There was a community meet & greet held in Cologne, Germany during Gamescom 2012 gaming convention and the SWTOR community team had this little show for us.

We’re in Cologne, Germany and we visited the SWTOR booth, where we found level 20 characters fighting it out in a new warzone. The objective of the warzone is to activate the two pylons which then start a countdown before they explode. To save yourself from the explosion all players must go to the middle room where they fight it out until the explosion is over. All the while each kill brings you closer to activating a special end event that will defeat the losing team for good. This last special effect is still not present in the game but we can now show you footage of how the warzone is played in this exclusive video in all its glorious HD quality (and people passing by)

Tags: Ancient Hypergates, PvP, video, warzone

The event is now LIVE!

  
UPDATE: The event is not yet live as of August 13th 2012. at 11AM PST.
  
We have just learned that the Chevin are making their move and that their presence will soon be felt on the Smuggler’s Moon, Nar Shaddaa. The only hint we have is this Imperial News Network clip.

  
From the data-mined information we presume that there will be a race you can participate in. You will be able to choose whether you will run the race for Chevin, Empire or the Republic and based on which faction you represent you will get an appropriate title as well as an achievement unlock for participating in the event and probably completing something along the way. Here are the links to Codex unlocks datamined from the event:
  

• The Chevin Conglomerate: The Grand Acquisitions Race
• SIS Freelancer (title)
• Imperial Loyalist (title)
• Capable Sentient (title)

  
Here’s the official word on the event released along with the above teaser video:

For a short time only, The Chevin Conglomerate is offering great riches to anyone who brings them rare and unique items. Scattered across all parts of the galaxy, these items must be retrieved before the Chevin return to their home in the furthest reaches of the Outer Rim! Be cautious as some within both the Republic and Imperial governments wonder if there is something more sinister driving the Chevin and their quest to acquire these goods…

  

Tags: chevin, event, Grand Acquisitions Race, race

There was a rumor floating around that one of the good doctors that founded Bioware has left after SWTOR layoffs in May. This has been denied by EA staff. Now, Eurogamer and Gamasutra are reporting that there was a change in roles, not as drastic as one of the founders leaving the company though.

Dr. Greg Zeschuk stepped down from the position of General Manager for Star Wars: The Old Republic in May and is now in Edmonton with his family taking a well deserved break. In an email to Gamasutra he said the following:

With regard to BioWare Austin, I handed off the leadership of the studio to Matthew Bromberg quite some time ago (back in May). Ray [Muzyka, BioWare co-founder] and I picked Matthew to take over and he’s been doing a great job with the studio.

My time in Austin was always planned to have a finite endpoint (my family was still living in Edmonton throughout my time in Austin) and now that I’ve handed the baton to Matt, I will be able to spend more time on a wider range of BioWare games rather than focusing on just one as I did with SWTOR.”

While he was working on SWTOR Dr. Greg spent most of his time in Austin, Texas, while his family remained back in Canada. I would like to thank the good doctor for all he did for the game and the sacrifices he made so we would be able to play it one day.

Tags: Greg Zeschuk

  
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?
  

  
With today’s maintenance we saw a patch being deployed for SWTOR. These small patches are usually not that interesting because they are just bug fixes or something similar. This time though we saw what might be considered a significant change for Legacy perks. A lot of legacy perks have had their Legacy level requirement lowered considerably. Here are the changes that were introduced with the pathc:
  

• The Legacy Levels required for experience modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/3/5/7/10 (changed from 5/10/15/20/25).
• The Legacy Levels required for companion modifier perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 2/5/8 (changed from 5/10/15).
• The Capital World and Outlaw’s Den priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 2 (previously 10).
• The Fleet Vanguard and Black Hole priority transit perks now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).
• The Legacy Levels required for the repair droid perks have been adjusted. The ranks now require Legacy Level 5/8/12 (changed from 10/15/25).
• The field respec perk now require Legacy Level 5 (previously 10).

  
If you logged in since the servers went online and you transferred your character during the free character transfer you should also be welcomed by 25 Black Hole recommendations and Gannifari mini pet in your in-game mailbox.
  

Tags: gannifari, legacy perks, Patch

I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone that ever decided to buy or spend any money on Star Wars: The Old Republic on account of my fansite influencing them to do so. I am sorry, I have deceived you into giving money for something that will be free in a few months. I chose to believe everything Bioware was telling me about SWTOR and I supported it wholeheartedly by telling people it is a great product that will last for years and years to come and that investing money into it will bring joy into your gaming life. It will still bring joy to gamers, as a free offering, and that is a huge difference.
  
We, the first customers of SWTOR, have given about $90 to EA and Bioware on average (game cost + three month subscription to average things). Money none of the people playing from November 1. will have to pay. That is why I feel like I deceived you.
  
