Hello all, I’m thinking of starting a new segment called Republic News.

I have been selected to participate in the testing of Star Wars The Old Republic for the next three days. I am obligated under an NDA to not provide details of the game and I have no intention of violating that NDA. I figure my approach to Republic News will be similar to how BigRedKitty approached his closed beta testing of Cataclysm; for those of you unfamiliar with BRKs work, that essentially means non-specific statements and adjectives describing definite articles. I will NOT be posting screenshots.

The amount of testing I have been given the opportunity to do is very limited. I can only create characters of two classes, I can only be on one planet and my window for testing ends at 1am (EST) on Friday.

Now, I do not believe I am violating the NDA by telling you the classes and planet I can test. If, at any point, I find that Bioware wishes that this information be removed and not discussed, I will comply with their requests.

I have been allowed to test the Republic Trooper and the Smuggler (I think I mentioned Bounty Hunter before, but I was mistaken) and only on the planet of Ord Mantell. I may have thought that I was testing Bounty Hunter because Ord Mantell is a place Han refers to as having an unfortunate run-in with a bounty hunter (ESB).

I’m hoping to begin testing this evening (gotta do the work thing first) and I will most likely start with a Smuggler.

See You All Again Soon.

[UPDATE]: I just received word that Bioware had to cancel my entire test group so it looks like I will not be doing any testing of SWTOR for now. I haven’t received any additional information regarding the reason for canceling the test other then “unforseen circumstances” which is developer-speak for “we found something bad that must be fixed before anybody else finds it”