[Dalqak]

Title: Returning to Taris
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: New Planet 2: Electric Boogaloo
Date: 02/26/2010
Summary: Once home to a sprawling planet-wide city, Taris was razed long ago by the Sith Lord Darth Malak while seeking to eliminate the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan. Now, a post-apocalyptic Taris is being realized in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. After 300 years, Republic and Jedi leaders are moving forward with the efforts at colonization.

Watch insights from James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn, Scott Carpenter, and Mark How about the new environments – and adventures – awaiting players in our latest Developer Dispatch: Returning to Taris...

Not a bad little look at the planet, complete with dev. commentary.  The planet and the environment looks fantastic.  I'm still not quite sold on the characters yet, but it's still early.  

===============================================================

Title: Threat of Peace #27
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: WebComic
Date: 02/26/2010
Summary: The twenty-seventh issue of Threat of Peace™ concludes the volume with a surprising turn of events as Jedi Knight Satele Shan, Fortris Gall, and Special Forces Lieutenant Tavus report their battle with the Sith to Master Orgus Din. The story comes full circle when Braden the Bounty Hunter finally completes the contract which got him tied up in this mess in the first place.....

I can't say I'm a fan of the comics... I appreciate them being there, but... they just have always seemed very disjointed and weird.  Almost everyone seems to think that they are somehow odd stylistically, but so many fanbois are content to just praise them regardless.  

This comment was a gem:

I have to say that even though this comic is awesome I have to say that the artwork is kind of awkward and I know that it is non profit but stil the artwork is strange and sometimes even bland but it is stil awesome.

lolwhut?  

[Dalqak]

Title: Finding Balance in the Force
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: Developer Blog
Date: 03/05/2010
Summary: My favorite Star Wars™ film has always been The Empire Strikes Back™. But while the battle of Hoth will keep me glued to the screen for that second when the AT-ATs appear out of the snow, the film’s defining moments are on Dagobah, while Luke struggles and trains with Master Yoda.

Before that, the Force was just a word that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader used, for a power whose glory days were long over. But on Dagobah, with Luke, we saw the Force differently; not as some simple trick that made Imperial Stormtroopers look the other way, but something greater. The Force™ is a living energy binding the galaxy as a whole. It is something that, in the hands of a master, could raise a lost X-Wing from the depths of a swamp. And after the cave where Luke faced his greatest fears, we understood the most important lesson for a Jedi: you can’t solve every problem with one stroke of your Lightsaber...

Go go Jedi Consular!  

[Dalqak]

Title: Breaking out on Belsavis!
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: New Planet 2: Electric Boogaloo
Date: 03/13/2010
Summary: Since before the Great War, the ancient Rakatan prisons of Belsavis have been maintained by the Republic and used to incarcerate some of the galaxy’s most dangerous Sith lords, Mandalorian warriors, and ferocious aliens. Having recently discovered the location of this Republic super prison, the Empire is determined to see its allies released.

Access the HoloNet to learn more about the ancient prisons of Belsavis, and the horrible secrets contained within its vaults. View the glacial world of Belsavis in this video and visit the media section for never-before-seen screenshots, concept art, and wallpapers depicting the setting – and the struggle – of Belsavis....

Damn that name - can't look at it and not think "Beavis and Butthead."

===============================================================

Title: Blood of the Empire Webcomic
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: WebComic (Sneak Peak)
Date: 03/13/2010
Summary: BioWare™ and LucasArts have once again teamed up with Dark Horse to create this original comic series published entirely online. Blood of the Empire features a new perspective and strong character-driven story written by BioWare’s Senior Writer Alexander Freed and published by Dark Horse.

Set in the years before the Treaty of Coruscant and the establishment of peace between the great galactic powers, Blood of the Empire sets the stage for The Old Republic with new heroes, new villains and new revelations about the inner workings of the Emperor’s cabal.

Be on the lookout for the release of the first issue of Blood of the Empire coming soon on the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ website. Get a sneak peek at the series!.....

Yaay, more comics...

