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Server downtime December 15th to 22nd

December 16, 2011 by

Bioware have just announced three windows for server downtime between now and the 22nd December.

Here they are with Aussie and NZ times plugged in for you – the quoted areas are Bioware’s direct statements on the likely length of the downtime:

Maintenance Window #1: Friday, December 16th

7.00pm AEDT or 9.00pm NZDT

All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours, but could be extended.

Maintenance Window #2: Tuesday December 20th

Time: 11.00am AEDT and 1.00pm NZDT

This will be a five-hour downtime:

All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to complete before 11PM CST, and will mark the end of Early Game Access for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Maintenance Window #3: Thursday December 22nd

7.00pm AEDT or 9.00pm NZDT

I have to say I’m liking these downtimes i.e. they’re relatively short and not knocking out a whole evening. Post your thoughts in the comments!

[picture via Techmonkeys]

Filed Under: Maintenance and Downtime, News Tagged With:

Bioware’s no Grinch: SWTOR Grace Period returns

December 16, 2011 by

Overnight, Bioware’s founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have jointly announced that there’ll now be a 48-hour grace period for anyone who has pre-ordered SWTOR.

What does that mean for you? Once the 20th December rolls around, you’ll now have 48 hours to enter the code from your physical copy of SWTOR (or your digital copy if you’ve somehow organised one).

So on top of yesterday’s announcement that Amazon orders will ship a little earlier, Oceanic players who pre-ordered via Amazon can expect the product a number of days earlier than previously expected. The post also emphasises there is no option to extend the grace period beyond the 48 hours.

It’s an encouraging sign that Bioware have reacted relatively quickly to community feedback – a key part of success in any MMO.

WHat do you think?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

Amazon ships SWTOR pre-orders earlier: partial Oceanic joy

December 15, 2011 by

Over the past 48 hours, since this update by Amazon, there’s been some excitement that box copies of SWTOR will be in our hot little hands a little earlier. The updates to order status on Amazon have flowed through and it seems the news is very good if you live in the US, with a much lesser glimmer of hope for those of us at this end of the world.

I pre-ordered on the 21st July and my estimated shipping date was the 21st December with a delivery date estimate of up to the 13th January. Now, my ship date is the 19th, with a worst-case delivery date of the 12th January. So at worst I’ve gained a day and possibly a little more. It’s not going to be a huge consolation to people wanting continuous access from the current early access period, but it’s an improvement at least if you’ve ordered via Amazon.

If you’re having a copy shipped to an address in the US, then the delivery date I was quoted is the 16th December so you’ll have no issue with access if someone’s going to email you the code etc.

Over to you: does this help you at all or is it too little too late?

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Upset about no SWTOR early access yet? Watch this

December 14, 2011 by

I think this may just be one of the funniest pieces of Star Wars humour yet:

Am I right? And did you notice the sobbing at the end was Star Wars music themed?

[via David K on the SWTOR Gamers of Oceania Facebook page]

Filed Under: Humour, News Tagged With:

Oceanic Guild Spotlight: Semi Serious Sith

December 14, 2011 by

If you’d like your guild spotlighted, just use our contact form to let us know. Or if you like, respond to the questions shown below and send them in – we love to profile guilds and the work they’re doing.

The only requirement is that you’re an active oceanic guild. Please be patient if you don’t hear back from us immediately – we will only be spotlighting a guild every week or so.

 

 

Name of guild

Semi Serious Sith

Guild website

http://sss.guildlaunch.com/

History of your guild’s name

Some of the founding members are long time MMO friends, starting in Neverwinter Nights, then on to WoW where we stayed for many years with various side projects in to Rift and others. We brainstormed several names, had a vote, and this one was the winner as it best represented what we stand for.

What sort of guild do you intend on being

We are a friendly, relaxed and slightly crazy group of people that enjoy each other’s company and the unity and camaraderie that comes from playing a game we all enjoy together. We’ll start off quest grinding, enjoying the breadth of all levels and working towards one day conquering the Republic……..Muh Ha Ha

Why did you choose to be a part of the Empire?

Clearly the dark side is the fun side, who doesn’t want to be naughty and evil ?!!

You have one minute to convince someone they should be in your guild – what would you say to them?

We are a guild of 18+ friends and family who will play Star Wars The Old Republic to RELAX and have FUN. We understand that people live REAL lives and have priorities outside the game.

