Grab your mystic mace and infernal shield folks, get your TERA gold, Diablo 3 gold, and all your other magical accoutrements ready! Two major games are set to launch in the next couple of weeks.

Launching May 1: TERA

First up is the May 1^st North American launch of TERA. To the uninitiated, TERA (short for The Exiled Realm of Arborea) is a game that has all the requisite MMORPG features like quests, raids, crafting, in-game currency (TERA gold), and kick-ass PvP action. But TERA aspires to be more than your run-of-the-mill MMO. Unlike regular MMOs, TERA uses a “non-target battle system” wherein you use your keyboard, mouse or a PC-compatible console controller to aim at your enemies and target them with a cross-hair cursor.

But what is it about? Hold on to your TERA gold, I was just getting to that. According to the official site, TERA is “set in a breathtaking world conjured by two dreaming primal gods” that “will take you over rugged mountains, across searing deserts, and through hazardous jungles.”

Another interesting bit of information is that there are no factions in TERA. “All seven races and eight classes must cooperate to wrench destiny from the gods themselves.” Arm yourself – courtesy of cheap TERA gold, of course – and use your skill to battle monsters and bosses in the sprawling fantasy world.

Standard and Collector’s Editions of TERA will be available in retail stores and online on May 1^st. TERA gold will be available at EpicToon.com

Launching May 15: Diablo III

Get your Diablo 3 gold ready, because on May 15^th, the Burning Hells will open and unleash darkness into the world! Play any of the five hero classes – Witch Doctor, Monk, Barbarian, Demon Hunter or Wizard – and hold back the darkness!

Blizzard is inviting everyone to the midnight launch of Diablo 3. Gold (ok, freebies) will rain down on those attending the official launch event or tie up events with retail partners all over the world.

From the official press release:

On the night of May 14, key retail partners in the US, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and the region of Taiwan will welcome gamers who want to be among the first to purchase Diablo III and lock horns with the Lord of Terror.

In the US, the official launch event will be hosted by Blizzard and retail partner GameStop at The Great Wheel Court of the Irvine Spectrum Mall, 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine, CA  92618.

Attendees at the official Diablo III launch events will have the opportunity to purchase the standard edition of the game as well as the Collector’s Edition which contains the following bonus items in addition to the game disc:

• Exclusive aesthetic artifacts for Diablo III, as well as an exclusive World of Warcraft^® in-game fetish shaman pet and exclusive StarCraft^® II Battle.net^® portraits and army decal
• A behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set with over an hour of interviews detailing how the world of Sanctuary came together
• The Art of Diablo III, a 208-page art book that catalogues numerous pieces of Diablo III art, from early concepts to final 3D renderings
• The official Diablo III soundtrack CD, containing 24 original pieces from the game
• A 4GB USB soulstone, preloaded with full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction^®, and corresponding Diablo skull base

With these new games launching, we would like to issue a public service announcement and remind everyone where to get in-game currency:

Buy Diablo gold at EpicToon.com. You can also buy TERA gold, or any other virtual currency at ET! Level up faster and get top tier gear with our quick and safe game credits!

So many things happened in the SWTOR Universe this past week. Lay down your blaster, lightsaber and put aside earning SWTOR credits for a minute and read through our recap:

New SWTOR Website

After last week’s successful launch of SWTOR Game Update 1.2, now comes the unveiling of the shiny new SWTOR website. According to the official announcement,

“We’ve completely rebuilt the website from the ground-up, with the intention of providing you with the latest game updates in an easy to navigate way. In addition to all of the latest news and information that is released, we’re also going to give you much more information about in-game content. Right now, you can check out our updated Flashpoints page on the Holonet, which includes information for each of the seventeen Flashpoints currently in the game.

But this is only the beginning. We’ll be continuing to update the website with an array of new features and functionality, such as Guild support, Skill Trees, Character Profiles, and so much more.”

The new site does look better, reads easier, but the posts kinda bleed into one another; hard to tell where one ends and another begins. Overall, very nice. SWTOR gold star for you guys.

Character Transfers Now Available for Asia-Pacific

Players who purchased the game before  SWTOR launched in the Asia-Pacific region can now transfer their characters to a local server. Keep your SWTOR credits, the transfer is free.