[Dalqak]

Title: GDC10: Hands-On with SWTOR
Source: Massively
Type: Hands-on
Date: 03/15/2010
Summary: I could easily spend this article telling you about the amazing LucasArts Presidio  compound, its history and the incredible relics of the Star Wars universe adorning the walls and hallways. But I won't. I could also easily go on and on about how George Lucas  and Star Wars inspired my childhood, and how even setting foot in the presence of such greatness was a bit overwhelming. But I won't.

Instead, I will focus on the only reason you're reading this: my first impressions of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Trooper class...

Overall, I am extremely impressed by this game. I'm pleased to see that they didn't try to reinvent the wheel on game basic game play, but at the same time, they didn't just cut and paste from more popular games. This is a BioWare game on a LucasArts property, so you just know it's going to be done right, and from what I've seen so far, it is done right.

But how well will it be received? Of course, that's hard to predict, but coming from someone who has played hundreds of games and doesn't consider himself TOO much of a Star Wars fanboy, I can see this game being a big hit. It's approachable, understandable and really quite fun. Now I can't wait to get it home at launch and try out the rest of the classes.

As I made my way through the rest of the base, I realized that not only is the combat extremely easy to grasp, but it's easy to master as well. There is no auto attack, so you feel more involved in what you're doing.

Hurray for no autoattacks!  

=================================================

Title: Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class
Source: Joystiq
Type: Hands-on
Date: 03/15/2010
Summary: LucasArts and BioWare have thus far released information for their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, at a painfully slow pace -- the same goes for the hands-on opportunities they've offered us over the past year. When we finished our demo of the game at GDC, we were still left with a number of the same questions we had when we checked out the game back in December: Will there be space combat? What community features will be available? Can we build our own sentient, wise-cracking droids which secretly possess hearts of gold (and tin)?

It's tough to fully evaluate the merits of an MMORPG with just one hour behind the wheel, but I'm starting to get a clear picture of what BioWare is going for with The Old Republic. It is, at its core, a BioWare RPG -- filled with vibrant landscapes, interesting characters and top-notch writing and voice acting. It's clear that these principles weren't compromised to fit the game into an established MMO archetype. The Old Republic is a whole new breed, and I can't wait to spend more time exploring it.

=================================================

Title: Set Blasters to Question: A Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview
Source: GameSpy
Type: Interview
Date: 03/15/2010
Summary: While we still haven't seen or played much of Star Wars: The Old Republic, what we have checked out is enough to fill our heads with questions. Setting aside the types of queries that only the hardest of the hardcore Star Wars nerds would care about, we sat down with Jake Neri, Producer at LucasArts, in order to find out how the demo we recently played compares to the final product that will ship next year...

GameSpy: Can you tell us more about the combat system? How do the cover mechanics tie into it?

   Jake Neri: One of the things that we showed quite a bit last year was the cover mechanic for the Smuggler. The Trooper is different: The Trooper is more like a run-and-gun -- just guns blazing -- type of class. We wanted it to just have a real pure, fun, DPS class, that relied on the rifle for everything from grenades to fire effects to shooting. With the AI, you're noticing that they are trying to take cover, they are trying to be dynamic, there's a lot of work in progress going there. You'll probably see some of them breaking. But the idea there is that if you're a ranged class, and you're fighting against an AI, they're going to try to act appropriately based on trying to find a way that they might have an advantage over you. They may run up on you, or they may try to take cover and let you duke it out from that standpoint. The Trooper really is just about trying to be at range at all costs. If an AI or an enemy gets up on you, that's where their weakness is, and so we're trying to balance that at the moment with the Trooper.

========================================

A number of other ones have also been put up, that you can check out the links for on the official forums. 

[Dalqak]

Title: Star Wars MMO Pricing Plan May Have "Some Twists"
Source: Kotaku
Type: Speculation
Date: 03/18/2010
Summary: For about fifteen bucks a month, you can play World of Warcraft or most other massively multiplayer online games. That's the genre standard. Could the next big MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic shake that up?

In an interview with Kotaku at Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco last week, Ray Muzyka, general manager of BioWare, the studio creating The Old Republic, said that the game's not-yet-publicized pricing plan will "be more of the traditional business model with maybe some twists as well"...

Not exactly a "new" rumor, but it was repeated at GDC so we shall see.

