Stephen Reid Kicks a Preorder Hoax in the Head!

I want to start this article out with a quote from Stephen Reid that basicly sums up a huge problem we have in the MMO community.

Do not present opinions as 'facts' here, please - unless you have evidence to back it up.

Stephen posted this at the end of a very well written response to a forum members proclamation that in order to get into the beta for Star Wars The Old Republic you should not preorder the game. The forum poster went on to give some sketchy data mined from a "forum" community as hard evidence. Its banta fodder like this that can hurt our community as a whole.

The post exploded with page after page of people chiming in, cause ya know, they all know better. My question to you and myself is this. Do we? Do we really know better or do we just suppose we do?

From the very begining of closed beta BioWare has been very clear in stating that beta invites are random. The assumption that they will play favoritism because company XYZ employs this type of system, or, this is how I would do it, get my buddies in over others type thinking is what makes people nerd rage on a public forum spewing false information.

I want to take a moment and make an apeale to this infant community. Infant in the terms that we are just begining. We do not have the years or legs of say the WoW community, and frankly that is a  great thing. Please, lets not be like the wow community, or other communities where others reign supreame.

We have an obligation to help build and shape our new community. Read that again, "WE". Each and every member of this new community needs to take responsibility for how they act or react to the community. We need to lose our false sense of entitlement and embrace each other. Help one another, and create a fantastic community that happens to surround itself around an awesome game.

Ok, enough preaching. Back to the point. Can you get into the beta faster if you do not preorder? Here is what Stephen said in its entirety. You be the judge:

No, it's not true, and it is not a 'fact'. As your thread title is misleading, I'll be changing it after I'm done replying here.

Random selection is just that - random. Despite any poll, headcount or anecdotal evidence you may encounter, we are not selecting people for testing based on whether they pre-order or not. There is no marketing conspiracy here.

Let's all step back and think on something for a second: random selection is alien to human beings. We cannot believe things are random. We look for patterns, and we find them even when they're not there. Therefore, I can understand why people want to believe there's a pattern somewhere.

However, there is no pattern here. Whether you agree with it or not, our selection process is random based on our criteria for any given test.
Do not present opinions as 'facts' here, please - unless you have evidence to back it up.

Preorder the game, you will not be disapointed. If you get in the beta, enjoy it and have fun reporting bugs and issues. Do your part to help the game, which helps the community. But please, please do not spew false information or post troll posts simply because you do not have better social or communication skills.

Thank you.

(image from http://torwars.com)

[BOOK] Excerpt of Revan Audio Book

Are you looking forward to the upcoming book "Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan" by Drew Karpyshyn, as much as I am? Random House Audio has just released a portion of the upcoming book for our listening pleasure.

Marc Thompson, who also narrated "Deceived" does a fantastic job reading. His history with the series as well as his voice acting helps bring the story off the page and into your imagination.

Revan goes on sale November 15th, 2011, giving us plenty of time to dive into the story of one of the Old Republic's most iconic heroes. What will we discover about his whereabouts and how it will affect our own story?

Beta Weekend #2 Invites

Invites for Beta Weekend #2 have gone out. If you are like many of us you will be watching your email inbox very closly and hitting F5 until the letters are rubbed off the key.

All invites for Beta Testing Weekend #2 have now been sent.

Please check your email (including spam folders) and login to swtor.com/tester/ to see if you have been accepted for this weekend's testing. If you were not invited to this weekend, you may be invited to future testing.

-StephenReid

We hope many more of you are able to get in this coming weekend and test the game out.

Do remember, NDA is still in place. Please do not ruin any future time for others by letting information slip out.

RP-PvP Servers Confirmed

Our favorite community manager, Stephen Reid, stopped by the official forums to announce:

Hello all. As I said before, it wasn't such a trivial decision, which is why it took a while to make. However, we have good news: RP-PvP servers are going to be a part of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Please note, the 'RP' part of the RP-PvP designation will be a suggested style of play, not a mandatory one. What that means is, if you feel someone isn't roleplaying, reporting them to Customer Service will not ensure action on their account. We will also not be enforcing naming policies or similar.

For a game with a projected player base as high as The Old Republic, it's simply not practical for CS to be watching over this. If you want to fully immerse yourself in roleplaying, we suggest you find a likeminded group or guild to do that with. 

-StephenReid

Great news for those who wish to immerse themselves in the deep story of the TOR universe but still think a PVE server would not be able to give them the enjoyment they desire.

Naming Policy

It is interesting to note that naming polices will not be enforced. Not sure if this is just for the RP-PvP servers or will also include the RP-PVE server sets.

SWTOR Beta - Tank and Heal Testing

I have been putting this off for a couple weeks but cant help myself. Yes, I am in the Star Wars The Old Republic Beta, and yes I am LOVING it. The game will be a major hit if not for the story and lore alone.
I have to be very careful to not post anything that would break the NDA, one reason I have not posted anything about it. What I can say is that I have been busy testing the game, filling out bug reports and wrapping my head around the tank and healing classes.

In the next few weeks I will be working on some articles as my testing progresses. Sadly they will not be published until I am able to reveal some of the details.

For the time being my testing phase saw me testing out the 3 healing classes up to level 15 last week. The tanking classes have seen some love and I do know what tank I am rolling as my main come live, but more testing is needed for a better handle and report.