Bioware Austin.. damm more Dragons.. or Lightsabers?

[Venkman]

Again, is that a bad thing?

You don't do experimental quasi-skills based or other inventive methods on big IP.

Unless you're SOE/Raph Koster/retarded.

Some people enjoyed that version ya know.

Yes. I know. I was one of them with my decorating and energy businesses. It was fun but totally missed the mark as a mass market SW game.

You can have all the experimental stuff you want. Be all fun and crazy with image designing house owning music playing aliens. But get the combat right first or you won't be able to justify the expensive IP and partnership that needs a higher-than-most ROI. The important stuff has to work first. Everything else is candy.

Everyone said the same about WoW.

I still say it about WoW.

I'm sure this will sell gangbusters also.

You can rip out the graphics engine later. Sell lots first. This doesn't want to be AoC or Crysis where half the marketing campaign was about dispelling the myth of unplayability on computers before 2007.

[Kirth]

Space Combat?

Srsly rip out the old X-wing Alliance engine, spruce it up for the 2008 crowd and jam it on top of whatever this is going to be.

[Mrbloodworth]

"Running on everything" is pretty much the excuse for bland art. It's a pretty great one ever since WoW.

Still, total BS.

Oddly enough, in some of the screen shots, i see normal mapping, and dynamic lighting. Not sure what portion of "everything" we are talking about, or, how bad (really bad) the non-normal mapped LOD's will be.

Example:

[Simond]

Given that it is approximately 300 years since the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, many of the characters have passed away. However, their legacy does live on as many of their descendants will be part of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some droids can last a long time as well.

[Endie]

Maybe they just haven't described it well, but this looks like the soap opera level, unchallenging, mainstream, safe, dreary rubbish that could have been achieved by a reskinning of WoW and a (very) few tacked-on features.  There have been mods that have been more radical departures from their orginal games than this is from the current genre safespot.

And where is everyone that learned two years ago that big IPs, the Star Wars one most of all of them, make for pish MMOs?

Edit: to clarify I suppose that plenty of people will fall for this for ages, because soap operas show how undiscriminating people are in their choices of entertainment.  And I won't pretend I won't try it out, just because I try most MMOs.  Hey: maybe this will the the MMO that got better after announcement!

[Lantyssa]

Oh gods, you can ROMANCE your companions!  I'll never need to depend on anyone else for love ever again.

[Zane0]

What the fuck? Seriously.

Bioware's best and perhaps only decent 'story' was Baldurs Gate II, which drew heavily from Forgotten Realms lore if nothing else. Everything since has been a soulless rehash of the same uninspired milquetoast fantasy backdrop that is choking the PC RPG genre to death, such as it is. KOTOR was one of the worst examples of this, the setting mutilated into some bizarro Dungeons and Dragons romp where you gather the four star crystals to defeat the evil sith wizard with the usual caste of Bioware characters; Dragon Age looks to be about the same.

Mass Effect was pretty good I will grant, but you can still see the template out of the corner of your eye, and it is often a remarkably sterile game.

None of this is saying that this game will be bad per se.. I just don't buy it when Bioware turns to story as the Next Big Thing to differentiate their MMO.

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

So the big thing Bioware brings to the table is a huge story arc based on player choices, I predict within 5 weeks of game launch there are people who have exhausted all of the personal story line.

[Zira]

So the big thing Bioware brings to the table is a huge story arc based on player choices, I predict within 5 weeks of game launch there are people who have exhausted all of the personal story line.

you mean 5 days?

[Lantyssa]

So the big thing Bioware brings to the table is a huge story arc based on player choices, I predict within 5 weeks of game launch there are people who have exhausted all of the personal story line.

As opposed to SWG where it's out of conent upon entering the game?

[Soln]

So here's a concern:

How are they going to get around NPC's not being vending machines if the design of the genre itself pushes players on to the end-game?  Particularly a game framed around a factional conflict with PvP or RvR?  Particularly where they are telling us they are ladling on the stories?

I'm all full of warmy goodness for narrative, adaptability, evolving design BUT when I play an MMO, given the grindy, cap-heavy, end-game driven nature of the genre I usually skip every quest text there is for just the roadsigns of the foozles I'm supposed to kill.   Any thing that slows me down from getting to that next level and onwards to the cap is an impediment.  So, character traits for finishing these stories?

[schild]

That community can already be labeled shit:

Too many forums.
Not enough people staffing it.
The frothiest of fans.
That place is hell in a handbasket.

[SnakeCharmer]

wut?

[fuser]

"Running on everything" is pretty much the excuse for bland art. It's a pretty great one ever since WoW.

Still, total BS.

No AA on the screenshots  

[Venkman]

I'm all full of warmy goodness for narrative, adaptability, evolving design BUT when I play an MMO, given the grindy, cap-heavy, end-game driven nature of the genre I usually skip every quest text there is for just the roadsigns of the foozles I'm supposed to kill.

This is a self-contradiction though. You can either have a game about a story/path you enjoy following so much you don't mind when it ends (ala RPGs), or you can have an MMO where achievement itself is the game and anything else just gets in the way of that (ie, other players, quest text, needing to make lore-based decisions at all, etc).

No idea where TOR will net out. I suspect it'll be a bit better than AoC but with the same problem: occasionally interesting and relevant personal story surrounded by a whole bunch of unfinished grind.

