StarWarsMMO.net Exclusive Community Interview

With The Old Republic gaining momentum in gaming circles, will this new game have what it takes to carve itself a place in an already crowded gaming niche with competitors like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and let’s not forget potentially the most interesting competitor: Star Wars Galaxies?

Clearly the game already has strong backing by the Knights of the Old Republic game series fanbase, some of whom have been waiting years for resolution to the series. The StarWarsMMO.net staff has taken a keen interest in seeing what the community’s thoughts and expectations are for The Old Republic and how previous gaming experiences may have shaped those expectations.

We interviewed four players — a Star Wars Galaxies player, a World of Warcraft player, a Guild Wars player, and a Knights of the Old Republic player — to see what they thought of The Old Republic so far.

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Q: Are you excited about The Old Republic? Why?

Pretty excited, yeah. I’m an avid Star Wars fan, so naturally I’m excited about a new game based in the SW universe. The ability to interact with other people in experiencing the game has me pretty stoked as well. I know that most people in my SWG guild are excited about it as well, so we’ll definitely be giving it a whirl when it comes out.
Well, its a Star Wars game. I get excited by all of them.

My enthusiasm for the game is somewhat tempered right now, being as we don’t know a lot about it. The promise of an MMO set in the Star Wars universe has always been an exciting one, but hasn’t really worked when implemented. I’m hoping that they can make it work without degenerating into mediocrity.

Yes, because it is the one Star Wars game that can be totally independent of any other Star Wars storylines because it takes place before the Star Wars trilogies.

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Q: BioWare and LucasArts have said in an interview that they do not plan on making Knights of the Old Republic III, but are making The Old Republic instead. What are your thoughts on this?

I’m fine with it, really. I’ve played both Knights of the Old Republic games and the first one was definitely my favorite. The storyline and characters were much more engaging and believable than the second one. The Sith Lords was an okay game, but it felt rushed and incomplete and didn’t really draw me in as much. If BioWare is going to focus its considerable creative energies into making an MMO-style sequel to the two Knights games, then I’m all for it. It’d be nice to tie into the previous two games, but I don’t think that will affect my enjoyment of SWTOR.

As a gamer of diverse tastes I’m not disappointed by that decision. RPG’s like KOTOR are fun, but so are MMO’s. As a business, if The Old Republic takes off it would be worth much more money than a traditional RPG while delivering the same Star Warsy content to the consumer.

I’m disappointed. The Sith Lords was a good game, but it felt rushed and didn’t really provide closure for fans of the series with regards to Revan and the Exile. I was hoping that eventually KIII would shed some light on this, but apparently not. Perhaps they will do something with SWTOR’s story that addresses both former protagonists, but I’m not quite sure how that would work in an MMO setting.

Suppose it saves money for the game developers and still gives the fans of the KotOR games something new.

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Q: How do you think The Old Republic’s story will be implemented into the game, based on the information currently available?

The thing with any role-playing game is that you’ve pretty much got one way of delivering a storyline, and that’s through quests. That’s fine by me; I just hope they make them interesting. I also like the time period the game is set in as opposed to the one in Galaxies, as it should allow the developers more leeway with imagining and designing a story.

I haven’t read too heavily into the development as it is still very early and games, especially MMO’s, tend to change quite often and occasionally drastically. But if the BioWare track record stands up, I would expect the story to be implemented as quests and questlines, dungeons and/or instances, zones based on the lore and story, etc. Typical MMO story development.

Like any other MMO’s story: through repeatable quests and campaigns. The very nature of an MMO entails a lot of playtime, so the story will have to be interwoven through dialogue and story-oriented quests and missions.

Can’t comment as I don’t know what TOR’s storyline is.

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Q: What is more important to you: story or gameplay? Why?

Can’t I have both? I like good stories and when I play a game, I want to be entertained. With BioWare at the helm, I’m not too concerned about the quality of the story as they’ve always come up with great storylines. At the same time, good gameplay should also be something that is highly prioritized. A lot of people are going to to be playing this game, and to keep them playing, an easy-to-use system of play is absolutely required. I’m okay with a little innovation here and there, but I don’t think they should try to do too much.

As an MMO gameplay has to be the focus. In an RPG, if your game lasts for 30 hours thats fine. The user can play once or twice and be satisfied. With an MMO, its imperative that gameplay comes first. People will spend many more hours playing the game, and a successful MMO must focus on retaining customers. As an MMO player, I understand that the player ends up running through the same content over and over. With that as the case, the gameplay has to be engaging. Focus on story is fantastic and definately a major component of a good RPG. I certainly can’t imagine an MMO that would forsake gameplay for story though. Besides, the real draw of any MMO is social.

For an MMO, it would have to be gameplay. As I said before, MMOs by their nature entail a lot of playtime and if you’re playing a game with a broken interface then you’ll likely not be playing it for long. As such, I feel that Bioware needs to create smooth and easy-to-pick up gameplay to keep players of the game engaged.

Story first, gameplay second. A good story encourages progression through the gameplay, even if you hit a difficult patch.

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Q: What kinds of non-Force classes would you like to see implemented into the final game?

Bounty hunters, definitely. I have many fond memories of jetting around as a bounty hunter with my guild. Smugglers, medics, traders too, I suppose.

I think that the old Galaxies model worked well. That game had a variety of non-Force classes that a player could pursue. I think that the melee classes in Galaxies were somewhat forced though, almost only there to balance the ranged classes. I think that if the TOR developers can get a handle on the dynamics and balance of Jedi vs non-Jedi they’ll have some great gameplay classwise. I’d also love to see some good crafting implemented as a classish system. Too many games sideline crafting or make it trivial.

Smugglers, of course being a staple of the SW universe. Probably some military as well, soldiers, pilots, those sort. Oh and Wookiees. Big ol’ Wookiee warriors.

Scoundrel, Soldier, Scout, and Trader (Spacer/Smuggler).

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