January 14, 2009 by blur
Let me start this post with a quote:
“Our real focus is on the player, on being the hero or the villain in the Star Wars universe. It’s not so much a grand story involving everyone so much as you and your own personal experience.” — Greg Zeschuk
Hmmmmmm, interesting, eh? So the question, to my mind, is this: If TOR is “all about us” and our personal experiences (which isn’t a million miles away from playing a single-player RPG, let’s be honest), where do guilds fit in with all this?
I mean, we’ve seen indications of how this is a more personal, single-player kind of deal… whether it’s the focus on storyline, or whether it’s the fact that we won’t be seeing 20 people pile on to kill a Krayt Dragon, or indeed whether it’s the use of NPCs to fill out our groups, rather than dealing with those pesky real-life people. This game, it seems, can be very insular.
To date, guilds have stood for just about everything that runs counter to these concepts. Guilds exist to provide people to adventure with. Guilds exist to be be part of the bigger story (ie: “Our GUILD did this…” not, “I did this…”) and so on.
So what part will they play in TOR? Note: I have started a guild because I personally think they will have SOME part in the game. But the question is, how much? And will it be as important as it is in other games, anyway? Look forward to your thoughts.
Tags: Bioware, guild, MMO, MMORPG, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 13, 2009 by blur
I was pondering the other day how the global economic crisis will impact TOR and the games market in general. Right now I guess we aren’t seeing too much, but you would have to think a reduction in the real money a household can spend each month will start to impact on TORs development in some way, shape or form.
Who wants to speculate in this area?
On one side, EA and/or BioWare might not want to hire as many devs and/or not want to keep TOR in development for a long period, ie: they want a return quicker.
On the other side, you might have more games in the MMO community being free-to-play, but with microtransactions, so that people will at least be playing the game month to month, and making small purchases, rather than not being able to play the game at all, ie: in tight times, someone might only want to keep one sub, eg: WoW, and simply won’t want to pay for a second game like TOR. Could TOR go in that direction? Last I heard, we still didn’t know for sure if it was going free-to-play or monthly.
So how to you think the global economic crisis might impact games, especially TOR?
Tags: Bioware, crisis, economic, global, MMO, MMORPG, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 13, 2009 by blur
The other night on IRC* there was a brief mention of the Hero Engine and I tossed out of a few thoughts. Later, I realised they might be interesting to post here in their own right.
Why? Because I see a lot of mad love for the Hero Engine, but I’m not sure people have really thought past the marketing fluff on the Simutronics website.
Here’s thought #1, straight off the bat: I don’t see anywhere in the rundown on the Hero Engine that suggests it could be made into a space flight simulator. Cue thoughts of space flight not being in TOR or, at the very best, perhaps being in a future expansion.
Thought #2 is more fearful. Simutronics, many of you will note, is a small time (VERY small-time) developer, which has made money from MUDs, not MMOs. It has been trying to make Hero’s Journey since 1999 (yes, you just read that correctly), and it still hasn’t been able to make it… EVEN WITH THE HERO ENGINE IN ITS ARSENAL FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS.
Now, BioWare are smart people. I’m sure they gave the Hero Engine a good road test before they bought it. But, seriously, when a developer is:
(1) Small-time
(2) Unknown in MMOs
(3) Still can’t deliver it’s own MMO, based on its own engine
Does that not ring at least a tiny alarm bell for you guys? I mean, look at those three points. Re-read them. Re-read them again, in a different order. No matter how I slice and dice those facts, they suggest the Hero Engine is either the most miraculous MMO engine ever built, or there’s something a little odd going on.
Your thoughts?
*I think it was freshness who said to give the channel a shout-out when I covered this topic, so there ya go matey.
Tags: Bioware, hero engine, MMO, MMORPG, simutronics, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 12, 2009 by blur
You know, I was just reading an article about all the MMOs that crashed and burned in 2008 and it got me thinking…
Often on pre-game forums someone will abuse someone else by saying, “The devs don’t listen to your posts, you know…” or “How many games have you made? Right… and that’s why the devs won’t be listening to you…” and so on.
Basically, it’s the whole they’re-the-professionals-and-we’re-not-so-shut-up vibe.
But, you know what? The more I think back over these games that crashed and burned, the more I can see how the community’s involved were talking about (and in some cases YELLING about), the problems that led to the demise of these games, long before they even hit the marketplace.
This says to me that, sometimes, the community might have its finger on the pulse of what will work moreso than games developers might think. Now, I appreciate that opinions are like bellybuttons on forums (everyone’s got one), and no game will ever get made by committee or group consultation with a community.