===============================================================

Title: SW:TOR - One million subs needed
Source: Gamespy
Type: Analysis
Date: 03/18/2010
Summary: BioWare's next big thing is without a shadow of a doubt its upcoming MMORPG -- Star Wars: The Old Republic. Working closely with LucasArts and publisher EA, BioWare's new project certainly has massive potential. But according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, the game will need at least one million paying subscribers to break even. Industry Gamers says as much.

    Bhatia recently came away from a meeting with EA and reported that although "earnings are somewhat depressed due to ongoing expenses of the Star Wars MMO, management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible." He added that a little over 1 million subscribers is needed to reach the break-even point, but the ultimate goal is to get several million subscribers....

[Koenwulf]

I've not really been following SWTOR lately, but the 1m+ subs makes me a bit worried. Thats a hell of a goal to have. I've read some articles that said that most experts feel the only way to beat out WoW is to make a game that doesn't follow in its foot steps.

I do have to say, however, that if anyone could beat out Blizzard...it could very well be BioWare.

[Dalqak]

Title: New Fan Friday
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: Fan Friday
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: In this Fan Friday, we are highlighting various items from the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community, dishing out exciting content from the Development Team, following up on GDC 2010, and confirming our presence at this year’s E3.

If you’re looking for more opportunities to voice your opinion, you’ll be interested in the new polls we posted up. Also, we added new avatars to the forums, so try them out!

The differentiation among the female heads there was interesting. 

=======================================================

Title: Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010 Jake Neri Interview
Source: MMORPG
Type: Dev Interview
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: MMORPG.com: How has development been going on Star Wars: The Old Republic?
Jake Neri:  It's been going great. The team is very inspired. They continue to ride the wave of last year where we had a tremendous amount of interest. We were very fortunate to be treated very well. We won many awards last year and those are things I don't think anyone on that team takes lightly. That is not something that the Bioware and LucasArts folks take lightly and it drives us. So I think development has been going well. We understand that there are a lot of big expectations for the game and we always have and we continue to push forward. Development is challenging, you guys know this. You cover tons of MMOs. They all have their ups and downs. We've got a pro team that really knows how to adjust and make the right moves and continue to drive forward on creating a really incredible experience.

=======================================================

Title: SW:TOR Producer, "We don't know how big it could get"
Source: VG247
Type: Dev Interview
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: Star Wars: The Old Republic’s producer, Jake Neri, has told VG247 in and exclusive interview that Lucasarts has “no idea” just how large the MMO could get.

Speaking with us at GDC, Neri said that because of the vast lore behind Star Wars, and all the different planets contained within it, the possibilities are endless.

“I mean, I guess it really depends. We would love to imagine this game lasting for years and years and years, so I don’t know how big it could get,” Neri told us. “I know that at launch we plan on providing a substantial amount of content; stories, planets, adventures, zones, zones that are ripe for conflict and others that are safer for low level players.

[Dalqak]

Title: GDC: Trooper Hands-On & TOR Game Play Impressions
Source: Darth Hater
Type: Hands-on
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: Last week, LucasArts & BioWare extended an invitation to Darth Hater for another round of Star Wars: The Old Republic hands-on game play at the beautiful Presidio campus in San Francisco. Eager to take another look, Meg and I left GDC and made our way to Lucasfilm where we were treated to playing Level 6 Troopers on Ord Mantell, and also spoke in depth with Jake Neri of LucasArts and Daniel Erickson of BioWare!

The first thing we did was pick up a mission from a NPC in the open world. There wasn't a typical pop up quest dialog box to accept or decline it after interacting with an NPC; as soon as you clicked on them, the voiceover dialog started in the fashion of a cinematic cut scene. Once the conversation moved to our character, the familiar decision wheel was there with very distinct Light, Gray, and Dark options. You could hit the space bar and skip through the dialog until you hit the decision wheel.

We could see other players running around in the zone after picking up the quest, causing us to wonder what exactly happened to our Trooper's body while in the cinematic. However we were unable to answer that question during our time with the demo. It is possible we started in a phased area, but there wasn't any instance portals or something else to indicate that we were in a phased area. It was completely seamless.

