Today is important for Star Wars :The Old Republic fans because today begins the biggest beta event ever held for the game. We, here at SWTOR Life, are very excited as well, because this will probably be the first time people will want to find more information about quests, datacron locations and Skill trees of their characters, and all of this information is available on our sister site SWTOR Spy. SWTOR-Spy.com is a SWTOR Database we have been working on for the past several months. It is currently the only non-corporate, created and operated by community members and fans, SWTOR database out there. We will try to bring the information to SWTOR players in a more personal way, while providing features you would expect from a database site. The site is, just like the game, still in beta, but some sections are already fully operational.

• Quests Database – is the flagship of our database. It will provide you not only with every step of every quest in the game, but also different choice outcomes and full screenshot walkthroughs for those hard to do quests! We have all quests on all Origin planets covered by image guides already, and a certain portion of quests all the way up to level 25.
• Datacron locations – We provide guides with coordinates and images that will describe how to get to a particular datacron.
• Skill Tree Calculator – a perfect way to spend your time while waiting the beta to start is to plan your character’s talent build. You can do that with our Skill Tree calculators for every class in the game
• Companions – Our list of companions will help you determine what Crew skills you might want to take due to bonuses companions provide, or you can check out our world exclusive list of gifts every companion likes or dislikes!
• Lore Objects – SWTOR Codex is the collector’s best friend. It lists all the interesting things you’ve encountered while exploring the Galaxy. We will help you find those hard to find entries. There are Lore Objects in the world that provide unique Code Lore entires and we give coordinates along with screenshot guides to their locations.
• Crew Skills (beta) – Check out the list of all crew skills and which crew skills go best together. We even have a list of all the recipes and components for Crafting Crew Skills, but the functionality is still not fully operational so check back in a few days to see it in its full glory.

We have also started a Guides section that will help novice, as well as advanced, MMORPG gamers find their way, with our very own SWTORCrafter giving expert tips for crafters of all profiles.
 
There are many more things to come in the future, but for now, check out what we’ve already put up or just use the quick search light saber we freshly installed on SWTOR Life and you will be taken straight to relevant information.
 

One of my favorite articles to write is about the addition to the staff here at Swtor-Life.  Today I have the pleasure of bringing you our latest columnist Rosie!  Rosie has an interesting take on the MMO gaming world and will bring a female perspective to the crew here.

She has come up with a creative idea for a weekly column that takes topics from the community and allows her to write off the cuff about the issues you the community find interesting.

Be sure to submit her your ideas for a swtor related article by using the contact us link  with the subject of “Rosie article idea” and you might just get an article written on a topic you requested!
Now lets hear a bit from Rosie about herself,

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Today I have the honor of announcing that one of our Staff members here at the offices of Swtor-Life has decided to throw his hat into the ring and begin writing articles for the site.  I am very pleased by this as he has been a long time contributor to the SWTOR community from twitter, the official SWTOR forums and many other places.  Those of you who are regulars here probably know him from twitter where he goes by the handle @Daelda.

His first article will be posted today in which he talks about “MMO Addiction”  It should be a fun time complete with many thoughts and ideas that the MMO community needs to hear.

I look forward to his future articles and I know that he has particular fondness for crafting in MMO’s so I hope to see something from him on that train of thought as well.

Join me in welcoming him to the writing staff and give him your support!

Here is a little bit from him about himself to help you get to know him better,

I served in the US Military for 8 years. I have worked in several Civilian jobs, including Co-Owning a game store for several years – selling RPGs, card games, board games and the like. I have been a GM for 28+ years and enjoy Role-Playing – which is how I met my wife of over 7 years.

I have been owned by ferrets since 1992 and currently have 4 Ferrets. I am now permanently disabled, making it hard for me to socialize IRL, so my main socialization occurs via my online interactions – including playing MMOs – which, due to a VERY understanding wife (who also plays), I can play almost as much as I want (well…as long as I don’t neglect her, the ferrets, or my ‘house-hubby’ duties). This results in an average of 40+ hours a week playing most MMOs, with more time spent during Launch events of course.

