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SWTOR News
3/24/10 5:44 PM -
Hidden TOR Website Found? 
by sado
, posted March 24th, 2010 at 5:44 PM
UPDATE: Sean Dahlberg sent out notice about the newly found website confirming what many people thought.

-

Two ingenious forum goers by the names of Ianril and Zechio discovered a little IP that then became launch.swtor.com. Originally Ianril discovered an IP address 159.153.229.171 that appeared to come from EA after doing a ARIN search. After a couple minutes of investigating Zechio found that the security certificate referenced launch.swtor.com as an address.

At this point the community is trying to figure out what this all means. A few members of the community reported seeing this after logging in:


Along with the quotes from our recent interviews, this might suggest testing might be starting:

Daniel Erickson: Absolutely. One of the most rewarding things is, even as people are beginning to test and play, as you go through one class, and you start talking to your friends who are going through another class, or you start going through another class... you are going to start putting things together in ways that you never would have when you just did the one class. You're going to start to get a larger picture of the whole story and what's actually happening in the galaxy.

"Ord Mantell is not a happy place," Jake Neri explained. "There is conflict there, but it is also an early world. One of the goals there is 'Hey, people that haven't played an MMO need to be successful there.' So we are constantly balancing those planets. I don't know if you guys were aware, but those planets are getting a lot of iteration. We did open up and start to do some testing. We are doing small groups, we are looking to expand that in the near future, and those origin planets are really a focus. We really want to make sure that they are good so we can extend into the larger game as we go."
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DH Team
Comment by sado made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:36pm
Since this is now confirmed, I will be moving all the comments related to this to the official post. Please use the other post for comments related to this.
 
Comment by Altyrell made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:18pm
It has been confirmed = http://swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=126100

SeanDahlburg = You have indeed found the login portal for Game Testing. That said, this is not a new page and we are not ready to make any additional announcements about our Game Testing Program. When we are ready, we will make sure The Old Republic Community is the first to know!

If you havent signed up yet to be a tester or wish to learn more, access our [URL="http://www.swtor.com/tester"]Game Testing Portal[/URL]
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:16pm
Sean has spoken: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2676248&posted=1#post2676248

"You have indeed found the login portal for Game Testing. That said, this is not a new page and we are not ready to make any additional announcements about our Game Testing Program. When we are ready, we will make sure The Old Republic Community is the first to know!

If you havent signed up yet to be a tester or wish to learn more, access our Game Testing Portal. "
 
Comment by Altyrell made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:18pm
Darn you beat me to it
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:30pm
Sry about that altyrell, had to unflag your posts. Our spam filter marked them as spam. Thanks either way for reporting it Zechio and Altyrell.
 
Comment by Altyrell made on March 25th, 2010 at 7:26pm
interesting
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 6:58pm
NP, RWAR!:)
 
Comment by yulis made on March 25th, 2010 at 3:06pm
I'm thinking this might be an upcoming flash game to tide us over like Dragon age had. Wishful thinking probably.
 
Comment by Xavier made on March 25th, 2010 at 1:03pm
It sure seems like BioWare wants us talking about it...whatever it is. The current thread on the TOR forums is over 1,700 posts long and has had over 46,000 views. Don't they normally kill a thread after 1,000 posts? And all this has been done in under 24 hours.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:45pm
Yes, they also tend to try and keep things a lot more on topic...except when we find something and then start mass posting while we wait for an official response ( similar to the beta leak thread )
 
Comment by Slowhands made on March 25th, 2010 at 11:59am
Do we have any idea how long that website has been up though? It may well have been there since the community went online
 
Comment by Revix2k9 made on March 25th, 2010 at 11:51am
ive been thinking that it may be server status page for people in alpha and that bw decided to uncloak it.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:47pm
The way it's designed, especially with the launch game section suggests (to me atleast) that it is the web-based back-end for the games Launcher/Patcher.

The address itself has been around for atleast a few weeks, but the actual content only showed up yesterday.
 
Comment by Keegan-Vol made on March 25th, 2010 at 6:35am
As fun as it is to speculate, we truly wont know until beta keys go out! Grats on the find guys. I offen wonder if the developers toss little pieces of chumm out there to see how much we are biting. They post and read the fourms too!! Mr. Erickson....if you are reading this let us know what hoops ya want us to jump through to get that coveted beta key, and thanks so much for bringing a dream to life. There I said it. Take care all.
 
Comment by Hobowan made on March 25th, 2010 at 4:36am
Couldn't this have something to do with the countdown on the bioware page? http://www.bioware.com/
I haven't read about this here and I wonder why, since this could be linked to a possible start of testing. To be honest, I rather think the timer has something to do with either Dragon Age or Mass Effect, but speculating is always nice :)
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:49pm
A dev stated that the countdown is more of a community announcement than something for the press. This suggests it is not something like Beta, a new game or expansion or DLC.

