A Farewell to the OotiniCast

According to the OotiniCast website, they posted their first episode on November 19, 2011, almost thirteen and a half years ago. I myself didn't find out about them until about two years later, with the first mention of them on the blog dating back to February 2014 and a post called "Some Podcast Recommendations". It's funny to me that even back then, more than eleven years ago, I described OotiniCast as "one of those SWTOR podcasts that have seemingly been around forever".

However, even "seemingly forever" eventually comes to an end, and I was slightly dismayed when I found out on Bluesky last week that they were going to record their very last episode this past Tuesday. I very rarely caught them live, as time zones meant that their recording time usually started around midnight in the UK, but as we're currently in the strange twilight zone of the US having changed to daylight savings while Europe hasn't done so yet, this particular show started an hour earlier for me than usual and I was able to stay up to tune in. It was a good and wholesome time, even if cried right along with Chill at the end when he wrapped things up, explained what was going to happen next and thanked everyone for their contributions over the years.

I'm not going to pretend that I was OotiniCast's number one loyal fan who listened to every single episode, because I didn't. I think I used to listen to them more frequently in the early days compared to later on, but even so my engagement was always a bit on and off from what I remember. It's not that the show wasn't interesting enough, but it never tried to promote itself as hard as other fan sites. They talked about the news, but they weren't your number one news source about SWTOR, and while their tip of the week could be insightful and useful, they weren't exactly aiming to teach you how to play the game either (a bit like me on the blog really). I reckon this was both a blessing and a curse.

I think it was clearly a blessing in so far as I don't think the show would've been able to keep going for as long as it did if it had tried to be something other than a couple of friends chatting about the game and inviting the community to join in. I watched so many other podcasts come and go over the years, and they often managed to entice me with catchy episode titles or in-depth discussions about specific topics - but two dozen episodes later they'd run out of interesting subjects to talk about at length, quickly followed by them burning out and/or losing interest.

I do however think that the more meandering nature of the podcast was a bit of a curse in the sense that it made it a lot harder to promote it in a way that grabbed people's attention. In the early days, they would at least have detailed show notes on the site that would give you a glimpse of what to expect from each episode, but at some point that was replaced by a simple copy and paste with just a bit of information about the show in general, including a link to their guild website which had stopped working years ago. I imagine that with every new episode announcement simply being summed up as some variation of "here's a new episode in which we talk about stuff", it became a lot harder to draw in new listeners.

That said, I feel like OotiniCast's influence on the community over the years should not be understated. I think due to its sheer longevity, pretty much anyone looking up anything about SWTOR online would stumble across it eventually. While most episodes were just the hosts chatting, over the years they also included interviews with devs, voice actors and other content creators, and I think you'll struggle to find people who've been involved in SWTOR fan spaces who haven't been touched by and/or involved with the OotiniCast at some point. (Checking my email, I found that I myself sent them some suggestions for questions for an interview with Charles Boyd back in 2020.)

I remember crying over nine years ago when Chill shared the story of his wife's death (which was absolutely heartbreaking), but there were also many more happy moments. OotiniCast was where I first heard about the notion of levelling from one to cap purely via GSF for example (yes, there was a time when you could queue for GSF at level one).

In recent years, Chill would always tell stories about wacky projects he'd start, such as farming Coruscant heroics on every single alt for Alliance crates, levelling without a companion, or levelling his newest alt named and dressed up based on another IP and the strange shenanigans they would get up to. In the last episode he talked about how he'd created a trooper called Zapp Brannigan (based on the character from Futurama), how he made him make all the worst choices, and how he was going to turn Yuun into his version of Kif. I always thought that was funny and fascinating, because it's not how I'd play myself but sounds really fun in its own way.

Chill didn't go into much detail about why they decided to end the show beyond mentioning changes in his real life and that he just didn't want to keep going with it. Considering that he was there from the beginning (unlike his co-hosts, who seemed to change every few years), I think he definitely earned the right to just go "I think I've done this for long enough; I want to do something else now." I appreciate that he did draw a clear line to end the show instead of letting it simply fade into oblivion, with updates just stopping with no further notice.

That said, I've got to admit I've been kind of surprised by how hard the news hit me, considering that I wasn't someone who listened to every single episode. I think it's because OotiniCast is the one SWTOR fan site I could think of that was actually older than mine and was still receiving regular updates. I feel kind of like when you've been employed somewhere for a while and find out that the last guy who's been there longer than you is leaving. Suddenly you're the most senior person in the room, and there's no longer anyone left who can reminisce with you about "the good old days". I mean, does anyone reading this in 2025 even remember Darth Hater, TORWars or TOROCast? I kind of feel like I'll be entering my "old lady yelling at clouds" era soon.

All that said, I salute Chill and the rest of the hosts for their dedication over the years (putting out more than 500 episodes of a single podcast over so many years is amazing) and I hope they can continue enjoying the game even without podcasting about it. Your contributions will be missed.

Talking PvP & More with Ivano 1337

It's been a hot minute since I last had a chance to do a collaboration with another content creator, so I was rather delighted when YouTuber Ivano 1337 messaged me the other day to ask whether I wanted to come be a guest on the next episode of his new podcast. I hadn't actually talked to him before, I only knew of him as I had watched a couple of his videos; but I'm not exactly a frequent enjoyer of PvP content, and that's his focus.

I listened to the first three episodes of the podcast to get an idea of what I might potentially be signing up for, something that actually took a while since each episode is between two and three hours long! I thought they were quite interesting though and actually gave me some insights into the mind of more hardcore PvPers. And while I certainly didn't agree with everything Ivano's previous guests had to say, he seemed like a friendly and amicable host, leading to me agreeing to record an episode with him as well.

So we did, it was good fun, and we did indeed also end up talking for three hours. Madness! I am obviously only a casual PvPer so didn't really have much to comment on in terms of things like the nitty-gritty of class balance, but we still found plenty of things to talk about both in regards to PvP and the past and future of SWTOR in general. So if you're looking for some second monitor content to listen to while doing something else on your main screen (I hear that's all the rage nowadays) and you think you can stand the sound of my voice for that long, go check out Episode 4 of the Ivano1337 Podcast here.

Or have a look around his channel in general! He seems like a really nice guy with a passion for getting more people into SWTOR's PvP and showing them how it can be fun, which I think is the kind of energy we need more of.

(Also, fun fact: even though he's German and I'm Austrian, we didn't have a single exchange in German. I was wondering whether he was going to mention it but I sure didn't want to be the one to bring it up as I have no idea to talk about SWTOR in German. As I've never used the German client I have no idea about things like the names of different combat styles, abilities, locations etc.)

Around the SWTOR-sphere: February 2024

February is the shortest month of the year (even with the extra day we get this year) and it was a fairly quiet month in SWTOR as well, though we did get some news about what's coming next in the 7.4.1. dev stream. This post however isn't meant to be about official news, but rather about random community content I came across throughout the month and that I wanted to share.

