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bloodbone
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/10
After the game, |
Firstly this thread is about star wars as a marketable product rather than SWTOR specifically.
To premise my post I was born in 1977 along with the inception of star wars (A New Hope). I was still a young boy when part 5 and 6 came out in theatres but I still to this day remember watching those movies in the theatre. Even at an extremely young age I instantly became a star wars fan. For the first 10 years of my life countless hours of my time was spent thinking about; dreaming about; and playing with my endless supply of star wars toys. Interestingly George Lucas showed incredible foresight to fully retain the marketing rights at the expense of being remunerated directly from the movies. This made his later decisions about the franchise even more confusing.
As time went on and the first 3 movies had long fallen from the spotlight of popular culture I remained true to the franchise. Through high school and even university I was an avid reader of any and all books written about the star wars universe.
I remember that the writers of much of the starwars literature in the late 1990’s were darker and had many more “grey” characters than the initial trilogy. This was exactly the type of growth and transformation that kept my interest in the series. As I grew the genre grew with me although always staying true to the basic tenants of the story; which imo are more compelling as a metaphor for the truth of the human sprit than any Greek epic or even religious tome.
Fast-forward to May 19th1999; me and most of the 20-35yr old generation of North American males stood in line at theatres with anticipation and energy that was truly astonishing. The starwars universe that had been such a large part of so many of our childhoods had finally come back to life.
Almost incomprehensibly George Lucas took the most prolific franchise for the most broad based and lucrative target market at the time and slapped us in the face. The prequel movies completed discounted there loyal and long standing market in favour of 7-12yr old boys of which at the time couldn’t have a similar investment or loyalty to the genre.
While the prequel movies did extremely well in theatre, I would wager it was the true target market fuelled the box office numbers, and not the young boys Lucas apparently crafted the movies for. I think many of us out of nothing more than nostalgia were compelled to see all prequel movies in the theatre.
In many ways the current Star Wars Genre could be so much more had Lucas stuck with his initial fan base. While starwars has millions of loyal fans I truly believe its still only a shadow of what it could have been.
Bottom line is George Lucas’s decision to ignore his target market in the prequels is best described by Obi-Wan Kenobi speaking about Alderon in A New Hope:
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
I hope in some small way SWTOR can help restore the genre. |
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7/12/10 6:24:47 AM#2
Originally posted by bloodbone
Yeah with those cartoony graphics it will surely target to the adult audience. |
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7/12/10 6:25:28 AM#3
Originally posted by bloodbone Well then perhaps you should have posted this in a different forum. You lost me right there with that disclaimer. |
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7/12/10 6:27:56 AM#4
I think the reality of it is that more emphasis is going to be placed on examining, critiquing, cutting apart, and analyzing the game as a MMORPG first and foremost. It's going to be less of a case of "Wow, more Star Wars!" and more a case of "NERF SITH INQUISITORS!"
I'm a Star Wars fan from way back, too, and yet I can't bring myself to look forward to this game beyond a passing curiosity. If it does well in the first 6 months or so after release, I may give it a look. "You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous |
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7/12/10 6:32:21 AM#5
You were once the little boy in that theatre as you stated. I was the little boy in 1999....We both had a great expirience. Times change. I thoroughly enjoyed the new movies as I did with the old movies. It all depends on timing I guess. I agree with you though, Starwars does need a new spark. I thought The Force Unleashed would do it. Un fortunately it only sparked a small percentage of minds. I guess we'll wait and see |
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bloodbone
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/10
After the game, |
Originally posted by Edli Sadly I agree, not only about the graphics but also the general "feel" of what we have seen of the MMO appears to be more attuned to the kiddy prequels. I'm just hoping im wrong and the Clone Wars MMO gives Bioware a little more freedom to give us a more adult feel to their game. I wouldn't wager on that though lol. |
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7/12/10 6:37:34 AM#7
The new movies were a hardcore disney wannabe that were designed to attract the smallest mind aka children the plot was drawn out for the dumb when most with 2 brain cells worked out who the bad guy was within a small amount of time. The original movies were dark and had an edge to them. The latest star trek movie was more like the old star wars than the new star wars movies. Tribes Ascend Link Sign Up Foo, its fun: https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=214829&utm_campaign=email |
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McGamer
Hard Core Member
Joined: 7/24/05
"Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to Suffering" -Master Yoda |
7/12/10 6:37:55 AM#8
I'm not sure how many times it has to be said but the main reason games like SWTOR use "Cartoony" graphics as you call them, is to reduce gameplay lag. It would shut out a lot of gamers with low-end PC's if the system requirements were bumped up to support only high-res graphics. In order to make a game more playable to more types of PC's, devs have to make compromises somewhere. |
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bloodbone
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/10
After the game, |
Originally posted by pepsi1028
Good point. However, I would guess now that your older you actually would have appreciated a darker and more complex experience in part 1 to 3 of the saga. Maybe my real point isn’t really just the slap in the face to what should have been the target audience but also the sheer lack of quality to character development and plot evolution.
Imagine if Lucas has hired someone like JJ Abrams to develop the prequels and he had stuck to his true calling (cutting edge special effects).
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remyburke
Advanced Member
Joined: 7/03/04
I liked MMOs better when gamers didn't play them, and just geeks did. |
7/12/10 6:48:12 AM#10
Originally posted by pepsi1028 I was also born in 1977, but I have enjoyed all 6 of the Star Wars movies. I loved SWG until the NGE and loved the KOTOR games. I guess I'm just not a hardcore enough fan to be all angry Lucas for making episodes 1, 2 and 3. To me, they were right in line with the feel of 4, 5 and 6. Aside from Jar Jar needing a lightsaber to the grill, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. *pauses to look around quickly* Episode 3 is my favorite of the 6! *bolts out of the room* Playing: Rift and DayZ
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7/12/10 6:49:32 AM#11
You are funny OP :)
So you liked the first SW movies that you saw when you were a kid but you didn't like the second trilogy because you thought it was made for kids.
