Star Wars: The Old Republic

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Star Wars: The Old Republic
SWTOR.jpg
Studio CanadaCanada BioWare
Publisher United StatesUnited States LucasArts Electronic Arts
United StatesUnited States
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 world December 20, 2011
platform Windows
Game engine HeroEngine (heavily modified)
genre MMORPG
Game mode Multiplayer
control Keyboard , mouse
system advantages
preconditions
language English, French, German
Age rating
USK released from 12
PEGI recommended for ages 16+
information www.swtor.com/

Star Wars: The Old Republic ( engl. F. Star Wars: The Old Republic , in short: SWTOR ) is an online role-playing game ( MMORPG ), which in 2011 by Electronic Arts was published. It was announced by the LucasArts company in 2008 and, after Star Wars Galaxies from 2003, is the second MMORPG to be located in the Star Wars universe. The game was released on December 20, 2011, and a free-to-play version was added in November 2012 .

action

The events of Star Wars: The Old Republic are set about three hundred years after those of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and take place more than 3,000 years before the rise of Darth Vader ( Star Wars Episode III ). The in Star Wars common era, VSY or NSY ( V OR or N oh the S chlacht of Y avin) is not used here, why a new era was introduced. This is called before or after the Coruscant contract and is indicated as VVC or NVC.

“For centuries the Galactic Republic has been a bastion of peace in a galaxy full of hostile star systems. Under the protection of its loyal Jedi guardians, the Republic was seen as the greatest hope for the advancement of civilization and galactic unity.

Deep in the unknown, however, a powerful Sith empire was created, led by dark Sith lords who dreamed of rule over the entire galaxy and revenge on their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time had come for the Sith to return.

With a huge fleet and a terrifying army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise attack that quickly killed dozen of planets in the Outer Rim and started a war unprecedented in the history of the galaxy.

From the ice surface of Ilum to the deserts of Dathomir, millions lost their lives in merciless battles. Despite a declaration of neutrality, the buildings on the surface of the water-covered planet Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their world under the ocean. Other star systems fared even worse - they were destroyed or uninhabitable. The bloody hustle and bustle did not end until Coruscant, the seat of government of the republic, was sacked. The Sith Empire forced the Senate of the Republic to sign an unfavorable peace treaty - the Treaty of Coruscant.

Since the signing of the treaty, the galaxy has been in constant fear and uncertainty, which allows the Sith Emperor to pursue his own secret plans while the republic tries to rebuild its infrastructure and adapt its military capabilities to the new situation.

Currently, tensions between the Republic and the Empire have increased again and a series of border violations and proxy wars have broken out, even to peaceful planets like Alderaan. The uncertain armistice of the Coruscant Treaty is quickly losing its validity and all that is missing is the official declarations of war to speak of an open war.

A new generation of heroes of the light and dark sides are setting out to overcome the difficulties of these chaotic times and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this hopeless age. "

Gameplay

Races and classes

During character selection, the player must join one of the two factions "The Sith Empire" or "The Galactic Republic". The playable races so far are the human, the Chiss, the Cathar, the Togruta, the Twi'lek, the Zabrak, the pure-bred Sith, the Miraluka, a race that has developed without eyes and can only see with the help of the power Mirialans, the Rattataki and also cyborgs who were originally humans. Race choice is restricted by class, and legacy benefits may override these restrictions. Each breed has its own social ability, but it does not bring any advantages. The Cathar breed (a cat-like species) introduced with patch 2.1 must be purchased via the cartel market, which also applies to the Togruta introduced with patch 3.3.

A total of eight classes are available: the soldier, the smuggler, the Jedi knight and the Jedi ambassador on the side of the Republic and the Imperial agent, the bounty hunter, the Sith warrior and the Sith inquisitor on the side of the Sith Empire.

These eight classes split into two further sub-classes later in the game. Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games, explained in June 2011 that each of the classes had around 200 hours of game time, not including crafting, raids and multiplayer content.

Synchronization of the classes

The Old Republic is one of the few MMORPGs with full synchronization. This means that all dialogues are completely set to music. So each class has one male and one female speaker.

