Quicklinks to Questions:

Introductions

Will Star Wars KOTOR be competition for Galaxies?

What is the dev team doing to combat lag?

Will there be a certain number of droids you can own...? and can they be attacked by anyone at any time?

What is the best question/most surprising question received about the game while you were out at E3?

What were the Dev's biggest worries during E3?

In a player-run city, will we be able to move buildings as the city grows to creat room for new avilable structures?

Could you explain the combat system in more detail, will it be dynamic, or will we just hit "A" and hope for the Best?

Can you change your appearance after the initial character creation?

What forms of information can be traded using the token system? Will the game require you to use the token other than just finding a site that has the info and using it?

Can we tame rancors and krayt dragons?

Is it possible to turn on/off the big blue beacon for waypoints?

Did you guys see EP II yet? What were you favorite scenes?

Do you buff up your animations for E3, or is it actual game play?

With the announcement of Resident Evil Online, the Matrix Online and with Neverwinter Nights and other MMORPG on the horizon, how do you like Star Wars Galaxies chances to survive in the big sea of MMORPGS in the coming years?

Will we be able to build on Dathomir? if no, why not?

How will elections work in game?

What accomplishment ware you (the devs) most proud of so far in this game?

At E3 did anything go wrong for you guys?

Are future emotes planned?

In the E3 presentation movies we saw how you can enter a building like the cantina without any loading, is this how it works for all the buildings in the game?

Will it be possible to obtain a point in every skill? So to complete every tree?

How much of EP II were you guys privy to before release and will there be elements from the new movie in the game?

What type of weather effects will we see in-game? Rain on Naboo? Sand storms on Tatooine? Blizzards on ...?

What's being done to avoid congestion at the cloning facilities?

What was your favorite game besides SWG at E3?

How do you plan to start the economy at launch? All of the player merchants will have nothing.

Any misconceptions that came out of E3 that you would like to clear up?

How diverse is the architecture for each world? and Will the styles be swappable to other planets as well?

How much will Wookies be affected by the language barrier?

Why don't you guys release anything about the Jedis?

When you decide to "sell back" a skill, will you have to "earn" the points back to place in another skill? (In other words, temporarily giving up experience to relearn for a new)

Will every Server(Galaxy) be the same, or will there be certain ones for PvP, RolePlay, etc like the current EQ system

What does "combat is rules-based" mean? Real time?

Will Mobs aggro on us until we die or will there be some sort of limit tothem hunting you down after provoked?

Will you have swoops like the one Anakin rides in ep 2 at launch?

The blaster shots in the E3 videos appeared to follow their target, will this be tweaked in later versions?

How will the creation of player-generated missions work? What possibilities are there?

Does a bounty go away after one kill?

Will there be marrige in the game?

Can you tell us some professions, other then jedi and bounty hunter?

Can you give us some examples of how a player will earn EXP? will it be dependent on the skill is so how?

I heard that there will be strict rules to follow while choosing a name so it will fit with the species, is this true?

The latest CGW article mentioned terrain playing an important role in combat. How important will strategy be in combat?

Now as far as story and missions in the game will you randomly get missions or will you have to talk to certain people for a mission to become available and the story to unfold

What did the team do after E3 (besdies sleep ) ???

Conclusion

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Q3PO said: Welcome to the 6th Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided Developer's Chat (whew that's a mouthful)! We are going to answer as many questions as we can in the next hour.

Q3PO said: This is how it works, I read through a looooong list of questions sent by you. I call out appropriate ones (no, we aren't talking about how to become force sensitive). Then someone on the dev team either said pass or answers it.

BoShek said: Hello everyone...welcome

Q3PO said:We're going to focus on questions related to E3, but we'll try to take a wide range of questions incuding newbie questions that may have been answered already and hardcore questions for those of you who have lived on the boards.

Q3PO said: This is a moderated closed chat, that means only the devs can speak here. Send your questions as a private message to Marluka (/msg Marluka)

Q3PO said: So let's get things started by asking our panel of devs to introduce themselves. I'm Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara, your community relations manager.


Shug_Ninx said: I'm Haden Blackman, Producer for Star Wars Galaxies at LucasArts.

Holocron said: Hi, I'm Raph Koster, and I am creative director for the project at Sony Online Entertainment Austin...

BoShek said: I'm rich Vogel, Executive Producer of STar Wars Galaxies.

Admiral_Griff said: Hello - I'm John Donham, I'm the producer for Sony Online on SWG.