Only characters created before 5:01PM AEDT / 7:01PM NZDT / 2:01PM HKT / 2:01PM SGT on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 qualify for a transfer.

To request a transfer, log in to your account and click on the “Asia Pacific Transfers” link on the right side of the menu. Fill up the form and submit before the deadline on:01PM AEST / 4:01PM NZST / 12:01PM HKT / 12:01PM SGT on April 24th, 2012.

Note: Your SWTOR credits will be transferred with your character. It may take a week to complete transfer requests.  You will receive an email notification once your character has been transferred.

Reminder: your character might have transferred to an Asia-Pacific server, but you can still buy SWTOR gold here.

No Ranked Warzones yet

Did you load up on SWTOR credits to get all the cool new gear that came with 1.2?

In case you hadn’t noticed, ranked Warzones were not included in Update 1.2. According Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson,

“After Careful consideration, it is clear that to make Ranked Warzones the feature we all want it to be is going to take a bit more time. I apologize for any disappointment this may cause and ask for your patience as we work to make sure the Ranked Warzones Preseason launch is polished and fun.”

Bummer, but it’s better to have it late and fixed rather than on time and broken, right? There’s plenty to do with all the new content anyway. Instead of moping, buy SWTOR gold, gear up, head off for Lost Island and try to get past evil Doctor Lorrick. (First you have to get to him and through a couple of mini bosses and a couple of real ones… )

Get your Tauntaun pet yet?

To celebrate the release of Game Update 1.2 and thank fans for their support, BioWare also announced that it would offer Star Wars: The Old Republic players a billion SWTOR credits each… alright, no they didn’t, but they are offerring up a number of in-game rewards*:

• All subscribers with active game accounts on April 12, 2012 or April 21, 2012 will be rewarded with an in-game Legacy Reward: the Tauntaun Ram Pet via in-game mail.
• New players who subscribe to The Old Republic before April 21, 2012 will also receive the Legacy Tauntaun Ram Pet.
• All active subscribers who have achieved a level 50 character by April 12, 2012 will receive 30 days of game time at no charge as a reward for their loyalty to the game.
• Former subscribers with inactive accounts are invited back to play Game Update 1.2 for up to seven days at no charge starting April 13, 2012.

I hope you’re all stocked up on SWTOR Credits, folks, ‘cause SWTOR Patch 1.2 has blasted off! The new update, Legacy, brings to the fore the new Legacy System, allowing players to make all their characters “related” via a Legacy Family Tree.

But what if your characters are of different factions, races, classes? Well that’s the beauty of the Legacy System. Like some mad scientist tinkering with the laws of genetics and heredity (or, look around you, real life!), Legacy allows the mixing of all types of sentient beings.

There are six ways characters can be linked: as spouses, siblings, children, step-children, rivals and allies. Unique abilities and emotes will be shared across your Legacy. When one of your characters unlocks a new ability, that ability will also be unlocked for all your other characters.

This also means SWTOR gold gets new “magical powers”: when you buy something for one of your characters, all your other characters also get the same item! Cool, huh? That alone is reason enough to stockpile the best SWTOR Credits.  According to Senior Designer William Wallace (cool name, bro. Freeeeedom!), “[when] a new character on your Legacy gets their ship, they will climb aboard for the first time to find all of your purchases already in place and waiting.” Like I said, cool!

Wallace adds, “if you have enough credits and a high enough Legacy level, you may also unlock additional species combos by purchasing them for a large number of credits.” Hear that? You need to buy SWTOR Credits to get the new combos.

More from Mr. Wallace: “The cost for bypassing the unlock requirements is high, but it allows players who may have played a human to 50 and beyond a chance to start their next character as the species and class of their choice if they have the credits to spare.” Translation: You’ll need tons of SWTOR gold to get the unlocks, but it’ll totally be worth it.

…and that’s why the new update is called Legacy.

