Interviews

This time on RoleCraft, Jim Moreno wants to hear from you roleplayers out there.

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Clausewitz to gaming, this time examining what happens when you have to turn and run.

Empire Day is coming to Star Wars: Galaxies beginning on Monday, June 24th. There are legion activities for both Rebellion and Imperial factions. Check out the details by clicking below.

The Chapter 10 notes for Star Wars: Galaxies have been released. Called "The Search for the Meatlump King", the notes are comprehensive in listing the improvements, enhancements, balances and bug fixes. Check them out after the jump.

In this installment of RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at an interesting idea from WoW RP Realms: Full Immersion Roleplaying (FIRP).

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his study of Clausewitz and examines the art of the kill.

Jeff "Jaskell" Haskell has penned a preview of the puzzles that will be featured in the upcoming deployment of Chapter 10 and Meatlump theme park. It's an interesting article about how they will function for players. See what we mean by clicking below.

Update 10 has been placed on the Star Wars: Galaxies Test Center and the patch notes for the upcoming deployment of Chapter 10 are published as well. Click through to look them over.

Just in case you may not be aware, RoleCraft isn't the only place where you can find roleplaying related info on the interwebs. Of course you know that, and I'm only joking. During the course of my day, I am given and locating sites which are directly related to or merely referencing some aspect of roleplaying, and I consider it part of my duty to help keep you, my fellow roleplayers, informed as much as possible.

Tomorrow is D-Day for Star Wars Galaxies Update 4, according to a forum post today. Here are the particulars:

On Tuesday, May 27, at 4:00 AM PDT all U.S. and European galaxies will be taken down for server maintenance and a live update.

When the update is complete, all galaxies will be live but unavailable while we complete final testing. All galaxies will be made available after that time.

4:00 AM PDT (Los Angeles) / 6:00 AM CDT (Austin) / 7:00 AM EDT (New York)
11:00 AM GMT (London) / 1:00 PM CET (Berlin) / 8:00 PM (Tokyo)

Time Zone Calculator

Click through for the patch notes.

Since we are dealing with computer-generated cyber worlds that are more than likely not our own creations, there are certainly roadblocks and speed bumps in these games that challenge roleplayers to improvise and adapt. These game mechanics come with the nature of the beast, and many are very necessary to the operation of the games, and are often so obvious as to threaten to pull a roleplayer out of character. While they may not be pleasant to experience during roleplay, their effect in-game can be at least lessened through the lens of imaginative roleplaying.

Star Wars Galaxies' Associate Producer Ellen Anderson is the latest team member to step up to the plate and introduce herself to the SWG community.

What's your favorite video game of all time and why?

Favorite Console Game Old School: Dark Wizard; It's an old turn-based, RPG strategy game that I played over and over again. I love strategy games.

Favorite Handheld: Puzzlequest on PSP. Great game for the PSP!

Favorite PC: Dark Ages Of Camelot only because it was my first MMO. I played hardcore for about two and a half years. My next MMO was SWG; I was in beta and I played for about six months after it released and now I'm playing SWG again. Oh, and I have very fond memories of Diablo and Warcraft.

Favorite Guilty Pleasure Game: Chuzzle because it's cute and the chuzzles get mad when you poke them.

Outside of work, what do you like to do?

I like to spend time with my husband and friends. I play games, watch BluRay movies and I watch more TV than I probably should. I also love to cook.

Read the rest at the SWG site.

Massively is featuring a gameplay video outlining some of the changes to the Jedi Knight in Update 3 coming in the near future.

The update introduced major overhauls to the popular Jedi profession, and this short piece will make sure you're on the right page. You can watch and listen as outgoing Community Events guru Jason "Pex" Ryan talks us through the new Jedi expertise. Light Jedi are now fully supported in their role as tanks, while Dark Jedi have the ultimate in DPS abilities.

The video awaits at Massively.

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

Players relishing the epic feats of 'bug squashing' and play testing new material should head over to Star Wars Galaxies. Update 4 is heading for TC Prime and the Test Center. In fact, at this writing, it may already be up and running.

Check out the patch notes after the jump.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Titling his swan song at SWG "Time to Say Farewell", Jason Ryan announced today that he's moving to Free Worlds and taking on the Community Manager position there.

Greetings, all!

The time has come to let everyone know that I'll be leaving the SWG team and heading across genres to become the Community Manager for our upcoming title Free Realms. There is definitely a bitter-sweet sensation to moving to a new title. I'll miss the people I have met and interacted with. I'll also miss the events themselves and the fun discussions leading up to them. I'll miss talking about schemes and plots and super-weapons and attacks and kidnappings and weddings and...you get the idea.