Remember when playing games was something you did for enjoyment?

If your previous MMO experience turned into a Job with constant pressure, instead of a Game where you can relax and chill with friendly like-minded people, and you want to get back to playing a game for recreation then look no further.

We are primarily an Oceanic Region Guild, based in Australia, however we do have members from all over the world, so please do not let your physical location dissuade you from applying.

What are your predictions for the first 6 months of the guild’s existence post-launch?

Normally by 6 months in a new MMO, we’ll have a bunch of us (old and new friends) max levelled and gearing up for end game content. We’ll have done a heap of stuff together already and have made some great new friends. We’ll have worked out various goals and have a bunch of master crafters, and have achieved various questing guild milestones along the way. There will have been lots of laughing and the normal trials & tribulations of a guild in a new game.

Filed Under: Guilds, News Tagged With:

So what’s next with SWTOR?

December 14, 2011 by

We’re twelve hours into Day One of SWTOR’s early access period for those who pre-ordered, but that hasn’t stopped Bioware talking about future development plans for the game. James Ohlen has blogged on the broad areas for improvement that are already on the radar. There are some obvious ones like more game content and implementation of a guide bank, but there’s also some encouraging signs on other aspects. The ones that caught my attention in particular were:

PvP: Some strong hints are dropped about open world PvP as well as emphasising the team working on improving current content and developing new PvP content.

Space combat: I actually didn’t get a chance to check out space combat in beta but the hints on a wider role for this will be welcomed in a lot of quarters I would have thought.

UI Customisation: I’m a bit of a minimalist with UI tweaks but I know I’m in a minority and the more customisation the better I suppose. Tetris whilst in a Taxi anyone?

Any MMO lives and dies on its development cycle and its looking like Bioware are going out on the front foot to emphasise they have solid development plans. As I joked in a forum 30 minutes after starting early access: “I’m bored – when’s the next expansion coming out?”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

And so it begins: SWTOR early access

December 13, 2011 by

Just on 30 minutes ago early access commenced and I’m pleased to report I gained access in the first round. Good luck to everyone else hoping to get in today. For those that don’t, be patient, it will happen. Here’s a screen shot of my primary toon, a Consular as planned. Say hi to Wheezinhenry!

Of course, we’ll continue to report on all the movements in early access and don’t forget if you want to hang out with Oceanic players, check out which are the unofficial Oceanic PvE servers and the single PvP server.

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

SWTOR official forums return

December 13, 2011 by

And they’re back:

Here’s to the re-birth and the hopeful reduction in arseclowns and trolling (we can dream can’t we??)

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Unofficial Oceanic PvE Servers Announced

December 13, 2011 by

It’s been months in the making, but all of the Oceanic guilds that have worked together, have pulled off some unofficial Oceanic servers. Harbinger (US West) looks like being the primary PvE server, with Jekk’Jekk Tarr (US West) also having a lot of oceanic guilds on it.

For the stats geeks, you can see the numbers breakdown here.

It’s one of the final pieces of the pre-launch jigsaw for Oceanic guilds in particular, and well done to all the guilds who worked through the whole daisy-chain process!

Over to you: will you be jumping on one of these servers once the game goes live?

Filed Under: Guilds, News, PvE Tagged With:

Unofficial SWTOR Oceanic PvP Server: The Swiftsure (US West)

December 13, 2011 by

With thanks to the dedicated Antispiral via our forums, the Oceanic Daisy Chain group have announced what the unofficial SWTOR PvP server is:

On behalf of the Oceanic Daisy Chain, I’d like to inform you all that the unofficial Oceanic PvP server for SWTOR has been chosen to be The Swiftsure (US West).

As you may be aware, the Oceanic region has been excluded from the official launch of SWTOR. That has not stopped us from building a sizeable and well organised community. Purely from the guilds signed up for the Official Pre-launch Guild Program, Oceanic PvP numbers stand at:

Republic = 751
Sith = 1210
Total registered TOR GHQ Accounts = 1961

Obviously, these numbers are only going increase.

So consider this a call to arms to all Oceanic players/guilds. We ask that even if your guild has been allocated to another server for deployment, that you reconsider and join us on The Swiftsure, for what will likely be one of the best communities in the game!

So if you’re wanting to roll your toons on a PvP server where you know a lot of other Oceanic players will be, then Swiftsure is the place to go.