=======================================================

Title: Interview: Story In-Depth With Daniel Erickson
Source: Darth Hater
Type: Lead Writer Interview
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: While attending GDC last week, Darth Hater was fortunate enough to be invited out to the LucasArts office in San Francisco for a hands-on demo featuring the Trooper class. After finishing our time with the game we spoke with Daniel Erickson, Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead writer about the classes, their stories, and a few of the choices players will be facing in game...

=======================================================

Title: LucasArts' Jake Neri on BioWare's James Ohlen, Endgame & Intertwining Pillars
Source: Darth Hater
Type: Dev Interview
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: While talking with Jake Neri about the Trooper, we decided to use the opportunity to gather more information about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The LucasArts producer offered what limited insight he could into BioWare's James Ohlen and his recent comments on endgame...

I think what he talking about is that we do have aspirations to do some really exciting things. One of the things that we want to try to do with our endgame is something that is very much Star Wars, so I don't know how you want to interpret that, but I think is what James is hinting. I don't think anyone has had an endgame quite like what Star Wars delivers.

The main point is that we have aspirations of doing something really exciting. We understand about what people want to do in an endgame, so we want to make sure that we fulfill that. We also want to make sure that we push the boundaries on what is possible and what is cool.

I didn't talk to James about the comment, but I know where he comes from and where he thinks. He thinks a little bit differently than everybody else. So I am guessing that it is going to be good. If James says it's going to be good, then it is going to be good. That is the stamp that you need.

=======================================================

Title: BioWare's Ben Cloward on Facial Animation
Source: Darth Hater
Type: Lead Writer Interview
Date: 03/19/2010
Summary: While attending GDC last week, Darth Hater was fortunate enough to be invited out to the LucasArts office in San Francisco for a hands-on demo featuring the Trooper class. After finishing our time with the game we spoke with Daniel Erickson, Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead writer about the classes, their stories, and a few of the choices players will be facing in game...

[Dalqak]

Title: Damion Schubert on Balancing Group & Solo XP
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: Developer Post
Date: 03/21/2010
Summary: A post  from Star Wars: The Old Republic's Damion Schubert  gave some insight on balancing XP gains for solo and group players...

We increase the XP pool for each group member in it, and then divide that pool. I don't have the number in front of me, but its something we'll be tweaking as we play anyway.

The general gist is that we want to reward grouping, but not so much that grouping is the only way to play the game (something that is very easy to do if you tilt the table too much, and then balance the levelling curve to that rate gain). That being said, as some have mentioned, grouping with another person increases your killing efficiency and reduces your risk of death substantially, to the degree that being in a group of two is vastly more efficient than 2X killing efficiency (this is like most MMOs). Still, you want to reward grouping enough to help ensure that you overcome the friction associated with grouping (finding groupmates, getting to them, tolerating idiots, etc).

Other notes:

* Yes, we have anti-twink measures. Yes, high level players get shut out if they kill creatures too far below them. This is a fine line - you want to let high level players help their new friends, but you really don't want high level players hunting in low level areas, as that can be disruptive to the lowbies.

* Yes, compared to other MMOs, we give you more XP for completing quests and less for killing creatures. These numbers will also likely be continually tweaked.

* Yes, harder things give more experience.

[Dalqak]

Title: "The Sith Might Be the Good Guys!"
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: Developer Post
Date: 03/22/2010
Summary: An interesting thread. I always like to see what responses the philosophical discussions provoke. Hopefully people noticed that there were no quotes from me saying the Sith were good--even the interviewer ended on it being an excuse to unleash one’s hate. It was a clever title masking a more complex truth, which is that morality is shaped by culture and people. Genocide, slavery, human sacrifice and more horrific wars against people who have different beliefs than can be easily counted have all been part of the human experience and to my knowledge not one culture has ever stood up and said “We’re doing this because we’re terrible people.”

