As you may have heard, San Diego Comic-Con takes place this weekend and as expected, BioWare will have announcements going out throughout the event about Star Wars: The Old Republic. On the first full day of Comic-Con, BioWare held their usual BioWare Base get together outside of the event for fans and the press. Here are a few highlights from the first day:
BioWare Base Event 7/12
- A new hoodie from Jinx is on the way including twenty other products
- The new novel Annihilation mentioned
- Epic questlines where players can gain legendary-like weapons from them are in the works
- New story content coming in the next "year or so"
- New operation content will not make prior operations obsolete, BioWare will keep itemization in mind as new content makes its way to the game
- BioWare looks at metrics of what you're playing (Warzones, Operations) or doing in the game for future patches
- BioWare loves minigames, something for the future
- Will continue to add space missions and more features to it in the future
Throughout the event we will update this post as more comes in. BioWare's panel will take place on Sunday. Be sure to check back for more!
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Posted 7/15/2012 9:03:59 PMSo....was there anything announced today at the Bioware panel?
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Posted 7/15/2012 10:42:58 PMIt sounds like they just showed the HK video from E3.
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Posted 7/16/2012 5:13:48 PMIt was actually the full version of the E3 teaser
http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20120716
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Posted 7/15/2012 3:17:04 AM"Bioware loves minigames. Something for the future." Where the Wampa have my subscription dollars been going for the last 7 months? If star wars centered "social minigames" are not a priority for the first year, what is? What is the company's #1 initiative for maintaining momentum within the game? Not world events. Only one in 8 months unless they announce something tomorrow. I hope they do.
So they're working on Makeb, which is grand (I love Bioware Story), except that it won't have class quests and (If history is any indication) won't retain many lost players past a month. But social minigames like Pazaak, Swoop Races, and Arena Matches -that all simultaneously break up repetition, add depth to gameplay, and lend substantially more mileage to gameplay than a new bare-bones planet- Is something "nice for the future"?
I don't see social minigames as expendable features, best held back for an expansion. I see them as an answer for retaining subs long term, by adding content and diversity to the game while supporting and sophisticating under-performing systems already in the game such as Social/Affection Progression, and World Events. 50 Esseles Runs to grind Social Points? How about a few rounds of Pazaak with your friends instead? Companion Affection a little low? Challenge your companion to a practice race at a number of Planet-side Swoop Tracks. Or choose to fight for their affection instead of commendations within the Arena! The possibilities for updates are substantial.
In conclusion: I think an expansion is a great opportunity to improve upon an already defined core system of social minigames that have already helped trademark SWTOR's unique style and have gained momentum within the community, by improving systems and adding brand new games. But Pazaak, Swoops, and Arenas shouldn't be a question of the indefinite future, they should be the beginning of a driving force to breath new life into the game. It will be unfortunate the day we hear Bioware proclaim in retrospect that:
"We had no reason to believe social minigames would be as popular as they are. We're happy with the community's response, we just wish we'd worked on them sooner. It should have been part of a first year initiative."
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Posted 7/16/2012 8:45:49 AMI agree 100% with you Sir.
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Posted 7/16/2012 2:04:18 PMThanks Chuck!
Also, my crops would like to Thank You for keeping the sun and moon constantly circling round your round-house kick. Its been several years theyve been looking for an opening for attack, and the petunias are smelling divine.
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Posted 7/16/2012 5:36:55 PMI totally agree with you. When the Rakghoul event happened I had faith in BW dishing out more of the same. Sadly it's not happened (yet), and information about anything else that can keep us interested and logging in daily just isn't happening. The dailies... OMG the dailies. Great if you don't mind doing the same s##t every day/week just to earn credits & social points. But is that all?
Apparently we're gonna get some great revamp for space. I did it to the end on my main, and even did it on my 1st alt till I hit 50, but am I bothering with it with any other alts? No.
So. I'm playing SWTOR. Logging my main Tankassin for raids 3 nights a week. Grinding a few craft skills on alts, trying to make credits. I cannot be bothered to do the dailies everyday. It's repetition! BORING! I do it when I can be bothered. What does that tell you? It's a CHORE. This is a game! I should be having fun, not feeling like I have to grind grind grind just to keep up with repair costs and paying for all the legacy stuff.
The bottom line... It's getting boring.
I so love this game, and I'll defend it. But seriously BW needs to think about keeping us interested. We need minigames, more reasons for social interaction. More ways to make credits. More ways to have fun. Not everybody does Ops & FPs every day. Sometimes we just wanna login, kick back and have fun.
I find it ironic they've put this social levelling system ingame yet the only way we can UP it is by replaying the same FPs, Ops over and over and OVER again.
Look to those other mmos BW. EQ2 was the best imo. WoW did a lot of fun stuff too. And omg, dare I say it SWG?
Encourage some fun! I personally think people get bored of an MMO is because it's usually REPETIVE.
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Posted 7/14/2012 4:57:55 PMI just saw some great Malgus cosplay on G4's Comic-Con coverage. DH, you guys NEED to get a picture of him for your gallery, if not 50 pictures.
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Posted 7/15/2012 3:53:55 AMI want to see this!
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Posted 7/15/2012 11:45:17 AMVia Courtney Woods (BioWare community type):
http://instagram.com/p/NFfpx3Pcgk/
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Posted 7/24/2012 11:37:29 AMTotal F'n epic Darth Malgus costume the dude has on there!
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Posted 7/14/2012 4:48:33 PMStill no mention then of the cathar and when we'll see them as as race? Thats a tad disappointing, holding off playing as one class till their in game.
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Posted 7/14/2012 11:53:57 AMSo much for that "super secret space project" oh well, at least I didn't get my hopes up enough to believe Bioware this time.
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Posted 7/14/2012 3:55:43 PMYou're comment makes no sense. They've said the entire time that they intend to keep adding to the space mini game and that the "new" space game would be something entirely different.
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Posted 7/13/2012 4:22:32 PM"New story content coming in the next "year or so""
Does this mean Makeb is a year or so away, or is this story content past Makeb?