Now for the other features of Update 1.2, from the Patch Notes:

New Operation: Explosive Conflict

The Trandoshan mercenary warlord Kephess has seized the planet Denova, a world rich in resources valuable to the war effort. Players must assault his war camp, situated atop a mountain in densely-wooded terrain, fighting Imperial defectors and heavy war machines along the way. 8- and 16-player Story and Hard Modes are currently available for this Operation.

New Warzone: Novare Coast

Like Huttball, this Warzone supports same-faction matches if there are not enough members of the opposing faction to be found.

New Flashpoint: Lost Island

Having uncovered the sources of the Rakghoul plague outbreak in the Tion Hegemony, players must travel to Ord Mantell and confront Dr. Lorrick, the mad scientist who engineered this horrific biological weapon.

Last week’s deluge of WoW-reviving, Mists of Pandaria-related information (from the lifting of the NDA to the start of beta testing) left us awash in Pandarian lore, stats, new talents, new features, class changes and updates. Now that we’ve had a few days to let all the news sink in, it’s time to test your knowledge of all things Pandaria, Jeopardy!-style, but with WoW Gold and yours truly playing Alex Trebek.

Get your wallets and your safe WoW Gold ready, here we go!

Jeopardy! Round: People, Places and Things

1. Answer, for 200 WoW Gold: The final boss of Pandaria may be member of the Horde, but by the end of the new expansion, both factions will be fighting to take him down!

Question: Who is Garrosh Hellscream?

More info: Yes boys and girls, good old Garrosh is the Big Bad of Pandaria. Apparently the loss of a ship will lead his descent into (further) madness. Maybe the ships was loaded with safe Warcraft gold.

2. Answer, for 400 WoW Gold: This unranked, non-mandatory, anonymous new mini-game features Pokemon-like fights of new collectible critters.

Question: What are Pet Battles?

More info: Pet Battles lets your formerly non-combat companions duke it out with your friends’ pets; winning pets get tougher as they level up. There will be LOTS of new pets to collect, nurture and train. Some pets spawn in specific zones and only during specific times, making them rarer and more valuable. According to Wowhead, pet classes are Beast, Critter, Dragon, Elemental, Flying, Humanoid, Mystical, Mechanical, Undead and Water.

3. Answer, for 600 WoW Gold: Tanks and healers are NOT needed for these short, role-less instances that will allow groups of 3-25 players to quest and adventure to earn valor points.

Question: What are Scenarios?

More info: Scenarios are basically a series of tasks that give better rewards than solo quests. Each faction will have its own Scenarios. Expect shorter queue times because there will be no class requirements.

4. Answer, for 800 WoW Gold: Darkmaster Gandling is still the final boss of this instance dungeon which has been given a major make-over, including the addition of Heroic Mode.

Question: What is Scholomance?

More info: Scholomance has had a layout change and content redesign along the lines of Shadowfang Keep. It is one of three reworked dungeons in Mists of Pandaria.

5. Answer, for 1,000 WoW Gold: These spirits that watch over Pandaria are based on the four gods of Chinese mythology; they will need your help in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Question: Who are the August Celestials!

More info: The August Celestials are composed of Yu’lon the Jade Serpent, Xuen the White Tiger, Chi Ji the Red Crane, and Niuzao the Black Ox.

Double Jeopardy! Round: Numbers and New Features

1. Answer, for 400 Warcraft Gold: The number of character slots each WoW player will have in Mists of Pandaria.

Question: What is eleven?

More info: That’s right, people, we’ll all get another character slot come MoP! Now we’ll be able to play a monk without having to delete alts! Time to buy WoW Gold now to trick out your future monk.

2. Answer, for 800 Warcraft Gold: The total number of level 90 Heroic Dungeons in Mists of Pandaria.

Question: What is nine?

More info: There will be six new dungeons (including Stormstout Brewery and Temple of the Jade Serpent), plus three revamped old world ones (including Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery). Buy WoW Gold to gear up to take down the 14 new first-tier bosses.

3. Answer, for 1200 Warcraft Gold: These new advanced modes for 5 players feature timed dungeons, with bronze, silver, and gold medals for the best times and leaderboards for bragging rights!

Question: What are Challenge Modes?

More info:  Select ‘Challenge Mode’ before you enter a dungeon. Gear is normalized upon entry. Bronze medals award achievements, silver medals give special transmog gear, and gold gives a cool new mount.

