Holy crap, seven pages of people arguing about how un/realistic SW is...people need to just sit back, relax, and enjoy themselves a little bit. Damn lol
Holy crap, seven pages of people arguing about how un/realistic SW is...people need to just sit back, relax, and enjoy themselves a little bit. Damn lol
Seriously. Why don't we have an argument about some of the Final Fantasy games or the realism of WOW?
Look for anyone who thinks there is a loop hole in the story line, start typing, or go get a pen and paper and start writing (of course pen and paper has been around for thousands of years so that would be an insult to you). This is an ENTIRELY MADE UP UNIVERSE, do you realize how much man power and time it would take to cover every single part of an ENTIRE UNIVERSE? If something's missing stop whining about it and write it. BIOWARE is not responsible to make sure that everyone, everywhere, will never ever find something that does not make sense to them. It's a video game for the love of mike. Retract your claws, put away your swords, and calm down LOL.
As it turned out there was no explanation. Which is disappointing to say the least.
I think by now there's been plenty of possible explanations in this thread. Even ones you yourself agreed had merit.
How exactly are there no explanations?
Is it likely that a galactic civilisation won't advance that much in 3500 years? Nope.
Is it possible that a galactic civilisation won't advance that much in 3500 years? Yup.
Maybe they hit some sort of scientific problem which prevented them from advancing. We know quantum computing is possible and that it's likely the next step. We just don't know how exactly to do it yet. What if we encounter some weird problem nobody foresaw and it basically meant we were stuck with transistor based computers for an extremely long time until the next Einstein comes along to solve it?
Maybe there were other advancements that aren't highlighted in the movies? Maybe the advancements made just aren't that visible? 2 MP3 players can look identical but if one can compose it's own songs for you then it's a lot more advanced then your normal MP3 player.
There's plenty of explanations. It's a fantasy world that's by now composed by dozens of authors. Pick one you feel happy with and give it the benefit of the doubt until one of those writers starts delving into the period in between.
Hell, maybe there's some big story element in the game that explains why a scientific Dark Age would start. If there isn't then maybe there will be some story about it someday.
We are the bunny. Resistance is futile. ''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\ ( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o) (")("),,(")("),(")(")
1) That's just what I'm saying though. Star Wars is more than a story now. It's an entire universe with thousands of stories within it. As such, when you have a massive gap in the lore whereby civilisation doesn't appear to change one iota, you begin to wonder what happened. You may be content to just accept it for what it is, but for others, they like to know these things.
2) Regarding Lord of the Rings, maybe they are complaining. I just don't care as much about that story at this time as this one, BUT if you want to get into it, sure, after ~3000 years you'd think they'd have moved on from the sword and shield. However that discussion belongs in the Lotr forums.
3) I'm glad you agree. However you are trying to compare the tale of some bunnies with the encompassing universe of Star wars and all the stories held within. In order to press the idea that 'it is what it is'. As such I feel you have missed the point of the discussion I was trying to participate in. The thread is about what the OP stated. There is a large gap of time where a galactic civilisation appears to just sit on their thumbs. Read whatever else you want out of it, but I'm only interested in finding out what happened to cause that stagnation.
As it turned out there was no explanation. Which is disappointing to say the least.
I think we know where each other are in regards to WHETHER it's relevant... so I'll now move on and humor the idea that it is. Not much point in responding if I don't!
I guess I'm still not certain what people might expect. Once space travel is as common as land travel is, now, where would technology advance from 3500 years from that point? What would we see? And what would indicate to us, if shown such a world through ones imagination, what was futuristic and what was medieval?
I wonder, If an alien, in no way familiar with our technology, was to be shown a picture of a brand new 57 Chevy Belair, then a picture of a 2011 Mustang GT, if they would be able to determine which was made first? At first, I think, "well... the mustang because of all the shiny lights and stuff...", but it's not that simple.
While our imagination would pin the sophistication badge on the shiniest, lightiest thing, that really isn't necessarily the right choice. Look at the difference between consumer tech, and industrial/military tech. Most consumer tech LOOKS(IMO) far more sophosticated than most ind/military tech, but is it really so?
