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Below Im posting an inside view of The Old Republic based on an inside source. And no I didnt have to dumpster dive this time to get this info rofl.

Oh and before the flame wars begin, lets not forget I was dead on correct when I said Bioware was making a Star Wars theme MMO. And this was despite Bioware and LA both stating for a fact that this would not be a star wars MMO.

This is going to be long and so I'll do my best to organize what I know as best I can.

Many MMO's start out as an idea. Developers formulate a basic concept and then workshop ideas. A basic blueprint is written up and a budget is estimated. Then work begins. At this point some of the larger MMO dev houses present their blueprint to a marketing team. The team will do research to determine what kind f projected revenue they can expect and if the game will reach an intended target. Ideas are given back to the development team who may or may not revise their blueprint.

I describe this as whats normally done within a development of an MMO. I mention this because TOR didnt start in this traditional sense.

TOR was born from a business model. This business model was handed over to developers who were then asked to design a game around it. What was this business model you ask, it was a book.

This book was written by Lucas Arts and inspired by KOTOR and its success. I dont know the origins of when and why it was done but this book is the framework for TOR.

The game has been designed to play like a virtual book. Each chapter will have alternate endings based on which dialog you chose in the quests. The goal is to make the game replayable and new each time you start over.

Each chapter has roughly the same content as a KOTOR game. And there are several chapters so the game does have a ton of content.

The game is heavily instanced. If you have ever played Lord of the Rings Online, its similiar to the beginning quest sequence and some of the books. You will literally watch a story unfold in front of you in your own little world. There are several cinematic scenes in the game.

Its definitely NOT open. There are no giant worlds you can freely explore. Its sort of like Guild Wars or a variation of Age of Conan. No player cities and no housing.

There is no space content so if your hoping for a JTL in TOR you better look elsewhere. There is a few quests involving boarding a ship but you arent going to fly around in an X-Wing doing missions.

The story evolves. Think Books in Lord of the Rings. They plan on adding new chapters to the story. Here is the catch, you will likely have to pay for each new chapter. Its not really an expansion, so its more like buying some additional quests.

There are classes in the game but not in the traditional MMO sense. There isnt a tank class or a healing class really. Each class can dps and has some healing abilities.

Each class will start on its own planet and will have a unique series of quests to start the game. Once you leave the planet, the quests will be mostly the same as other classes but the dialog is unique to each class. Of course there are different possibilities based on the dialog you choose. Also cinematic sequences will be different depending on class.

You can solo through the entire game. Not to say there arent group quests, there are but you can skip them.

If you dont like questing, this game isnt for you. There really is no other means to play the game.

There is no non-combat class.

There is a limit to the number of companions you can have. And in a group you cant have two of the same companions out at the same time. Also you can only have one companion out at a time.

Crafting is very basic. You craft your own lightsaber. There is no weapons crafting or armor crafting of any kind. There are some quests that require you to do some basic crafting like fixing a shield generator or fixing a droid. There are some modifications you can add to your gear. But you arent going to make your own gear.

There is currency and you can buy consumables like health pots. There will be a standard auction house.

Its definitely a PvE focused game. PvP will be limited to duels at this point. There are no raids, at least not in the traditional sense where 25 people go into a dungeon like in wow.

combat is classic rpg with a toolbar and specials with cooldowns.

Bioware wont support addons and apparently it will be considered an exploit to use one. No idea why.

The game currently is in full alpha test mode.

To summarize the game, its not really an MMO in the traditional sense. Some people are going to be upset by the design. Others like KOTOR fans will absolutely love this game. Oh and there will definitely be RMT plus a subscription fee.

In reply to my own post, I know this has been dicussed befor and if RMT is only for house items and things of that nature I am cool with it but that is not the only problem with this post. I mean, no player housing, no crafting besides LS's, no space and all instanced.

Originally posted by Xantheous

This been posted yet?

 

Full Article

 

Below Im posting an inside view of The Old Republic based on an inside source. And no I didnt have to dumpster dive this time to get this info rofl.

Oh and before the flame wars begin, lets not forget I was dead on correct when I said Bioware was making a Star Wars theme MMO. And this was despite Bioware and LA both stating for a fact that this would not be a star wars MMO.

This is going to be long and so I'll do my best to organize what I know as best I can.

Many MMO's start out as an idea. Developers formulate a basic concept and then workshop ideas. A basic blueprint is written up and a budget is estimated. Then work begins. At this point some of the larger MMO dev houses present their blueprint to a marketing team. The team will do research to determine what kind f projected revenue they can expect and if the game will reach an intended target. Ideas are given back to the development team who may or may not revise their blueprint.

