Star Wars: The Old Republic is EA's Most Expensive Project in History

[ckriley]

Oooooooh boy, just imagine EA's disappointment when (sorry, "if") it tanks like every other MMORPG that tries to cross WoW's path...

edit: I'm going to be frank, I don't think SW:TOR stands a single chance against the Blizzard monolith... and I think I have a reason to believe so, too:

Think about it this way - EA is trying to directly compete with Blizzard, and that means that they're gona have to try and detract some of the WoW gamers to SW:TOR instead. Yes, some players will also be attracted by the Star Wars universe and all, but EA are still gona have to take a chunk of Blizzard's cake if they stand any chance of competing.

Now, lets think about this for a minute: since WoW has recently stopped growing at 11.5 million subscribers or whatever, we can assume that they're not having a large number of players leaving/joining at any one time, i.e. the consumer base is fairly consistent. This means that a relatively significant portion of those WoW players have already established themselves in the community, joined guilds, levelled up, etc.

Aaaaaand they will leave all of that history, experience, etc, with WoW, and start all over again with SW:TOR, at the beginning level, with no contacts, no experience, and a new control scheme? Bear in mind also that its unlikely that players will subscribe to both at the same time, due to the monthly payment nature of MMO's.

So, lets sum up here: EA really needs to pull some portion of WoW's audience away from the MMO, when many of them will already have levelled up characters, built friendships, etc, within that game.

My guess is a lot of them will be reluctant to leave all that behind...

Yes, EA will be able to get an audience from Star War's fan too, but lets remember that Star Trek: Online had a huge Trekkie fanbase to pool from too... did that really help it?

Yes, because BioWare and Cryptic are exactly the same.

As to your point about people in WoW starting all over again in TOR, I think you overestimate how attached people are in that game and in MMOs period. Sure, there are some that won't want to start over, but many people in WoW are CRAVING a new MMO to go to. And remember EverQuest? I remember a lot of people saying the exact same thing: that no one would want to quit EQ and leave all their friends and guildies behind to start all over again in an EQ clone.

Boy, looks like they were right, doesn't it? I mean, EQ didn't see a dip at all in their population when WoW came out. Nope. Not one bit.

 

[ckriley]

And yet the graphics looks like something from 2005? What the hell are they pouring all those money into?

Is there jet packs?

[sub]I won't leave Global Agenda unless it has jet packs...[/sub]

The bounty hunter has jet packs I believe.

An mmo is quite a huge game. Rendering all of it in high end graphics would tear your computer to shreds.

Take a look at these 2 videos:
TOR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKN4pZ0DaUc

GW2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEdr8HHJ-zU

They're both MMO's, and is both scheduled to release at roughly the same time, yet GW2 looks a LOT better than TOR.
The textures in TOR especially seems very low res and bland.

It's because they are aiming TOR to be accessible to the widest possible audience. This means it needs to be able to run on low-end computers. This is something that they did in fact, take from Blizzard.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Shame it's going to fail miserably...If my intuition is anything to go by. And it's usually right.

Well, it won't fail financially. But it won't be a good game.

I think it will fail on both counts.

BioWare are known for the quality of their story-telling and the way they get the best out of their voice actors and creative artists to weave a tale which puts you in there as the central character. All of that is out the window with an MMO. We are talking about everyone being the same old same old character.

BioWare are also known for their plot twists and unexpected rabbits out of hats. In an MMO, such a thing is not possible. Quests will be group quested for a decent MMO, without anything in the quest leading back to *you* (think about the origin of Revan, or about the whole Spirit Monk thing in an MMO).

Another thing BioWare are known for is mediocre gameplay, horrible user interfaces, and shallow and unbalanced leveling systems. These are essential aspects to an MMO, and BioWare has a track record of making these things suck.

 

[Feriluce]

One of my friends was a hardcore WOW player (had three level 80's and played almost non stop for quite awhile) but he was talking to me about how he just got bored with it. He realised all he was doing was getting new equipment via grinding, then Blizzard would release some more and he would start the grind again.

He even said he proberly wouldn't even buy Cataclysm but was thinking about getting TOR (depending on reviews)

And yet the graphics looks like something from 2005? What the hell are they pouring all those money into?

Is there jet packs?

[sub]I won't leave Global Agenda unless it has jet packs...[/sub]

The bounty hunter has jet packs I believe.

as if WOW's graphics are better...

...WOW was released 6 years ago. Just saying.

