Now that it was announced that Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are retiring from Bioware I see no reason to continue running SWTOR Life. If a man that ran the creation of the game for 5 years and has a tattoo of its logo on his arm is now gone to make beer, I see no reason whatsoever to be spending my time on writing or talking about the game the way I did in the past 2+ years. This was a pure passion project fro me. I did hope and work on it becoming something more than a small fansite of SWTOR and we had some wonderful ups and downs throughout these two years, but I see no reason to keep doing fansite stuff anymore because I am not a fan anymore. It is now apparent SWTOR is an Electronic Arts product and not a Bioware product anymore and I want nothing to do with Electronic Arts if at all possible. I can support Bioware Austin, but I can’t support EA Austin.
  
I will continue working on SWTOR Spy because there is technology involved in that website and it would be a shame to see hundreds of hours I invested into that go to waste, but fanboy-ism, editorials, interviews and such are thing of the past (as far as SWTOR is concerned). Currently, I can’t think of anything that can happen to SWTOR that will make me change my mind and start posting on here again.
  
I would like to thank anyone and everyone that ever visited this website. Thank you for your comments and opinions and participation. SWTOR Life and SWTOR Spy together have been the second most visited website on the internet when it comes to The Old Republic and I am very proud of that fact.
  
I would also like to thank all the people that ever participated in the creation of SWTOR Life. I wish I could have done more for all of you, but things turned out the way they did and there’s nothing I could have done different.
  
I would also like to thank former and some of the current Bioware staff that showed us their support and love and selflessly provided us with loads of opportunities we did not deserve.
  
I wish you and yours the very best.
  
Serge out!
  

  
Several days ago, Crowley, from SWATHRadio.com (home of a SWTOR podcast), sent a call out on twitter to all SWTOR fans and fansites to participate in a megacast to discuss the going “free to play” news. I wanted to participate in that discussion. If there were a lot of people with varying opinions it would be awesome. In the end there were four of us discussing TOR and I started my appearance by saying something like:
  
“Hey guys, nice to mrgh, nergh, wergh, derp, herp”
  
You can listen to the show on iTunes or visit SWATHRadio.com to download it or listen the embedded version.
  
Also, for all of those that read the Deceived editorial can find that being discussed at length. I am glad I got to exchange opinions with other SWTOR players and fans. I wish more fanboys were present to defend Bioware, but they were too shy to show up?
  

In light of the most recent news coming from Electronic Arts, Bioware and Star Wars: The Old Republic camps I have come to the conclusion that it is time to change the direction and the intensity of my involvement in the SWTOR community and my support for the companies that made this game.

We will stop posting up-to-date news about the game on SWTOR Life. I would like to thank Joshrooms for working diligently these past months to bring you all that news goodness and I thank all who visited us because of that. We will also steer away from trying to be a column driven fansite or any kind of serious fansite for that matter. I intend to turn this into a personal SWTOR related blog where I’ll share a blog post or two when inspiration hits me and I hope I’ll make a few webcomics that have been floating in my mind for a long time now and that I never was able to do because there were “more important” things to be done. I am telling you all this so you are not surprised with all the incoming changes on the site.

We are now back to where we were in June 2009. when the site first started. This is again my very own, personal pet project, just as it was back then. In the past two years we tried to make SWTOR Life one of the most prominent TOR fansites on the internet. Considering the funding we had ($0) I am very proud with what was accomplished. This is all thanks to a lot of great people that joined and left SWTOR Life over the years. Thanks to SWTORCrafter, Mr. Warlock, Flagg, BorukBH, Dalqak, Rosie, Daelda, MJ and Josh we were able to bring the SWTOR community interviews with the developers, reporting from events, amazing weekly columns and tongue in cheek articles consistently over a long period of time. I had nothing to do with this – it is all accomplishment of the people I just mentioned and therefore I am in their debt forever (and I think the SWTOR community a bit as well).

Sadly, in light of all the things happening with the game and the fact that none of the above people are with SWTOR Life anymore (my fault mainly) I had to make a decision and scale down SWTOR Life considerably. From now on it will be a “if I feel like it” thing. I have overextended myself working on SWTOR Life and SWTOR Spy for a very long time and that has to stop yesterday.

I want to make one thing very clear though (in before the trolls). I believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic is a great game that has a lot to offer to any true gamer. There are so many things done very well that it is a shame if you do not attempt to experience at least a part of it. Personally, I will be enjoying the game for what I hope will be a long time to come. I believe with all my hearth that the Bioware, Austin crew stood by their product to the best of their abilities and tried providing us with the best game possible. I hope they will be able to get out of this hole and break the chains that bound them. Even if that does not happen I am proud and happy to have been a part of this amazing journey that waiting for and launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic has been.

SWTOR fansite landscape was always rich and full of various projects. It includes some of the most popular podcasts in the gaming space, there have been fansites active for 3+ years and people always loved talking, writing and contemplating about Star Wars: The Old Republic. It is no surprise that new projects keep coming up. The latest project is a bit special for us here at SWTOR Life, because one of our own – Joshrooms – participates in it. It is a vodcast (video podcast) called “Inside SWTOR” with several panelists discussing the current happenings in SWTOR. All panelists are members of the Pillars of Ashla PvP/PvE guild on the Juyo server and they play SWTOR very actively. They have produced 2 episodes so far and you can see things getting a bit more relaxed and smooth. If there is one new SWTOR project you want to look out for, this is the one. Oh yeah, and Joshrooms sports and EPIC beard :). You can keep up with new episodes by subscribing to the Fragworld Youtube channel or following http://tor-world.com, which is their home website.
  

This giveaway is now over. Thank you all who participated and congratulations to the lucky winners.

  
To celebrate the release of the Legacy patch we are doing a short lasting giveaway. You get a chance to win one of 10 codes that will unlock a special black and white colored Tauntaun mini-pet in game. This is a one time thing and it will only last for 4 hours. We just wanted to share our happiness with the rest of the SWTOR community by giving away something real fans would appreciate. Log in into the widget bellow and click on the button to enter the giveaway. No loops to go through – no nothing!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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,

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

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