According to the press release, what the Elements platform will allow EA to do is, “offer a breadth of new payment gateways, advanced virtual goods merchandising functionality, deep analytics capabilities, virtual item gifting, support for fictional (earned in-game) currencies, item storefronts, robust catalog management, cash-in flows and much more.”

This gives EA the chance to really monitor what they’re going to sell in their games and, more importantly, ensure that they are making enough money. The Old Republic obviously is costing a lot to make–five years in development, paying all of that voice talent and writers–so it’s understandable that EA wants to maximize their revenue.

But, the question that comes up is whether or not micro-transactions is the correct fashion.

What I’d like to see is a monthly subscription and then micro-transactions on top of that. Let me play the game without having to buy my gear, but if I want something special–a nifty colored lightsaber, a cosmetic added to my ship, or anything else–and I want to pay the $5.00 for it, so be it. We all know many people will do it. Just look at games put out by Zynga, the creator of Farmville. Some people spend $20-$40 a week on those games. So, people will obviously pay.

But, for many of us who don’t want to see microtransactions as a way of creating a hierarchy of “geared opponents” based on wealth, the above system works out best. But, EA is going to do what EA is going to do.

Unfortunately, what this agreement demonstrates is that EA is very serious about micro-transactions. All we have to wait for now is BioWare’s announcement about whether micro-transactions are, in fact, the payment method. I hope it’s not, but I am losing faith that my above system is the one that will be used.

What do you think? Are micro-transactions a better method or should we only have a monthly fee?

The only problem I can see coming from this is that creating that much music and sound for such a large MMO should be a daunting task. While it might have been, it seems as if BioWare and LucasArts had no problem doing it. The composers of LucasArts all got together and worked on writing a ton of music. And, the sounds people made unique sounds that really are great. The music and sound, while it won’t make or break the game, will really add so much to the experience.

Music in TOR

To begin with is the music. Music is so important when it comes to Star Wars. I can remember first popping A New Hope into the VHS–oh yeah, the VHS–and listening as the opening words crawled up the screen with that epic music. Or, how about when we first are introduced to Darth Vader? The Imperial March? All of these different songs had such an impact on the experience and added to what made the movies as amazing as they were.

Fortunately, we can expect to see the exact same, epic type of music in TOR. In their most recent Developer’s Dispatch, BioWare released a bunch of information on what the music is going to be like. The five minute video talked about the composition of music and about what went into making the music.

To begin with, the game is going to have five and a half hours of original music to complement KOTOR music as well as music written by John Williams. In other words, we will hear music that was from the KOTOR games as well as stuff John Williams wrote for the original movies. But, on top of that, five and a half hours of music was recorded just for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

John Williams’ music was included because, as they said in the video, he really created the emotional landscape for the movies. We got attached to what was going on because of the music. When you hear that Cantina Band play, you know it even if you don’t see their funny faces. Williams made that possible and the game wouldn’t be the same without the music.

We can expect to see choral music as well as orchestra music. One of the choral pieces demonstrated has a similar sound to the Duel of the Fates song found in Phantom Menace. I can remember watching Darth Maul fight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui Gon Jinn with this song in the background. At the same time, there are full, romantic orchestras performing music. There are fifteen first violins and fourteen second violins to just describe the strings. There are so many pieces coming together to make the music.

The overall point of the music is to add to the landscape. If you are walking through Dromund Kaas and suddenly the music changes, you know that something is bound to happen. It helps to add to the suspense of the game and to provide warnings to the game.

Overall, the music really adds to the game and makes the game stand out as a unique experience. When I am fighting against a Sith Warrior as a Jedi Knight, the music will be epic. But, what would the game be without some equally epic sound effects?

Sound in TOR

The developer blog written about sound is in depth and quite enjoyable. It opens with a small quote by George Lucas that really is so true. “Sound is 50 percent of the moviegoing experience, and I’ve always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.” When that lightsaber turns on, we know what it is and it excites us.