 

[Vaer]

Shame it's going to fail miserably...If my intuition is anything to go by. And it's usually right.

Well, it won't fail financially. But it won't be a good game.

I think it will fail on both counts.

BioWare are known for the quality of their story-telling and the way they get the best out of their voice actors and creative artists to weave a tale which puts you in there as the central character. All of that is out the window with an MMO. We are talking about everyone being the same old same old character.

BioWare are also known for their plot twists and unexpected rabbits out of hats. In an MMO, such a thing is not possible. Quests will be group quested for a decent MMO, without anything in the quest leading back to *you* (think about the origin of Revan, or about the whole Spirit Monk thing in an MMO).

Another thing BioWare are known for is mediocre gameplay, horrible user interfaces, and shallow and unbalanced leveling systems. These are essential aspects to an MMO, and BioWare has a track record of making these things suck.

Actually, SW TOR has voice acting, a story, companions that you can get, you're character isn't just that other guy, and how the hell can you say that Bioware games have mediocre gameplay ? .. have you played KotOR, and I mean on the PC especially .. or have you whatched any of the gameplay vids ? .. the combat seems to be quite good.

 

[brighteye]

On one hand , Bioware failing at something ? seems unlikely.
On the other hand, the only way they would beat WoW is if you get a free hooker for an hour for every ten quests you finish, at your doorstep.
( I could sure use someone for an hour, i have dishes that needs some cleaning.)

The reality will probably be somewhere in between, big hit of a game, but no wowkiller.

 

[Therumancer]

Snippeties

Haha, thats possibly true, actually

I think that (yeah, thats right, I have even more rant in my guns XD) a lot of analysts who predict "WoW killers" on the basis of their superior tech, gameplay, etc, are ignoring the social aspect of the whole thing, which is arguably the biggest aspect of an MMO...

The reason why WoW is so popular is because it got ahead of the pack - sure, other MMO's were around before WoW but Blizzard's game was the first to solidify the genre. WoW has time on its side - the player base is loyal to the point of addiction because they've established friends and connections on the game.

And, lets be honest, friends will ALWAYS pwn superior technology.

I'm not sure I agree because I think there is a bit of burn out with WoW, and Blizzard themselves say that they feel that WoW would be going down eventually.

The problem with most WoW killers was that they never lived up to their hype, "Age Of Conan" for example didn't have half of what it promised. The same can be said for most of the rest of the competition. "Old Republic" is the first game I've seen that has had the monetary investment combined with producers not rushing the product to start getting their returns, combined with a talented team, and a big liscence.


I do not think anything will "kill" WoW, just as Everquest and Ultima Online still exist and have players, but it will eventually drop out of the #1 spot. I think Old Republic has a better chance than anything else I've seen of doing it, providing of course they haven't been lying about the game and it's development (which was the case with Age Of Conan).

Entire guild can, and do, transplant to new games. A lot is going to depend on how burned out people are also, I for example know a lot of hard core people for whom WoW is losing it's magic.

There are no guarantees, but I think this is one to keep an eye on, it's going to be interesting to say the least.

 

[General BrEeZy]

and it better be a worthwhile project.
it better be a good, fun star wars BLAST...or ELSE 0.o

 

[Killercheesepuff]

And yet the graphics looks like something from 2005? What the hell are they pouring all those money into?

Is there jet packs?

[sub]I won't leave Global Agenda unless it has jet packs...[/sub]

The bounty hunter has jet packs I believe.

An mmo is quite a huge game. Rendering all of it in high end graphics would tear your computer to shreds.

Take a look at these 2 videos:
TOR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKN4pZ0DaUc

GW2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEdr8HHJ-zU

They're both MMO's, and is both scheduled to release at roughly the same time, yet GW2 looks a LOT better than TOR.
The textures in TOR especially seems very low res and bland.

You cant judge a game on its graphics. And if you do then it just means the company spent more time on making the game look good rather than making it fun to play. And TOR doesnt have BAD graphics. Plus WoW doesnt have high end graphics and its still the most powerfull MMO out there.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

And yet the graphics looks like something from 2005? What the hell are they pouring all those money into?

They're taking another page out of Blizzard's book. Other MMO's have done the DX10, fancy graphics and have failed to grab a large user base. WoW on the other hand, can run on very humble system requirements, meaning the prospective userbase is immediately much greater.