4. Answer, for 1600 Warcraft Gold: This Pandaren faction is the keeper of the Pandaren culture. They are explorers, collectors of relics, builders of libraries.

Question: What are Lorewalkers?

More info: Other factions are: Tillers and Anglers, Brewmasters, August Celestials, Golden Lotus, Klaxxi, Order of the Cloud Serpent and Shado-Pan.

5. Answer, for 2000 Warcraft Gold: Formerly the capital of the Mogu empire, this zone is the sacred heart of Pandaria.

Question: What is the Vale of Eternal Blossoms?

More info: The Vale is dotted with ancient majestic temples that are still intact. The Mogu are eager to retake the Vale because of the sacred pools at its center.

Make your wagers, folks, it’s time for —

Final Jeopardy!

Answer: This Pandaren racial trait lets you touch an enemy’s pressure point and put him to sleep for three seconds.

Question: What is the Quaking Palm!

More info: Aside from Quaking Palm, Pandaren also have the following racial traits: Epicurean (increases stat benefits from food), Gourmand (cooking sill increased by 15), Inner Peace (2x rested experience bonus) , Bouncy (50% less falling damage).

Thanks for playing. Tally up your cheap Warcraft Gold and post your scores below. MoP is coming soon, so please find a safe place to buy WoW Gold and stock up now.

Please note that Mists of Pandaria is still in beta, and details are subject to change.

Female Pandaren!

What a tease those Blizz folks are! Last March 12, they posted a silhouette of the new Pandaren female on their Facebook page. Like scattering breadcrumbs before a bunch of hungry pigeons (or a handful of cheap Warcraft Gold before a bunch of die-hard gamers), the peeps absolutely ate it up. Here, free of charge (I will accept safe WoW Gold, though) is a condensed version of the literally thousands of reactions to the pic:

Excitement: Cool! Can’t wait to see her!

Surprise: Niiice. It’s better than I expected!

Approval: Yes! Finally a female character with real curves!

Admiration: WoW! Gold star to Blizz for bringin sexy back!

Threatening: She better not be like those disastrous Tauren females!

Apprehension: I hope she doesn’t look like those female dwarves!

Leering: [see: lyrics to  Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’]

Confused: Is that a scabbard? A tail? What is that?

I thought the best comment was from Michael Walker who said “They should just add in a weight slider so people can have their 20 ton panda woman if the want and other folks can have whatever else in between.” Somebody give this guy some Warcraft Gold!

The female Pandaren will be unveiled on March 19.

UPDATE: She’s heeeeere!

Mists of Pandaria Screenshot of the Day

Blizzard has also started posting MoP screenshots daily on the official site, whetting gamers’ appetites even further as they wait for the latest WoW expansion. Stock up and prepare for the expansion; buy Warcraft Gold now!

Scroll of Rez de-iced

To help stanch the bleed of subs, Blizzard has decided to defrost the Scroll of Resurrection. For a limited time, players with an active sub can bring back a friend to WoW, and get rewarded with

• a Spectral Gryphon for Alliance members, or
• a Spectral Wind Rider for Horde members

Returning players will get the following epic benefits:

• A single character immediately boosted all the way to level 80
• A free upgrade to Cataclysm — regardless of your friend’s original box level
• An optional free character move — to your realm and faction so you can play together
• 7 free days of game time — available immediately

Read the fine print and check out the FAQ for full eligibility details. And buy WoW gold to gear up returning toons.

Aha! moment: So this is why they “modified code and content support for the Scroll of Resurrection system” in Patch 4.3.3!

The super buffed new SoR has, as expected, polarized the WoW community. Reactions may be classified as:

• Happy and positive: Awesome! Let me bring some peepz back to the game!
• Eager and positive: Awesome! Someone bring me back to the game!
• Forever negative: Boo! It’s the end of WoW! (…and all MMOs…and civilization as we know it!)
• Prodigal Son’s brother-esque: Boo! I never left the game, how come I don’t get a toon boosted to lvl 80?

To the Negative Nellies: Nobody’s hurting you guys, just load up on some Warcraft Gold and focus on your game!

