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Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Log Part Three: Force-Feeding Myself Evil
It’s too bad there’s no option to just settle down and retire in BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. After hours of questing amidst the tranquil sands of Tatooine, I’m ready for a lengthy break. Having played massively multiplayer online games for more than a decade, I’ve developed an extremely low tolerance for boredom, and…
By Mike Fahey Published January 3, 2012 -
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, Press Binoculars to Your Forehead
Binoculars? Aliens don’t need no stinking binoculars—especially when they have red eyes. As reader Peter pointed out, Star Wars: The Old Republic, like any game these days, has its fair share of bugs, but nothing that he’s found yet to be game-breaking. Some, such as this, aren’t glitches. They’re features Developed by BioWare, Star Wars:…
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 29, 2011 -
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Log Part Two: Some Sort of Jedi Mind Trick
What happens when a crazy Smuggler is joined by, a Jedi Consular, a Trooper, and a Sith Warrior in week two of Kotaku‘s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Log? Opinions change, ideas form, and they all learn a little something about friendship (and possibly crafting). I spent my second week in The Old Republic…
By Mike Fahey Published December 28, 2011 -
Adventure? Hardcore Pornography? A Jedi Cares Not For These Things
A Jedi might not care about the sins of the flesh, but Google certainly does, replacing the still for a developer diary with a steamy porn thumbnail in the search results for Star Wars: The Old Republic While it might have changed in the time between the writing and publication of this post, the Google…
By Mike Fahey Published December 27, 2011 -
BioWare’s Co-Founders Say The Old Republic Is “A Crash Course in Everything Star Wars“
Massively multiplayer games come into the world as wriggly things full of writhing paths of possibility. Things start changing as soon as those servers go live and players start interacting with each other and the content. Running beta tests can predict some exploits and behaviors, but the game’s also still being built while those betas…
By Evan Narcisse Published December 23, 2011 -
Jedi & Sith Turn Times Square Into a Star Wars Battleground
To celebrate the launch of video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, publishers EA flew teams of Jedi and Sith into New York City’s Times Square to face off. Then they shipped (or paid the subway fare?) for a whole bunch more. The pace of the action is a little…slower than we’re used to in…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 23, 2011 -
Remember Star Wars Galaxies With This Poignant Memory Book
A week ago Star Wars Galaxies closed down for good. Today, the MMO published its official “memory book,” a whale of a tome at more than 200 megabytes in PDF form, recalling all of the worlds, races and principal events of the MMO’s eight-year run. Remember the Sullustan, the Ithorian, the Wookiee, the Human and,…
By Owen Good Published December 22, 2011 -
Old Republic Could Have Been a Game of Thrones MMO (Or Lord of the Rings!)
Years and years ago, when the design team for what would become Star Wars: Old Republic was first sitting down to plan a video game, they knew they were going to make an MMO. Hopefully a Star Wars one. But just in case they couldn’t, they had to have some backups. And those backups will,…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2011 -
Star Wars Stormtroopers Went to Best Buy, and This Happened.
It’s a mild, late-fall night, the holiday season is in full effect, and you want to go get some soup at Au Bon Pain. Life is good, but for how much longer? Maybe you’re done with that soup and you wanted to go buy some DVDs. Well guess what, Miss Mary Mac, you picked the…
By Chris Carolan Published December 21, 2011 -
Wall Street Journal: Star Wars Game Is Actually An Attack on World of Warcraft
It’s hard to untangle whether it’s a media creation or born of the competitive natures of gaming and business, but according to at least one newspaper the war between Activision and Electronic Arts continues to simmer. “With Star Wars EA is taking aim at Activision’s World of Warcraft game,” the Wall Street Journal reports. It…
By Brian Crecente Published December 21, 2011 -
See How Star Wars: Galaxies Danced Out In Terror And Was Suddenly Silenced
Not with a bang, but several bangs. Then a whimper. And a succession of people just standing around, awkwardly, wondering what they’d done with the last eight years of their lives. As you’re probably aware, last weekend the plug was pulled on Star Wars Galaxies, the long-running, mildly-popular but ultimately disappointing MMO that had managed…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2011 -
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Log Part One: Light and Dark Running Smuggler
While the rest of Kotaku dedicated themselves to squeezing every ounce of gaming out of the world we live in last week, I spent the latter half on vacation, and by “on vacation” I mean playing Star Wars: The Old Republic I have a knack for scheduling my holiday time to coincide with the launch…
By Mike Fahey Published December 20, 2011 -
The Somewhat Exciting On-Rails Space Combat Shooting Gallery of The Old Republic
The Old Republic isn’t just about waiting, running, and shooting. This is a Star Wars game, and what would a Star Wars game be without action-packed space combat? Just look at how much fun I’m having here, and try not to be too jealous. Okay, so it’s a sad macro-scale mini-game that would be right…
By Mike Fahey Published December 20, 2011 -
How to Avoid Waiting in Line to Play Star Wars: The Old Republic
Now that Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially launched, the long queue times that players experienced at certain times during the early start are now working around the clock to keep you from logging in. How can you get your Sith on without standing around in a queue? The options aren’t pretty, but they’re…
By Mike Fahey Published December 20, 2011 -
Star Wars MMO Won’t Go Free-to-Play ‘in the Foreseeable Future’
DC Universe Online‘s done it. Team Fortress 2‘s done it. World of Warcraft‘s done it (sort of). 2011’s seen some of the biggest most ambitious massively multiplayer online game abandon the subscription-based business model and go free-to-play. Valve’s shift to an F2P model takes advantage of a game already chock full of microtransaction content. And,…
By Evan Narcisse Published December 20, 2011 -
Star Wars Nerds Win Again
It’s a popular if tired trope to cast the bankers, traders and other functionaries of the financial industry as big, bad guys. So, either the EA execs who gathered at the NASDAQ this building to ring the trading service’s opening bell this morning were there to cleanse the site of evil or showed up to…
By Evan Narcisse Published December 20, 2011 -
Three Simple Rules for Talking Like My Star Wars: The Old Republic Smuggler
It may be massively multiplayer, but Star Wars: The Old Republic is still a BioWare game, and that means dialogue trees. Let me share with you the rules I’ve set in place to make sure my Smuggler character is every bit the scoundrel I want him to be. Call it role-playing light. I’ve spent my…
By Mike Fahey Published December 19, 2011 -
Make Sure Your Copy of The Old Republic Contains a Registration Code
In anticipation for tomorrow’s official launch of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic online retailers began shipping copies of the game to customers early so they’d have their registration codes ready. Unfortunately that trick only works if the box has a registration code in it. Many did not. Judging by the number of complaints in…
By Mike Fahey Published December 19, 2011 -
Dual-Wielding Star Wars Nut Arrested for Lightsaber Assault
A man from Hillsboro, Oregon has been arrested and charged with assault after allegedly attacking customers at a Toys ‘R Us store with…two plastic lightsabers. The man, armed with two “blue” sabers (so he thought he was a good guy!), started swinging the toy weapons at customers in the Hayden Island store last Wednesday. When…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 19, 2011 -
Early Access Old Republic Gamers Get Two Days ‘Grace Period’ [Corrected]
For the record, there will be a “grace period,” in which those currently playing Star Wars: The Old Republic may still continue their character’s progress on the full title they’ve purchased, when that arrives. Previously, BioWare had suggested there would be no such “grace period.” [Correction] The grace period is meant to bridge Early Access…
By Owen Good Published December 18, 2011