After taking an extended break to recover from the post-E3 blues, we’re joined this week by Totally Rad Show and Weekend Confirmed host Jeff Cannata! Jeff helps us to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Mos Eisley Radio by taking a step back to look at Bioware’s place in the MMO genre and what steps they need to take for The Old Republic to appeal to gamers of all backgrounds.

We also cover the most recent news, including the very popular music and sound updates which take a look at the original music being composed specifically for SWTOR. All that and more inside!

We want to offer a big thanks to Stoufers, Gnome Comsky, Greghummel, Tekjedi, Yulis, Yoday, Force Almighty, Redtear, RedEightyNine, DacobaTar, Eduardo B., CRR_Carla, Machin Shin, Cade Rahl, Tangero 2325, Communist Robot, and RTS_Austin for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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Stories From the Outer Rim
Did Bioware deliver at E3 2010?
“I think much of the disappointment that many people were feeling was due to miss communication between Sean Dahlberg and some of the forum goers. Not so much the actual quality, or amount of the released content.” -Xavier

“What I don’t want them to do is what Blizzard has done with Cataclysm and point out a whole list of features that they later can from game due to it not working or possible abuse, etc etc. Which so far they’ve done.. but has also been the curse for us all since we want more details.” – RokaImo

News from the Galactic Republic
Music of the Old Republic
-Developer Dispatch at SWTOR.com
-Conductor interview at Gamespot
-Fantastic new shots of almost all the planets, particularly Dromund Kaas, Tatooine, and Hoth
-Inquisitor (possibly of a new race) shown meeting with a Dashade
-Trooper seen with a Tauntaun
-Dewback, landspeeders, and speeder bikes
-Dispatch finishes with a Bounty Hunter speeding past a small home on Tatooine
-Gamespot video shows a closeup of the background score of Corellia

Conference Season 2010
-Comic-Con details at SWTOR.com
-Don’t forget to participate in the social network special reveal!
-SWTOR on Facebook
-SWTOR on Twitter

Game Testing Officially Underway
-Announcement at SWTOR.com
-Game Testing Portal
-Official stance on leaks at Darth Hater

You’re probably asking yourself, “It’s been two weeks, where is the new show??”. Well, with con season in full swing, the news cycle from Bioware starts to slow down and instead of putting out a show where we only discuss a few topics, we feel it’s better to let the news pile up a bit and then really tackle it with some great, in-depth discussion.

Speaking of discussion, we want to bring back the polls we did for a while in the form of community discussions. So here’s how it’s going to work: The week before each episode we will put up a short audio clip detailing the new topic. This could range anywhere from a piece of news released from Bioware or some ridiculous rumor we heard floating around the web. We then want you to send us your thoughts either through email or, preferably, on the forums. When it comes time to record the episode, we will pull some of your comments and use them as a basis for discussion on the show. Simple enough, right? Here’s the question for this week…

The overall reaction from Bioware’s showing at E3 has been mixed. Some people, like us, were incredibly excited by the Hope trailer, player ships, and the small bits we saw of warzones. On the other hand, a lot of folks were disappointed with the conference. We want to know what your impressions were. Did Bioware do a good job showing off their work or could they have done much more. We’re also curious to know what you are looking forward to hearing at conferences like Comic-Con, GamesCom, and PAX in a couple of months.
Discuss this topic on the forums!

E3 2010 has come and gone, and with it we have received a number of updates and details covering everything from player ships to crafting. The two of us break down everything inside, along with a collection of interview clips to make sure we’re getting the best information right from the source. Give it a listen and pass it on to your friends!

We want to offer a big thanks to Good Revan and RobHellBoy for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
Bioware reveals new CGI Cinematic Trailer “Hope”
-Hope trailer at SWTOR.com
-Interview at Ask A Jedi with Bryan Arndt

Player Ships Announced
-Player Ships at SWTOR.com
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at Darth Hater
-Interview with Daniel Erickson at GameTrailers.com

Warzones Announced (PVP battlegrounds)
-Interview with James Ohlen at Darth Hater
-Interview with Rich Vogel at Massively

Bounty Hunter Armor Progression
-Armor Progression video at SWTOR.com

Combat Video from G4
-Game Demo with Dallas Dickinson at G4

General Info Learned
-Group dialog cleared up and quest mechanics cleared up
-The majority of everything we’ve seen so far is based on the origin worlds and has been focused primarily on individual class stories. Large Imperial vs. Republic story arcs will be introduced later on.
-Twi’lek and Chiss revealed to be playable species
-Class stories and play styles differ GREATLY

Stories From the Outer Rim
A lot of people were hoping to hear about starships and crafting at E3 but so far we’ve only got starship/home annoucements. If crafting isnt revealed in the next few days what do you guys expect from crafting?
-Sergio

Hey guys,
I have recently become a fan of your podcast, and it’s totally amazing! As I have never played an MMO before, but am a huge fan of the original KOTOR, so I think that I am willing to give this game a try. But I have a couple of questions (actually only one at the moment):
Does it cost extra to create different accounts? Or like, could I play as a Smuggler, and then switch to a Bounty Hunter, and then to a Jedi, and then a Sith Warrior, on the same account, but be able to keep all of my characters? Like in KOTOR you could have several different characters and they were all separate. Is that possible in an MMO? Or do you need to pay the subscription fee for every single character that you have?
Thanks for your time.
-Stephen

I’d just like to tell you that it’s really fun listening to your radio show and i hope ya’ll keep them up. It’s very informing because for some people, like me, dont get to hear the interviews and know the backgrounds of the designers and characters on the other games. I know a lot about Star Wars but not the ancient lore as a lot of people do, but i really enjoy any type of lore from other fictional world. Especially warcraft, starcraft, lord of the rings, and star wars. Thanks again for the service and keep it up!
-Hunter

Love your podcast. Been listening to it since I stumbled across it last fall. I like your old outro music, but really love the outtakes. I have a few more podcast question then for SW:ToR.
1) how do you get on the zune store (ie I am itunes but looking to expand).
2) how do you play audio for both of you to listen to in Skype.
-Jason

Do you think SWTOR will have closed servers like WoW? Where if you pick a realm you will be anchored to it? Discuss.
-Colin

The video was created by BLUR, the same production company that worked on the “Deceived” trailer.

Player ships! LucasArts’ Mary Bihr and Greg Zestra from Bioware showed off two ships that will provide “a home for a player to use as a base of operations, from which to explore the galaxy.” The first of these is a ship for the Galactic Republic, not too-dissimilar from the Corellian Engineering Corporation’s XS-800 light freighter and the second is an unknown Imperial ship (similar look to the VCX-820), called a “Sith Inerceptor” which obviously takes visual cues from the later-introduced TIE series of ships. While there was no direct mention of space combat, this confirms that we will at the very least see a ship system on par with Knights of the Old Republic and the Ebon Hawk. Zestra finished the note on ships by saything that “we want a player ship to represent not only a right of passage in the game, but also a representation of their personal style.”