I am a Completionist, an Alt-O-Holic to the extreme (I plan on playing 16 Characters in SW:TOR – one of each AC, with two of each Species (one male and one female)), a light Role-Player, an Explorer and a big Crafter. I plan to be a Dedicated Crafter in TOR, using the Crafting System to is full potential if possible.

I have never been much of a PvPer or a Raider, but I am planning to use TOR as my “Reboot” MMO, where I try to give everything a fresh chance to win me over – and after watching the videos and demos, I am actually very excited for both Operations and PvP.

I have played MMOs for many years – starting briefly with the MUD Harshlands, then moving on to EverQuest, EVE Online back when it first launched (where I learned to dislike PvP), Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft – where I spent many years as a Guild Officer, Lord of the Rings Online – where again, I served as a Guild Officer, with brief stints in City of Heroes, and Age of Conan.

I *almost always* join a Guild before I even purchase an MMO, because it’s more fun to play with friends to at least talk to, than be completely alone, but I tend to do a lot of Soloing in MMOs, in part because of just how many hours I spend playing them. After spending so many hours grouped up, sometimes I just feel the need for some ‘personal time’ – even if I still stay in communication with my Guild Members. I enjoy helping others, especially those new to MMOs and have been known to go out of my way to take pity on a clueless newbie, with some basic Crafted gear and instructions on how to play.

I am also a fan of Single-Player RPG and Strategy games.

All fun aside and in all seriousness, today I have the pleasure of Introducing our latest featured writer to the site and the launch of our newest weekly column, “The RP XP” written by our newest staff member “MJ”.

Here at the offices of Swtor-Life we have been trying to decide which area of game play and related topics would be best for us to branch out into for you the community.  You are the heart and soul of why we do this.

We have the normal news style posts about SWTOR like most fan sites do, rehashed from fan site to fan site but, it is still necessary to get that out there to you. We have some funny and witty articles, we have some specialized content focusing on specific areas of game play like crew skills and in game economics to class focused content.

We are pretty well rounded as is but we wanted to add more. We want to add something else that’s specialized in nature, but of a different direction than we have taken you in the past. We want to chart unexplored space here at Swtor-Life while we ride the train leading up to launch and beyond.

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This Friday update is Fan Friday and, for us, it is the most exciting update thus far. It is because SWTOR Life is featured in Fan Site Spotlight section and we got to answer a few questions in it. Feel free to check it out in the official news article.
 
For all of you great SWTOR fans visiting us for the first time I would like to recommend our:
- Fan Site Summit game hands-on and event impressions
- Crafting and Crew Skills articles by SWTORCrafter
- Forum Friday and other articles by BorukBH
- Editorials by Mr.Warlock of SWTOR UK fame
- Humorous articles by Flagg
- Our infamous webcomic and demotivational posters sections
- We also have a super-fast, searchable developer tracker you might want to check out
 
Make sure you also keep a look out for our upcoming SWTOR E3 coverage straight from the show floor.
 
You can find all of us on Twitter. @SwtorLife, @SWTORCrafter, @Grant__D, @BorukBH, @MrWarlock_, @Dalqak, @ForceMeridian
Click here to read about all the other great stuff this Friday update has

Call me Serge the Hutt and be warned that SWTOR Life is my little criminal cartel. After all, I now have three Bounty Hunters present, shooting their articles at the world. That is right, the latest addition to our writer lineup is Dalqak, the Bounty Hunter. He will make a great addition to SWTORCrafter and BorukBH’s Bounty Hunter gang. Judging by his first article he is also a writing force to be reckoned with. We are very honored and humbled he decided to join the gang and I recommend you watch out for this guy, I am expecting great things coming from him.
Here’s a bit of information about Dalqak:
 
“No stranger to the Lucas’ beloved universe, Dalqak spent the formative years of his life mucking about with Star Wars action figures in his parents’ basement. One of his earliest cinematic memories was seeing Return of the Jedi in the theaters, and after that, the rest was history. Thankfully, it’s only slightly less socially acceptable these days to do the same thing as an adult.
 
Dalqak comes to us on loan from the loveable scamps over at Mongbat, where he has been a proud member for over 3 years, and where he currently heads up the SWTOR wing of their gaming enterprise. When not gaming or slaving away behind a desk, you might find him concocting all manner of strange dishes in his kitchen, or polishing his bacta tanks. ”
 
Welcome aboard! (the slave pens are that way and you will be getting your serving or stale bread later in the evening)
 
P.S. If you really want to see what Serge the Hutt would look like click here.
 