To the Positive Peeps, it’s great to have you (back) in World of Warcraft. Gold may you find in all your WoW endeavors.

To returning players who may have forgotten, this is the safe place to buy WoW Gold.

Italian version of WoW coming

Later this year, Italian players will be able to play WoW in their mother tongue! According to the official site:

“Existing players will be able to download a free language pack to experience the game in Italian.

Gamers in Europe will also be able to purchase fully localized versions of World of Warcraft (which now includes its first expansion, The Burning Crusade) and its three following expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and the upcoming Mists of Pandaria.”

Italian realms will be opened, and forums and the WoW website will have Italian versions. Bene! Now how do you say “buy Warcraft Gold” in Italian?

The first SWTOR Guild Summit was a smashing success! Held in Austin, TX from March 4-6, the Summit was attended by over 160 guild leaders from all over the world; the livestream was watched by thousands more.

Yielding more info than the best SWTOR credits can buy, the first day was a SWTOR gold mine of information. For those who weren’t able to attend or watch the livestream, here are highlights from Day 1:

Friends of SWTOR trial program

The SWTOR Friends Trial began on March 6^th. Players with an active SWTOR sub will be able to invite three friends to a 7-day trial of the game. These lucky friends will get to “explore each of the four Origin Worlds and experience the opening adventures for each class as they start along their epic journey.”

Invite your three bestest buddies through the “Friends Trial” option on your “My Account” page.  Enter their email addresses and your buds will then receive an email inviting them to a 7-day SWTOR trial. Each friend can begin their trial within 14 days of receiving the invite.

Players on the Friends Trial won’t be able to trade or use the GTN, so they’ll have to get a sub first (at a discounted rate) to use SWTOR credits.

Game Update 1.2 – Legacy

The new patch, expected to arrive “early April,” will add new content, enact the Legacy system and make major changes in game world’s economy.

A video preview of 1.2 revealed the upcoming goodies: new Operation (Explosive Conflict), new Warzone (Novare Coast), new FP (Lost Island), Legacy details, UI customization, appearance customization, new pets, Guild banks, new gear.

The Legacy System will allow players to interconnect all their characters, making them related to each other, and unlocking Legacy-specific abilities.

Best news, from the livestream, according to Eric Musco, “Most of the rewards in the Legacy system can be unlocked or purchased with credits.” Bring it! And we’ll bring our best SWTOR credits!

Notes, deets and SWTOR Stats:

57% of players play Empire, 42% of players play Republic

Approximately 70% play males, 30% play females

Players are not extremely wealthy. (Easily remedied if they buy SWTOR credits!)

On-ship neutral GTN terminal will be on your ship in 1.2, also an optional mailbox. (Hopefully this will encourage more trade, so stockpile those SWTOR credits now!)

Speaking of SWTOR credits, net income of PvE and PvP is approximately the same.

FP “Lost Island” will continue (finish?) the Kaon storyline.

Operation “Explosive Conflict” will feature new tier of PvP gear (new lightsaber colors!), crafters will be able to make “Expertise” gear.

Warzone: Novare Coast, like Huttball, will allow same-faction competition.

Eighteen new medals (mostly objective-based) will be introduced in warzones.

There will be a new tier of PvP gear, “War Hero.”

On the much-maligned Ilum: Ilum to be overhauled, Ilim PvP quests will be removed, Ilum to be more fun and engaging

Other additions: new non-combat pets, vehicles, lightsaber colors (yes, it bears repeating!), ship droid affection, roleplay emotes, Legacy items drops

There’s more: 1.2 will have improved texturing, appearance customization, Guild Banks, Warzone Rankings, UI customization, new end-game gear

And finally: It was great to see the rapport between and among members of the SWTOR dev team. They seem to all get along great, were respectful of each other despite differences in approach and philosophy, and were really engaged and invested in the game and were interested in players’ input. And they were funny. SWTOR Gold stars for everyone!

Non-Summit SWTOR news:

SWTOR launches in Asia Pacific

SWTOR has officially launched in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Players from these countries may purchase the standard or the digital deluxe version of the game. Those who subscribe by the end of April will receive the SWTOR Founder’s Medal, forged out of the very best SWTOR gold.