The republican classes
The class gender English version German version
Jedi Knight male David Hayter Matthias Keller
Female Kari Wahlgren Marion von Stengel
Jedi ambassadors male Nolan North Patrick Elias
Female Athena Karkanis Kathrin Spielvogel
soldier male Brian Bloom Swen Mai
Female Jennifer Hale Nina Hecklau thinker
Smuggler male Maury Sterling Dieter Gring
Female Kath Soucie Sandra Lühr
The imperial classes
The class gender English version German version of the game
Sith warriors male Mark Bazeley Rasmus Borowski
Female Natasha Little Friederike Solak
Sith inquisitor male Euan Morton Joachim Puetz
Female Xanthe Elbrick Gisa Bergmann
Bounty hunter male Tom Spackman Tobias Brecklinghaus
Female Gray DeLisle Sabine Fischer
Imperial agent male Bertie Carvel Philip Baltus
Female Jo Wyatt Stephanie Damare

Planets

The player has the opportunity to travel to many of the planets that are already known from the Star Wars films or from KotOR . There are also some new planets and star systems to discover. A large part of the plot takes place here, but there are also quests on the players' spaceships or goals that can only be traveled with a special mission (sometimes class-restricted) (e.g. space stations or special ships). In addition, the players have the opportunity to take part in space battles with their spaceship. The following planets and moons can currently be discovered (as of Patch 3.1): Alderaan , Balmorra, Belsavis, Corellia , Coruscant (only for the republic) (main world of the republic), CZ-198, Dromund Kaas (only for the empire) (main world of the empire), Hoth , Hutta (only for the empire), Ilum , Korriban (only for the empire), Makeb (only with the digital expansion "Rise of the Huttenkartell"), Nar Shaddaa , Ord Mantell (only for the republic), Oricon, Quesh , Rishi, Taris , Tatooine , Tython (Republic only), Voss, Yavin 4, and Ziost. On many planets the opponents have to be divided into two different level areas, which can be defined in more detail from area to area. The first area corresponds to the level recommendation of the normal story, while the second area is adapted to the level of the bonus series, a quest series that you can optionally edit after finishing the story. Most of the time, but not always, the level of the bonus series follows on from the normal story.

Crew skills

Each player has the opportunity to let his character learn three crew skills, which are divided into crafting, collecting and mission skills. A maximum of one crafting skill and two to three collecting or mission skills can be learned. It should be emphasized here that the player's companions perform these skills. The player himself can only use gathering skills.

Type ability description
Collectibility archeology Collecting crystal formations and archaeological finds
Bioanalysis Collecting genetic material from living things and vegetation
Chop Ability to access secured computer systems and safe boxes to preserve valuable objects
Plunder Ability to recover parts and materials such as metals, alloys and synthetic components
Craftsmanship biochemistry Manufacture of medical supplies, chemical serums and biological implants
Cybertech Manufacture of droid armor, ear pieces, grenades, armor, modifications and apparatus
Craftsmanship Construction of lightsaber modifications, upgrades and foci for e.g. B. Color Crystals
Armaments construction Ability to create armor for alien users
Synth manufacturing Ability to craft armor for power users
Gun manufacture Ability to craft blasters, blaster modifications, and melee weapons
Mission Ability diplomacy Conducting negotiations for B. Obtain medical supplies
detection Investigation of secret information about e.g. B. To obtain researched mixtures
Treasure hunt Ability to use precious objects such as B. Obtain Gems, Safe Boxes, and Companion Gifts
Underworld trade Exchange of goods and services on the galactic black market for z. B. Luxury fabrics and underworld metals

Guilds

Several players can form guilds on one server. To found a guild, at least 4 players and 5000 credits are required, which the guild registers with the guild registrar on the fleet or the main world of the respective faction. The name of the guild is freely chosen and must be unique per server. One player assumes the rank of guild master. There are various other ranks within the guild. After joining a guild, the other players start at the rank of acolyte (for guilds under the direction of free players, recruit) and can be raised to higher ranks by the guild master. In addition, every player from a certain rank can change the ranks of other players who are at least 2 ranks below him to a limited extent. For example, a player in 5th rank can raise another player in 1st rank to 3rd rank, but also lower it again. However, if the guild master raises a person to 5th rank, the two cannot upgrade or downgrade each other.

Since patch 1.2 was released, guild banks have been introduced to make it easier to swap in game items. Guild banks have several bank boxes with 90 slots each, each of which can be activated individually, and an unlimited amount of game currency can be stored in a guild bank.

With Update 2.9 and the expansion Galactic Strongholds , guild forts and guild ships were introduced.

