SW:ToR & Breaching the NDA Agreement

So last night there were a few posts via my G+ account on a certain individual who was "live streaming" ToR via his Twitch.tv account and stated that he had the "proper authority from BioWare" to do so". The person who was doing this had about 4 - 5 million views on his account at the end of the night (after getting kicked and banned from beta), and his screen going black.

Now - is this the right think to do, as Twitch.tv provides compensation for users who, upon reaching a certain amount of views, for the game they are reporting on or are streaming at the time?

Personally I do not believe so. I also feel that since this was a blatant breach of an NDA Agreement and Contract - that this persons Twitch account should either A). be block and removed, B). Banned, or C). Both.

I mean, you virtually sign the "contract" to participate in this test - if you do not read it, that is your own dumb fault. So if this person gets banned from the full release version of the game - I really do feel no sympathy for him, as he was stupid enough to do such a thing.

NDA's are taken very seriously in the Game Development Market (and even in the work force), and it can cause some strict legal actions upon breaking and violating them.

Yes I know ToR is very close to release, and many people will say "Why should I care?" or even "Why does it matter? They said they were going to lift all of the bans from before launch." Simply put, it will put less "flags" and "markers" on your account if you were to do anything minor. If you were to get a simple infractions - that simple mistake could be your one and only mistake if you have those flags and markers and could turn into an "insta-ban" right there on the spot!

Yes I know this is somewhat a rant - but I feel like it need to be said (as no one else may say it at all). I hope when the next weekend pops up that the NDA may be lifted by then, so that some of these issues are non-recurring and do not happen again.

That is all for now - I hope to see you all soon in the gaming world!

Cheers!

~SV

./save

The State of the Game - Live Streaming from ToR (Dec 20th)

With the hit game The Old Republic right around the corner, The State of the Game has plans underway to Live Stream gameplay and weekly wrap-ups from SW:ToR come Dec 20th 2011 via twitch.tv and justin.tv . This will be a great chance for many of you to get to hear our whacky antics from a gamer perspective and also to see what we like about either ToR or the other MMO's on the market when the time comes.

Currently we have a good amoount of the back end stuff in the works - such as show content and other little niffty items so that everyone will enjoy what we are putting out on air come the release of ToR or even when early access hits us in the teeth head on and all of us are able to play.

So keep it here for upcoming information on the line-ups, who will be presenting anything on the site, and for any information pertaining to when we will start our live feed. Hopefully this will give a chance for many who have been on the fence about purchasing ToR to see it first hand and to get a look inside "a much larger world" before even having to go to their local game store and get a physical copy of the game.

As for now - I look forward to seeing you all on Dec 20th in game (whether you are Empire or Republic), and hope to meet up with as many of you as time allows. I hope you all have enjoyed the blog thus far. So keep it real, I'm sure I'll have plenty more updates about this the closer we get to the launch date!

Cheers All!