Having attended a pair of fan site summits, gone to a slew of other BioWare events, and interviewed many of the major players that developed Star Wars: The Old Republic, I can say definitively that BioWare truly cares about the fans that play their games. The level of care and concern pervades a lot of what the development team says and does. During interviews, Q&As, and informal discussions, the theme recurred again and again: we care about the players, and we’re listening to what they want.

In this highly realistic simulation, we see a number of SWTOR guilds discussing upcoming game features with BioWare's James Ohlen

Well, today BioWare once again reaffirmed that commitment. BioWare just officially announced the upcoming Guild Summit, which is to take place in Austin on March 4th – 6th, 2012.  The idea behind the Guild Summit is a simple one – BioWare is inviting a large number of guilds to Austin, where they’ll attend a “round table” style event, and share with BioWare their thoughts, feelings, suggestions, and ideas about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The guilds will be given presentations on the present state of SWTOR, they’ll discuss ongoing development, and they’ll have direct access to the community team and the developers.

The process is an extremely simple one: guilds apply right here. Once accepted – and 200 guilds will be – they’ll be invited to attend the two-day event in BioWare’s home town of Austin. Once there, as representatives of the players overall, the guilds will have the opportunity to engage the developers in meaningful discussion about SWTOR. Here is the official announcement:

Today, we are pleased to announce the first ever Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Guild Summit, being hosted in Austin, TX in March. Over the course of a few days, guild leaders from around the world will gather together to discuss the state of the game with the developers from BioWare Austin. Guild leaders (or a designated officer in the event of a guild leader being unable to attend) will participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions, and will get a preview of some upcoming game features.

The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game.

The Guild Summit will be hosted from March 4th – 6th, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel Austin. Due to space limitations, the event will be invite-only. We’ve already invited guilds of various backgrounds and sizes to the Summit, from Endgame to Role-playing to PvP guilds, but we’ve got some space left for additional guild leaders who wish to attend. We ask that interested leaders submit an application, which can be found at this link.* Guild leaders will be evaluated based on the information provided in their application.

While we welcome applications from guild leaders from anywhere in the world, please be advised that the Summit will be conducted entirely in English. Applications will be accepted until 11:59PM CST (GMT -6) on February 10th. If you have any questions regarding the event, send us an email at guilds@swtor.com!

*Must be 21 or older to attend. Guild leaders selected to attend are responsible for all of their travel, food, and lodging expenses.

Check out our chat with David Bass for a few additional details on the Guild Summit right here.

So what do you think, TORWarriors? Is the Guild Summit a good idea? Will you, or your guild, be applying? Tell us your thoughts in the comments – we want to hear from you!