But…
… I think we are starting to see that the MMO market is so fractured these days, if a game doesn’t live up to what the community thinks it should be, they drop it like a hot potato. And because of the number of games in the market, this process is getting faster and faster. Game not living up to your expectations? Toss it out. There’s another dozen games vying for your attention, and more coming in the future.
This doesn’t mean the community will be right about everything and, indeed, will sometimes suggest gameplay mechanics that are just too “out there” and untested in any MMO to date, that they’re never going to get taken seriously. But it does mean that when it comes to decisions that could go either way, if the community is ignored on too many of them, and feels the developer has taken a game in the wrong direction, it will vote with its feet and leave. It must be horrifyingly scary to be a dev.
One of my pet peeves about TOR right now, for example, is that it features levels, instead of skills-based progression. While not a deal-breaker in itself, if I can think up another dozen things I want to see in TOR, and none of them end up making the game, it’s going to be less and less appealing for me, personally. And, sure, TOR isn’t being made just for me, but who’s to say that the dozen things I want, which get ignored, aren’t the same dozen things that other people want, too?
I guess my point is that the devs have to make the game they want to make at the end of the day. But, at the same time, ignoring all community comment and sentiment seems to be a short-cut to increasingly faster obscurity these days. Whole communities of gamers are moving in and out of games, en masse, faster than I’ve ever seen before if the games don’t meet their needs and desires. Look around; it’s happening.
Over to you for your thoughts.
Tags: beskar, Bioware, MMO, MMORPG, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 9, 2009 by blur
Taken from the devs blog:
We can all list familiar elements from the Star Wars films: Jedi, Sith, the Force, droids, lightsabers and starships; themes of heroism, redemption, learning, friendship and oppression; a trilogy structure, pulp-inspired “episode” names, and so on.
These iconic elements are the basic tools the writing team uses to build uniquely Star Wars stories—stories that feel like they’re part of the same fictional universe as the films. Not every Star Wars story needs a cantina or a wise old mentor, of course, but the films are the foundation for everything we do. If you’re not using at least some of those iconic elements, your story probably isn’t about Star Wars at all.
While talk of lightsabers, Jedi, Sith, etc, is a no-brainer, do you think it’s interesting that things like “a trilogy structure” and “pulp-inspired “episode” names” also got mentioned up there?
How do you think this might fit in? The names of quests? The sub-heading of the game itself (similar to how SWG was “Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided”?) The name of expansion packs? Any other ideas? Where might this lead us?
Tags: Bioware, elements, episode, MMORPG, names, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 4, 2009 by blur
Which is cool is you approach the game with an MMO mindset.
I’m curious, however, as to how some of the “purists” here feel about this — especially the Jedi purists?
So, there’s more concept art floating around the place, this time highlighting Jedi and Sith clothing:
Jedi: http://www.swtor.com/media/concepts/jedi-garment
Sith: http://www.swtor.com/media/concepts/sith-garment
The Art Team has a large board of wearable designs, customized to both level and class, for comparing every new costume to all the others. From Design to Art, everyone involved in creating the game agrees on the importance of characters looking and feeling like their respective classes. A character should look like the role that they play. Keeping an eye on the bigger picture also allows us to better understand the importance of advancement for characters. Sophisticated Robes, intimidating armor, and other impressive signature items will be earned at higher level. If you see someone with the signature Jedi robe or Sith Lord cape, you know they have earned it.
I certainly know people who would much rather be wearing some old, homespun Jedi cloak because, to them, that’s what the Jedi are all about — an Order which might have flashy buildings and the budget to go swanning around the galaxy, but whose members don’t express that in the way they dress. Sort of like a sci-fi version of the Catholic Church, if you will.
So how do such purists feel about their Jedi characters having bling-bling to the eyeballs with fancy boots, fancy capes, fancy belts and so on when they hit the upper levels of the game? Would some of you rather look completely ordinary at the top levels, or are you comfortable to “show off” a little when you hit the top?
Does anyone want to speculate on whether there will be a way to hide their “real” clothes with a costume option, similar to games like LotRO? ie: You might be wearing the best armour in the game but, to all intents and purposes, it looks like you’re dressed in rags, because that is what you’d rather look like?
Your thoughts, as always, people.
Tags: armor, armour, Bioware, clothing, jedi, MMORPG, Sith, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 3, 2009 by blur
This question, of many relating to TOR, of whether Mandalorians will be Sith-aligned vexes me quite a bit because, as you guys know, I’m hoping to not only run a Mandalorian guild.
