Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
EA just announced at E3 that SW:TOR would be free to play from levels 1-15.
Will this help BioWare pick up all the subscribers it’s lost? World of Warcraft went free to play from levels 1-20 last year, but I don’t think it’s helped Blizzard make up the subscriber loss it suffered after everyone finished the Cataclysm end-game content. Seems to me that SW:TOR needs to spend more time developing new modules and content instead.
Have a question for the Expanded Universe’s most prolific author? Send us a tweet, leave a Facebook message, or drop a comment in this post! We’ll be interviewing Aaron Allston on Wednesday, June 6th.
While we can’t promise we’ll have time to get to everyone’s questions, Nanci and I will do our best to get to as many as possible.
As some of you may know, the largest gaming conference in the world is taking place right now in LA, The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or just E3. I’m just going to try to hit the high points of what’s been going on as best I can, although I haven’t been as plugged in as I have been in the past.
The biggest things that people have been looking forward to in the whole expo have been the new hardware from the ‘Big 3,’ Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Last year, Nintendo announced a new console system called the ‘Wii U,’ and this year they’ve given us more of the details of the system. Microsoft has shown a new addition the X-Box 360 that will probably add some serious life to the system, called Smart Glass. Sony is yet to have their day at the convention, but the buzz is that they will be introducing a new console, although I haven’t heard anything more. (Edit) Sony’s press conference was last night, they debuted God of War Ascension, a few secenes from The Last of Us and a new project from the maker’s of Heavy Rain. I hadn’t heard anything about this from any of the sources I’ve been reading or watching and had to actively look for any of this with the exception of God of War, and that didn’t seem to be drawing a lot of buzz.
Check out the rest after the jump
Warrior enough for you?
It’s Tuesday, which means countless individuals will spend their lunch breaks racing to the nearest restaurant to purchase tacos for consumption. It also means we’re going to use alliteration as an excuse to dive headfirst into TV Tropes to talk about an amusing literary theme or device that makes entertainment fun. This week, we’re looking at the Proud Warrior Race Guy.
A specific subtrope of Blood Knight, the Proud Warrior Race Guy seeks battle and bloodshed because his culture teaches that doing so is the greatest source of personal honor and glory. This Proud Warrior Race will often be based on one of several real world cultures who are perceived to have acted this way, such as the Samurai, Spartans, Vikings, and Mongols. They are often a Martyrdom Culture. The Proud Warrior Race Guy is almost always a hero. If evil, he will probably be the Worthy Opponent.
“Proud”, in this case, meaning “Psychotically Violent”. Critiques of this position will be met with: “You donotunderstand“. May occasionally overlap with the Always Chaotic Evil race, though the two are usually differentiated by the Proud Warrior having a strict Code-of-Honor, while the Chaotic Evil race has no real rules and does cowardly or underhanded things. If the Code-of-Honor is too alien for humans to understand, or too xenophobic to allow cooperation, then the heroes will treat the two groups as the same. The better sort of Code of Honor will enforce Would Not Shoot a Civilian, although often because civilians are dismissed as too weak and cowardly to be good fighters, and so they get passed over in the search for worthy enemies.
Sound familiar? In the setting of the Expanded Universe, you’ve got the Mandalorians and the Yuuzhan Vong. The Echani from Knights of the Old Republic also fits the bill. I’m sure you can name a dozen examples from other science fiction franchises that features a character or a race of characters that fall under this description. This is a trope you have to be careful with. Go overboard and it comes off as campy. Unless your intention is to come off as campy, then by all means, go overboard.
There’s actually a novel that’s devoted to deconstructing this trope, Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston.
Wedge: “Circular thinking. I’m honorable because I kill the enemy, and I kill the enemy for the honor. There’s nothing there, Cheriss. Here’s the truth: I kill the enemy so someone, somewhere — probably someone I’ve never met and never will meet – will be happy. […] I told you how I lost my parents. Nothing I ever do can make up for that loss. But if I put myself in the way of people just as bad as the ones who killed my family, if I burn them down, then someone else they would have hurt gets to stay happy. That’s the only honorable thing about my profession. It’s not the killing. It’s making the galaxy a little better.”
Now, I dare Wedge to say that to Worf.
As promised, Lucasarts revealed some in-game video from their new franchise at E3 this week.
A bit of an Uncharted adventure feel combined with Gears of War style cover mechanics. No release date has been issued yet, but no doubt we’ll be hearing more about the game in the coming weeks.
Remember the secret guest for Week 4 of Star Wars Weekends that I teased on a recent episode of Tosche Station Radio? No? Well, that’s okay, because the nexu’s out of the bag: it’s Dave Filoni! The supervising director of The Clone Wars animated series will take part in a live Q&A session on the Sorcerer’s Hat State at 2:30 pm on Saturday, hosted by Ashley Eckstein. He will also be signing the Disney Racers miniature cars at Darth’s Mall at 11 am on Saturday and Sunday.
The last day at Origins was a brief one, mostly due to the fact that the convention wraps up a little after mid-day. In all, the whole affair was an enjoyable experience (after I figured out how their bizarre event ticketing system worked). While it seems a little odd to attend a game convention to talk to notable Expanded Universe authors, Origins turned out to be a fantastic place to discuss Star Wars with both notable figures and fans.
But beyond the games and the panels, it was a great chance to hang out with some cool people. I had the chance to chat things up with Tracy and the rest of the Club Jade folks as well Rachael from Galactic Drift. Hanging out with two good friends of mine (and using that as an excuse to see The Avengers for a seventh time) was a blast. I’m pretty sure I’ll be back next year. We’ll see if we can get Shane, Emily, and Nanci up here as well.
But enough rambling. Before heading off to the airport, I sat in on a Q&A with Mike Stackpole. Highlights below the jump!
Day three at the Origins Game Fair brings more discussions from Expanded Universe authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston as well as a reading session from Mike Stackpole. No game recommendations today, but I’ll try and get back onto the dealer floor tomorrow to play test one more before heading home.
To the jump!
The second half of the day brought more in the way of Expanded Universe fun with panels and readings by noted authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston.
Don’t forget to see what happened earlier this morning here. To the jump!
If you listen to podcast here at Tosche Station, (and if you do, great, if you don’t, why not?) you’ve heard that in honor of the coming latest addition to the fantastic X-Wing series, Mercy Kill, we’re presenting you a retrospective of the series. It will provide a great opportunity for those of us who haven’t read the books in a very long time to refamiliarize ourselves with it. That is actually my own situation—I love these books but somehow I haven’t read them for what must have been a solid decade.
I imagine that there are plenty of you out there that are regulars here at the site that have read my prior material and you’re worrying. Why is the snarky, jaded guy reviewing the first part of this? Is he going to rip it apart? Will he ruin these books for me?
Yes. I mean no. Very no. I love these books and I have an even better perspective on them now. And by now, I mean, after I’ve been looking at some of the most poorly written books in the entire saga. I know what bad Star Wars looks like. This isn’t that. Praise the Force!
So, without further adieu, X-Wing: Rogue Squadron.