The current (Patch 4.6) maximum number of guild members is 1000 characters.

Companions

In the course of his Star Wars adventure, the player can fall back on the help of so-called companions who accompany the player and support him in battle. They can also exercise crew skills or sell the worthless items from the character's inventory. On the way to the maximum level, more and more companions join the player until the limit of the available companions of currently nine per character is reached. The companions occupy different roles. There are damage-distributing companions in long-range or hand-to-hand combat, as well as defending long-range and hand-to-hand combat companions or healing companions.

Each class has 5 individual companions, in addition, together with your personal ship, you get a droid as a companion, 2V-R8 on the empire side or C2-N2 on the republic side. Through a series of quests you can also unlock the assassin droid HK-51, the Ewok Treek is available for real money in the cartel market. Players who had an active subscription on August 11, 2015 also received Nico Okarr as a companion for the release of Knights of the Fallen Empire. At the start of the expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire, the five old companions from the class story first leave the game character and then return partially in the course of the further story. The action of the expansions adds several common companions for all classes.

legacy

Once the player reaches level 10 of their first character on a server, their legacy will be unlocked. The legacy is to be seen figuratively as a surname for all characters of a player, which, however, offers many advantages. These are divided into global (affect all characters of the player on a server) and character-specific (only offer advantages for the respective character) advantages. Global benefits include: B. the activation of comfort functions such as reduced cooldown time of the fast travel or social functions such as special emotes. Character-specific advantages are e.g. B. the activation of experience boosts for leveling additional characters in the same legacy on the same server.

Operations

The aim of the so-called operations is to defeat strong NPCs together with other players on his server and thereby obtain good equipment and a lot of experience and social points.

The game content (with expansions) currently comprises 12 instantiated operations : "The Eternal Chamber", "Karraga's Palace", "Explosive Conflict" (called Denova), "Terror from the Deep" (called Asation), "Toborro's Court", "Scum and depravity "(called Darvannis)," The Dread Fortress "," The Dread Palace "," The Rage "," Temple of Sacrifice "," Machine Gods "and" The Nature of Progress ". The 8 or 16 player versions are referred to as operations and are only playable for the current maximum level of the main game (50) or the expansions "Rise of the Huttenkartell" (55) and "Shadow of Revan" (60). The operations are differentiated in three degrees of difficulty, the story mode (easiest), the hard mode (medium difficulty) and the nightmare mode (most difficult), whereby these have a very different basic difficulty. For example, the nightmare mode of operation “The Eternal Chamber” is not as demanding as the hard mode of operations “Explosive Conflict” or “Terror from the Deep”.

Flashpoints

In addition to the operations, the game also has so-called Flashpoints. Like the operations, these are also instantiated but designed for groups of 4 players. The first Flashpoint can be entered on the part of the Republic and the Empire when the respective fleet is reached for the first time. As the game progresses, more and more Flashpoints are added. In contrast to the weekly lockouts during operations, the Flashpoints can be entered and locked indefinitely. Many of these Flashpoints have a second level of difficulty, the hard mode, which is available from level 50 onwards. In these, the level of the opponent is raised to the maximum level and the level of difficulty is increased. The quality and value of the looted items are increased accordingly and the amount of credits received is adjusted to the level.

There are currently 17 Flashpoints in total, with 3 Flashpoints each can only be entered by a corresponding faction. The remaining 11 Flashpoints can be entered by either faction.

War zones (PvP)

In addition to open-world PvP on PvP servers, the game offers instantiated PvP war zones for all server types. In these teams of 8 players face each other in order to achieve the respective goal of the area. After completing a war zone, the player receives experience points, credits, war zone awards (for buying PvP items) and bravery points. With the latter, the player improves his valor rank, which offers access to exclusive PvP armor.

Patch 1.4 introduced the pre-season of the Ranked War Zones. The difference to the "normal" war zones is that you have to form a team of 8 players to participate before you enter the waiting list. Players then receive their first rank after 10 games. With a higher rank you get access to special PvP goods.

There are currently six war zones in the game: Alderaan Civil War, The Voidstar, Huttenball, Huttenball-Quesh, Novare Coast, and The Ancient Hyperspace Gates.

