Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG

[Krafus]

Apologies to the mods if the old thread still exists and I missed it. Anyway, regardless of what I think of MMORPGs in general, this is IMO one sweet trailer:

(Is the apparent Sith Lord Darth Malak? He seems to be a combination of Malak and Vader's visual styles.)

[Tobin]

It got merged in with the general E3 topic.

[Werthead]

The Old Republic will containe more audio than the entire 86-episode run of The Sopranos.

Wowsers.

[Frank Stark]

I'm a big fan of the KOTOR games and RPGs in general, not so much MMO. I'm pretty interested in this game, but will wait and see the reaction for months after it comes out. I've never paid for a subscription game in my life, and this will have to kick so much arse for me to start. Well, plus I'll have to have a whole new 'puter.

From the developer previews and interviews, this sounds very RPG heavy. Lots of stuff about over-arching storylines specific to each profession. Maybe they will encourage doing storyline missions with limited npc helpers, or just a few guild friends, and the MMO aspect will be relegated to economy and trade. Who knows. Should be interesting.

[Frank Stark]

The Old Republic will containe more audio than the entire 86-episode run of The Sopranos.

Wowsers.

Yeah, each NPC and PC model (I guess male/female for every profession, though I'm sure there are many models of each gender to choose from) are supposed to have their own voice tracks.

Seems like a huge investment. I hope it pays off in success (even if I don't buy it myself).

[Maia]

If the single-player/story content is as solid as they promise, I may even try an MMPORG for the first time ever ;). After all, it costs the same as a single-player game and I can just refuse to continue after the 1st month if I have enough by that point. I am a major KOTOR fan particularly the 2.

[Cuellar]

Jesus, that is awesome. I think voice acting was one of the best parts of Mass Effect, and creates a lot more immersion for me.

Between that, and vent, and some sort of WoW style voice chat... should be fairly "alive".

I can't wait though... this should be awesome!

[gladius]

There is a red lightsaber waiting somewhere around here. :leaving:

[Rhom]

Apologies to the mods if the old thread still exists and I missed it. Anyway, regardless of what I think of MMORPGs in general, this is IMO one sweet trailer:

(Is the apparent Sith Lord Darth Malak? He seems to be a combination of Malak and Vader's visual styles.)

It does look like Malak.

Is there a trailer of any gameplay footage? I also wonder if it will provide anything different gameplay style wise than the same stuff that has been hashed and rehased from UO to SWG to WoW.

[Cuellar]

You know what would be awesome? If you could be an assasinbot... just like HK. He has to be my favorite character in KOTOR.

[Le_Saboteur]

This is the only MMO I've even considered playing. The trailer is just... so... awesome. And I do love most of Bioware's games.

Apparently the majority of the game can be played single player without the MMO side of it, which is nice. Can't wait to see some gameplay footage.

[Shaun Snow]

This is the only MMO I've even considered playing. The trailer is just... so... awesome. And I do love most of Bioware's games.

Same. I've never played a MMORPG, never wanted to play a MMORPG, and yet... Bioware, the Old Republic, that trailer. I'll be giving serious thought to it when it comes out.

[Krafus]

Same. I've never played a MMORPG, never wanted to play a MMORPG, and yet... Bioware, the Old Republic, that trailer. I'll be giving serious thought to it when it comes out.

Not me. I oppose MMORPGs on general principle. Why should I have to pay a monthly fee for the "privilege" of playing a game I already bought and paid for at the store, especially since I'll be forced to share the game's playing environment with annoying people or outright jerks who will certainly detract from my enjoyment?

I was so happy when it looked like this game would be a single-player KoToR 3. "Finally, Bioware will give us a worthy successor to KoToR, unlike the second game that was crippled by those assholes at Lucasarts forcing Obsidian to rush it out in time for Christmas of 2004," I told myself.

And then came the rumors, and eventually the confirmation, that it was going to be a [censored] [censored] MMORPG. [Censored], Lucasarts. :thumbsdown:

And yes, I know SW:TOR does not preclude a single-player KoToR 3 from eventually being made... but it's already, what, six years since KoToR? The time for a worthy sequel was now, and with Bioware's resources likely strained between SW:TOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, IMO it'll be several years before they can devote significant resources to that hypothetical KoToR 3.