The second “reveal” is player versus player combat, or as it will be called in The Old Republic, “Warzones”. Little details were mentioned during the press conference, but Greg Zestra told the audience that “players will experience fierce battles that evoke the memories of famous Star Wars ground conflicts.” We did, however, find out that the first of these warzones to be revealed will be set on Alderaan. Press will be getting hands-on with the most recent builds during the week, likely showing off player ships and warzones, and we’ll keep you updated of those as well.

Update: In an interview with 1UP, Blaine Christine confirmed that other players will be able to come aboard your ship. He noted, “It’s your hub of operations; it’s your home within the game world. It’s where you come back to after a mission; it’s where you have deeper interactions with your companion characters; it’s where you store your gear or equip yourself out before adventuring again. But since this is a massively multiplayer game, it’s also a place where you can bring your friends.”

E3 is upon us! Starting today the developers will begin their deluge of new reveals about the direction Star Wars The Old Republic will be taking over the coming months. Between press conferences, interviews, and hands-on, there is going to be plenty of information for us to sift through. Like we mentioned in episode 19, we plan on doing a wrap-up episode at the end of this week, so you will definitely want to be on the lookout for that!

In the meantime, there are two great places to keep up with all of the newly released info about SWTOR. The first of these is the official site, where the community team will be updating the page regularly with links to various reviews and interviews from the games press. The second is over at Darth Hater, where they have a large portion of their team on the ground to cover every bit of news they can get their hands on. The team will be posting updates throughout the week, but their coverage kicks off today at 2PM PST with a liveblog of EA’s press conference. Video of the event can also be see at YouTube

In the meantime, we would invite you to join in on the discussion on our newly-revamped forums. Throughout the week we’ll be talking with you guys about impressions of what we’ve been seeing from the SWTOR team, and what impact this week’s reveals will have in the coming months. We look forward to hearing from you all!

With the development team knee-deep in E3 prep, the news cycle for the past few weeks has slowed down just a bit, but not completely! In the episode we discuss the new info on Companions, the updates to the Sith Warrior, and what famed Galaxies developer Matt Boudreaux might bring to the SWTOR team. With E3 coming up next week, be sure to keep an eye out for our wrap-up episode at the end of the week. We’re extremely excited to see what Bioware has in store for us!

We want to offer a big thanks to Laryk and Bronzephisy for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(5/28) Companions Updated
-Dedicated page in the Game Systems section
-Original article w/ James Ohlen at IGN
-Vette added as first companion for the Sith Warrior. Vette in the Biographies section
-Vette’s Aurebesh hints of Lord Baras and the Star of Kala’uun

(5/28) Sith Warrior Updated on the HoloNet
-Epic new video set on Korriban
-New layout of the class page
-Preliminary video dissection at Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim
(6/4) Star Wars Galaxies developer Matt Boudreaux, aka AdeptStrain, joins the SWTOR team
-Original article at Massively
-”Welcome” thread on the Official Forums

(5/26) Bioware opens new Customer Service office in Ireland
-Jobs listing page at Bioware.com

New Segment – We still need a name!
(6/1) Sony Online Entertainment announces Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
-Marketed by Sony as a “virtual world” moreso than an MMO
-Primarily mini-game based (space battles, tower defense, speeder bike racing, etc.)
-Includes things like pets and player housing
-Launches free in the fall, optional payment scheme for extra features
-Detailed post at Massively
-Interview with SOE at Massively

Advanced Class System before E3? We weren’t expecting that at all. The two of us venture into the details of the system, and speculate on what it could mean for the other classes. We also cover the newly added planet of Hoth, as well as the Inhabitants section of the Holonet. Like we mention in episode 17, there was a huge backlog of listener questions so we take the time to get caught up, touching on everything from land mounts to whatever happened to Revan and Bastila. And don’t forget to check out the new segment covering general Star Wars news. All that and more inside!!

We want to offer a big thanks to Farscape29, Twintwisters, and Darth_Entropius for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(4/30) Inhabitants added to the Holonet
-Inhabitants in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Breakdown of info at Darth Hater

(5/21) Fan Friday Reveals Bioware’s Use of Depth of Field
-Fan Friday update at SWTOR.com

(5/21) Hoth announced as The Old Republic’s 13th Playable Planet
-Hoth in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Umbaran race at Wookiepedia
-Chiss race at Wookiepedia

(5/14) Game Systems Section added to the site – Advanced Class System
-Advanced Class System in the Game Systems
-Exclusive coverage from Eurogamer

(5/14) European Press Event: Bounty Hunter Hands-On
–First official non-human playable race: The Rattataki (Pronounced: Rat-Attack-Eee)
-Hands-on coverage from GameSpot
-Hands-on coverage from Eurogamer
-Video interview from GameSpot with Daniel Erickson

Stories from the Outer Rim / Listener Questions
Hi guys, I was wondering if there will be weather effects in the game, such as rain, sand storms, snow, blowing robes?
-Eloxar
-Lightning effects on Dromund Kaas
-Snow falling on Alderaan in Video Documentary #4 (5:07)

Hey guys! Well my question today is about land mounts. I know or am pretty sure that SWG had land mounts such as speeders, but do you think that Tor will implement this similarly?
-Jord
-Touched on this in episode 8 with Christian (59:30)
-No confirmation on land mounts, but the inclusion of the Taxi’s from the Fan Friday more or less confirms that there will be some form of on-planet travel.
-Whether or not this is fast-travel or user-controlled is up for debate. KOTOR and other Bioware titles have fast travel, but land mounts have become a staple of MMO’s.

What happened to Revan and Bastila?
-Jason
-Breakdown of Revan’s story from Daniel Erickson found on the forums
-Bottom line: the events that occur post-KOTOR are still up in the air

After watching a bunch of videos on the SWTOR website, a thought came to me: Will the opposing factions be able to communicate to each other? In games like WoW they can’t, but I think it would make sense in this game because in all the Star Wars movies, the factions speak the same language. I would love for this to be an added feature because I’ve always liked the ability to taunt my opponent before killing them.
-Sam
-Discussed this in episode 13 (60:00)

New Segment – Help us name it!!
Master Gnost-Dural Does Droid (Ad seen during LOST finale)
-Verizon Droid ad at YouTube

Darth Vader to Voice Tom Tom
-Mock studio session clip at YouTube
-Update on voices from TomTom

It has been much too long since we’ve been able to record a new show…and the ridiculous amount of news we cover in episode 17 reflects that! Going all the way back to Voss, we touch on all of the updates through the new Developer Video #4 on Combat. In an effort to give new features like the “Inhabitants” section and the new webcomic the attention they deserve, we’ll be discussing those on episode 18. But there’s more here than just official updates! Based on the recent news around Blizzard’s Celestial Steed mount, we dive headfirst into a great discussion on micro-transactions and how Bioware will likely include them in The Old Republic.

We want to offer a big thanks to jg1001 and flippa299 for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes.

