SWTOR

[WindupAtheist]

Those both sound like utter shit. Dice rolls? Standing there for 120 seconds?

[Triforcer]

What the flying monkeyfuck was that video supposed to be?  How many new Jedi powers did they invent?  Jesus. 

[Cadaverine]

Random dialog decisions?  Combined with enforced grouping, that may well be one of the most fantabulously stupid ideas to come out of the MMO genre ever.

[Draegan]

Where do you see forced grouping?

[Margalis]

Multiplayer dialog system allowes each player to choose their own response, and an automatic dice roll decides the winning choice.

Oh my.

Edit: Among other things this absolutely kills PUGs.

[LK]

"It's YOUR story." is something I imagine telling to every player in a story-based MMO will not be without consequences.

This is going to be awesome. 

[Soln]

especially with PvP

[SnakeCharmer]

Darth Hater - 17 minutes long video interview with Daniel Erickson, lead writer:

http://darthhater.com/2010/06/16/e3-daniel-erickson-interview/

Ask A Jedi - Interview with James Ohlen, Creative Director and Lead Designer

http://www.askajedi.com/2010/06/16/exclusive-james-ohlen-qa/

So if you're in a group, and you have two Sith Warriors, chances are they're both going to have the Vette companion - since you can apparently use them at any time.  

That's a bit...odd.

What I'm getting out of all this is:  
Approach it like a single player game, with co-op options and KOTOR combat, and you'll probably be happy or disappointed (depending on whether or not you liked KOTOR combat).
Approach it like a true MMO, and you'll probably be disappointed.

Edit:  The TOR forums are going to go nuclear when the two sides collide.

Oh BioWare Austin, you guys never learned, did you?

[Fordel]

I'm constantly amazed at how all these interviews are managing to say absolutely nothing.

[Stabs]

I'm quite looking forward to guessing which the most unpopular dialogue choice is then rolling to see if I "win". Do I get to see what the sensible players have picked before I get to make my choice?

It's a social minigame in its own right.

To be fair it's kinda true to the IP. I can just imagine Leia in the original film saying "which one of you IDIOTS thought it'd be funny to pick we jump down the garbage chute?

[Cadaverine]

Where do you see forced grouping?

http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/46527/E3-2010-Live-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-MMO-Combat-Demo/ 

I guess it could be taken either way.  He states you can solo the content, but then he follows it up by saying that there will be content that you need a group to beat.  It all depends on what that group content happens to be, and whether it involves the storyline, or whatever.  Past experience is not on their side in this regard, however.

[Koyasha]

One of the things that does concern me on the voicing front is, how many voice options are we going to have for our characters?  It'd be a little disturbing to have few enough options that it is highly probable that other members of your group have the same voice as you.  On the other hand, it would be expensive to have a dozen+ voices for each gender, race, and class combination.  So it certainly feels likely that if I'm a human female Sith Warrior, other human female Sith Warriors have a good chance of having the same voice as me.

[ajax34i]

Lots of people will have the same face (and probably outfit) as you, so why not the same voice?

[Lucas]

As of today, I'm very happy with the direction TOR is going: I loved KOTOR (and Bioware EDMONTON rpgs), pretty much enjoyed the PVE co-op campaigns of Guild Wars, I'm a socializer, roleplayer and quest-reading, cut-scene watching whore. I couldn't care less about gear collecting and so on; I may dabble a bit in PvP, but I'm not really interested in that. Hence, yes, unfortunately (or fortunately?) I  represent the minority in MMOG nowadays.

Regarding the use of companions (and related problems when it comes to immersion), Olhen pretty much said that currently you can use them anywhere, but it's one of those things that IMO will stay on the edge 'til the very last stages of beta. Same with that odd "group talking mini-game" system, I bet it's currently undergoing several iterations/modifications.

