Chess....

Most of us are just little pawns in what appears to be an epic game between Blizzard and BioWare. As we approach the final three 3 months of the year we wanted to take a look at some of the outstanding moves left in this game.  It's BioWare vs Blizzard, EA vs Activision, SWTOR vs Diablo3/WoW battle for our money...

SWTOR Beta/September Beta
BioWare had started to make what looked like it's move to mate.  A series of weekend tests planned for the month of September to conduct a number of performances tests to see if the game was ready for release.  With the tests completed EA/BioWare had possible intentions of announcing a release date.  However we all know the end result...  What started with one weekend also ended with one weekend.  But there was the promise of a new build for internal testing. 

SWTOR: The Old Republic: Revan
November 15th.  Revan who appears to be turning into a central character (based on pure speculation) has his own book coming out.  The book will take place after the end of KOTOR 1.  It's possible the story in this book will help drive the story for SWTOR.  A release after this book would make sense if there is a connection. 

SWTOR: The End of SWG
December 15th.  While many considered this to be a good indicator it seems to have lost weight over the last few months.  Would LucasArts want 2 Star Wars MMO's running at the same time?  Or would it be better to start SWTOR as SWG ends?  But then again is EA/BioWare concerned at all about the last 15,000 or so gamers that currently play SWG?  It's hard to say what role this game plays in the final outcome of BioWare vs Blizzard. Our take... nothing.

Blizzard: Diablo 3 Beta
It's started.  In what appears to be a move to counter BioWare's SWTOR beta the Diablo 3 beta is underway.  In initially started as Friends & Family - typical for companies releasing a game.  But Blizzard have taken a different approach.  They announced the beta, the target month, and even threw in a talent calc.  Not only did they announce the beta they seemed to have delivered with people popping up all over the place installing and playing the game.  Building hype ....

Blizzard: World of Warcraft: 4.3
Deathwing can finally be killed.  Transmogrification included.  Darkmoon revamped.  And that's just what we know...  BioWare are good at keeping secrets right up to BlizzCon and beyond.  But are contents of this patch enough to keep WoW'ers from making the switch.

Blizzard: BlizzCon/Titan
Set for October 21st at the Anaheim Convention Center. Blizzard are in a position to either set the tone for the remainder of the year or counter any prior moves made by BioWare.  In a sense they can bring down the thunder.  BioWare could well have a Diablo 3 launch date, Titan news, and a possible WoW expansion, all on the table.  And with 11.1 million players still in WoW they could hype SWTOR out of this galaxy. 

SWTOR: Pre-Orders....
Last but by far not least.... 443,836 pre-orders.  BioWare continues to build up steam and they don't even have a release date.  What this tells us is that people are willing to put money down on a game that has just a window for release.  That's a great deal of FAITH being placed into BioWare... And its a small message to Blizzard that a new challenger may be coming...

SWTOR: Release Date
The one thing the fans have been craving.  While many can accept Holiday 2011, others feel they need that exact date and time.  Sure people want to take vacation.  Stock up on snacks and code red.  It could be the icing on the cake that sets off this ball of wax. 

Conclusion.
With so many events happening between now and the release of either SWTOR or a Blizzard nugget this could be a great end of year for gamers.  BioWare and Blizzard will do what they can to win over your money.  Which means quality games....

Fan Friday is Fan Smuggling Day!

If you ever wanted to consider switching from one of the two Jedi classes to say something else.... here is the first major compelling piece of evidence to sway the mindset.

Basically put the following video is so impressive many people have a new starting class come launch.  

As your character progresses through the saga of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, you will see them advance as you unlock new skills and acquire or craft superior gear.

Whether running blockades to deliver vital supplies or evading Imperial patrols, the Smuggler must rely on his wit and guile just as much as the blaster at his side. As the price on his head rises and his enemies grow more dangerous, the Smuggler will have to acquire new skills and utilize more powerful weapons and armor to survive.

Get a look at some of the ways the Smuggler can progress and see just a small fraction of the weapons, armor and abilities that become available to him.

BioWare does a great job of showing some humor while adding in some unique instances of style and abilities for each of the two advances classes.  Paying homage to Indian Jones and the great Han Solo run and scream was indeed the perfect end to a long week.  

And don't forget to check out the bonus PAX footage.  Really really well done.

Guides - Ultimate Starship Guide

Guides - Ultimate Starship Guide - TGN

If you need information on the ships and what we know about their abilities take a gander at this movie.

