I’m Making This Up As I Go

Nearly a month ago, SWTOR’s best blogger Shintar tagged me in her Blapril post to participate is this blogger-themed event. I’m still transitioning into this life where nearly all interactions are online, and I’ve not been able to find as much time for this blog as I would like. Nevertheless, I couldn’t let the month slip by without rising to the challenge and sharing a couple of this site’s origin stories. I’m just barely coming in under the wire with my assignment. It’s just like college all over again!

This Week in Aurebesh was born out of several different intersecting moments in my life and in SWTOR. I’ve been familiar with Aurebesh since it was introduced as part of The Star Wars Roleplaying Game in the nineties, and been stopping to read it in game when I could, but my desire to make English recreations and share them with the world, probably has more do with my work as a graphic and web designer. Often work for clients is meant to be functional and efficient, but that’s not always the most engaging stuff to make. By translating and recreating SWTOR’s alien signs, I’m able to have some fun both with the translation itself but also by deconstructing the design of the graphics the fine artists at Bioware have plastered across the worlds of this game. I was also surprised to discover how many official and fan-made variants of Aurebesh have worked their way into Star Wars’ lore. Aurebesh started as a frankly awkward alien alphabet, and it’s fascinating to me to see how it’s evolved and expanded over the years.

In addition, this blog started during the latter days of the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. That was a strange time for the game. I did enjoy the story KotFE told, and I especially liked that period in which we were getting story updates on a more or less monthly basis, but the lack of any real endgame and new group content made things tough for my little guild. We understandably lost a lot of people, and many others would only pop on for story and little else. MMO Community commentary is a shitshow, obviously, and I had little interest in the usual venues, but I still wanted to express both my continued enthusiasm for SWTOR, as well as my concerns with where I felt the game fell short, even if I was just speaking into the void. Looking back at very early posts in which I reviewed KotFE and the Dark vs. Light Event, I think that nuance comes through. And it remains a balance I strive to maintain.

The name “This Week in Aurebesh” was the first and pretty much the only title I seriously considered for the blog. I knew at the time that the name would be damnable lie, but it appealed to me in a way I still can’t quite explain, and “Every Other Week or So in Aurebesh” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. However, I did misspell Aurebesh as “aur-A-besh” at launch, which goes to show you how much I knew about fake space-letters at the time. You can still see the error in the address of this site. I could’ve fixed it, but I left the mistake in as a reminder to keep me honest.

Shintar includes lots of good advice in her post and I can only echo it here, but I’ll try to add a couple pointers. First, set limits and until you are comfortable with what you’re doing, keep to them. I am naturally long-winded, but I make sure to keep my posts under a thousand words. I feel like I’m here to amuse my visitors for a few minutes, not take up their afternoon. This means I often cut whole sentences, paragraphs and sections all in service of getting to the point. If the thoughts I edit out are worthwhile I can always revisit them later. Finally, blogging, or “podcasting for introverts” as I call it, can be fun. Try out different things while finding your voice, and don’t be afraid to be stupid. For reasons that escape me, I wrote one entry from the position that the Bob and Doug McKenzie movie Strange Brew was George Lucas’ primary inspiration for Revenge of the Sith. You’ll never be as stupid as that, and even if you are, you can always bounce back with your next post.

Always Read the Plaque

Before I go, let’s not forget the reason for this blog: Aurebesh! My guild-mate, Dav recently completed the Agent story and sent me some screen shots from the Star Cabal’s secret base in which they display the secret society’s treasures from across the galaxy. Each exhibit is marked with a plaque which often functions in the game as a Lore Object to unlock a codex entry describing a nearby piece of Star Wars history or culture.

The most prominent of these plaques can be found on the Republic and Imperial Fleets. I’m always sure to click the plaques when they’re glowing blue. Codex entries are worth a little XP, often advance achievements and their flavor text fleshes out this universe we get to explore! And Lore Objects will almost never get you killed. Almost.