Pumping Irony

BioWare and LucasArts delivered on their promise to officially unveil the worst-kept secret in the genre: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Set 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic — roughly 3,500 years prior to the movies — SW:TOR will allow players to become a Jedi, a Sith, or “a variety of other Star Wars roles” in what BioWare claims will be a highly story-driven MMOG. Their FAQ specifically says it’s a MMOG rather than using the full MMORPG acronym, so take from that what you may.

Also mentioned at least twice so far are “companion characters who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions.” Sounds like BioWare might be taking the Hero (Guild Wars) or Hireling (DDO) concept and injecting it with some single-player RPG style where companions are more meaningful than mere pets to be ordered about like units in an RTS.

The FAQ also states that the majority of the game can be completed solo, while certain content will require a group. No surprise there, most developers with even a few remaining neurons firing in their grey matter will allow for a great deal of solo play. On top of that, BioWare has been quite complimentary in their admiration of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. That, in and of itself, I don’t mind at all. If BioWare pulls a WoW-style bait-and-switch on their end-game, however, I do mind. Damion Schubert gave an Elder Game presentation at GDC Austin going over the importance of end-game and the continued focus on that versus always providing mid-game content — again, which Blizzard has been (in)famous for doing. I don’t necessarily envision SW:TOR as a “raiding game” but then again I don’t work for BioWare so that’s pure speculation on my part. If nothing else, the Missions from Guild Wars and Epic Books from Lord of the Rings Online have shown that it’s certainly possible to have repeatable content and also focus heavily on story, something WoW always failed miserably at accomplishing. PvP? The IP and setting certainly provide plenty of opportunities for conflicts of small and massive scale, which is something SWG failed at providing. But if there’s a heavily story-influenced leveling process which dumps you into a PvP-focused end-game, that’s still a bait-and-switch.

I will keep a wary eye on the title’s development, but I will in no way, shape, or form go fanboi over it anytime soon. What I do look forward to reading is the forum flames from the bitter and misguided fools who just knew that BioWare would provide them with a true sandbox set in the Star Wars universe to make up for SOE’s atrocities with Star Wars Galaxies. Get over it, people. BioWare owes former SOE customers nothing. Sandbox and a heavy focus on storyline are mutually exclusive — stories are by their nature linear. BioWare’s single-player offerings were also linear — while offering certain latitudes of freedom — because again, they’re telling a story. The site does mention “telling your own personal story” but then so does practically every other completely linear MMORPG. Those of you looking for a sandbox, my Jedi insight tells me you’d be better served looking elsewhere.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 6:05 pm and is filed under MMO Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.