SOE has posted a day by day look at week in the development cycle of the next game update for Star Wars Galaxies.

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears are poured into each Game Update; Game Update 10 is no exception. Take a look behind the scenes on just a week in the life of making Game Update 10!

Monday

Just like in any other office across the country, everyone comes in to work on Monday morning bleary eyed and reserved. Arriving at our new building, however, always manages to put a smile on my face.

Jesse "Loche" Benjamin is always the first one into the office.

He gets here early so he can check out the forums, read his reports, and start going over his notes on what needs to be finished during the week.

Mondays are spent planning for the week and what content is going to be worked on, updated, and created. This obviously involves a lot of meetings; of particular note is the Monday Leads Meeting. In our new building, this meeting takes place in a room called "Jabba's Palace."

Read more here.

Developer Blogs & Chats



• Aion's Lani Blazier on Voon Tonight
  
• Alganon Dev Chat Coming May 13
  
• Star Trek Online, Talk To Cryptic in IRC Today
  
• Meet Conan's Associate Producer, Jarle Snertingdalen @ MMORPG.com
  
• Champions Online: Bill Roper Talks To Altnern8
  
• Vanguard Ask A Dev
  
  Media
  
  
• Alganon Karr City Video Posted
  
  Press Announcements
  
• Wizard101 Players Can Now Own and Decorate Their Own Castle and Lands @ IGN
  
• Neo Steam to Give Away Steampunk Goggles @ Vault
  
• Marriage and Divorce Arrive in La Tale @ Vault
  
  Previews & Reviews
  
• Free Realms Review @ IGN (8.8/10)
  
• Jumpgate Evolution Hands-On @ Eurogamer
  
• Champions Online Has No Server Shards @ Massively
  
• 60 Days of Darkfall @ MMORPG.com
  
  Articles & Official News Bits
  
• Lord of the Rings Online Feature: Fellowship Manoeuvres
  
• Star Wars Galaxies Hotfix 9.1 Today
  
• EQ1 Overview of Blackburrow (lots of old school screenshots)
  
• EQ1 Overview of the Lost Temple of Cazic-Thule
  
• Pirates of the Burning Sea Having Port Battle Issues
  
• Warhammer Online Server Maintenance Today
  
• Star Trek Online Art Director Shayne Herrera at AICSF
  
• Dungeons & Dragons Online Site Gets Makeover

Now available at SOE.com and WhatTheyPlay.com, the brochure aims to reach out to parents to help them understand the often-overlooked benefits of playing video games, such as SOE’s upcoming free, family-friendly online game, Free Realms®. With the help of top experts, such as John Davison, co-founder of the online parenting resource What They Play, and Cheryl Olson, Sc.D., the “Let the Kids Game” brochure indicates that games are an unexpected way to not only bring families closer together but also have the potential to form future leaders.

Contrary to popular belief, studies have shown that video games can be good for kids. Key findings cited in the brochure include:

• Video games are related to improvements in vision, social interaction and visuospatial cognition (a skill associated with several careers, including architecture, engineering and surgery).
  
• Playing games together can forge stronger family ties between parent and child, and between siblings.
  
• People who play online games often emerge as leaders since online games offer opportunities to operate in environments that are global, competitive and emphasize large-scale cooperation.

10) Las Vegas!!
9) Antonia Bayle & Firona Vie in your pictures.
8) Tournaments, Live Quests, and Prizes!  Oh My!
7) After hours fun in the Legends Lounge.
6) Late night LON and SWG TCG!.
5) Meeting your game’s Developers!
4) Meeting your in-game friends, in real life!
3) Brenlo singing Karaoke.
2) SMED singing Karaoke!

And the number one Reason to go to Fan Faire 2009:
1) The Pink T-Shirt contest at the Banquet hosted by Brenlo!

The latest Developer Diary on the Star Wars Galaxies official site takes a look at statistics changes to a number of the game's starships.

With Game Update 9 several of the spaceships in the game have received a number of changes to bring them into balance with other ships.

Here is a quick overview of the changes that can currently be found on the TestCenter and TC-Prime servers!

Ship Improvements

All the numbers given for the ships handling and speed are specific to each of the chassis's described. In addition to the chassis specific numbers, any given ships handling will be further modified by the engine installed and possibly any engine overload running on the ships droid Interface.

Acceleration – This number affects how fast the ship will accelerate to its top speed

Deceleration – How fast the ship can reduce its speed

Yaw and pitch acceleration – How fast the ship reaches its top turn speed. This value will also be affected by the ships current forward speed.

Roll – How fast the ship roll's around its own center point

Please note: All numbers are subject to change during the testing phase.

Read more here.

Are more and more of us secretly buying gold and power-levelling services? Certainly when Mythic (Warhammer Online) boss Mark Jacobs posted on the topic back in autumn last year, he stirred up a huge response.

"I hate gold sellers/spammers," said Jacobs. "No, that's not strong enough, let me try again. I HATE GOLD SELLERS WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING. Ah, that's better... And now that they have taken their obnoxiousness to new levels with gold service spamming, I HATE GOLD SPAMMERS EVEN MORE NOW THAN EVER BEFORE." He went on, in a highly personal tirade, to claim that "we have been banning these jerks like crazy."

"We don't wait and let them stay in the game and ban them en masse, my guys ban their useless, time-consuming butts right away. We have a strike team whose sole job it is to get these guys off our servers as quickly as possible." He even introduced a public ban message every time a spammer was kicked. Messages like "Tchar'zanek has ordered the slaughter of [Spammer] and all others of his kind who weaken the Raven Host by providing wealth and power to the unworthy" became commonplace.

MMORPG.com Star Wars Galaxies Correspondent Thomas Allegood writes this helpful guide for up and coming Imperial pilots in the SOE MMO based on the popular sci-fi franchise.

So you've got your Lv 5 equipment and a new TIE, I bet you feel good right now. Well, keep that frame of mind because now it's time for the long haul. This is your little guide to surviving middle stretch to ace.. Now strap yourself in, power up your shields, and lets bring down those rebels.

The first thing you've probably noticed is that if you're flying an Interceptor, you can't really use much heavy equipment, but you're faster than most ships out there. If you're flying a Bomber, you can barely move but boy can you take a few hits. This mid-level stretch is the most annoying part of your career, but you'll survive. After this, you'll begin using more flexible ships, but as for now, let's take a look at what you can do.

Read Imperial Flight Guide, Part Two