It sounds like, the way you're describing it, it's almost more of a challenge in terms of content and commitment rather than actually being a big game design problem. Is that the case?

DE: There are numerous game design problems, but I would not say that they are insurmountable game design problems.

Right.

DE: But, I also understand that writing seems easy to me and sculpture seems hard, because I can do one and not the other. So, I don't really have a good way to gauge how hard these problems are. I know there are things we've had to address and we say, "Okay, this can be done."

The first team that was ever allowed to fully staff up was the writing team. When we [at BioWare Austin] were a very, very tiny company we were already hiring writers. And the writers are there first, and they're saying, "Hey, well, the team is figuring it out."

So, [creative director] James Ohlen is saying, "This is what I want the game to be," and we're in there filling in the space. And we're saying, "Okay, this is the background, and this is what's going on." And we're doing this as the programmers are starting to think about basic architecture.

Long before any content is there the context has to be there, the stories have to be there, and that's a huge amount of dedication, and it's a huge amount of power to give over to something.

The other side of it, is James happens to be a very story‑driven, story‑aware game designer. And if he was not, and he was aware he was not, then working on a game like this or bringing in a writer and giving them that much power might be threatening.

It seems like a lot of the focus is on the sort of class distinctions. Are you looking to do anything ambitious in terms of a central plot or is that something that's falsely significant?

DE: Oh, absolutely. And that's one of the things we talked about, right? The Empire versus the Republic is the plot of our game, in the overarching way that the same thing was the plot of Star Wars.

But how do you avoid the problem that every MMO has, which is that things don't actually really change when it comes to the shared experience that all the players are having?

DE: Well, again, one of the things that's really important is that the galaxy is huge. Things can be changing that are amazingly important to your world. What you're doing and what's happening that doesn't necessarily affect every part of it.

And there are actually amazing, huge changes happening in [places] all over this game world that we don't know about. We always approach the RPG space as if the thing that's happening in Africa isn't affecting New York, it doesn't mean anything. And it's just simply not true for storytelling.

I guess that's more relevant in MMOs because there really are people all over this universe that are actually real players. Are you indicating that you might come in contact with different story elements simply by encountering them?

DE: 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.

So, I mean, are you looking at the possibility of, through updates or patching or so forth, having big central tenets of the story revealed?

DE: Can't talk about it at all.

Fair enough. But, presumably, you will be retaining a writing team to focus on post launch.

DE: I am hoping not to be fired when we launch. That is my hope.

I don't know if there are any kind of final thoughts you had, but...

DE: No. I think, the big one is just that it is a surmountable problem. There is not a reason you cannot do a story in MMOs. It is simply a case of whether you have the talent, the drive, and, honestly, the humility to go out there and say, "We're going to have to do this. We're going to have to try it, and we're going to have to revise it and revise it and revise it and revise it, and test it, and get it in front of MMO players, and get it in front of RPG players, and learn, and have people yell at you and say terrible things to you."

Being the first in any space is always hard. But, if you've got the right people for it, and you know that that's what you want to do and you are being well‑supported, as we are, then...