The Story of the Week for the past seven days involves a quote buried in the Comic-Con 2011 discussion of the road map for the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. In it, Bioware's senior creative director James Ohlen mentioned that the game will feature seventeen worlds on launch and has the ability to expand to over 500 by 2025. This off-the-cuff remark created a tsunami of discussion on our forums.

Sir you are jesting us, You hype the game jest and its already done discussion on your own forums to hype your site whit jesty articles that do not even are current anymore or have a trendy announcement of announcements.

Bad bad reporter. *points to corner and silly hat* shoo.

I think they would do well to add more pillars to their foundation instead of adding more of the same over the years. Instead of taking Blizzard as an example, who are just adding more of the same kind of content and throw in a new race or class now and then, they will hopefully take CCP's course of action by expanding in a much broader sense.

In SWTOR's case I'd love to see a vast, space-content expansion with stuff like free roaming, mining, asteroid outposts, space exploration, spaceship pvp, a wide choice of player ships and the option to fly and fight in a ship with a group of people (dedicated gunners, pilot, navigation officer, etc). That would really add something else to all the planetary based bipedal gameplay and has the possibility to link planetary destinations in a much more immersive, exploratory kind of way compared to cutscenes.

If Bioware is serious about sticking with the game for 15 years, keeping the game fresh and interesting, I'm all for it. We'll just have to see if their words have any weight.

I think they should get a proper pve server lined up first, why do the have to call their mixed servers pve :(

I don't see SW:TOR being around even ten years from now, just because it isn't innovative enough. It will die at the same time that WoW and EQ2 die, and that age of online gaming passes. 

SWTOR has left out alot of options for the initial release, so there's quiet alot of headroom for new and different content left.

Let's see what I would like to have implemented after release...

1. spacecombat made into a real flightsim ala X-Wing vs Tie Fighter

2. territorial warfare, where guilds can fight over chunks of planets with the possibility for cross-faction guilds

3. deep crafting-system, where the best items are crafted and not looted from boss-mobs

4. item degredation to keep the economy runnning (tied with a deep crafting system see pt.3)

5. mini-games to gamble, like the chess-thingy in the film, or even better stuff like pod racing

6. last but not least the storyline can be extended basically endlessly

If we look at EvE, we allready knwo that there's tons of features that can be added/implemented over the years.

Originally posted by WhySoShort

I don't see SW:TOR being around even ten years from now, just because it isn't innovative enough. It will die at the same time that WoW and EQ2 die, and that age of online gaming passes. 

 

I'd have to agree with that. Its more or less the same formula, simply has star wars and Kotor style to 'punch it up.' So if there is indeed a time where WoW and EQ2 and similar games fall hard, SWtoR will be right there with them.

I'm looking forward ot games with some decent action combat such as PSO2, blade and soul, and TERA.

Anyone who watched the video or was at the conference knew he was being sarcastic. Its at the 29:30 mark of the g4 panel video. Think about it..500 planets by 2025? That equals out to a new planet every 10 days till 2025. It took them over 7 years to create 19 and if anyone took what he said seriously I feel sorry for you.

I believe it was in jest as well.  Although I do believe they have a 15 year roadmap for the game which is nothing but a good thing.  It might peak at the 6 or 7 year mark but they can most likely squeeze it for several years beyond that.

Originally posted by graverobber

I think they should get a proper pve server lined up first, why do the have to call their mixed servers pve :(

 

They have no "mixed"servers, they have area's you can avoid were pvp is alowed coz they know that 90% of the pve players do like to do PvP at times that they choise to do it. its the same thing as the duel system, you dont have to use it, you aitn forced to use it, its just there if you like to use it. 

Originally posted by Hamrtime

Anyone who watched the video or was at the conference knew he was being sarcastic. Its at the 29:30 mark of the g4 panel video. Think about it..500 planets by 2025? That equals out to a new planet every 10 days till 2025. It took them over 7 years to create 19 and if anyone took what he said seriously I feel sorry for you.

 

This is what I was lead to believe aswell, I think alot of ppl have taken his comment to heart, it just isn't feasible.

Also when you have MMORPG.com posting such comments as as some sort of fact then your misleading your member base with inaccurate information.

However I take it all back if the ppl in charge on this website are pulling a NOTW and employing some dodgy tactics to gain some insider info?

