At E3 this year, LucasArts and BioWare gave not only their first live demos of The Old Republic to press, but also released what has quickly become a fan-favorite trailer for the game. The reception has been fantastic. And as more information came out, fans got more excited. It should be no surprise – Knights of the Old Republic is one of the better loved Star Wars videogames, and it came out of this same partnership. Today, Jake Neri from LucasArts moderated a panel to give fans even more insight into exactly what goes into making a game that continually breaks boundaries.
On the panel were some of the senior people from the development team - Hall Hood (senior writer, BioWare), Alexander Freed (managing editor, BioWare), Dallas Dickinson (senior content producer, BioWare), and Jeff Dobson (art director, BioWare). Jake wasted no time jumping directly into the questions – starting with Dallas who didn’t shy away from a few jokes. “Star Wars: The Old Republic is a Story-Driven Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game – that’s SDMMORPG for those who are Twittering right now. It’s set 3,000 years before the movies and 300 years after the events of the original Knights of the Old Republic.”
“The way we’re making it,” He continued ,“ BioWare as we make RPG’s, looks at 4 things: You need to have combat, you need to have character progress, you need to have exploration, and you need to have story. In the MMO space we feel that the games that have been out there have done a really good job at three of those – but none of them have really taken on story. That’s what we’re trying to deliver to you.” It would seem they are well on their way – this game has more voice-over lines then all their other games put together, and that is no small task.
Alexander continued the thought: “When you look at Knights of the Old Republic, that entire game is a ‘Jedi’ story. We’ve got Bounty Hunter stories, Smuggler stories, and more. And each story must work together, and have a beginning, middle, and end. If you want to know the military world of The Old Republic, we’ve got the Trooper. If you want the underworld we have the Bounty Hunter and the Smuggler.”
The smuggler is an interesting class. They are not as flashy as the Bounty Hunter or a Jedi, as their only weapon is the blaster. Paul was quite upfront, as he said that the Bounty Hunter isn’t about flash. “Smugglers are not normal people. They are the best shots in the galaxy, and you never see them coming. I mean, Han Solo shot Vader three times on Bespin. Okay, sure, it didn’t do anything, but three times! I like to believe that Vader didn’t kill Han because he understood that Han was awesome. So awesome he had to be preserved in carbonite forever!”
They certainly are a unique class as they don’t get orders from on high – they will fight the Sith, the bounty hunters, and even the Jedi should they so choose. As Jeff describes it, the world of the Smuggler class is not about flash- it’s about being that sneaky figure in the background who simply gets the job done. After you’ve played through one of the other classes, it’s a drastic change to switch and experience the story of the world from that direction.
After opening it up to Q&A, the audience did not let up. Jumping right into the ‘Light Side/Dark Side’ debate, the team explained that you can actually play the ‘nicest Sith on the block’, which gets you special abilities that only a ‘lighter side Sith’ can obtain. Each class has these levels of choices within their story, and each class can be played through many times.
Downtime is definitely being recognized by the team, as they are all MMO veterans themselves and are still creating the crafting and player economy – they don’t want to get into detail as these are relatively unannounced, but more information will be trickling out at the official website, SWTOR.com. Be watching there for new classes and races as well – definitely don’t want to miss that.
At the end of the panel, Alexander finished with quite a poignant thought: “We know this game is Star Wars, and we have to be very careful. It is certainly not going to be called Alexander Freed’s Star Wars. We’re adding to this world, and it is very challenging. It’s very hard, but we’re doing our best.”
Tags: Comic-Con, E3, LucasArts, SDCC 2009, Star Wars: The Old Republic
Amazing
Can’t wait!
When will Star Wars: The Old Republic be coming out on to the various systems? Whe will it be released?
I have watch the production clips for this game at biowares site. this look like it is probably gonna b 1 of or possibably the best sw game of all time. cant wait to play. keep up the great work at lucas arts
What systems will this game be on?
Bioware and Lucasarts, really are doing their best. I can’t wait for more updates and to play the game.
Bioware, is the best RPG maker of all time. LucasArts is the best publisher of all time. (LucasArts’ logo is so cool!
) When you combine the best, that game will be awesome!
This game looks awesome! but i’m a little disappointed because it’s not going to be out for xbox 360.
I hope they add a Mandalorian class. that would be awesome.
I hope it has alot less problems then star wars galaxies
Starwars is the best and still getting better I see, =D.
Since the last two republic RPGs I am ambitiously awaiting the release of this game, it looks to be the best RPG yet to be produced
starwars the old republic is going to be the best best best best game ever thers never going to be a better game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was always hoping for a knights of the old republic 3 and id rather kotor 3 than this but seeing as there is no kotor 3 ill take it and and i am looking forward too it it looks incredible i can wait to get this and help soothe the itch kotor left me with also incredible fan ive played more than 700 hours in kotor 1 and 2 combined
hey what about xbox 360…. when will it come out for it
yes when will this game be released? and it does look amazing!
