Beta Testing activity in Star Wars: The Old Republic is intensifying closer we get to launch date. The latest news is that French and German gamers have been for the first time invited into testing. I am not sure if they will be able to test in their own language, as was discussed a month ago when this was initially going to happen, but I am just glad that Europeans will get to have at least a small say with the future direction of the game. Along with this wave of invites there was another wave for English speaking gamers like those in Canada, UK and USA. All of these were invites for regular game testing that is an ongoing affair. Larger in volume, yet shorter in duration are Beta Weekend tests and today we saw invites sent out to all countries that SWTOR will initially launch in. This is the second Beta Weekend test and we hope this will become a more regular happening in the 9 or 10 weekends left before the game launches. The 2nd beta weekend will last from 7th-10th October, 2011. It will end on midnight October 10th for the US testers and some time early morning on the 11th for the EU testers (because of the time zone difference). All of the invites in the aforementioned waves have now been sent out and you should have them in your mailbox. If not, check your spam folder or check your beta testing status on www.swtor.com/tester.
 
As a help for the community, Stephen Reid and the community management team have setup a permanent thread on the forums that will track all the major beta testing happenings. They will try and update that forum thread each time a beta testing invite wave is about to go out (or has just gone out) and they’ll try and keep us updated on the most important information about what’s happening with SWTOR beta testing. If you are anxiously awaiting for your chance to test The Old Republic make sure you bookmark this thread. Here’s the most important info found in that thread today, October 4th, 2011.

Invites that were sent last week (week ended September 30th)
-Who was invited: Testers from the USA, Canada and select European countries
-What was sent: General Game Testing invites
-Server location: East Coast USA
-Invite status: All invites in this batch are now sent
-Invites that have been sent this week

General Game Testing invites
-Who was invited: Testers from the USA, Canada, France and Germany
-What was sent: General Game Testing invites
-Server locations: East Coast USA (North America testers); EU servers (France/Germany testers)
-Invite status: All invites in this batch are now sent
-Beta Testing Weekend #2 invites

All invites for Beta Testing Weekend #2 have now been sent. Please check your email (including spam folders) and login to swtor.com/tester/ to see if you have been accepted for this weekend’s testing.
-Who was invited: Testers from the USA, Canada and all European launch countries (see list here)
-Please note – We will be re-inviting all testers from Beta Testing Weekend #1 (AKA ‘Squadron 1020’) as promised.
-What was sent: Beta Testing Weekend #2 invites (October 7th to 10th – early hours of 11th for EU)
-Server locations: East Coast USA (all testers)
-Invite status: All invites in this batch are now sent

Tags: beta weekend, game testing

Over the past month or two I’ve been actively looking for a PvP republic hardcore guild to run with when TOR hits in a few months.

Now with the guild set-up that SWTOR has set in place you would think this was an easy task. Well thats what I thought when I first started. Yet I’ve almost gave up on getting in a guild before the game releases.The yard stick to measure your achievements by seems to be WOW, yet I do not like WOW and my attempt of playing this game is meager few hours at most.

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I loved the galaxy map in Mass Effect. It was just Sci-Fi enough to make my nerdy senses tingle. We heard before that there will be a similar map in The Old Republic as well. This Friday update brings us an unexpected new feature on the official Holonet portion of swtor.com site – an interactive Galaxy Map. This is probably a preview of the map we will find in the game, only you view it in your browser. The interactive map features each of the planets we will be able to visit in-game together with all the information and videos that we could find on “plain old regular” web pages about those planets. There is also a special section dedicated to personal spaceships each of the classes will be getting. You can view details about each of the spaceships as well as look at their 3d models (and rotate them to see every detail from every angle). Although this is just a fluff update, I enjoyed it nevertheless. The feature is just that cool.
 

Tags: friday update, galaxy map, Holonet

((The RP XP with MJ #6 – Sex and RP))

The bounty hunter released the Twi’lek’s chin and let her head fall forward. “She’s out cold.”

Agent Jenla Ruf smirked, disappointed. “Maybe we should just kill her.”

Boarsch looked down at Yulel, her orange skin now pale except for the bruises and cuts, her lekku hanging limply over each shoulder as she slumped in the chair to which she was bound. “Pity she couldn’t tell us what we needed to know.”

Jenla looked up at the hunter and shrugged. “There will be other runners we can torture.” She sighed. “I’ll have to report this to Lord Tagious.”

“Why?”

Jenla narrowed her eyes at him. “Hm?”

Boarsch set his helmet and gauntlets on a nearby crate and stepped around the unconscious Twi’lek to the agent. He gently placed his hands on her arms. “Why? I mean why tell him anything?”

Jenla’s red eyes sought meaning in the Mandalorian’s question, she searched his face but could only frown. “I must. It’s my duty to–“

“Tell him nothing until you have something to report.”

Jenla looked to the beaten Twi’lek. Boarsch gently took her by the chin and turned her face to meet his eyes. “I’m serious,” he whispered. “When you left home and sought me out, you said you loved me. You said you trusted me.”

