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About David

David Holloway has been involved with gaming since the early 1970′s and with virtual worlds since heavy use of a MOO in 1993 – he even admits to having owned a Vic 20 and used it heavily to play cassette-based roleplaying games. As far as Star Wars goes, he still owns his original set of Star Wars figures and can vouch for the fact that a 1978 Stormtrooper can be blown to bits by shooting it with a slug gun from a distance. He’s also played Star Wars games as far back as the Super Nintendo console and to this day is devastated by the accidental erasure of all his progress on Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

Exposing the SWTOR haters for what they are

March 14, 2012 by

Over at GameSpy, Leif Johnson has a great piece discussing the amount of venom sprayed at SWTOR, particularly on the official SWTOR forums.

Have a read for yourself. I found there was very very little to disagree with, and it’s an issue that’s fascinated me for a long time. Every single time I log into SWTOR I’m still excited to be doing so and really enjoy the whole experience – and I can only see things getting better.

How about you – is Leif on the money or being too forgiving of BioWare?

[Thanks to Jay over at the SWTOR Gamers of Oceania Facebook group for the heads-up!]

Filed Under: News, Opinion Tagged With: ,

Free weekend play for new SWTOR players

March 14, 2012 by

Overnight BioWare announced the availability of a ‘Weekend Pass‘.

For anyone who hasn’t had a SWTOR account previously can sign up for one from the 15th March (see our time conversions below) and play the starting areas of the game, do some PvP and check out some of the early level Flashpoints.

So – if you know someone that’s been ambivalent about forking out for the game, here’s a chance for the to do it for nothing.

Oceanic time conversions for the Weekend Pass:

AEDT: 4pm Thursday 15th March through to 6pm on Monday 19th March
AWST: 1pm Thursday 15th March through to 3pm on Monday 19th March
NZDT: 6pm Thursday 15th March through to 8pm on Monday 19th March

Over to you: will you be trying to get someone near and dear to have a go at SWTOR?

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

What to do while the servers are down: 13th March 2012

March 13, 2012 by

Eight hours is a long-time. It’s a work-day’s length of time without the game we obsess about here daily. We can’t totally take the pain away for you, but we CAN give you plenty of SWTOR-related reading and listening to do. Hell, you can even win a t-shirt!

So here’s some happy happy fun to engage in while the servers are down.

1. Listen to Episode 28 of our podcast, which gets deep into detail on new stuff coming up in the game in 1.2 and beyond.

2. Fill out our reader’s survey and go into the draw for a TOROZ t-shirt. There’s only 2 or 3 people in the world walking around wearing them, so imagine how unique you’ll be!

3. Welcome our newest writer Kate by reading her Cunning Ambitions column, which is dedicated to everything Agent and Smuggler.

4. Rick has a great piece on preparing your guild for Operations

5. Tim has an excellent post on attack rotations for Level 1-25 Jedi Consulars/Sages

6. Have one of the best SWTOR-related laughs you’ll have in a long time.

Then go get something to eat or get some sleep!

Filed Under: News

Flash Point 28: Lukewarm Nookie With Some Wookiees

March 11, 2012 by

It’s only been a fortnight but it feels like an eternity since the last episode given the local launch has occurred since. There’s heaps on the agenda and we manage to get through most of it.

Points of discussion:
– Australia / New Zealand launch event
– Oceanic servers
– Lengthy dissection of 2012 Guild Summit
– Lore Update: Wookiees
– TOROZ Reader Survey (please fill it in if you have time!)
– Welcome to our new writer Kate
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, Google Plus page and Twitter account

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:31 — 28.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: News, Podcast Tagged With:

A Real-Life Jedi Academy

March 11, 2012 by

The New York Times has an interesting piece this weekend on Flynn Michael, who runs the New York Jedi Club.

Here’s a brief taste:

The New York Jedi club meets here weekly. To an outsider, it might seem like stage-fighting with battery-powered lightsabers, but to Mr. Michael, it is aspiring righteous warriors communing with the Force, that energy that gives the Jedi his power and binds the galaxy. So what if the place attracts, as Mr. Michael said, “a bunch of ‘Star Wars’ dorks.”

“They come in geeks and go out Jedi warriors,” said Mr. Michael, a founder of the group and a self-ordained Jedi grandmaster.

A sound engineer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and a self-proclaimed “sci-fi, heavy-metal, over-the-top geek,” he was born Michael Brown and grew up in Rhode Island, where, he said he watched the first “Star Wars” film 32 times in 1977, the year it was released. He recalls first seeing Luke Skywalker learn about the force from Obi-Wan Kenobi and saying to the screen, “I want to do that.”

Have a read through, it’s pretty damn interesting. The key question is: who’s up to create local clubs? You know it makes sense!

[Thanks to reader Phil for the heads-up!]

Filed Under: From the internets!, News

Sith Sunday: SWTOR in the News

March 11, 2012 by

Welcome to Sith Sunday, our semi-regular roundup of SWTOR’s appearance in the mainstream news!

