According to Wikipedia, the first of its kind actually took place way back in 1999, with its main focus being the promotion of Episode I. It was then repeated for the releases of the next two films, and after the franchise's 30th anniversary Lucasfilm started to hold them more regularly, once every one or two years.
It's hard for me to tell how much SWTOR has been featured there in the past. I couldn't really find any mention of it before 2015, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Bioware didn't at least have a booth or something. I found a forum poster complaining in 2012 that SWTOR was "no longer" going to be at Celebration, but I don't know if that means that they were featured before and stopped or whether it was just planned and then cancelled. In 2015 there was at least an associated Community Cantina, but I'm not sure SWTOR was featured on the show floor. This video by an excited SWTOR player talking about his trip to Celebration seems to indicate a no; otherwise it probably would have been mentioned.
2016 was only the second year that Celebration took place in Europe, and also marked the second time that I got to go to a Community Cantina! There, SWTOR was also briefly featured on the actual Celebration stage itself, basically just to promote the game to a wider audience and tease Knights of the Eternal Throne. 2017 it looked like they were back to "just" having a Cantina event though - as far as I could tell from googling it anyway - and 2018 was one of those years when there wasn't a Celebration.
So it looks like this year's event might turn out to be SWTOR's biggest in terms of presence yet! Not only will Bioware be hosting a "special event" that was worthy of being mentioned on the official Star Wars site, there is also going to be a bigger fan presence than ever. Under the leadership of the lovely Swtorista (I feel like such a fangirl, mentioning her three times in one month, haha) this community effort even has its own website under swtorfancommunity.com. While the site was specifically set up for the event, it also contains a lot of "evergreen" content such as links to various fan resources as well as an excellent new guild finder tool which I really need to remember to add to my side bar. (And I don't just say that because this blog is also included among the fan site links.)
While at Celebration, the enthusiastic peeps present at the fan booth are planning to hand out swag, show off some awesome cosplay, and will also try to make those of us feel connected who can't be there in person, both via streaming and things like Twitter updates. There have also been some giveaways and contests via various channels already, such as - again - Twitter or the SWTOR Discord. I've entered a few of them myself, not so much because I desperately want any of the prizes, but simply because it's fun! Can't say I ever felt inspired to write a haiku about trooper-dom before... they are still going on at the time of writing, so just follow some of those links on the official community site and you should be able to join in the fun.
Giveaway stuff starts here!
And the lucky winner, determined by an in-game /roll 7 (the number of entries), is...
Commenter #2, fellow blogger Intisar from Star Forge!
Congratulations! :D
In fact, I've been allowed to join in myself by giving away a 30 day time code for SWTOR! How cool is that? That's the first time I'm holding a giveaway that I didn't have to pay for myself, hah! All you have to do to be in the running to win it is this:
1. Leave a comment in response to this post telling me about what you'd really love to see in SWTOR's next big update/expansion. A new operation? New romanceable companions? Another big showdown between Satele Shan and Darth Malgus? Feel free to go into as much or as little detail as you like.
2. At the end of your comment, leave your character name, faction and server name. This is so I have a way of contacting you if you win! This doesn't have to be your main if you're shy, just somewhere where I can mail the code if you win so that you will actually receive it. Alternatively, if you use Twitter you can leave your Twitter handle instead.
The blog is set up to allow anonymous comments, so as long as you can cope with CAPTCHAs you don't have to sign up with any third party service like OpenID to participate. However, should you still have issues commenting on this post for some reason, feel free to drop me an e-mail with what your comment was supposed to be and I will post it for you.
While I hope that people will leave thoughtful comments that will be enjoyable to read, they won't be rated by quality and the winner will be drawn at random from all eligible participants. You have until 8 am GMT on the 14th of April to enter (you'll have to check yourself when that is in your local time zone), at which point I'll close the comments for this post and announce the winner later in the day. By then we should also know at least some things about what's coming in the next big update, so no need to guess anymore!
Wohooo...i love giveaways. But this is a really though question...what do you really love to see in SWTOR?
ReplyDeleteAs a SWTOR player we have to fill extendend gaps between new content updates. And some of this time we spend with discussions. About the game, where it is, where it could be or what it should be.
Soooo...you are asking a little question and i have to write an small article as an answer to capture multiple train of thoughts worth maybe hundreds of hours.
I try to keep it humble.