I describe this as whats normally done within a development of an MMO. I mention this because TOR didnt start in this traditional sense.

TOR was born from a business model. This business model was handed over to developers who were then asked to design a game around it. What was this business model you ask, it was a book.

This book was written by Lucas Arts and inspired by KOTOR and its success. I dont know the origins of when and why it was done but this book is the framework for TOR.

The game has been designed to play like a virtual book. Each chapter will have alternate endings based on which dialog you chose in the quests. The goal is to make the game replayable and new each time you start over.

Each chapter has roughly the same content as a KOTOR game. And there are several chapters so the game does have a ton of content.

The game is heavily instanced. If you have ever played Lord of the Rings Online, its similiar to the beginning quest sequence and some of the books. You will literally watch a story unfold in front of you in your own little world. There are several cinematic scenes in the game.

Its definitely NOT open. There are no giant worlds you can freely explore. Its sort of like Guild Wars or a variation of Age of Conan. No player cities and no housing.

There is no space content so if your hoping for a JTL in TOR you better look elsewhere. There is a few quests involving boarding a ship but you arent going to fly around in an X-Wing doing missions.

The story evolves. Think Books in Lord of the Rings. They plan on adding new chapters to the story. Here is the catch, you will likely have to pay for each new chapter. Its not really an expansion, so its more like buying some additional quests.

There are classes in the game but not in the traditional MMO sense. There isnt a tank class or a healing class really. Each class can dps and has some healing abilities.

Each class will start on its own planet and will have a unique series of quests to start the game. Once you leave the planet, the quests will be mostly the same as other classes but the dialog is unique to each class. Of course there are different possibilities based on the dialog you choose. Also cinematic sequences will be different depending on class.

You can solo through the entire game. Not to say there arent group quests, there are but you can skip them.

If you dont like questing, this game isnt for you. There really is no other means to play the game.

There is no non-combat class.

There is a limit to the number of companions you can have. And in a group you cant have two of the same companions out at the same time. Also you can only have one companion out at a time.

Crafting is very basic. You craft your own lightsaber. There is no weapons crafting or armor crafting of any kind. There are some quests that require you to do some basic crafting like fixing a shield generator or fixing a droid. There are some modifications you can add to your gear. But you arent going to make your own gear.

There is currency and you can buy consumables like health pots. There will be a standard auction house.

Its definitely a PvE focused game. PvP will be limited to duels at this point. There are no raids, at least not in the traditional sense where 25 people go into a dungeon like in wow.

combat is classic rpg with a toolbar and specials with cooldowns.

Bioware wont support addons and apparently it will be considered an exploit to use one. No idea why.

The game currently is in full alpha test mode.

To summarize the game, its not really an MMO in the traditional sense. Some people are going to be upset by the design. Others like KOTOR fans will absolutely love this game. Oh and there will definitely be RMT plus a subscription fee.

Hmm, well if this is some of the ideers at release. They will end up as SWG did, maby even worth they did.
Players - want the adventure part that bio are - so good at. But they to whant abilites for making there chrs, unik form others / alot of ways to "use there skilltrees", They want to be able to craft, what they need. Even if its for "only" the class" i guess it will be great".
Beside this players, want war, tactics, pvp and rvsr or fvsf in a mmorpg/ - "controld upen areas" . Not instents/ small bgs. or duel areanas :(
 

Are you aware that any guy with cool english and so so knowledge about MMO's can make pretty much the same. Wich means, say stuff impossible to prove till the game comes out = can be a huge crap of BS ;)

Afaik... none of what i read so far, from the devs... meet those alegations. So is basically useless to speculate about it. Welcome to the World of Conspiracy craft.

btw.. Obama is my friend too and he told me he is going to invade France. Think he ate a rotten croissant.

This sounds convincing to me, and rather disappointing.

A GW-style instanced world? No giant spaces to explore? No PVP battles? No space? Shame.

Sounds like a Massively single player game. Don't get me wrong... it could be entertaining. Just a long way off the dream of a living star wars universe.

I'll believe the devs before I'll believe this tripe.  The developers have been quick to point out to people that while there will be instancing for our personal quests, which can be shared by the way, there will be open, fully realized and crafted worlds where you can adventure with others just like every MMO out there.

This will NOT be a Guild Wars clone.

I wish people would stop posting this crap.  Are you the same guy that posted this on the official forums today?  This story has been around for months.