However, you will notice that swtor.bioware.com is live ( just devoid of content. ) Along with the fact that the countdown is on all of the bioware.com sites ( like dragonage.bioware.com and masseffect.bioware.com ), suggests to me that the countdown is for the launch of swtor.bioware.com
 
Comment by Bzrk made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:46am
Cool! I get the same page when logging in. This community is amazingly inventive on searching evrey little tidbit of info. Even if it isn't really soething new about the game :P
 
Comment by timskywalker made on March 25th, 2010 at 1:43am
NICE!!!
 
Comment by Korrick made on March 25th, 2010 at 1:37am
Anyone have any advice for getting into testing?

Im kind of curious on how people actually get picked. Is it like a random type of thing, or dose it go on who has the best computer configuration?

If anyone has gotten in to a beta before please explain what the process is.
 
Comment by piethief100 made on March 25th, 2010 at 10:07am
Just speculating here but I would imagine that it also has quite a bit to do with your hardware. There will probably be a greater chance if you have an unusually high or low spec as bioware will want to a good balance of pc specs on the game testing.
 
Comment by Deliacorgrace made on March 25th, 2010 at 9:40am
Bioware said they were looking for people who were active in their community. Like people throwing down posts in the forums and what not.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:51pm
It should be noted they are looking for quality posts, not quantity. They are looking for the detail, conciseness, proper attitude, etc. that would suggest you might make a good tester. Remember, anyone they pick from the forums would be completely hand picked.
 
Comment by Korrick made on March 25th, 2010 at 1:15pm
well I do post there a little bit it would be nice if they rewarded there community by giving us all beta keys.
 
Comment by Revix2k9 made on March 25th, 2010 at 7:03pm
i heard the 1,000th poster in that thread got beta key.
 
Comment by Perkunas made on March 25th, 2010 at 1:49am
Typically it's random, but many of the top guilds from multiple different games manage to find a way in. I personally think they should allow people to buy their way in if they don't get selected. This would ensure that many people who are playing the beta actually want to be there to give input.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 25th, 2010 at 2:53pm
I disagree. I would see too many people paying just so they can play the game. Most people have a poor sense of value for money now adays ( Hence the massive credit card debts,etc. )
 
Comment by Perkunas made on March 25th, 2010 at 3:11pm
Kick them if they don't give feedback beyond "This is fun" or "This is hard"....
 
Comment by Somerled made on March 25th, 2010 at 12:20am
They also might be getting ready for a revamp of their main site. When testing begins, on a game with this much anticipation, things will be leaked, regardless of NDA's.

Bioware is smart enough to know this and I really think that the start of testing will go hand in hand with a pretty massive content update on the main site. So they can stay the source of most of the surprises and information.
 
Comment by JediCosmin made on March 24th, 2010 at 11:45pm
BioWare scares me sometimes :P
 
Comment by Chasted made on March 24th, 2010 at 11:10pm
There are times I wonder what some fans do in their spare time with SW:ToR. Haha...

Then one more thing to note; testing starting and Darth Hater isn't invited? Egads
 
Comment by AlienOverlord made on March 24th, 2010 at 10:47pm
Thanks once more DH! I might have missed this just glancing at the SWTOR official forums. I can always count on you folks to bring attention to the latest interesting developments!
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 10:52pm
Yea, I have been trying to get the devs to make a post that would show up in the dev tracker, but nothing yet.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on March 24th, 2010 at 11:05pm
The devs are like Gandalf, they are never late and arrive exactly when they intend.
 
Comment by Hewo made on March 25th, 2010 at 10:24am
Awesome, I love this and will quote it often in the future!
 
Comment by heybarn made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:58pm
Ooooooooooooh... :-)
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:59pm
Aaaaaaaaaaaah... :-)
 
Comment by Remlish made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:43pm
While this is an excellent find I would like to point out that the copyright on that page was not updated for 2010 , so if any external testing has started this is not the portal.
 
Comment by Xavior made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:46pm
I think all that means is that the website was made in 2009, not necessarily a copyright, copyrights usually last for years.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:52pm
I'm pretty sure it was when the logos and/or background used on that particular site were last modified.
 
Comment by Xavier made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:36pm
I'm trying very hard not to get excited by this. I just don't want Monday's announcement to be about ME 3 or DA 2.

 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:42pm
I'm guessing you are referring to the countdown...It'll most likely be something fairly new and unexpected...will it be TOR related? Almost surely no.

As for this specifically, still waiting on anything at all new about it.

