Managing Editor Jon Wood fills in for the Community Spotlight today, taking a look at two of the hottest topics on our boards, the indefinite hold of Gods & Heroes and the rumored confirmation that BioWare's new MMO will be based on the Knights of the Old Republic franchise.

For this week’s forum spotlight, I thought that where I was filling in for our Community Manager, Laura Genender, that I would take some time to address a number of things that are being discussed on our forums. It’s been a pretty exciting couple of weeks in the MMO world, I’m going to focus on two: the indefinite hold put on Gods & Heroes and the recent slew of “confirmations” that Bioware will be making their MMO based on the Knights of the Old Republic license.

Let’s start back at the beginning. All the way back, in fact, to Ancient Rome for a discussion about Gods & Heroes. I know that at this point, it’s almost like beating a dead horse, but I wanted to give my own impressions of the hold announcement.

MMORPG.com user Arawon recently started a thread titled, “Why are people still talking about this game?” The title is pretty self-explanatory as far as the contents of the post go, so I’m not going to repeat it. I am, however, going to try my hand at answering the question.

Read the whole column here.

I personally couldn't care one way or another about a KoTOR MMO, but the generated interest in this is amazing.

If it's not Bioware then I'm sure someone will eventually get the license to do it. It would be foolish for LEC to not take advantage of it, especially (but regretably IMO) if it's released on console.

Originally posted by Suvroc

I personally couldn't care one way or another about a KoTOR MMO, but the generated interest in this is amazing.

If it's not Bioware then I'm sure someone will eventually get the license to do it. It would be foolish for LEC to not take advantage of it, especially (but regretably IMO) if it's released on console.

I really don't find it all that amazing at all. It takes tens of thousands if not more to support a MMORPG. How many posters have you seen get excited on these forums about the rumor? Probably not more than a hundred. So how again is this amazing?

Your comment about someone will eventually get the license to do it, only makes sense if there is a real following in order to justify getting the license. Again, how many people have responded to the rumor? Not that many in order to justify the millions of dollars it would take to develop the game.

As much as many people like to think that a small number on the forums represent a larger number outside the forums, there isn't any scientific proof to justify this belief. In fact, it is more widely known that the forums represent the "vocal minority."

I am a rabid Star Wars fan. I have bought all of the Star Wars Jedi games since the PS2/XBox came out. I even have the Super Nintendo games. Now this could be a fault of SOE's, but I didn't hear of SWG until Spring of 2005, and I was already playing DAoC for 3 years by that time. Granted, I didn't frequent gaming forums like I do now. Anyways, my point is that the name Star Wars alone should have attracted all the interested Star Wars fans to the MMO genre at the time of its release. But there was only at most 350k accounts I think it was. Most people had several accounts, so that number doesn't actually represent the amount of actual players there was either. So thinking that hundreds of thousands would all of a suddenly flock to a new Star Wars MMO is based on little fact, because there has already been one Star Wars MMO and is didn't even break the 400k mark.

Now I know the genre wasn't as popular when SWG was released, so it is reasonable to believe that a newer Star Wars MMO would garner more interest, but how much more is actually likely?

So in conclusion, I do not think the responses are amazing and I do not think a hundred people on the forum represent those who do not read gaming forums. Because of this, I do not think based off of a hundred forum posters that making a KOTOR MMO is justified. Being the fan that I am, I of course hope that the MMO is a KOTOR release, but I will be content if it stays as a console/PC RPG.

Thanks

Originally posted by Suvroc

I personally couldn't care one way or another about a KoTOR MMO, but the generated interest in this is amazing.

If it's not Bioware then I'm sure someone will eventually get the license to do it. It would be foolish for LEC to not take advantage of it, especially (but regretably IMO) if it's released on console.

I agree with you 100%. I'd prefer to see Bioware create an MMORPG based on an original IP. Star Wars has limited nostalgia value for me, but that's where it ends. Nothing about the world makes me want to immerse myself in it outside of a console game shoot-em-up format. That being said, I realize I am in the minority of 25-45 year old males when it comes to my feelings on this franchise. The pairing of Bioware and Lucas Arts, if this proves more than rumor, will rake in the consumer dollars.