I went into what I'd tend to think advances in technology would actually be in earlier threads. In short, it seems to me that once tech hits a certain point, there really would be no way to go other than faster-more durable-more efficient/self efficient, etc., and most of those things would be counteracted against by opposing technology, or would just be absorbed the non-sensational as eventually, "everything is that way". ".3 past light speed? Big deal. My X-wing has that, too."
But what kind of stuff would LOOK different? User interfaces? Minority Reports holo-controls, for example? Where would you go beyond that? Controlling a ship with your mind? And if you got to THAT point, wouldn't the old ship's console look MORE sophisticated than one where all the knobs, buttons and doohickeys were all in your mind?
1) That's just what I'm saying though. Star Wars is more than a story now. It's an entire universe with thousands of stories within it. As such, when you have a massive gap in the lore whereby civilisation doesn't appear to change one iota, you begin to wonder what happened. You may be content to just accept it for what it is, but for others, they like to know these things.
2) Regarding Lord of the Rings, maybe they are complaining. I just don't care as much about that story at this time as this one, BUT if you want to get into it, sure, after ~3000 years you'd think they'd have moved on from the sword and shield. However that discussion belongs in the Lotr forums.
3) I'm glad you agree. However you are trying to compare the tale of some bunnies with the encompassing universe of Star wars and all the stories held within. In order to press the idea that 'it is what it is'. As such I feel you have missed the point of the discussion I was trying to participate in. The thread is about what the OP stated. There is a large gap of time where a galactic civilisation appears to just sit on their thumbs. Read whatever else you want out of it, but I'm only interested in finding out what happened to cause that stagnation.
As it turned out there was no explanation. Which is disappointing to say the least.
I wonder, If an alien, in no way familiar with our technology, was to be shown a picture of a brand new 57 Chevy Belair, then a picture of a 2011 Mustang GT, if they would be able to determine which was made first? At first, I think, "well... the mustang because of all the shiny lights and stuff...", but it's not that simple.
But what kind of stuff would LOOK different? User interfaces? Minority Reports holo-controls, for example? Where would you go beyond that? Controlling a ship with your mind? And if you got to THAT point, wouldn't the old ship's console look MORE sophisticated than one where all the knobs, buttons and doohickeys were all in your mind?
When does Star Wars: The Old Republic take place in relation to the movies?
Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place more than 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader
So, with that in mind, please explain why this entire universe has been basically stagnant for 3500 years? Star Destroyer like ships, Jedi with Lightsabers, The Sith, The Jedi and so on.
What was the Earth like 3500 years ago for comparison?
This is interesting... It seems your methods of ridding the forums of trolls in this eden of wasted hope is to kill them via refeeding syndrome, rather than the more conventional (read: rational) "starvation" approach.
As it turned out there was no explanation. Which is disappointing to say the least.
I think by now there's been plenty of possible explanations in this thread. Even ones you yourself agreed had merit.
Maybe they hit some sort of scientific problem which prevented them from advancing. We know quantum computing is possible and that it's likely the next step. We just don't know how exactly to do it yet. What if we encounter some weird problem nobody foresaw and it basically meant we were stuck with transistor based computers for an extremely long time until the next Einstein comes along to solve it?
Maybe there were other advancements that aren't highlighted in the movies? Maybe the advancements made just aren't that visible? 2 MP3 players can look identical but if one can compose it's own songs for you then it's a lot more advanced then your normal MP3 player.
There's plenty of explanations. It's a fantasy world that's by now composed by dozens of authors. Pick one you feel happy with and give it the benefit of the doubt until one of those writers starts delving into the period in between.
Hell, maybe there's some big story element in the game that explains why a scientific Dark Age would start. If there isn't then maybe there will be some story about it someday.
I vote for the green bit.
The 2 oldest ships in the immediate canon, the Millenium Falcon and Slave 1, were both upgraded and refit with modern engines, weapons and defenses. So we've never actually SEEN a fight between a flawless but unmodded ship that's a couple hundred years old, and a modern ship of the same class. And since we're well aware of the "Fistful of Dollars" game that would likely happen in the SW universe, where you sell one guy a more powerful shield all while you sell his enemy a more powerful gun, we simply don't know whether that stock TIE fighter predecessor could stand a chance against the latest model.