It is all guesswork.  Some is probably true just based on the "a broke clock is right twice a day" theory.  The RMT thing has been around since EA CEO John Riccitiello hinted at it, but the EA/BW official word is pricing is TBD.  I can't imagine they haven't canned this idea with all the outrage over even the idea of a RMT based payment plan even if they had planned on it.  No non combat classes was confirmed long before that article, so that's no revelation.  Stuff like no housing could be based on very few MMOs having it at launch and devs saying they are focusing on story and the game isn't "a day in the life of Star Wars", so it sounds quite reasonable to assume no housing, so that gives people reason to believe it is all true.

A lot of it is most likely BS.  Take PvP for example.  What is the point of a two faction system if you are limiting PvP to duels?  Devs have said they are a fan of DAoC/WAR style RvR PvP, so I would believe this as a PvP model over just duels. 

ignore anything by supposed dumpster divers and admriker, it was all theory craft and none of it is real.

The thread that contained this info was written in February. On top of that the poster has since been proven to be unreliable. Seems to me you might just be trolling by playing on SWTOR fans fears.

It's annoying that this thing keeps showing up

Originally posted by BioNut

The thread that contained this info was written in February. On top of that the poster has since been proven to be unreliable. Seems to me you might just be trolling by playing on SWTOR fans fears.

Stole my thoughts, but dead on correct, the information is dated and the reliability of the OP is questionable.  I'll believe it when I see DEV writtings about it.  I don't think bioware is stupid enough for RMT.

Yea very old news. Only 2-3 things on that list can be debunked. The rest are possible.

Originally posted by NeokiNaomi

Originally posted by BioNut

The thread that contained this info was written in February. On top of that the poster has since been proven to be unreliable. Seems to me you might just be trolling by playing on SWTOR fans fears.

 

Stole my thoughts, but dead on correct, the information is dated and the reliability of the OP is questionable.  I'll believe it when I see DEV writtings about it.  I don't think bioware is stupid enough for RMT.

Well, I wouldn't say stupid. Smart to have other business models along side the regular sub model. That aspect is true, there will be some form of RMT, we just don't know exactly on what. Every Western MMO beyond 2010 will have it in some form. It's something you will have to get used to or find another game genera.

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by NeokiNaomi

Originally posted by BioNut

The thread that contained this info was written in February. On top of that the poster has since been proven to be unreliable. Seems to me you might just be trolling by playing on SWTOR fans fears.

 

Stole my thoughts, but dead on correct, the information is dated and the reliability of the OP is questionable.  I'll believe it when I see DEV writtings about it.  I don't think bioware is stupid enough for RMT.

 

Well, I wouldn't say stupid. Smart to have other business models along side the regular sub model. That aspect is true, there will be some form of RMT, we just don't know exactly on what. Every Western MMO beyond 2010 will have it in some form. It's something you will have to get used to or find another game genera.

I too agree with what you are saying.

Subscription only, and F2P only MMO's are a thing of the past.

The modern MMO gamer want's free content and the ability to progress as fast as possible, so the market will respond with the subscription based MMO with optional pay-for-extra services/in-game items.

It provides multiple sources of income and has the best potential of giving players what they want.

It is inevitable.

SW:ToR is in the best position to implement something like this because they have a guaranteed player-base and a popular IP.

If I were in their shoes, I would take the risk. Many other companies are more than eager to do the same thing, but will not be able to handle the results should it fail. Even if SW:ToR fails, you are almost guaranteed other companies will try to deliver an altered, but similar plan in any future MMO's.

Cause... what are people going to do? Stop playing?

Oh for gods sakes... look instead of relying on rumors and inuendo by people that really have no damned clue, wait until we actually find out officially from Bioware until you freak out, huh?

Originally posted by Cody1174

Yea very old news. Only 2-3 things on that list can be debunked. The rest are possible.

"....The rest are possible"

O'rly? lol

Are you aware that saying its possible is so useless as saying its impossible? Its also possible that the world will end in 2012 with the arrive of an alien civilization.

Originally posted by Anthara

Originally posted by Cody1174

Yea very old news. Only 2-3 things on that list can be debunked. The rest are possible.

 

"....The rest are possible"

O'rly? lol

Are you aware that saying its possible is so useless as saying its impossible? Its also possible that the world will end in 2012 with the arrive of an alien civilization.

just maybe, could happen

hmmmmmmm.  I would play SW Tor ....... no matter what is in it.  I would buy the game regardless.

There is only 1 deal breaker for me to BUY a mmo.  if the game has RMT i am not going to buy it. I might download and play for free, spend 10 bucks. But I could never buy a game like that. Knowing all the time I spend is for nothing if I just spent $10 dollars. 

Seriosly Knowing I am getting something I can not buy....... Awsome.

Spending 20+ hours getting something I could have got in 1 if I spent money...... uhhhhhh I just won't play. Thats the solution.