StarWarsMMO.net Exclusive Community Interview

Q: What weaknesses do you see in the game you play that BioWare should learn from during the development of The Old Republic?

BioWare should definitely not repeat what happened with Galaxies and re-write most of the whole game from basically scratch. The NGE almost turned me off to Galaxies completely. I ended up staying for my guildmates and eventually got used to the changes, but no developer should ever make a big sweeping change like that. I also wish that we could form groups of more than 8 players.

I currently play WoW, but I have played a number of MMOs in the past. I played both LOTRO and AoC rather seriously and both had deficiencies that made me turn to WoW again. LOTRO had a great graphics, a great crafting system, great PvE play, great leveling experience, and so many of those little geek-out qualities. Little LotR triva stuff, and things like smoking pipe-weed really made it really fun to play the game and be in the world. The problem with LOTRO that I had was the endgame was lackluster. There were few raids, and the ones that did exist didn’t incentivize playing them. There were also big problems with PvP, though I’ll congratulate Turbine on trying out a creative system. AoC was the exact opposite. That game has rather terrible PvE. The handful of instances that existed were plain and quite boring. PvP was good and the classes had alot of fun gameplay but not enough to make up for the lack in PvE and levelling. WoW includes a robust and fun PvE and PvP environment, both at the endgame and leveling stages. BioWare needs to be able to provide both. If the endgame is lacking, customers shy away to a game they can play longer. If the leveling is bad, people quit.

Party size limitation and the lack of a centralized auction house. Guild Wars’ party limit is 8, meaning groups larger than that must separate. A big part of an MMO’s appeal is usually co-operative gameplay, so being able to play with more than 8 people at a time would be nice. Guild Wars also lacks a central auction house, so most players are reduced to peddling their wares full-time in big cities. An auction house would give people more time to actually experience the game rather than sitting in town.

Clues to quests that didn’t exist or weren’t pertinent to the storyline. (example: Droid Factory for PC, Assassination quest)

Q: How do you expect payment to be handled for The Old Republic and will it be a factor in your decision to buy/play the game?

Money really isn’t an issue. I’ll pay whatever the monthly fee is as long as I get a good game in return.

In this market the standard ~$15 a month is what I would expect. And no, payment would not be a factor in my playing it.

Being that Guild Wars is free, I would love for TOR to be free as well. I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that it will be though, so I’m prepared for it. I’d be okay with a monthly fee of $10-15, but anything more than that would be too much. And it goes without saying that the gameplay and story will have to attract me enough to keep paying for the game.

Credit card or PayPal. And, yes, anymore than $15/month and I wouldn’t be interested.

Q: Based on current information, art, and media, what do you like best about The Old Republic and what do you like least?

I like the fact that BioWare is spending a lot of time developing the story. Hopefully this shows that they’re committed to keeping the Star Wars story firmly in the game and not just some random afterthought. Not sure if I have anything I like ‘the least’ about it as it isn’t even out yet, but the whole ‘choreographed combat‘ idea has me just a bit wary. Sounds good in theory, but I’m having a hard time visualizing it in my head.

Like any MMO or any game really, the art/media is never like playing. And at this early stage, everything is mutable. Really, I’m just excited that a new Star Wars MMO is coming out.

Being that there isn’t really a lot of information out right now, I’d have to say the fact that BioWare is working on TOR is the best thing it has going for it now. BioWare is a proven developer and their products have been uniformly stellar, so I have high hopes for them in this project. As for the thing I like the least, I think it’d have to be the size of the lightsabers. They’re too big.

The opportunity to explore the time period of the KotOR era actively is what I like the best about it. I can’t really think of anything to dislike at this point as there is not much to go on.

Q: What do you think of the current art style for the game?

I think it’s a little early to tell, but from what I’ve seen so far, it looks pretty good. I just hope they keep it somewhat realistically proportioned and nothing too cartoony.

The artstyle looks good. It looks like a natural extension of what the art looks like for the KotOR games. And that style worked for me.

I can’t really render a decision on this, being that the game isn’t even in alpha yet. But just going on the screenshots that have been released, it looks fairly decent. Nothing really groundbreaking.

Fine like it is.

Q: What feature from the game you play would you most like to see implemented into The Old Republic?

