First let me introduce myself. My name is Tom Cathey, and I'm a junior high friend of Kevin's. We recently realized we live about .02 miles from each other, thus leading to tickle fights and an engaging 'conversation' regarding the merits of one Sam L. Jackson.
I had to idea to create a blog for the group, that would function as kind of the online newspaper of the guild. What Flashpoints did we run, experiences and all things related to TOR. In addition, I'll probably write a ton about gaming in general. I literally play everything, and I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to the likes of Dead Island, Gears of War 3, Rage, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, AC: Revelations, Skyrim, Skyward Sword, Halo Anniversary and Modern Warfare 3. So I'll post my thoughts, and welcome input from the group. Also, anyone who wants to contribute, just let me know. Except Kevin.
I digress. Like most of you, I am a proud, card-carrying member of the League of Dorks. First and foremost, I love Star Wars. I have over 700 mint figures displayed in a curio in my office, over 70 autographed Star Wars photos (including George Lucas and Samuel L. Jackson, up yours, Kevin). To top it off: My son's name is Luke. No, not after the Bible, not after Cool Hand...my kid is named after Mark freaking-Hamill's Luke Skywalker. Yeah, I got my wife to sign off on that one after she shot down Lando and Salacious. I'm still angling for Oola should we have a girl. It's not sticking quite yet.
That's a brief introduction, because I'm being invited into a group that has long memories of Star Wars Galaxies (RIP Dec 2011). And doesn't this calm before the storm feel just a little bit like the Spring of 2003? A lot of you were in SWG beta, and the excitement was palpable. I don't know about you all, I'm pretty ramped-up. I'm checking the TOR site every day, and praying for a release date announcement. With that, I've got a few thoughts on the game and its release below. Let's just hope that EA/Bioware does a better job that SOE in running a MMO based on our favorite IP.
Release Date
EA/Lucasarts/Bioware has played this pretty close to the vest, most recently giving a 'Holiday 2011' release window following their pre-order announcement at Comic-Con. A couple of things come to mind. For starters, EA only has one significant release hitting this holiday season other than Madden 12, and that's Battlefield 3. While I think Battlefield 3 will be spectacular, it will not altogether dismantle MW3 in the sales category. Too many non-gamer frat boy douches play COD. With that thought, EA needs TOR to hit this calendar year to close out the quarter with a bang. If EA misses their mark, stocks will hurt right about year-end CEO bonus time. Not ideal for those guys.
Also, Holiday 2011 typically means mid-November to Black Friday-ish on a timeframe for release. Nintendo typically releases their AAA First Party titles in this timeframe. If I had to hedge my bets, that's where I'm looking for TOR to release. The 12/31/11 date you're all seeing is just a placeholder, as EA has not given retailers a hard date on the release. They've just been told, "This year."
Early Access
The heavy rumor is for early access to be one week prior to the official launch date. That means at some point for all of us who've pre-ordered, we'll be downloading the client with thousands other folks in a staggered fashion. Access will be given based on the version of the game you purchased and when you registered your pre-order code. Those with collector's edition codes (Kevin, myself, maybe others) will get access first, and so on and so forth.
Guild Importation
We've got 18 strong registered for the guild at the offical TOR website, with others lurking in our Facebook group. That means we're going to have a posse that's all going to be placed in the same server with our friend and enemy guilds. That's pretty strong.
Gameplay Thoughts
The game looks great, and everything feels really Bioware-ish. Anyone who has played KOTOR, Mass Effect or Dragon Age will feel at home during the story portions of the game. I'm not sold on how the VO work will affect gameplay (how many of you read word-for-word you quest boxes in WoW?), and I can see a few of us asking to skip ahead on a late night. But what they're doing here is a new take on the MMO genre from a story-telling perspective. At least it's something different.
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