An update on Republic Trooper and a massive thank you to all of our readers!

Written By: Andy Muchmore

This past week, July 2nd to be exact, Republic Trooper turned 1 – happy birthday RT! Although it is our birthday week, I felt it was appropriate to update all of you with the status of RT as a whole. Obviously over the past several months things have slowed to a crawl and I would like to personally address the situation.

Three years ago a very good friend of mine, Dave, approached me with the idea of RepublicTrooper.com. At the time I was neck deep in other projects and I was unavailable to help out, even though I was eagerly following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over the years I would get phone calls, emails, texts, and the like asking if and when I would be available to “make it happen.” Around May of last year I was finally in a place where I could offer my services to Dave and help build Republic Trooper from the ground up. After several months of planning and development RT saw its first public reader and we were off to the races!

Since that time RT has seen tremendous growth and acceptance within the overall Star Wars: The Old Republic community – and I have to say, all of us cannot thank you enough for being readers, listeners, fans, and for not only playing the Trooper class in game, but being believers in BioWare and SWTOR to begin with. When RT went live we were woefully late to the game, in terms of established fan sites, but we did this for the love of the game, the love of the class, and to be honest – the love of the company that made it all happen. As long time gamers we had faith that a company like BioWare would, without a doubt, blow our minds with their new MMO.

Tags: Andy Muchmore, Ask A Jedi, beta, Bioware, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, community, David Bass, David Souza, EA, Early Game Access, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, LucasArts, Mike Kern, MMOs, Patch 1.1, Project Titan, R2-DB, Republic Trooper, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Stephen Reid, SWTOR, Titan Everything, TOR, TOR Syndicate, TORWars, Trooper

Welcome to the Mess Hall, where every other week we will lay bare a new topic to be discussed on the upcoming episode of Combat Chatter. This is the Mess Hall, so eat up, get loud and say what you have to say! There are no ranks here…

Legacy Patch 1.2 was The Old Republic’s first major content patch, and with it came a sizable amount of new things to do and see in BioWare’s seminal MMO. Now that the masses have had a month to consume, assess and digest all that new content people have varying opinions on the current state of TOR, and what Patch 1.2—and future patches—will mean to the livelihood of the game.

I know many people (myself included) have been playing more since 1.2 went live, but the dilution of the population on the servers is unmistakable. It has now been confirmed that The Old Republic has shed about 400,000 of its initial subscriber base which would account for a noticeable lack of active players in game. While early subscriber attrition is to be expected in any MMO the question remains…what will BioWare do about the future health of those of us who are still active in TOR?

So let us know, in broad terms, your thoughts about The Old Republic’s most recent patch and the needs for Patch 1.3. Fire away below!

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Legacy System, LucasArts, MMOs, Patch 1.2, Patch 1.3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR

Welcome to the Mess Hall, where every other week we will lay bare a new topic to be discussed on the upcoming episode of Combat Chatter. This is the Mess Hall, so eat up, get loud and say what you have to say! There are no ranks here…

One of the most controversial features that MMOs have offered for over 10 years is the inclusion of live events in a game. I say this not because such events aren’t usually welcomed by the majority of the playerbase, but more because the actual success of such promises has been dubious at best. In some cases the events are so sporadic as to be nearly non-existent, while in others the quality of the events is lackluster. Still yet some games offer live events that never manifest once the game launches.

The Old Republic has always been under heavy scrutiny by both players and critics alike, and that scrutiny has only intensified since BioWare successfully pulled off the largest AAA MMO launch to date. With few exceptions, however, BioWare has remained steadfast in its promises and has delivered one of the largest content updates any title has ever seen only four months after TOR went live.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, MMOs, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, The Rakghoul Pandemic, TOR

Welcome to the Mess Hall, where every other week we will lay bare a new topic to be discussed on the upcoming episode of Combat Chatter. This is the Mess Hall, so eat up, get loud and say what you have to say! There are no ranks here…

Star Wars: The Old Republic launched at the onset of Winter and now, after several months, BioWare and their fans find themselves firmly entrenched into the stories and adventures of TOR. As is wont to happen in the lifecycle of any MMO is the ebb and flow of interest in a game. In fact, I think it can be said that maintaining a healthy balance of long-term interest is one of the primary—and most challenging—focuses of any design team.

I will put this as delicately as possible without straying far from the point; people are losing interest in TOR far faster than I would have ever imagined. To be fair, this is in my experience and, as expansive as that experience is when it comes to MMOs, I’m speaking personally from a sample of a few hundred compared to millions.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, MMOs, Republic Trooper, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR

Welcome to the Mess Hall, where every other week we will lay bare a new topic to be discussed on the upcoming episode of Combat Chatter. This is the Mess Hall, so eat up, get loud and say what you have to say! There are no ranks here…

It’s been a long road for the Star Wars community ever since The Old Republic was announced several years ago. Millions of fans scoured the internet for each and every morsel of news while BioWare amassed the largest MMO team ever to work on a title backed by the largest budget in history. To say that TORs launch was excellent isn’t overstating it, but it is apparent that the game has needed certain touches to move it fully into the mainstream MMO market so that it can realize its full potential.

BioWare’s Patch 1.2, while delivering a nice chunk of new content, seems to be what many players are calling the “Stuff that missed launch” patch. Carrying many quality of life improvements, most centering around the usability and customization of the UI, there is no doubt that many Bothans would be willing to die to bring Patch 1.2 to the live servers.

Tags: Bioware, Crew Skills, David Souza, EA, Electronic Arts, Explosive Conflict, Flashpoints, Legacy System, LucasArts, Novare Coast, Operations, Patch 1.2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, The Lost Island, TOR, UI, Warzones