“I do, but–“

“Then trust me now.” Boarsch shifted his stance. The belt loaded with grenades and blaster packs creaked and clacked at his waist. “Look, who’s the one who helped you when you needed it? Who watched your back while you fought your way through the Imperial Training Facility on–“

“You did.” Jenla now held his gaze, her voice harder but her red eyes softening.

“Who brought you here and protected you, delivered this Twi’lek to you?”

“You did.” Jenla reached up and rested her hands on his armored shoulders. She leaned into him and felt the support of his armored body. “You always do.”

“Then don’t say anything until you have something to say. I don’t want Tagious to kill y–“

Jenla’s hands moved to the sides of Boarsch’s head and she pulled him down to kiss her. Their lips lingered as the Mandalorian and the Chiss relaxed into the familiar precursor of their physical desires, each one surrendering responsibility and time to passion.

As their breathing became heavier, Jenla reached down and unhooked the bounty hunter’s belt. It dropped to the floor with a loud clank. Boarsch reached for her neck and slowly unzipped her uniform tunic. He said, “I want you.”

Jenla smiled as she led him toward an adjacent room. “Everyone does.”

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Tags: Roleplay, roleplaying, RP, Sex

 
If you are like me and woke up to find a couple of emails from EA/Bioware mentioning SWTOR game testing – do not get your hopes up. There has been a mistake in the Bioware offices last night and a huge number of emails were sent to swtor.com members. One of the emails asked people to take a survey about their game testing experience (as if you are a participant) and the second email thanked you for your participation in game testing and offered to pre-order the game. Both of these were not intended for all the recipiants and were sent to a much larger group than they should have. Just a human error. So, no – you did not somehow miss your game testing invite email. This was just a honest mistake. As always, the best way to see if you are a tester or not is to log into www.swtor.com and check www.swtor.com/tester page. Here’s the official statement:

Earlier today, two e-mails were sent to members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. These e-mails were sent to a larger group than intended, and have caused some confusion in the community. We can confirm that these e-mails were from EA and BioWare and apologize for any confusion they have caused. Please note that receiving these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game. Thank you all for your understanding!

 

 
Am I the only one that cried a little inside when I realized the emails were an error?
 

Tags: beta, email, error, facepalm

September was not a particularly good month for beta testing of The Old Republic. There were problems with executing the planned Beta Weekends and there was considerable downtime because a new build was being prepared for testing. This caused even further delays to larger scale European testing. With only 1 and a half days left unti lthe end of September we get news that will probably make up for all the misses that happened this month. Chris Collins, the recently employed European community manager, posted on the official forums that a batch of invites has been sent out today to EU players. Here’s a snippet:

Today, we’re excited to announce that we are sending out a batch of invites! In particular, this initial batch marks the start of a series of invites to our larger European player base, who get the chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Testing program and provide feedback during the months up until launch.

To further the excitement it seems that tomorrow we might get even more news about the upcoming beta weekends and testing in general. Everyone is hoping that his means an all out widening of the beta testing program so that a lot more people get to experience SWTOR before launch (and help splash those nasty bugs). This was hinted at in Chris’ forum post, but also, Stephen Reid tweeted the following:

We sent both NA and EU invites in the last 48 hours. More news on testing is coming tomorrow.

Considering all of the above I think tomorrow’s update will not be disappointing.

Tags: beta, game testing

One of the things that I loved most about the original Knights of the Old Republic game was the deep, rich story it weaved. It took a virtually untouched area of the Star Wars timeline and created a setting just as touching and moving as the original movies themselves. One of the things that made this story so great was the introduction of a species that traveled the stars and ruled the galaxy long before the creation of the Republic. I speak of the Rakata and their Infinite Empire, a species that had a drastic impact on the galaxy and whose history is the subject of this week’s TOR Lore.

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Tags: lore, Rakata

Stephen Reid has once again come to the forums and reaffirmed something that should not need to be said.

Since the pre-orders went out we all knew was that it was a first come first serve basis and that by entering your pre-order code would determine when you would gain access to the game.

I took this as a given, and this is not a debate about who got shafted by what company’s on the pre-order codes that got held back. I know mine did as many others in the UK.

This following yellow text post was just to say that nothing had changed and that access would be granted to in the order of which the code where entered on the site.

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It came in an instant we received the release date E-Mail and the posts went up on the SWTOR forums about when the early access would begin.

Now normally early access to MMO’s have been anything between 3 and 10 days before the release date or there about’s. As far as I know no other high profile games are being released at the same time. This gives BioWare a nice window so they do not have to push it out early and they can concentrate on just getting the game right. Without the fear of another MMO breathing down TOR’s neck.

So what would be an ideal time to start the early access party going ?

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Ok, first let me start by saying like many other followers I’m stocked that we have a release date at long last.

But could SWTOR have picked a more awkward date to release a MMO ?

Also the way it was announced was very strange indeed, with no sign that the formidable train was entering the station.

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Tags: bioware, community, gameplay, release date, star wars the old republic mmo, swtor