• First off, Swtorista did a thing again (shocking how she keeps doing that, isn't it) and released her updated "Ultimate Guide of Guides" for 2024. This is a massive list of resources covering pretty much every possible aspect of the game that she and her right-hand Admiral Zahk (is that his proper title?) have been maintaining for several years now. I'm flattered by the number of useful posts they found on this blog, considering that being useful is not my primary goal. I can only recommend checking this guide out, even if you don't have a particular question right now... the links are sorted by topic, so maybe just have a quick look at an area you're interested in, and who knows, maybe you'll find a link to a page or even another content creator that you didn't even know existed. I had no idea that Swtorista had name generators for every single species you can play as for example. (Also, fun fact, before this year I never realised that she actually kept a copy of this guide on her website, as I only ever came across the version maintained in a sticky thread on the official forums.)
• Ted from the SOTOR Podcast lived up to his promise of not going quiet for quite so long again and released not one but two new episodes this month. I'd like to particularly recommend the one about server transfers to Shae Vizla, especially if you're planning to make use of the free transfers coming in March. I've never actually done a server transfer in SWTOR myself (not counting character copies to the PTS), and there are actually quite a lot of things to keep in mind in terms of what will come with you and what won't. Outfits not getting copied over and needing to be recreated on the new server is a big one for example!
• On the subject of the Shae Vizla server and transfers, I came across a video by small YouTuber Thomas Midena called "How not to launch Australian servers (a Star Wars: The Old Republic story)". As the title suggests, he hasn't been too happy with how things have gone so far, but I thought it was interesting to hear from another player in the APAC region and I really liked his measured approach and the way he articulated his thoughts.
• In happier video news, another small YouTuber I came across this month was HomeMade SWTOR. Specifically I watched his video "The Mandalorian: StarWars story Episode 15 || The Shameful Hunt ||", which is basically... the bounty hunter story on Corellia? I'm not usually one for SWTOR story playthrough videos because let's be honest, I can and prefer to do the playing myself, but I thought it was interesting how HomeMade tried to edit things together in a unique way, with bits of different music added and by interspersing snippets of footage of movement and combat between the in-game cut scenes to make things flow better.
• Aaand, one more video about something completely different - an operations boss kill! A video called "SWTOR Master Mode Styrak With No Knocks 7.4" by Draxzim caught my attention due to its title. I wrote a whole long-ass post about my own "history" with Dread Master Styrak a few years ago, but to summarise in a nutshell what intrigued me about this video title: on master mode, this fight has a mechanic that usually requires several people in the group to have a knockback, so I immediately wondered how this group achieved a kill without ticking that box. My first reaction was to theorise that 344 gear had allowed dps numbers to get so high that it simply wasn't needed anymore (since the main purpose of the knockback is to buy you time to kill an add). Spoiler: not exactly. Instead, what this group did was bring a party that consisted of nothing but Powertechs (except for the healers obviously), and they all specced into the Sonic Rebounder utility, which causes their AoE taunt/aggro drop to put a ring around everyone in range that reflects the next attack done to them back at the attacker. Then, when it came to the phase where you'd usually use the knockbacks, they didn't interrupt the big add's AoE damage channel but instead rotated through all their rebounders to reflect its own damage back at it for a massive damage boost. This is, frankly, incredibly cheesy and bizarre, but it clearly took no less effort than organising knockbacks would've done, so I totally respect it. I'm always fascinated by people coming up with alternate solutions to gameplay challenges.
• Finally, my favourite post from the SWTOR subreddit in February was one that only got a moderate number of upvotes but which I personally thought was amazing, called "What is your favorite / least favorite noise made by your toon when being attacked?" Why did I love it? Because it's an extremely random question that I never would've thought of asking myself, and the way people described their characters' groans and shouts in writing in the responses was very funny to me. "HEEUUURRRGGHHH!" (That's someone describing a male Sith warrior, and I bet if you've ever played or spent time around one, you'll know exactly what it refers to.)

Around the SWTOR-sphere: January 2024

I've had several reasons to think about what it means to be part of a community of content creators over the past two months. (Long story short: Interacting with other creators should always be a positive and inspiring thing; be wary of anyone who acts like they're the only one creating anything of worth and is cagey about giving credit to others.) Bhagpuss was also musing on how there used to be more exchanging of links and ideas between blogs, and one thing that stood out to me in that post was his mention of how there used to be more sites that did regular round-ups of what other blogs were writing about. Anyone else remember MMO Melting Pot? Or SWTOR Network?

I'm always happy to link to other creators where it's relevant, and I do have the blog's sidebar to promote a whole number of other SWTOR sites, but it's only visible on desktop and I don't know how often anyone even looks at it, so I could definitely do more on that front. So I thought... why not try being the round-up person myself for a bit? I look at a lot of SWTOR content over the course of the month that I rarely bother to share, even when I enjoyed it, so maybe I should do that more often?

So consider this new series an experiment. I don't know if I'll bother to make a post every single month, but we'll see how it goes. Without further ado, some SWTOR-related things I saw in January and that I thought were worth sharing.

• The year was off to a good start with the State of the Old Republic podcast releasing its first episode in over six months, looking back at the last two patches. Ted is a great guy who even had me on as a guest once! I left an encouraging comment on the new episode but it seems to have been eaten by a spam filter or something.
• I don't need to tell anyone who Swtorista is and she always has something or other going on, but it's worth noting that she started 2024 by unveiling a big project that had been in the works for a while: interactive maps for all the base planets. These are great for newcomers and veteran players alike who are interested in ticking some specific item off their personal to-do list, whether it's that last pesky lore object that's eluding you or a mission NPC that you could swear used to be in a different place last time and now you can't find it (that would be me). I used to have a site called SWTOR Ultras on my bar that used to provide something similar, but since it went down it's nice to see someone else provide this feature now.
• NoblePlays is a YouTuber that's been around for a long time but who never quite took off (at least as far as I can tell) due to his (public) interest in the game being very on and off (being down on the game and stepping away from it, then coming back, then stopping again a few months later etc.) I suppose he could be on another one of those roller-coasters right now, but that didn't stop me from enjoying his recent video "SWTOR Is Actually Amazing For 2024". It was technically released in December but I didn't come across it until a couple of weeks ago.
• "Is [MMO] worth playing in [year]?" is almost a YouTube video genre of its own at this point, but they are popular for a reason! The first one I came across for SWTOR this year was "Should You Play Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2024" by Renfail. He's not someone I usually watch, but when this popped up it seemed familiar enough that I might have seen one or more of his videos before. I was kind of surprised that he's been playing since launch and is clearly very knowledgeable about the game, but apparently he's only completed three of the original class stories (at least according to the character selection screen that he identified as his main server) and pronounces Revan as "reh-VAHN"? Just goes to show again that there are very different ways to love this game.
• Fellow blogger Intisar always likes to ring in the new year with some predictions for what's to come, some of which turn out to be wrong and some of which are just plain silly, but they are always 100% enjoyable to read. Go check out his Five Predictions for 2024 right now.
• XamXam is also an old hand when it comes to SWTOR content creation, but I particularly enjoyed her sharing her experience on the Shae Vizla server as an actual APAC player this month. I've done a fair bit of writing about my own experiences there, but as a European I'm obviously not the main target audience for the server, so it's interesting to hear the thoughts of someone who actually lives in the right part of the world for it to make a difference to their experience.
  