I have supported and recommended SWTOR to everyone for one simple reason. All along we were promised a top notch product that will justify paying a monthly fee. We have seen many MMORPGs of the past not reach the highest quality at release. Age of Conan was unfinished past level 20, Warhammer Online was boringly easy, Star Trek Online had only the space combat done well out of all the parts of the game and so on. Star Wars: The Old Republic was not to repeat these mistakes. It had 200 million in funding, it had people that brought us KOTOR, Dragon Age, DAOC, Ultima and many other great games working on the project. It was hailed as a pivotal product for Electronic Arts. Some of the people working on the game even got permanent tattoos displaying their full commitment to the game.
  
We were all deceived.
  
Past the first month subscription numbers started to plummet. There were things that needed to be done in the game that took way too long to be done (more on that in another article) and people simply voted with their wallets. Apparently, SWTOR did not warrant a monthly subscription. The game is not half that bad to be honest. Maybe the subscription model is dead. If anyone should have known this it was Bioware and Electronic Arts. They should not have deceived us by saying they have something we will want to pay a monthly subscription for.
  
Not even six months after release we saw the first people from Bioware, Austin get fired. Electronic Arts started cutting expenses and changing direction for SWTOR. John Riccitiello labeled SWTOR as one of the top 10 products for EA (but not a top 5 product) and started firing people. So much for Electronic Arts’ full support for the project and the game. What was to be an ongoing service for years to come was being crippled 6 months into the service going live. Bioware was deceived into believing they have time to fix the problems and take SWTOR in the right direction. I am guessing month 3 was when support stopped. By month 8 not many original people are in Bioware, Austin anymore and EA has changed its stance towards SWTOR from flagship product to disappointing. In MMORPG world this is a very short time and going F2P after 10.5 months is like straight to DVD for movies.
  
Sticking to that movie analogy, SWTOR is the Waterworld of the gaming industry.
  
I can understand Electronic Arts’ logic. They were deceived into believing that Bioware is capable of delivering a world class product that will create over a million subscribers in years to come. Obviously that did not happen within the timeframe EA thought as comfortable for them.
  
I feel that I need to make one thing very clear. This article is not about SWTOR being a good or bad game or about Free to play model and what it means for SWTOR (it is a very natural progression and a very good thing for gamers). This is about everyone being deceived and the announcement about Free to play bringing that to light. If you check out this Gamespy article they have a very nice layout of all the Bioware quotes from past talking about free to play. What Bioware has been telling us all along (for the past two years) is that free to play might be the future, but they have a product that warrants a subscription. They back-paddled only 8 months into release and switched their story completely (firing half the staff along the way). This tells us that they are capable of deception , or are completely incompetent. Either way, it is now obvious the only price you should have been paying for SWTOR is FREE.
  
P.S. I had the honor of having dinner with Stephen Reid and David Bass in Austin. I had the privilege of interviewing James Ohlen and asking questions to Damion Schubert, Daniel Erickson and Blaine Christine. I chatted with the writers of the Old Republic. All of those people were very passionate about the game they were making. They loved it very much and they lived and breathed that game. That is why I believed them and believed in them. That is why I wholeheartedly supported SWTOR for the past 2 years and recommended it to everyone. That is why I find this a bit tragic, because apparently loving your work does not necessarily translate into success and than all the love is forgotten and everyone is just feeling deceived.
  
DISCLAIMER: All the opinions and conclusions in this article are that of its author. The author reserves the right to be proved he is wrong and is willing to hear the opinions of others on the subject. Please leave your comments in the comment section bellow.
  
UPDATE: You can hear me talk about this article and the reasons I wrote what I wrote in a podcast with SWATHRadio.com You can find the podcast on their website or download it here
  

Before going in deep into making an educated opinion about SWTOR’s conversion to a F2P model I wanted to go over what happened at yesterday’s EA Earnings call. You can find the recording of the call as well as all the documentation at http://investor.ea.com/ . I will try and list the facts as they happened and offer my analysis of the events.
  

1. 1 hour before the earnings call began it was announced that SWTOR will be adopting a F2P model alongside its regular subscription model and that it will be introducing a cash shop
2. John Ricitello, CEO of EA, said the following in his fourth sentence of his speech to the investors: “The disappointing results of Star Wars: The Old Republic were largely offset by a powerful performance from Battlefield 3 Premium service“
3. No exact number of subscribers was revealed but this was said: “Mentioned break even point was 500,000, SWTOR is well above that but under 1 million total subscribers. Offering two-tiered pricing plan in November.”
4. SWTOR and BF3 were mentioned again in the following sentence: “Our diversity allows us to make up for a miss on one franchise (SWTOR) with a hit on another (BF3)”
5. EA lowered their expected revenue and profit margins for the quarter and this is what they said about why they did it: “Star Wars is the primary driver for adjusted guidance to a lower number.”
6. There was a question near the end about the future of Star Wars and this is what Frank Gibeau had to say: “The idea with F2P is to open the funnel and get some of the players back that we lost to churn. We anticipate that the mix between subscriptions and free to play are going to be balanced but we don’t foresee free to play revenues as incremental to anything that we discussed in the call.”