Fundamental changes were introduced with Patch 2.4. The 8v8 Ranked Warzones have been removed from the Ranked Warzone list. Ranked PvP is only possible in the newly added 4v4 arenas. The long-awaited PvP season 1 started with patch 2.4.3. With patch 2.7 "Invasion", PvP mission terminals were installed in all war zones. With patch 3.0 "Shadow of Revan" [obsolete] the third PvP season should end.

The game currently includes four war zone arenas: Orbital Station Arena, Tatooine Gorge Arena, Corellia Square Arena and Makeb Table Mountain Arena.

Extensions

Overview
title publication
Rise of the Hutten Cartel (Levels 51-55) April 14, 2013
Galactic Starfighter 4th February 2014
Galactic Strongholds October 14, 2014
Shadow of Revan (Level 56-60) December 9, 2014
Knights of the Fallen Empire (Level 61-65) October 27, 2015
Knights of the Eternal Throne (Level 66-70) 2nd December 2016
Onslaught (Level 71-75) October 22, 2019

Rise of the Huttenkartell

The maximum level has been increased from 50 to 55 with the "Rise of the Hutten Cartel" expansion. In addition, the Planet Makeb , which was specially created for Star Wars: The Old Republic , was installed.

Rise of the Huttenkartell appeared in Germany on April 14, 2013 as a digital download version at a price of 17 euros (8 euros for subscribers). Players who had pre-ordered Rise of the Huttenkartell before January 8, 2013 at 6.59 a.m.CET also automatically received five days early access to the game. On September 10, 2013, the developers announced that active subscribers will receive the expansion free of charge from September 12, 2013 as a benefit in the subscription rewards program. Since October 2019, free players have also been able to access the expansion free of charge.

New since the rise of the Hutten cartel :

  • Maximum level increased to 55.
  • New Planet Makeb with new story-based missions.
  • Expanded crew skills with new, learnable items.
  • Macro binoculars and search droids feature.
  • New operation: scraps and rottenness
  • Four Flashpoints already included in the game, which have been raised to the new maximum level.
  • New endgame equipment for PvP and PvE

Galactic Starfighter

On October 8, 2013, Bioware officially announced the second expansion, Galactic Starfighter . It introduced multiplayer space battles. For completing space battles, players receive ship and fleet acquisitions that they can use to upgrade their space fighters or buy new ones. In the cartel market, players have the opportunity to receive cosmetic adjustments for their star fighters.

There are currently four different spaceship classes, scout, fighter-bomber, bomber and combat ship , each playable with four models that are equipped with specific weapons and skills.

Galactic Starfighter was released for free early access for subscribers on December 3, 2013. Preferred status players got free access on January 14, 2014. From February 4, 2014, Galactic Starfighter was offered as a free-to-play expansion for all players.

There are currently three different maps that can be played in two different game modes ( Team Deathmatch and Domination ). There is both the possibility to play Republic against Empire and test battles between two teams of the same faction.

In Team Deathmatch, the goal is to destroy 50 opponents before time runs out. The team with the most destroyed opponents after time runs out wins. If a team destroys 50 opponents before the time runs out, it wins and it's game over.

The Domination game mode is about conquering three satellites and collecting points by controlling the satellites. For each controlled satellite there is one point per second, the maximum number of points is 1000. At the end of the game, the same rules apply as in Team Deathmatch.

Galactic Strongholds

As a subscriber, with the game update 2.9 on September 18, 2014 you will have access to the digital expansion Galactic Strongholds for the first time . Preferred status players could access the expansion from September 16, 2014, and free players from October 14, 2014. The biggest updates were the forts and guild flagships.

There are fortresses on Tatooine, Nar Shaddaa, Dromund Kaas and Coruscant and since patch 3.3 also on Yavin 4. With later updates, two more fortresses were implemented: Manaan (5.3) and a train on Umbara (5.4). On each of these planets there is a fortress directory in which a fortress can be bought - with the exception of the train to Umbara, the access for this is on Odessen. Further lists of fortresses are also found on the Imperial and Republican fleets. As a Republican, if you want to go to a fortress on the main planet of the Dromund Kaas Empire, you have to pay 1000 credits to hire a smuggler. The same applies to imperials. This only works within a legacy, smugglers and agents only have to pay 500 credits.

