Results from Early Testing

It is official then, SWTOR public testing has begun. A number of players are already in the game, and this number is increasing exponentially as the release date approaches.

Many people have been INCREDIBLY keen to become one of these testers, but the privilege has only been offered to relatively few so far. If you are one of the players who has not been accepted, but is interested to be so in the future, here are a few tips that will get you noticed by the producers of The Old Republic and hopefully into the testing team.

Post regularly on the forums in a constructive manner.
Try to post in developer’s threads and converse with them if possible.
Ensure all parts of your account details are up to date. It may be useful to have an age over 21 years and a location in the United States for legal reasons.
Do the system scan on a reasonably powerful windows desktop. Avoid laptops, Macs and super computers.
In general the producers want enthusiastic and decidedly average players, try to be so if at all possible.
Constructive criticism on the forums is OK, but don’t out and out insult or otherwise defame The Old Republic or the team working on it.

A tester of SWTOR making accurate observations.

So that is it folks. By talking to a few of the current testers these are the attributes they all have in common. In a way Bioware seems to reward its most enthusiastic supporters by allowing them to test, so lets hope that is you in the future!

As mentioned in the producer note the testers so far have been incredibly pleased with the state of the game, many saying the story is its strongest aspect. Many more serious players (such as PvPers) had been sceptical about what story can bring to a MMORPG, but from the early results it seems to be very engaging and entertaining.

Evidently, SWTOR is not a game about grinding. like the original KOTOR games, you never farm or kill enemies repetitively to gain experience. It will be more of a play through the story to get to the top level then you are free to go kind of affair. This will hopefully make it very popular with almost everyone, as it will remove the boring re-runs that are a hallmark of most MMOs.

We have not heard any of the negative comments from testers, mainly because what we do know is coming straight from Bioware. It is also unlikely that any of the current testers are very serious players. Chances are they are the SWTOR lovers from day 1, so many of their observations may well be tinted by rose coloured glasses. What to read out of the producer notes on the subject is up to you.

All in all, from preliminary testing SWTOR looks like it will deliver much of what it will promise. Although there are clearly areas that need substantial development, all in all the game is looking very interesting, and should carry with it many of the traits which made its predecessors so spectacular.