LucasArts/BioWare - Star Wars: The Old Republic Announced!

[Iakimo]

Dare we hope so?

Tune in 2:00pm USA Pacific Time, a.k.a. 10:00pm GMT, and... well, you Aussies and Tassies are gonna have to extrapolate your own time zones from Greenwich. But I'm sure it's gonna be somewhere in the wee hours of your Wednesday morning for those of you Down Under. But regardless, it's roughly five hours from now, as of the time of this post of mine here.

You can check out the 1UP Live Blog for the info while it's still hot from the Lips of Lucas.

[Toucan]

an announcement of an announcement, lol

monkey island mmo FTW

[gelfling]

Star Wars The Old Republic: www.swtor.com
Wahoo!

Is this an MMO?

Yes, Star Wars: The Old Republic is a MMO, or “massively multiplayer online game”. Star Wars: The Old Republic will allow thousands of players to explore, adventure, and fight in a single game session.
From: http://www.swtor.com/info/faq

[Iakimo]

Nope... it's official now, fanbois: Star Wars: The Old Republic Online!

From the first page at http://www.swtor.com:

"YOUR SAGA BEGINS HERE...
BioWare and LucasArts bring you a revolutionary story-driven MMO"

And yes, it's set in the ancient Old Republic, three thousand years before the rise of Darth Vader. (UPDATE: This is going to be set roughly 300 years after Revan and Malak, near the end of a Cold War-type era of uneasy peace between the Old Republic and the Sith, with a fresh outbreak of hostilities.)

[Lores]

Looks a little like Tabula Rasa

[Toucan]

Can I play alone?

While there are some tasks that cannot be completed without the cooperation of others, the majority of the game can be accomplished by playing alone.

thats my favourite bit
i love playing online, but at other times i like to just get my head down and go solo.
i is happy

[Iakimo]