I did recently find that swtor.bioware.com is now live and both launch.swtor.com and swtor.bioware.com are no longer blocked from google. ( Though the swtor.bioware.com simply says "Default" which changed from "It Works!" from back on the 8th...which also says it has been there awhile, just not really known, or active. )
 
Comment by Somerled made on March 24th, 2010 at 7:05pm
They might be gearing up for testing.
 
Comment by DarthDervian made on March 24th, 2010 at 8:56pm
Ooh this excites me... i sense somethng big in the future. Also a slight mishap on the devs side hehe
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:43pm
I don't think it is a mishap. When they accidentally let something out, it disappears REALLY quick. This is still up and even listed on google when you search for swtor.com ( 3rd result in fact. ) and you can bet that they remove anything they want to keep hidden from google searches BEFORE they post it up to live.
 
Comment by Ianril made on March 24th, 2010 at 7:02pm
How cool would it be if people were already chosen for the testing... and when they sign in actually SEE server options... Hmmmm..... Anyone yet? I sure as hell didn't. lol
 
Comment by r2d2arm made on March 24th, 2010 at 7:57pm
That's an interesting thought... I was thinking more along the lines of the first few thousand who sign up get into game testing >_>
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 9:45pm
I'm fine with the second one ( since I'm fairly sure I'm one of the first 1,000 lol ) but the first one would make me cry....before going on a rampage of death and destruction:)
 
Comment by Ianril made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:58pm
Woot. :)
 
Comment by Savich made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:56pm
I just logged into that and got a warm and happy feeling inside. :) Great find guys!
 
Comment by Voyle made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:24pm
Nice find, very exciting!
 
Comment by Seires made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:23pm
So is everyone that logs in seeing that screen? if not, what percentage? maybe future beta testers? hmm
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:28pm
Everyone that has said they actually tried to log in, succeeded. It seems to just need your forum account.
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:20pm
Reposting my intial post as to what I think this site is:

plenty have, if you use my link ( launch.swtor.com ) you will find it is a secure connection with a valid certificate and is part of this website ( swtor.com ).

I'm pretty sure this is for the launcher of the game ( most all MMOs use a web based launcher to choose your server and launch the game. )

This doesn't really mean much of anything in and of itself. It could just be that they are working on the launcher, and want to test it out..so they launched the appropriate portion of the website, and are over there playing with the launcher seeing if it works right now.

Now, this could hint that they are getting close to opening the beta as usually the launcher is a bit of a last minute thing, but is almost always available in some form during the beta test portions.

P.S.: I should point out I did not in any way find this site ( as much as I would love to take credit for that, lol ) I simply verified that it was a part of the swtor.com site, and not a Phishing website. Then I went on to explain what it most likely means ( IMO of course, though based off my past experience. )
 
Comment by Zeveron made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:14pm
http://www.bioware.com/ Countdown for what?! What will happen on monday?! Is this it!?
 
Comment by zechio made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:18pm
That was found sometime before, and it appears to not be related to TOR. The countdown java script is located on the dragonage sub-domain, and the countdown itself is on bioware.com along with the DA and ME sites but NOT the tor site....most likely the 2 are unrelated.

My guess for the countdown is related to the rumors of Bioware possibly reviving one of their old IPs such as Baldurs Gate.
 
Comment by Snodge made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:13pm
In the CSS file for that site, there is an element called #shardStatus - looking more and more likely it's testing related :)
 
Comment by shadowfyre made on March 24th, 2010 at 7:34pm
There is also "footerShard" and "legalLinesShard" in the code which makes it seem more like template engine sorta thing for their integrated sites. Hard to say.
 
Comment by r2d2arm made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:06pm
I'm rather excited about this! Could this be related to Bioware's countdown clock? Too bad the clock hasn't shown up on the TOR website. I would be more convinced that it was connected if it did.
 
Comment by The BBP made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:01pm
I know nuthink!
 
Comment by snafu made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:01pm
FINALLY! I was worried all servers were going to be on GMT. The fact that they have released information showing that different servers will be be on different timezones has really put me at ease.
 
Comment by Revix2k9 made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:00pm
Ya zomg testing idk i need to believe in the force that a invites in my inbox ZOMG T_T.
 
Comment by snafu made on March 24th, 2010 at 6:02pm
Sorry man, you have to be older than 18 to get into testing.
 
Comment by CZEKing made on March 25th, 2010 at 12:59pm
pwned !
 
Comment by Xavior made on March 24th, 2010 at 5:58pm
This is an exciting find, but i dont want to get my hopes up to much to be disappointed. ah who am i kidding omg TESTING
 
Comment by Erithos made on March 24th, 2010 at 5:57pm
Wow! Nice find DH! Damn it would be nice if testing was starting but I would be gutted because I most likely didn't get in haha.