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Knights of the Old Republic MMO Confirmed
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."
Unless the critics love crappy endings. Hey, at least with an MMO they won't have to write an ending, so no problem!
So.... what's the difference between all these Star Wars MMOs/MMORPGs that seem to exist/be planned?
If only it could be as good as Star Wars: Galaxies...
"Eventually" in this case means after a couple months of training presented in a brief montage...
Seemed a bit wrong, but in retrospect I guess that's all Luke Skywalker got, too...
Bow-ties are cool.
If we can't play it online using gaming consoles with light saber emulators, like that of the Wii controller, it's just not going to be very good.
Half of the appeal is in emulating light saber battles.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That lets the world know that, as an environmentally responsible company, BioWare has made this game without any of the toxic chemical known as RaphKosterite?
That particular additive is bound to make a game that calls itself Star Wars without any of the baggage of actually being Star Wars... Perfect for making a semi-space based Sims game.
Regards, Ian
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of hours of my free time suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
It almost seems like every company has to convert their previously-loved RPG titles into MMORPGs just for anybody to look at them. MMORPGs seem to provide a sort of depth and play experience that single player RPGs have difficulty matching. I don't see this trend stopping any time soon.
for rp genre of course, and mmo too.
since the idiot developers of star wars : force unleashed think that forcing people to play one side of the saga (evil until the end, only switching to good optional) is something attractive to all gamers (probably because they themselves are badass wannabees), i can just skip force unleashed and get to a better balanced game instead.
to all you game developers there - when you do a career optional game, forcing the player to continue with a career until the end and allow any other path only at the end is NOT A CAREER OPTIONAL GAME.
im surprised that there were no one with enough balls on the force unleashed team to point that out, so we ended up with a game that caters to badass wannabe bambino vaders.
Read radical news here
So I'm reading the summary, and as I see that TFA is about a planned KOTOR MMO, I noice there's a blockquote (apparently from TFA).
Then I read the blockquote. It refers only to previously released games. WTF? Can't you at least give us something about the planned MMO in the summary?
I don't know who you are "Zafsk" (if that's your real name), but I resist your crude attempts to force me to RTFA.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Both KOTOR and its sequel were absolutely wonderful single-player games.
I'd been playing through KOTOR II on the PC recently (good luck achieving that on Vista; you have to replace a bunch of dlls in the game directory to get sound to work); the storyline, the influence system, everything is just absolutely spectacular.
I'd really hate to see it become another crappy MMO; I just want to be able to sit down at the end of the day and pretend to be a leet Jedi for a while. Turning that into an MMO really ruins that if you don't have the time to commit to the damn thing.
It's as if millions of KOTOR fans cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
The article doesn't provide any real details, and says that Bioware refused to comment directly, so the only thing we have to look at comes from EA... I hope that Bioware make a Star Wars MMO deserving of the franchise, but I don't see it happening. Especially not now they're part of the EA family.
One of my favorite things about Baldur's Gate and KOTOR was the fact that it was single player. I've played my fair share of multiplayer games and MMOs, but sometimes you just want to play a game where the whole universe revolves around you. Where your actions alone determines the fate of the world. Those are the kind of games that Bioware makes and I kind of think they were forced to make this MMO because EA wants a piece of Blizzard's pie. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing what Bioware manages to comes up with.
The thing that bugs me about the KotOR story line is it implies a very, very lengthy period of technological stagnation.
It is as if the technological capacities of all sentient species simultaneously "capped out," and all that was left was to apply the same principles on successively grander scales.
The universe ran out of novelty and room for new discoveries. That kind of makes me sad.
The thing that made KOTOR ok, was it was a MMO without all the annoying people. Now that they are putting them in the game will just be SWG and suffer from the the same problems. Personally I want to see them build a EVE like MMO for starwars.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
Penny Arcade called this out many years ago, but I'll be damned if I can find the strip. It is kind of amusing to think on it, though. Any PA nuts out there that can find this please?
I really can't see how this could be modded offtopic. I can certainly see this being downmodded but offtopic? It's about as ontopic as you can get!
What i wanted to convey was simply that i really liked the previous KoTOR games and I definitely do not want to invest the time and money in another lame MMORPG.
At least i can still look forward to the Sith Lords Restoration Project
Could you explore the apparent paradox of standing still while simultaneously wanking, please?
Dodgey!
MMO's are the path to the dark side.
Nowhere is there a direct quote from the EA CEO confirming the KOTOR MMO. I think the author is twisting the quote just to drive page views.
Finally I can get back to Cybering with Female Twi'leks (Played by men)
Yes, that is correct. The very same SOE employees who did Star Wars Galaxies is brining you the next Star Wars MMO. Those SOE employees in Austin just work under a different banner. Bioware.
