Bioware/EA's KotOR Online leaked

[Meshugger]

So, the title will most likely be "Star Wars Galaxies II: Knights of the Old Republic". You can play Jedi or Sith, fighting in the True Sith War.

[Nick_i_am]

Can you give me an example?

 

sure can: http://eve.klaki.net/heist/

 

short version: a wealthy player run corporation (guild) spanning 100s of players and several systems has a bounty for the murder of its CEO put on it by a rival. Over the course of months, members of an elite merc unit infiltrate the guild before, at the right moment, symaltaniously stealing and destroying as much equipment as they could while murdering the CEO in a suprise attack.

 

In Eve this 'works' like it does in the real world, the interguild politics effect the 'normal person' since it's the guilds that build and run the space stations and shipping lanes used by these players.

 

It's not a 'story-driven' MMO but it's still a player driven story, and incidents like these create waves through the community. Powerful individuals within the game, heads of corps, pirates or mercs become known as ingame celebrities.

[Gfted1]

Interesting, thanks.

[Magister Lajciak]

It will also be interesting to see how many users WoW still has in 3-5 years, when this game will likely be released.

 

Agreed - the WoW phenomenon is a spectacular financial success, but it cannot go on forever. Eventually, it will peak and start declining. At some point Blizzard will come up with a new MMO to replace it, but it is by no means guaranteed that this will be as successful as WoW - I guess what I am trying to say, that the MMO field will be more open at some point in the future... and perhaps at the point when the KOTOR MMO is released.

[funcroc]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6198627.html

 

[Leferd]

I may have to play my first Mammorpehguh when this comes out.

[Magister Lajciak]

Hmm, I suppose it could be a single-player/MMO hybrid, where you have a single player campaign like in the previous KOTOR titles, but it becomes an MMO if you want to join an online persistent community... yeah, I know... I am trying to hold onto straws here to get the single-player KOTOR 3 experience... but hope dies last!

[Jaesun]

Can I play a Jedi?

[Magister Lajciak]

Can I play a Jedi?

 

It could hardly be called the "Knights" of the Old Republic if you couldn't.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

http://eve.klaki.net/heist/

 

****ing awesome, I'm actually semi-interested in Eve now.

[Nick_i_am]

Like I said, I wouldn't give a crap about the fees if the game itself was actually worth touching, and Eve was almost there. Almost.

[random n00b]

Rumors, unverified claims, excerpts from interviews, and assorted speculation (links to articles included at the bottom)

 

/drive-by

[Tigranes]

"James Ohlen, creative director, BioWare Austin:And we can talk about the high-level goals: We basically want to bring what BioWare's famous for to the online space, and one of the things BioWare's famous for is storytelling ... and it's something that pretty well doesn't exist in the online space right now. Most "storytelling" in MMORPGs is just FedEx quests -- you know, you have to go get some eggs -- and it's presented in a format that's just a bunch of text thrown at you in paragraph for ... and that's not so exciting. We want to bring a level of storytelling that's equal to the single-player box games that BioWare has done. I think we can do that. One of the big challenges will be making our storytelling work in an environment that has multiple players."

 

I'm curious how they propose to do this, but at the same time, I'm disappointed that they've chosen the 'storytelling' path - I think it's really, really hard to do that in the current MMO model without really changing a lot of core mechanics (and, incidentally, getting a lot more procedural processing capacity in the mix). I'd have been much more intrigued at attentions to economy, ability for player to build things/change worlds, etc. They keep talking about how they want players to have personal stories and they want that happening in instanced worlds without dynamic player-caused changes.... I mean, all that says to me is, they want big Bioware SP 'epic' stories transplanted onto an MMO medium, so that you essentially end up with a Diablo 2 with 'better' (and thicker) story. Is that really going to work, and is that really what's needed for MMOs? Square peg, round hole?

 

I'd much rather see real-time events and schedules in the game world (e.g. 3pm EST, some players near town X see it being invaded, blah blah). Now that would be something I'd be keen to see - not a set single-player narrative based on player time, but a constantly developed, larger-scale narrative based on real time. I can see something like that taking on a much more long-term, 'historical' sort of narrative. You know, at game launch, you've got this big invvasion happening and players can intervene by choosing either side or whatever.... and the players throwing their weight determines who wins or loses, etc. Would be bloody hard to make, tho. And probably not what they're doing, as they say they mgiht have instancing.