I know, I know. "How can you leave Star Wars for something...not Star Wars?" The decision to leave wasn't easy. I've been with SWG for almost five years now. I've lived and breathed Vader and the Rebellion and all the storylines ever run by. I've had a blast and I have never ceased to be amazed by the creativity and dedication I have encountered.

Click through to read the rest.

Star Wars: Galaxies developers recently had a chance to meet and greet with fans from all over the United States at the 'Galactic Gathering' in San Francisco. Developers mixed and mingled with fans, answered questions and made an announcement of their own:

As the summit kicked off, the SWG team opened with big news: the battle of Echo Base on Hoth is the next new heroic encounter!

The fight at Echo Base is a race against time as Imperials attempt to destroy the base while the Rebels evacuate. Snowspeeders, AT-ATs, Rebel troopers, and snowtroopers are part of the battle, and famous faces from Star Wars might even make an appearance. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting heroic encounter coming soon to Star Wars Galaxies!

DeadMeat also talked briefly about what the future holds for the game, which includes the improved community search and Meatlump theme park in Chapter 10, a look at Beast Masters and munitions traders in Game Update 5, and the Droid Commander expertise system later this year.

Click below to read the rest.

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

The latest in a series of articles entitled "Exploring Expertise" focuses on Jedi Masteries and takes readers from a raw Padawan to a full Jedi Knight:

The expertise system gives Jedi a choice of the path they wish to follow in the universe of Star Wars Galaxies. Choose a side and your role as a Jedi with the Path tree in the expertise system, now with several new abilities added in Game Update 3.

Choose Your Path

The left side of the Path expertise tree represents the light side of the Force and the right side of the tree embodies the dark side. The light side centers on calm and forethought to improve defensive capabilities, while the fury and passion of the dark side focuses on offensive powers.

Check out the screens and the rest of the path at the link above.

Star Wars: Galaxies has posted the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and are encouraging bounty hunters to seek them out for rewards.

The Bounty Check skill gives bounty hunters a chance to find one of ten named fugitives. These dangerous renegades are on the most wanted list of the Bounty Hunters Guild. Track and eliminate these criminals and collect your reward by completing this new collection in Game Update 3.

Most Wanted

Bounty Check is a level 86 skill used by all bounty hunters. The check can be used on any non-elite humanoid target between levels 70-90. This skill has the chance of discovering a disguised fugitive. If you kill one of these wanted criminals, the Bounty Hunters Guild sends you a transmission and your kill is added to a collection.

Take the link above to get a look at the fugitives and some hints as to where to find them.

Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.

Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!

Read more after the leap.

This week's developer diary, penned by artist Christine "TrandoshYar" Chugon is now available. The diary focuses on her creation of the Exar Kun dungeon:

Hi all, Christine "TrandoshYar" Chugon here. I'm an artist on Star Wars Galaxies and I was responsible for creating the Exar Kun heroic encounter dungeon. For this dev diary, I'll give you an overview of how the dungeon made it in game.

This particular dungeon started out as a pencil sketch given to me by Travis "Shadowbrak" Hicks, designer for the Exar Kun encounter. He gave me a layout of room sizes and what the overall theme of each room would be.

Here on Galaxies we use the 3D program Maya. In Maya, I blocked out each room, and using a default human mesh I guessed how big each room would be.

Check out the rest by clicking 'permalink'.

In a new editorial, columnist Jonathan Steinhauer embarks into "The Dangerous Wilderness". He looks at the concept of pf the wild and how it's presented in MMOs.

As I've wandered through the wilds of various games, I've been stunned by the panoramic vistas that have opened out before me. Trees sway in the light breeze, their leaves rustling softly through my speakers. A stream trickles by, the sunlight gleaming of the whorls and eddies of the current while in the distance, purple mountains capped with white glaciers scrape the billowing clouds. The imagery is so detailed, I could almost believe it is real.

Read more after the leap.

Star Wars Galaxies continues their "team profiles" by introducing fans to Smith Getterman, community relations representative. Featuring information about Getterman's background, the article also discusses his role on SWG.

What is your real name? Smith "Elias" Getterman.

What is your official title/position? Community Relations Representative.

How long have you been working on Star Wars Galaxies? I've been working on SWG only for a couple of months, but I played it when it first released... So I went from player to employee!

The article continues after the jump.

SWG Community Manager Kelly "Valara" Knox checks in with a new Friday Feature. This week, Valara gives us a look at a new Instant Travel Vehicle players can acquire in Chapter 9:

Not all starships gleam like the Naboo Starfighter or pack the punch of a gunship, but these hardy ships get the job done. A new collection in Chapter 9: The Fury of Exar Kun rewards players with the opportunity to possess one of these dogged ships, the rattletrap, which fulfills its duty as an instant travel vehicle.

Click below to learn more about the Rattletrap.