[Werthead]

Why should I have to pay a monthly fee for the "privilege" of playing a game I already bought and paid for at the store, especially since I'll be forced to share the game's playing environment with annoying people or outright jerks who will certainly detract from my enjoyment?

The Old Republic will (probably, but this may change) not have a monthly subscription fee, nor will you be 'forced' to play with annoying people/outright jerks. If you want to play the game solo, you can do that with no problems. There's some extra content for people who like to do large 'raids', but that is separate to the main quest/storylines which can be done co-op or solo with AI-controlled allies.

You know what would be awesome? If you could be an assasinbot... just like HK. He has to be my favorite character in KOTOR.

HK might have a cameo appearance in TOR. The producers said the droids from KotOR and KotOR 2 should all still be around in one form or another.

[Maia]

It does look like Malak.

But it can't be, surely. We killed him in KOTOR1, after all. Has to be an imitator.

Werthead - no monthly fee? That's difficult to believe. Why would they create MMO architecture, invest in servers, etc. and then not charge for it? Or will we have to pay per item? That would be even worse, IMHO.

My hope is that every class plays as a separate story in SW universe, with certain key NPC characters being seen from different sides. While I don't think that each class story would be as meaty as a single-player game, the whole can have as much single-player content as 2 or 3 games. If the quality is decent and hardware requirements not exorbitant, I'll probably bite. While I am not an SW fan per se, I really liked KOTORs and the Jedi Knight games.

[Krafus]

Werthead;

Thanks for the information. Like Maia, I'm skeptical about Bioware being able to step away from the monthly subscription system. Still, if they manage to do that, if I can play the game solo if I want to without being more than lightly penalized, and if it gets great reviews... Then I might take a chance.

However, even if I do decide to buy it, I'll wait until a few months after it's out to avoid crashed servers and the other problems often associated with the launch of a MMORPG. I hope Bioware will follow Blizzard's example in polishing the game until they're fully ready to serve it to the frenzied masses... but we all know what happened to KoToR 2 due to Lucasarts' greed.

[Werthead]

Werthead - no monthly fee? That's difficult to believe. Why would they create MMO architecture, invest in servers, etc. and then not charge for it? Or will we have to pay per item? That would be even worse, IMHO.

Interviews have suggested that the payment model for TOR will be different. 'Microtransactions' have been mentioned, but I also saw a suggestion (not from BioWare, so it's pretty worthless) that the basic game (which would still rival KotOR or KotOR 2 in size) would ship for standard retail, but to access new missions, new items and new storylines you'd have to pay a fee of some kind. Exactly how this is going to work is unclear.

I hope Bioware will follow Blizzard's example in polishing the game until they're fully ready to serve it to the frenzied masses... but we all know what happened to KoToR 2 due to Lucasarts' greed.

BioWare are powerful enough to not have to kowtow too much to LucasArts, especially now. Even at the time of KotOR 1, BioWare still have enough clout to be able to negotiate things better with LucasArts. Obsidian, as a new start-up company (KotOR 2 was their first project, I believe), lacked that weight.

[Shryke]

"Microtransactions"?

/shudder

[sologdin]

Werthead - no monthly fee? That's difficult to believe. Why would they create MMO architecture, invest in servers, etc. and then not charge for it? Or will we have to pay per item? That would be even worse, IMHO.

they might sell ad space, both during load screens, and in-game, on billboards, video screens, ans so on within the setting.

hell, i bet some friggin' dickwads would equip tommy hilfiger clothing and coca-cola ballcaps on their avatara if they could weasel out of the subscription fees.

[Humble Asskicker]

Krafus

Still, if they manage to do that, if I can play the game solo if I want to without being more than lightly penalized, and if it gets great reviews... Then I might take a chance.

Your poetry sings to my soul.

My friends, the infiltration, indoctrination and subversion from internet gaming is the most insidious threat to the modern gaming community. The sacrifice of good storytelling for the interaction with leet-speaking anthropomorphic cocks is not something that should be celebrated. Nay, the celebration is more the reason to mourn - for unto morn these zombies of an impure culture...

Huh?