Also don’t forget to check out the great community we meantioned at the end of the show, The Imperial Guard, over at www.tigforums.org

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
(4/9) New Planet Added: Voss
-Voss in the Holonet
-Aurebesh translation from the Holonet Project
-Breakdown of info at Wookiepedia

(4/16) New Timeline: “Peace for the Republic?”
-”Peace for the Republic?” at SWTOR.com
-Lore Update and breakdown of the events from Darth Hater

(4/23) The Old Republic in Print
-Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
-Threat of Peace Webcomic
-Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived

(4/23) Combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic
-Video Documentary #4 at SWTOR.com
-Orange box dissection from Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim / Community Poll
Do real-money transactions for in-game items hurt your game experience?
* Yes. Bioware should only allow items to be obtained through the game itself (69%, 61 Votes)
* No. It is okay to pay real money for items in game (31%, 28 Votes)

If Bioware were to accept real-money transactions, what items should you be able to purchase?
* Non-combat / Vanity items (Pets, clothes, hats, etc.) (97%, 74 Votes)
* On-planet mounts (Speeders, Tauntauns, etc.) (34%, 26 Votes)
* Ships (If included in the game…) (17%, 13 Votes)
* Armor and Weapons (7%, 5 Votes)

See where this whole discussion started over at 1UP.com

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Look for the new episode to come out early next week.

[poll id="13"]
[poll id="14"]

Holy crap PAX East was a blast! Between playing new games, sitting in on some great panels, and listening to the best in nerd music, we had our weekend cut out for us. The conference was a resounding success, and we’ve chosen to highlight some of the best games and panels we saw. But don’t fret! There’s also a solid amount of The Old Republic news to get caught up on, including discovery of the game testing portal, the addition of the Biographies tab, and a word from Damion Schubert on group XP versus solo XP. All that and more! Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments.

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net
Transition music for this show was provided by Metroid Metal. You can hear more of them at metroidmetal.com

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News from the Galactic Republic
Genocide and Jedi: Why the Sith may be right in The Old Republic (via Ars Technica)

Game Testing Portal Discovered (via Darth Hater)
-Found by forum members Ianril and Zechio
-Confirmed shortly thereafter by Sean Dahlberg

Damion Schubert on Balancing Group & Solo XP (via Darth Hater)

Friday Update for March 26th (via SWTOR.com)
-Added new Biographies tab to the Holonet
-Short story “Smuggler’s Vanguard” by Threat of Peace writer Robert Chestney at StarWars.com

April Fools!
-Sarlacc Enforcer Class
-Hilarious class interview with Daniel Erickson and Damion Schubert (via GameSpot)

PAX East Panels
Journalists vs. Developers: The Ultimate Grudge Match
Panelists Include: Chris Kohler [Editor, Games, Wired.com], John Drake [Publicist, Harmonix Music Systems], Patrick Klepek [News Editor, G4], Jeff Green [Editor-in-Chief, EA]

The Death of Print
Panelists Include: Russ Pitts [Editor-in-Chief, The Escapist], Julian Murdoch [journalist, freelance], Jeff Green [EA], Chris Dahlen [Managing Editor , Kill Screen], John Davison [Editor-in-Chief, Gamepro]

The Future of PC Gaming (Yes, there is one!)
Panelists Include: Joe Kreiner [Terminal Reality], Jeff Kalles [Penny Arcade], John Abercrombie [Lead Programmer, Irrational Games], Mitchell Shuster [Co-owner, LanSlide Gaming PCs]

NVIDIA Unveils the Next Generation of PC Gaming
Panelists Include: Drew Henry [General Manager, GeForce – NVIDIA]

PAX East Games
Red Dead Redemption
Developer: Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Release: May 18, 2010

Breach
Developer: Atomic Games
Platform: XBLA, PSN, PC
Release: Early Summer 2010
Some guy attempted to steal the source code…
Update: Turned himself in…

Shank
Developer: Klei Entertainment (published by EA)
Platform: XBLA, PSN
Release: TBA

Mafia II
Developer: 2K Games (Czech)
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release: August 24, 2010

Schubert went on to explain that the Austin development team approaches MMO development with a third philosophy: community. The community-oriented approach allows them to bridge the gap between world and game, providing opportunities for players to both interact and explore the world around them, and also to be engaged in stories surrounding their characters and the galaxy as a whole. From the article:

“To me, as an MMO designer, community is the whole ball of wax. Let’s face it, if you wanted to play just a ‘game’, you’d be off playing a single player roleplaying game. If you wanted a ‘world’, maybe you’d play a life-simulation game. But community – well, that’s the whole ‘massively multiplayer’ part of MMO. When you look at it this way, ‘community’ is at least as important as ‘game’ or ‘world’ in this debate.”

This should at least help to calm the fears of some fellow gamers about the focus thus far on single player content. While he couldn’t give any specifics, Schubert noted that we will be hearing from both him and “other systems designers in the coming months as we talk about the systems and features that are getting locked down inside of the game”. Some of these features include crafting, where he said that they want to allow players to create items in the game that will benefit the community as a whole, rather than just the individual.

The entire entry is a great read and you can expect us to cover in more in depth in episode 17. Read “Community: The Third Element”

In the mean time, this week Sean brings us a slightly different take on the Friday Update. No new planets or webcomics, but instead a deeper look into some of the characters we’ve seen thus far. Interested in Grand Moff Kilran’s rise to power or about the descendant of Bastila Shan? The new Biographies section of the Holonet looks like its shaping up to be the definitive source for info about some of the galaxy’s biggest names. Broken down into three sections (by faction), the list is rather slim at the moment, but we should expect to see more added in the coming weeks.

The second portion of today’s update is a pointer to a short story on the official Star Wars site by Threat of Peace writer Robert Chestney. The story follows Hylo Visz, a Mirialan pilot who helped to break through the Mandalorian Blockade. Chestney chooses to focus on a time in her past where she is contracted to work for a large Hutt crime cartel. Of particular interesting note is the mention of a Corellian corporation. If you remember in episode nine we discussed how Corellia was one of the planets we would love to see in the game based on its rich history involving some of the galaxy’s most powerful and prevalent ships. Be sure to give the story a read!

After taking a month off, we knew you guys would want a packed show…and we’ve delivered! Beyond catching up on all the recent news like Belsavis and the Consular developer blog, Darth Hater’s Emlaeh joined us to talk about her hands-on experience with the Trooper last week at LucasArts. We also get to the listener questions that have been sitting in the inbox for a while, and our pal JD joins us for an Old Republic class March Madness! Hope you all enjoy the long format, and we look forward to bringing you our experience at PAX East next week.

Also, we want to extend a huge thanks to Jaysen71581 for taking the time to leave us a review on iTunes!

Music for this show was provided by General Fuzz. Check out more of his work at generalfuzz.net

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News from the Galactic Republic
Fan Friday Update: Fan Site Kit, Trooper Animation, Rancor Render

Developer Video: Returning to Taris

Developer Blog: Finding Balance in the Force

New Webcomic with Dark Horse: Blood of the Empire

New Playable Planet: Belsavis
-Info from Wookiepedia

Stories from the Outer Rim
Trooper Gameplay @ Darth Hater

Be sure to check out the rest of the GDC coverage from Darth Hater!