[Morgoth]

"James Ohlen, creative director, BioWare Austin:And we can talk about the high-level goals: We basically want to bring what BioWare's famous for to the online space, and one of the things BioWare's famous for is storytelling ... and it's something that pretty well doesn't exist in the online space right now. Most "storytelling" in MMORPGs is just FedEx quests -- you know, you have to go get some eggs -- and it's presented in a format that's just a bunch of text thrown at you in paragraph for ... and that's not so exciting. We want to bring a level of storytelling that's equal to the single-player box games that BioWare has done. I think we can do that. One of the big challenges will be making our storytelling work in an environment that has multiple players."

 

Sounds exciting. I'm curious whether they'll nail that issue down. And how.

[Leferd]

The thing is, James Ohlen has an amazing track record of designing really good, and FUN games that are in many ways, achieve goals different from each other.

 

The BG Series - The classic party-based tactical combat simulator with dialogue and plot.

NWN - Bringing PnP DnD online.

KotOR - Cinematic rpg that captures the essence of what makes Star Wars fun.

 

More than any individual crpg designer out there, I think whatever he touches turns to gold.

[Volourn]

Except KOTOR is BIO's weakest game, and NWN isn't popular on these forums... And, ME is a better version of KOTOR. I think James Ohlen is just one of a team that does a good job at BIO. It's the good doctors who know what they're doing.

Edited October 8, 2008 by Volourn

[kirottu]

I'm disappointed that they've chosen the 'storytelling' path - I think it's really, really hard to do that in the current MMO model without really changing a lot of core mechanics (and, incidentally, getting a lot more procedural processing capacity in the mix).

 

I think you mean something else than "storytelling". Storytelling is the easiest thing to do. You just need wall-of-text. Books have done it like that for ages.

[neckthrough]

I'm disappointed that they've chosen the 'storytelling' path - I think it's really, really hard to do that in the current MMO model without really changing a lot of core mechanics (and, incidentally, getting a lot more procedural processing capacity in the mix).

 

I think you mean something else than "storytelling". Storytelling is the easiest thing to do. You just need wall-of-text. Books have done it like that for ages.

It's easy in a book because it has a well-defined start and end, and a linear progression of events in between. How could you tell a story within a persistent world? If it's a purely instanced pseudo-MMORPG like Guild Wars (or D2 for that matter), then it's somewhat possible.

[Tigranes]

I think you mean something else than "storytelling". Storytelling is the easiest thing to do. You just need wall-of-text

[kirottu]

I'm disappointed that they've chosen the 'storytelling' path - I think it's really, really hard to do that in the current MMO model without really changing a lot of core mechanics (and, incidentally, getting a lot more procedural processing capacity in the mix).

 

I think you mean something else than "storytelling". Storytelling is the easiest thing to do. You just need wall-of-text. Books have done it like that for ages.

It's easy in a book because it has a well-defined start and end, and a linear progression of events in between. How could you tell a story within a persistent world? If it's a purely instanced pseudo-MMORPG like Guild Wars (or D2 for that matter), then it's somewhat possible.

 

In WoW every area usually has story of it

Edited October 8, 2008 by kirottu

[UnknownRegions]

Kotor online??!!!!! *Screams*

EA can eat shist for all I care. BioWare... what happened baby?? I thought we loved each other. *cries*

MMO??? MMO??? WHY!!!!!????? If there is anything we can do, it is to voice our displeasure. Well??? Who's with me?

We'll start a massive hate mail. send all your messages to my aim e-mail (located on my obsidian page). I will take on the challenge of doing this. just leave me your message to BioWare and your first name or your user name on obsidian under your quote. This means sssooooo much to me and i'm willing to fight for what i (and everyone else) wants.

[qt3.14159]

Kotor online??!!!!! *Screams*

EA can eat shist for all I care. BioWare... what happened baby?? I thought we loved each other. *cries*

MMO??? MMO??? WHY!!!!!????? If there is anything we can do, it is to voice our displeasure. Well??? Who's with me?

We'll start a massive hate mail. send all your messages to my aim e-mail (located on my obsidian page). I will take on the challenge of doing this. just leave me your message to BioWare and your first name or your user name on obsidian under your quote. This means sssooooo much to me and i'm willing to fight for what i (and everyone else) wants.

 

 

Isn't young idealism cute?

 

It's too late. The game's been in development over a year already. It's time to get used to the idea... really.

[random n00b]

What she said.

 

I can still send you tons of hate mail if you want, though.

[Hurlshort]

Wow, relax. These are video games.

[Meshugger]

So, the title will most likely be "Star Wars Galaxies II: Knights of the Old Republic". You can play Jedi or Sith, fighting in the True Sith War.

 

My claim is getting closer and closer to reality.