While I am not a big fan of the fan made you-tube guides. But this one was well done and short to the point. The creator Ned also pulls information from various posts from everyone's favorite yellow text to provide more information.

Thanks Ned! Well done.

BioWare Beta Bomb

A large group of players are still looking in....

The mood of the SWTOR community just want BOOM.  While a few might have seen this coming due the recent delay for Europe the majority did not.  Stephen Reid dropped the beta bombshell on the fans of TOR tonight.  

Hello all,

There is no Beta Testing Weekend scheduled for this weekend. There may be further Beta Testing Weekends during September, but we're not going to guarantee it. The weekend that just finished was really our first dry run of Beta Testing Weekends as a whole, and we have plenty of data to crunch, and decisions to make before we start things up again.

Further to that, as Chris Collins explained in another thread, we are about to roll out a major new build for The Old Republic. That build won't be ready for this weekend. Just as we did not feel it was a good decision to ask potential EU testers to download our client only to have to download it again, the same applies for this weekend.

That does not mean, however, that as soon as our new build is available we'll be rolling out a Beta Testing Weekend immediately. As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes.

We rolled out this previous weekend as a relatively small scale event; from now we will do bigger and bigger events, but that doesn't mean it happens every weekend. When we do resume, we'll be inviting many more people in.

While many of you are excited and anxious to know what's happening regarding Testing Weekends, I want to point out that a lot of posts on the subject with a lack of corresponding posts from us does not mean that we're not listening, or not aware of your interest. It shows your interest in the topic, which is understandably high, but we will not always be able to react instantaneously.

In the past couple of days we've been preparing a comprehensive FAQ regarding Game Testing Weekends as a whole, along with some details about the weekend that just happened. We'll post that tomorrow - in all languages, as we know the subject is of interest to everyone.

It's a challenging situation BioWare find themselves in right now.  The community was running under the assumption that beta weekends would continue through the month of September.  And those signed up had a great chance at playing the game.  But BioWare looking at the results of their first weekend and knew they where just not ready to continue the beta.  Mostly due to the changes related their new build which now requires additional internal testing.    

The end result could be devastating for BioWare.  The backlash of hate posts has already begun along with the rallying support from some of the fans.  And in the middle of it all is Stephen Reid the community manager.  Who tonight has take all the heat as the public spokes person for TOR.  Reid if you read this - go drink a beer buddy and sleep in tomorrow.  

For us and many other fans the wait continues.  But we should still hold out hope that BioWare can still release the game before the end of the year.  A new build is always one step closer to release.  

Good luck BioWare.  

Following The Blogs

Since the begging of our journey to follow this game we have relied on many different sites for information.  Now we have discovered a new set of sites that have opened our eyes to another avenue of information - PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE.  

Simply put we have started to read/follow some sites that are giving their own personal touch to the news of SWTOR.  We also believe these will have more impact on the community after SWTOR goes live.  We hope you enjoy the initial few we have found.  And we will post more as we find them.  

BloggingTOR

Inquisitors Roadhouse

DpsHealTank

You can find out more about these sites in our new Fellow Bloggers page.

Facebook Blah

Concluding a fierce battle on the battered world of Corellia, a Jedi Shadow strikes down the last of an Imperial patrol.

Sorry we missed the FB update for the week.  We forced ourselves over there and took a look.  But the taint of FB was strong that day and we had to go into hiding.  Any-who .... here is the facebook image of the week.  More Shadow.  Which is not a bad thing at all.  Who says BioWare hates the Republic? :)

Fan Friday is.... GamesCom Friday!

Kicking SOME Empire ASS R2!!!

BioWare gives back some love to Germany with a pretty decent summary of their GamesCom presence.

We had an incredible experience at this year’s GamesCom, with Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ winning the 2011 GamesCom Award for Best Online Game as well as being a huge hit with everyone that attended! The air was electric from the excitement as fans and journalists filed through our booth to get some hands-on time with both Origin Worlds and Alderaan Warzone PvP! The reaction from the fans at the show left us feeling incredibly grateful for having such a passionate and dedicated community. 

Knowing that not everyone could make it to Cologne for the show, we wanted to share our experience with all of you. Thank you for all of your continued support and enthusiasm for the game!

We have to admit we saw this coming.  With all the work going into September Beta's this had to be expected.  The team is focused on getting people into the game to play.  So head on over to SWTOR.com for their Fan Friday update.

However if you just want to wait patiently for your invite and avoid the current hate fest from the fans avoid the forums tonight.....