If you were raised in a culture that believed that an all-knowing god chose one man to rule over all others and passed that right through their bloodline, it would not seem odd, evil or tyrannical to you that there was, in fact, a king who fulfilled that role. Similarly if you were raised to think an entire group of people were marked as superior by their abilities (the Force in the case of the Empire) as to be above the law in the same way it would seem as natural as the aristocracy did for thousands of years of human history. If you were one of those privileged people and were taught to embrace your most base emotions, to take whatever you could grab by strength of arms or scheme and wit, that it was your ambition and lack of restraint that brought you freedom and purity…

You see where I’m going with this. It’s important to realize that while no amount of a dark side embracing Sith justifying himself to us (if for some reason you could get one to deign to do so) would convince us that he was a good person (he is after all pro-hate and pro-murder along with being anti-restraint), he does not see himself through our filter or he could not be who he is. Nor does the Empire as a whole see itself as the Republic sees it. If it did any stories told from that side would lack depth or compelling drama. “So, Darth Evil, it seems like we’re in the wrong here…” “Yes, Admiral. We are. We’re very bad people. My mother is extremely disappointed in me.”

Storytelling is about conflict and the conflict between ideologies and cultural perspective gives us some of the richest material to work from....

This goes well with the next part also...

=============================================================

Title: Genocide and Jedi: why the Sith may be right in Old Republic
Source: ArsTechnica
Type: Developer Interview
Date: 03/21/2010
Summary: "The one thing you're never going to hear is 'make the bad guys less interesting.'"

I'm sitting in an out-of-the-way room of Lucasarts with Daniel Erickson, who keeps swinging back to one topic: why the people we've come to hate in the Star Wars universe act as they do. He's given this some thought; as the lead writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming Star Wars MMO, it's his job to help tell both sides of the story.

In our time together we discuss the extended universe, he makes the case for Grand Admiral Thrawn, and explains how the Jedi attempted genocide... and why the Sith may just be right.

While we're on the topic of the extended universe, he brings up the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. "Thrawn is a huge inspiration to me. The insight into the people dealing with the heroes," Erickson says. He puffs out his chest slightly, and changes his voice to speak like Thrawn. "Why are these people resisting order, and regulation. The galaxy was at war—it was a horrid place before. Is it really not enough to have order? You need everything? You're acting like children!" In other words: who needs freedom when there is order?

Another key note comes from the story of Exar Kun: "If you give brash young people almost god-like powers and ask them to behave... you're asking for problems. You're dealing with someone in their early twenties, who has never been able to be thwarted by anything, and you tell them not to play with these Sith artifacts—of course they're going to think they can handle it."

Erickson leans forward to make the point. "You're training children to deal with this power, and then demanding them to be incorruptible, and holding them to a standard that we don't even ask from any of our own societies. We looked at these issues and said, 'We could come up with an entire thematic run with this.'"

Actually... I love it. 

What happened to these hedonistic followers of the Force? "They get chased out of the galaxy. In fact, in the lore, chased to the point where the Jedi believe they are dead. This is very close to genocide! The Jedi believe these people to be unredeemable."

He points out that we've only be presented one side of the story. If you grew up among these people, you have a very different story. "You know there is an Emperor, and that he saved your people's very existence, and there is a society out there larger than you, who deemed your people and your religion not worthy to exist."

A very neat way of looking at it... change anyone's minds? 

[CombatHermit]

Nothing is more awesome than playing the role of a 'bad guy' who thinks he's doing nothing wrong.

It's not like every villain kills babies. The best villains are the guys who are just regular joe good guy, with the exception of their objective being considered 'evil' by everyone but those who share the views.

In a strong RP environment I once played a Neutral Evil Rogue. He was a great guy, until you tried to cross him. Which one rarely did, because he was such a great guy. The poor fool that wound up as fishfood clearly thought differently though! 

Playing a Sith like that would be awesome. Unfortunately, dialogue like that rarely is written and you're stuck with the short term 'I'm evil so I have the manners of an oaf, and want money straight up'  and whatnot.

Which ruined most games for me. Hence I prefered the Neverwinter Nights Environment where I played on an open mod where players made the world. (Good for politics and such too)

CH. 

[Dalqak]

Playing a Sith like that would be awesome. Unfortunately, dialogue like that rarely is written and you're stuck with the short term 'I'm evil so I have the manners of an oaf, and want money straight up'  and whatnot.

Amen to that - I'm really hoping we will get dialogue options to cover this exact scenario.  With hundreds of hours planned per class, hopefully these options will come into play for us. 

[Yog]

The most horrifically evil people are usually fairly appealing on the surface. I think it might be hard to convey that in a game though.