As long as they have a realised artistic style, then I don't care if it doesn't look like Aion, or Guild Wars 2, even if I could run it on my monoloth PC. Bioware needs to spread their net wide, because this game will tank or succeed based on paying subscribers, even if it means getting Joe Bloe to play on his 5 year old laptop.

All my ex-wow friends are excitedly cautious about this game. We've been burned already by AoC and War, but we're hoping this one will be the one to grab people's attention, and keep them playing.

 

[Feriluce]

And yet the graphics looks like something from 2005? What the hell are they pouring all those money into?

They're taking another page out of Blizzard's book. Other MMO's have done the DX10, fancy graphics and have failed to grab a large user base. WoW on the other hand, can run on very humble system requirements, meaning the prospective userbase is immediately much greater.

As long as they have a realised artistic style, then I don't care if it doesn't look like Aion, or Guild Wars 2, even if I could run it on my monoloth PC. Bioware needs to spread their net wide, because this game will tank or succeed based on paying subscribers, even if it means getting Joe Bloe to play on his 5 year old laptop.

All my ex-wow friends are excitedly cautious about this game. We've been burned already by AoC and War, but we're hoping this one will be the one to grab people's attention, and keep them playing.

A game doesn't have to look horrible to be good and run on a large variety of systems.

Another thing I dont get about TOR though is why its an MMO? From what I've seen of it there isn't really any MMO elements. It might be a mightly fine RPG, but where is the MMO part? It seems like the game is heavily focused on playing through your own storyline solo in a series of instances. Nothing wrong with that, but why isn't it a single player game then?

I'm also wondering if they aren't stretching themselves too thin. They're apparantly gonna have 8 seperate stories all in one game. That seems like a recipe for 8 way too short badly written stories, but I guess well see that in due time.

 

[Aerowaves]

This is going to be interesting to witness. I'm a huge KOTOR fan but I haven't decided whether to get this yet. Bioware do fantastic single player RPGs but I have no idea how effectively they're going to translate their way into MMOs.

There's also GW2 coming up and at least I know that that's going to be amazing (and with no subscription fees!). I think that that's a safer bet. We'll wait a see though...

 

[chaos order]

I really hope it does well but stays in second place next to WOW. cause if it beats WOW fans of TOR will be even more annoying that hardcore fans of WOW

 

[JediMB]

Take a look at these 2 videos:
TOR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKN4pZ0DaUc

GW2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEdr8HHJ-zU

They're both MMO's, and is both scheduled to release at roughly the same time, yet GW2 looks a LOT better than TOR.
The textures in TOR especially seems very low res and bland.

TOR is in a semi-realistic cartoon style. This is talked about in one of the early previews. It was deemed necessary to keep the game available to as many people as possible (while still looking good on those low-end 'puters), and probably also took some inspiration from the Clone Wars TV-series.

Also, THANK YOU for linking to that TOR video! I hadn't seen it before, and they finally confirm that there'll be more playable races than regular humans in the game!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Shame it's going to fail miserably...If my intuition is anything to go by. And it's usually right.

Well, it won't fail financially. But it won't be a good game.

Are you saying this because you don't like the genre? (By which I mean MMO's)

Or that you don't think this will be a good MMO?

I'm fine with MMOs...But I have a feeling this is going to suck.

 

[Raithnor]

To be clear this is the only MMO I'm looking forward to and I've played most of BioWare's games at least the Post-KOTOR ones.

There is a certain part of me that wants to see the hype for the game implode on itself, just for the lulz.

I find the idea of a Trooper character with a Duke Nuke'em head incredibly amusing.

 

[Danpascooch]

Shame it's going to fail miserably...If my intuition is anything to go by. And it's usually right.

Well, it won't fail financially. But it won't be a good game.

Are you saying this because you don't like the genre? (By which I mean MMO's)

Or that you don't think this will be a good MMO?

I'm fine with MMOs...But I have a feeling this is going to suck.

Why? The only things we know about it that is different from WoW are:

1.) Fully voiced (+)
2.) Star Wars Setting (+)
3.) Developed foundation with a decade's newer technology than WoW (+)
4.) Bioware (+)
5.) Huge cash investment and flexible development time so it's not rushed (+)
6.) Obligatory minus so I don't seem TOO biased (-)

Sounds good to me, why do you think it will fail?

 

[Arawn.Chernobog]

Can't wait to see it turn into another Tabula Rasa

I kid I kid...

I really hope it's successful I actually enjoy Star Wars Mythos