I really am looking forward to this game! I have played many different MMOs in the past and liked them all, but there was just something that wasnt fully satisfied playing them. But though I am glad to hear about this game and eager to play it, I really REALLY REALLYY want to see KotOR 3. The ending to the sith lords just left us eager to play more and figure out more of star wars and answer all those tricky questions about revan and the exile and what happens to them from there on. But overall I am looking forward to this game. Good job Bioware and Lucasarts.
Ive played the 1st one and i beat it like 5 times and ive been wating for a new one to come out and finally YAY i havent played sith lords yet but i will get it asap and i cant wait!!!!!!!!!!! and peace out 2 all u star wars geeks out there and ime 1 of them.
Call me 15169985435
It looks awful, why do MMORPG’s need story? Your just sopposed to do battle and interact with your friends, there ruining stuff by making them artsy and adding stuff they don’t need. They added story in video games with Jak and Daxter, and now you can’t find a fun escapist game without a complex story. This better not happen with MMORPG’s.
I CANT WAT TO PLAY THIS GAME!
I know im not going to be dissapointed.
id rather see a kotor 3 than this i mean you need to have like a 2nd star forge or ansewer all them questions. you could have like bastila as a pc malak survies and mission is a sith lord. ps and zaalbar is cantina dancer
Is it coming out on the PS3?
will u be able to make your own clone and jedi
This looks like a PC/Mac only type of game…no kiddie platforms for the Xbox or PS3.
jeremiah’s wrong its for pc/mac xbox 360 and i think PS3
KOTOR 3 IS THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i simply can’t wait for this kotor mmorpg, btw just for all you people know i dont think they are gonna use mmorpg’s in console games. and the complex storylines will be a great addition to the mmorpg era. I also wish there will be many more proffesions and classes
It’s a shame that the consoles are being left out again. From a marketing perspective I think that it’s a mistake. That said, the game does look good. However, providing that they don’t screw this up, like they did with the once outstanding Star Wars Galaxies, then it should be great.
will this game be released for xbox 360 as well as PC?
this game is only coming out on Computer. It is an MMO which means Massive Multiplayer Online.
I REALLY want to be a part of the Beta for this game. I’m thinking this will be a PC title only. All of the footage and info I’ve seen looks really impresive. I think this game is what everyone was looking for in SWG. I hope it comes out soon… and at the same time hope they spend enough time to fix bugs B4 release.
Will this come out to Xbox??
I hope they will work on a Kotor 3 too! I’ve been waiting for it sooo long!
At least they’re still making games tho! =]
U would have thought that they would stop cause of Lukas getting older. ( No offense George Lukas!)
=D
the graghics are so good check out the trailer
its not gonna be on xbox 360 or PS3! just get over it! its only an online game!!!
((Bioware, is the best RPG maker of all time. LucasArts is the best publisher of all time. (LucasArts’ logo is so cool!
) When you combine the best, that game will be awesome!))
What!!!!!!! Lucasarts is the best publisher. You my friend smoke WAY too much crack. I hope this game is good but Lucas Arts has a knack for messing things up. Everything Bioware does has to run through them. I’ll believe it is good when i see it.
i think they should put it out for every consle if they make so much money on the pc alone why not make more with consles…… right?
It will only be released on PC. Visit the website.
This game will be awesome and one of the best ever mmorpg games ever. wow should be sacrd of this one. if battlefront 3 comes out then then Star Wars video games in the near feuture will be awesome.long live The old republic, battlefron and STAR WARS (:
i cant wait till this game comes out i just hope its not a pay to play type of game that’s going to suck if it is. it should b free to play after u bought the game in my opinion. i still want to see. but i cant afford to pay to play each month. i hope its free after u bought the real game. still cant wait to play and be a sith
this sounds great, I hope there are a lot of blasters to blast people with! I wonder if you have to pay to play?
when is the game trailer coming ad where do I go to see it?
I hope you get to be a jedi or create one and play as him/her.
excuse me but, there basically saying theres going to be a kotor 3 right?
k people its coming on xbox360 and pc for sure just watch the trailer on youtube, @ the end it shows on the bottom what counsols there relesing it on so PEOPLE ITS NOT FOR PC ONLY GEE. and if my resources are wrong dont need to be a smart guy and corect me i know i might be wrong!!!
What`s coming out????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As much as I am looking forward to the game I would’ve so preferred a KOTOR 3 to be quite honest… but then again; this game is looking pretty epic!
Will the game come out for the PS2?
I hope as with other MMO games this will be multi-platform, PC and MAC. I will get this game if its playable on MAC
The people saying that it will be only on PC Because it is an online only game r stupid as hell. PS3 and Xbox 360’s have online only games, look at MAG the new game, that is online only u fags! The game will be out on PS3 and Xbox 360 as well as PC so dot worry peeps.
its a MMORPG for PC