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Keio asked: Will Star Wars KOTOR be competition for Galaxies?

Shug_Ninx said: We don't see it that way, no. They are two totally different games. Knights of the Old Republic is a story-driven RPG set 4,000 years before the original Star Wars. Galaxies is a massively-multiplayer game set during the classic time frame. The games are so different, in fact, that I'm looking forward to playing both of them.

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JairunCaloth asked: What is the dev team doing to combat lag?

Admiral_Griff said: Lots of things - we take lag into account into all of our system,s from the design on up. The technical architecture of the game is built to be lag tollerant, and the game design is more roleplaying-paced instead of action-based to help deal with the problem.

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Stevemuenn asked: hi and will there be a certain number of droids you can won... and can they be attacked by anyone at any time

Holocron said: There will indeed be a cap... we don't know what the cap is, just yet, but there will definitely be one. And no, they won't be attackable by just anyone, attacking a pet will be treated just like attacking a player as far as the PvP rules are concerned.

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Azis asked: What is the best question/most surprising question received about the game while you were out at E3?

Holocron said: It was kind of funny. Everyone is coming up sasking things like, "How do you move?" or "What machine is this demo running on?" And then up come the folks from SWG Database, the German site, and they ask, "So, if you have a PA hall and it's full and you decide to upgrade it and you have the ability to upgrade it in place, or myabe you could move it, would all the furniture move with it?" And I said, "You must be from the boards."

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Fub asked: What were the Dev's biggest worries during E3?

Shug_Ninx said: Making sure that combat looked great, with animations working, etc.

Holocron said: Whether combat would be cool. Whether the server would be stable.

Admiral_Griff said: Getting it all done? We're working on multiple paths at the same time - working towars beta, providing screen shots to press like CGW, and having a stron gshowing at E3. It's been a tough balance making sure we make progress on all those fronts at the same time.

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The Leader asked: In a player-run city, will we be able to move buildings as the city grows to creat room for new avilable structures?

Holocron said: That's what emininent domain is for; mayours have that power just so that they can clear space.

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VaderHelmet asked: hi, could you explain the combat system in more detail, will it be dynamic, or will we just hit "A" and hope for the Best???

Admiral_Griff said: You can do more than just "hope", we'll have a "pray" command too.

Holocron said: Well there's not much room or time in a chat like this to go into huge amounts of detail... but the short version: You do indeed start attacking with a single command, but there's a host of special moves and commands you can do, including moving around (and running vs walking affects combat btw), posture changes (prone, kneeling, etc), special attacks including targeted hits, special moves, suppressing fire, etc. So we're hoping to make it tactical and interesting a visually exciting.

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Haack asked: Can you change your appearance after the initial character creation?

Admiral_Griff said: Yup. There are player professions to support it too - like having hair dresser to change your style and color of hair.

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LarsRen asked: What forms of information can be traded using the token system? Will the game require you to use the token other than just finding a site that has the info and using it?

Holocron said: Types of tokens include waypoints, tokens for specific objects, structures, and types of objects and structures. You can trade them pretty freely, just as if they were objects (though they use up memory in your in-game datapad). You also use them to build missions with using the mission wizard. Lastly, you should be able to mail them to one another within the game using the in-game communcations system

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NotAWookiee asked: Can we tame rancors and krayt dragons?

Shug_Ninx said: These are two of our most dangerous creatures. Whether or not they can be tamed is still TBD. It's a tough decision because it would represent the pinnacle of taming, but it would also be strange to see someone with a rancor walking into Mos Eisley. If we do it, we might put limitations on whre youcoudl take that creature, how long it is tameable, etc.

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ToelessWookiee asked: is it possible to turn on/off the big blue beacon for waypoints?

Holocron said: Well, we hadn't planned on it, but based on the reaction on the boards, we may make it an option.

Shug_Ninx said: We have lots of things that can be turned on/off - chat bubbles, etc. We're trying to give you the tools to customize the experience to your tastes.

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sonofhud asked: Did you guys see EP II yet? What were you favorite scenes?

Shug_Ninx said: The last fifty minutes.

BoShek said: The one with Yoda and Dooku fighting...wow..that rocked!

Q3PO said: I loved the scene with the bar. The whole bar scene was great.

Holocron said: The fights with Dooku, especially Yoda...!!! The car chase scene. "You want to go home an rethink your life." "You'll be the death of me." "Good job."