• I have a complicated relationship with reddit and the SWTOR subreddit in particular, but I do like to check in on it every now and then, and every now and then it definitely contains some interesting, funny or insightful posts. My favourite in January was one called "Thanks for everything, SWTOR", which may sound like a goodbye but isn't. Rather, the OP muses on just how much time they've spent in the game, how many memories they've made and how much they've learned and changed over time. I thought it was particularly interesting that they still felt bad years later about some occasions where they'd been unnecessarily mean to people, I guess because most of the time you only expect the one being insulted to carry that memory with them.
• Another thread I really enjoyed was called "What's the most genuinely emotional moment in the story?" in which people shared some of their favourite funny, sad or generally epic story experiences. While the original post is just a question, there are some great memories to be stirred in the comments. (Beware of spoilers though if you haven't played many of the stories yet!)
• Just in time for the deadline! As I was getting ready to post this, I saw some people on Twitter share this article on Games Radar called "If you like Baldur's Gate 3, you should play one of Bioware's best-ever choice-driven sci-fi RPGs" (quite a mouthful, that title). Anyone who's been a fan of SWTOR for any length of time won't really find anything in there that they didn't already know, but it's always nice to hear about people (re-)discovering everything that makes SWTOR great even in its 13th year.

A Great Dev Interview

I probably don't give shout-outs to other content creators often enough, but I really wanted to highlight this dev interview posted yesterday by the New Overlords Podcast (formerly known as SWTOR Escape Pod Cast).

Hosts Max and Sema had Executive Producer Keith Kanneg, Narrative Director Ashley Ruhl and Lead Writer Caitlin Sullivan Kelly all on at once, and they basically had a great group chat about their history with SWTOR, the dynamics within their team, their process when it comes to creating narrative for the game as well as what's coming up next (as much as they're able to talk about that kind of thing before anything's been announced). Max did a great job at making sure that all of them got to speak and throwing them little prompts to talk more about different subjects. I can really only recommend that you watch it for yourself if you're a fan of the game - the video clocks in at slightly under an hour but there isn't a boring minute.

I just wanted to highlight a few choice quotes from Keith in specific that I thought were quite juicy:

• "I got to take over the producer role at the end of 2016. It was, you know, 'why are you qualified to do this', right? But at the time, there was a lot of difference of opinion as to whether or not the game was going to be successful after 2016. But here we are in 2024, right, and we've obviously done a lot of good things, right?" - This one stood out to me because it seems to imply quite clearly that at least in some ways, the game is actually in a better position today than it was in 2016. And I'm not surprised at all, because the months immediately after the launch of Eternal Throne were pretty miserable for me as a long-time player, mostly due to Galactic Command. Literally the only time I ever felt actively actively put off from playing. But since KotFE and KotET were generally quite well received, I don't think the mainstream and more casual observers generally caught on to just how bad things were for a while.
  
• "We've been working with Lucasfilm, what, sixteen, seventeen years now, right? We have a phenomenal relationship with them. They are... I mean, they're just us, right? And we are them. We work together hand in hand with absolutely everything. We meet with them every week." This isn't really news because it's been public knowledge that Lucasfilm is quite happy with SWTOR for a while, but it's still nice to hear it stated so explicitly.
  
• [After talking about the joys of the new server experience on the APAC server] "How do you take that same experience and bring it to everybody in the entire world? Right, so we have those thoughts - we haven't figured it out yet but we are kicking those stones over to see what can we do to make it so that everybody has that same experience." Wonder what that will mean...
  

Oh, and it's not really "revealing" anything but I was amused by Ashley using the phrase "We make excellent hot dogs in this coffee maker" to describe how they constantly use their tools in ways they weren't originally designed for. Anyway, just go and listen for yourself!

Operations Excitement

A few months ago I thought about sending some interview questions on the subject of operations to Bioware, similar to the interview about flashpoints I posted a few years ago. I got distracted by other things though, and was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that the Working Class Nerds podcast released an episode about operations featuring Eric Musco, Daniel Steed and operations designer Matt Pucevich a couple of weeks ago. That covered a fair amount of the sort of ground I was planning to cover myself, so now I feel I don't have to!

I'm also generally happy to see other players and content creators care about operations. I know that raiders are a minority in pretty much every MMO, but sometimes it feels like I meet even fewer people interested in it in SWTOR circles than I would have expected. Then again, maybe I just don't hang out with a varied enough group of players outside my own guild.

Anyway, I feel that this interview hasn't received as much exposure as it probably deserves, so I wanted to write down some thoughts on it and encourage people to give it a listen themselves.

As far as I'm aware the name of the new operation on Dxun hasn't officially been confirmed yet, though on the PTS its boss lockouts are listed under the name "Responsible Research Initiatives", which is quite a mouthful, so I wouldn't be surprised if people continued to just call it "Dxun" anyway if that's the final name, just like we sometimes refer to Explosive Conflict as Denova or Scum and Villainy as Darvannis.

Matt did state that it will come with five bosses though, which seems to have become SWTOR's standard for operations a long time ago, with Explosive Conflict (four) and Scum & Villainy (seven) being the only outliers.

The tone is also supposed to be a bit more light-hearted, similar to what's happening in Ravagers. I'm not sure how I feel about that, seeing how I criticised Ravagers at its launch precisely because "fighting random pirates" seemed a bit underwhelming after all the world-ending threats we'd had to deal with in pretty much every other operation. I guess at this point we at least have a precedent for having an op with this kind of somewhat lighter tone. (And it did grow on me over time.)

It's also supposed to be a bit easier than Gods from the Machine, which they said was intentionally made to be an outlier in terms of difficulty due to the time at which it came out. The Dxun op should be more around Scum & Villainy's level in terms of difficulty.

Another bit of news was that they are considering getting rid of lockouts for story mode operations in 6.0, so that if you want to keep running them over and over - like flashpoints and warzones for example - you'll be able to do that.

I can definitely see the upside to that, though for people only just starting out it would also mean that their progression won't get saved from one night to the next. So if you only did the first four bosses of Eternity Vault for example, like my guild did on my first ever foray into the place, you couldn't come back the next evening just to kill Soa; you'd have to start from boss one again.

It'll probably also mean that people can't "save" story mode lockouts anymore - among my guildies it's been common that if they were in a pug that failed to complete an operation, they'd bring their lockout back into the guild for us to complete the run without having to kill all the bosses.

On a similar note, Bioware are thinking about giving people doing veteran or master modes the option to extend their lockouts, a functionality that WoW added about ten years ago. That would certainly be helpful when it comes to pushing progression, though it can also lead to arguments among leadership about whether to extend or reset on any given night and can leave people disappointed if they "need" something from earlier bosses (e.g. achievements). Either way, Eric and Matt said that this would be a slightly more complex feature and therefore won't be in at launch in any case.