Pre-Episode Poll
Which Unannounced KOTOR planet should be added to the game?
-Kashyyyk (36%, 24 Votes)
-Dantooine (27%, 18 Votes)
-Yavin System (19%, 13 Votes)
-Manaan (13%, 9 Votes)
-Rakata Prime (Lehon) (5%, 3 Votes)

“I’d love to see them explore Dantooine where it says “Buried beneath the deserted Enclave was a hidden facility in which the ancient Jedi Knights carried on mysterious cloning experiments.” in the wiki link. I love the idea of the serene planet surface, but beneath the surface are either jedi ghosts or decayed jedi walking around doing immoral experiments for warped and skewed reasons that were at one time good. And hell, if the Empire could somehow be behind this corruption… all the better.”
-Lazenca

“I’d like it to be a time when the wookiees are “free” from outside influence, and have fallen into a civil war.”
-Axe Faktor

Listener Questions
What are your opinions on flyable ships as opposed to the system in KOTOR where you were automatically taken to another planet?
-Sith Tyro Revan
Check out Gordon Walton’s thoughts on space combat

So I have played (and will play again) the Star Wars pencil and paper D20 RPG game. It plays really similarly to D&D and both KOTORs adapt a bunch of their play styles from it. The big difference between it and D&D is the weapon damage. You would have similar HP, but the weapons just shell out tons of damage, both for the heroes and mobs. Do you think this would be an appropriate play style for SWTOR? Having tons of damage dealt from you and to you, speeding up the game play. Or do you think it should be slowed down to match other MMORPG’s?
-Peter Corey

Hi guys great cast been listening for a few months now. Just wondered what you guys think the planet areas are going to be like and what you will be hoping for in respect to size and exploration. Obviously there will be a lot of instances within open areas for solo and different size groups/raids but what would you like from the open areas? You talked a little about exploration with regards to SWG and Krayt dragons and a little on easter eggs which will be cool to come across but what would you really like from the open areas with respect to size/ random spawns/ gated areas or not?/ random,scripted,GM events/ cool things/ crafting nodes and drops…….etc.
-Kojack

March Madness!!!!

Are We Crazy?
The cornerstone of the discussion behind EA’s purchase stemmed from the Christmas wrap-up and prediction episode of the 4 Guys 1 Up Podcast. John Davison’s first prediction was that one of the major four game publishers would be purchased by a larger media conglomerate sometime within the next year. His best guess? EA, primarily due to a number of its properties that dovetail with a large media company, especially a group like Disney. What we neglected to mention on the show was that this theory actually has some wings.

Martin Peers of The Wall Street Journal (coverage from Kotaku) actually brought forth the idea that Disney should purchase EA back in 2008. At the time, the company had taken a huge dive in its market value, with its stock dropping about $45 dollars per share from the previous Christmas season. The WSJ article is still true today, as its stock has failed to make any real recovery. Between the ability to tie in properties and the vastly lower purchase price, Disney could stand to make a huge profit by providing EA with the financial stability it needs to bounce back.

Blending the Lines
Even if we consider the power of companies like Comcast or National Amusements (they own CBS, Paramount Pictures, and more), Disney is really the ultimate example of a company looking to pick up EA, and the pieces start to fall in place very quickly. First and foremost is the natural combination of ESPN and the Madden, Tiger Woods, and FIFA franchises. Mickey Mouse cannot go wrong with the four most recognizable sports brands under a single roof. Also, Disney could easily expand its NASCAR influenced Richard Petty Driving Experience to include the export tuner demographic that Need For Speed markets (police “chases”, time trials, etc.)

The biggest opportunity that both companies have is to reinvigorate the theme park market by integrating a video game experience into rides and attractions. While Disney has started to venture into this area already, by bringing in development powerhouses like Maxis and Mythic they stand to grow that area by leaps and bounds.

Speaking Of..
At this point we’ve covered everything that doesn’t apply to our favorite development team. When speaking strictly in terms of dollars and cents, both Warhammer Online and The Old Republic provide constant revenue streams in a market that a company like Disney has failed to tap. Sure, Disney Interactive has managed to grab some money from parents buying the most recent Lilo and Stitch or Hannah Montana title, but they’ve failed to reach out to the hardcore gamers of the world in a meaningful way.

With SWTOR set to be the only contender to ActiBlizzard, Disney would be blind to see that EA is finally on the verge of making their financial comeback. The Spring 2011 release date puts the game in a perfect storm of post-Cataclysm boredom and the pre-summer release lull. What better way to start the new fiscal year with a boom than to prey on the thousands of disenfranchised Warcraft players enticed by all the opportunities that The Old Republic provides, not only in new gameplay experiences and mechanics, but in a Star Wars setting that we all know and love.

Meddling Hands Beware…
Gamers have a long history of despising the “buyout”. There are countless stories of developers being gobbled up and dismantled by publishers (EA not excluded). So what makes our situation different?

If Disney were to approach EA with a purchase deal, we can be rest assured that folks like John Riccitiello (EA’s CEO) and Ray Muzyka (CEO at BioWare Corp and Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group) would be our biggest advocates. With both companies looking to increase their market and overall revenue, they would be foolish to meddle in the everyday details that directly affect how and what we play. There is no benefit in stirring up the employment stew, removing the people who have managed to create so much positive buzz and excitement about a property that is still over a year away. The community backlash would reach epic proportions.

Of course we do write this with some trepidation in light of the recently announced lawsuit involving Activision and two of its recently-fired heads of Infinity Ward. But thankfully (for SWTOR fans) that situation is more about the rights to a franchise than anything else. With LucasArts involved, and Disney’s previous experience with Lucas properties, the chances of something like that happening to Bioware are slim to none.

Are We Just Talking To Talk?
It’s easy to get bogged down in the details about this property or that stock value. It’s even easier to wonder if this even effects what we as gamers care about the most: the characters, the story, the mechanics, the people. But we feel that it is important to see the whole picture beyond the virtual world we so very much want to be a part of. The educated gamer who cares about the entire process is the better gamer, and we want to do our best to spark meaningful discussion not only about the latest Trooper animation (which was sick, right?), but the games industry as a whole and what it really takes to push out an amazing title like The Old Republic.

We want to know what you think! Sound off in the comments…

The poll this week revisits the idea from episode 9 with a slightly different twist. With the recent annoucement of Taris and the newest developer video outlining the team’s approach to this destroyed planet, we want to know which, if any, of the planets from KOTOR you would love to see in the game.

Here’s the catch, we’re going to provide links to the Wookipedia entry for each planet to refresh your minds, and in the comments we want to hear your ideas for how Bioware can take a familiar landscape and craft a new and interesting story in it. Get creative! Have some crazy idea about a Wookie uprising on Kashyyyk? Want to rebuild pieces of the Star Forge floating around Rakata Prime? Sketch it out, and we’ll discuss your storylines on episode 15.

[poll id="12"]

Brush up on each planet’s history…
-Dantooine
-Kashyyyk
-Manaan
-Rakata Prime
-Yavin System

With Con season right around the corner, the news from Bioware has just barely been trickling out. But that’s okay! With a month break from the show, we’ve had plenty of news pile up to talk about including a new Holonet entry, a Dev Blog on the Sith Inquisitor, and the newly announced playable planet, Taris! It’s not all news either, as we launch into an epic speculation rabbit hole about the nature of the Spring 2011 release announcement. You won’t want to miss it!

