• Lore Update: Miraluka



    In the Star Wars universe, its hard to find a more venerable archetype than the Jedi Knight. One of the species set to appear in this role within Star Wars: The Old Republic is the Miraluka. Although they may be on different sides of the conflict, the Miraluka's mysterious beginnings, mixed human genetics and connection to the Force give them many things in common with the previously discussed Sith Pureblood species. In this article, we delve deeper into the Miraluka species and their impact on The Old Republic.

  • Friday Update: Fan Friday, Studio Insider, and Community Q&A



    This week's Friday Update brings a Fan Friday and a Studio Insider. The Fan Friday features a good selection of avatars, wallpaper, emoticons, and other goodies, while the Studio Insider goes into depth about the design of Coruscant.

    The second Community Q & A thread also opened, and once again questions are open, so feel free to head over and ask the developers about whatever parts of The Old Republic you want to hear about. With the opening of the second Q & A thread, the first one has closed, and some of those questions have been answered in the Community Q & A section of today's Studio Insider. More than a few hot button issues were answered in the Q & A, most notably one on PVE and PVP servers. DevTracker posts after the jump.

  • Updated: Gabe Amatangelo on PvP & Warzones



    During this year's EA Winter Showcase, the United Kingdom received wonderful information from the developers about the Crew Skills system and PVP Warzones. During the Jedi Immersion Day the following week, we got a similar presentation with copious amounts of information on both game systems. One of these presentations came from Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo. After teasing us with clues about the forthcoming derelict starship Warzone -- including that it uses an Assualt-based scenario -- Amatangelo spoke in-depth about the Alderaan Warzone. After his presentation, we were able to sit down with Amatangelo to ask some questions about PvP.

    Due to popular demand, we received answers to some additional questions and expanded answers after the initial publish. Even if you read through this earlier, it warrants a second read after the jump.

    You mentioned the derelict starship Warzone would feature a version of an Assault-style objective. Can you describe what "Assault" means for those who may not be familiar with that kind of PvP scenario?

    Gabe Amatangelo: Staged objectives where one team defends the active objective and the other attacks it. For example: the attacker attempts to set a bomb to blow a door down in an attempt to advance to the next room where they would have a new objective, while the defender would be trying to prevent the bombs placement and then maybe diffuse it in the case it was placed.

  • Interview: Daniel Erickson on The Jedi Classes



    We gathered a great deal of information about the Jedi Classes at last month's Jedi Immersion Day for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In addition to playing both the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular, we were allotted interview time with a couple of the developers. We shared the first of these interviews last month and now we can finally show you the rest. Without further ado, here is our interview with BioWare's Daniel Erickson on the Jedi Classes.

  • Pro Tips by Steve Hamaker Launches Today



    Today marks the premiere of our weekly web comic Pro Tips by Steve Hamaker. A new comic debuts each Monday, so make sure to check back. We also implemented a lot of changes to the site infrastructure itself along with this update, so be warned that there might be quirks afoot. We'll continually add things to the site over the next week or two, and we'll keep you up to date on any changes.

    If you find anything odd or buggy about the site, please let us know either via our contact form or in our website feedback forum.

  • BioWare Hires Senior Community Coordinator

    BioWare hired David Bass as their Senior Community Coordinator for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The announcement came Monday night via Stephen Reid's Twitter account. Reid acts as the Community Manager for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Reid first mentioned that he had a new employee, and then a short time later made this announcement:

    Without further ado welcome aboard to the #SWTOR crew to @doctordake - follow him, guilds and fansites! :)

    According to the job listing, Bass will aid BioWare "with the day-to-day operational activities surrounding the reporting and administering of the Star Wars: The Old Republic online community." In addition to working with the forums and fan community, he will work to "expand guild sites."

    Bass's gaming experience includes console games like Legends of Zelda and MMOs such as World of Warcraft. He has participated in the beta for Blur Multiplayer and other unnamed games.

    Bass also formerly worked as the Community Coordinator for Gazillion Entertainment. At Gazillion, he worked on a variety of projects. Before Gazillion Entertainment hired him in April 2010, he worked as the Champions Online community manager for Cryptic Studios. He left Cryptic Studios in February 2010 after the Champions Online Vibora Bay expansion announcement. We here at Darth Hater wish him the best and look forward to communicating with him in the future.