Holocron has now seen it three times in the theater

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romagoma1 asked: Do you buff up your animations for E3, or is it actual game play?

Admiral_Griff said: Animations for E3 - It's actual gameplay using all real assets. We were running on a pretty highend machine, but running on a lower end machine wouldn't have much impact on the animation quality.

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Daman2517 asked: With the announcement of Resident Evil Online, the Matrix Online and with Neverwinter Nights and other MMORPG on the horizon, how do you like Star Wars Galaxies chances to survive in the big sea of MMORPGS in the coming years?

Shug_Ninx said: We're pretty confident that we can survive. We're offering a unique experience for Star Wars fans. We're also very focused on growing the audience for MMORPGS, which is good for everyone.

Holocron said: I'm always looking forward to more MMO games.

BoShek said: I am glad to see more MMO and I like to see our genre grow.

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Caella asked: Will we be able to build on Dathomir? if no, why not?

Holocron said: We havne't finialized all the zoning laws yet, but you'll be able to build some things there in limited spaces. As for why not more, well, because of continuity.

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JobiWanKenobi asked: how will elections work in game?

Holocron said: Whenever an issue comes up for a vote, it appears on your house's control terminal for you to vote on (and probably also notified by email). The voting stays open for a time period (multiple days) so that people not on every day have a chance to vote.

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ImmortalFury asked: What accomplishment ware you (the devs) most proud of so far in this game?

Holocron said: I'm really happy with the terrain system, because of how it met a wide array of goals pretty elegantly.

BoShek said: Character personalities - lots of emotes and customization options

Admira_Griff said: So far, I'm most impressed with our algorithmic terrain generation It really feels like the right way to make these massive worlds.

Holocron says: I also really like how the UI has come along, it's really coming together.

Shug_Ninx said: The thing that I've been most concerned about is also the thing that, right now, I'm happiest with: combat. Ranged combat hasn't been done to this degree before, so it was quite a challenge. But I think we have a system that is easy to understand, but very complex beneath teh surface. It also looks dynamic.

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Dromag67 asked: At E3 did anything go wrong for you guys?

Shug_Ninx said: I lost my voice by the last day...

Holocron said: Yeah -- once the fellow demoers weren't up there by the Stormtrooper spawn point with me, and an AT-ST had come down the hill, and I got killed because I had no backup

Admiral_Griff said: We tried to do a new server build half-way through the show to add more stuff to the show. That went poorly, and we had to back up to the version from earlier in the show. Never try and recompile the game halfway through a convention.

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YuLAw asked: Are future emotes planned?

Holocron said: You guys haven't even seen the 95% of the ones we have yet.

Shug_Ninx said: We have six separate dance STYLES!

Q3PO said: Just wanted to let you know we're halfway through the chat. Keep those questions coming.

Holocron said: Wait till you see the belly dancing. It looks great on a fat Bith....

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LedMirage asked: In the E3 presentation movies we saw how you can enter a building like the cantina without any loading, is this how it works for all the buildings in the game?

Admiral_Griff said: Yep, that's how it works. The only time you "zone" is when you travel from planet to planet. While walking around on a single planet, there's no zoning - ie, loading - while you walk around. So you can walk inside, outside, anywhere you want on the planet.

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Nyphur asked: Will it be possible to obtain a point in every skill? So to complete every tree?

Holocron said: No, you cannot pick up every skill in the game.

Shug_Ninx said: You can sell back skills, though, so technically you can explore every tree over time.

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GotBlueMilk asked: How much of EP II were you guys privy to before release and will there be elements from the new movie in the game?

Shug_Ninx said: I read the script about the tim filming started. I also saw various versions of the rough cut. I'm in the loop on everything Episode II-related. In fact, it was information form Ep. II that led us to incude cloning as part of the respawn system. We hope to have some equipment, clothing, and creatures from Ep. II eventually. Later, we might add locations. Oh, and some characters - NPCs.

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Misanthropy asked: What type of weather effects will we see in-game? Rain on Naboo? Sand storms on Tatooine? Blizzards on ...?

Admiral_Griff said: Yes we'll have rain on Naboo and Yes we'll have sandstorms on Tatooine. We're working to have some pretty neat weather effects, I think everyone will be pretty impressed.

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Vossk asked: What's being done to avoid congestion at the cloning facilities?