1UP Liveblog

The event will begin soon...
2:11 Scooter: Hey everyone, we are still waiting while people are checking in.
2:11 Scooter: Now the doors are opening.
2:12 Scooter: We just been told no photos or videos. USE IMAGination!
2:15 Scooter: THIS CONNECTION IS NOT VERY GOOD.
2:15 Scooter: Reception sucks here. I have no idea how well this will work.
2:18 Scooter: HOLY SMOKES
2:18 Scooter: I finally have internet!
2:18 Scooter: SW themeQ!
2:18 Scooter: Montage of movie clips
2:18 Scooter: DR Ray on screen talking about Star Wars RPG stuff
2:19 Scooter: all KOTOR footage on screen so far. nothing new
2:19 Scooter: So manu talking heads
2:19 Scooter: Now they're talking about KOTOR 2, wihch bioware didnt do, wheeee!
2:20 Scooter: Now they're babbling about the comics
2:20 Scooter: Dr Ray likes the toys, apparently.
2:20 Scooter: Some Lucasarts suit talks abougt "one of the worst kept secrets in the industry"
2:20 Scooter: Lucasrts suit = Gerry Rodriguez
2:21 Scooter: Darrell
2:21 Scooter: I totally got his name wrong.
2:21 Scooter: He finally called it the online KOTOR
2:21 Scooter: He's talkig about how awesome Buoiware is and how they're friends with EA
2:21 Scooter: Star Wars IP plus BioWare storytelling plus EA coolness
2:22 Scooter: Dr Ray and Greg are now here.
2:22 Scooter: Ray is still the Spock of hte gaming industry
2:22 Scooter: Ray is talking about the rumors, such as Howard the Duck the MMO
2:22 Scooter: I totally would play that.
2:22 Scooter: THX-1138 was another joke idea.
2:23 Scooter: MMO in the KOTOR universe, again, verified by Ray.
2:23 Scooter: "A dynamic period full of jedi and sith"
2:23 Scooter: Story-based MMO
2:23 Scooter: I hope it's like age of conan, but better.
2:23 Scooter: Ray wants to make something innovative and storybased
2:24 Scooter: Now he's talking about the KOTOR3 and going into KOTOR6, but decided to go MMO route
2:24 Scooter: listing the four pillars: exploration, customization, combat, and ...
2:24 Scooter: STORY
2:24 Scooter: story gives MEANING
2:25 Scooter: Ray is talking about living the archetypal moments of the SW universe
2:25 Scooter: Greg is talking about state of the game and how it's playable
2:25 Scooter: "We're not going to be playing it today"
2:25 Scooter: Doh
2:25 Scooter: Greg is dropping mad MMO acronyms like RVR PVP etc
2:26 Scooter: But he's talking about a game for KOTOR fans who don't play MMOs
2:26 Scooter: Companion characters are now the topic
2:26 Scooter: COMPANIONS ARE IN. HK-47 PET?!?!?!?
2:26 Scooter: You can't have Han Solo without Chewbacca is the analogy Greg uses.
2:27 Scooter: Companions will have own stories and quests, and you can manipulate them if you're an evil dark side duder
2:27 Scooter: BG2 is COMPLETELY DWARFED by this game (size-wise)
2:27 Scooter: TRAILER TIME
2:28 Scooter: still plying logos
2:28 Scooter: title scroll about imminent war between sith and old republic
2:28 Scooter: olde tyme space shio,and close up of a crystal thingy
2:28 Scooter: there's an assassin droid on screen
2:29 Scooter: some jedi dude is force choking some soldier fool
2:29 Scooter: DOORS ARE OPENING
2:29 Scooter: EPISODE 1 FIGHT MUSIC whike two jedi are dueling
2:29 Scooter: "your saga begins online"
2:29 Scooter: Star Wars: the Old republic = title
2:30 Scooter: Ray is introducing James Ohlen
2:30 Scooter: Lead designer on KOTOR and Baldur's Gate
2:30 Scooter: He's got street cred
2:30 Scooter: He's going to talk about high level design stuff
2:31 Scooter: KOTOR is the coolest game of my career, and SW: Old republic is even MORE exciting! compelling!
2:31 Scooter: "bringing story to the online space"
2:31 Scooter: takes place 3500 years before movies
2:31 Scooter: there's a haggard jedi looking guy plus some random monster art on screen while he talks
2:31 Scooter: 300 years after KOTOR 1 and 2
2:32 Scooter: New Sith Empire is THE MAN
2:32 Scooter: terentatex= ny Star wars nerd know what this is?it was just onscreen
2:32 Scooter: Faction: Galactic Republic or Sith Empire
2:32 Scooter: classes within each faction
2:33 Scooter: he's talking about individual stories of characters like han solo and luke
2:33 Scooter: that's the dynamic he wants; players with own stories who commune with others
2:33 Scooter: players will have to make hard choices
2:33 Scooter: "good, evil, pragmatic, or unpredictable"
2:34 Scooter: reiterates that companion characters are important to both bioware games and SW movies
2:34 Scooter: companions, player choice, unique classes, and players joining together are the key factors of the experience
2:34 Scooter: now here comes the art director
2:35 Scooter: Jeff Dobson, he's worked on other MMOs
2:35 Scooter: quick aside: no in game art has been shown so far
2:35 Scooter: I WILL DESCRIBE THE GAME LOOK WHEN I SEE IT
2:35 Scooter: all art is concept art so far
2:36 Scooter: Dobson is talking about making it Star Wars and recognizable
2:36 Scooter: oh wait, a kinda cool image of a olde tyme trooper just flashed by
2:36 Scooter: looks pretty KOTOR-ish
2:37 Scooter: it's a trooper design i haven't really seen
2:37 Scooter: NOT EVEN ANTHONY knows what the trooper was!
2:37 Scooter: he's a huge SW nerd
2:38 Scooter: he's talking about how they gotta get the character art right, since that's ALL YOU SEE IN AN MMO
2:38 Scooter: why is he talking about broad shoulders and square jaws if you're going to wear space armor? that's a mystery to me.
2:39 Scooter: AHA, he just talks about how the art is designed to run across ALL range of PCs
2:39 Scooter: he's talking about a video that's coming up
2:40 Scooter: pre-production footage marker just flashed by
2:40 Scooter: unoptimized framerate!
2:40 Scooter: just location shots so far
2:40 Scooter: now jedi and droids and combat sequences
2:40 Scooter: no UI, so i cant tell you how it's actually playing out.
2:41 Scooter: anythony said it reminded him of age of conan with a bit of WoW
2:41 Scooter: combat-aninmation wise
2:41 Scooter: choppy jedi swings
2:41 Scooter: back to the title card
2:42 Scooter: ray is talking about general overview stuff
2:42 Scooter: there will be PvP, raids, etc.
2:42 Scooter: still no specifics about classes or anything
2:43 Scooter: it's still early, and now they're done talking
2:43 Scooter: So really, all that's been said and shown is some choppy combat and talks about story stuff without specifics
2:43 Scooter: we'll have breakout sessions, and will try to get more info from them...

