Darth Hater

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

  • DevTracker Highlights For The Week of December 29, 2011

    It’s been a week since launch, and though BioWare is still addressing launch issues as needed, they found time to provide feedback to players in this week’s DevTracker Highlights. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller covers skill respecs, the number of low-level abilities, and the thought behind Trauma. Community Coordinator Allison Berryman expands on the possibility of new forum sections in the future. BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk assures players that the BioWare Live team is working hard to reduce queue times to allow more people to play, and thanks the already over one million registered players for a successful launch. Senior Writer Alexander Freed shares glimpse into the process for creating new content with such a heavy focus on voice acting. European Community Manager Chris Collins affirms that shared maintenance times for both US and EU servers will create less downtime as the lifespan of the game grows. Hit the jump to dig in and see all the highlights.

  • NYC Launch Event, Interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka

    Last night, doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk of BioWare attended a Star Wars: The Old Republic launch party at the Union Square Best Buy. At the event, the staff answered questions from the audience, gave out t-shirts, raffled off copies of the game, and signed Star Wars: The Old Republic NYC Launch Event lithographs for fans picking up their copies of the game. As always, Darth Hater was there to take in the festivities and bring a slice of the fun to our readers at home. Dr. Ray Muzyka was gracious enough to conduct a short interview with us as fans picked up their long awaited copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic

    Ray Muzyka"Today represents an amazing milestone for BioWare, EA and Star Wars fans everywhere and we are confident it has been worth the wait," said Dr.Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder, BioWare and General Manager, EA's BioWare Label. "The support and resources going into Star Wars: The Old Republic are not ending today. The innovations we're bringing to the category are just the start of a journey and ongoing investment in our players that will grow, evolve and transform based on player feedback over the weeks, months and years ahead."

    Photos from the event are available in the media gallery below. Hit the jump for our interview in full.

    Note: Make sure to check out the launch festivities on the floor of the NASDAQ.

    Gallery: NYC Launch Event

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  • SWTOR Release Date Announced at Eurogamer



    BREAKING: BioWare announced December 20, 2011 for US and December 22 for EU as release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

    BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk made the announcement during their keynote address at Eurogamer Expo in London, UK. Dr. Muzyka said this of the announcement:
    This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the games release.

    In addition to the release date, BioWare also announced the subscription pricing. Read after the break for the full announcement from the official site.

    UPDATE: Eurogamer interviewed Drs. Muzyka and Zeschuk about the game release. Details after the jump.

    UPDATE 2: Our audio and media gallery of the panel are now available below.

  • BioWare Doctors Talk Star Wars: The Old Republic

    In an extensive interview with the doctors at BioWare, Gamasutra covers Star Wars: The Old Republic and their view on why it stands apart from other MMORPGs. The interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk is four pages long and covers quite a few topics on The Old Republic as well as touches on Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. In a choice quote from the interview on feedback, Ray Muzyka mentions, "once you've tried it, you just can't go back."

    The reaction that we've had, and a lot of people playing it have had -- we've done a lot of consumer testing and there's a lot more to go -- but the common reaction we get from our fans when we play it, or the testers, ourselves, and our teams, is that frankly once you've tried it, you just can't go back. You don't want to try other MMOs anymore. I think that's what imbuing the game with a sense of heroic purpose and identity achieves.

    Be sure to check out the entire interview at Gamasutra.

  • DevTracker Highlights For The Week of November 22, 2010

    With this week's Friday Update being a Fan Friday you might think this would be a dull week for the DevTracker. Well, you would be wrong if you guessed that. This week's DevTracker Highlights include a wealth of information on crew skills, implants, character customization, forum improvements, and more. Hit the jump for the Highlights in full detail.

  • The Guiding Principle of Darth Hater's SW:TOR Speculation

    After reviewing many of our recent speculation articles, we felt it was time to take a step back and reveal the core foundation of the logic that drives our conclusions. We strongly believe BioWare is approaching game design in a significantly different manner than what we see in other MMOs: instead of simply copying primary game elements and introducing a few new ideas, we believe the core principle at BioWare is to completely avoid significant MMO flaws through design innovation that wont negatively affect other areas of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Therefore, we believe these design innovations will compliment each other and integrate seamlessly throughout the game.

    When attempting to solve common MMO problems such as stale character progression, faction or class imbalances, BioWare must use the Star Wars universe itself to creatively consolidate their design innovations. We think BioWares fourth pillar of Story actually has to permeate even further into the other pillars of Combat, Progression, and Exploration and these pillars are intertwined in such a way that they seem to solve these issues from the outset.

  • PAX Schedule Revealed

    The PAX schedule has been revealed in entirety in preparation for the conference. Relevant information for us pertains to Star Wars: The Old Republic related events:

    Friday, 7:00pm-8:00pm, Raven Theatre
    Designing for Failure: Why Winning Sucks
    When Monte Cook came to speak to Bioware in 2008, an interesting discussion ensued. While pondering the weaknesses of both CRPGs and MMOs, I observed that those games don't do the one thing that make table-top RPGs so endearing, they don't allow for failure. In this presentation, Ill discuss the benefits of failure from both a behavioral and game play perspective. Ill cover past games that have, in some form or other, allowed the player to fail without resorting to a reboot of the game, then point out why failing but later succeeding is a far better reward mechanic than just allowing the player to win.
    Presented by Jason Booth (Senior Technical Designer, BioWare)

    Saturday, 1:00pm 2:00pm, Serpent Theatre
    Medium is the Massage: Story Matters
    This panel will discuss how storytelling can affect and improve upon game design and gameplay. The audience will come away understanding how important story is to gameplay and how technology and interactivity can be leverage to effectively, or ineffectively, tell a story in a way that propels the gameplay and game forward in an interesting way.
    Panelists Include: Denis Dyack (President, Silicon Knights), Ray Muzyka (CEO and General Manager, Bioware), Joseph Staten (Bungie, Creative Director), Tim Schaefer (Founder, Double Fine) Adam Sessler, (editor-in-chief, G4)

    Saturday, 3:30pm - 4:30pm, Main Theatre
    Star Wars: The Old Republic live demonstration
    On Saturday at 3pm in the Main Theatre BioWare and LucasArts will present the first-ever live public demo of The Old Republic in the United States. Make sure to get in line early because there will be exclusives galore for attendees only.

    Sunday, 11:00am - 12:00pm, Main Theatre
    Star Wars: The Old Republic live demonstration
    BioWare and LucasArts present their second live public demo of The Old Republic at PAX. Make sure to get in line early because there will be exclusives galore for attendees only.
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