Star Wars: The Old Republic Announced

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:05 am

Less then two hours ago BioWare and LucasArts announced [b:6t1p6e7h][url=http://www.swtor.com/:6t1p6e7h]Star Wars: The Old Republic[/url:6t1p6e7h][/b:6t1p6e7h]

This is BioWare's first MMO and considered a sequel to their (and Obsidian's) Knights of the Old Republic games. It's set some 300 years after KotOR 2 (some 3500 years before the Star Wars movies) and revolves around a massive war between the jedi and the sith, or something of that nature.

Details are still sketchy, but BioWare says that they're making it unique compared to other MMOs by having a heavy focus on story. One example of this is that players can have a companion throughout the game similar to the companions in previous BioWare games, someone with whom your character can develop a relationship.

No details yet on classes or races, or on how the combat will work, or even when it'll be released (earlier speculation was that they were shooting for late 2009, but it'll probably be later than that).

One little tidbit that I've picked up that I found interesting is that you can, apparently, play a sith either evil or try and be good from within (and similarly you can play a jedi as good or be an evil bastage).

There's a number of sites with details and information already up. Most importantly the official site just went live together with the big press event: http://www.swtor.com/

[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/922/92211 ... l:6t1p6e7h]IGN has an article on the game[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starwarst ... 1:6t1p6e7h]GameSpot has a video interview up[/url:6t1p6e7h]

And there's several live blogs which blogged the press event (one of them still going as I type):
- [url=http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170784:6t1p6e7h]1Up.com live blog[/url:6t1p6e7h]
- [url=http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/10/2 ... /:6t1p6e7h]VideoGaming 24/7 live blog[/url:6t1p6e7h]
- [url=http://kotaku.com/5066767/lucasarts-mas ... g:6t1p6e7h]Kotaku live blog[/url:6t1p6e7h]

Now we just need to figure out how to fit Eilistraee in that setting.... hmmm, a covert religion within the ranks of the Sith trying to turn to goodness (though not necessarily become jedi, but good while in touch with their emotions)?

I'll keep you updated as more details are revealed.

[EDIT] Some more links:

[url=http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/bioware-mmo ... 0:6t1p6e7h]Article at GameSpy[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic ... 1:6t1p6e7h]BioWare's Official Announcement[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[EDIT 20081022]

[url=http://www.videogaming247.com/tag/star- ... /:6t1p6e7h]VideoGaming247 has a page[/url:6t1p6e7h] with collected articles (on their site), though most of them are short one-off statements there's still some decent stuff to glean here and there.

[EDIT2 20081022]

And more links:

[url=http://www.geeksugar.com/2394843:6t1p6e7h]GeekSugar article about the announcement[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticl ... 3:6t1p6e7h]ShackNews interview with lead writer[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... d:6t1p6e7h]Escapist Magazine article on the announcement[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://kotaku.com/5066929/star-wars-the ... r:6t1p6e7h]"What We Know So Far" article at Kotaku[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[EDIT 20081023]

Two more links:

[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/922/92265 ... 6:6t1p6e7h]IGN continues coverage with story details[/url:6t1p6e7h]

[url=http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/47132:6t1p6e7h]Interview at TenTonHammer[/url:6t1p6e7h]

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Talwyn Aureliano · Post by **Talwyn Aureliano** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:37 am

Sounds interesting.

Argoth · Post by **Argoth** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:43 pm

It's like a revelation.

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:23 am

I don't know. I'm very skeptical about this one.

I mean, I love BioWare's games, love them for their stories and how they pull the player into those. Love them for the interactions with the characters. And I'm sure this story MMO will be enjoyable to play for a while.

But the thing is that MMOs are supposed to last a long, long time and that simply doesn't jive with storytelling which is good because it ends. And while I love BioWare's games, very few I play more than once (and then generally only with years in between games).

So I'm very skeptical that they can make a long-lasting MMO based on their storytelling. Just putting in loads of content isn't the answer.

On top of that I'm not at all happy with their art direction (and I'm not just talking oversized lightsabers here) and I fear that they're looking [i:266pvxzc]way[/i:266pvxzc] too much towards games like WoW and WAR (games which I hate with a passion). So... my BioWare-fan-instinct tells me the game could be great, but I really don't know.

At the moment I actually think that [url=http://www.startrekonline.com:266pvxzc]Star Trek Online[/url:266pvxzc] could be a more enjoyable game (if the developers have the guts to go for a more sandbox approach that is). We'll see though.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Argoth · Post by **Argoth** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:22 pm

Well, you may have a point there. The graphic side of the project isn't what I'd expect that's true. Come to think of it, even the two Kotors were not too consistant with eath other. I'd expect my jedi to wear a robe like in Kotor 2, or something alike. Or choose some other dress code if any. And the lightsabers really are huge.

I don't know. I've always dreamed of a Star Wars MMO. Well if they want to release it towards the end of 2009 maybe they'll change a few things for the better?

And after second thoughts I have to agree on the storytelling part there. Constantly repeated quests are something that constitute a MMO. The story was always something distant from the game itself.

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