(The feed then goes on to Q&A from the feed audience)

[Iakimo]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/922/922115p1.html

A pretty informative, four-page first-look article from IGN....

[Iakimo]

And Ten Ton Hammer has, erm, weighed in....

[Iakimo]

Gamespot has an exclusive video featuring interviews with several members of the design team.

[Istik]

Merged the two topics into one.

Also a statement about SWG's future.

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment remain committed to Star Wars Galaxies and there is a lot on the way for the game! Not only is Chapter 11 coming up, but also Life Day, Game Update 6, Chapter 12, a new set for the Trading Card Game, and more in the future.

You can see related information in this article on GameSpot:

The amount of energy, resources, and enthusiasm being thrown at The Old Republic raises one obvious question: What about Galaxies? LucasArts was emphatic about the fact that there's enough room for two viable Star Wars MMORPGs to co-exist.

"We're looking to continue to support Galaxies with high-quality updates on into the future," said Jake Neri, producer for LucasArts' online division. "We're focused on a chapter release around Hoth, where we're re-creating the battle at Echo Base. We'll allow players to get in groups and jump in and just participate in a very high-quality battle. We've just released a trading card game inside of Galaxies, and fans are eating it up. Looking into next year, we're going to revamp our droid system with something called droid commander." Neri also said that SOE Austin was working in conjunction with LucasArts on further additions to Galaxies for years to come, with no end to the game in sight.

[Iakimo]

...The amount of energy, resources, and enthusiasm being thrown at The Old Republic raises one obvious question: What about Galaxies? LucasArts was emphatic about the fact that there's enough room for two viable Star Wars MMORPGs to co-exist....

Heh... as Astro used to say to George Jetson: "Rotsa ruck, Reorge...."

But then, the inclusion of the key adjective, "VIABLE" does not escape my notice. If SWG is in fact viable, then hey, they may go about their business, move along and all that. No need to take someone's game away for spite.

But then, I fully expect SW:TOR to turn SWG into a greasy road-kill on the information superhighway.

[gelfling]

Made it sticky sticky An MMO announcement isn't something that is usually cause for special attention on our forum but this is a Star Wars MMO

Thanks to Istik who merged the two threads when I was too sleepy to do that last night

Back to the topic at hand.

[gelfling]

And here's Rock, Paper, Shotgun's take: That’s No Moon. It’s a MMO: The Old Republic!

[Toucan]

weird
when i try to access the offcial website from work, it tries to download it as a file.......
does it with both www.swtor.com and www.starwarstheoldrepublic.com

[Toucan]

good 10 min interview with the folks at bio and lucas here
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starwarst ... eo/6199708

says most of the stuff we've already heard, but good to hear none the less

[Xzaver]

this will be nail in the coffin for swg.. for me

[Toucan]

aye, dont see me playing 2 sw mmo's
i wonder if lucasarts will do anything for existing swg players
some free shit in game or something

[eirykhi]

life time acount maby like u can get wow? that i would like

[Krella Fantana]

Hmm, too soon to tell for me. The complexity and non-linear nature of SWG pissed me off for the first three months of playing but now that I've played for a little over a year those same things have endeared me to it. The feeling of actual achievement in figuring out how a system works (even with the help of wikis and forums) is satisfying, as well as the incredible variety of play styles and activities - many of which are full games in their own right - keep the game new for me. I don't have the perspective of those of you that have played for many years and I never knew the game prior to the NGE. I can safely say that in the 400-odd days of playing that I really haven't tried all the different sub-professions of the game - and I mean things like playing the resource hunting sub-profession, fishing, barely touched space mining, barely touched full beast mastering, just starting to figure out shipwright, pvp, and I'm sure the list goes on - and with all that not done I still feel I've been busy all the time in game - moments of boredom have been rare. Things I thought I wouldn't like I've ended up enjoying and some things I thought I'd like I've ended up losing interest in.

This being my first and only mmo there was a whole other learning curve to overcome versus the confines of a single player game (like, uh, the permanence of character gender selection... ). Lots of things I've read on mmo-related blogs seem to suggest that the game elements of swg - specifically the sandbox dowhatchalike, social non-combat element, and the completely character sustained and regulated economy - are from a unique era of time on the mmo market evolution and won't be done in games going forward since the WoW model is proven more economically successful. I don't know how true that is but all those things I've come to really admire about swg.