The first section was about the voice. As we all know by now, the game is completely fully voiced. That is just awesome. When I talk to a NPC and then talk to a different one, there will be two different voices. In my opinion, that rocks. It takes an “army to do something like this.” And it really does. They need so many different people. While one voice actor might do different roles for the same project, they might change their voice to still make it sound unique. The voice is going to be awesome.

The next section is about aliens. This is so important. We are talking about the unique different voices that are not speaking basic. We are talking about communicating in an entirely different language. We are talking about different species talking in their native language. Without these different languages, the game would sound dry. Why would a Wookie speak in basic? Exactly.

Combat sound is so important. One of the things that is exciting about the sound they are creating is that different weapons will have different sounds. It’s more detail they don’t need but are adding regardless. If I use a pistol, it’ll sound one way. If I use a massive rifle, it will sound an entirely different way. But, it’s also exciting because different lightsabers will make different sounds. This just adds to the experience.

One of the things they do say, though, is that they are not looking to drown the game out with sounds. While you might hear lightning in the background on Dromund Kaas, that doesn’t mean it’s all you’ll hear. It just adds a little to the experience without being overpowering.

In the end, music and sound is so important for the game. Star Wars had great music and the sounds were such a big part of the experience. This game is going to include things that the games had, only this time, it’ll be so much larger than any movie or game could ever be. I am so pumped for this.

The way I tallied the results were simple. I went through the entire newsletter list and pasted all of the emails into an Excel document. I then went through each email and cross referenced it with a comment. If a comment appeared, I then gave a point for everything they did: following on Twitter, joining the Facebook group and retweeting the post. For every point someone got, I copy and pasted their email again. So, if someone did everything, they got four total points.

This left me with a number next to each email. So, someone might have number 56, 57, 58 and 59. If that number appeared at all in the random generator, you got the winner. The generator that I used was random.org. I requested two integers to appear between 1 and 122. Then, random.org spit out two random integers. I cross referenced those two integers to the page and the winners were revealed to me. And, it is without further ado, that I present the two winners.

The winners are:

Ajay M and Zefram Cochrane.

Both of these individuals are going to be emailed personally. I thank everyone for participating in the contest. I thank TFAW for sponsoring it. It was really a great experience and I am glad that so many people got interested. For those that did not win, please head on over to TFAW and consider buying the comics. You can get the first upcoming three for less than $10. And they’ll be sent to you as they are released.

Thanks again for such a great contest!

Erickson told VCG that, “I can tell you that it’s not anything that we’ve even discussed. There is no-body anywhere in Bioware laying the groundwork for that because we have a very large complicated game to ship first.”

This is good news in my opinion. Instead of wasting time and resources to try and make the game decent on the console, they are using all of their resources to make an amazing game on the PC. He explained that the PC is the best for gaming because of the keyboard and mouse which, I must agree with.

Erickson went on to say, “There was not a question when we started Old Republic – or any of our games, for that matter – [what the lead format would be]. There’s a reason the lead SKU for Dragon age was PC as well. When we’re developing an RPG, it’s a natural place to be.”

RPGs really are the best on PCs, it seems, because there is so much more that you can do. You have increased controls which is definitely a plus. And it’s nice that BioWare isn’t wasting their time with the consoles because the game would only be sub-par. The fact that they came out and said clearly, “we have no plans” is nice because other companies have promised console versions and then they come out–or if they ever come out–they are poorly designed.

Anyone bummed that it isn’t coming to console, though? Were you betting on a 360 or PS3 version? Or a Wii version as blasphemous as that may sound? Chime in!