As it is finally the 18th in my time zone, I can now officially announce that representation from   www.swtor-life.com will be going to Bioware headquarters in Austin, Texas to take part in an on site, fan site event held by Bioware. The event will start on the 24^th and last through the 26^th of April and Bioware has graciously offered to bring us there for this grand time.

Me, Derek “Swtorcrafter” Green and my partner in this grand adventure,  Serge “Swtorlife” Stanarevic will do our very best, to bring you, the fans of the Old Republic, the best coverage and information we can. Our goal is to bring you all as close to the action as we are allowed to. We have interviews planned, live picture blogs of our journey through this adventure via Twitter, and of course you can count on our witty and informative articles to satiate your appetite for Star Wars The Old Republic information!

Although we are probably going to have to hide from Daniel Erickson cause we know he wants to kick our butts for our portrayal of him in gungan attire,

and we might just have to hide from Blaine Christine as well so he doesn’t try to drag us into a LARP game!

Be sure to stay tuned to this site and also through Twitter for all the action from the fan sites and the Developers using the hashtag #SWTOUR (great name!  -credit to @rockjaw -aka- Stephen Reid, Senior Community Manager for Bioware)

You can follow the Swtor-Life team through Twitter at the following accounts, @SwtorLife, @SWTORCRAFTER, @MrWarlock_, @Grant__D, @ForceMeridian and @BorukBH

We hope that you will follow us and join us in this grand adventure!

I would like to make a personal thank you to Bioware for this opportunity!  They have done much more for me and my partner Serge than provide a way for us to enjoy what is to be one of the most awesome events in SWTOR pre-release history, they have given friends the opportunity to meet in real life.

Some of you that know us here, may know that I am located in the Central United States and Serge is located In Serbia.  While we are fully committed to making this fan site one of the best in the community for SWTOR, we never actually thought we would get the chance to meet in real life because of obvious distance issues.  Bioware, thank you, you have made our dream of one day meeting a reality, we will never forget this!

WOOT LET’s GET READY TO PARTY!

BIOWARE,

WE R IN UR BASE!

(almost )

I have the great honor of welcoming another talented SWTOR fan to our ranks. Force Meridian will be adding an article here and there to the site providing his fun and engaging thoughts to the mix. You might know his writing from his excellent blog at forcemeridian.blogspot.com. You want to know more about him?

Well, he is a wandering scribe and chronicler of the “Revan Rancor Roundup on Lehon,” and author of the guide, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Kolto (But Were Afraid to Ask),”. Force Meridian was kind enough to drop by this region of hyperspace to contribute a few pieces here and there, out of the kindness of his heart… Well, that and the fact that he currently owes Mikro 50,000 credits on account of a losing streak in a back alley game of Sabaac…

Welcome aboard mate!

It gives me great pleasure to announce that BorukBH has decided to join forces with SWTOR Life. You probably know him through his articles that he writes at http://bountyup.wordpress.com/, which he will continue to write at his new web-home – SWTOR Life. He will be a great addition to the site and make this an even greater resource to all fans of the Old Republic. I am really honored and humbled that he chose to join our little band of galactic misfits. You will be able to access his section of the site through the menu tab above just as soon as we finish setting everything up.

BorukBH is 37 year old father of 3, and married. Full time Audiovisual Coordinator for a major retail company who fills those voids in a hectic daily schedule with a joy of MMO’s.

Welcome aboard!

SWTOR Life is proud to present another addition to the site that we hope all Old Republic fans will appreciate. It is a page that will keep track of all the posts Bioware developers and staff are making on the official forums. There is a version of this found on the official site (link), but we weren’t satisfied with the features it has, nor the functionality. We present you a version that has instant search (it’s more of a filter applied to all posts) of all dev posts integrated so you can search for posts only by one of the developers or a keyword. You can also sort all the dev posts by the person that posted, forum it was posted in or date. We plan on adding more features to the page, like adding Twitter posts to the mix, and we hope to bring them very soon. It is still in a sort of a beta state so please report any problems you might have with it.