The first fortress costs 5000 credits or 1200 cartel coins, the following ones become more expensive. Once you've bought a fortress, you can travel to your fortress at any time by pressing the U key. You can own all seven fortresses (also several times due to the consolidation of the servers), but only have six active ones. If a fortress was bought with credits, reactivation costs the activation costs in credits again, otherwise not. At first you don't own the whole fortress, but gradually have to buy rooms. The train on Umbara cannot be bought with credits or real money, but must be earned. When completing certain tasks, you receive a special currency ("token") that can be used for it. The fortress on Yavin, the palace on Nar Shadaa and the homestead on Tatooine are the most extensive, the dwellings on Manaan and Umbara that were added later are significantly smaller and also have fewer rooms to unlock, which makes them cheaper both in game credits and in real money makes than previous dwellings.

The fortress is set up by the player himself, an editing mode has been introduced for this purpose. Decorations can be obtained in the Galactic Trade Network, during operations, at Flashpoints or during quests. They can also be easily dropped by opponents. On all seven planets and on the Republican or Imperial Fleet there is a fortress commissioner who gives you a task in which you have to buy a fortress and as a reward you get a selection of items for your own fortress.

Developing and decorating a fortress is worthwhile for players who want to achieve special game objectives ("conquests"), as these increase the experience points gained for these game objectives (up to 150% with six fully developed fortresses).

Several players can live in the fortress. In a guild, the leader can buy a fortress from the guild bank, which is used as quarters.

A guild flagship works in much the same way, but it is a ship that must be bought by the leader and is much larger than a fortress. The flagship can be designed like a fortress. Here too, extra rooms or decks have to be bought.

Shadow of Revan

The expansion Shadow of Revan was released in December 2014. In the plot, the main character from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was the antagonist. The expansion has also been available free of charge to all free players since October 2019.

Knights of the Fallen Empire

The digital expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire focuses on storytelling again. KotFE was available for free to all subscribers from October 20, 2015 and on sale to Preferred and Free-to-Play players from October 27, 2015. Those who subscribed after it was released will usually retain access to Knights of the Fallen Empire as the preferred player. The history of the expansion has been divided into several chapters. The 16th chapter "The Battle of Odessen" was published on November 8th, 2016 and marks the end of the expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire.

Knights of the Eternal Throne

On December 2, 2016, the next expansion entitled Knights of the Eternal Throne was released . The expansion was released on the fifth anniversary of SWTOR. The story is the direct sequel to Knights of the Fallen Empire . With this expansion it is possible to reach level 70.

Onslaught

At the Star Wars Celebration 2019, the upcoming expansion entitled Onslaught was announced for Star Wars The Old Republic . The expansion was originally supposed to be released in September 2019, but the final release date has been postponed to October 22, 2019. The expansion is available to all SWTOR subscribers at no additional cost and covers the story of the newly flared war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith empire.

technology

To technology

Star Wars: The Old Republic has so far only been released for Windows PCs. In contrast to previous BioWare titles, the game engine in SWTOR was not developed in-house. Instead, the externally developed HeroEngine from the London company Idea Fabrik is used.

The game world is completely represented in three-dimensional graphics . In order for the game to run smoothly on as many PC configurations as possible, it does not look photorealistic, but looks slightly comic. The developers call this stylized realism. As reasons for its use, the company cited, in addition to generally lower hardware requirements, a more timeless style and the avoidance of the uncanny valley .

On July 31, 2013, a new start program was introduced, which enables playing in the stream. This means that the game can be started before the complete game files have been downloaded.

Server types

The player selects a higher-level region to play on, on which he creates his characters. There are two regions: North America and Europe. (The servers in Asia were shut down in August 2013 and the players who remained there were transferred to the various servers in the USA). In each region there were different servers , which in addition to the languages ​​(in Europe up to now French , German and English ) (in America the servers are divided into east coast and west coast) differentiated into four types. On the one hand, there was a distinction between PvE ( Player versus Environment ) and PvP ( Player versus Player ) servers. On the latter, the open fight between player characters from different factions was possible during the quest, while on PvE servers the fight against computer-controlled opponents and solving quests were in the foreground. In addition, there was a role-play variant for both server types with special rules, e.g. B. for handling within the game world.