Given what they showed today, I suspect a 2010 launch. Which means I shouldn't really start caring until next Fall. But I know myself, unfortunately...

[Soln]

yea all tru.

I gotta admit, with that much lead time I expected more.  As in ready in Q1 2009. 

Those screenshots and all the unveiling hype of a "coming soon" sign reminded me of Imperator for some reason (no dig intended to any).  Just the lack of gameplay shots, the austere models etc.  All they did was launch the forums. 

[schild]

All they did was launch the forums.

Which might've been the worst of ideas. *bookmarks fanfiction forum/comedy goldmine*

Who wants a Rule 34 on The Old Republic contest?

[SnakeCharmer]

Den and start anew?

[Azaroth]

Did I miss the part about release dates or beta?

[SnakeCharmer]

Nah, they'd only answer 'some point in the future' or something like that.

[Azaroth]

Forget game exists. Check.

[WindupAtheist]

Sith

[Fordel]

All they did was launch the forums.

Which might've been the worst of ideas. *bookmarks fanfiction forum/comedy goldmine*

Who wants a Rule 34 on The Old Republic contest?

Will you front page it? 

[Azaroth]

Edit: Oops. Was supposed to be a post in Fantasy Hockey.

[Triforcer]

Oh gods, you can ROMANCE your companions!  I'll never need to depend on anyone else for love ever again.

It took me approximately .3 seconds to see the eventual controversy with this.  I'll reread the "WoW Gaymers" thread for practice.

EDIT:  Other reactions to released info:

(1)  Oh, visible signs of a character progressing- will you ever NOT be a gigantic lie discarded in alpha?

(2)  Like others here, I am having troubles distinguishing the Tortage-y aspects of this from the MMO aspect.  The IGN article went out of its way to say that "it'll still be like a real MMO, promise" but I am wondering if this is going to be KOTOR3 with a Fury lobby.

[Ghambit]

Welp, I guess all our grandiose ideas of a Q2 '09 release date are out the door with this lackluster game announcement.  It was almost like they havent really even decided what in the hell they're making, aside from a "good" story.  Where the phuck has all of Bono's and EA's money gone?  I thought for sure they'd be further along than this... and what little they did say wasnt very compelling at all.

Sooo, I guess it's STO (the better IP anyways) for all of us eh!?  Huzzah!  
[crawls down Jeffries tube with Bloodworth close behind]

[Azaroth]

Yeah, I was sort of left wondering why they actually made this announcement myself.

[Triforcer]

Yeah, I was sort of left wondering why they actually made this announcement myself.

I think they are closer than we think.  Started in 2005?  If it was WAR, it'd be out by now.  And you simply have to give the game some time to percolate in the public consciousness and generate buzz.  My prediction:  in the next couple months they'll say Christmas 2009, in June or July they'll push that back to a firm date of March 2010.

[Venkman]

Welp, I guess all our grandiose ideas of a Q2 '09 release date are out the door with this lackluster game announcement.  It was almost like they havent really even decided what in the hell they're making, aside from a "good" story.

I think they actually handled it smart. Sure it was a total contrivance to simply confirm what we all pretty much knew. But they need to play things a bit safe right now given SWG and the ire it still inspires. No details is better than too many things they'd need to change/remove/nerf later.

Of course, I'm not entirely sure what purpose there was for this announcement. Maybe just to launch the forums to invite fanbois who'll become the first round of testers or some such.

[Jobu]

But they need to play things a bit safe right now given SWG and the ire it still inspires.
...
Of course, I'm not entirely sure what purpose there was for this announcement. Maybe just to launch the forums to invite fanbois who'll become the first round of testers or some such.

Which, ironically, mirrors exactly the circumstances under which SWG was launched. "Here's our cool game. Oh man, it's gonna be sooooooo cool!! What's that? Sorry we have absolutely nothing to tell you about it... hey look we have forums!"

[UnSub]

Oh gods, you can ROMANCE your companions!  I'll never need to depend on anyone else for love ever again.

HAHAHAHA! Oh, I can't wait for the bug reports on that:

"ur rmoance sistem is bugged. i gave my girl companon flowers, choclate and tol her i lik her. she still wont hold me hand"

OMG IN-GAME COMPANION, WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME?

We're all going to be orphans with MYSTERIOUS PASTS.

It's like every server is a RP server!

Don't forget the amnesiacs with mysterious pasts, or the dark strangers with mysterious pasts. Or the loveable rogues, or the good boys with a dark side.

I'm sad it's not KOTORO, but SWOR (SWORO?) is so  it's  .

[Falwell]

The "announcement" was completely shallow. Bioware / LA basically invited the entire gaming press to come out to Cali and tell them "You were right."

I doubt anyone with any sort of MMO experience was expecting details, but come on now. A very general feature list (space combat? PvP or PvE focus? platforms? etc.) is quite reasonable to expect at this stage of the game.

[Margalis]

This mystifies me. They announced what everyone already knew then threw in shitty screenshots for kicks? Why bother?

WOW has low-tech graphics but it has decent art design. This looks like the blandest stuff imaginable.

The word on the internet is meh.

[Goreschach]

So has every single fucking person on the planet forgotten that WOW is around five years old? I think by this point we should let go of the whole WOW graphics thing.

[NiX]

For the most part people here think WoW has good design/style despite it's lack of next-gen graphics. I think the argument being presented is that if WoW can make shitty graphics look decent, why the fuck is LA/Bio presenting such "meh" crap.