Just reading through the TOR documents for the hundredth time, I still can’t shake the sensation that the devs might place Jedi and Special Forces troops (which have been unveiled) on one side, and Sith and Mandalorians (which have only been sighted in concept art so far), on the other.
It makes basic sense, I suppose, as it would mean both sides are Force users, backed by (I am simplifying this to some degree), “armoured men with blasters”.
But, I’ve got to say, with the whole concept being that Mandalorians don’t take sides in wars, and will fight for the highest bidders, I would much prefer that playing a Mandalorian allows people to fight on either side of the conflict.
Thoughts? Especially from those hoping to be Republic-aligned Mando’s appreciated…!
Tags: beskar, Bioware, guild, mandalorian, Sith, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 3, 2009 by blur
In a recent thread of mine on the TOR forums another poster made the point that for PvP to work you need at least three factions or have FFA PvP that uses a reputation system to say if you’re good/evil/neutral.
And, as I said in reply, this why many of us wish for a third faction; perhaps a crime faction — or similar — that’s either neutral or could lean towards either side, at the wish of the guild in question.
Who’s behind that sort of thing? I’ve seen some people say the third faction should be “Mandalorians” but even I don’t agree with that, for a number of reasons. And I’m running a Mando-inspired guild!
I think a grey/neutral/crime/call it what you like faction would make all the difference in TOR.
Tags: beskar, Bioware, crime, faction, gray, grey, mandalorian, mandalorians, neutral, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 3, 2009 by blur
Think of playing through a storyline in an RPG — it might be a BioWare title, or it might be something else. It really doesn’t matter for the purpose of this exercise.
Now think of how that game world is all about you. I mean, you are the star of the story, aren’t you? The game is crafted all around you.
BioWare claims it is bringing this kind of storytelling to MMOs. OK, and despite my natural inclination to doubt, let’s run with that idea for a moment.
Riddle me this… how on earth will people be able to have that single-player experience with 100s and 1000s of other players running around the same server, with at least some of them seeking to do exactly the same thing, because they are playing the same class storyline?
I think there’s only one way it’s possible: instances. I just can’t see how we won’t have to endure a fair amount of instancing, so that everyone can play through their requisite storyline without being disrupted or flat-out prevented by others to achieve their goal…
Quite seriously, I don’t think a lot of the people who approve of bringing storyline to MMOs have really twigged onto that, yet.
Agree? Disagree? Why?
Tags: Bioware, instances, Star Wars, story, storyline, The Old Republic, TOR
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January 2, 2009 by blur
LotRO — Lord of the Rings Online — gets a really harsh deal among many MMO fans. I, for one, have never quite worked that out. The game looks good, plays well, has lots to to, and Turbine really cares about its community, both in the way it will fix any glitches in the game right away, and also with its generous (and free) content updates.
But I digress.
Do you know what LotRO did right at launch which, ironically, I’ve seen no other company do?
(1) When the game was ready, and after a period of closed beta, it began a genuinely open beta. None of this “you might have a chance to open beta” (whatever that is supposed to mean), or “sign up to some gaming website for $30 a year and we’ll give you a beta key”, or any of that rubbish. Anyone who wanted to try the game, could download it.
RESULT: A lot of people got to see the game, to the first 15 levels, for free. It was GREAT publicity.
(2) While open beta was going on, Turbine made an offer than anyone who pre-ordered the game and entered their pre-order key on the website before the game went live, would be able to play for $9.99 a month, instead of $15. Then, if people canceled their $9.99 in the future, they would have to re-sub at $15.
RESULT: Lots of sign ups for Turbine and, over time, while it’s fairly easy to drop a $15 sub for the next hot new game, it’s harder to drop a $9.99 sub that you won’t be able to get back (although later the $9.99 sub was offered to people buying in lots of three months at a time, so not quite the same thing).
(3) Because people already had the game on their desktops via the closed beta, they didn’t have to wait for their local store to get the game in, or for it to arrive in the mail, before they could play the live game. There was about a 10 day grace period where the game could still be arriving in the mail, or the player had to get to a physical store and pick up their copy.
RESULT: Very happy people — especially in overseas territories.
Between these three things, LotRO had an excellent launch, and made a lot of people happy with pre-order pricing and ability to play the game from Day One, regardless of any game delivery hassles. It ended up being the smoothest launch I’ve seen in over a decade of playing these games. How many times have you seen the LotRO launch complained about? Not often, I would wager.
I think all MMO developers — not just BioWare — could learn a trick or two from LotRO’s launch.
Tags: Bioware, launch, Lord of the Rings Online, LotRO, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR, Turbine
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