A big welcome to our peeps in Asia Pacific! You know where to buy SWTOR credits, right?

Players and Devs talk about SWTOR

BioWare posted a video celebrating the successful launch of SWTOR. Watch game devs and players talk about the excitement on launch day and their favorite aspects of the game.

Before we get to the juicy stuff, this just in: A study by researchers from North Carolina State University shows that WoW boosts cognitive function in some older adults. Cool, yes. But no, this doesn’t give you license to make Gramps farm your cheap WoW Gold. (Go to a WoW gold site instead and leave Gramps alone!)

Dragon Soul nerfed again

Having trouble with the WoW Dragon Soul raid? Dip into your hoard of Warcraft Gold and gear up, man up and kick Deathwing’s you-know-what. For gentle souls who want to take the easy road, buy Warcraft gold and gear up, too, (hey it ain’t a picnic, it’s a raid!) but use the Power of the Aspects buff which will increase in Dragon Soul yet again. From 5% last Jan 31, it now stands at 10%.

According to Blizzard: “During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the “Power of the Aspects” spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.”

For tough guys who’d rather take on the raid without the Power of the Aspects spell, turn it off by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.

Mists of Pandaria Talent Calculator

Check out the new talents that have been added and tweaked on the MoP Talent Calculator. Before you get into a tizzy, buy WoW gold and relax with some retail therapy (a new cloak, perhaps?), and remember that specs are not yet final.

From Blizzard:

• For shaman and hunters, we still have a ways to go with the revamp of talents, and this latest calculator doesn’t have some of the changes that we’re currently working on.
• If you don’t see a favorite spell in the talent list, there is a good chance it is something you get automatically for choosing a particular spec. For example, all Fury warriors learn Raging Blow without having to choose it as a talent. All Discipline priests know Divine Aegis. Chances were almost certain that you were going to choose those anyway so we just gave them to you.
• If you don’t see a favorite spell or mechanic as a class ability, spec ability or talent, then there is a good chance it is becoming a glyph. Examples include Atonement (priest), Gag Order (Warrior), Rude Interruption (Warrior), and the Acts of Sacrifice Cleanse component (Paladin).

New Pandaren Mount

As with all things WoW: Pandaria-related, there’s a lot of speculation on what the new Pandaren mount might be. Although Blizz community rep Bashiok has confirmed that that yaks seen on the MoP preview screenshots will be available as mounts, he did not clarify whether they will be the Pandaren racial mount.

Forums are alight with guesses including frog (a panda riding a frog? I’ll pay with the best Warcraft Gold to see that happen), rickshaw, turtle, flying bison, lizard, gnu, tiger, Pekingese, Shitzu, Komodo dragon… Which do you think it’ll be? My cheap WoW gold’s on the yak.

Diablo III drama

Community manager Bashiok unleashed a tempest in a teacup when he told fans not to get too excited about Diablo III:

“On a more serious note, I too worry that we won’t be able to meet the expectations people have built up for themselves. Part of my job is managing people’s expectations, so… eh… stop it. Stop thinking about how awesome this game could be. Just imagine it’s a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Sure Sixth Sense was amazing and Unbreakable had it’s [sic] moments, but this right here is the sequel to The Village … or The Happening … or Signs … or any of the movies besides the two I first mentioned. So just like, lower those expectations, but still definitely buy the game please, and everything will be just fine. K?”

(For the record, I will proudly and unashamedly state that I like Unbreakable even more than Sixth Sense.)

To address the brouhaha, Game Director Jay Wilson issued a statement saying Bashiok’s post was “obviously sarcastic” and that “we want you to have high expectations for Diablo III and all Blizzard games. That’s what pushes us to try to make the best gaming experiences we possibly can. If Diablo III wasn’t a worthy next installment in the Diablo series, we wouldn’t release it.” Hear hear! Still no release date, though.

The second SWTOR Q&A blog post is here and it’s a doozy. Like the best SWTOR credits, it is useful, precious and most welcome. Unlike the best SWTOR credits, however, there just wasn’t enough of it! Maybe they should answer 20 questions a week instead.

