Star Wars: The Old Republic is gonna get some mighty fine updates with the onset of patch 1.3. Game Designer Daniel Erickson had a chat with PC Gamer to shed some light on the changes in the upcoming patch.

Players in SWTOR don't like standing still. As Erickson says: "You can craft on the move, run [war zones] from anywhere, and basically never slow down -- except when looking for a group." To put an end to that difficulty, 1.3 will include a LFG interface that players can use to find a pick-up group to run with (except for Hard Mode Operations, which aren't really designed for uncoordinated PUGs). The tool won't work cross-server, but that's because the dev team is looking to move to servers with a much, much higher population cap in the near future.

The patch will add new perks to the legacy system, most of which are aimed at customizing the way players level their alts. With a high enough legacy and enough credits, players could use XP perks to skip side quests altogether, although Erickson points out that that there are perks for Bonus Series quests that may tempt players to visit planets they've previously left alone.

The last bundle of tidings of great joy for the patch is directed at gear. There's a fine balance between freedom of dress and the importance of visual distinction, and SWTOR aims to find it by allowing "social gear" to be worn anywhere. Additionally, "almost every single item in the game" will get customization options thanks to augment slots. Players can use augment slots on gear to add, well, augments, which will allow them to further customize their character and playstyle.

In honor of the game's paper anniversary, Order & Chaos: Online producer Arnaud Bonnard took the time to do some Q&A with user-submitted questions about what is one of the biggest mobile MMOs available.

Arnaud shared some of the toughest parts of development, which were the pressure of creating a world vast enough to entertain players for months (and now years) and ensuring that everything was as stable and functional as possible from a technical point. He followed up by reliving the joy of a successful launch and the success that the game met with over time. He talked a bit about updates and DLC, which come out every one or two months and are generally still drawn from the original design document for Order & Chaos: Online, given that the world design was much bigger than could possibly fit into the game originally.

Bonnard also addressed the server separation between Android, iOS, and Mac devices: Not only would it be time-consuming to link all the operating systems, but such a system would mean that patches could only be deployed once every device was supported, which would be tricky and cause too many extra delays. As far as Order and Chaos' future is concerned, he's optimistic. There are new graphic features coming down the pipe as well as "lots of ideas for the game" as the company looks forward to another fantastic year thanks to fan support.

Catch all the intricacies of Bonnard's answers for yourself over at Gameloft.

Gas Powered Games is aiming to take Age of Empires Online out of DLC-supported free-to-play and into a truly free model. That means moving away from what Systems Design Lead Eric Williamson described as "more of a free to try" model and implementing a system through which players can earn points to unlock anything that could be more quickly bought with money. In anticipation of this change, PC Gamer sat down with Williamson and Design Lead Steve Bauman for a chat about some of the philosophy behind the change.

Williams said that their hope is that people who were previously turned off by the imperative that they spend money for full in-game advantage will be willing to give it another go. Players will now be able to earn enough points to unlock a premium civilization in "as short as two or three weeks of daily play," so those who spend the most time in-game will reap the greatest reward. Empire points, the purchase resource that will be gained by either money or in-game achievement, will be earned by players as they complete specific campaign quests, level up, and participate in Alliance Contests.

Games in the Elder Scrolls series have always been about giving players the opportunity to become the game's hero, and it looks like The Elder Scrolls Online will be no different. The title's game director, Matt Firor, has announced that each character's main storyline in the game will be "100% solo."

Firor points back to the previous entries in the series, stating that "in The Elder Scrolls games, you're always the hero... The last thing you want to do is have the final confrontation with Mehrunes Dagon as he's stomping across the Imperial City, and you see like 15 guys behind you waiting to kill him." While it's a good point, we can't help but wonder what kind of an impact this design will have on the social aspect of the MMO, but at this point all we can do is wait and see. Firor's full interview over on Game Informer has plenty of extra information as well, so if you're jonesing for more details, just head on over and check it out for yourself.