Holocron said: The first thing is the planning the architecture of the strcture--for all high traffic structures like that, we try to lay it out so that there's multiple entry and exit points, that sort of thing. But also, for cloning in particular, there's a couple of things that we'd love to see more discussion of on the boards... We're discussing two big things--one, letting y9u "save" remotely (eg, not needing to visit the cloning facility) and two, having death not actually cost XP

Holocron waits for the boards to explode....

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UseDaAgression asked: What was your favorite game besides SWG at E3?

Shug_Ninx said: I'm realy partial to some of our other titles, like Gladius and Knights of the Old Republic. But, I was also really enthralled by Relic's Impossible Creatures.

Admiral_Griff said: Dead or Alive's beach volleyball.

Q3PO said: My favorites were Age of Mythology and NeverWinter Nights.

Holocron said: I barely got to see the show. I checked out several MMO titles (Worlds of Warcraft, AC2, Shadowbane, Sims Online)... I did get to see a bit of Sea Dogs II. Plus of course, everything in the LucasArts booth. I mostly spent time demoing.

BoShek said: NeverWinter Nights and Warcraft III

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YuLaw asked: How do you plan to start the economy at launch? All of the player merchants will have nothing.

Holocron said: We'll bootstrap it, of course, as needed. We have to have good controls on the ecnomoy to keep it balanced longterm.

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LilWookiee asked: any misconceptions that came out of E3 that you would like to clear up?

Holocron said: Yes a bunch! Glad you asked.

Holocron said: In the IGN movie, that was NOT a vehicle. It was just running speed.

Holocron said: No, the camera did NOT zoom into 1st person automatically when you went into buildings, that was us using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out manually

Shug_Ninx said: Combat is rules-based, not "simulation" or traditional "pause-and-attack" turn-based

Holocron said: Yes, the critters were frozen in place for the demo. So that womprat you saw wouldn't normally be there.

Shug_Ninx said: We'll have a rules system that determines whether or not you hit based on your attributes, etc.

Holocron said: Lastly, no, you can't usually take out an AT-ST with blasters. We had an "instakill move" set up for the demo

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CrayWilliams asked: How diverse is the architecture for each world? and Will the styles be swappable to other planets as well?

Admiral_Griff said: There are four different styles of architecture - Tatooine, Naboo, Corellia, and a "generic" (imperial) kind too. So depending on the type of planet is the type of structures you get.

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idswk111 asked: How much will Wookies be affected by the language barrier?

Admiral_Griff said: Rooorrroorrr.

Holocron said: A lot, probably. As you know, initially we planned to have them carry translators so that there wasn't as big an impact. But roleplayers on the boards asked for a stricter restriction. I have the feeling that this is something we'll really know more about during beta once we see how people play with it

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unknown asked: Why don't you guys release anything about the Jedis?

Shug_Ninx said: We want Jedi to be rare and mysterious, so we don't want to reveal how to become a Jedi, what it's like being a Jedi, etc. We can say that becoming Force sensitive is really the most secretive part of the system. Once you become a Jedi, progression is similar to other professions.

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Adyreon asked: When you decide to "sell back" a skill, will you have to "earn" the points back to place in another skill? (In other words, temporarily giving up experience to relearn for a new)

Holocron said: You do have to earn XP all over again, yes.

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Leia-4loot asked: Will every Server(Galaxy) be the same, or will there be certain ones for PvP, RolePlay, etc like the current EQ system

BoShek said: Right now we launching the game with all of the servers with the same rule set but we have not ruled that out

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SettlerUW asked: what does "combat is rules-based" mean? Real time?

Shug_Ninx said: It means that there's a rules system that determines whether or not you hit something when you attack. It takes into account your attributes, skills, weapons, etc. You determine your moves during combat and your skills, attributes, weapons, etc. determine how quickly those attacks or moves "fire."

Holocron said: Combat does go by in real time... it is not turn based...

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UsagiCanlo asked: Will Mobs aggro on us until we die or will there be some sort of limit tothem hunting you down after provoked?

Holocron said: A mob is short for "mobile," meaning an AI-controlled creature or character... So yes, there is a limit on how much they hunt you down. When we were setting up for the E3 demo, actually, I put down a womprat nest over the hill you started behind, and when I went near it, the womprats attacked me, but when I moved away over the crest of the hill, they backed off, because all they wanted was me to back away from the nest

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Thursdaze asked: Will you have swoops like the one Anakin rides in ep 2 at launch?

Admiral_Griff said: We're currently planning on two types of player vehicles - a swoop and a landspeeder.