Also, we want to extend a huge thanks to JThompson6577, DEDMON5811 (who left a seriously hilarious review and has been active in the forums as well), and Peterisjustok for taking the time to leave us reviews on iTunes!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Holorecord Entry: Onslaught of the Sith Empire

Developer Blog: Composing the Sith Inquisitor
-For those of you who missed the Trooper dev blog (like us) you can find it here

Taris Added as Newest Playable Planet
-Background info from Wookiepedia
-Aurebesh translation from Holonet Project
-Originally speculated as a planet back in July by forum poster MFavila
-Lore Update from Darth Hater

Stories from the Outer Rim
What the 2011 Release Date Means for the Community and EA
-Original release target post is now over 200 pages
-Recent entitlement post with an official response from ErickAdams
-Zach’s crackpot idea of a large media company purchasing EA in the next year
-The negative effect the entitled minority can have on the greater community (The Ghostcrawler Incident)

Fansites from around the web
-Holonet Project: Dedicated to translating all of the Aurebesh found on the Holonet pages. http://www.holonetproject.net/
-Shock N Awesome: Sith Inquisitor class blog. http://shocknawesome.com/

Pre-Episode Poll
Are You Going to PAX East?
-Nope. (87%, 47 Votes)
-Yes! I’ll see you guys there. (13%, 7 Votes)

As mentioned in the pre-poll this week, we’re going! For those of you who have your passes, it would be great to meet up with you at the conference. Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out a specific time and place to get together. Be sure to check back on all the details.

The developer team has a lot to show us about the game and its mechanics in the upcoming year (which we’re incredibly excited about), but we know they cannot release groundbreaking material every week. With that in mind, we want to bring back the editorial material on this site, hopefully leading to some great discussions, many of which will spill over into the podcast! Some of the ideas we’ve already got rolling around include looking at what features from Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 will be included in The Old Republic, how the vocal community is affecting the development process, and a few others that are still being fleshed out. Of course, we want to put out content that is interesting to all of you, so if there are any topics you would like to see us cover, be sure to leave us a message in the comments or send us an email.

We are really looking forward to bringing some new material to the site! Look for the new posts to start within the next week. Also, keep an eye out for an update on episode 14, which we plan on recording this weekend.

Flights booked. Reservations made….we’re going to PAX East! And we’re incredibly excited to be able to take in all the event will offer. So we want to know, are you going too? Vote in the poll below and let us know in the comments!

If you want to order your pass, or are just curious about what the conference is going to offer, be sure to head on over to the official PAX East Site. Tickets ARE going to sell out, so be sure to get them as soon as possible if you plan on attending.

[poll id="11"]

Hear that sound? That’s the gentle sigh of relief from a community that finally knows when to expect The Old Republic to be released. A release date, we might add, that is going to mean more features, more content, and ample time to deal with bugs PRIOR to launch. Along with the new release target, we get caught up on the rest of SWTOR news with the Imperial Agent developer blog, the new Sith planet, Dromund Kaas, and more. We also respond to one of our best polls yet (thanks to you listeners!) and yield a few questions on everything from group roles to cross-faction conversation.

Thanks again to everyone who sent us a question, participated in the poll, or has left us reviews on iTunes and other places around the web…we truly appreciate it!!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Release Rumor Round 3: Bioware confirms Spring 2011 as the “release target”
-Confirmation on the official forums
-Original rumor from EA meeting on Darth Hater

Developer Blog – Top Secret Dossier on the Imperial Agent

Dromund Kaas added to the Holonet

Fan Friday Update features a new Developer Corner section

Pre-Episode Poll
How many hours a week do you game?
-Hardcore! (25+ hours) (38%)
-Moderate (15-25 hours) (38%)
-Casual (5-15 hours) (19%)
-Very Casual (0-5 hours) (5%)

Listener Questions
Do you think typical mmo players like having well defined group roles for their class, or do you think they will adapt well to being able to change their combat role through changing traits/talents or by summoning a companion?
-Reliant

With all the stun and sleep moves I just dont think the pvp is going to be very action packed more like everyone stun everyone. How do you guys think the pvp will work? Also do you think that all the classes should have a stun ability?
-Mitchal Whiting

- Audio Question from Slartibartfast (Axel)

Are you hardcore? We know that each of you comes from a different gaming background, with a number of different experiences. Are you the casual player who logs a few hours a week, or a dedicated raider putting in five hours a night? Vote in the poll and let us know in the comments!

Episode 13 will come out early next week. We’ll be discsussing the newly announced “target release” of SWTOR, the Imperial Agent developer blog, Dromund Kaas, and more!

[poll id="10"]

This week we’re joined by Darth Hater’s Sleeper, as well as Deacon, who guested previously in episode 6. The four of us get caught up on all the recent TOR news, including the two new planets added to the Holonet and the new Developer Dispatch video on creating the Dark Side. We also dive into a great discussion about what news from 2009 had us most excited about the game, and what we’re looking forward to most in the next year. Give it a listen for all the details!

Again, huge thanks to both Deacon and Sleeper for joining us this week. The two of us had a blast recording this one.

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News from the Galactic Republic
Two new planets added to the Holonet
Alderaan – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/alderaan
Tatooine – http://swtor.com/info/holonet/planets/tatooine

Developer Dispatch – Designing the Dark Side
Video – http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/developer-dispatch-5
Dissection at Darth Hater – http://darthhater.com/2009/12/30/dissected-designing-the-dark-side-video/

Stories from the Outer Rim
Year End Review
-Favorite SWTOR announcement from the past year
-What we’re looking forward to most next year
-Game and movie of the year

Pre-Episode Poll
What playable races do you want to see in TOR?
Other – See Comment (25%, 26 Votes)
Twi’lek (24%, 24 Votes)
Rodian (22%, 22 Votes)
Wookie (15%, 15 Votes)
Mon Calamari (10%, 10 Votes)
Bothan (4%, 5 Votes)

Races from the comments:
Kel Dor – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kel_Dor
Ithorian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ithorian
Twi’lek – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twi%27lek
Wookie – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookie
Cerean – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cerean
Zabrak – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zabrak
Iridonian – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Iridonian
Gand – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gand
Nautolan – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nautolan
Miraluka – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Miraluka
Togruta – http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Togruta

Now that we know all of the playable classes for The Old Republic, what kinds of playable species do you want to see? We chose five of the more common ones for you to choose from. If we missed your favorite species, leave us a note in the comment about which one you want to play!

We also want to remind everyone that episode 12 will come out just after Christmas. Zach and I are working on putting together a great year-end wrap up, hopefully joined by a couple of the Darth Hater guys, and maybe some other members of the community.

[poll id="9"]

*P.S. …forgive me for whispering in the audio, I was hanging out in the lobby of a hotel and couldn’t speak very loud.

To say the last couple of weeks has media blitz of new TOR news would be the understatement of the century. We break down both of the new classes, get some new info about companions and class trees, and look at how Bioware is going to approach the MMO “Trinity”. There’s also a brand new release rumor, and some great listener questions.