On the subject of the new scaling they are introducing with Onslaught (every operation and the players in it being scaled down to its original level instead of being scaled up to the current cap), they said that they are still working out just how powerful they want players to be in that situation (i.e. whether to simulate a progression situation or let them effectively be "overgeared" from the beginning).

Generally speaking they really like the idea of locking the old operations to their original level though, among other reasons to prevent their difficulty fluctuating every time they are re-scaled with a new level cap increase. I was surprised that Matt cited people complaining that encounters were getting harder every time this happened, because my personal experience has been that they've been more likely to get easier (with the Revanite Commanders in Temple of Sacrifice being the most striking example I remember).

Matt also explained that one general challenge with difficulty tuning is that different goals pull them in different directions: On the one hand they want story mode to be super accessible, but if they make it too easy, then making the step up to hard mode becomes more challenging unless they make that easier too and so on and so forth. They are currently considering making story mode operations even easier than they are now, but as the gap between that and hard mode is already considerable as it is, one has to wonder if that really is the best route to take right now (which is something the hosts also raised as feedback).

Matt and Eric also talked about internal operations testing and how it can be quite funny when mechanics go utterly wrong and result in things like endless add spawns or bosses killing themselves.

On the subject of naming conventions, it was interesting that they mentioned that they'd be quite happy to change the difficulty names back to hard/nightmare instead of veteran/master. (I think the latter labels have been more confusing than helpful, not least due to their inconsistent application, as veteran has sometimes corresponded to what used to be story, sometimes to hard, and likewise what's now called master mode was sometimes hard mode, sometimes nightmare.) Unfortunately changing it all back is apparently a fair amount of busywork and doesn't quite feel worth it, something I can very much believe considering for how long I kept finding places where the naming convention hadn't been updated when they made the change the first time around.

My favourite little story was Matt admitting that he's responsible for the difficulty of the bridge boss in nightmare mode Scum and Villainy: After seeing a forum post complaining about the holes in the bridge and asking for them to be filled in right next to another one expressing dread at the potential difficulty of a nightmare bridge boss, he felt inspired to combine the two by making the bridge appear to be filled in on NiM (even though it's not) and was given permission to do so during a one and a half hour downtime window where there wasn't anything more urgent for him to do. That's awesome!

Anyway, those are the things that stood out to me while listening, though a couple more questions were asked and answered during the podcast. If you have any interest in operations at all, I can definitely recommend giving it a listen.

Podcast Shout-outs

I haven't been very good at linking and giving shout-outs to other content creators more recently. I mean, I have a whole bunch of links up on the sidebar to the right, but I'm not sure how many people even look at that. I was definitely better at bringing up other fan sites and the like in my regular posts in the past. Anyway, since Armagon was recently talking about the subject of MMO podcasts, I thought I'd give him and the general public some recommendations! Note that I'll happily recommend all the podcasts on my sidebar, but I'm not going to talk about all of them here because I already made posts about some of them in the past.

Bad Feeling Podcast

I actually wrote about the Bad Feeling Podcast before and wouldn't usually write about it again, but I do feel the need to mention how much it has changed. The hosts are still the same, with their dirty sense of humour and copious amounts of swearing, but where back in 2014 they were hapless newbies and therefore making podcast episodes about subjects along the lines of "aren't companions neat" or "what are crew skills", things have changed a lot on that front. They haven't exactly become hardcore players (actually, they definitely haven't), however they became official Bioware influencers and realised that they actually live quite close to the studio's offices. This has resulted in them being able to interview devs directly more often than any other SWTOR podcast, and I've got to say those episodes are really, really great. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the regular banter as well, but even if you're not usually that into podcasts, tuning in for the Bad Feeling Podcast's dev interviews is a great way of learning more about what's going on behind the scenes.

Passionately Casual Podcast

I didn't give this podcast a chance for way too long, and now that I think about it I suspect that it's because of the name. There's nothing actually wrong with it, but I have this really vague recollection (it's so vague that I don't have a time stamp for it or even any names associated with it) of being pointed towards a podcast or two that were supposed to be about SWTOR but weren't, which resulted in me feeling very let down at the time, and ever since I've been highly suspicious of anything that doesn't have an explicit SWTOR or at least Star Wars reference in the name. Silly, isn't it?

Anyway, the Passionately Casual Podcast is definitely about SWTOR, though they do have segments where they might mention other games for a bit. What eventually got me to check it out was that Corellian Run Radio shut down in January this year... and in the final episode it was pointed out that the two podcasts were effectively run by the same people and they wanted to focus on just one show, which is really fair enough. So if you used to enjoy CRR, you can get a similar mix of casual chat about what's been happening in game, community discussion and guest contributors from Passionately Casual now.

State of the Old Republic Podcast

Ted from the State of the Old Republic (SOTOR for short) podcast has a special place in my heart because he actually invited me to be a guest on his show last year, plus he likes and retweets my stuff on Twitter a lot. Thanks, Ted!

His show also stands out from other SWTOR podcasts in that it's usually just himself talking (though he does have the occasional episode with a guest, see above) and it's much more scripted. Whether that's your cup of tea or not is a matter of taste I guess... but I do like that it differentiates his show from all the others out there, and that it's pretty dense in terms of providing news and info (as he doesn't have the chance to get side-tracked by random conversation). He also has to put in extra work to come up with things to talk about by himself, which is something I can sympathise with as a blogger. For example he's been running a series of segments about levelling all eight classes in sync and commenting about where their stories intersect or where it's implied that events happen in a particular order, which I've been finding very interesting.

The Council

The Council is the newest podcast on this list, but even that celebrated its first birthday recently, which should tell you how long it's been since I last made a post like this. This show marked the return of Redna, formerly of OotiniCast, who appears to have gotten back into SWTOR fandom after taking a break to get married and have a baby.

The Council has a number of unique features that I really like. So far, all of their episodes were dedicated to very specific subjects, with relatively little random chatter - though this might also be a side effect of the show still being relatively young. I've noticed over time that a lot of podcasts start out this way, but once they've talked about all the most common subjects, it just becomes "whatever's been in the news this week".

Anyway, they also stream their podcast on Twitch and then upload the videos to their YouTube channel, which I hadn't noticed any other podcasts doing before. (Though now that I did a bit of searching, I found that OotiniCast for example also uploads their episodes to YouTube... gotta switch to listening that way!) Anyway, the reason I like this is that while I still focus on the audio, I can occasionally glance over onto my second screen for the video, and being able to tie a face to each voice has made it much easier for me to remember who is who.

They also have this thing with posting polls on social media before every episode, which was what originally drew my attention to the show and inspired my post about Shadow of Revan being overrated when they were having an episode on the subject of expansions. I just like how they tie that into their discussions every time.

Finally, personally I haven't found another podcast where the crew feels so diverse in terms of interests inside the game. I was very surprised when I found out that Alise for example had only joined the game around KotFE's release - you don't hear from (relatively) newer players getting this involved in fandom that often. Or when they discussed the Conquest changes and literally everyone had a completely different opinion on them. I do love how that invites listeners to consider a point of view different from their own, and to think about how updates and changes might impact people with different play styles.