Yes, that’s right…The greatest MMO is going to be at another festival. It seems that instead of focusing on the story of each individual class, what they are instead looking to do is achieve a greater understanding about the story for multiplayer action and the overall story of the galaxy at that time. Here’s what Sean had to say:

Comic-Con International is coming to San Diego, California! Meet up with The Old Republic team at the panel entitled “Beyond Solo: Crafting the Multiplayer Story in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™” on July 23rd from 1:00 to 2:00pm in Room 7AB. Morgan Webb (G4’s X-Play) moderates a discussion with James Ohlen (Studio Creative Director and Lead Designer, BioWare), Drew Karpyshyn (Principal Writer, BioWare), and Alexander Freed (Managing Editor, BioWare) about the creation of the multiplayer, planet-spanning story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. While much attention has been paid to the unique individual stories of each of the eight classes in the game, the team is excited to share their approach to the broader stories players will experience in The Old Republic.

Other things going on at Comic-Con for The Old Republic:

• Blood of the Empire signing by Alexander Freed at the Dark Horse booth
• “Hope” Cinematic Trailer displayed at the Star Wars™ booth

And don’t forget, Friday, July 23rd is Star Wars Day! Arrive dressed as your favorite class or character from The Old Republic to show your support!

Stay tuned for more details!

In my book, this is awesome for so many different reasons. To begin with, they are going to be talking about the overall story. While I am interested in how each class is going to have their own, unique experience, what I am even more interested in is how all of these different stories collide together into one super, mega story. That’s what is most important to me.

Another reason this is so awesome is because they have Drew Karpyshyn. I’m a bit of a fan since I read his Darth Bane books. If you haven’t read them, check them out. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Anyway…He was the lead writer for KOTOR and I know anything he touches is going to have some amazing writing. So, it’s definitely great that he will be on the panel.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that they are going to be signing some Blood of the Empire comics. Dark Horse is an awesome comic book company and all of the comics they create are great. The ones we’re giving away are done by Dark Horse (actually, all Star Wars comics are done by them). So, all in all, that’s awesome. I’d love to get my hands on some signed comics, but I won’t be able to get out there.

All in all, this is going to be a story-driven hour that will really provide insight into the multi-player experience in regard to story. I am looking forward to it and if anyone is going, totally leave a comment. I’d love to get your opinion on it after the show.

What You Will Win

TFAW has agreed to send me two copies of the The Old Republic comic books each month for six months. Two lucky winners will receive one of these two comics every month for six months. So, if you are the winner, every month for six months, you will get a comic mailed to your house courtesy TFAW and TORUniverse.

How Do I Win

Winning is very easy and doesn’t require very much on your part. The contest is a point based system. The more things you do, the more chances you get to win. Here are the steps to win:

1. Subscribe to the TOR Universe newsletter on the right sidebar. This is a requirement because I will be picking–at random–the lucky winner from the people that are subscribed to the newsletter. Everyone who is subscribed gets one chance. You must confirm your subscription in your email to be added.
2. Follow @TORUniverse and @TFAW on Twitter. +1 Point.
3. Copy and tweet this text once: “@TORUniverse and @TFAW are giving away free #SWTOR comics. Click here: http://is.gd/dbOoG” +1 Point
4. Join the TOR Universe Facebook group. +1 point
5. After doing everything above, leave a comment on this article with the email you subscribed to the newsletter with. In the comment, leave a link to your tweet and if you joined the Facebook group of not. This step is mandatory to be entered. NOTE: Your email address will not appear to the public when you comment.

When Does the Contest End

The contest ends on July 9th which is a Friday at 11:59 PM EST. All comments must be in before this time period or they will not be tallied. Over the weekend, I will put together an excel sheet with all of the points people won. Then, I will visit RANDOM.ORG and select two random integers, compare it to the excel sheet to see who won.

If you do win, I will send an email to you requesting your shipping information so that I can send the comics to you. I will post on the site with the winners as well by first name, but won’t publish your emails.

A Few Notes

Please remember that so long as you have an email address and subscribe to the newsletter, you’ve got a chance to win. However, every other step you do–Following on Twitter, Tweeting the text and Following the Facebook group–will give you  more points and chances toward winning the comic books.

Another note: If you are from outside the United States, I will send you the comics in two shipments. So, once every three months, I’ll mail it to you. International shipping can get expensive.

