Knights of the Old Republic MMO Confirmed 179
Zafsk writes to tell us Gamespot is reporting that in a surprise move from E3 2008, EA's CEO John Riccitello announced that the long debated BioWare MMORPG is going to be a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic sequel of sorts. Currently the KOTOR MMO is slated for a 2009 release. "BioWare's first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game was released in 2003 for the original Xbox and PC, and was named the year's top RPG by GameSpot. An Obsidian Entertainment-developed sequel was released in 2004 and 2005 on the same two respective platforms. Both critically acclaimed games are set several thousand years before the events of the Star Wars films, and cast players as adventurers who eventually become powerful Jedi Knights."
Re:Big shoes to fill (Score:4, Insightful)
You've been modded properly ;-). SWG was a lot of fun initially till it started out to be a non-paying job. Oh frick, my house is crumbling - oh frick gotta check on my machines. That and they sacrificed their current user-base in search of a new market (Blizzard is great at this - they don't alienate their current users while getting new users to sign up at the same time..mostly).
Re:If we can't play it with real light saber Wii (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm assuming you never played the original Knights of the Old Republic, a d20-based role playing game. Yeah, I don't know how that couldn't be fun online without waving around a wiimote.
Re:Big shoes to fill (Score:5, Insightful)
They need to take the original SWG, update the graphics, and rerelease. No other MMO is half as deep or customizable as that was. It just needed a dev team that would patch bugs instead of just looking stupid.
The last thing we need is another mod for WoW (I'm looking directly at you LoTR).
Re:Trend in the industry? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually it's a little of both.
Single player MMO play is horrible, they have stories and gameplay about as complex as what you'd find on an Atari 2600.
"Raid" co-op type gameplay is very complex, in depth, and more interesting; though not necessarily more fun, depends greatly on implementation.
Why does everybody need to be "the chosen one"? Han Solo had a pretty interesting time, characters who weren't Frodo had important roles in LOTR. So long as each character has a unique and interesting heroic path their stories can make them compelling heroes.
In fact you don't even need to be a hero, there was a large fanbase for SWG because it was a good sandbox game. Roleplaying doesn't necessarily mean playing a hero, just look at all the people who roleplay in forums without stats and numbers. Good roleplaying can just take the form of adopting a different character from yourself, just look at all the folks at the renaissance festival, sometimes it's fun being random serf #214.
MMOs are popular because of their communities. For many it's socializing online, with a neat little goal for you and your friends to work towards.
Re:Big shoes to fill (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree totally. I loved the original. My first experience with it was hanging out in the Mos Eisley cantina, playing music and socializing. The huge variety of professions (and not just different combat types) made for a very deep and varied play experience. I mock what it's become because I miss it so much.
Re:Trend in the industry? (Score:3, Insightful)
I prefer MMOs for sheer scale of the games. I get bored with single player RPGs, but with an MMO I have access to months if not years worth more of game play.
Re:Big shoes to fill (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The second one was not critically acclaimed (Score:4, Insightful)
Lucas should really have his arse whipped for the state of the franchise. FTFY
Re:Big shoes to fill (Score:3, Insightful)
If some ever gets the realm vs realm thing done properly (not Warhammer, sadly) then choice and flexibility and world impact are totally possible. Although the first thing that would need to change would be the ridiculous power level differences between low and high levels. I don't see any big company having the cojones to release an MMO where three or four newbies working together can reliably take down a max level character; but to make RvR work that is what is needed, and to make your character's actions (an everyone else's) have a real impact on the game world, RvR seems the most viable solution. So look to small currently unknown companies to give you anything other than a re-themed WoW variant.
BioWare wrote stories (Score:2, Insightful)
It was the stories they told that made BioWare great. MMOs don't have stories, by definition. Sure, they have quests, but they don't have grand over-arching storylines. It's a limitation of the medium.
I fail to see how the fact that BioWare are writing an MMO is anything other than a cause for commiseration. Another great development studio has been subsumed and repurposed. Thanks EA.