As a raider i need a new raid.
As a story player i need new story. And i mean separate class stories.
As a pvper i need some class changes, just to mix it up. Not to achieve perfect balance. We know all, that is not possible. A new map is never a bad thing. Maybe something completely different...like Odessen was. I know, most people hate Odessen. But i like it, because it is unique.
They should keep up the good work on cartell market stuff. They released some outstanding armour sets lately.
As an explorer i want new areas to explore. It doesn't have to be only on a new planet. Maybe add a new section of the Galactic Senate on Coruscant. You have to go there to pick up a new storyline and travel to the Jedi Temple, which -of course- is now almost rebuild. Something like a new bonus series. Works for every planet. Nar Shaddaa, Belsavis, Oricon...you name it. My eyes need something new. I played hundreds of thousands of hours leveling alts, and every corner in this game i saw a trillion times. Ossus is great. I loved the storyline, the questdesign, the bosses. But even if you take that all away...it will still be great for me, because my eyes can see a new environment. Not just the same old cave on every planet.
Give me whatever you can, but give it to me. I'm dying of thirst. Give me...something.
Combat Wombat, Imperial, Darth Malgus
I just wanted to say that I ❤️ this comment. And not just because it's always nice to meet another person who likes the Proving Grounds. :P
DeleteInspired by „A Love Letter to Odessen Proving Grounds“
DeleteA Love Letter to Shintar (long overdue)
Dear Shintar,
i don't know, if you experienced it yourself...but most certainly you witnessed this phenomenon at least on other persons...friends...maybe even family members.
Most commonly you see it in conjunction with singers or actors. It starts with the role they play, the song they perform, the lyrics, or just with a smile. They are good looking. Confident. After a while you read an article in a newspaper about them. You listen to an interview they gave. And before you realise it, you are a fan. You collect bits and pieces from different sources and add some of your own imagination what this famous people might be like in real life....and suddenly you developed a full-grown celebrity crush. Like my sister had a crush on Brad Pitt, ever since she saw him in Meet Joe Black. I am a more simple man...sometimes there is no real explanation why you like someone. It's just a miracle. For me it was Salma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn). After all these years i can't quite figure it out why i have a crush on her. Mysterious. But back to my subject....
Shintar.
I have a confession to make.
I don't know what you do in real life, i don't know if you are pouring your milk in the bowl before your cereals, i don't even know how you look like...but...i put the bits and pieces from your blog and youtube channel together, added a little imagination to it and here you are...you are my celebrity crush.
And so the circle closes...what i really want for the next SWTOR expansion? I want you. I want you to be there. I want you to play it. I want you to blog about it.
After almost six years playing this game beside you...well technically i'm on a different server, and our characters never met...but you get, what i want to say...after all these years, you are a very important part in my swtor experience. I just can't imagine to dive into new adventures in this game, without reading about your insights a day later.
So...please Shintar...promise me, you will be there.
Warmly...your fan.
P.S. and if this whole marriage thing isn't yours...call me...like my 10 year old niece is waiting for Tom Hiddlestons call
P.S.S. just in case...because it's is mathematically possible...are you in, when it comes to a three-way-relationship with Salma Hayek?
Joke aside. I really appreciate your work. I hope i made you smile. See you in your next blogpost.
Well, I can't say that anyone's ever compared me to Salma Hayek before! Thank you very much for your kind words though; to be honest I was so abashed when I first saw your comment that I wasn't sure how to respond. I completely get that feeling of community members contributing to your experience even if you don't know them personally - after all I did just spend a lot of time gushing about Swtorista's contributions in the last few posts. You shouldn't have to worry either, as at this point I'm pretty sure I'm going to be around and writing about SWTOR until they turn the servers off (hopefully not for a long time)!
DeleteI'm not too proud to try to for SWAG, so he's my shot at a prize.
ReplyDeleteI think it goes without saying that we'll see new story and some group content, but something that I think is long overdue is fresh set bonuses and relic types. Those have remained basically unchanged since Rise of the Hutt Cartel and I think it would be cool to see them revamped. In addition, if, as pretty much, everyone suspects we'll see separate PVE and PVP gearing, this might also be a way to separate the two modes with procs and bonuses suited to PVE or PVP.
