Totalbiscuit - Interview - Gabe Amantangelo

For those who don't want to watch but are curious about what was said (which really wasn't anything we didn't already know), here's an outline:

General impressions of SWTOR's current performance
- It's going really well though they need to work on polish and bug fixes.
- Their story is really good.
- Their flashpoints are really good

Flashpoints
- They prefer to add more flashpoints than improve existing ones.
- 10 are very story based, 6 are lighter RPG type runs with hidden goodies.
- It's hard to balance expectations with reality
- Repeatedly running dungeons does mildly ruin the flashpoint story experience but the fun mechanics/game-play make up for it.

Questing/Immersion
- Questing hasn't been reinvented but the story behind it and the companions add a new layer.
- Focused on evolution rather than revolution.
- Wanted combat to feel more epic and heroic.
- Having lightsabers in the game makes immersion harder.

Balancing PvP/PvE
- It's challenging.
- They have a score system that they use to help balance things but sometimes things slip through.
- It's possible that they may eventually have abilities do slightly different things in PvP and PvE.

PvP System
- They felt that level 50 brackets were necessary.
- Not going to break PvP into more brackets unless they were willing/able to open up the pool of players.
- Don't want to increase PvP queue times.

Faction Imbalance
- Didn't want to limit what stories people could experience on what server.
- They have looked at implementing incentives to balance things out but he can't say much about it, right now.

Ilum
- Without faction balance open world PvP runs into problems.
- It being optional further messes with the faction balance.
- They want to do more with Ilum but they have things they want to take care of first.

Operations
- Expectation exceed development time.

UI Customization
- They are implementing some options.
- Mods/add-ons do effect end-game content design.
- Personally prefers that the game stays contextualized rather than rely on mods.
- Not his department to say if mods/add-ons will eventually be allowed.

Crafting Professions
- Prior to 1.1 they felt that Biochem was over powered.
- Overall, they want every crafter to have an equal footing in end-game content and they realize they haven't really succeeded but will continue making adjustments.

End-game Content
- Hoping the story is as important to progression as gear/rewards.
- They will be adding more story arcs.
- Items will continue to be a large part progressing your character.
- The legacy system will inspire and reward players for exploring new and different stories.

'Spoiler' about Karagga's Palace story arc

not exactly a groundbreaking interview, was it?

Oh the irony.

I'd bet a million credits you'd get fed up and do worse under the same circumstances.

People are human, and on the internet plenty of people can behave like they arent human. Any shred of decency is lost.

And then you fools come along and say "If you cant handle it, get out" as if the internet is some exclusive club for only the toughest of manly men who have no emotion except hate.

Get over yourself.

The TB hate in this thread is just silly, and most of it is misguided or untrue.

Some of you claim he thinks he is an awesome gamer who is good at everything, and in reality is bad, but this goes against what he has explicity said in many of his videos. He regularly puts himself down in regards to his skill in games. He never claims to be a great gamer. Hell, his stream is called "I Suck at Starcraft II". The man has no ego when it comes to his skill in a game.

Now his skill as a commentator of video games is another matter. He does have a bit of an ego about that, but its entirely warranted. He is extremely successful and he entertains a large amount of viewers. He has earned that ego.

Secondly, people claim he has an "Im right and if you disagree with me you are wrong mentality.", which on some issues is true, but on many issues it is not. He openly asks for criticisms, so long as they are constructive. Unfortunately most of his critics are not constructive, they are hate-filled trolls. You'd all react the same way to such criticisms.

Thirdly, people complain about the interview, claiming he didn't ask anything new. Well, I hate to break it to you, but thats because we know everything they are willing to tell us. He can't tell you anything new because Bioware isn't letting anyone know anything new.


The guy isn't perfect by a long shot, but hes a heck of a lot more proffessional and entertaining than anyone criticising him in this thread. Let your petty hatred of a random British video game commentator go, embrace the peace of the force like good jedi, and get on with your little lives.


All that being said, the interview summarized issues that people would want to know but dont want to go digging around looking for. Its a nice compilation of knowledge straight from Bioware's mouth, and was nicely done. Did I want to know more? Yes. Did I expect that to happen? No, not really.

all this interview showed is how vague and insecure about TOR EAware wants to appear to their customer-base.

Gabe had me when he said "right on" within the first minute and a half of the interview. I *always* say that

Good interview, I liked it.

To some of the posters here, I'm ashamed to be a part of the same community as you. I can't for the life of me understand why you are filled with so much hate towards the interviewer. Do you truly have so little respect and compassion for other people?

It's sad to see where the online gaming community is heading....

Hello Everybody!

We have removed serveral posts for being rude and off topic. Please try to remain on topic and discuss the interview as requested by Qisharj earlier:

Quote: Originally Posted by Qishari

Hello all,

We just wanted to drop a quick note to ask that you keep the thread on topic of the interview. Bashing the interviewer is not constructive and takes away from the topic of the thread. So please make sure that when you're participating in the thread, your posts are constructive and on-topic.

Thank you!

Will check it out.

i love pvp. But it seems like pve is the main focus for bioware now. It is obvious by now, bioware is targeting the casuals.

Can't wait for guild wars 2.

Is this hate towards TB jealousy or something?, I always find him fairly sensible and fun to listen to. Don't really understand just how much people can apparently hate someone they've never even talked to.