Staff Speaks: Testing Thoughts and Experiences
A few days back we published an article featuring a handful of our forum members and their opinions on their time spent testing The Old Republic. This time, myself, our Editor-in-Chief Jeff, and our Site Designer Lynk Former got together and recorded a conversation about our time testing the game. We started off with just a bit of background information on ourselves then dove straight into discussing various aspects of the game. You’ll hear us give examples of our best experiences and moments during testing, talking about our favorite classes, planets, companions and more. To round out the discussion we ended by talking about what we would like to see in the future from The Old Republic. So tune in, listen to our oft times nonsensical rantings and then chime in with your own comments.
The Old Republic Beta: Community Reactions
With The Old Republic beta testing officially ending with this past weekend’s test, it is time to get some feedback from our forum members once again. Since the past few testing weekends were stress tests that flooded the servers with participants the majority of our members got to try the game first hand, so take a look at their impressions. After all, who better to judge the game than the fans that are anticipating it the most! Read more»
Having Trouble With This Weekend’s Beta Stress Test?
Several folks that have been invited to participate in this weekend’s large scale stress testing are having issues getting connected and started. One of the most common issues is the “Play” button is grayed out and unusable for some users, but be sure to double-check your testing e-mail as your start time may not be until a later date, remember this weekend’s test is staggered! However if you are having any other issues with the Game Launcher, BioWare has posted a Troubleshooting Guide on the game’s forums so have a look there and see if they can’t help. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and best on luck on getting your Star Wars: The Old Republic fix over this holiday weekend; May the Force be With You.
A Busy Weekend for BioWare
As many of you undoubtedly know this past weekend was BioWare’s largest Testing Weekend yet, and tens of thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans everywhere logged out of the real world and logged in to The Old Republic. Surely several of you participated in the festivities unknowingly contributing to quite the staggering statistic. As revealed by the BioWare doctors in an interview with Eurogamer at last night’s BAFTA in London, over 1 million hours were logged in last weekend’s beta testing alone.
This weekend we had a big test – tens upon tens of thousands. One crazy number is we had over a million hours of testing over the weekend. It was a huge test, and there are even bigger ones coming. The key thing is for us to take those learnings, apply them and make the service really stable. We’re happy with the game.
Our goal is a smooth launch, we want to serve our players really well. We want to serve them with a great, stable, secure, high quality experience. That’s our goal. We’re doing everything we can.
An impressive number to say the least, but probably not unexpected to those who participated and waited through some very long queues. It sounds like we can expect more of these “server stress tests” in the near future so if you haven’t had a chance to test the game, don’t give up yet!
Read the entire interview at Eurogamer.com
No Beta For You!
Here I sit, stuck at work on a Saturday afternoon. Saturdays at the office are about as slow as it gets. After hitting F5 for about the 3,000th time my gmail widget informs me that I have a new e-mail. Opening my inbox has become a source of seemingly endless sadness for me over the course of the last 716 days. Today was no different, I have not been invited to participate in beta testing The Old Republic. Instead I was informed that a newer, heart healthier version of Viagra has been developed and is ready for me to try.
I would rather not focus on my lack of TOR beta access or the ominous forecast of my impending impotence. So, to keep my mind off of such sad and scary things I decided to find some ways to keep myself entertained while waiting for access to The Old Republic beta or release. Here are 5 things I came up with in no particular order.
1. Come up with horrible names for TOR guilds.
- Porkins Patrol
- Boonta Eve Bandits
- Ludicrous Speed
- Aluminum Falcons
- 69th Brigade
- Order of the Hairless Wookie
- Twin Ion TurbineS
2. Look at pictures of Death Star dress girl.
3. Attempt to make funny captions out of the Facebook Image of the Week.
4. Google “Princess Leia Metal Bikini Cosplay”…. SafeSearch Off.
5. Marathon watch the new Star Wars Blu-Ray Collection!
Setting the sarcasm aside for the moment, as we approach closer and closer to the release of The Old Republic I’m sure we’re all getting a little antsy to try the game out. So how have you been keeping busy while waiting for a taste of The Old Republic? Are you playing other video games, re-watching the trilogies, or maybe even reading some of the EU? Let us know what’s keeping your mind distracted whilst waiting for TOR, or if you’re lucky enough to have participated in the beta, tease us with tantalizing tales about your experiences (if you can!).
Game Testing for TOR Has Begun!
BioWare has announced on the official site that testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic is now underway. If you are one of the lucky members who has been selected, you should have been notified via email and will be able to enter the game and start playing. Currently, game testers will only be selected from North America, but it will be opened up for other regions later. And if you were not selected this time, don’t despair, as there will be multiple waves of invites. If you are not yet registered on the official site, get to it, as that is the only way to opt-in for testing. You can read more at swtor.com.
The Old Republic Beta Launch Portal Found
Two swtor.com forum members Ianril and Zechio have located a previously hidden part of the official SWTOR website, the game testing portal page. The URL of this site is launch.swtor.com and Sean Dahlberg confirmed that this will be the login page for the beta.
You have indeed found the login portal for Game Testing. That said, this is not a new page and we are not ready to make any additional announcements about our Game Testing Program. When we are ready, we will make sure The Old Republic Community is the first to know!
If you haven’t signed up yet to be a tester or wish to learn more, access our Game Testing Portal.
If you have a swtor.com account, you can log in to the launch page, but there are no features available.. Does the fact that the game testing portal is live mean that the beta is coming soon? Speculate away!
Sign Up For The Old Republic Beta
Today LucasArts and BioWare have announced that users can volunteer for the closed beta of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Everyone that signs up will not be admitted, so if you are interested, it’s probably best to sign up soon. So far it seems limited to members at the official site.
Currently, the official site is down for “scheduled maintenance”. Once it is back up, you can go to the My Account section on the site, or this Game Testing portal to opt-in for the beta. Good luck!