Intisar - Republic - Star Forge
What I would love to see is for them to go back to allowing people to do story together like in the original content and RotHC. They got too scared of people "not being able to make their own story choices" and locked us who enjoyed playing through the stories with friends out of some of the best fun the game had to offer.
ReplyDeleteThey did well with Ossus, as apart some hilarious cutscene glitches everything worked quite fine done in group, but I really miss what we had in the beginning!
Yamiro, Imperial, Darth Malgus but the code would be for my husband who gave up on the game, I want him back in it!
Aw yes, I really miss the ability to quest as a group too. Unfortunately as time goes by I suspect it's becoming more and more unlikely that we'll ever see more of that type of content. I'm guessing that the effort required to produce it vs. the number of people who engage with it isn't really worth it for them.
DeleteBut good luck with getting your husband back into the game! Mine also fell out of love with SWTOR quite some time ago, but at least he's still subscribed to run ops with us.
I have some hope since the Ossus update allowed me to group up... but mostly because I talked to the devs at one of the Cantina events about it and they said it was something they would do more of and are aware people play together.
DeleteNot that they are that believable but it fuels some hope :P
Ossus, despite its short story, kept me entertained for 75+ hours across several alts. It got me to sub for a month even though I didn't need to. It got me back into the habit of playing regularly and whilst I'm no longer subbed I am levelling a new main and playing more now than I have for several years.
ReplyDeleteSo my hope for 6.0 is that I give them more money and that I'm very happy to do so. As for details, I'm avoiding speculation. I don't want to build a mental view of my perfect expansion, that's a sure way to be disappointed. Having said that I do hope that Kira returns in a satisfying way and, like Ossus, once the story is done there is plenty to keep me entertained.
Forztr, Republic, Darth Malgus
Thanks for this Shin!
ReplyDeleteA big hope for 6.0 is:
More group stuff: be that story in terms groups being able to do story stuff again with each other, more flashpoints (maybe with a new storyline, I know hoping for a lot there), raids of course with hopefully a challenging yet interesting new boss (maybe like TFB).
More story stuff: Ossus in some parts very tutorial-y, the story was interesting but the way you interacted with the world was not and it really set you up to do the grind of dailies, some will find okay, others like myself find mind numbly boring.
Outfit designer: I find this one of the best features in the game, yet it is lacking in some areas. One big gripe I have with the outfit designer which I really hope they intro to 6.0 is adding weapons to it. Yes you can have most weapons as your actual weapon, but to quote Katy Perry
“[I] change your mind like a girl changes clothes”. I want to change my weapon without having to pull everything out, it's not fun.
Gear Grind: I don't mind doing dailies on Ossus it's boring but it wastes time that I could have been productive so it works there, the major major gripe is box system... No no no no no... I'm a pretty casual player, but doing all the dailies then getting the same relic I've been getting all week, no thanks. So Bioware, please no RNG business with the next lot of gear, pretty please.
Judid, Republic, Darth Malgus
I'm just happy that they're going to be doing something with SWTOR. After Anthem, I was more than a bit concerned that EA was going to simply break up Bioware and absorb it into the EA brand.
ReplyDeleteFor solo players like me, 6.0 should be stuffed to the gills with story content! The kind of story content that shows our characters hatching the master plans, and NPC's having to react to what "we're" doing. Also like to see them use our alliance in the story. The fact that we're a third faction has some interesting angles to be explored. Would also like to see more "The commander leading his troops into battle" moments like the start of KOTET chapter 1.
ReplyDeleteI'll also join the grand chorus of players saying that we're over the the whole "random" thing. Especially the kind of weighted random stuff that results in getting 12 of the wrong type of relics in a row! We're not feeling the thrill of that hunt!
To be fair RNG could be a good part of a larger system. A system where you're accruing some type of currency, but buying a complete set of gear with that currency would be a grind. With the RNG giving you "free" gear to save you from the grind, it could be a positive experience. As someone with a lot of alts, I actually need more gear than Bioware thinks I do, so stop being so stingy!
Bonus points if you could design a system where playing alts doesn't halt your progress. The current system rewards you for focusing on one and only one character, forget the alts. Alts are fun to play though, and encouraging alts will result in more time logged into the game. In game time logged seems to be important to the developers, so make it happen!
Verik, Republic Star Forge.
Thanks for your comments, everyone! I will now close the comments on this post (as we know what to expect from 6.0 now! :D) and will announce the winner of the time code shortly after.
ReplyDelete