Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Drider_it · 11-02-2008, 10:27 AM

Game Info Overview | Star Wars: The Old Republic

Bioware and Lucas Arts...

Hmmm will it be another failed attempt? I hope not..

Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and forge your own Star Wars™ saga in a story-driven massively-multiplayer online game from BioWare and LucasArts. Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy.

Choose to be a Jedi, a Sith, or from a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, and make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions. Together, you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat and team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges.

Join us. Your personal Star Wars saga begins in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

And a quick overview from the Dev Team...

http://www.massively.com/2008/10/23/...and-star-wars/

James Neri, LucasArts Design: Star Wars: The Old Republic is about bringing innovation to the MMO space. As we discussed before we're innovating by adding story, companion characters and meaningful choice. Some of the other things we're doing are very exciting – we're bringing Star Wars combat to the MMO space. We really feel that Star Wars combat is about epic blaster combat and lightsaber duels. Very fast paced, visceral combat. That's something we want to bring to this game, and I think we have. Meaningful in-game choices is another major element of the game, as we discussed before.

One of the other things about MMOs is that they're very big. Huge. Our game is huge. It's the equivalent in story content and square footage of every other BioWare game that has ever been produced and released combined. Just think of all those games, put them all together, and we have more content than that. That's a lot of content.
One thing we want to be clear about is that even though we are adding new things to the MMO space – story, companion characters – we are still a massively multiplayer game. We know that we have to have the features that people who are fans of that genre are expecting. We know there are different audiences.

We need to appeal to the BioWare audience – fans of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect – and we need to appeal to fans of the MMO genre. We've kept those both in mind, and we feel we've succeeded in that regard.

Rich Vogel, Co-GM BioWare Austin: When Gordon and I talked to Ray and Greg and formed the Austin studio, we had a lot of people come down from Edmonton, especially in design and art and animation. In world building, we had a lot of people come down from Edmonton, James came from Edmonton, and we have people that worked on Mass Effect. The animation system that you saw in Mass Effect, people that worked on that are with us as well.

Gordon and I worked to bring art and programming together for the studio. We have about ten years experience per person, averaged across the team, they're veterans. We feel like we've assembled a really really great team to build this game with.

Daniel Erikson, Lead Writer BioWare Austin: Role-playing games at BioWare have always been based on a few central concepts – pillars, if you will – of what makes a role-playing game. This has been true since pen-and-paper games. The first of the pillars is combat. Real basic. You make a role-playing game without combat ... I guess you made an adventure game.

"We need to appeal to the BioWare audience – fans of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect – and we need to appeal to fans of the MMO genre. We've kept those both in mind, and we feel we've succeeded in that regard."
Exploration. You need to go new places, you need to see new things, you need to have exciting adventure. Progression. So we're going to go up levels, we're going to get loot, we're going to get cooler and bigger.

And ... story. Now this has been true in every game that's ever been done that's an RPG until we went to the MMO space. And then somehow one of these fell off the truck on the way to MMO Land and it never really got in there. When we started talking about it, what we heard was "Well, you can't do a story in an MMO." We thought, "Well why?" The answer we pretty much got was, "Because people haven't." That didn't make a lot of sense.

Rich Vogel, Co-GM BioWare Austin: We can say that we'll have many different worlds for you to explore, and that you'll have a method you can use to travel from world to world. Again, we can't go into details on other space elements. That isn't something we can talk about at this point.

We also can't talk about ground vehicles. But, obviously, Star Wars has a lot of vehicles. So ... it's definitely something that is on our plate.
"I'm very proud of our players there, and we remain committed to Star Wars Galaxies."

This might be a question mostly for Jake. What has LucasArts come away with, from the experience on Star Wars Galaxies? What have you learned that you can avoid repeating in The Old Republic?

Jake: First thing: Galaxies is one of the things I still work on. I'm very proud of our players there, and we remain committed to Galaxies. Even with this game in development. We're constantly looking at what's gone well and what's gone wrong there to learn lessons. One of the biggest things, that James talked about ... we want to make sure we grab the player right out of the gate. Early on, with a compelling and heroic story, launch into the world. That's something I think we could have done better with Galaxies.