Yes, it sounds a bit contradictory: in a interview, they say this game is REALLY geared toward small, casual groups, especially PUGs, but the two systems mentioned above are really risky when two different kind of players collide. So, for everyone's sanity, it surely sounds better if you have a group of close friends playing with you.

[Simond]

Well shit. Now I'm depressed about my chances of liking this game.

If they put in some of the old Galaxies crafting aspects with minerals, I'll still play.

Crafting is WoW-like, apparently.

[tkinnun0]

So this is like AoC's Tortage, but from level 1-last? OK, I'm interested.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Where do you see forced grouping?

http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/46527/E3-2010-Live-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-MMO-Combat-Demo/ 

I guess it could be taken either way.  He states you can solo the content, but then he follows it up by saying that there will be content that you need a group to beat.  It all depends on what that group content happens to be, and whether it involves the storyline, or whatever.  Past experience is not on their side in this regard, however.

They say this about every. single. MMO. ever.


Saying you can solo some things while group for others means absolutely nothing. Hello they even said that about the original EQ and we all know how solo friendly that game was(unless you were a druid)  Usually this comment just means that you'll be able to do 'something' when you log on but usually, not something really fun.

[Stabs]

I think the concern is they may over-compensate with the grouping incentives. Everything we know about the game so far suggests it will be more fun solo than group for the core part of the game (doing the 50 novels worth of cutscenes). The options to do your cutscenes with 2 minute waits and griefers picking the dumb choice for lolz are so utterly unappealing that they may do something like offer double exp or higher. This will then lead to 3 ways to progress.

- blitz the content with your uber mates (or second recruit-a-friend account) getting double exp while clicking all the Shortest Path To The Cheese options within seconds.
- solo
- join pugs and put up with the inevitable tortoise paced players and Go Go Go adhd bunny hoppers.

That means to be optimal, if you don't have a team of uber players waiting for you, you will need to dual box.

[Draegan]

Where do you see forced grouping?

http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/46527/E3-2010-Live-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-MMO-Combat-Demo/ 

I guess it could be taken either way.  He states you can solo the content, but then he follows it up by saying that there will be content that you need a group to beat.  It all depends on what that group content happens to be, and whether it involves the storyline, or whatever.  Past experience is not on their side in this regard, however.

Well most online games have solo content, group content and big group content.  At least most of them do anyway.  They're not forcing you to do the group content, or bigger group content.  Not like EQ forced you to group anyway.  There is no "forcing" you to do anything.  (Was that a pun?)

[Sky]

Not like EQ forced you to group anyway.  There is no "forcing" you to do anything. 

Oh, here we go again.

Fuck, they don't "force" you to wear armor, either, amirite?

[HaemishM]

http://darthhater.com/2010/06/15/general-information-learned-at-e3/

Multiplayer dialog system allowes each player to choose their own response, and an automatic dice roll decides the winning choice.

... the fuck? So quest options that can determine your individual character's story arc are reduced to loot rolls?

... THE FUCK?

[Abagadro]

But will it have Lightsaber Bears?

[kildorn]

That feature will destroy my online friendships. <3

[Nonentity]

http://darthhater.com/2010/06/15/general-information-learned-at-e3/

Multiplayer dialog system allowes each player to choose their own response, and an automatic dice roll decides the winning choice.

... the fuck? So quest options that can determine your individual character's story arc are reduced to loot rolls?

... THE FUCK?

To be fair, there was another interview where they said there is a clear-cut difference between your individual class questlines (which other players cannot affect), and the world questlines (which are the dice roll ones).

I still think the whole system is idiotic, though.

[Rasix]

Just ensures that I won't be playing any sort of quest content with someone that isn't a mental clone of myself.  I guess if it's something in what will likely be a repetition based endgame, sure.  Otherwise, hell no.  Sorry friends.