With Update 5.5 United Forces on November 8, 2017, the existing servers were merged and renamed. This means that there are only servers on the east coast of North America and one server each for English, German and French in Europe. The subdivision to the PVE now takes place by means of "instances" which are on the same server and which can be traveled by calling up the current planet map. It is specially marked so that you don't accidentally change into it.

development

Concept and production costs

The game was developed by the Canadian game developer BioWare , who has already produced Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR for short). Not least because of the success of this game (including Game Developers Choice Awards 2004 as "Game of the Year"), expectations of the new video game title were relatively high. BioWare had the goal of setting new standards with various innovations. According to the developers, the story in particular should have a special place: “It is important to us to create the world's best games with a strong story. We believe that the engaging, interactive stories told in Star Wars: The Old Republic will represent a major innovation in the MMO genre and create an experience never seen before. "

For the first time the usual text output of the dialogues on the screen has been replaced by a complete voice output (subtitles only for alien languages) for both player and non-player characters (short: NSC). Several hundred speakers were used for this purpose. The game has been fully localized in all announced languages.

EA repeatedly contradicted rumors that the game cost around US $ 300 million to develop by 2011. The company told investors that it had invested significantly less without limiting the amount. According to the company, the game will be profitable from 500,000 subscribers. According to a report by the LA Times in January 2012, Publisher Electronic Arts spent 200 million US dollars on the development, around 800 people are said to have been involved in the development.

Originally the business model was based on monthly subscriptions. Due to the decreasing number of users, however, after the release on November 15, 2012 with the implementation of Patch 1.5, the game was supplemented worldwide by a free-to-play version, which allows players to play all eight character classes free of charge up to the then maximum level of 50 . For users of the free-to-play offer, however, there are some restrictions in the game compared to the subscription that is still available. So it should still be possible for subscribers to keep access to all game content. In addition, subscribers receive a fixed amount of game currency as compensation, which they can exchange for exclusive game content.

marketing

LucasArts officially announced the title in October 2008. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2009, the press was shown the first trailer for the game, which was named Deceived . This shows the attack by the Sith on the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. In addition, the first demonstration of gameplay was presented. The material was then presented to the general public at gamescom in August 2009. In October, registration for the game test was opened on the official website . Within a very short time, the servers were overloaded due to the logon rush and were temporarily unavailable or difficult to access. The Hope trailer was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 . The play tests were running for testers from North America since the beginning of summer 2010 and were extended to other continents at a later date. The trailer return was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 .

music

The music was composed by Mark Griskey and Wilbert Roget, II. In addition, well-known titles from the Star Wars films by John Williams were used.

Disclosure Policy Irregularities

In the course of the pre-release, there was a confusing situation for customers who had ordered the special edition version. There were three different release dates in total. The normal date and the sale of the game in the store started on December 20, 2011. The pre-release for customers who had pre-ordered the normal game version took place five days earlier, on December 15, 2011. The pre-release for buyers of the special edition version was scheduled for December 13, 2011, but only American customers received server access right from the start. Contrary to other information from Bioware to European customers, the American customers only received activation for their game after a delay and were only able to log in between December 13th and 15th, 2011. It must also be taken into account that the earlier the pre-order was made, the earlier you could enter the game.

reception

Reviews in game magazines

Meta-ratings
Database Rating
Metacritic 85/100
reviews
publication Rating
4players 83%
Computer picture games 2.45
GameStar 86%
PC Games 89%

The credible Star Wars atmosphere was rated particularly positively. This comes about through a consistently good synchronization, the original Star Wars film music and the appealing, albeit partially detailed graphics of the MMO. The switch to the limited free-to-play version and the well-balanced character classes were also viewed positively. Especially at the beginning of the game history, the numerous bugs and the fluctuating quest level were rated negatively. Especially as the game length increases, there is a lack of variety in the quests and the main quest is artificially drawn out. Therefore, many players leave the game after just a few months, which leads to a falling number of players. In December 2012, Gamasutra counted the negative development of the game after the successful start to the five biggest disappointments of the year. The high initial sales have been dubbed the last good news for The Old Republic .

Awards

  • 2010 - Nomination at GamesCom for the "Best of" award
  • 2010 - Nomination at GamesCom in the category "Best Online Game"
  • 2013 - Nomination for MMO of the year in the category "Best classic download MMO"

User numbers

After the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic , the number of users quickly grew to 1.7 million players. In May 2012, Electronic Arts had to announce that the number of active players has decreased by around 25 percent to a level of 1.3 million users.

At the end of July 2012, Electronic Arts announced a further decline in active players, which was no longer precisely quantified, but was only narrowed down between 500,000 and one million active players. In this context, EA announced a change in the payment model, as a result of which Star Wars: The Old Republic was continued as a free-to-play and pay-to-play hybrid from autumn 2012 .