Shopping Spree

About a month ago, Chuck from the Bad Feeling podcast asked Keith a question in an interview that seemed quite naive to me at the time: Why can't all the Cartel Market items ever released be available for purchase at all times? Keith answered pretty much as I expected: That this would only make them a lot of money in the short run, but less in the long run. Perceived scarcity and fear of missing out are a thing.

However, it seems that either Keith had a change of heart after that interview, or maybe someone else from his team tapped him on the shoulder afterwards and went: "You know, I agree that this wouldn't be a viable strategy in the long term... but why not try running it as a limited time event?"

And thus, the big Cartel Market Spring Sale was born. I have to admit, I actually got a little excited about this one. I'm not a frequent customer of the Cartel Market, but my "complimentary" aka free Cartel coins had been getting close to hitting the 50k mark again and I've been longing for a reason to spend some. Surely, when provided with that much choice, even I would be able to find something to my liking?

And the answer is: yes! There is something relaxing about flipping through pages and pages of cosmetics during a break in an ops run or while chatting away with guildies on TeamSpeak. The first thing I bought was a type of grophet that I didn't own yet, because you can never have too many grophets (I hope).

I've never been a fashionista, with most of my characters just sporting a look cobbled together from various pieces of gear that they acquired "naturally" at one point or another, but I have been known to change outfits on my main and a couple of alts on occasion. And acquiring some more couldn't get much easier than having all those outfit designer slots, thousands of spare Cartel coins and being presented with dozens of complete outfits only a mouse-click away.

So far I've splurged on the following:

Battlefield Commander set for my main: She's the one who changes looks the most often, and to be honest she was kind of overdue for a new one. I remember liking this set when I first saw it, but not enough to buy it then and there. To be honest it seems a bit more suited for an Imperial soldier than for a Republic one, but since "Imperial trooper" is not a class this seemed like the next-best character to wear it.

I was kind of surprised by how light the set was in game, as the preview picture had made it look almost black. Fortunately I still had a bound black/black dye lying around in my bag that I had pulled out of a cantina crate ages ago, so it was simple enough to adjust the colour to a darker hue.

Zakuulan Security set for my Sage alt: I don't recall this set ever gaining my attention before, but I saw it in the sale and was instantly in love. My Sage is all about big shoulderpads that make her already broad shoulders look even more so, plus I love the little circlet that comes with it as well. (Sets with attractive head pieces are rare in my opinion.)

Who's this? This is Cheriza, the Juggernaut I created for the Dark vs. Light event and haven't really played since then. Why buy her a new outfit then? Because I thought Darth Sion's armour set looked really cool, but wouldn't look right on anything but a tall, bulky Sith, and she fit that description better than any of the other alts in my stable. Maybe the new look will inspire me to play her more?

Finally, the Bold Hellion set for my Gunslinger: I remember seeing this set a few times before and admiring all the details on the chest piece, but it struck me as only really suitable for a smuggler and I didn't feel that any of mine really "needed" it. As I recently caught myself thinking about getting my Gunslinger a new look however, it suddenly seemed like an interesting option. I'm still not convinced by the bare midriff (too dangerous, even for a happy-go-lucky smuggler), but maybe this is her idea of "dressing up" for a night out.

In short, this is one money-making attempt that I can get on board with, though of course I'm coming at it from the biased perspective of someone who didn't actually have to spend any money beyond her normal subscription to be able to buy all this stuff. Far be it from me to suggest that anyone should spend money on Cartel coins, but I do have to say that if you've ever been interested in gear from the Cartel Market but missed it being on offer or it came from a random pack and you didn't want to try your luck, this is a great opportunity to have a browse and consider your options. I've heard some grumbling that not truly "everything" is in the sale, and that may well be the case, but it sure is a lot to impress someone like me who's not that intimately familiar with the cash shop and everything that's been on offer over time. The sale event will run until the 17th of April, so you have over ten days left to have a look at the available selection and make up your own mind.

Shintar Goes (Has Gone) Podcasting - Again!

Despite of having been a slightly scary prospect initially, my appearance on Corellian Run Radio earlier in the year was an all-around positive experience and I have to admit that I actually found myself wondering lately whether I might want to repeat it some time.

Life has a way of being uncanny sometimes, and just one day after I'd listened to another episode of the SOTOR podcast and found myself thinking that Ted (the host) would be a nice guy to talk to, I found a message from him in my inbox asking me if I wanted to join him for his next episode. Woohoo!

As Ted is a swift editor, the episode is already available for download two days after we recorded it.

SOTOR Podcast | "Episode 48: Podcasting with Shintar" featuring @ShintarCommando is now available. #swtor https://t.co/cGm3jh7gNk

— SOTOR (Ted) (@sotorpodcast) August 1, 2017

When a guildie asked me what we'd been talking about on the show, I said "everything" - it did feel like we managed to go through a staggering amount of subjects, the most important of which Ted mentioned on the episode page.

On it, he also refers to my pugging videos as a "popular video series", bless him! That's a very... optimistic way of talking about a show that gets about 30 views per episode, haha! Maybe I will gain a few more viewers now after basically getting a free plug on the show.

I can only try to return the favour and strongly advise you to check out the SOTOR podcast if you haven't already. I think it's still one of the lesser known podcasts about the game, probably because it's still relatively young (the one-year anniversary is coming up soon) and Ted mostly runs it as a one-man-show, so there are fewer people to spread the word. I kind of think that makes it all the more impressive though that he's managed to keep churning out updates as regularly as he has, considering that he has no co-hosts to put psychological pressure on him! He just really loves talking about the game. Good thing he's fun to listen to as well.

Shintar Goes (Has Gone) Podcasting!

In my ever-continuing attempts to try communicating with people via different social media, from Twitter to YouTube to joining Traitine on his stream, I've now finally taken the step into podcasting! Well, I've dipped my toes in I guess. And it was less me making a decision and more Rav being kind and inviting me. I was on Corellian Run Radio last week, OK?

Episode #176 @Rav_Griffon @FtWorthJim & @JT_HoloNet welcome @ShintarCommando writer of Going Commando... https://t.co/ucfKLl26Fw

— Corellian Run Radio (@CorellianRun) January 11, 2017

For reference, the segment where they interview me starts at 36:26 - not that I wouldn't recommend listening to the first half of the show as well as it featured some very interesting discussion too - the currently ongoing exploit involving the Fractured uprising among other things...

I actually got quite nervous when it was finally time to go live, worried that I would stumble over my own words or accidentally talk over people. The first did happen a couple of times (here's hoping that maybe they edited that out, but I won't go listen to an hour of myself talking just to find out), but the latter I managed to successfully avoid, though there were a couple of slightly longer than needed awkward pauses when I wasn't sure whether it was my turn to say something or not!

Still, it was a very exciting and fun experience and I was extra pleased that several loyal guildies and friends showed up to listen to the live show. It seemed appropriate that the giveaways that were held during that time happened to be won by Traitine and Calph.

Still find writing much easier than speaking though!