For this week members of the SWTOR team answered 12 questions from the community. Here are excerpts (plus side comments from yours truly):

DarthBelkar: Can we look forward to server-wide special seasonal / short-term events?
Daniel Erickson: Yes! Expect them to fit into the world and setting, involve a fair bit of discovery, and offer special rewards that will be there one day and then gone forever. And expect them soon.

Side comment: Très cool! Everyone stock up and buy SWTOR credits now to have extra moolah for those special awards!

NiklasWB: When will you make it possible for Force-using characters to pull up/down their hoods on their robes?
Damion Schubert: This is in the works now. It won’t be in Game Update 1.2, but should get done in the next major update after that. And yes, we will extend this functionality to your Force-slinging companions as well.

Side comment: Funfact – The Jedi sometimes use their hoods to stash their SWTOR gold.

GnovaD: Are there any plans to introduce mobile apps to the game? Eg. Use smart phone/tablet to send companions on missions while offline.
Damion Schubert: Let’s just say that this has always been a dream of mine for crew skills – it’s almost as if this design was created specifically with this in mind, doesn’t it? Good news, sometimes dreams do come true! The bad news is that I have no ETA for you, though, as this is a significant technical endeavor.

Livestream the First Guild Summit

Great news for those who can’t make it to the first SWTOR Guild Summit! A livestream of select events will be available. According to BioWare, “[the] livetreams will allow players from around the world to observe and participate” in some of the discussions.

Also, videos of the panels will be released after the summit. BioWare would like to remind all that the summit will be conducted in English.

Hip-hop Album of SWTOR Tunes Released

To those who stay up late at night thinking that the world needs a SWTOR-themed hip-hop album, fret no more.

Richie Branson, the dude who brought us Cold Republic, the first hip-hop song about SWTOR, has now completed a whole album of hip-hop tunes about SWTOR called The Cold Republic Episode I: The Empire Likes Rap. Instead of the usual bling, the high rollers in Branson’s  SWTOR world have thousand SWTOR credit bills to burn and (in my mind, at least) pimped out BT-7 Thunderclaps to roll in.

The verdict? He ain’t Jay-Z, but his beats are kinda catchy.

Are you a SWTOR Founder?

As a big thank you to all those who made SWTOR a blockbuster MMO from the starting gate, BioWare is awarding Founder’s medals to SWTOR’s first subscribers.

Forged out of SWTOR gold, the medal and corresponding Founder title is “permanently bound to your account and will carry over to any character you make in the future.”

Update: The deadline to get a Founder’s medal has passed, and I hope you guys were able to get yours!

In an effort to attract even more players to the 1.7 million SWTOR subscribers they already have, BioWare has launched three new features for SWTOR newcomers. So get your lightsabers and your best SWTOR credits ready, folks, ‘cause we are blasting off!

Video Guides

Before you start on your journey to a galaxy far far away, check out these tutorials to learn the basics of the Old Republic. The first session called “Begin Your Journey” takes you through the process of selecting a server and creating your first character.

The next two videos are titled “Navigate the Old Republic” which covers map usage, bind points and taxis and “Understand the User Interface” (coming soon) which is um, self-explanatory.

While we wait for a video tutorial on how to get the best SWTOR credits, let’s count our blessings and give thanks for the many BioWare has already given.

Weekly Q & A Sessions

Every Friday starting February 10^th, ten questions selected from the community will be answered on a new blog. A new thread will be opened for each week’s blog post.

For the first session, 15 questions were answered. (Although a veritable SWTOR gold mine of questions was asked, none of the actual questions about SWTOR gold were answered!) Here are a couple of q’s that did get selected:

Shotgun-clavy: When are character transfers going to become available? And are server transfers a real possibility?

Daniel Erickson: Character transfers between servers are definitely going to be available in the future and we’ll announce details as soon as we have firm dates.

Buddytonto: When you made the blog post about the balancing act of what to fix, what to balance, and when; got me thinking about how the items are prioritized, as it didn’t really explain that?

