StarWarsMMO.net Exclusive Community Interview
By Inyri on November 20th, 2008
The StarWarsMMO.net staff wanted to touch on a subject that proved to be fairly fatal for SW:TOR’s predecessor Star Wars Galaxies: Jedi. What is likely to be one of BioWare’s biggest headaches in the development of their new Star Wars MMO is how to effectively balance Jedi and Sith versus the non-Force classes. Clearly it is something that needs to be done, if only for gameplay’s sake. One of our players mentioned that, realistically, there should be no balance between Force-using and non-Force-using classes because, by nature, Jedi and Sith should be more powerful than a common soldier.
However from a gameplay perspective having Force users be overpowered would certainly result in those classes being picked almost exclusively over the other classes, so in order to make a well-balanced game BioWare will need to decide how to equalize these otherwise unequal class groups in order to make the game both playable and enjoyable for both player who would like to rule the galaxy as a Dark Lord of the Sith and players who might want to track down those Dark Lords for the hefty bounty placed upon them. Our other three players feel certain that BioWare is up to the task, and the StarWarsMMO.net staff can’t help but agree.
On a final note we would like to mention Knights of the Old Republic III. As many fans who are following the development of SW:TOR know, BioWare has confirmed that this title will replace KotOR3. We asked our interviewees what they thought of this and most of them felt fine about it, but we acknowledge that this does not represent the opinion of the majority of the Knights of the Old Republic fanbase. The StarWarsMMO.net staff feels that this MMO taking the place of KotOR3 (and any subsequent sequels there may have been) is the only natural course the game franchise could have taken.
Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords relied heavily on the player making choices at the beginning of the game to set the player’s personal canon for the events of the original Knights of the Old Republic game. It is the StarWarsMMO.net staff’s opinion that to do this kind of thing in a third game, taking into consideration the plethora of variables from both previous games, would have limited the development team and would have placed an enormous strain on any story the game might have had.
The Star Wars franchise is broad, varied, and well-founded over more than thirty years of films, books, and video games. BioWare will have an incredible amount of information and resources to work with to produce a first-class game, however they must move forward with caution. While there is 30 years of material to work with, there are also 30 years of preconceptions and expectations to meet. The staff at StarWarsMMO.net wishes BioWare the best of luck; after all, we’re Star Wars fans too.
Looks like a good gauge of interested fans and their opinions on TOR. I think the expectations outlined here are pretty indicative of how most people feel right now, so I think Bioware would do well to pay attention to them and use them to shape the game’s development, especially early on.
Great job!
Yeah I agree, especially on areas where all 4 players generally agree on a question.
Thanks for reading, guys, and make sure to give thanks to our four interviewed players! They were kind to take some time out from their busy schedules to talk with us as we hope that SW:TOR turns out well for them (and for all of you!).
If you liked the interview be sure to digg it on digg.com.
Well, that wasn’t one-sided.
What makes it one sided?
To be honest, I find the interview kinda filtered. I for one, am extremely disappointed of the second “purely marketing” decision when it comes to KotOR.
1. Rushing an utterly incomplete KotOR II
2. Making KotOR an MMO? – This IMO is cheap as hell. Great idea…
All in one I dropped by, because I got excited that KotOR is coming back, but now I know I won’t waste a further minute on it… MMO :S
Hi Vlad,
I’m sorry that you think the interview was filtered. I suppose you could say it was in the sense that our objective was to interview the game’s future player base, which just happens to be people who would probably enjoy the game.
It doesn’t make sense for us to interview folks who are anti-BioWare, anti-MMO, anti-KotOR, etc, because they would not be objective with their interview answers and it would result in a poor, negative-feeling interview.
I hope that clears up your concern. I also hope that you might stay objective yourself until more information is available about the game. I am not a big fan of MMO’s myself, but I am getting the distinct impression this will not just be another WoW or EverQuest clone.
So hang in there for a bit before you write it off completely. You might (and will hopefully) be surprised!
I would LOVE this to become a reality
Inyri, you have absolutelly no idea how pro KotOR/Bioware I am. On the other hand I believe this MMO move to be a huge slap in the face of the KotOR fans. I have played these games countless times and enjoyed it.
I do believe you have chosen only pro MMO guys to interview. Or did you fail to notice the negative uproar when the MMO was announced?
I’m aware of the negative feelings. I was among those that was not really pleased with the choice to go with the MMO. But I did not come here to complain, but rather watch the progress hopefully.
The point of the interview was to pick three people who were experienced MMO players (so, by nature, they would be pro-MMO, otherwise they wouldn’t be playing) and one player who had never played an MMO.
I would not say our fourth player is pro-MMO, because she has never experienced them so can’t really have formulated an opinion one way or the other. I would say, judging from her answers, she is open-minded.
I hope that clarifies the purpose of this interview. We really wanted some in-depth opinions and not just four pages of people ranting about how disappointed they were. If I wanted to read that I would hop on over to the forums, where you can find plenty of threads on that topic.
luckskie walker
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cool
this game is very very short and it isn`t reality the stormtrooper his head is defoormed & isn’t a real planet’s…..
abc
Can you be a Sith or Jedi and wield a lightsaber right away?
Anyone know the answer to that yet???
Anyone?????????
Don’t ignore me.
No one is ignoring you, this article is fairly old so I doubt many people are coming back to check it. Anyways, you will be able to start immediately as a Jedi or Sith, presumably with a lightsaber.