Check it out and join us in the forums for discussion!

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News from the Galactic Republic
Final two classes revealed to be Force users
-Jedi Consular at the Holonet and Darth Hater
-Sith Inquisitor at Darth Hater
-Bioware’s choice to address “healing” as CC and damage-mitigation instead of outright “heals”

Smuggler Class Trees

Insight into Companion Characters

General Information Confirmed

Stories from the Outer Rim
Release Rumor Round 2: Could a compiling of the Threat of Peace and a new short story accompany a release of the game?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=94823

Pre-Episode Poll
What faction will you be playing once TOR launches?
-Sith Empire (38%)
-Galactic Republic (35%)
-I plan to have characters on both sides (27%)

Listener Questions
Since the last two classes aren’t droid/pet classes, do you still think we’ll get to have customizable droid pets, or do you see them maybe offering a companion character like the dog in dragon age, which by the way I agree, that game is amazing. I hope they don’t just stick us with a single option like that. I’d like to be able to switch between my Strill and my Wampa, rather than being stuck with the same boring Kowakian monkey lizard from the beginning.
-Axe Faktor

Audio question from Sunny Ravencourt about the “Trinity”.

[poll id="8"]

Wow, the Imperial Agent!! We knew the community was buzzing about the next class for the Sith Empire, but we certainly weren’t expecting an announcement this soon. The two of us cover the ins and outs of the new class, as well as Bioware’s approach to preventing gold farmers and botters from ruining our game experience before the game is even out! We also received some great listener questions about classes and how the Austin team is going to pull off all this story business!

Again, huge shoutout to the officers over at http://iugaming.com! They put on a fantastic LAN last weekend.

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News from the Galactic Republic
Imperial Agent announced as the third Sith Empire class
-Picked up first by Now Gamer, then Darth Hater, then the official forum post by Sean Dahlberg
-Added to the Holonet
-Inspiration for story / combat
-Darth Hater invited to LucasArts for a demo

Writing the Jedi Knight
http://swtor.com/news/blog/20091106_001

No native support for Mac
http://darthhater.com/2009/11/05/bad-news-mac/

Stories from the Outer Rim
Gold Sellers, Power Levelers Beware….Bioware knows you’re there!!
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1889073#edit1889073

Listener Questions
How am I supposed to pick a class!!
http://twitter.com/Silv3r_Rav3n

We’ve heard it time and time again, Bioware is taking the story very serious in this MMO. Each character class is supposed to have it’s own quests with zero repetition when you roll another. This sounds really amazing on paper. But can they actually pull this thing off? Did they set the a bar a bit too high for themself?
-Llane

Bioware finally added the Jedi to the Holonet! Zach and I break down what to expect from combat and story for one of SWTOR’s most anticipated classes. We also touch on the announcement leak, Bioware’s design direction, and answer a great pile of listener questions. Give it a listen and send us your feedback!

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News from the Galactic Republic
-Jedi Knight added to the Holonet
Quotes in the episode from GameSpot article

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Jedi Knight leaked early (Thanks to Axe Faktor for the heads up)
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=56275
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=83590

Design thoughts – Sparked by the tapered lightsaber discussion on our forums

Poll of the week discussion
What unconfirmed planet do you want to see the most in TOR?
-Tatooine 29%
-Other 21%
-Dantooine 14%
-Mon Calimari 14%
-Telos 10%
-Kashyyyk 10%
-Bothawui 2%
-Other planets from the comments: Obroa-Skai, Ilum, Corellia, Dagobah

Listener Questions
Hey guys awesome show!! Just wanted to know how (if you were one of the developers) you would personally distinguish the jedi class from the sith class. I mean obviously the sith uses abilities exclusive to the dark side of the force and jedi from the light, and the sith is a melee /tank but what would you do to make the jedi seem and feel like a different class gameplay-wise.
-Jedi Master Brishia

Hey Mos Eisley crew i was wondering in star wars do they have eny holidays for example christmas?
-Darth Sciros
Star Wars Holidays

@moseisleyradio I’m of the mind that this is a major blow to the argument for 4 Force-using classes. Can you talk about that this ep?
-http://twitter.com/cjthrasher

@moseisleyradio Great episode. In regards to the Hunter class, Slave Trader? That class brings up certain moral issues, but could work.
-http://twitter.com/JakeRoc

@moseisleyradio What do you think about classes like Jedi and Sith being announced so late instead of being first?
-http://twitter.com/MasterAndrew15

[poll id="7"]

Bioware dropped the making of Coruscant and the new planet, Balmorra, on us, and Zach points out a mention of the Black Sun Syndicate! Christian Sorrell joins us from FourStoryGamer.com to discuss the news and the possibility of creature handlers in SWTOR, as well as some listener questions about Bioware points, mounts, and more. We top off the episode with a special segment about the Star Wars franchise. Check it out and let us know what you think!

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News from the Galactic Republic
-The Making of Coruscant
-Balmorra revealed as the newest playable planet location in SWTOR

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Is Creature Handler going to be revealed as a playable class?

Listener Questions
I Think the points system that you guys was talking about in episode 7 could be something like World Of Warcraft’s DKP system. Where you gain points for raiding and then when you gain enough of these points you could use these points to gain epics from drops in the raid. Join the dark side we have cookies.
-Darth Sciros

One of the things I’ve been most concerned about is this: What incentive will there be for characters to group together for quests? I mean socialization and companionship are one thing, but what about furthering your story line, and what do you do when all your friends and guildmates are busy on another planet and don’t have time to come do your “Flashpoint?” And what if the people who DO have time turn out to be jerks? I posted this a while ago, on the TOR forums, and I’m interested to hear what you think.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=25187 Thanks!
-Billy Uno

A lot of people love PvP, and who can blame them. PvP is fast action, always on your toes, live and die by how well you can manage your abilities kind of fun. It’s really competitive because everyone wants to be that guy (or girl) on the server that everyone else fears. You walk around cities and people go, “Look it’s the Jedi killer, Dweebee” (such a menacing name I know). It’s just another branch of the MMOs tree that I have come to enjoy because it is a part of the game. Which gets me back to my original point: MMOs are truly what the name implies, Massive. We all love MMOs but all for different reasons. Tell us what you are looking forward to the most with the upcoming Star Wars MMO.

[poll id="6"]

Game Testing…Holy crap! I don’t think any of us were expecting this. And of course, we couldn’t wait another week to talk about it! We also touch on the new Sith Developer Blog, and answer a listener question about character and story customization.

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News from the Galactic Republic
-SWTOR Game Testing: What it is and isn’t, and what it means for you as a fan

-Game Testing announcement brings the site down for hours

-Sith Developer Blog

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Is Bioware using “points” for in-game currency?