And in pretending we've never seen either ship before, we wouldn't know which came first. Z-95 vs. the X-wing, anyone? Why should I assume the Z-95 came first other than, the author says so?
If you've ever read any of the old Tales of the Jedi comics, you'll see that at one time, the universe around the time period of the Old Republic had a much more medieval feel as exhibited in this fine piece of artwork:
(Difficult to see in the photo, but the jedi even have cords on their lightsabers connected to a powersupply on their belts.)
If you take a look at Wookiepeedia, you'll see that the Great Hyperspace War occured aproximately 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin whereas the Old Republic game takes place approximately 3,500 thousand years before. It's not entirely unrealistic to say that there simply weren't a whole lot of technological changes between the Old Republic Era and the era of the movies, as one only has to look at the history of our own world to see our rapid technological progress within the last 300 years or so is a relative anomaly when compared to earlier times in history. I mean, the Roman Empire lasted for 1,000 years, yet look at their pace of progression compared to that of the United States or the progression of European nations within even the last 100 years.
I say all this because it is possible that the Star Wars universe simply entered a period of rapid technological development shortly after the Hyperspace war that ended sometime before the time period in which the Knights of the Old Republic games are set, with the universe then being in a much slower pace of development similar to that seen within the ancient world of our own history.
Of course, aside from the fact that my explanation there was probably the nerdiest thing I have ever typed, I'd say it's more a matter of the fact that BioWare felt that the Old Republic era did not resemble Star Wars as most casual fans know it, so they retconned an entire series of comics to bring the visual aspect of the game world more in line with what you see in the movies. SW:TOR is an even bigger offender given that it hopes to appeal to an even broader audience, and that's why you see the Sith "Empire," Star Destroyers, and Republic soldiers which look like Storm Troopers 3,000 years before the Clone Wars.
I wonder how many man hours of work have failed to be done because of this conversation about a make believe universe.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." Robin Williams
Did they have guns 3500 years ago? No - they had slings, spears,bows, and arrows.
I would guess that ship design would change in 3500 years - civilizations come and go in less time. I know IRL comparisons may be flawed here since this 'Is only a Game', but it is a product being produced using Real Life Money.
This is the weakest argument against a Scifi/Fantasy setting that I have ever seen.
Since you started using periods of time in relation to modern earth, I will play that game. Humanity as we have it is very early in technological development in comparison to anything seen in most science fiction. Believe it or not technology actually bottlenecks in certain industries for periods of time.
Where we are currently at, bottlenecks last a few years to a few generations, before minor differences are seen. Now let's fast forward real life 1 million years into the future, and suppose humanity hasn't already destroyed itself or failed to develop into a series space ages. Generally, as technology advances, the bottleneck grows.
3,500 years time at a period of 1 million years from now may be equivilent to how much cars have changed within the last 100 years in modern time. This is on the assumption that future technology will still continue to be built off of a base point. Similar to how automobiles today are all derivitives of the first recognized automobile made by henry ford. The wheel is no longer invented, instead it is improved upon.
It's space fantasy/science fantasy not science fiction. They travel at light speed between solar system in a matter of hours or days, when in reality at that speed it would take tens if not hundreds of years to get from one plante to another, not to mention the planet might not exist anymore. They dodge asteroids in an asteroid field, when these rocks are thousand of km apart in reality. There is sound from lasers and bombs in space, when sound waves can't propagate in vacuum. Fantasy or myth, stop applying real world logic to a make belive univers.
When does Star Wars: The Old Republic take place in relation to the movies?
Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place more than 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader
So, with that in mind, please explain why this entire universe has been basically stagnant for 3500 years? Star Destroyer like ships, Jedi with Lightsabers, The Sith, The Jedi and so on.
What was the Earth like 3500 years ago for comparison?
Read the Sumerian "epic of creation"
According to them, for 400,000 years there has been space travelers on planet Earth, in fact the term Earth is derived from a sumerian word which means "home in the farway". It wasnt until 200,000 years ago, roughly, that the Annunaki got bored of working in the gold mines, and they genetically engineered man to do the work for them. Hey, even the book of Genesis said God made adam to work in the garden and toil the earth.