A space exploration/combat element would be nice. Being able to fly around in my very own ship is probably my favorite part of Galaxies, so I’d like to see it make the transition to TOR. After all, what’s Star Wars without spaceships?

I’d like to see a good raid system. I’ve always been a fan of endgame PvE. I think that raids would be alot of fun in a Star Wars environment.

A hard level cap, preferably not too high. I dislike grinding for XP immensely and Guild Wars alleviated that somewhat by implementing a level cap of 20, making it easy to get to and subsequently quicker to experience the full content of the game. Being able to do that in TOR would be a big draw for me.

Chatter between NPCs during play.

Q: Do you think there will be a fundamental imbalance between Force classes (Jedi/Sith) and non-Force classes? Please explain.

I hope there isn’t really an imbalance, especially for those of us that don’t care to be Jedi. I think BioWare will be able to come up with some way of balancing them out, purely out of necessity. Nobody wants to go around in constant fear of getting ganked by a Jedi/Sith. It wasn’t handled especially well in Galaxies.

No. If there was an imbalance there would either be The Old Jedi game, or Jedi would be obsolete and not played. Class balance is essential in an MMO, and I think that lesson was learned when Galaxies was ruined by the inclusion of Jedi.

I think there would have to be. The movies and media of Star Wars make the Jedi out to be far more than your average spacegoer, so to dial them back wouldn’t be true to canon and would most likely have fans upset. That being said, having everyone be a Jedi would certainly cheapen what it means to be one and probably cause imbalance issues with those who chose not to be Jedi. I’m very interested on how Bioware plans to handle this aspect of the the game and whether or not it will be a workable system.

No, as long as Jedi/Sith classes are unable to get protective armour and certain weapons.

Q: If you were going to play The Old Republic, would you play as a Force class (Jedi/Sith) or a non-Force class? Why?

I like non-Force classes usually. Flashy lightsabering does get old after a while. That being said, BioWare may just implement a system that makes Jedi a lot of fun, so I might end up playing that more. And at least this time around, it’s somewhat acceptable for bunches of Jedi to be milling about, as opposed to the setting of Galaxies.

I think I would certainly try out Jedi. But I’ve played Jedi in KOTOR, Jedi Knight, and countless other Star Wars games. Playing something other than Jedi would be fun too, assuming class balance isn’t an issue.

I would likely try both, to see which one I liked better as well as to have some versatility in my gameplay options.

Probably Jedi/Sith to start off with to get a better feel for the game. Then non-Force later after I know what to expect.

Q: What feature, if not included, would be your top deal-breaker for The Old Republic?

Being able to modify my character’s appearance. I’m somewhat vain this way, but I like being able to change how I look every so often. It mixes things up a bit.
If there wasn’t good PvP and PvE, I don’t think I would play it.

Being able to take myself away from PvP. I am mostly a PvE player and I don’t dabble in PvP if I can help it. Having separate options where I would never have to deal with PvPers would be excellent.

A PvE component.

Q: What races are you hoping to be able to play in The Old Republic?

I like the way Nautolans look, so it would be neat to play as one. I’m not sure if Chiss were around back then, but they’d be cool to play as well. Oh, and Arkanians too!

I think the old favorites from the movies and the ones that were included in Galaxies would be good to have. Though personally, I’m rather unconcerned.

I’ve always been partial to Falleen and Zeltrons, so I hope I’ll be able to have them as options. Though I’m not averse to playing a Gamorrean.

Human, Twi’Lek, Cathar, and maybe Duros.

Q: Would you prefer open-world areas or instanced areas? Why?

A blend of the two. Dungeons should definitely be instanced, but I do like being able to explore the open world as well.

It would have to be open-world. Instanced areas have always made for poor MMO play as far as I’m concerned. I refer to the AoC and particularly GW style. Having different continents, WoW style, or other planets Galaxies style wouldn’t be a big deal.

Instanced areas have the benefit of not having to deal with players other than the ones you chose to associate yourself with. It’s worked out well for me in Guild Wars and I would be happy to see it implemented in TOR. It’s been my experience that MMO players can be quite immature, so being able to screen them out while I play with my friends would be great. However, I’m not opposed to open-world centralized towns, which I think are staples of the genre anyway.

Open-world areas. Makes the game world seem ‘bigger’ to me.

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