In May 2013, during the Electronic Arts Earnings Call, a specific number of subscribers was given for the first time in several months. Accordingly, the game has around 500,000 subscribers. Since moving to free-to-play, the game had attracted 1.7 million new players and revenues nearly doubled.

Books about the game

Novels

comics

Non-fiction

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic - Encyclopedia (English) by Ian Ryan, Charles Boyd, Hall Hood and Joanna Berry, DK ADULT, October 2012, ISBN 978-0-7566-9839-3 .
  • The Art and Making of Star Wars - The Old Republic by Frank Parisi and Daniel Erickson, Chronicle Books, November 2011, ISBN 978-0-8118-7500-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Parisi: The Art and Making of Star Wars - The Old Republic. ISBN 978-0-8118-7500-4 .
  2. ↑ Official website: FAQ
  3. ^ Galactic timeline on The Old Republic homepage . Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  4. ↑ Official website: Background
  5. ↑ a b cf. z. B. EA: 200 hours of play per SWTOR class, eurogamer.net, June 29, 2011
  6. ↑ SWTOR EN - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Rise of the Huttenkartell. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  7. ↑ swtor.com - Rise of the Hutt Cartel - Free for subscribers from September 12th. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  8. ↑ a b gamestar.de
  9. ↑ BIOWARE UNVEIL GALACTIC STARFIGHTER, THE NEXT DIGITAL EXPANSION FOR Star Wars: THE OLD REPUBLIC ™. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  10. ↑ buffed.de
  11. ↑ Patrick Jackson: Star Wars: The Old Republic - After three years new expansion "Onslaught" announced. In: www.game-dna.de. April 15, 2019, accessed April 15, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Keith Kanneg: Expansion 'Onslaught' starts worldwide on… In: www.swtor.com/de. August 26, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  13. ↑ The 'Onslaught' expansion is live! In: www.swtor.com/de. October 22, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  14. ↑ cf. HeroEngine
  15. ↑ cf. Exclusive SWTOR HeroEngine Interview - Instant World Creation, tentonhammer.com
  16. ↑ MMORPG.de: SWToR: Starter program allows streaming
  17. ↑ swtor.com
  18. ↑ Official website: Developer blog ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.swtor.com
  19. ↑ a b cf. z. B. 500k subs will make SW: TOR profitable, eurogamer.net, February 2, 2011
  20. ↑ Ben Fritz, Alex Pham: Star Wars: The Old Republic - the story behind a galactic gamble . In: Los Angeles Times . January 20, 2012. ( archive.org )
  21. ↑ SWTOR EN - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Comparison of subscription and free-to-play offer. Retrieved on November 15, 2012. ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.swtor.com
  22. ↑ LucasArts officially announces BioWare MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Accessed April 16, 2012.
  23. ↑ Golem.de : Beta test registration for Star Wars: The Old Republic opened
  24. ↑ The Star Wars: The Old Republic Trailer "Hope". Accessed April 16, 2012.
  25. ↑ Official website: The game tests are running ( memento of the original from July 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / swtor.com
  26. ↑ Official website: The Old Republic at E3 2011!
  27. ↑ SWTOR Cantina  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. A blog post on the fansite swtor-cantina about the publication policy@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.swtor-cantina.de  
  28. ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic - PC . In: GameStar .
  29. ↑ Oliver Sprung: Star Wars - The Old Republic: Test for PC . In: Computer Bild . December 20, 2011.
  30. ^ Mathias Oertel: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Test, conclusion and evaluation (PC) . In: 4Players . December 22, 2011.
  31. ↑ Stefan Weiß: Star Wars: The Old Republic Test . In: PC Games . November 11, 2011.
  32. ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic PC - Metacritic
  33. ↑ a b Star Wars The Old Republic
  34. ^ Christian Nutt: The 5 biggest disappointments of 2012. In: Gamasutra . December 11, 2012, accessed December 13, 2012 .
  35. ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic: New statistics for the Christmas weekend. In: IGN. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
  36. ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic is losing 25% of its users. In: IGN. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
  37. ↑ SWTOR EN - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Announcement of a free game model. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  38. ↑ Gamona.de - EA Earnings Call.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 19, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / swtor.gamona.de