Hearing from the Devs

I often see SWTOR's devs and community team get accused of not communicating very much with the player base or not doing a very good job at it. I honestly can't tell how true that is because I find it hard enough to keep up with everything going on on the forums and on fan sites as it is - I never feel like nothing is happening in this community, and I'm more likely to miss out on important information than to sit there going: "You're not telling me enough!"

Also, and I know many people may find this weird, but I actually kind of like it when MMO devs keep certain things close to their chests and refuse to talk about them. For example, I love a good surprise. I really enjoyed the way Bioware tried to build up suspense via the Forged Alliances story arc when it was first released and I loved seeing people speculate about which villain might be behind it all. The big reveal in Legacy of Rakata felt very satisfying, even if it wasn't completely unexpected. But of course you can only achieve that by withholding information from the player base until they can see the content for themselves (and if the data miners respect that stance and don't go around spoiling things for everyone else). Those of us who've played since launch may also remember how completely out of the blue the first Rakghoul event came - and it was great! Compare this to Blizzard for example, who posted all the in-game cinematics for Warlords of Draenor on their front page, spoiling the entire storyline two months before the expansion even released. (That sure saved me some money.)

There is also the saying that it's better to stay silent and be considered a fool than to open your mouth and prove it without a doubt. How does this apply to MMO devs? When they introduce something that I consider awesome, I'd like to think that it was all planned that way and that the devs are really good at their job. I'd rather not hear that this feature was slapped together within a month and with no resources, and that my favourite part of it is actually an unintended bug. Conversely, if I don't like a change, I'd rather imagine that the devs only had the best of intentions and simply made a mistake. If they come out saying that they love the change and that they are sure players will consider it the most fun thing ever, that's probably going to contribute more to losing me as a player than the change itself. Basically, it's easier to enjoy a good meal if you don't spend too much time talking about how the sausage gets made.

That said, every now and then I can appreciate a good, non-spoilery look behind the scenes, especially if it doesn't include anything that I consider bad news. And there's been quite a few of those over the past week or so!

First off, Chuck and Brian from the Bad Feeling Podcast interviewed PvP developer Alex Modny and Eric Musco about upcoming PvP changes. Now, the Bad Feeling Podcast is always fun to listen to and you shouldn't miss an episode anyway, but this one is particularly informative as some pretty juicy bits of info were dropped. If you just want a summary of the important parts, Xam Xam has one here. Basically, it's a lot of good news for casual PvPers, with warzones becoming more rewarding in terms of XP and credit gains, PvP gear having its cost reduced by a huge amount, and warzone comms becoming easily transferrable between alts. There was some stuff about ranked too, but that doesn't really affect me. They were also discussing adjusting the way AoE works in warzones so it doesn't interrupt node caps anymore, which could be a pretty big game changer in a good or bad way, but we'll have to see.

On the same day this interview was released, Olib from SWTOR Network posted a (written) interview with Alex Tremblay, Bioware's Manager of Analytics. I think this interview hasn't got nearly enough publicty, even though it's really interesting and includes some well thought-out questions. There weren't any huge and shocking relevations, but for those of us who love hearing about statistics and such, there are still some interesting tidbits (such as which colour crystal is the most popular at the level cap right now).

Finally, on Wednesday Bioware held a developer stream to show off the upcoming new stronghold on Yavin 4 and the new Togruta species. You can watch most of it here. Personally I watched about five minutes of the recording and then stopped, because unlike an obviously large number of people, I actually find it pretty boring to watch others play a game that I'd rather play myself. Fortunately there are parts of the community that are willing to provide summaries for people like me, so you can find a breakdown of all the facts that were revealed on Dulfy as usual. If you want some more opinions on what the stream was like, Mae and Xam Xam are happy to provide.

I'm quite excited about the Togruta, even though I'm not a huge fan of the species - I just like having new character creation options to play around with, so I'll probably create a Togruta alt at some point just because I can.

As far the new stronghold goes, I have mixed feelings. From an emotional standpoint I'd have no issue with dumping my Nar Shaddaa stronghold for it as I never liked it very much anyway, however I've been using it to boost my conquest point gains (basically I filled it with random trophies, pets and speeders) and losing that would be a bit annoying. Not that my guild has been doing much with conquest lately.

Also, apparently they kept emphasising that we can look forward to an exciting announcement on the 15th of June. I'm fine with that as that's my birthday and I already happened to book the day off work anyway. This better be good!

What are your thoughts on the newest bits of information to come out of Bioware? And is it enough or are you one of those always craving more?

Community Love

As a blogger I'm probably more involved with the community of my game of choice than most players, but sometimes I still feel that it would be nice to stay on top of things more efficiently than I currently do. Sadly I'm a bit old school in terms of my social networking. I like blogs, but they are not as popular as they used to be. I never watch livestreams, just the occasional recording of a highlight. I use Twitter, but only very sporadically. And while I like podcasts, I find it frustrating how hard it is to keep up with them. (Compare the time investment of reading ten blogs to that of listening to ten podcasts!)

The one thing I have been trying to do is to always keep my blogroll and link list updated, removing sites that have gone dead and adding new ones as I find them, even if I don't actually visit them consistently. The power of simply being connected is not to be underestimated. I'm happy to say that these link lists have seen some serious growth this year. I even had to split the podcasts off into their own section, since having everything in one place was starting to get unwieldy.

I think back to around mid-2012 and how frustrating it was to see the game I loved shrink as much as it did, which meant that at least one fan site closed up shop pretty much every other week. I see something similar happening to Wildstar right now, except that (at least from the outside) it looks like what they are going through is even worse. Either way the remaining fans have my sympathy. Word of mouth is important, and seeing others lose faith in your game or even badmouthing it can be very demotivating.

I felt that 2013 was a fairly quiet year for the SWTOR community. The game stabilised and the people bashing it moved on to greener pastures and newer games, but there wasn't exactly a huge amount of good news to report either.

But this year... I've been feeling really good about the game and what I've been seeing in the community. Revenue is apparently down, but EA actually dared to talk about the game in a positive way again earlier this year, and I felt that this surge of interest was reflected in community activity as well. New podcasts cropped up left and right, and they banded together for co-operative projects to share the love. New fan sites appeared to cover new demands - when Galactic Strongholds came out for example, TOR Decorating immediately provided an amazing go-to resource for this new part of the game.

My favourite new addition is more recent: SWTOR Network, a moderated aggregate site for game and community related news and opinion pieces. No more having to click through all the links in my side bar when I'm looking for what's new; I can just go to SWTOR Network and see it all neatly condensed in one place.

If you haven't been that involved with the community outside of the game yourself recently, I can only recommend giving it (another) look. There are a lot of dedicated content creators out there now, and it's a pleasure to read or listen to them. (And if you're a content creator yourself, why not share your stuff on SWTOR Network for all to see?)

Listen to my guildie on TOROCast!

The latest episode of TOROCast (#205) is out, and I feel that I have to give it a bit of a plug... because it has one of my guildies in it! I am of course talking about their guest Macewindy. It was rather funny when he told me about having been invited to TOROCast due to his interim class rep position, and all I could think of was: "We have a class rep in the guild?" As he says on the show, he kind of came into the role accidentally.

