Leveling up in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is one of the smoothest, most well-directed experiences I've had thus far, but when it comes to pursuing endgame content at level 50, it's surprising how little direction there is for aspiring endgame raiders. Some would argue that so much hand-holding isn't needed, but given that SWTOR might be the first MMORPG for many players, I've decided to compile a handy guide for getting geared and prepared for endgame raiding.

One comment I would like to make before I get started is that endgame progression in Star Wars: The Old Republic is surprisingly accessible for even the most heavily time-constrained player. At some points, it does seem like BioWare has made it too easy to get the very best gear in the game, but my main point is this: even if you hate endgame raiding in other MMORPGs, I would highly advise you to try out SWTOR's 8-person operations at least once. Both Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace - in spite of all their bugs - are fun and it's worth the experience to try them out. Now let's get on with Part I of the guide!

Jumping into Star Wars: The Old Republic can be a daunting task for anyone who maybe isn't a seasoned MMO veteran. As well, with thousands of players making tutorial videos on Youtube, it can be hard to tell just who exactly to listen to. Well, BioWare has decided to make the decision easy, because you can just listen to them!

In what is the first of a new series of tutorial videos designed to help new players learn the basics, BioWare has released its Quick Start Guides. This first video, titled "Begin Your Journey," will take you through the process of jumping into the game for the first time. Social Media Coordinator Eric Musco breaks down the different choices of server types, while walking you through character creation and the opening conversations for all character classes. 

This new video is the first in their New Player Guide section and over the next few weeks, BioWare will be releasing additional guides on topics like navigation, user interface, and grouping with other players.

After spending some time beta-testing Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Jedi Knight and cursing my old computer for barely being able to run the game, release came upon us at almost the same time that my new rig showed up. Feeling vain and materialistic, I decided to get in touch with my dark side and make my new character part of the Empire. And so began my adventures with both a new Imperial Agent and Sith Warrior, and I blasted off to learn a bit more of the TOR universe and my place in it.

It's only been six weeks since Star Wars: The Old Republic launched, and BioWare is proud of the numbers they are seeing. With over 2 million copies sold, a thriving base of over 1.7 million active subscribers, and an unimaginable amount of time spent in the game by gamers everywhere, The Old Republic has become the fastest growing subscription MMO ever!

BioWare accounts this to the quality and reliability of the game's service, stating that servers have been available for more than 99.5% of the time outside of scheduled maintenance. To top it all off, BioWare has made good on their promise to deliver additional content on a frequent basis by releasing Rise of the Rakghouls less than 30 days after the games' launch. 

For those interested in outlandish stats, BioWare has stated that, within the community, the following milestones have been achieved in just over one month:

• Over 239 million hours, or 332,000 months, or 27,000 years of time spent in-game.
• Over 20 billion NPCs killed.
• Over 148 billion credits spent.

The game is undoubtably doing amazing after only one month, but it's going to take a full year to recoup the costs of one of the most expensive games ever made, so hopefully Bioware continues with this success. To read the full post by BioWare click here.

A mere month and a half into launch, and BioWare is already announcing their very first Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit. Taking place from March 4th - 6th, 2012 at te DoubleTree Hotel Austin, BioWare is looking for qualified candidates to fly out to Austin to basically act as glorified QA testers. Invitees will get to discuss the state of the game, give feedback on key features and the direction of SWTOR, as well as being able to participate in some open QA sessions with the developers.

Currently speaking, BioWare has already sent it outs major invites, but they're looking for any applicants they might have missed. If you want to participate in the very first SWTOR Guild Summit, be sure to fire an application to BioWare via this link. 

Just a few days ago, a player was boasting on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums, claiming that he had grabbed a world first White Lightsaber Crystal. While the details behind the feat were shrouded in mystery, there was no doubt that the player had achieved what he claimed. Unfortunately, a day later, BioWare's Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman took to the forums to note that the player had earned the crystal through an in-game exploit and BioWare had stripped it from his inventory.

It seems fitting, then, that today's blog post from BioWare would be all about how the team goes about addressing bugs and exploits in Star Wars: The Old Republic. That was a horrendous introductory paragraph to the news topic at hand, but I was just trying to think of a way to talk about White Lightsaber Crystals, and I'm not paying much attention to the whole "staying on topic" bit. Regardless, BioWare's Executive Producer Rich Vogel discusses in his latest blog post about the process by which BioWare pursues their bug fixing, as well as how they can quickly move to quash exploits like the White Lightsaber Crystal brouhaha. Take a read here!

When it comes to recently launched MMORPGs, while up-front content and balance is very important, it is often how a development team continues to support their product that really indicates if this is a title worth committing to. In BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, for example, many players were worried that there wasn't enough endgame content to keep them satisfied beyond their first month of subscription. BioWare's response was to push for the launch of Patch 1.1: Rise of the Rakghouls within a month of the game launching, adding a new operation and a challenging flashpoint for players to try out.

Now players have their eyes firmly fixed on BioWare's next big update: Patch 1.2 to see if BioWare can continue to deliver the content that fans want: more content, more Warzones, a fix to faction imbalanced open-world PvP, legacy system additions, more guild support, and more. I decided to catch up with SWTOR's Design Producer Shawn Ketcherside to see if I could glean any new patch 1.2 information, as well as get some clarification on what BioWare really wants from open world PvP. Interview below!

We now know exactly how much went into the most expensive and ambitious video games ever produced. According to the LA Times, 800 people across 4 countries spent nearly $200 million dollars creating Star Wars: The Old Republic. With 1,600 hours of story and 1,000 voice actors for 4,000 characters in 3 different languages, it doesn't seem like a far-fetched number.

This would mean that in order to recoup this number, more than one million customers will have to purchase and subscribe to the game for an entire year. Now, while the game has sold over one million copies last month, it will be interesting to see the number of active subscribers BioWare keeps over the next year now that the intial 30-day trial for purchasing the game is over.

There is also good news to report after EA's stock went down yesterday as several brokers have defended the title stating "We believe these concerns are overblown, and that the company's revenues are tracking ahead of the high end guidance for the fiscal year." A Pacific Crest analyst raised his quarter sales estimates from 1.5 million to 2.2 million and is still "comfortable" with his target of 800,000 subscribers at the end of the companies fiscal year in late March.

Rather impressive that right after launching Update 1.1 with a new operation and new flashpoint, BioWare is already at work highlighting their upcoming content for the future of the game. In their latest trailer, "Coming up in STAR WARS: The Old Republic," Game Director James Ohlen touches on a plethora of new content, including a second part to the "Rise of the Rakghouls" expansion, a new Warzone, the ability to rank yourself in PvP, new Legacy system updates, new Guild features, a customizable interface UI, as well as some fan favorite features. All in all, it looks like BioWare is taking their content seriously; let's hope they can keep up this fast and furious delivery of sparkly new things to play in.

Trailer below!