Shug_Ninx said: We're focusing on vehicles that will alow you to cover ground - our worlds are HUGE!

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VelexRose asked: The blaster shots in the E3 videos appeared to follow their target, will this be tweaked in later versions?

Holocron said: That's because the issue of whether or not the bolt hit was already resolved on the server. So we make sure that you get ccurate represenation on the client. A lot of it is just the speed of the bolts flying... the faster they go, the less noticeable it is. So yes, we'll be tweaking it more to make it look better, but we value good feeback in combat more than whether they travel in a sraight line.

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Lordlblis asked: How will the creation of player-generated missions work? What possibilities are there?

Holocron said: There's only a few types: delivery, retrieval, destroy, kill, and we've kicked around escort and a few others... Setting them up is pretty simple-you click "new mission" in your datapad, and you drag in token into the wizard. You drag in what to get/deliver/kill, where it is, and select by when and what filters there are on who is allowed to take the mission. You set what bond is required, and that's about it... There's quite a lot of combination possible there because there are so many variables...

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Dirga asked: does a bounty go away after one kill?

Shug_Ninx said: Yes. Once you kill your target, you get the reward and the bounty hunting mission is over, regardless of whether the target was a PC or NPC.

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jimson asked: will there be marrige in the game?

Holocron said: "We can't ship this game without a wedding dress." In fact, we do have planned the wedding dress from Ep II. How much more formal structure we can give to marriage, though, I am not sure.

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arkfear asked: Can you tell us some professions, other then jedi and bounty hunter?

Shug_Ninx said: Image Designer and Squad Leader might be two you haven't heard yet... We're saving these for future FAQs, though.

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CreeDakota asked: can you give us some examples of how a player will earn EXP? will it be dependent on the skill is so how?

Holocron said: Yes, it is dependent on the skill. You can't earn rifle experience by using vibroblades --- or cooking pies.

Admiral_Griff said: Mmmm, pie.

Holocron said: For combat related things you earn XP by killing things using particular weapons or moves. For crafting, it's by having people use your goods. For merchant, it's based on selling things successfully... and so on...

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PrPleWooKie asked: i heard that there will be strict rules to folow while choosing a name so it will fit with the species, is this true?

Shug_Ninx said: Not necessarily "strict." You can have a first name and a last name (except Wookies, who only have a first name), and they have to be unique. they'll be checked against a name filter so we don't have a bunch of "Lukes" running around. We'll also have a random name generator that was created using a bunch of rules that we came up with in conjunction with Lucasfilm Licensing - it includes "rules" like which syllables repeat within a given species' names. You aren't stuck with the rules from the name generator when you create your own name, though.

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Cuintar asked: The latest CGW article mentioned terrain playing an important role in combat. How important will strategy be in combat?

Holocron said: It primarily affects movement rate. Holding the high ground is important because you move slower going uphill than going downhill. And many of the tactics that you can use when in ranged combat involve choosing to restrict your movement (going prone, knelling)

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TigerzHawk asked: now as far as story and missions in the game will you randomly get missions or will you have to talk to certain people for a mission to become available and the story to unfold

Admiral_Griff said: We'll have both types - missions that you can take from a mission terminal that will include computer generated missions and player-provided missions, as well as missions that you get from NPCs, such as taknig a mission from Jabba - which may be part of a larger story.

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MaiqJeBrok asked: What did the team do after E3 (besdies sleep ) ???

Admira_Griff said: and drink?

Holocron said: We all went to Mann's Chinese Theater to see Ep II on a digital project.

Q3PO said: Saw Episode II at Groman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood

Shug_Ninx said: I went to Santa Cruz for the long weekend and did a comic book signing.

Q3PO said: then slept for 2 days straight

BoShek said: I went to see EPII again in LA at the Mann's Chinese Theater. Wow digital is awesome!

Q3PO said: (It is Groman's again, by the way)

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Q3PO said: Any list minute comments, guys?

Holocron said: It was great meeting so many fans at E3.

Shug_Ninx said: Later! Thanks for stopping by - keep up all the goods posting on the boards. We're recovered from E3 (well almost) and should be part of the community again.

Admira_Griff said: Was that an hour already? Thanks for coming everyone - it's starting to get exciting.

Shug_Ninx said: I hope the cloning stuff Raph mentioned gets talked about at length...

Holocron said: Shout out to "msgnomer" who handed me parody lyrics entitled "Get This Beta Started" while at the SOE booth.