Those days came and went. I think the truth is closer to the marketing plan of spiking interest from time to time (another example is guild signup) and then leaving the meat and potatoes out until the next spike. No bitterness intended - just an observation.
  • adelaar's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #19 adelaar Posted 4/20/2011 6:57:31 PM
    Thank you all for your replies. It is satisfying to know that random people are being invited to help test the game. Despite my tone, I am mostly confident and encouraged that a planned approach is being taken for the game testing (and all things SWTOR).
  • Xavier's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 497
    #12 Xavier Posted 4/20/2011 2:26:14 PM
    Depending on who you listen to, they have had anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people sign up for the beta. Let's go on the low side and say 500k is more accurate. Even still, if 10,000 people were in testing right now, that would only be what? 2 percent of the applicants. The likelihood that you will get an invite, or know someone that does is very small. So, with out being able to "see behind the curtain" it may look like not much is going on, but there probably is.
  • skyewauker's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #11 skyewauker Posted 4/20/2011 2:16:07 PM
    I cant say much but it is extended outside of friends and family as I am in the test and I am no friend or family of anyone at Bioware / EA
  • Disinvolto's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 82
    #10 Disinvolto Posted 4/20/2011 2:03:56 PM
    I wouldn't concern yourself with it. The EA CFO was either wrong, un-informed, or just BSing the investors... because official "Game Testing" which is essentially BioWare's version of 'closed beta' started July 9th, 2010. (I would link but the official site is down for maintenance)

    I actually personally know a few people who have been lucky enough to have received invites to Game Testing. One of them did it last year in July when the testing began and one of them just recently got invited... and according to both of them there were plenty of other random players that got invited and were right alongside them testing the content.
  • Joanis's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 212
    #14 Joanis Posted 4/20/2011 2:36:33 PM
    As Disinvolto said, people are in testing, so it's beyond friends and family. BioWare is afraid to put names to the stages of their testing, and for good reason. If they said "Closed Beta" people would start a feeding frenzy for the "Open Beta" and would guess that the release date is close at hand.

    Not giving the testing any name allows them to keep people in the dark regarding a release date.

    For more of my opinions and insights about SWTOR and video games in general, check me out on Twitter and Facebook!

  • Joerazz's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 84
    #8 Joerazz Posted 4/20/2011 1:50:05 PM
    Good work Dover. Sounds like everything is progressing well. I'm really intrigued about how many people are actually testing the game right now. 1000? 10000?
  • Karpet's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #16 Karpet Posted 4/20/2011 4:59:13 PM
    probably less than 2000 people. They likely only have 1-2 servers for testing, and depending on the stage they're on, probably isn't optimized for stability and latency etc at this point in time. Closed beta testing for balancing etc doesn't require a large player base and I'm willing to bet the trickling out of invites is replacing people who have either stopped playing, or aren't playing enough to contribute to the data pool.

    The stress test will be the last thing, and then we can expect a ton more invites to go out, possibly in the form of a preorder bonus/head start type promotion.
  • To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Page 1 of 2
  • 1
  • 2

Most Commented Articles

Go to Articles

Tag Cloud

More