If you are like me and can’t wait for this contest to occur and want to reserve your comics now, head on over to TFAW to purchase them. They are so much cheaper than you’ll find in any comic book store and you’ll get them as soon as they’re released.

Thank you so much TFAW for the chance to give these comic books away to these great readers. If anyone has any questions, please leave a comment. However, I think this is pretty straight forward.

The problem is, these are all rumors. There’s no way to confirm that this is actually happening and therefore, the TOR community is getting all antsy. One of the things that people were hoping would pop up at E3 2010 was beta announcement. I knew they wouldn’t announce it, but coming off such a successful E3, it makes me wonder if perhaps they were just waiting until right after E3 to launch. Perhaps they wanted to get a few more people who hadn’t heard of the game yet to sign up to become a tester. Maybe get a few MMO regulars that were hesitant about TOR to come check it out.

Sean, the community manager, says that they have no information to release about beta. Yet, soon after posting that, he also had this to say in the thread:

The Game Testing Agreement that was agreed upon (when signing up for game testing) states:

PERMITTED DISCLOSURES
1. The fact that there is a Game Program.
2. The fact that you are a member of the Game Program.

Outside of that, it is a violation of the agreement to do anything more such as posting images or screen captures of anything related to Game Testing that is private and confidential and not already publicly revealed by The Old Republic team.

Personally, I don’t know how to feel about that. Part of me really thinks that he is warning anyone who is participating in the conversation that might be a part of the beta this weekend to remember the rules. The other part of me thinks he is just confirming that if someone is in beta, they can say they’re in beta. It’s dicey.

Thanks to the great people over at AskAJedi.com, they made me aware of a tweet that was sent out by Paul Marino, the lead cinematic designer. It states that:

Playtesting The Old Republic this morning. Good start to the day.

Does that suggest anything? It suggests that there is some sort of testing going on. And, with the rumors flying around, it seems almost too convenient. I can say that I’ve not received an invite to do beta and since I’ve not received it, nor have I seen any true confirmation of a beta, I can’t say for certain that it’s going on. What I can say is that it probably is going on. They’ll invite a small group to test out a small area with very small class choices. They’ll probably test some PvP and they’ll see how a beta does in regard to the servers. And then, they’ll start to expand and more people will get invites.

If you got an invite, please post here and let us know. I’d love to have some legitimate confirmation about beta actually happening.

The “Hope” Trailer

While this was, technically, yesterday, I figured I’d group it with today. This trailer was, by the far, better than last year’s trailer. Don’t get me wrong, Deceived was awesome. But, this was just…It was longer and it was just wonderfully done. I liked seeing the Trooper thrown in there. And we get some insight into what the Sith have for weaponry: that robot anyone? It’s definitely looking cool. There were a few parts that were odd for me such as the Trooper charging Darth Malgus, but hey, the trooper is a bad ass. We get that. Take a look at the video yourself and appreciate it.

What do you think? Pretty awesome, right?

Ships

So, we have it confirmed that we will be getting access to ships in the game. Each player will get to fly around the galaxy in their own ship. We will get to customize it so that my ship doesn’t look like yours. And since I can make minor customizations that you might not make, there’s a good chance that we will both truly have completely custom ships. In an interview on Massively, Rich Vogel said that they weren’t going to be talking much about space at E3 because they are working on it now. But, and in his own words, “That’s pretty much where we like to have it because we are actually working right now on some cool stuff for space, and we’d rather talk about it when we get it finalized.” That looks like to me that they are planning some pretty epic things. We’ll just have to wait and see.

PvP

Going hand in hand with the release of the information about ships is the fact that there is going to be some interesting PvP. There is going to be these things known as Battlezones where two factions–obviously the Republic and the Empire–fight each other. PvP isn’t mandatory, but you do get some special gear and things of that nature for participating, so it doesn’t hurt to get involved. But, because you are not forced to do anything, you can probably go the entire game without it. In that interview, Vogel was very quiet about the type of system, but he did say that there would be both open PvP play and instances, so it’s going to be very interested in my opinion. We’ll just have to wait and see.