Filed Under: Guilds, News, PvP

Why I just signed up to World of Warcraft for a year

December 12, 2011 by

In the lead up to the long awaited launch of SWTOR, it’s an understatement to say the time I’ve spent playing World of Warcraft has declined considerably. Participation in the beta was a large reason, but it was also as a result of WoW fatigue. After a few hours of playing SWTOR I actually started to debate whether I’d be continuing my WoW subscription – I could see that SWTOR was going to provide the same type of entertainment, combined with a body of lore I have a long-standing emotional attachment to.

So, when I logged into WoW to check out patch 4.3, I was surprised to find I’d missed playing my Mage. Sure, the graphics look even more dated now that I have my ‘SWTOR goggles’ on, but I had a great time with the toon I’ve lived with since 2007. I also realised for the first time that although a lot of people are calling SWTOR ‘WoW in space’, there are a bunch of good reasons why WoW still has a lot to offer:

Atmosphere

I love the landscapes and cities I’ve explored in SWTOR, and they certainly have their own ambience, but there are areas in WoW that will always keep me coming back. Whether it’s Westfall, Dalaran or Stranglethorn (ok that one’s a joke – I hate that place), they’re fun places to hang out that SWTOR can’t replace.

Guild relationships

I’m very happy with the guild I’ve chosen for SWTOR (hi to The Older Gamers), but they’re a very large guild and I’ll rightly need to spend some time getting to know the community, or being more of a lurker member helping out where I can. Either way, my WoW guild will still be my main home for quite a while to come, as we’ve spend years doing stuff together and it’s a smaller guild of a few hundred people. Some will definitely play SWTOR but the cross-pollination won’t be a dominant thing, so I have another good reason to keep playing WoW.

Achievements

Ok this is a sad admission to make, but like around half of WoW players I love working to gain achievements in game. SWTOR has an achievement system (accessed via the Codex), but it’s fair to say at this stage WoW’s is superior, and I’m 60+ percent toward completing all achievements. I know I won’t ever hit 100% but it’s an ongoing effort that gives me a lot of satisfaction for some reason. Is it a good reason to continue playing an MMO? Absolutely not if it’s the only reason, but for me it isn’t.

It’s about cross-pollination

Every MMO finds new solutions to old problems, and I’m determined not to get wedded to just one MMO as I want to see how different ones approach gameplay issues or even create brand new types of gameplay. It’s fairly safe to assume that Bioware and Blizzard keep a close eye on each other’s game development activities, and in my own tiny way I want to be doing the same. And for me it’s a win-win situation: I get to increase my enjoyment in both games.

While I’m at it: Blizzard PLEASE improve your inventory management, you could do a lot worse than what SWTOR is doing with a single ‘bag’. And Bioware: whenever the first expansion for SWTOR comes, try to implement world events as good as the ones that lead up to Cataclysm.

Seeing what’s next

MMOs live and die on the amount of time and emotional investment their players put into the game. WoW has set the standard for hooking players and I’m no different even though I may only play an hour or two a week. I want to see what happens next with the game – not just for the reasons I talked about above, but just out of pure interest and sentimentality. Will the Panda expansion suck? There’s no way I’m missing out on discovering the answer for myself.

WoW Trade Chat

I could never leave WoW because I love Trade Chat. Ok now I’m being silly, so I’d better wrap up.

The Sum Up

Love it or hate it, SWTOR is going to continue being compared to WoW for a long time to come. If I were about to start playing my first MMO, I doubt WoW would be the choice with SWTOR now a real option. For those of us that have a WoW playing history, I’m not sure that the usual assumption of straight defection from one game to another. There’s a lot of people with a large emotional investment in the older game, that may prompt the stretching of the budget to two monthly subscriptions.

At least in the short term.

Filed Under: News, Opinion Tagged With:

Flash Point 21: There’s No Grace, Period

December 11, 2011 by

It’s been a huge week for SWTOR so we’ve got a whole bunch of new fat to chew, including the heated debate around there being no grace period between early access and launch.

Points of discussion:
– Beta finishing and team impressions
– Sith Inquisitor progression video
– New community blog
– Closure of SWTOR forums pre-launch
– No grace period and early access
– Unofficial PvE server vs Guild Daisy Chains
– Introducing a new segment: Star Wars Addicts Anonymous
– Keep or re-install the SWTOR client?
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, Google Plus page and Twitter account

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:33 — 66.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: News, Podcast
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