Listener Questions
Hey Zach and Brooks first I just wanted to say great job with the podcast you guys are doing a great job. My question is that the developers are putting a lot of emphasis on story and that every class will have a unique story. I was wondering on how the player stories are going to be more personal like so if me and my buddy are both bounty hunters are we going to do the same quests and I know that we can choose different paths but if we chose the same class would we have different experiences than each other. For example if im a Kel Dor and my friend is a human if we go to the Kel Dor homeworld do you think that I may have a specific quest just for me to make my character unique? I know its a long question I was just wondering what your thoughts were and just keep up the good work.
-Mesirav Darkcrest

What a slow month for news! Don’t worry though, we’ve got a doozy of an episode for you (over an hour and a half!). DeaconX of Heroes of the Old Republic was finally able to join us where we discuss his project and the Threat of Peace webcomic. We also touch on some community rumblings about PVP, microtransactions, and the closing of some Galaxies servers. All that and more!

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News from the Galactic Republic
-SOE shutting down a number of Star Wars Galaxies servers

Stories from the Outer Rim
-Will Bioware be using microtransactions for SWTOR?
-Slash Dance!

KOTOR Giveaway Winners!

Listener Questions
@NpXDinO – Have you guys heard anything about flying a ship, owning a ship, or at least commanding a ship?

@Machine1k – What do you guys think about the amount of CC that might be in game? for PvP and PvE.

JD – We hear a lot from Bioware about the original kotor story being hinted or referenced upon in TOR. But what about kotor II? Do you think its worth making any inclusions or references towards the second game? Do Bioware even have the rights to use the kotor II characters?

With the slow stream of news in the past couple of weeks, we thought it best to push back episode 6 by a week. What better way to make up for the delay than by giving away two free copies of Knights of the Old Republic via Steam! Make sure to go sign up for a steam account here if you don’t already have one, and then listen to the show for details on how to enter. We’ll be announcing the winners on next week’s episode!

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[poll id="5"]

PAX 2009 served up a huge pile of new SWTOR news. Everything from Coruscant, to Trooper gameplay, to player housing, and more. Give it a listen and join the discussion!

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News From the Galactic Republic
PAX – Penny Arcade Expo
-Coruscant confirmed as a playable planet (Video @ YouTube)
-Trooper class demo
-Death system
-Use of phasing system for personal stories

Stories From the Outer Rim
-Player housing
-Morality System
-Sith Infiltrator Class

Listener Questions
@sirdesmond – Do you think SWTOR will have character customization to the level of Champions Online or Star Trek Online?

@TonySama22 – The finishing moves in some vids, will those come about from talent trees or trainers, etc?

@NpXDinO – The landscape was beautiful in the demos!! How high are the land expectations after that sexyness!?!?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments and the forums!

Housing has been a topic of great discussion ever since the game had been announced. Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) players had it, Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) players had it, World of Warcraft players YEARNED for it, but how would it be implemented, if at all? It is no doubt that if the developers over at Bioware Austin are going to give players a place to hang their trophies, they’re going to look at how the other games have solved the problem of placing thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands, of houses.

There are two basic approaches to player housing: open world and instanced, each of which can be seen in SWG and LOTRO, respectively. One would think that an open-world solution like that in SWG is simple: buy a house, find a lot, and boom your character has a place to live, right? Wrong. Between player-based cities, taxes, house-type planet limitations, utilities (yeah, you pay utilities hourly), and voting for mayor every three weeks, the system in SWG is incredibly complicated. But it’s hard to argue that this amount of detail provides a certain level of immersion that could not be captured any other way. I invite you to check out the SWG Wiki for all the gritty details.

LOTRO, on the other hand, uses an instanced neighborhood system. Similar to player cities, there are four racially styled homesteads (Men, Hobbit, Dwarven, and Elven) which appear in the open world, with 250 instanced neighborhoods per homestead. Each neighborhood has 30 homes, 4 kinship houses, 10 deluxe personal houses, and 16 standard personal houses, which can then be customized upon purchase. The result? A highly organized, pre-planned place for players or groups of players to hang their wares. (All information about LOTRO homes was found HERE)

So which of these methods will we see in SWTOR? The speculation and hopes from the player-base have been far and wide. This forum thread covers just about every possibility from open-world, to instanced, to ships acting as homes (similar to the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR). As with every other detail of the game, the developers are waiting for a finished product before confirming anything, but there’s no doubt that they are keeping a close eye on the community.

What do you think of player housing in SWTOR? Vote in the poll and give us the details the comments!

[poll id="4"]

The past two weeks have served up a heaping helping of news and rumors. We break down everything from the developer walkthrough to some interesting community creations. Details are in the notes below…give it a listen and let us know what you think!

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News From the Galactic Republic
GamesCom Developer Walkthrough
- Bounty Hunter
- Smuggler
- Korriban / Sith Warrior
- Flashpoint: “Highly customized story and gameplay experience”
- Detailed breakdown at Darth Hater

SWTOR Localized to French and German
- French and German versions of the website AND game
- Includes forums, Holonet, timeline videos, etc
- Very important to building a global community

Stories From the Outer Rim
SWTOR Release Rumor
- How we’re going to treat these rumors
- French site reports reliable source says October of 2010
- Poll Results

Community Highlight
Heroes of the Old Republic
- Old-style radio drama created by community member DeaconX
- Prelude tells the story of the Deception trailer from the perspective of
- Episode I picks up with a swoop race on Ord Mantell, follows the story of young Falco Danner

Twitter Questions
@COMMUNISTROBOT – Should gear color schemes auto-adjust/change depending on your environment. i.e. snow cammo, jungle cammo, etc. /discuss

@gem1138 – My hype has definitely raised after watching the walkthrough! The kick to the nuts followed by the headshot was fantastic!

@sirdesmond – In the multiplayer dialogue cutscenes, could playing with people u dont know screw stuff up if they say something u wouldnt? (DIALOG CLIP – Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer)

The Twitter world was going nuts yesterday wondering when the game play demo would be released for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and yesterday afternoon it finally happened. Over on IGN’s website you can find a four part video series that combined is over 20 minutes long. The demo is full of action-packed SWTOR combat footage, voice dialog chats, and beautiful planet landscapes in the upcoming game.  Mostly what we see is nothing more than the things we already know in finally being played out.  Although watching it answered a lot of questions it also raised a fresh new batch as well. We should be recording episode 4 in the next few days so stayed tuned to get our full opinions on this exciting new video. 

What are your thoughts after watching these videos? Are you more excited or could you care less now?

First, we’ve got to look at the MMO giant, World of Warcraft. Blizzard made it’s official announcement that the game was in the works on September 2, 2001. After much development and a rather significant open beta, WoW was released to the public on November 23, 2004…3 years after their initial press release. Another genre favorite, Guild Wars, took about two years to create its first incarnation with an announcement in April of 2003 and a release in September 2005. Keep in mind that the scale of SWTOR greatly outweighs both of these games, especially the latter.

With some kind of reference for the industry standard games, next we need to see where The Old Republic is at in its development cycle. Bioware Austin was formed in early 2006 with the sole purpose of creating SWTOR. The official announcment of the game came on October 7th, 2008. It is incredibly important to remember that at the time of this press release, the team at Bioware had a fully functioning game that employees were playing on a daily basis. If the folks over at Star Wars Universe really do have a reliable connection who believes release is October 2010, that’s a four and a half year development period. Pretty hefty, right? With the amount of content that is going into this game, and the team’s dedication and demand for perfection, I would say this rumor certainly holds some weight. In which case, I am super stoked!!

