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There are just too many unanswered questions

Meet the Community Manager Extraordinaire!

Meet EM Stock, a cheery looking woman working at SOE Austin, and celebrating her second year of association with SWG.

Doesn't anyone chat over skype?

Tim Temmerman sounds remarkably like Tim Timmerman.

IGN sits down with LucasArts Producer Jake Neri and Associate Producer Tim Temmerman to discuss the many changes in Star Wars Galaxies latest chapter update.

Future? ...I'm just kidding. Wookies unite!

Join Steven Crews as he interviews Jake Neri about the history and future of Star Wars Galaxies.

Jake Neri: Time has been kind to SWG. We are going strong in our fourth year of live service, with a dedicated and passionate fan base and a talented dev team motivated to serve our players. In an ever-changing MMO marketplace, this has been no easy feat, but I think our success lies in how the development team has stay active and flexible in responding to community feedback.

NGE = Bad Designers! Bad!

WarCry discusses a number of SWG issues, past and future, with quotes from various SOE representatives throughout in this interesting interview.

Chapter 6 Interview

RPG Vault has posted this interview with LucasArts Producer Jake Neri and Associate Producer Tim Temmerman.

When SWG was first released, it included a profession called Creature Handler that was ultimately removed from the game when we re-vamped it in 2005. It was a well-loved feature though, and players had been asking for this functionality to return to the game for some time. The team took a look at what players loved about Creature Handler, and expanded on it, ultimately creating the Beast Master system.

Get clicking to learn more.

Interview with Jake "jneri" Neri

WarCry has this interview posted today that takes a look at the new Beast Master expertise system. There is also a viedo trailer posted as well.

If the player wants the most effective pet possible, he or she will need to spend all 45 points there. However, the player is more interested in creating Beasts, and not necessarily their combat abilities after they hatch, they won't need to spend all of their points in the tree. The point of the Profession Expertise System as a whole (including the Beast Master tree) is that players need to really think about what type of character they want to create and what kinds of activities they want to engage in.

More is just a click away.

Entertainer Upgrades Interview

WarCry.com has posted an interview with assistant lead designer Thomas "Blixtev" Blair. This interview reveals upcoming changes to the game. The article includes a video as well.

WarCry: Star Wars Galaxies has always been slightly different in that you have classes dedicated to entertainment. For those who don’t play, can you explain how traditionally entertaining classes have worked?

Thomas Blair: We have always strived to offer a different style of game-play for those players who didn’t want to go around killing giant Rancors or who prefer an alternative to combat. We created a series of tools for the player who wants to log in and role-play as an entertainer or just chat with friends while hanging out in a social environment. The cantina, already popularized in the movies, became a nexus for these types of players.

Get clicking to read the rest of the interview.

With the latest content update to the online world from Sony and LucasArts now live, RPG Vault checks into what it adds

RPGVault recently had a chance to sit down with LucasArts Producer Jake Neri. Keep reading to see what they were able to learn.

Jonric: What are the most significant elements in Star Wars Galaxies: Chapter 4, how did you select them and how do they fit the overall direction in which the game is evolving?

Jake Neri: The last few Chapters have been focused on implementing our new expertise system for each profession. Chapter 2 was Jedi and Bounty Hunter, Chapter 3 was Smuggler and Officer, and now we are at Chapter 4... Commando, Spy and Medic. We made the decision to release them in this order because it coincides with the popularity of the professions in the game. In addition, we wanted to implement the system for all the combat professions first, so that players would have a fair, balanced combat experience in the game.

More is just a click away.

Star Wars Galaxies: Three years and counting

Warcry writer Robert "Sabrehawk" Cox brings us an interview with Grant McDaniel. Sit back and continue the look at path this game has traveled over the last three years...

Three years is a long time in the online gaming world. For some, it's longer than others.

In the case of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, an argument can be made that the summer of 2003 was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Since that initial launch, the game has seen over 30 updates, a major upgrade to the combat system and a complete overhaul that left many players wondering if the game's developers, Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts, had completely lost their collective mind.

Keep reading to see what Grant McDaniel has to say about Star Wars Galaxies. What do you think of this game? What have been your experiences with it over the last three years? Head to the forums here at Ten Ton Hammer and let us know!

They're calling it a "kinder, gentler game". I call it something completely different. Seriously! What happened to the game I played at launch? It's an entirely different game at this point and Smedley tells us why in this GameSpot interview.

GS: How does the internal team participate?

JS: One of the things that we do is that everybody, literally everybody in the company, from our legal department to our finance department to our development group, gets into the game.

GS: And what did you find out after all that playing with the game?

JS: Star Wars never hit that excitement level around here. It never got--there never was a critical mass of people here that wanted to play it. So we knew we could do way better. And I guess as much out of a love for making these kinds of games, even though that sounds corny, though it's true, we wanted to make this game better.

I see.. I see.. And so you're going to make the game more enjoyable to play..Riiiight

Get Your Fill of Star Wars Galaxies News and Info Here!

