General Discussion

   LucasArts sold over 2 million box in the first year of SWG , the game was so buggy and so unlike Star Wars, that Blizzard was able to convert them to WoW. The fact was when Blizzard launched , and the MMOrpg era began Lucas had the foot in the door with SWG, but he couldnt retain what was called "true star wars experience"

     The sand box design didnt appeal to mass market , which Lucas was bringing the non mmorpg user and non gamer , people were in SWG it was too complex , or didnt fit Star Wars. Ncsoft , among others were able to convert many star wars into thier game due to SWG bad design and epic failure.

    One of the worst failure was the lack of Jedi and the time period, the USA Today which covered the huge fallout of the NGE polled users at 70% ish of not having a Jedi and most complain about the "Jedi Grind"

    I think Lucas probly knows to do this about Jedi and drive the storyline home. Star Wars at its heart shouldnt be crafting , mining , or wandering aimlessly around some sand world , you should have a story , and you should have a role.

          Jedi fills that role , Jedi do everything for the republic

I won't play the game regardless of how they develop it. After playing SWG for 3 years prior to the NGE, I don't think I can put up with another second of the Star Wars franchise. And no I didn't really like KOTOR. I found Mass Effect more appealing as a Science Fiction story.

Looks like Bioware can lean back and be happy that there are still an amount of people who wouldnt mind paying for a linear, non-pvp, story based, non-sandbox wow clone ....

While OP is being somewhat dramatic I'd say that there is some truth here.

Bioware is known for making great CRPGs..... which are a completely different ballgame than MMORPGs.

If they try to simply copy-paste gameplay principles that made their single-player RPGs great into a MMORPG they'll very probably fail  miserably... regardless of the rest of the gameplay's quality.

A recent example is AoC: Single player <> Multiplayer.

You can't build a game on single-player paradigm, slap multiplayer capability on it and call it a MMO. It doesn't work that way. MMORPGs intrinsically abhor "hero's journey" paradigm that is bread and butter to single-player RPGs.

My hopes for this title aren't very high, to say the least, not until I see the way they plan to configure the game as a whole.

But sandbox is the way to go! I'm serious!  Why do you think that the MMO market is stagnating right now?

Lemme see, log in, pick a race, tweak my looks from five different faces, pick a class, start leveling, do quests to gather x/kill y/speak to z, rinse/repeat, until you get to higher levels, then you raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, pvp, raid, raid, raid, craft (maybe), raid, raid, raid, pvp, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, pvp, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, raid, pvp, raid, raid and raid some more.

And people wonder why they are bored with the current offering of steaming shit...er....I mean MMORPG's that are on the market now?

I'm not saying I'm the type to take advantage of all the aspects of a sandbox game, but it's nice to know there are different options there.  Where the hell did the R (which is for Roleplaying kids) go in MMORPG?

Anyhow, if there is a company that can do this right, Bioware is definately one of those companies.  These guys always put out top quality products.  I'd love to see what they have in store for us.

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Originally posted by Draccan
Looks like Bioware can lean back and be happy that there are still an amount of people who wouldnt mind paying for a linear, non-pvp, story based, non-sandbox wow clone ....

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Shut the hell up you irritating swg veteran. Game is not even out yet. You have no info or screen or videos about it. And already you are bitching on moaning? got too used to complaining i guess.

Originally posted by markoraos

While OP is being somewhat dramatic I'd say that there is some truth here.

Bioware is known for making great CRPGs..... which are a completely different ballgame than MMORPGs.

If they try to simply copy-paste gameplay principles that made their single-player RPGs great into a MMORPG they'll very probably fail  miserably... regardless of the rest of the gameplay's quality.

A recent example is AoC: Single player <> Multiplayer.

You can't build a game on single-player paradigm, slap multiplayer capability on it and call it a MMO. It doesn't work that way. MMORPGs intrinsically abhor "hero's journey" paradigm that is bread and butter to single-player RPGs.

My hopes for this title aren't very high, to say the least, not until I see the way they plan to configure the game as a whole.

   Apply what you know is the rule , look at Dragon Age , and look at the games Bioware has made so far. They are storylines , choice driven , and well done hitting the mark they are aimed at.

          Storydriven doesnt mean it has to be linear for example :

                You begin in the Jedi temple as a student , follow a NPC master on your first couple of missions , until you become a knight. As knight the counsil sends you via radio or whatever the hell missions , you re choice to follow the counsil or not , is your story.

           Youre missions might range from talking a peace deal to some aliens , to hunting down a rogue Jedi , to stopping a plot to kill someone. Mix in the missions are choices , does the Jedi guy smuggle drugs to this planet , and earn some coins?

Originally posted by Azure77

Originally posted by markoraos

While OP is being somewhat dramatic I'd say that there is some truth here.

Bioware is known for making great CRPGs..... which are a completely different ballgame than MMORPGs.

If they try to simply copy-paste gameplay principles that made their single-player RPGs great into a MMORPG they'll very probably fail  miserably... regardless of the rest of the gameplay's quality.

A recent example is AoC: Single player <> Multiplayer.

You can't build a game on single-player paradigm, slap multiplayer capability on it and call it a MMO. It doesn't work that way. MMORPGs intrinsically abhor "hero's journey" paradigm that is bread and butter to single-player RPGs.

My hopes for this title aren't very high, to say the least, not until I see the way they plan to configure the game as a whole.

 

   Apply what you know is the rule , look at Dragon Age , and look at the games Bioware has made so far. They are storylines , choice driven , and well done hitting the mark they are aimed at.

          Storydriven doesnt mean it has to be linear for example :

                You begin in the Jedi temple as a student , follow a NPC master on your first couple of missions , until you become a knight. As knight the counsil sends you via radio or whatever the hell missions , you re choice to follow the counsil or not , is your story.

           Youre missions might range from talking a peace deal to some aliens , to hunting down a rogue Jedi , to stopping a plot to kill someone. Mix in the missions are choices , does the Jedi guy smuggle drugs to this planet , and earn some coins?

      

sounds very linear to me... very

what about the bounty hunters or crafters or the soldier type... I don't want 80 levels of Tortage... and I certainly don't want lotro game with no pvp...

If this is what they have in mind they should have chosen a different IP. While Bioware might not owe anything to anyone, the collected mmo developers owe a real complete and MASSIVE mmo to us - no more paying for nothing ... getting us to pay for CE boxes only to lie and cheat us. And LUCASARTS owe the veterans big time. And in this case Bioware is acting like LA's extended arm; so ergo they owe us a sandbox game.

Drama? Maybe. But just wait. Bioware has decided to tackle the hardest IP with a core group of fans that are tired of being neglected. This is just a fact.