Do you think the rumor is accurate? If so, will we see a public beta as soon as Spring of next year? Vote in the poll and let us know what you think in the comments!

[poll id="3"]

With little news coming from the SWTOR site and Comic-Con, we break down some of the finer points of group play and the concept of companion characters in an MMO setting. We also get our first chance to field some listener questions from Twitter and the site. Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments!

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News From the Galactic Republic / Stories from the Outer Rim
Pre Comic-Con IGN Interview with Dallas Dickinson and Jake Neri
-Healing
-Raids and Group Class Members
-Companion Characters

Twitter Questions
-sirdesmond and bmartin717 were curious about group structure and whether or not tanks would be required.
-NpXDinO and Silv3r_Rav3n wanted to know about the graphics in SWTOR

P.S. Unfortunately we missed covering the new developer blog. This will definitely be discussed in the next episode!

These guys are truly hideous. Are we going to pick our companion?

Obviously, the dev team is going to draw heavily from their past experience with companion characters in games like KOTOR and Mass Effect. Those seemed to work pretty well, right? And they were integrated into the game in a way that didn’t detract from your story. Let’s just hope we don’t end up with the paper cut-outs like in Guild Wars.

Are you even remotely excited about companion characters in an MMO setting? Vote in the poll and leave us details in the comments!

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Zach and Brooks break down the past two weeks of SWTOR news, from the voiceover work outlined in Developer Blog #10 to the UI design shown in Video Documentary #3. All that and more in this week’s episode of Mos Eisley Radio!

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News From the Galactic Republic
Return of the Mandalorians
-Overview of the video
-Mandalorians as a “faction” and how factions would work in SWTOR

Development Blog #10 / Video Documentary #3
-Visual appearance of the SWTOR engine
-Voicing of both NPCs and your player’s character
-All aspects of the scale and level of production going in to the voice over work.
-Brooks’ post about audio from an engineer’s perspective
-SWTOR’s UI and the need for a mod community

Stories from the Outer Rim
PC Gamer UK Interview with Rich Vogel
-PVP, Raids, Economy

Discussion of the Week
Trooper and Bounty Hunter Classes
-What roles Trooper and Bounty Hunter will play within both party and solo settings
-Class abilities
-Possible ability focus based on armor (for Troopers) and weapons (for Bounty Hunters)

Podcast Directories
We’ve uploaded our feed to a few different directories to make sure that whererever you are, you can hear us! Listed below are the links to our pages on various sites.
-PodBean.com (claim-my-podcast-in-podbean{scid-bW9zZWlzbGV5cmFkaW8=-ecid})
-Podfeed.net
-Podcast Alley

Since this show is about bringing fans of the Star Wars universe together, we want to hear from you! MP3 or email questions to be answered on the show would be great, but feedback on the show itself is also greatly appreciated. Email any questions or comments to moseisleyradio@gmail.com. Thanks for your patience and for the strong initial support for this future SWTOR community. We look forward to hearing from you!

Let’s look at some of the facts: The Old Republic is the size of at least 10 KOTORs recorded back to back and the voice-over has been recorded in 5 different cities: Los Angeles , London, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto, by hundreds of different actors. First and foremost, if anyone has taken a close look at the audio files for KOTOR, the dialog alone accounts for about 550MB of space. Multiplying that by 10, we get an astonishing 5.5GB of data just for voice. Factoring in music and environmental sounds, and without an elaborate compression scheme, it’s likely that all audio related content for The Old Republic could take upwards of 7-8GB of storage on your machine.

View of Skywalker Sound’s Akira Kurosawa dubbing stage with the Neve DFC console.

What really speaks to Bioware and LucasArt’s dedication to this game is the task of working with so many voice actors at so many locations. The act of recording that much audio alone is astonishing, but when the whole process is considered, it’s no surprise that the team went to Skywalker Sound, one of the heaviest hitters in movie and video game industry. Before even a single line is recorded, scripts are laid out, voice directors are met with, actors have practice groups, and engineers consider all the editing and processing that will need to be done. Once the first track is laid, then comes the grueling task of assuring consistency in volume, pitch, and even pronunciation, as dynamic storylines require each individual line to be played on the fly based on a player’s choices.

As a gamer and an audio engineer, I couldn’t be more excited about what this means for both The Old Republic and the gaming industry in general. With this release, the teams at Bioware and LucasArts will set the bar for video game audio, and a very high one at that.

How do you feel about all quest and NPC-related content being spoken and not read?

In a number of interviews and reviews, Bioware employees have roughly confirmed that each planet will play specific host to one (or possibly two) classes as they enter the galaxy. So far it appears as if the Trooper and Smuggler classes will start on Ord Mantell, while the Bounty Hunter class will begin on Hutta. These are all logical choices as to how each fits in with the overall lore of Star Wars. For example, its widely known that most Bounty Hunters have a very strong business relationship with the Hutt crime lords. And in the case of Ord Mantell, given the planet’s volatile political state, it makes sense that Troopers are needed to enforce the Galactic Republic’s rule, while the Smugglers do everything in their power to undermine them and move their goods.

This leaves an open slot on Hutta, and nothing for Korriban and Tython. Obviously, the most likely choices for the latter planets are going to be Sith Lord and Jedi Master, respectively. Yet since the other classes have yet to be announced, the options for Hutta are still wide open.

What do you think of having the classes separated so far from each other? Which planet are you looking forward to adventuring the most?

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In our premiere episode, we take a general look at the setting we will be playing in, and give an overview of what we know as far as classes and gameplay. While there aren’t a whole lot of details at this point, there’s plenty of room for deep discussion and speculation.

Don’t forget to follow the show on Twitter! There you’ll find some of the latest news about The Old Republic and what’s going on with the show.

We want to know what you think! Leave a comment, write on the forum, send us an email (moseisleyradio@gmail.com), shout like the Sand People, whatever! We’ve got a lot of in-depth looks at classes and gameplay planned, but let us know what topics you want us to discuss in coming episodes.

Vogel, Bioware Austin’s studio co-director, goes into detail to explain the cause-and-effect scenario that was something new to me in a MMO game. During a mission involving a captain that failed at his duties you are given the option to kill him and promote the first officer in his place, or forgive him and allow him to keep his post. Up until reading this article I had been a bit worried that the whole “Good vs Evil” gameplay was going to be nothing more than choosing to spare a life and taking, or helping, someone out and keeping recovered goods for yourself. Vogel explained that your choice on the captain’s fate actually would weigh in to how the story would progress. If you kill the captain the young inexperienced first officer makes several mistakes which makes your mission more difficult. On the flip side, if you spare the captain’s life than he was able to defeat a sizable portion of the enemy, his years of experience allow him to make tough decisions that save many lives. This excites me because for once I am making choices where my actions will have direct consequences on the outcome of a mission and the entire story as a whole.

There are a lot more details on ideas and storytelling methods BioWare is working on in the article.  I encourage you all to check it out.

Check out the Games Radar TOR preview.