"We think of the web as part of the service ... There's no difference for me from someone that's on the web and somebody that's in-game."
As a company I think LucasArts is now more experienced dealing with community and understanding what that really means. The importance of listening to those folks, of being in tune with what's going on inside the game on a day-to-day basis. I think we're definitely bringing that sort of approach to this title. But hey, Galaxies is still going strong. We're going to continue to learn from it and bring lessons learned to both teams.

Are you guys doing anything with player-driven environments, player towns, anything like that?

Rich: We're looking into things like that, but we can't talk about it. Warhammer has been doing a lot of nifty things with Keeps along those lines. They're part of EA and we can talk to them about their experiences. We're allowed to look at all the stuff they've done with that.

"We feel because it's an MMO and players play MMOs because they want to feel like they're a part of a vast world, you can't make too heavy use of instancing or you take that feeling away."
Are you engineering the game to be web-facing at all? Achievements, Facebook tie-ins, anything like that?

Gordon Walton, Co-GM BioWare Austin: We think of the web as part of the service. It's part of the game service. So you'll see some very competitive stuff from us there. That's where I'd leave it. There's no difference for me from someone that's on the web and somebody that's in-game. In the big scheme of things, they're still a customer and we're delivering entertainment experiences to them. Regardless of the platform.

Will the game make use of instancing?

Rich: Yes, there is going to be a form of instancing. That's very important to a lot of different things – being able to do storytelling, being able to do experiences that aren't disrupted in public areas ... they are a part of our game. We do have both though, and we want to make sure you don't feel like you are in a single-player game.

Jake: We feel because it's an MMO and players play MMOs because they want to feel like they're a part of a vast world, you can't make too heavy use of instancing or you take that feeling away. It is a balance, though, like Rich was saying.

Rich: I met my first friends online by getting in trouble with a monster and they came over to rescue me. That is the kind of experience you can't get without public areas.