They interviewed him about a lot of Gunslinger/Sniper stuff which I have no clue about, but I'm still chuffed about it. I know someone who's internet famous now!

I also got a good chuckle out of the first couple of minutes of the show, when Mace's introduction caused them to muse on deep subjects such as whether it means anything that the Expanded Universe and the European Union share initials.

More Podcast Recommendations

TOROCast

At last, I, too, have started listening to "SWTOR's longest running fan podcast" (according to the associated website). Considering that they are up to two hundred episodes by now, I can believe it. I actually avoided this podcast before because a long time ago someone warned me away from it by telling me that the hosts were all terribly jaded and just bashing the game a lot. I haven't gone back to listen to all their old episodes, but the show has clearly undergone some changes since then. In fact, this was the reason it actually got my attention after all this time, as one of the current hosts guest-starred on other podcasts I listened to and sounded nothing if not cheerful and enthusiastic.

As it stands, the show is hosted by Road, the aforementioned serial guest star and community-minded extrovert, and super hardcore raider Mae, though they sometimes have other people joining them to chat. The two of them make for an interesting combination that leads to the show presenting a bit of a "top-down" view of the game, with a focus on overarching issues such as game direction and class balance. Mae can still be quite critical of the devs sometimes, but not to the point that it would make the show a downer.

The TOROCast site also hosts the "Galactic Gamers Coalition", an irregular spin-off show that brings hosts from different podcasts together to be silly and have fun together.

SWTOR Escape Pod Cast

This relatively young podcast is hosted by two members of the AIE gaming community, which I only really know of as the home of Scott Johnson of Instance fame (though I have no idea how much people who play different games within that community actually interact). Of all the podcasts I've listened to, I feel that this one is the closest reflection of two friends just chatting about the game with each other. Aside from the intro that gives the podcast its name and involves an astromech droid being ejected in an escape pod, they don't seem very focused on having fixed show segments. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy hearing stories about what people have been up to and listen to them cracking jokes.

The only "issue" I have with this podcast is that both hosts are quite soft-spoken. Considering that I mostly put podcasts on as something to listen to in the background while I play the game, having a show where neither of the hosts has a particularly commanding voice makes it easier for me to get distracted and lose track of what they were talking about.

Bad Feeling Podcast

This is the youngest podcast on my link list and only up to fifteen episodes at the time of me writing this! The hosts, Chuck and Brian, sound like they are still relatively new to the game as well, as they get excited about basic features like hunting datacrons or getting to marry their companions, but personally I actually find it quite charming to be reminded of all the simple things you can enjoy about the game.

They also do a fair bit of swearing, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, but personally I find it amusing more than anything.

At around thirty minutes an episode this is one of the shorter podcasts out there, but I actually tend to enjoy the shorter shows, as they always leave me hungry for the next episode.

Some Podcast Recommendations

Back in 2012, I wrote a couple of posts about SWTOR podcasts I was listening to at the time. Most of them died shortly after I reviewed them, which made me feel both sad and like a bit of a jinx. I didn't listen to many podcasts for the better part of a year after that, though mostly for unrelated reasons. Recently however I've been poking my head into that part of the community again and have made some pleasant discoveries.

OotiniCast

This is one of those SWTOR podcasts that have seemingly been around forever, but for some reason never really came to my attention until recently. I suspect it's because I only had so much time to dedicate to listening to podcasts, and in terms of publicity OotiniCast was always overshadowed by the shows attached to big websites, like Darth Hater or TORWars. Now the tables have turned, and while Darth Hater at least is no more, the folks from OotiniCast are still around.

I would describe OotiniCast as a pretty "traditional" MMO podcast, with a group of three hosts starting off by discussing what they did in the past week and then going through a number of prepared segments. It may not be the most original thing in the world, but they all have good podcast voices and are a pleasure to listen to. They also tend to discuss subjects that for some reason I don't see getting a lot of attention in fan circles otherwise, such as playing the GTN to make money or their Galctic Starfighter experiences. The main thing drawing me to this show right now however is its community involvement. Aside from discussing their play and general news, the hosts are always keen on getting into discussions with people over Twitter or via other means, presenting an interesting snapshot of the kinds of subjects that the SWTOR community cares about.

The Unnamed SWTOR Podcast

The Unnamed SWTOR Podcast is a relatively young podcast compared to many others, and isn't part of a big website or gaming network. I only found out about it via Twitter, where its producer Gaddock Teeg (@GTeeg) promoted it every now and then and people would retweet him.

Where most podcasts consist of a whole team of hosts bouncing ideas off each other, the Unnamed SWTOR Podcast is a one-man show. You might think that this would make it less interesting to listen to, but you would be wrong. You can tell that Gaddock/DJ puts a lot of thought into what he's going to talk about and it shows, as he doesn't ramble endlessly or go off on sidetracks all the time. The final product is edited down to a relatively short thirty to forty minutes as well, which I see as a plus as it means that I never get bored and am always looking forward to the next episode.

SWTOR Reforged

This is another podcast that I originally discovered back in 2012, however it managed to die before I even had a chance to review it. Again, I was sad. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the other day that it's seen a revival, with all the old crew coming back and everything.

The thing that makes SWTOR Reforged stand out from other podcasts is its playful nature. While the hosts absolutely do have serious discussions about the game too, they like to get "in character" a lot, channelling their respective factions and acting out conversations with companions that are only represented by sound effects (e.g. someone will chide Bowdaar for something or other and he'll respond with a Wookiee roar). It sounds a bit weird when described like that, and I can imagine that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it gives the show a truly unique flavour. The hosts never take themselves too seriously, and you can always tell that they are having fun and are genuine Star Wars fans in general, considering how much time they invest in having segments about lore for example.

At two hours per episode the show is pretty long, which can be a pro or a con, depending on your point of view. Personally I have to admit that I start to drift off after the first hour, even if the things they talk about are interesting, simply because I struggle to keep up focused listening for that long. However the hosts have said in the past that they've also received feedback from listeners who appreciate having such a "meaty" podcast.

Podcast Reviews Again

A lot has happened since I wrote my last post about TOR podcasts over four months ago. Both The Instance: TOR Edition and Sunny's Diner closed their doors, and Mos Eisley Radio has undergone a reboot. What do I listen to now?

Mos Eisley Radio

I'm still tuning in to MER, but the show has certainly changed. After all the old hosts left at once, it was taken over by Leo and Evan, who used to do Ossus Academy, a more general Star Wars fan/lore podcast. The new MER is basically a hybrid of the old show and Ossus Academy, with the scope even broader than before, as the hosts spend a lot of time talking about other Star Wars related things such as the newest releases for tabletop games and CCGs.

I don't mind this in principle, because while I'm not personally into these other kinds of games, I have some friends who are and thus have at least a general idea of what they are talking about. I also find the hosts pleasant to listen to in general. Still, it's a shift in subject matter that might not appeal to everyone, or at the very least the show's attraction might vary from episode to episode. I have to admit that if they go on about a non-TOR-related topic at great length, I tend to kind of zone out after a while.

