As more and more MMOs’ release, it is evident that World of Warcraft’s success has been an anomaly. Remember when SWTOR was strutted as the next “WoW killer?” But ultimately a large exodus occurred, and layoffs followed. Many have since begun questioning the success of any subscription based MMO to follow. If Bioware is struggling with a subscription model when they have the biggest IP you can attach to an MMO, what hope is there for any other MMO that follows the same model? Essentially, Bioware needs to convert to the Free-to-Play model if they want to increase their profit and player base.

With game update 1.2 now in the past, the community is already looking forward to 1.3. IGN brings us a preview of the update along with an interview with James Ohlen. Here are a few highlights of that interview:

IGN: The group finder has been a requested feature since The Old Republic’s launch, though there seemed to be some initial resistance against the idea because it would disrupt the flow of exploration. Why is now the right time to implement it? And does it support cross-server play?

Daniel Erickson: In the early days post-launch we wanted players to be discovering the game for the first time and forming natural social groups. A huge wave of players come in all at once in the beginning and finding a group is never really a problem for the bulk of players. Now players have spread all across the leveling curve and the Legacy system is causing players to roll new characters like never before which means we need a simple, flexible system to put players together with other players in their level band. We still want to respect the communities that have developed on servers so it does not support cross-server play.

While I think many players would disagree with Daniel’s statement for waiting on a dungeon finder, it is a most welcome addition to the game. From my point of view, I couldn’t find one dungeon group easily while leveling up at launch. Hopefully this helps new and old players alike.

Read the rest of the interview over at IGN and watch the included video. One of the other major features of the game update is crafting and augment slots.

Originally posted by StephenReid (Source)

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Hello everyone! James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is looking for your feedback on the game’s development once again. This week he’s looking out to the stars… and the planets of the Star Wars universe.

James takes feedback directly via his Twitter account (@JamesOhlen), but if you’re not on Twitter, his question is below and you can give your feedback here which will be passed on to him.

As always, we ask you to limit your feedback to the question at hand and keep your feedback constructive as well as on-topic!

Here is James’ question for this week:

"What planet in the Star Wars universe do you want to see in Star Wars: The Old Republic that is not currently in the game?"

You can name any planet you like, but remember, planets in The Old Republic can be fully explorable (like Coruscant, Tatooine, Hoth etc) and/or destinations that are seen as part of a Flashpoint or Operation (like Taral V, Denova, Kaon, etc).

As a reminder, you can follow James on Twitter @JamesOhlen. You can also follow our main account @SWTOR.

With the Asia Pacific Character Transfers being initiated 4/24/12 a lot of players have been asking about when Character Transfers will be available for everyone else.  At Pax East when the Devs were asked about which 1.3 features would they have liked to make it into 1.2, they responded with “Group Finder and Character Transfer”.

Also, the recent Twitter request by James Ohlen indicates a strong movement towards finalizing the Group Finder tools coming soon.  Combined with the statement that they want Content Patch cycles to go quicker than 1.2 did, it’s solid speculation that 1.3 will bring these features to the players around June to early July at latest.

Twitter: @SkeletonJack_
Twitch TV: /skeleton_jack

Today we are releasing our first major Game Update, Rise of the Rakghouls. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has had a very successful launch, but we know our work has only begun. We want you, our fans, to know that we’ll continue expanding and exploring the galaxy, ensuring it’s a place where new adventures are constantly unfolding.

Both high and low level players will discover new content and game systems waiting for them in this Game Update. Our goal is to provide something exciting for every type of player in the game: PVP players, Flashpoint fans, Guild members, space combat aces and role-players.

This first Game Update will show everyone how serious we are about expanding Star Wars: The Old Republic, and there’s much more to come. We have another major update planned for March and future content arriving throughout 2012 and 2013. We plan to release new Operations, Flashpoints, Warzones, Space Missions, single player content, vehicles, and companion characters. We’ll always be improving our existing game with additions like guild banks, PVP ranked matches and interface customization. Our Legacy system expands in March, bringing more options and a new level of depth to the existing character classes.

