In the online space, few games have been as ambitious as BioWare Austin's Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a market dominated by free-to-play games and incumbent MMOs, this big-budget title set out to prove that a new subscription game could thrive among the industry's biggest juggernauts.
Of course, things have changed quite a bit since the game's launch in late 2011, but despite losing some key staff and adopting a brand new business model, the ambitious design philosophies behind The Old Republic are still very much intact.
The game's executive producer Rich Vogel left BioWare Austin and joined Bethesda's Battlecry studios just a few weeks ago, but at GDC 2012 in March, he and production director Dallas Dickinson took a moment to address The Old Republic's core design concepts, detailing the major tenets that power this complex MMO.
"One of the things we wanted to do was differentiate ourselves," Vogel explained as he looked back on the game's development. "We didn't want to be like every other clone after World of Warcraft came out, because we realized that if we did that, we wouldn't be able to reach or keep the players we wanted to keep when we initially launched this game."
With The Old Republic, BioWare Austin knew it had to find a way to innovate, but without completely reinventing the wheel. The game's target audience was in large part already familiar with existing MMOs, so the studio needed to find a way to create something that was fresh and exciting, but also inviting to those MMO veterans.
Vogel said that throughout development, the team had to focus almost exclusively on attracting those dedicated core players. "They are our influencers, they are our viral connection to the community. It's very important that we aim carefully at our target audience so we can get them into the game early, establish the economy, establish the base, and establish the life and heartbeat of our game."
Vogel said this "core first" mentality helped give the game a solid following right out of the gate, and he believes that foundation will persist throughout the game's lifespan, and will go a long way toward helping the MMO in the years ahead.
During the rest of the presentation, Vogel and Dickinson offered even more insight into the driving forces behind The Old Republic's development, and you can check out the full presentation in the above GDC Vault video.
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It's completely understandable why these two would express so much delight in having completed an enormous and complex project such as this and for doing so at such an impressively high quality.
Undoubtedly without first class project management this project could have ended up like Curt Schilling's 38 Studios whos assets were auctioned off today.
So congratulations on your ACHIEVEMENT! You get 5 gold stars for project management for completing this project! Ok ok... we'll make it 500,000 gold stars.
But what was the point? It feels kinda like having successfully built the Burj Khalifa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
It's bigger than those that came before it but... in most ways it's still just another skypeni... errr skyscraper. People involved in game production can appreciate the level of personal achievement but the player cannot.
So hopefully what they've learned here can go towards making games that are more meaningful in the future.
anecdotal info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper_Index
The Skyscraper Index is a concept put forward in January 1999[1] by Andrew Lawrence, research director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein,[2] which showed that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns
I think I could count at least 10 "save people from being slaves" quests without even thinking hard (light side) all which meant nothing to me because I wasn't in control of anything other than kill/save/strawberry.
the priimary brain behind the innovation left a year before launch for Disney or some such .. and he said it well "if you can't tell it's innovation ~ it's not." Funny enough, it wasn't followed through on.
What good is highly crafted art when it doesn't touch anyone?
I'm back at:
All this wonderful project management, and the game lost half its subscriber base in 6 months. And they even SAY that retention is cheaper than scrounging up new players.
Well #1 it was a social game, without social things going on.
It used a farming-used-to-death combat system.
It didn't offer anything at all that other MMOs didn't already try.
It's story which was it's primary point didn't actual speak to the player. I mean seriously? And here's the clincher it did nothing different from every other mmo did quality wise ... as a craft it may have been more streamlined, functional ect .. who gives a crap? A great story is useless if youre not actually speaking/reading ect to your audience.
the optional content was was not only below par, 90% of their player base told them so (space combat) ~ imho it should have been as close to possible as the old arcade version (space) not runwat .. fighting WWII fighter style was what people expected .. or even "like" more morn stuff ... want to see spacial combat done right? try War Thunder (world of Planes)
So ~ boring game, childish, narrow roleplay and crappy alternative combat .. what did they do right? Oh they used high quality talent for voice overs ... "Some" were good, most of the choreography, world immersion and cartoony video dolls.
I want to go on ... so I will ...
where is the roleplaying? Where is the connection to the material? why funnel people when they don't like it? the core "mmo cities" were dull .. and the pvp combat was always 1 sided.
Let's not forget the "jumping puzzles" (my favorite part of the game) and this was completely discarable .. didn't matter to the game maybe 1%.
their promises ~ heroic combat ~ fail.
Great story ~ fail.
A mmo (which I think is ironic and yet I'm glad they haltered here) still ~ fail
Was it a single player game? If it was it was one of the most boring, uninvolving single player games I've played.
what could they have changed to make the game correct?