Daniel Erickson: How we prioritize bugs is a complicated question and one that can be maddening from a player point of view. The answer is as complicated as the question but I can give a high level view. First comes anything that blocks the critical path of a class story for any reason. If you can’t progress, your game comes to a screeching halt so that always takes precedence. Next is the question: how many people are being affected and what is the damage being done? Half the population being slightly irritated loses in priority to ten percent of the population having their game crippled, for example. The last consideration, and the most opaque to players, is how hard the bug is to fix. There are fixes that look complicated and are nothing more than a database entry that went rogue. There are fixes that look easy and take months of untangling code. What we can promise is that we never ignore bugs or decide something is good enough as-is.

The next post will come out on February 17th, a thread for next week’s Q & A has already been opened. Questions will be accepted until Tuesday, Feb 14th which gives you more than enough time to buy SWTOR credits and post a question.  Here are the guidelines for asking questions:

1. Keep your question relatively short. Background details are welcome, but don’t go overboard.
2. Please actually ask a question. We want to hear constructive feedback elsewhere in the Forums.
3. Use common sense – we cannot answer everything, especially on far-reaching content.
4. Limit yourself to one question per thread, please. You can always ask another question next week!
5. And finally, as a reminder, this is not a discussion thread. Do not comment about what somebody else has posted.

Weekly Dev Track Summary

In this new feature, official responses to Forum threads will be gathered into one blog post; this handy summary is great for those who don’t check the Dev Tracker daily.

(The Dev Tracker Summary blog has been moved from Fridays to Mondays.)

And finally, for those confused or daunted by the planetary leveling paths in SWTOR, our peepz over at the OldRepublic.net made this awesome chart that shows both Empire and Republic paths, all current flashpoints and levels required for each. Wouldn’t it be cool if they included a graphic of a rainbow with a pot of SWTOR gold at the end?

Electronic Arts has announced that, in just a little over a month, sales of Star Wars: The Old Republic topped 2 million units, that’s a lot of SWTOR credits!

CEO John Riccitiello said that “We are pleased to report a strong holiday quarter driven by Battlefield 3, FIFA12 and a strong showing by our digital games and services. Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.”

EA, which lavished more moolah on SWTOR than on any game in its 30-year history, also dismissed reports of mass migrations from the game. Wait times to get on the servers –considerable in the beginning—had suddenly dropped, leading to speculation that players were leaving the game en masse.

Not so, EA insists. They were able to double the number of people they could support per server, letting more folks play, quest, and stock up on SWTOR gold. CFO Eric Brown added that “Star Wars has been an incredibly successful launch.”

(Those not interested in further stock news may skip to the next item or go back to vanquishing Flesh Raiders and saving up SWTOR gold.)

EA reported sales that are much better than forecasted for the December 2011 quarter, narrowing its fiscal losses in Q3. It reported a loss of $205 million (62 cents a share), compared to last year’s loss of $322 million (97 cents a share).

“We recorded our highest operating cash flow in 31 quarters and grew segment share in both Europe and North America,” said Brown. “Third quarter non-GAAP digital revenue grew 79 per cent year-over year, and we achieved our goal of generating over $1 billion in non-GAAP digital revenue on a trailing-12-month basis.”

EA also sold 11 million units of Battlefield 3, released during the holiday season.

What it all means: SWTOR is EA’s cash cow/ golden goose (pick your animal metaphor of choice) and I’ll bet an XS Freighter full of the best SWTOR credits they’ll do what they can to keep us happy and playing!

——

SWTOR Guild Summit

When you were a kid, did you ever get those cool party invites to birthday parties and stuff? Well, here’s a cool grownup version:

What: the first ever SWTOR Guild Summit

When: March 4-6 2012

Where: the DoubleTree Hotel, Austin, TX

Activities:

-discuss the state of the game with the developers from BioWare Austin

-participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions

-get a preview of some upcoming game features

According to Bioware:

“The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game.”

There’s still space left in this by-invitation-only event, so interested Guild Leaders (or an OIC) who are interested should submit an application. Applications will be accepted until February 10^th.

If selected, bring real $$ in addition to your SWTOR gold; you will have to pay for your own travel, food and lodging.

Also, although guild leaders from around the world are invited, the summit will be conducted entirely in Galactic Basic Standard, ie, English.