  
Lets analyze this information. Less than an hour before the investors call we find out that SWTOR is going F2P only 8 months after its launch. This is a major change of strategy and direction only 11 months after the game launched. Never has there been so much money invested, nor strategy about the subscription plan so quickly changed in the history of MMORPG games. The closest to come to this time frame is DC Universe Online by Sony Online Entertainment.
  
The next thing that happened is that CEO of Electronic Arts, owner of Bioware and the one that paid for development and marketing of Star Wars: The Old Republic, said in his fourth sentence of the address to the investors that SWTOR had disappointing results. The CEO of EA chose not to downplay how bad SWTOR is doing and basically opened his address to the investors by blaming SWTOR for disappointing results. Further into the investors call we also learned that they blame SWTOR for not reaching their revenue guidelines. This is huge in every way. When a CEO says something like this about one of company’s products this probably means the product is being discontinued at best. Combined with the fact that they fired half the people in Bioware, Austin, including higher-up staff, we see a company blaming and punishing everyone involved in a project for bad results and acting accordingly.
  
The subscriber numbers were not explicitly mentioned. We were given a range of bellow 1 million (which means out of 2 mil boxes sold they retained less than 50% customers), but well above the 500.000 bottom line they mentioned during their last investors call. This statement makes no sense when we calculate in the facts that they fired half the staff and announced one of the fastest conversions to F2P in MMO history. The moves they are making tell us that SWTOR is trending towards well bellow their bottom line and they are doing damage control right away. Their actions tell us that EA has labeled SWTOR a failure and is now just salvaging what can be salvaged.
  
The last thing I wanted to discuss is the statement by Frank Gibeau on what they expect in SWTOR’s future. This part is important “we don’t foresee free to play revenues as incremental to anything that we discussed in the call“. This tells us that EA does not believe in the Free to Play model as the one that will bring them significant increase in revenue and that they are probably doing it just to salvage the situation the best they can and perhaps get a few more dollars in the process.
  
Conclusions:

• EA blames SWTOR for not meeting its Q1 goals and calls SWTOR’s performance disappointing
• EA anticipates that at current trends the subscribers would go bellow the bottom-line number of subscribers needed for the game to keep operating
• EA is making moves to salvage the situation and is now doing damage control and not trying to “fix” the game or “improve” the gaming experience
• EA does not believe in the F2P model for SWTOR

  
These are all terrifying conclusions for any fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I will be discussing the impact of these conclusions on the game itself and its future in my next article tomorrow. In the meantime please share with me your opinions in the comments section. I would love to hear everyone’s take on what happened during the investors call yesterday and what impact it will have on SWTOR’s future.
  
DISCLAIMER: All the opinions and conclusions in this article are that of its author. The author reserves the right to be proved he is wrong and is willing to hear the opinions of others on the subject. Please leave your comments in the comment section bellow.
  

It has just been announced that less than a year since launch Star Wars: the Old Republic will be going free to play. They are adopting a hybrid model where you can choose to be a subscriber and get full access to the game or a free player and have (severe?) restrictions to what you can do. You can see the official page comparing the free and subscribed players’ restrictions and advantages.

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

  
Together with the announcement about the conversion to free to play we have also seen a promotion of the page detailing all the new content that we’ll see “by the end of the year”. The page also details that current subscribers and those that keep a subscription going will be rewarded with “Cartel coins” with which they will be able to “buy unique items as a part of our Reward program”. You can see the official page detailing the Cartel coins and the cash shop (or Cartel market as they call it) here.
  
I’ll be doing an editorial about this in the coming days and we are still waiting for official subscription numbers that will be released within the next 2 hours.
  
I would love to hear your opinions about what this means for SWTOR and whether this is a good or a bad thing. I would also love to hear what you think if this means that SWTOR has failed, succeeded or just changing plans according to the current state of the MMORPG market. Any community feedback is welcome.
  

Tags: f2p

  
Bioware did a great thing by adding the defense stats to PvP warzones and adding votes where you can vote for that one healer that kept you alive throughout the whole match. Still, gamers always look for the easiest way though a game and groups usually give votes to each other no matter how well they actually did during a warzone match. I did it as well when I was playing with the guild I was in. Still, it hurts as hell when you win the most medals and are ranked number one in a warzone and get no MVP votes whatsoever. I am almost over the fact that can happen … almost.