And like some here, I'm mostly just worried about the cross contamination aspects of this being a MMO.  I'd be perfectly happy with my solo KOTOR3 with optional hey-my-friend-is-on, although groups with only 2 members sucked in NWN and will likely suck a bit here (ohh, none of you is a tank? *instagib*), but they're likely going to get a lot of MMO in it. Having a solo progression turn into the inevitable bait-and-switch "you must group with 9 morons to enjoy the rest of the story" typical end game shtick will be an all too unwelcome sight.

[Sky]

I was wrong when I said the raid and gear progression stuff was the first thing I heard about the game that I didn't like. I forgot about that whole group dialog decision thing. That's awful, not sure how to get around it. Even at f13 there was a regular user we had to kick out of EQ2 BC that I'd not want to deal with in that capacity, and several more who have unabashedly admitted their love of griefing.

Also, a minor snit: hate the release date. I like to play mmo in the winter, a spring release is awful! Bioware should really cater to my personal whims or their game totally sucks.

[Bunk]

The F13 MMO Mantra:

I still think the whole system is idiotic, though.

[Zane0]

The story isn't going to matter.

[LK]

The story isn't going to matter.

...after you finish it. Once the story exhausts itself, you're no longer the center of the universe, which was the crux of previous Bioware stories and game worlds.

[Draegan]

Not like EQ forced you to group anyway.  There is no "forcing" you to do anything. 

Oh, here we go again.

Fuck, they don't "force" you to wear armor, either, amirite?

Yeah just like those assholes at Nintendo force you to jump as Mario. 

[Draegan]

Just ensures that I won't be playing any sort of quest content with someone that isn't a mental clone of myself.  I guess if it's something in what will likely be a repetition based endgame, sure.  Otherwise, hell no.  Sorry friends.

And like some here, I'm mostly just worried about the cross contamination aspects of this being a MMO.  I'd be perfectly happy with my solo KOTOR3 with optional hey-my-friend-is-on, although groups with only 2 members sucked in NWN and will likely suck a bit here (ohh, none of you is a tank? *instagib*), but they're likely going to get a lot of MMO in it. Having a solo progression turn into the inevitable bait-and-switch "you must group with 9 morons to enjoy the rest of the story" typical end game shtick will be an all too unwelcome sight.

I think I've heard them say that the full character story is soloable.  Nonentity already said that there are two types of quests; your personal story quests and general quest you group up to do.  You can group for your personal quests but you fully control them.

I kinda like how you don't know how it's going to end up with a group of people you're playing with randomly.  It makes the game a bit more exciting I think.

I'm slowing ... very slowly ... getting an idea of what they're making here.  I tend to get a bit more excited about it.  I'm now at the point where I'm mildly interested in this coming out whereas I was not really looking forward to it.

[DLRiley]

I'm looking forward to the nerd tears.

[Murgos]

I'm looking forward to the nerd tears.

After SWG can there really be many of those left for this IP?

[Shrike]

I think I've heard them say that the full character story is soloable.  Nonentity already said that there are two types of quests; your personal story quests and general quest you group up to do.  You can group for your personal quests but you fully control them.

I kinda like how you don't know how it's going to end up with a group of people you're playing with randomly.  It makes the game a bit more exciting I think.

I'm slowing ... very slowly ... getting an idea of what they're making here.  I tend to get a bit more excited about it.  I'm now at the point where I'm mildly interested in this coming out whereas I was not really looking forward to it.

Interesting view. It reminds me of PSU. The single player game where you were stuck as whathisface...Ethan, and played through the backstory. Then you could roll-yer-own and do the neverending loot grind with friends and whatnot.


What distrubs me about the game is how awful it looks. EQ2 blew this away 6 years ago...and it wasn't great looking, with its overly plastic character models.

[HaemishM]

I'm looking forward to the nerd tears.

After SWG can there really be many of those left for this IP?

Are you kidding? There's over 30 years worth of rose-tinted nostalgia, goo-goo eyed hero worship and Leia in steel bikini masturbatory fantasies waiting to be splooged out onto the Internet over this IP.