As I will mentioned in the next section, during an interview, it was alluded to that there could be PvP on ships. He was talking about PvP and then talking about ships, so I did get a bit confused, but if that’s the case, it could mean some interesting features for space flight. Can anyone say boarding party?

G4TV Interview

As I mentioned above, I was a little disappointed with this. I was following someone on Twitter–and watching it for that matter–who was live blogging it. And we both had the same opinion. “Pretty much all information that we already did know.” Now, I can understand that this was necessary for the sake of new people wanting to get involved. But, for avid followers like me and other site owners–and you guys who read these sites–it wasn’t all that amazing. But, while I sat there with my notepad in hand, I was able to jot down a couple of notes that really were important in my opinion.

The big line that stood out for me when Dallas Dickinson was talking was when he said, “We have announced eight classes thus far.” Now, I don’t know about you, but unless eight is all that I have planned to release, thus far suggests there might be more. Is this a guarantee? Of course not. But, it just seems odd that he would even suggest throwing “thus far” in there unless he was making an uber-quiet hint. Does anyone have any opinion on this? Could BioWare be working on more classes? With space now mentioned, could a class be “captain” and your entire life be in space? That would be interesting.

The other thing that I liked was his explanation as to how a smuggler could beat a Sith. There are lots of Sith out there. And since there isn’t one TOP Sith other than the Emperor, there could be stronger ones. But in this game, you are the BEST smuggler since there aren’t many. So, it’s possible for you to beat a Sith. But, at the same time, he did say that rock does sometimes beat scissors when talking about a Sith vs. a Smuggler. Head on, the smuggler will lose. With tactics, though, the smuggler should win.

With a little other discussion about the Inquisitor–with some interesting game play that looks awesome–we got some bits and pieces of information that we already knew. The starting planets are supposed to be like boot camps. Epic game play that teaches you the history of your class and how to play the game. A tutorial without boring you to death.

For those that watched it, were you impressed with this interview or was it just meh for you as well?

Actual Game Play

Because I am not at E3, I can’t say that I had the pleasure of playing the game. However, the people over at Darth Hater were able to play and they have created an exceptional check list of the different aspects of game play. I won’t go into it because there’s is awesome, but it looks as if this game is going to be somewhat similar to WoW’s platform, only much better and more polished. That’s to be expected, though, because BioWare makes amazing games. The one thing that seemed different was the loot. Instead of a roll of the dice, everything is just divvied up and that’s that. It’s definitely interesting. But anyway, check out their check list and when I can get my hands on some game play, I’ll post my own review.

Some Extra Videos

What would a post be without a bunch of extra videos? I thought I’d post the videos that TheGalacticStruggle.com put together. They’re just some videos of the different classes–except for the Jedi Knight and Consular of course–in action. I know I loved checking them out, so I am sure you’ll love them too.

Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent in Combat

Sith Warrior and Inquisitor Quest

Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent in Combat

Bounty Hunter Armor Progression

So, what do you think? Good stuff? Bored yet? I didn’t think so. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think of all the information thus far. Also, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter on the right sidebar to get up to the minute email updates. When we’ve got news, we’ll get it to you immediately. If email isn’t your thing, check out our RSS feed. Using whatever feed you want, get updates right to your reader. And as always, feel free to follow us on Twitter.

I came across this topic while searching through the SWTOR forums. In it, the author talks about how BioWare is releasing a new type of Sith that has to make choices rather than just follow the “I am Sith, I must kill, enslave, conquer, blah blah blah.” The first time I’ve really seen this and, as the writer of the topic suggests, is with BioWare’s newest comic, Blood of the Empire. Teneb Kel is a Sith Inquisitor–or so he appears to be–sent on a mission of the utmost importance for the sake of the Emperor himself. Yet, if you read the comic like I do, you’ll notice that perhaps he is more human than you’d have otherwise assumed.

