A Hands-on commentary on the new MMO – Star Wars: The Old Republic
There’s an unnavigable divide between the world of MMORPGs and the art of good storytelling. Not writing, mind you — the gang at Blizzard know their way around a word processor — but rather, the actual sharing of a story. It’s not a genre that supports the relaying of intricate plotlines. Most players are in it for the grind, for social status or notoriety. The option to enable “text skipping” doesn’t exactly lend itself to plot development. Even if the mass interest was there, all of the game’s players are receiving the same storyline. No choice, no branching, no consequences.
Attempting to build a bridge with which to cross this divide would be an extremely ambitious undertaking. Fortunately, Bioware is a studio well versed in ambition — and, if our brief time with the game is any indication, Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to irrevocably change the way MMOs tell stories.
After both watching the game in action at a LucasArts demo and getting our hands on it shortly thereafter, we were left with a bizarre feeling that what we had just seen was not in fact an MMO, but rather, another offline installment in the KOTOR franchise. The familiar elements were there — rich storytelling, clever writing and interesting characters. These elements were presented in frequent cutscenes which appear in lieu of scrolling text quest — a welcome change for the hardcore MMO player with a number of levels notched into their belt. – article
I feel like this was written with my own heart in mind. Ever since I began playing WoW, while I have enjoyed it greatly and dove in with gusto, I’ve felt something missing. I knew it would be missing before I began, so I took it as a given. I was even surprised occasionally at a really great story arc within a group of quests. But ultimately, the quests are completely divorced from the raids that give the end-game meaning, and it is rare that anything really feels connected.
Phasing, a new thing in Warcraft that allows the region to change as you complete quests, is a great start, but ultimately, this has the feel of a sandbox world, and I want an epic.
Here’s where the aforementioned ambition comes into play — each of the game’s classes will have its own personal story arc that lasts throughout its entire lifespan. Beneath this umbrella is an epic class-specific story as well as a few serialized mini-arcs which include a ton of tied-together quests and instanced dungeons. Daniel Erickson, The Old Republic’s lead writer, explained that the game’s quests are so linked to a player’s personal story that no one quest will be embarked upon by two different classes.
Or, in other words, two characters from two different classes won’t receive any of the same quests. The replay value here is going to be mind-boggling.
Yes. Yes.
Oh sweet jesus those fuckers have gotten me then. The thing that has kept me from WoW, Everquest, or the like is that there are free versions of that in existence already… MUDs, and typically a better narrative story and RP element can be generated due to the smaller nature and “everybody knows everybody” community.
If they have brought a stronger element of Role Play to a graphical MMO, my work and school life are wicked, wicked fucked. :)
All they need now is some sort of user-generated infrastructure, like housing, and I’m on it like Carradine on a rope.
… what, too soon?
That made some LOLs happen here.
I would sign up for this in an instant – if it wasn’t for the fact that they’ve neglected to even consider putting in a text/subtitle option, meaning my husband (and millions of Deaf gamers around the world) have been shut out yet another gaming experience. If you can make a game that’s wordier than the entire run of the Sopranos, the least you could do is add subtitles. :(
If that’s true, that is definitely a shame. It seems pretty early on, to me, to make that determination, unless you have some inside info. I can certainly see some lawsuits coming out of that.
I’m sorry – I guess I’m just used to being cynical in regard to accessible gaming. With the advent of “immersive gameplay,” my husband has gotten used to being left out of the loop. It wouldn’t surprise me if they neglected to add a subtitle track. Hopefully if lawsuits do arise, it will be resolved with a subtitle patch.
If this pans out well, it certainly raises the bar as far as my own project’s concerned. That said, we have plans to be ambitious anyway :-)
If only it weren’t an MMO :(