On a more general note, it's too bad most of the MMO news is more corporate soap opera than gamer's paradise. I'd much rather be reading posts about players excited about the games they're playing than about the buyout of Bioware, the collapse of Perpetual, and layoffs in the SOE Vanguard team and across the board at EA. 2007 has been disastrous at worst and disapointing at best for gamers looking for something new and engaging.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

 

Originally posted by Suvroc

I personally couldn't care one way or another about a KoTOR MMO, but the generated interest in this is amazing.

If it's not Bioware then I'm sure someone will eventually get the license to do it. It would be foolish for LEC to not take advantage of it, especially (but regretably IMO) if it's released on console.

 

I really don't find it all that amazing at all. It takes tens of thousands if not more to support a MMORPG. How many posters have you seen get excited on these forums about the rumor? Probably not more than a hundred. So how again is this amazing?

Your comment about someone will eventually get the license to do it, only makes sense if there is a real following in order to justify getting the license. Again, how many people have responded to the rumor? Not that many in order to justify the millions of dollars it would take to develop the game.

As much as many people like to think that a small number on the forums represent a larger number outside the forums, there isn't any scientific proof to justify this belief. In fact, it is more widely known that the forums represent the "vocal minority."

I am a rabid Star Wars fan. I have bought all of the Star Wars Jedi games since the PS2/XBox came out. I even have the Super Nintendo games. Now this could be a fault of SOE's, but I didn't hear of SWG until Spring of 2005, and I was already playing DAoC for 3 years by that time. Granted, I didn't frequent gaming forums like I do now. Anyways, my point is that the name Star Wars alone should have attracted all the interested Star Wars fans to the MMO genre at the time of its release. But there was only at most 350k accounts I think it was. Most people had several accounts, so that number doesn't actually represent the amount of actual players there was either. So thinking that hundreds of thousands would all of a suddenly flock to a new Star Wars MMO is based on little fact, because there has already been one Star Wars MMO and is didn't even break the 400k mark.

Now I know the genre wasn't as popular when SWG was released, so it is reasonable to believe that a newer Star Wars MMO would garner more interest, but how much more is actually likely?

So in conclusion, I do not think the responses are amazing and I do not think a hundred people on the forum represent those who do not read gaming forums. Because of this, I do not think based off of a hundred forum posters that making a KOTOR MMO is justified. Being the fan that I am, I of course hope that the MMO is a KOTOR release, but I will be content if it stays as a console/PC RPG.

Thanks

lol

So I guess the success of the KoTOR series doesn't account for anything here?

One way or another, as I said, I couldn't care less if this game ever gets made but I don't think I'm delusional in thinking it would be quite successful. If 100K (aprox. numbers of course) will play a shoddy SW MMO, then I think a decently made KoTOR MMO would easily succede.

What was the intention of the column? How is it news? Its not exactly a topic for discussion... i mean one of the subjects has already been discussed to death as, erm, discussed in the article and the Bioware MMO is just speculation...

Surely you could just reply to the posts yourself if you want to give an opinion on them.

Sorry, it was well writen and all that, but to say its been an exciting couple of weeks and then to base the article on old news and speculation kinda implies it has in fact been a very dull last couple of weeks.

Originally posted by Lucifrank

I'd prefer to see Bioware create an MMORPG based on an original IP. Star Wars has limited nostalgia value for me,

Same here, i bought and enjoyed KotOR 1 but not enough to buy KotOR 2.  And a KotOR MMO?  Meh, if anyone could make it complex and compelling i guess Bioware could (though their contamination by the parasites at EA makes me wonder).

On a more general note, it's too bad most of the MMO news is more corporate soap opera than gamer's paradise.

Yeah, Gamasutra is one of the few remaining places where the fun and wonder of games is still actively discussed, everything else is Corporations and "how can we rip people off even faster."  

Good comments on both those events.   it is truely sad when a game dies before it is published.  It is especially hard on those that are laid off.

I have no idea what Bioware is working on, but if it is Kotor, I am wondering how this affects SWG.  Obviously the numbers on SWG are horrible.  I wonder if SOE has lost it's exclusive license to Star Wars?  It will be interesting what comes out of this.