It’s been quite a while since the last news roundup, and with the local launch there’s no shortage of new stuff being written about SWTOR, so let’s jump in:

1. Like from Australian Gamer has an interview with Gabe Amatangelo from his visit 10 days ago. (You can check out or own interview with Gabe here)

2. Julien at Capsule Computers covers off on the ‘refer-a-friend’ trial BioWare is now offering.

3. Paul at The Vine has a nice overview piece on SWTOR now it’s available locally, and gives it the big thumbs up.

4. This one dates to late February, but John at Atomic PC has a review of SWTOR and gives it 88% overall.

5. PC Gamer has a nice story on the logistics in the lead up to SWTOR’s (US/Europe) launch.

6. On the pre-launch stresses, Escapist Magazine also has a good piece that looks at it a little differently.

There we go for this week – post any cool articles you’ve come across in comments!

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

SWTOR Episode 2: The Internet Strikes Back

March 10, 2012 by

Ok, I don’t know where to start with this post. In fact, all I’m going to say is watch the video, but be aware it is NSFW and contains sex references and offensive language. It also contains a bucketload of laughs, meme-mashing and some plain funny skit humour:

So tell me: did you laugh?

Oh, and here’s Episode 1: A New Meme:

Filed Under: Humour, News Tagged With:

Suggestion Box: Refer an Imaginary Friend

March 10, 2012 by

Ahh, the weekend. Even if you work on weekends, it has that more relaxed vibe usually, so it suits this week’s Suggestion Box topic: referring friends.

In case you hadn’t heard, SWTOR now has a refer-a-friend feature, allowing up to three of your friends to try out SWTOR for seven days for free.

So: ignoring totally your actual friends, who would you invite out of anyone worldwide to try the game out? Assume that whoever you invite will accept and play for the seven days. Be as creative / cynical / harsh as your weekend vibe allows 😉

I’ve chosen:

My boss: in the hope I’ll then be paid to play SWTOR as a business exercise

George Lucas: who wouldn’t want to thrash him in PvP or a duel?

Julian Assange: he’d so be rolling an Agent or Smuggler.

So let’s hear yours!

Oh – and we’d love it if you could fill out our reader survey – there’s a t-shirt prize on offer 😉

Filed Under: News, Suggestion Box Tagged With:

Dancing with Stormtroopers: A Bridge Too Far

March 9, 2012 by

See, I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry or riot over this video. I’m not enough of a Star Wars purist to get too antsy over Star Wars characters doing funny things, and there’s obviously no shortage of humour on the movies and games. But has George Lucas taken things too far with this:

Your learned thoughts in comments appreciated!

Filed Under: Humour, News Tagged With: , ,

Reminder: Reader’s Survey

March 8, 2012 by

As we discussed last week, we’re really keen to get your input on what we do here at TOROZ, so if you have a couple of minutes we’d be extremely grateful if you could fill out our survey.

You can elect to go into the draw to win a TOROZ t-shirt of your choice as well, so it’s a potential win-win situation!
I’d also like to thank all those that have filled in the survey so far – we’ve already made a couple of improvements to the site based on some of the feedback, and I’m sure we’ll be making plenty more. Finally – we will publish the results of the key survey areas once we’ve wrapped it all up.

So jump into the survey below or you can also use this direct link if need be.


 

Filed Under: News, TOG News

2012 SWTOR Guild Summit: Evidence of Longevity

March 7, 2012 by

With Day 1 of the 2012 SWTOR Guild Summit totally done and dusted (our coverage of the key panels here, here, here,here and here), there’s one very striking theme that resonated with me.

SWTOR is here for the long haul.

A lot of you will rightly say “what, you only just worked that out?”. I suppose I’ve always realised this is a game that has a good lifespan ahead of it, but today’s panels really brought home the depth and breadth of developments BioWare are working on in relation to the game. Sure, any MMO has never-ending development requirements and yes, there’s no shortage of stuff some people argue should have been in the game before launch anyway.

All that aside, the amount of new stuff on the horizon, whether officially on the development roadmap or on the “wall of crazy” referred to during the day, is enormous. I see that as nothing but a sign of a game that has a lot of fun twists and turns ahead.

Another encouraging observation was the obvious interplay between members of the Dev team. Although like any team there’d be tensions and conflicts, there was an obvious robust respect between the panel members and humorous comments where there were philosophical differences in approach to the game. Assuming it wasn’t a front (and I doubt it was given how long the panels went for and the obvious good humour), this also bodes well for the game.

So for me overall, the Guild Summit is more than just an event for BioWare to schmooze some of the more hardcore players in the game. It’s also been an interesting illustration of an engaged development team and a long list of future improvements to the game which should see its viability continue for a long time yet.

Do you agree?

Filed Under: Guilds, News, Opinion Tagged With:

Server downtime: things to do tonight

March 6, 2012 by

Four to six hours is a long time without your favourite MMO, so as always we’re here to provide you with a very self-interested list of things to do if you want to stay in the SWTOR mood until Patch 1.1.5 is live and you can jump back in:

1. Take part in our reader survey and go into the draw for a t-shirt

2. Check out the huge amount of details from today’s guild summit, which covered a range of areas including:

a. Legacy system

b. Crew skills and SWTOR economy

c. Roleplaying

d. SWTOR User Interface

e. Anything else discussed related to the game

3. Get some good information on tanking Hammer Station

4. Join the debate on whether SWTOR is hastening a decline in World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers

5. Put forward your suggestion of the next big thing in SWTOR you’d like changed

6. Check out our SWTOR roundup called Fleet Pass

Filed Under: Maintenance and Downtime, News
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