Originally posted by Eladi

Sir you are jesting us, You hype the game jest and its already done discussion on your own forums to hype your site whit jesty articles that do not even are current anymore or have a trendy announcement of announcements.

Bad bad reporter. *points to corner and silly hat* shoo.

Wha???

I would love to see SWTOR become an even larger universe of planets...but not with the current space-combat on rails design. 

lol the game's models look crude and dated now, can you imagine how they would appear in 15 years :P

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Originally posted by vesavius
lol the game's models look crude and dated now, can you imagine how they would appear in 15 years :P

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Graphics are not the main-reason for people to play games. Look at the still most succesful MMO that's WoW.

Getting more and more realitic graphics is counterproductive aslong as we're not talking about new input-devices and huge 3d-screens. ARMA2 would be a good example of how bad the game is playing if the graphics are too realistic while using 24" screens and keyboard + mouse.

Some 10 years back I was playing with a VR-system like this -> http://www.abistreich24.de/Cyber%20Games%20Virtual%20Reality.html <- and I think that these can profit from more realistic graphics, especially if we go 3d, but I don't see this kind of stuff being developed currently.

So again, current graphics are good enough, and even WoW is graphically good enough. What needs to improve is gameplay and range of content to make new games interesting.

Originally posted by WhySoShort

I don't see SW:TOR being around even ten years from now, just because it isn't innovative enough. It will die at the same time that WoW and EQ2 die, and that age of online gaming passes. 

 

 The type of mmo gaming your talking about will most likly survive for at least ten years simply because it works and is popular . What you have to remember is that its got to have mass appeal and what your more likely to see rather than games that break the mold is developers playing it safe and just building on what they know works .The thing that may break the mold is a console that is designed with mmos and 3d gaming in mind but such a console is proberbly at least 5 -10 years off . Maybe cloud or streamed online gaming will break the mold because it would allow developers to push the graphics on mmos because it would allow high end graphics to be played on low end PCs  . Again this is most likly at least 5-10 years away . You also have to remember Ultima Online is still alive and kicking and thats over a decade now . If StarWars TOR is the decent game we all hope it is I don't think a 15 life expectancy is out of the question . 7 years ago people were saying WoW would'nt last for exactly the same reasons you've quoted here .You are right the curent era of mmos will reach an end at some point but I think your being slightly over optermistic with the time frame as its the technology that will have to improve before the the next era begins . That may take 10 years or more .

Originally posted by Yalexy

SWTOR has left out alot of options for the initial release, so there's quiet alot of headroom for new and different content left.

Let's see what I would like to have implemented after release...

1. spacecombat made into a real flightsim ala X-Wing vs Tie Fighter

Well, I think this is going to happen

2. territorial warfare, where guilds can fight over chunks of planets with the possibility for cross-faction guilds

PVPers would like this

3. deep crafting-system, where the best items are crafted and not looted from boss-mobs

You must be out your mind.  This would kill Raiding.  What's the point of raids if the loot is second teir at best?

4. item degredation to keep the economy runnning (tied with a deep crafting system see pt.3)

Can live with or without this, just my opinion though.

5. mini-games to gamble, like the chess-thingy in the film, or even better stuff like pod racing

There are those that would really like this, it would be a nice break but then again so is going outside and experiencing that thing called life every now and then.

6. last but not least the storyline can be extended basically endlessly

Very true, we know how it'll all end Vader kills Palpatine, Empire crumbles and everyone lives happily ever after, but there are what 3,000 years of time to play in.

If we look at EvE, we allready knwo that there's tons of features that can be added/implemented over the years.

 You have some very good points and there is a lot that BW can do to keep this game going, but 15 years???  That would be an accomplishment I would think.

If this game is still playable in 15 years as a mainstream MMO then I might just have to hang myself now.  If BIOware is implying that there wont be graphical and gameplay breakthroughs that make this game seem like nothing more than a sad cartoon then please send me over a bag of whatever is being passed around up at HQ,

Originally posted by vesavius

lol the game's models look crude and dated now, can you imagine how they would appear in 15 years :P

If I wanted dazzling graphics I'd play Asian garbage. All I want is a huge world to explore, to find something new now and then. Problem with current MMOs are that they are small like shoe boxes. Take Rift - by the time I got to max level I had seen every zone, sloved every puzzle and found every cairn. Lotro was considerably larger but still had the same problem.