TOR Reporter

This podcast might be my new TOR-related favourite. One of the hosts is Anexxia from Inquisitor's Roadhouse, and while I don't approve of her fervent love for purple lightning and chopping off people's heads, she's definitely fun to listen to. As far as the other regular host, Chris, is concerned, I was surprised when I realised that he actually plays a lot of different MMOs and is involved in a couple of different podcasts as well, because he always sounds fully devoted to the game and never comes across as if he'd rather be playing something else.

The two of them have good chemistry on air, and mostly talk about TOR in positive terms. Even when criticisms of the game do come up, their love for it can never be in doubt. I also really enjoy that the show has a community segment where they pick up topics discussed in the blogosphere and share some link love.

TORWars Podcast

I'm not sure how I went so long without really being aware of this one, considering that TORWars is one of the biggest fan sites out there, but there you go. The hosts of this one are a crazy bunch, and I can imagine that their particular sense of humour might not be everyone's cup of tea, but you can always tell that they are having fun, it's contagious, and god knows that's something we need more of in this community.

During the episodes I listened to since I started following the podcast, Deirdre (whom I already knew from Corellian Run Radio) did a fair bit of moaning about the game, but oddly enough I didn't find it that off-putting because her righteous anger was so over the top that it was hard to take it seriously. I'm not sure whether that's intentional or not.

Darth Hater Podcast

I have to confess, I've always been a bit biased against Darth Hater, for the simple reason that I think that putting "hater" in the name of your fan site is pretty dumb. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be ironic or something, but it immediately gave me a negative impression when I first heard of the site. Still, it's one of the oldest fan sites out there still running, and it certainly makes a big contribution to the community. It was about time that I gave their podcast a listen as well.

Unfortunately... it didn't really click for me. I listened to episode after episode, thinking that maybe I had just caught a bad apple, but they were all pretty similar. Maybe it's something about the hosts' voices, but I absolutely couldn't concentrate on what they were talking about; my attention started wandering as soon as they opened their mouths. They never really sounded excited about anything and came across as incredibly jaded to me, immediately connecting every piece of good news to something bad that happened in the past and concluding that the new feature would just go down the same line. They don't exactly bash the game, but they don't really sound like they love it either. I get the impression that after 134 episodes they are pretty much just going through the motions.

Still, I would encourage people to give the show a listen at least once. While it didn't click for me at all, I could see it appealing to others.

Four Mini Podcast Reviews

Back when I used to play WoW, I often liked to listen to WoW fan podcasts while playing. Doing the same thing in The Old Republic is a bit trickier if you're questing and don't want to miss the voice work, but it's not too hard to occasionally pause whatever you're listening to in order to have a chat with all the NPCs at a quest hub, and then resume the playback once you're out and about killing things again.

One thing I've found remarkable about all the SWTOR podcasts I've listened to so far is that none of them have been badly made, even if some of them didn't personally appeal to me because of the hosts or the content. While looking for WoW podcasts I always had huge issues with finding way too many of them that had no structure and were badly edited, but with TOR podcasts I haven't run into a single one with any of these problems yet. Kudos to a knowledgeable community.

Here are four podcasts that I've been listening to for a while and what I think of them (in a nutshell). I might eventually post more reviews like this as I've been trying to broaden my horizons, but I need to listen to multiple episodes of each new podcast before I can really form an opinion on it.

The Instance: The Old Republic Edition

The Instance is one of the longest-running and most popular WoW podcasts. Being an avid listener, I was very pleased when they announced that they were going to start recording a SWTOR version as well, even if this immediately came with the bad news that Turpster (whom I personally consider to be the funniest of the three hosts) wasn't going to join in for this project as he's rather anti Star Wars.

Still, the final result did not disappoint. Scott and Dills still make a funny team, and I feel that Dills in particular actually gets to shine more in the Old Republic Edition than he ever did in the original Instance (possibly due to the absence of Turpster and his fairly dominant personality).

The sad news is that it seems to me that the entertainment value of the last couple of episodes has been declining rapidly. Scott in particular often sounds like he's already a bit bored of the game, and his claims to the contrary don't sound very convincing when he admits in the same breath that he's struggling to get any character past level thirty. It's a very stark contrast to the WoW podcast, where he still manages to get massively excited about every little bit of news even as they are approaching their 300th episode. It's also notable that they have a whole segment dedicated to criticising the game, something that I find rather odd for a fan podcast.

Final verdict: Strong podcasting team, started out great. Lately suffering from declining enthusiasm, and I find myself worrying about the future of the show if Scott would rather play WoW.

Mos Eisley Radio

This is quickly becoming my favourite SWTOR podcast, as it has just the right mix of everything for my taste, including but not limited to: interesting guests and news, intelligent and thoughtful discussion, great enthusiasm for the game but not without a critical eye, and of course a little bit of humour sprinkled on top.

Final verdict: Really can't say anything bad about this one. Highly recommended! I just wish they'd update more often.

Sunny's Diner

Another podcast hosted on the Mos Eisley Radio website. With this one it took me a little while to get into it, because at first I was a bit put off by the title, as I just couldn't decide what to make of the food theme. What do diners have to do with Star Wars?

Once I started listening, I learned that the host considers his show to be "the podcast for the casual SWTOR gamer". Personally, I'm not sure you could be called casual by any means if you listen to or even create podcasts related to your hobby, but maybe that's just me. Thing is, I don't consider myself a casual gamer either... but I still ended up finding Sunny's Diner very appealing. Like MER, it offers both humour and intelligent discussion, and I don't really feel that any of it is particularly targeted at the "casual" gamer only. I suppose they are casual in so far as they don't talk much about endgame activities like operations, but I'm quite happy to just listen to their general observations and stories about the game anyway.

Final verdict: Similar to Mos Eisley Radio really, even if it features different people. Don't be confused by the food themed title and intro, it's about SWTOR through and through. Shorter in length than the average MER episode, but just as entertaining.

Corellian Run Radio

I only started listening to this podcast comparatively recently, after one of the hosts guest-starred on Mos Eisley Radio. One thing that I immediately found refreshing about Corellian Run Radio is that it's a SWTOR podcast that appears to be primarily run by ladies - even better: ladies that are clearly hugely enthusiastic about the game. That's not to say that they never criticise anything, but even then you can always tell that they are extremely passionate about the game in a good way. This is a great podcast to listen to if other people's negative comments ever get you down.

The only problem I have with Corellian Run Radio is the main host, Carla - at least sometimes. I'd like to emphasise that this is completely subjective, but something about her accent often makes me cringe, and more often than not her opinions on what's best about the game are diametrically opposed to mine. After the umpteenth time of her declaring why the Republic is lame and how she can't wait for the game to get a dungeon finder and cross-server grouping, I just want to shut the whole thing off sometimes. However, she still does a good job regardless.

Final verdict: A podcast that radiates love and enthusiasm for the game. Only "issue" is that the main host has a very strong personality, something that you might find great... but if you're anything like me, there's also a chance that you might find it annoying instead.