A. They should never have listened to MMOs are it ~
B. They should never have made a single pixel of personal content for players without putting the highest criteria on does this mean something? At the end of the day playing my game, do I care about what I am doing? They knew people didn't like it. they knew people hated their extra game parts, they had the experienced staff that knew sheet from shinola.
they micro managed their game into drivel.
Their new management sucked, doesn't matter that they had greta management theory at the end of the day they had no clue what they were making.
The "doctors" apparently really believed in MMOs, no freaking clue why, but apparently they believed the lie. And that ultimately was the fatal flaw, too big too fast a lot of good material that doesn't stick with a failed time and again game "type"
I would go on, but to listen to them (in this video) explain in detail who was to blame (the upper management) why (because details weren't important in comparison to deadlines?).
Would I give them another chance? Only if they fired their entire new upper management team who apparently can't find their creative buttholes with both hands and a flashlight ... anyone newer than 6 years ~bye . Rehire. Problem solved.
just listening to them, makes me feel for the future of games in big industry ... because I know sadly these guys did what they were taught.
Undoubtedly without first class project management this project could have ended up like Curt Schilling's 38 Studios whos assets were auctioned off today.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/10/23/from-computers-to-ping-pong-table-asset
s-schilling-failed-38-studios-to-be-sold/
So congratulations on your ACHIEVEMENT! You get 5 gold stars for project management for completing this project! Ok ok... we'll make it 500,000 gold stars.
But what was the point? It feels kinda like having successfully built the Burj Khalifa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
It's bigger than those that came before it but... in most ways it's still just another skypeni... errr skyscraper. People involved in game production can appreciate the level of personal achievement but the player cannot.
So hopefully what they've learned here can go towards making games that are more meaningful in the future.
anecdotal info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper_Index
The Skyscraper Index is a concept put forward in January 1999[1] by Andrew Lawrence, research director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein,[2] which showed that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns
the priimary brain behind the innovation left a year before launch for Disney or some such .. and he said it well "if you can't tell it's innovation ~ it's not." Funny enough, it wasn't followed through on.
What good is highly crafted art when it doesn't touch anyone?
All this wonderful project management, and the game lost half its subscriber base in 6 months. And they even SAY that retention is cheaper than scrounging up new players.
What did this massive structure miss?
It used a farming-used-to-death combat system.
It didn't offer anything at all that other MMOs didn't already try.
It's story which was it's primary point didn't actual speak to the player. I mean seriously? And here's the clincher it did nothing different from every other mmo did quality wise ... as a craft it may have been more streamlined, functional ect .. who gives a crap? A great story is useless if youre not actually speaking/reading ect to your audience.
the optional content was was not only below par, 90% of their player base told them so (space combat) ~ imho it should have been as close to possible as the old arcade version (space) not runwat .. fighting WWII fighter style was what people expected .. or even "like" more morn stuff ... want to see spacial combat done right? try War Thunder (world of Planes)
So ~ boring game, childish, narrow roleplay and crappy alternative combat .. what did they do right? Oh they used high quality talent for voice overs ... "Some" were good, most of the choreography, world immersion and cartoony video dolls.
I want to go on ... so I will ...
where is the roleplaying? Where is the connection to the material? why funnel people when they don't like it? the core "mmo cities" were dull .. and the pvp combat was always 1 sided.
Let's not forget the "jumping puzzles" (my favorite part of the game) and this was completely discarable .. didn't matter to the game maybe 1%.
their promises ~ heroic combat ~ fail.
Great story ~ fail.
A mmo (which I think is ironic and yet I'm glad they haltered here) still ~ fail
Was it a single player game? If it was it was one of the most boring, uninvolving single player games I've played.
what could they have changed to make the game correct?
A. They should never have listened to MMOs are it ~
B. They should never have made a single pixel of personal content for players without putting the highest criteria on does this mean something? At the end of the day playing my game, do I care about what I am doing? They knew people didn't like it. they knew people hated their extra game parts, they had the experienced staff that knew sheet from shinola.
they micro managed their game into drivel.
Their new management sucked, doesn't matter that they had greta management theory at the end of the day they had no clue what they were making.
The "doctors" apparently really believed in MMOs, no freaking clue why, but apparently they believed the lie. And that ultimately was the fatal flaw, too big too fast a lot of good material that doesn't stick with a failed time and again game "type"
I would go on, but to listen to them (in this video) explain in detail who was to blame (the upper management) why (because details weren't important in comparison to deadlines?).
Would I give them another chance? Only if they fired their entire new upper management team who apparently can't find their creative buttholes with both hands and a flashlight ... anyone newer than 6 years ~bye . Rehire. Problem solved.
just listening to them, makes me feel for the future of games in big industry ... because I know sadly these guys did what they were taught.