[Dalqak]

Title: HoloNet Update: Biographies!
Source: SW:TOR Official
Type: HoloNet Update
Date: 03/26/2010
Summary: Curious about some of the characters you’ve seen in Threat of Peace™, the Developer Walkthrough, or the “Deceived” cinematic trailer? Now you can find out all about them!

We are thrilled to introduce a new expansion to our HoloNet archives: Biographies! Now you can view profiles of several of the galaxy’s most notable figures. Each entry highlights someone you may meet, travel with, or fight alongside or against as you help determine the future of the galaxy in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!

Just like the Classes, Planets, and Timelines sections, the Biographies archives will be expanded regularly, so check back often to make sure you get the latest updates...

And for shits and giggles, I looked up Oenophile... surprised I hadn't heard this one before!  Wine connoisseur ffs. 

[Dalqak]

Scott Jennings of MMORPG.com had an editorial up entitled Great Expectations - SW:TOR.  I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but the basis has been largely confirmed by EA/BioWare's own statements (the "needing 1 million subs just to break even figure). 

And that is what I mean by EA attempting, at one swoop, to spend the rest of the industry into the ground. Because EA is one of the few publishers that can even consider a $150 million project. By purposes of comparison, World of Warcraft is believed to have cost around $80 million to produce. Everquest? $8 million.

That much at least, seems to be spot on. 

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that our industry is quite literally going insane. Either this is a calculated effort by EA to ensure that MMO production is priced at the point that only they and a few of their competitors can compete, or that the arms race of "more stuff, bigger stuff, done faster" production has resulted in production costs that result in what by every right should be one of the most successful MMO projects of our time being judged a failure because it only - it only - brings in $10 million a month in profit.

And this is why we as an industry have to move beyond this broken blockbuster production model. Because it is literally unsustainable. EA may well have priced EA out of the MMO market with this project. And in today's economy, rolling $150 million on a bet that you can reproduce the best success in the MMO market, despite a history of failure within your company to do exactly that, is not a mistake you can make twice.

He has some points.  Will SW:TOR's success or failure make a huge impact on the genre/industry?  Is this a "do or die"? 

[RangerLee]

If it fails, and EA has a history of failing with MMO's , then I dont think it will break the industry, but we will probably continue to see small free MMO's increase with items and buffs that can be bought if a player wishes. With the occasional "Blair Witch" type came popping up to make serious waves.


 I still want to see a Mechwarrior/Battletech MMO, think planetside but on a Mechwarrior scale

Anyway, Star Wars has one ace up its sleeve right now... Bioware!

[Dukault]

If SW:TOR fails I don't think it will screw over the genre. It might go to show that spending a lot of money on something doesn't make it automatically more appealing to people. A game needs to be more than just "we have more shit to do than the other guy!". And even if it does well, that won't necessarily mean that the next guy has to spend as much money as EA did. Ingenuity will continue to be rewarded, large price tag or no large price tag.

[Dalqak]

Anyway, Star Wars has one ace up its sleeve right now... Bioware!

Hear, hear. 

I guess I don't really think it will necessarily hurt the industry either, at least not the established MMOs out there.  I just want this damn thing to have some legs, you know?  I feel like I have a horrible case of ADHD when it comes to MMOs (a lot of us do hahah), and everything I play anymore seems to come up short in one way or another. 

C'mon BioWare, don't let us down! 

[SpawnoChaos]

C'mon BioWare, don't let us down! 

They haven't yet... heres to hoping that EA doesn't cripple their creativity.

[RangerLee]

That is my worry spawn, EA has a habit of trying to bump up short term share numbers by forcing games to release early. I have seen this happen from other publishers too on other MMO's. For example Corned Rat was producing World War 2 Online. I was so excited about the game, in the beta from day one and worked hard in actually testing, not just playing.

 I saw the potential, here was this massive European battlefield set in WW2 with major tank battles, air battles, bombing, infantry of all kinds of classes. So much vision from the Cornered Rat (CR) team. However their producer, near the end of the 4th quarter started pushing them to release the game, which was way to early. Someone on this forum made a great observation that MMO players do not give second chances. When they released tot he public, the same version I was beta testing, I was very disappointed, and felt it was not worth my money to play. I have read that it is such a different game now, but it does not matter, they lost so much of the population, it will never be able to achieve what it could have.