Like the thread says, he allows Magot to do whatever he really wants; he does something as harmless as feeding the rats. These are things that you might think a Jedi would do. A Jedi would allow Magot to enjoy himself for some time, gaining some peace and relaxation. He would throw some food at the rats because, hey, what’s a little food? But, a Sith is all about me. Me, me, me. I want more power. I want more people to fear me. Let’s destroy another planet. Every Sith is always about me and yet…Teneb Kel is not. He appears different.

Could this be a new type of Sith that is emerging? Could it be a Grey Sith? I remember when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released, there was all of this talk about how Qui-Gon Jinn was this Grey Jedi who, if he had followed all the rules put forth by the Jedi, would have been on the council. Yet, he was one of the most powerful Jedi ever. He didn’t follow the rules, but he was a dedicated warrior in pursuit of peace and prosperity in the Republic.

Perhaps Kel is the same thing. He is obviously devoted to the Sith Empire; that much is for certain. More importantly, he is obviously a Sith because he has no problem slaying the Governor of that planet when the Sith soldiers are fighting. Yet–and I say this with apprehension because the Sith have always been the purely hateful, evil warriors who, as a Jedi lover, want to see destroyed–he does nice things and treats Magot with a level of decency.

This contradicts everything that has been presented about the Sith and yet…It makes perfect sense. It’s so easy to hate the Sith as a Jedi when they are purely evil. They are bad. We are good. Yet, when you are looking at a more human Sith, one who actually has emotions and does things other than just kill, it suddenly becomes a little dicier. How do I adamantly oppose the Sith just because they are different? Instead of seeing it as Sith are evil and Jedi, perhaps it is a simple case of: I believe my team is right and your team is wrong on both sides.

BioWare is developing an incredibly detailed game that, when it is released, I know will be amazing. To do that, though, they need to create dynamic characters. A more humanized Sith is the right approach, that much is for certain. And, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Sith truly are once the game is released. In your opinion, is a humanized Sith a good thing or a bad thing? Should they just be purely evil? Are there Grey Sith? Feel free to leave a comment.

There are a few things that really stood out for me. First and foremost, I love how devious they have made the Sith. “The Sith spent generations infiltrating Republic political circles and to even the Jedi Order.” While Sidious was able to take control of the Republic and was able to, effectively, rule an Empire, I have to wonder who was more devious. The Sith Emperor was able to get people within the Jedi Order and the Republic who were blatantly Sith. But, then again, Sidious was able to take over the entire Republic. It just demonstrates that the Sith were truly devious and that BioWare was going along with that.

Secondly, Naga Sadow. It’s very interesting that he was brought up again and, more importantly, the reason behind it. The Sith Emperor understood that if Naga Sadow’s spirit was allowed to remain alive, he would have a formidable foe to fight against him. This in itself demonstrates just how long the Sith Emperor planned for this and, more importantly, how complete his invasion would be once it did come a century later.

So, why does Naga Sadow send Padawan Gynt to try and kill Master Ovair? It took me a few takes to finally understand, but it makes complete sense. Ovair failed to destroy Sadow at first and that was why he escaped back to Coruscant, all crippled. However, seven years later, he was completely healed again. Gynt returned and by now, Ovair was prepared for anything because he really was a great warrior. Sadow knew that if he waited, Ovair might return. However, this was Ovair’s plan all along. He knew that if he waited long enough, Sadow would send Gynt to try and destroy the threat that was Ovair. It fed right into the Emperor’s plan. Sadow’s spirit was locked away for good and the Emperor had one less enemy to worry about.

In the end, this is another example of how the invasion by the Sith is not so black and white. On top of that, it is an example of how it didn’t happen over night. For centuries, the Emperor prepared. I am looking forward to the next edition where they talk more about the Jedi Civil War and Revan. What’s your opinion, though? What do you think of the series so far?