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Bioware Developing an MMOG
Gamasutra reports that Canadian developer Bioware has opened a studio in Austin, Texas. The new studio will be the base of operations for development of an as yet unnamed MMORPG. From the article: "Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's creative director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. Also leading the BioWare Austin team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton." That's some serious firepower. Can't wait to hear what that's about.
The MMORPG is about my butt. Poop poop poop goes my butt.
With the advent of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, a crossroads has been reached in regards to relations between the developing company and the customer. Specifically, the controversy centers around the companies Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts, and their online world of "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided." In the fabled saga of the "Star Wars" Universe, there exists an evil Empire bent on oppressing the free denizens of the galaxy through the means of cruelty, totalitarianism, and sheer force. The only people standing in their way are the Rebellion, a small group of intrepid freedom fighters who battle on against seemingly insurmountable odds. When Sony Online Entertainment, "a recognized worldwide leader in MMO games," purchased a smaller company, Verant, it also acquired the project to bring this saga to life in the form of SWG (Business 2). Originally launched with great promise, though lacking in many of the features that were advertised for launch, SWG held the title of the fastest growing MMORPG to date. Then, rival company Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which quickly rocketed to five million subscriptions. That, coupled with the added pressure of gradually declining subscriptions, other competing games, and severe problems with the in-game mechanics led to both companies feeling pressed for success. SOE/LA decided to revamp SWG, first through the Combat Upgrade (CU), then through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). SOE/LA specifically misled their online community throughout the launch, Combat Upgrade, and New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, leading to a breach of contract between the customer and the corporation.
One of the major problems with SWG since its inception has been that it was released early, when it was not ready. Initially, customers were promised space travel, battlefields, player vehicles, and player cities, amongst other things. It is important to note that SOE/LA did not deliver these things as promised when the game was launched, and even charged customers to pay for an expansion for space travel, when it was promised as a feature at the outset. When SWG went live, it included only the battlefields, which were disabled shortly thereafter due to technical problems, and were never reactivated again. Other aspects like space travel were added later in SWG's first year. Another blatant lie to customers was that they would be able to begin the path to becoming a Jedi Knight, the fabled protectors of the galaxy, at launch. Jedi in the game were an Alpha-class character, meaning that they were superior to other characters in their skills. Balance was achieved by making the path to the class secret, making it extremely difficult to become. However, after months of people searching for the path to become a Jedi, SOE/LA announced that they had not included Jedi in the original launch and were doing so in the next scheduled publish. SOE/LA left out an important advertised feature and misled their customers into thinking that it did exist. Also, a monthly story arc that promised customer's participation in the fate of the galaxy was also advertised as one of the game's features, and it did indeed run for several months. But, SOE/LA decided to suspend the story arc, and have not reinstituted it since.
Despite all these issues, Star Wars Galaxies was initially a success, and attracted large amounts of customers to its' unique style of gameplay, coupled with the experience of being part of the Star Wars saga. Business Wire wrote that "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided quickly became the fastest growing MMORPG in North America" (Business 1). The players of the game were especially devoted to it, defending it against it's early critics. The initial success of SWG was due largely in part to three things.
The first was that the game was extremely unique and complicated in its mechanics. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times wrote that "Previously [before the subsequent changes], the game was unabashedly complicated, appealing to mature, refle
...I play WoW for the incredible story li--wait a minute...
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Do we really need a MMOG called Neverwinter Knights of the Old Marsh?
But anyone else think this is what they're going to do witht he Fallout franchise? I don't know whether to be scared or ecstatic...
Supposedly, although Bethesda Softworks licensed Fallout almost 2 years ago, it was not exclusive license, with Bioware still retaining MMO rights.
As much as I'd love to see it come out, I just know that if it does, it's going to suck days or weeks of my time that could be spent more productively.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Bioware just likes good eats. They have maple syrup, beer, and putin (sp?) in Vancouver, now they'll have Barbeque Ribs, Barbeque shrimp, Barbeque Steaks, Barbeque Pork Loin....etc
Now they just need to start a development house in Wisconsin for some cheese, brats, and uh... cheese.... and they'll be all set!
Hopefully BioWare will take a page from Second Life and avoid the mistakes made by WoW. In a recent speech at the Game Developers Conference, a designer noted that the players of Second Life contribute over 20,000 design hours per day to the content of the game, which would otherwise cost Linden Labs $400 million per year to produce in-house. To be the "next big MMO", BioWare's game needs to empower players to create their own content and produce player-driven conflict. Otherwise, it'll just be another linear "RPG on rails" a la WoW.
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Hopefully the inclusion of people who have worked on games like these guys have will bring some fresh air to the MMO space. I guess I just have a problem paying for games that aren't really all that much different than everything else.
On the one hand, Bioware have made some of my favorite RPGs ever: The Baldur's Gate games, the first Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire.
On the other hand, they've always specialised in story-intensive stuff. A MMORPG is a pretty big departure.
But then again... Square-Enix came from the same place when they made FFXI, and that went on to be a major success by the standards of most MMORPGs (leaving aside WoW). Plus Bioware are arguably one step ahead already, as Neverwinter Nights was online focussed, even if it was a long way from being a MMORPG.
But then... bigger development houses than Bioware have struggled and buckled under the insane workload required to produce and maintain a MMORPG.
It'll be interesting to see what license, if any, they're using. I was kinda surprised they didn't get drawn into doing D&D Online, given they've basically made the only D&D games in recent memory that don't suck. If they had, maybe that game wouldn't be getting such dire launch publicity.
It'll also be interesting to see if they follow up on the work they did with NWN by trying to make a MMORPG that allows for at least some player storytelling capacity (perhaps via a limited player Dungeon Master facility). That would certainly be a new direction for a mainstream MMORPG.
What does this have to do with the Playstation 3 delay? And if the answer is nothing, then why is it on /. games. There is no real information, just an announcement that an MMORPG is in development and nothing is known about it.
Poutine is fries with cheese curds and gravy. Russia will be upset if you eat Putin.
Oh why oh why couldn't Star Wars: Galaxies have been operated by Bioware. These guys are the ones that made such a great game in KOTR that I felt the story was equal to that of the original trilogy. Wishing against odds, but it'd be nice if Lucasarts was so fed up with the backlash from fans against SOE's handling of the franchise that they gave Bioware a shot.
While I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.
Bioware is one of my all time facorite RPG creators. But the MMOG is such a huge undertaking. Just look what it's done to Blizzard (aside from making them even richer). They've got a huge MMORPG fanbase, but for the moment it has seemingly nullfied any strong motive to create good solo RPG and RTS games. I can't blame Blizzard. I just hope Bioware doesn't follow down that road.
I personally would love to see the universe of Planescape: Torment come to life... ahh the early morning stroll down the streets of Sigil...
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II... Would any of these games be any fun at all without the pause button?
Star Trek.