Our Game Updates will also include bug fixes, balance changes, performance improvements and exploit-proofing based on your feedback. We review reports from the community every day and compare them to gameplay metrics, QA bugs and our own experiences in the live game—where we’re playing right alongside you. Although we already address critical issues during our weekly updates, the major Game Updates will implement some of the most sweeping changes and fixes.

Expect a few surprises between these Game Updates, too. You never know when the Republic might strike Dromund Kaas, if a mysterious alien fleet could appear in the Core Worlds… or when the Rakghoul plague of Taris might infect the rest of the Galaxy. Changes are coming, and they’ll affect everyone.

We fully intend to support Star Wars: The Old Republic—and our players—for many years to come.

James Ohlen
Game Director

Bioware employees are out in force and talking to the press about the future of SWTOR. In a recent article, Rock, Paper, Shotgun spoke with James Ohlen about some of the things we might expect to see down the road.

Besides the content we already know about in patch 1.1 which includes a new Flashpoint.

According to Ohlen, the entire SWTOR team is still working flat-out on content for the released game. Next week’s update is just one of many they’re currently working on, with another much larger patch planned for March. It will contain part two of Rise Of The Rakghouls, and an entire new planet containing an operation and warzone, as well as “the second half of the Legacy System, which is the real meat of it.”

Originally posted by James Ohlen (Source)

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In my last two posts, I talked about how we will be adding new game systems and content in future patches. I also mentioned that we will be continuing to put effort toward bug fixing, balance changes and exploit proofing. But I didn’t give too much information on what we’re doing in that regard. So here are some more details on the topic.

Almost every week we will be releasing a new patch. These weekly patches are almost entirely focused on bug fixes, minor balance changes and fixing any exploits in the game. These issues are the highest priority items at the studio. They are reviewed by senior leadership on a daily basis. Bug fixes usually take longer than a week to get into the game because we need to fix the issue and then test the fix. Some bugs take longer than that because of the complexity of the issue.

There are issues that we will fix immediately. These are rare and not every issue can be fixed in this manner. We usually reserve these “emergency fixes” for bugs that are stopping players from playing the game or to exploits that could unbalance the entire game if not corrected.

Any game as big and as complex as The Old Republic will have bugs. We’re working as hard as we can to find, fix, test and patch the game to eliminate as many of them as possible.

James Ohlen
Game Director

James Ohlen wrote a new Community Blog entry today that mentions, like he did previously, that they are already working on new content. Today he tells us that a new flashpoint is already in the works and will be released next month! That’s some pretty quick work.

Next month we’re going to be releasing a new Flashpoint and an expanded Operation. The new Flashpoint involves a plague that could have significant repercussions across the galaxy. It takes place on a brand new world and involves some pretty epic battles. I can’t go into much detail, but be prepared for something different. The expanded Operation takes the existing Karagga’s palace scenario and more than triples it in size. It includes three new boss monsters and some pretty epic set pieces. You won’t believe the last boss, so we’ve provided an image as a tease.

It also appears that the Operation is expanding from one boss to four? And most people aren’t even level 50 yet! The picture above is a sneak peak at the last boss.

In a recent interview with James Ohlen by PCGamer, we get a few juicy tidbits of the way-back time before SWTOR was SWTOR and Bioware was beginning to think about what kind of MMORPG they were going to make.

“We had backup plans,” said Ohlen. “In all the design team was like three of us at that point, in total. So we were looking at doing a Lord of the Rings MMO, a Silmarillion MMO, a kind of a Gunslinger-esque Dark Tower MMO, a Game of Thrones MMO.”

All smart companies have contingent plans before beginning a large project, but in the end SWTOR is the perfect fit for Bioware given their history with KOTOR. However, it’s fun to think what could of been.

In a recent interview with James Ohlen by PCGamer, we get a few juicy tidbits of the way-back time before SWTOR was SWTOR and Bioware was beginning to think about what kind of MMORPG they were going to make.

“We had backup plans,” said Ohlen. “In all the design team was like three of us at that point, in total. So we were looking at doing a Lord of the Rings MMO, a Silmarillion MMO, a kind of a Gunslinger-esque Dark Tower MMO, a Game of Thrones MMO.”

All smart companies have contingent plans before beginning a large project, but in the end SWTOR is the perfect fit for Bioware given their history with KOTOR. However, it’s fun to think what could of been.