I'll no doubt try the new mmo I'll obviously have to compare it against swg since it is the only mmo I know and I'll compare it against the other KOTOR games since I enjoyed them a lot as well. What makes me cautiously hopeful is that all the things I liked about the first two KOTOR games - the story line and the expansiveness of the game - pale in an mmo setting since it would be super difficult to have that kind of story in a multiplayer environment since an environment that changes based on your choiced is tough when the people in that environment are real people, and the expansiveness of the universe is kind of assumed in an mmo so it is less impressive than it was in a single player game.

Sorry for the long post, I'm putting off working on some budget spreadsheets for work, I'll go do that now...

[Istik]

I agree with krella.

If SWTOR is going to be anything like KOTOR, then it wont be huge open world environments like SWG, but more like small arenas like Kashyyyk in SWG. I'm still a fan of pre-NGE, and dont really care much for all the new shiny trinkets we have now in SWG.

There isnt really much info to go on currently, other than a few screenshots and the fact that it's bioware. As far as Bioware's games go, they are becoming less and less RPGs, but more like Story based action games, and the Stories have pretty much been the same across the board of Bioware games, just set in different universes.

[asharin]

life time acount maby like u can get wow? that i would like

WoW doesn't have lifetime accounts. LOTRO does though

[Krella Fantana]

Eww, a little discouraging for my tastes...


Star Wars MMO and Warhammer Online 'Under Consideration' for Console Release

Though BioWare only announced its story-driven MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic for PC, studio owner Electronic Arts have revealed that console releases of both Star Wars and EA Mythic's PC-only MMO Warhammer Online are being considered.

"We're definitely looking at the opportunity to bring the MMO experience to console, without question," EA Games president Frank Gibeau informed Eurogamer.

"[Star Wars: The Old Republic and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning are] under consideration," he continued, warning that the company is "not really in a place to commit or announce anything specific with regards to those."

Warhammer Online launched on PC this past September. Developer BioWare and publisher LucasArts have yet to state when Star Wars: The Old Republic will arrive, though the studio has promised that an open beta will precede its release.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55482

[Toucan]

swg was originally penciled in for the 1st xbox
realisticly,we are probably about 2 years away from this game
by that time the xbox 360 will have been on the market for about 5 years, and the new one will be looming
i doubt they would develop this game for a platform that is nearing the end of it's shelf life

as much as a fan of consoles i am, you need a pc to play an mmo

[Lores]

I think the 360 and PS3 will have a longer shelf life then their predessors or a move toward one open console platform.

[swalmy]

I can't wait

[Istik]

Console.. means a really annoying interface that has lots of scrolling to make up for the lack of buttons on the controllers and no mouse (Original NGE or KOTOR style.)

I wouldnt cancel your SWG accounts yet guys, as it will probably be years off.

[asharin]

Console.. means a really annoying interface that has lots of scrolling to make up for the lack of buttons on the controllers and no mouse (Original NGE or KOTOR style.)

I wouldnt cancel your SWG accounts yet guys, as it will probably be years off.

Hardly, as you can plug a keyboard/mouse into both a PS3 and a 360. Don't forget a keyboard was required for the PS2 version of Everquest.

[gelfling]

Console.. means a really annoying interface that has lots of scrolling to make up for the lack of buttons on the controllers and no mouse (Original NGE or KOTOR style.)

Plus an over-simplified game engine, limited re-playability and a challenge-less, fixed game. See Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance the console game for an example. I know it's an old game now but that game, developed just for consoles, was stark in comparison to the rich and diverse world provided by the PC-only Baldur's Gate II. Both games were made by Bioware. I sincerely hope that SWTOR is not restricted so to be compatible for consoles.

[Istik]

Console.. means a really annoying interface that has lots of scrolling to make up for the lack of buttons on the controllers and no mouse (Original NGE or KOTOR style.)

I wouldnt cancel your SWG accounts yet guys, as it will probably be years off.

Hardly, as you can plug a keyboard/mouse into both a PS3 and a 360. Don't forget a keyboard was required for the PS2 version of Everquest.

Yes you can do that, but thats not how they design most games that come out for consoles, as that would reduce the amount of people who would buy the game.