11-02-2008, 10:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
Drider_it Junkie Location: Louisiana	Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Info Overview \| Star Wars: The Old Republic Bioware and Lucas Arts... Hmmm will it be another failed attempt? I hope not.. Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and forge your own Star Wars™ saga in a story-driven massively-multiplayer online game from BioWare and LucasArts. Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Choose to be a Jedi, a Sith, or from a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, and make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions. Together, you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat and team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges. Join us. Your personal Star Wars saga begins in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And a quick overview from the Dev Team... http://www.massively.com/2008/10/23/...and-star-wars/ James Neri, LucasArts Design: Star Wars: The Old Republic is about bringing innovation to the MMO space. As we discussed before we're innovating by adding story, companion characters and meaningful choice. Some of the other things we're doing are very exciting – we're bringing Star Wars combat to the MMO space. We really feel that Star Wars combat is about epic blaster combat and lightsaber duels. Very fast paced, visceral combat. That's something we want to bring to this game, and I think we have. Meaningful in-game choices is another major element of the game, as we discussed before. One of the other things about MMOs is that they're very big. Huge. Our game is huge. It's the equivalent in story content and square footage of every other BioWare game that has ever been produced and released combined. Just think of all those games, put them all together, and we have more content than that. That's a lot of content. One thing we want to be clear about is that even though we are adding new things to the MMO space – story, companion characters – we are still a massively multiplayer game. We know that we have to have the features that people who are fans of that genre are expecting. We know there are different audiences. We need to appeal to the BioWare audience – fans of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect – and we need to appeal to fans of the MMO genre. We've kept those both in mind, and we feel we've succeeded in that regard. Rich Vogel, Co-GM BioWare Austin: When Gordon and I talked to Ray and Greg and formed the Austin studio, we had a lot of people come down from Edmonton, especially in design and art and animation. In world building, we had a lot of people come down from Edmonton, James came from Edmonton, and we have people that worked on Mass Effect. The animation system that you saw in Mass Effect, people that worked on that are with us as well. Gordon and I worked to bring art and programming together for the studio. We have about ten years experience per person, averaged across the team, they're veterans. We feel like we've assembled a really really great team to build this game with. Daniel Erikson, Lead Writer BioWare Austin: Role-playing games at BioWare have always been based on a few central concepts – pillars, if you will – of what makes a role-playing game. This has been true since pen-and-paper games. The first of the pillars is combat. Real basic. You make a role-playing game without combat ... I guess you made an adventure game. "We need to appeal to the BioWare audience – fans of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect – and we need to appeal to fans of the MMO genre. We've kept those both in mind, and we feel we've succeeded in that regard." Exploration. You need to go new places, you need to see new things, you need to have exciting adventure. Progression. So we're going to go up levels, we're going to get loot, we're going to get cooler and bigger. And ... story. Now this has been true in every game that's ever been done that's an RPG until we went to the MMO space. And then somehow one of these fell off the truck on the way to MMO Land and it never really got in there. When we started talking about it, what we heard was "Well, you can't do a story in an MMO." We thought, "Well why?" The answer we pretty much got was, "Because people haven't." That didn't make a lot of sense. Rich Vogel, Co-GM BioWare Austin: We can say that we'll have many different worlds for you to explore, and that you'll have a method you can use to travel from world to world. Again, we can't go into details on other space elements. That isn't something we can talk about at this point. We also can't talk about ground vehicles. But, obviously, Star Wars has a lot of vehicles. So ... it's definitely something that is on our plate. "I'm very proud of our players there, and we remain committed to Star Wars Galaxies." This might be a question mostly for Jake. What has LucasArts come away with, from the experience on Star Wars Galaxies? What have you learned that you can avoid repeating in The Old Republic? Jake: First thing: Galaxies is one of the things I still work on. I'm very proud of our players there, and we remain committed to Galaxies. Even with this game in development. We're constantly looking at what's gone well and what's gone wrong there to learn lessons. One of the biggest things, that James talked about ... we want to make sure we grab the player right out of the gate. Early on, with a compelling and heroic story, launch into the world. That's something I think we could have done better with Galaxies. "We think of the web as part of the service ... There's no difference for me from someone that's on the web and somebody that's in-game." As a company I think LucasArts is now more experienced dealing with community and understanding what that really means. The importance of listening to those folks, of being in tune with what's going on inside the game on a day-to-day basis. I think we're definitely bringing that sort of approach to this title. But hey, Galaxies is still going strong. We're going to continue to learn from it and bring lessons learned to both teams. Are you guys doing anything with player-driven environments, player towns, anything like that? Rich: We're looking into things like that, but we can't talk about it. Warhammer has been doing a lot of nifty things with Keeps along those lines. They're part of EA and we can talk to them about their experiences. We're allowed to look at all the stuff they've done with that. "We feel because it's an MMO and players play MMOs because they want to feel like they're a part of a vast world, you can't make too heavy use of instancing or you take that feeling away." Are you engineering the game to be web-facing at all? Achievements, Facebook tie-ins, anything like that? Gordon Walton, Co-GM BioWare Austin: We think of the web as part of the service. It's part of the game service. So you'll see some very competitive stuff from us there. That's where I'd leave it. There's no difference for me from someone that's on the web and somebody that's in-game. In the big scheme of things, they're still a customer and we're delivering entertainment experiences to them. Regardless of the platform. Will the game make use of instancing? Rich: Yes, there is going to be a form of instancing. That's very important to a lot of different things – being able to do storytelling, being able to do experiences that aren't disrupted in public areas ... they are a part of our game. We do have both though, and we want to make sure you don't feel like you are in a single-player game. Jake: We feel because it's an MMO and players play MMOs because they want to feel like they're a part of a vast world, you can't make too heavy use of instancing or you take that feeling away. It is a balance, though, like Rich was saying. Rich: I met my first friends online by getting in trouble with a monster and they came over to rescue me. That is the kind of experience you can't get without public areas. __________________ It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies. Last edited by Drider_it; 11-02-2008 at 10:31 AM..