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BioWare's Erickson: Unique Character Class Experiences Key To The Old Republic
by Chris Remo, Staff
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October 31, 2008
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Talking to Gamasutra as part of an an in-depth new interview, Star Wars: The Old Republic lead writer Daniel Erickson has been discussing why playing the story-rich game with different character classes will let you "see and understand different parts of the world that you might have not understood previously."
Erickson, who is leading a team of twelve writers at BioWare Austin creating the story content for the upcoming EA/LucasArts co-published MMO, explains what he thinks developer BioWare is bringing to the table in terms of online game and story as follows:
"We want people to play this game and say, 'Wow! I never thought there would be story in an MMO, and there is and I love it and I'm going to play this story forever.' That's the big exciting part, right?
"We have all these classes, and all these classes have their own content, and all this content connects together as you're playing through the different classes. Now, you're getting to see and understand different parts of the world that you might have not understood previously.
"So, by the time you're playing the third class, you can say, 'Oh, I get that! That's because of such and such.' And you feel smart and you understand the mythos and the world. And hopefully, it will create something that just amazes people and they've never even considered before."
Later in the interview, Erickson responds to a question about whether players might come in contact with different in-game story elements simply by encountering them, as follows:
"Definitely -- you would go and start talking to somebody and they would tell you something about the galaxy that you had no idea was true.
"They would tell you something about the way the Sith Empire was structured, the way of what's really happening behind the Jedi Council, that you'd be like, 'Whoa!' And, in fact, once you knew that -- the same way that once you know the moon landing was faked -- it changes your whole perspective on everything else you hear.
"Again, it's why I go back to playing the different classes. It gives you this great cumulative effect of uncovering what the bigger overarching stories are and what's happening in the large power structures. These are also things that you'll be getting involved in later on."
You can now read the full Gamasutra interview on the subject, including lots more detail on the background and creation of the much-awaited new Star Wars MMO project.
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these are pretty strong words and i hope bioware can make true on them.
most mmos ive experienced are such a rush to max level that the story is a beautifull restaurant 20miles off the leveling highway. drawing so much strength to story and atmosphere that the "i have to level!!!!!!" mindset takes a backstep is something that i really wish bioware can pull off.
if not them, then who else ?
also to "play the story forever" the story needs developement and fresh episodes (much like tv shows or comics imho). again this rises a conflict to classical character developement where players want to grow in level fast at totally different speed (casual vs hardcore gamer)