Smedley gets podded.
The newest PCGamer Podcast features John Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment and focuses on the recent changes to Star Wars: Galaxies.

"John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, joins us to give
us the latest on the relaunch of Star Wars Galaxies. As 30 character
classes shrink to 9 and the game switches to a new action-based format,
we get SOE’s grand strategy from the big cheese himself. If you’re one of the thousands of SWG players affected by the relaunch, here’s your chance to get answers from Sony — and if you’re interested in checking out the retooled game, here’s your best source of info on what’s in store for you. "

You can grab the John Smedley Podcast at PCGamer.
Still yearning for more?

• More Star Wars: Galaxies News

Everybody wants kickass, lightning-fast combat
And I, for one, miss the days where I could turn on auto-attack and drive down the to Fast Mart for a Big Slurp. Nah, just kidding, that sucked too. Here's John Smedley on Slashdot to discuss the SWG revamp. You've seen it all before, well, except for the /. wiener attitude.

" Q: Was there a single game element, piece of feedback, or event that prompted this re-envisioning? This is a very dramatic decision, and the reasons behind the changes seem almost as important as the changes themselves. What prompted you to give this plan the go-ahead?

John Smedley:

There are millions of Star Wars fans out there. SWG should be the game those players have always hoped for, a game that finally allows them to live inside the worlds and settings they know so well from the movies, the books, the comics.
Our main goal with SWG for the last nine months has been to make the game more "Star Wars-y," for lack of a better term. Our two latest expansions, Rage of the Wookiees and the new Trials of Obi-Wan have delivered players the kind of directed, hand-crafted content that they would find in our other titles, as opposed to just having open-ended "sandbox" style of gameplay.
The redesign comes about after hearing desires from our own players on forums and in person at the SWG Fan Fests, multiple focus groups, and our own design team's desire to create something much more grand and sweeping with the game. We have big plans for SWG in the months and years ahead, and we needed this new platform to use as a foundation for creating the vast Galactic Civil War that our players want."

If you want to see more, go for it: Slashdot talks to Smed about Star Wars Galaxies.
Other links you might enjoy:

• Past Star Wars Galaxies News - Lost in space.

The force is mediocre in this one.
GameCloud has posted a Star Wars Galaxies interview featuring Julio Torres and focusing on the upcoming revamp of the game.

"After a massively multiplayer game has been around for a while, it
usually gets new players via expansion packs or updated graphics. Sony
Online and LucasArts are doing something different with their MMORPG
Star Wars Galaxies by relaunching the entire product later this month
with a new gameplay design in order to bring in new players. Gamecloud
got a chance to chat with the game's producer Julio Torres to find out
more about the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies revamp. "

Many changes has this young Jedi to make. Do, I must.

• Star Wars Galaxies Interview at GameCloud

Still craving more? Get it here with More Star Wars Galaxies News.
 

"Sales numbers and words do not a strong MMO make, mmmhmm."
Star Wars Galaxies producer Julio Torres talks with Gamecloud about the current status of SWG and the coming expansion. Do a million units sold equal a large and strong playerbase, as Torres proports? Hmm, I still have a copy somewhere I think, and I'm large and relatively strong I suppose.

" Gamecloud - First, what can you tell us about the current status of Star Wars Galaxies in terms of player population?



Julio Torres - Well, you may have heard that Star Wars Galaxies recently passed the 1 million units-sold mark, which is a testament to our large and very strong player base. We are very proud of this milestone and feel that it really drives home the message that Star Wars Galaxies continues to grow, both in number of players and content."

I can't fault Gamecloud for letting that one go and moving to the next question, it's hard to do decent investigative interviewing over email. If you get too harsh, the answers don't come back! Anyway, see the rest of the Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan interview with Julio Torres here!

A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. And from a coming revamp.

SWGVault sits down for an interview with LucasArts producer Julio Torres for a Q&A session that reads like a cry for help. "Help us Julio... you're out only hope!" Okay, enough with the Star Wars quotes, sorry about that.

We realize that the Jedi system in SWG as a whole needs to be re-evaluated, so we are currently discussing options to address this. Our goal is to make the next implementation resonate to the needs of the game and the Jedi players. To do this, we really need to give it design time and play time, the exact date of when we can release a great FRS system. It’s not set yet, but we are currently working on it to get out to the public as soon as possible.

What other changes are the SWG devs planning to include in future updates? Read the rest of the Star Wars Galaxies developer Q&A at SWGVault.

Terrific Talk with Tim Temmerman.
MMORPG.com has posted an interview with Tim Temmerman, a developer on the Star Wars Galaxies team. A Jedi, a Wookie and a Ewok walked into a bar and none of them said this:

"Tim Temmerman has been in QA at LucasArts for several years, and today is the subject of our first Developer Profile here on MMORPG.com. Periodically, we pin down a member of an MMORPG company and conduct a brief Q&A. The hope and goal is to provide the readers with an idea of what it is like to work in the industry, in a wide range of positions."

You can read the entire Star Wars Galaxies Interview at MMORPG.com.