Yes, but how are they going to explain a whole world full of amnesia patients with a dark mysterious past?
One of my favorite games used to be "Knights of the Roundtable". Those of you who've been to the Philippines will get the reference.
Some people also call it "smiles".
To all of you die-hard Pre-CU SWGW vets, there's an open source SWG emulator project in the works, re-creating Pre-CU as we as we knew it years ago. You can read all about the project at http://swgemu.com/ If you want, you can install SWG from your old CDs, install the EMU files, then log into their public test center to play and test out the game. Progress on the EMU may come to a screeching halt if a (good) KOTOR MMO does come out, but it's always good to have a fallback plan, just in case ;)
Personally i think this is tragic news. The KOTOR series has been excellent (sith lords only being 70% complete aside), but they were about the morality play (some even say it was the birth of the moral RPG). This is something that just doesent work in a massive setting, to many griefers, scammers and just plain destructive people. I was really anticipating KOTOR3 but this has ended that. On a side note has any1 else noticed that bioware has become the new lucasarts.
Well, Bart, your uncle Arthur used to have a saying: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
I played SWG for 2 years. Dealt with the CU and mad ethe best of it but the NGE (new garbage enroute) was tooo much for me. I loved that buggy piece of shit game. Master Swordsman / TKM was a PVE god template.
I'm praying to god that bioware realizes that not everyone wants to be the hero or fight in intergalactic wars. A lot of players will just want to live in that world as crafters, traders, smuglers, etc. The non-combat classes are usually the centers of the community, since they will genrally be the suppliers of high quality goods and have lots of money to invest into guilds/clans. Item degredation is also an essential part of a healthy community as it stops the usual glut of noob-ware appearing at auction, thus keeping the ecconomy more stable and allowing low level crafters to get a foot hold without having to cut their own throats to get a return on their skill investment.
I also believe that SWG got it very right with player housing and vendors. Having to travel to another planet and trek half way accross the desert to buy a rare item from an amazingly decorated player-owned "junk shop" was one of the things that made me smile when I used to play it. Making the act of buying somthing more of an experience for he player than just going to the AH and selecting an item from a list.
Anyway, I'm going to pray that we get a Bounty Hunter class in this one. Would be very nice to go Jedi hunting as MBH again. Would also be cool to see HK-47 as a master level quest NCP for BH.
I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
star wars is for faggots anyway.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Anything MMO is not ...i repeat not an rpg. While they could be (in fact i think there is massive potential) they are nothing more than compromised hack and slash. WOW my arse world of diablo would be more apt (unfortunately i would prob play a world of diablo). If someone can create an extremely detailed world and let players run riot i would be interested but all i see is fantastic single player CRPG's ripped apart and hacked to accommodate thousands/millions of users.
Well, Bart, your uncle Arthur used to have a saying: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
Hilarious parody of MMOs by Rooks1138 posted on the SWG boards back in the day
Episode IV: A New Dewd
Episode V: The Empire Nerfs Back
Episode VI: Return of the Carebears
Episode I: The Phantom Beta
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
Do this game right. Have plenty of content and iron out the bugs in beta. Make the game fun to play and provide end game content. It will get millions of subscribers on launch. Its better to push the release date back than to release something that is not ready - "you are what you are at launch". Dark Side!
perhaps i should point out that wanker is australian slang for a person who is full of themselves, ie egotistical (in b4 british slang TF2 sniper is australian)
Warhammer anyone? Why will they compete with themselves? I predict both games will fall short of par. And garnish a very small user base.
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.
KOTOR:NGE to make it more Star Warsy and iconic.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
If you thought the elevators in Mass Effect were cool, just wait! Now they'll be STAR WARS ELEVATORS OMG
The very fact that they would try to create an MMO out of KOTR, tells me they are totally off the mark about what made the game so great (think combat, pausing and stacking attacks). This is simply the whoring of a successful title to jump genres, nothing more. Sadly its likely EAs first step in devaluing the BioWare name. Even worse, I am sure it wont be the last.
Ohh spiteful one tell me who to smote and he shall be smolten!
Take an amazing studio that makes high quality games that please the hardcore audience.
Buy that company out and start taking away all of the aspects of the game that appeal to the loyal fan base of said original company.
Streamline the development process and features of the game to maximize profits in the mainstream market for PC MMOs.
Ensure the destruction of said franchise before it even hits the door.
Well, to be fair, this has not happened YET with EA. But for those of us in the know on the MMO scene, warhammer is this exact scenario (same people who made DAOC the great game it was, bought out by EA midway through the development cycle)
Yup, I am REAL excited for any game that EA gets its greedy little hands on. Really, I am... so... excited... cant contain ....