Have you ever stopped to think that all SW are for kids and were never good? |
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bloodbone
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/10
After the game, |
Originally posted by Wicoa Funny how when you were writting this i was writting about the fantasy of JJ Abrams being in charge of the prequels. Sad Truth is I would suspect any hack writter would of likely written a more compelling script than Lucas. Hell I have no doublt most fans with no writting experence could of made the prequel script more compelling. |
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7/12/10 6:53:30 AM#13
Originally posted by bloodbone Kind of like Aliens and Predator movies. They left their roots. In Alien (mind you this is in the future), they stated "This is a species we have never encountered." Then we have Aliens Vs. Predators and it seems like these aliens have been all over the damn place. Like in the new AvP, there are encryptions on the wall of aliens. In Preadtors (the new one). I felt like it was a lackluster copy of the original. Same thing. Survivors killed one by one, kill some predators, set traps and the lone survivor or two fend them off, guy covers himself in mud and wins. Your right about the gritty dark feelings. I felt like the new Predators was missing that "stalking" feeling I got when watching the predator kill. It was more of a deathmatch then sneaking around like the old one did.
I just wish developers/companies alike would pull their head out of their ass and stick to what they know.... |
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7/12/10 6:54:27 AM#14
Originally posted by Czanrei Or it could be cartoony because its meant to be more appealing to 12 year olds.. the average pc these days is capable of much better graphics than when WoW was first released, so that particular argument.. doesnt really hold much water. imo, the graphics will be one of the critical points, but.. it may be possible to overlook it if the gameplay is good enough.. havent seen anything to indicate this so far.. so.. i'll wait and see how it looks 6 months after release.. maybe.. Kotor was less than inspiring so i dont really have a lot of hope for this one. |
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Kyleran
Bitter Vet™
Joined: 9/13/06
Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV |
7/12/10 6:58:51 AM#15
I don't see what the fuss is about. Its just a story to me, a good one albeit, however in the end I could care less if there is a loyal fan base, its just not worth cheering for. I'd hardly relate it to New Coke, since that product is no where to be seen, versus the Star Wars Franchise that still seems to be chugging along just fine even though its more than 30 years old. The stories were always a bit juvenile (in the films) and this was by design. True, the literature came out and was more adult oriented and darker, but that doesn't mean the films would ever take the same road. Don't expect a lot of adult oriented themes in SWTOR, I can't see Bioware/EA targeting the "M" crowd, they're after the broadest player base possible and will design their game to appeal to the general public.
"What gamers want ... is new game play patterns different from what they've experienced before" - Axehilt |
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bloodbone
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/10
After the game, |
Originally posted by remyburke Hahaha ya saying Part 3 of SW is your favorite to some people is like saying you voted for McCain lol. I would ask you though to consider how much of your consideration is the jaw dropping graphics and light sabres battles which really have nothing to do with the "story". I can watch 1-3 and enjoy then equally or maybe more with my TV on mute. |
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7/12/10 7:12:34 AM#17
Lucas fanbase have always been teens. But he did make a mistake, teens don't like figures like Jar jar, they want more action and less Barney the dinosaur. As the Simpsons said, he should have continued by stealing from westerns, samurai movies and WW2. I saw the movies when I was 13 or so (Return of the Jedi at the premiere). The best thing with them was that it was something I could watch with my father, few movies works fir kids that age and grownups. But if you really want to compare you should ask someone who saw the new ones at 13. It is not fair to compare a movie you saw as kid with one as grownup. It is well possible that you wouldn't have been so impressed by the original story if you seen them for the first time today. Still, Jar jar sucks big time. |
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remyburke
Advanced Member
Joined: 7/03/04
I liked MMOs better when gamers didn't play them, and just geeks did. |
7/12/10 8:21:31 AM#18
Originally posted by bloodbone
For me, it was about little emo Anakin finally becoming Darth Vader. The scene with Anakin and Obi fighting it out at the end of 3 really did it for me. It was probably the most well-acted scene of all the movies...though that's not saying a hell of a lot.
All the movies were made with the same feel. The first ones were not "dark" or "complex" at all. They were all lame, in the best possible sense of the word. The OP's point of view is scewed do to the age in which he first viewed the original movies. Of course they seemed more adult to you. You were 5.
Watching episodes 4, 5 and 6 now, for me, is like watching the original Tron movie. I just say, "Wow, I remember this being way less cheezy." Playing: Rift and DayZ
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7/12/10 8:46:01 AM#19
Sorry if I bust someones bubble here, but.... Born in 84 and... I love Jar Jar Binks Episode 3 was horrible Episode 6 was by far the best one SW:TOR graphics are just fine I also want to add that my knowledge of Starwars isn't limited to just the movies 1-6 |
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7/12/10 9:08:11 AM#20
Originally posted by bloodbone Darker and more complex for the orginal 3? All 6 of the Star Wars movies have very generic and simple plots with classic character archetypes. The complex characters and "darker" stories have been done through the books and games. All 6 of the movies were ment to have viewers marvel at special effects and take a glimpse at a sci-fi world that is very unique. They never had very engaging stories becuase Lucas isn't really capable of writing that complex a plot. JJ Abrams isn't much better but w/e. SWTOR is meant to draw in casual gamers and players who started playing MMOs after the advent of WoW. However, Bioware will have very good stories in TOR so there is no reason to be worried about that. Something for everyone in TOR it seems. Waiting: CU, Wildstar, Destiny, Dragon's Prophet |
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