The announcement that many knew was coming has been made on the promised date. Tuesday, October 21st, BioWare proudly announced along with Lucas Arts the MMO titled Star Wars: The Old Republic. The official site is already loaded with backdrop information, screenshots, concept art, fan art, and a fast-growing message board.
BioWare has stated their goal and it is exactly what I was hoping for: an MMO where the story matters. From what I gather, players can or will have NPC companions that will react to the moral decisions made in the game (a la nearly every other BioWare game). This intrigues me. They also mention teaming up with other players, which makes me wonder how crowded the screen will get in-game.
Many people are commenting on the screenshots stating they dislike the look and feel. I have to agree with them. The exaggerated proportions and bright colors are not what I was expecting at all. I understand they may be trying to make the game seem more accessible to as large of an audience as possible (WoW has a very similar style and boasts 10 million subscribers), I think they have gone about it all wrong. Trying to capture a new generation of Star Wars viewers, the Clone Wars crapped out of theaters having grossed a grand total of over $66 million world-wide. I do not know the budget of that movie, but I do know that’s just over $467 million less than Empire Strikes Back, the former lowest-grossing Star Wars movie (incidentally, my favorite).
I really hope that BioWare delivers on gameplay. I want this to rock so very hard. But, the look? My Star Wars does not need to look like World of Warcraft took some lighting tips from Joel Schumacher, thank you very much.
Here’s hoping this will be the MMO that Star Ware lore deserves!
Wellll. I don't believe that's cell shading, "raped" might be a little strong, and no announcement has been made about release date, platform, or system requirements it may have.
Listen, you've got to understand how much money is going into MMORPGs. They typically use at least 50 million dollars, sometimes as much as 100 million just to get the game up and running for the launch, and they have a lot of costs associated with keeping the game running day to day. And if they don't get enough subscribers, they can potentially lose a fuckton of money and eventually shut the game down, which would be a shame if it's a great game, regardless of the look.
So it makes sense they would go for the lowest common denominator and make it as accessible as possible. They kind of have to, regardless of the Star Wars license. It's just a cold hard fact. A dark game may cater to and be supported by hardcore fans, but that's simply not enough when it comes to MMORPGs.
It sucks, but I don't mind. I can't blame them for not wanting to lose money.
I think anyway is up from the debacle that was the post-CU Galaxies that took place. Which wasn't to say it was necessarily a horrible system (I actually didn't mind the more action-oriented combat, although I hated the gimmick classes that they came out with). I have faith in BioWare, they've never really let me down before and I honestly think that at this point the only IP that could compete with World of Warcraft is this since everyone knows Star Wars, not everyone knows what Warhammer is all about. I honestly hope that they also port it to Macs as they hold a decent market share and the only MMO on Macs is World of Warcraft (I don't include EVE Online, it's way too impossible now).
I have to agree with Eternal on this one, also as far as the look of the game. As much as we would like to believe that the game companies out there have our best interest’s in mind you have to realize that at the end of the day making a game isn’t about making Joe q public happy, it's about making money.
Why wouldn't Bioware want their game to resemble the most successful MMO in the world? People will see commercials, ads, pictures on the web etc for this game and automatically put it in the same group as Wow.
Is that a bad thing? Sure for some of the more hardcore fans maybe, but is it bad for Bioware and their partners who have a vested interest in the success of their game? Hell no it isn't, it's just money in the bank.
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about me
I live in Kansas and I'm currently using this to break my daily monotony. If you read this, then you're going to have to deal with that.
I have loved many games, but these are the ones that absolutely destroyed my social life:
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Shadow of the Colossus
Metal Gear Solid 1 & 4 (I'm particular like that)
Final Fantasy 4, 7, 8, 9, and Tactics
Legend of Zelda (various ones)
Soul Calibur series
Shining Force 1 & 2
Half-Life series
Mass Effect
Knights of the Old Republic
Contra
BattleToads
Shenmue
Systems I currently own and have owned:
PC, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Gameboy Advance, VirtuaBoy, Sega Genesis, Sega 32X, Sega Dreamcast, Game Gear, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, X-Box, X-Box 360. I think that's it.
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
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Is that cell shading?
I can't watch my old friend Star Wars get raped anymore.
Can someone tell me if it's for consoles or just PCs?
jesus that lightsaber handle looks like a can of pringles.
Wellll. I don't believe that's cell shading, "raped" might be a little strong, and no announcement has been made about release date, platform, or system requirements it may have.
About the size of the Light sabers, I read on Kotaku that it was an error and they were going to size them down.
And well, it´s a Star Wars MMO, I couldn´t play Galaxies, so I am really interested on the proyect. Hopefully it ends up being a good game.
I was talking more about the handling of Star Wars lore in general. I loved Wind Waker (default cel shading example)
Listen, you've got to understand how much money is going into MMORPGs. They typically use at least 50 million dollars, sometimes as much as 100 million just to get the game up and running for the launch, and they have a lot of costs associated with keeping the game running day to day. And if they don't get enough subscribers, they can potentially lose a fuckton of money and eventually shut the game down, which would be a shame if it's a great game, regardless of the look.
So it makes sense they would go for the lowest common denominator and make it as accessible as possible. They kind of have to, regardless of the Star Wars license. It's just a cold hard fact. A dark game may cater to and be supported by hardcore fans, but that's simply not enough when it comes to MMORPGs.
It sucks, but I don't mind. I can't blame them for not wanting to lose money.
I think anyway is up from the debacle that was the post-CU Galaxies that took place. Which wasn't to say it was necessarily a horrible system (I actually didn't mind the more action-oriented combat, although I hated the gimmick classes that they came out with). I have faith in BioWare, they've never really let me down before and I honestly think that at this point the only IP that could compete with World of Warcraft is this since everyone knows Star Wars, not everyone knows what Warhammer is all about. I honestly hope that they also port it to Macs as they hold a decent market share and the only MMO on Macs is World of Warcraft (I don't include EVE Online, it's way too impossible now).
I have to agree with Eternal on this one, also as far as the look of the game. As much as we would like to believe that the game companies out there have our best interest’s in mind you have to realize that at the end of the day making a game isn’t about making Joe q public happy, it's about making money.
Why wouldn't Bioware want their game to resemble the most successful MMO in the world? People will see commercials, ads, pictures on the web etc for this game and automatically put it in the same group as Wow.
Is that a bad thing? Sure for some of the more hardcore fans maybe, but is it bad for Bioware and their partners who have a vested interest in the success of their game? Hell no it isn't, it's just money in the bank.
meh. I can be swayed easily though. I'd love to test out the MMO waters but after a two month test run of WOW, I'm not feeling it.
me E-penis is erected to biblical preportion I can't handle it captain
adjusted for inflation
the ticket sales of Empire Strikes Back would have netted
$1,517,925,446 in 2008
so 66 mil is 1/23rd of what ESB made.
or about 4%
you might have a point about the cartoony style.