The anglo-saxon corporation in S.Africa, in the 70's employed archaeologists to find ancient mining sites, some 100's of 1000's of years old, and at all these sites they found gold. The epic of creation states that the anunaki had come to earth to find rare minerals to repair their failing atmosphere.
Infact, much about what we have learned about our solar system was already know to the sumerians,in fact they referred to Earth as the 7th planet, which would only make sense if you were traveling from outside the solar system heading in.
Satisfy you?
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
Apart from the logical answer of "It's a fantasy universe", which really is all that need apply here, but doesn't seem to be enough...
In the lore, the Republic goes through a series of wars after the one in TOR's timeperiod, finally resulting in a "dark age" about two thousand years after TOR in which there is a technological recession due to war with the Sith and a series of catastrophes.
TADA!
Star Wars has always tried to put the past forward as something mysterious and powerful, not unlike many other epics. Argueing why fictional settings and themes exist because they are not in our own universe is pretty ridiculous. I don't see it happen on all forums of all the fantasy and all sci fi games here either, although there are plenty of arguments no doubt.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Apart from the logical answer of "It's a fantasy universe", which really is all that need apply here, but doesn't seem to be enough...
In the lore, the Republic goes through a series of wars after the one in TOR's timeperiod, finally resulting in a "dark age" about two thousand years after TOR in which there is a technological recession due to war with the Sith and a series of catastrophes.
TADA!
Star Wars has always tried to put the past forward as something mysterious and powerful, not unlike many other epics. Argueing why fictional settings and themes exist because they are not in our own universe is pretty ridiculous. I don't see it happen on all forums of all the fantasy and all sci fi games here either, although there are plenty of arguments no doubt.
This was all that needed to be said from the beginning. This is a perfectly acceptable answer to OP's question. Now the only question is what are the canon sources that discuss this part of the story?
I can't believe how many people are calling him a troll when he posed a very legitimate question.
Star Wars and most good stories use fictional characters and storytelling to both entertain and also to teach the audience (human readers in our reality) lessons and to start discussions on themes applicable to the real world. Sure every fictional story is based in falsehoods: characters that never existed doing things that never happened. Does that mean that "reality has nothing to do with it?" Of course not. If you can't find any real world application from any lesson you could learn from watching Star Wars (or any movie or any book for that matter), then you are the "none too bright."
Fictional stories are based on reality and are often times used as a way to give readers and viewers new perspective on reality. To think that fiction is there simply to exist in its own unreal universe is to intentional remain ignorant of the purpose of enjoying a good story.
Apart from the logical answer of "It's a fantasy universe", which really is all that need apply here, but doesn't seem to be enough...
In the lore, the Republic goes through a series of wars after the one in TOR's timeperiod, finally resulting in a "dark age" about two thousand years after TOR in which there is a technological recession due to war with the Sith and a series of catastrophes.
TADA!
Star Wars has always tried to put the past forward as something mysterious and powerful, not unlike many other epics. Argueing why fictional settings and themes exist because they are not in our own universe is pretty ridiculous. I don't see it happen on all forums of all the fantasy and all sci fi games here either, although there are plenty of arguments no doubt.
This was all that needed to be said from the beginning. This is a perfectly acceptable answer to OP's question. Now the only question is what are the canon sources that discuss this part of the story?
It's space fantasy/science fantasy not science fiction. They travel at light speed between solar system in a matter of hours or days, when in reality at that speed it would take tens if not hundreds of years to get from one plante to another, not to mention the planet might not exist anymore. They dodge asteroids in an asteroid field, when these rocks are thousand of km apart in reality. There is sound from lasers and bombs in space, when sound waves can't propagate in vacuum. Fantasy or myth, stop applying real world logic to a make belive univers.
Whether you want to accept or even recognize it or not, it is undeniable that there is a difference between "having sound in space" and have a huge plothole in the storyline. The two instances are completely unrelated. The asteroids I saw were close together. They obviously had technology we can't imagine if they are travelling faster than we can imagine would be possible.
The "real world logic" argument is a bad one due to the fact that good stories are those that don't have glaring plot holes without explanation. To accept the 3500 year gap without explanation is like if Yoda would have returned to help Luke kill the emperor in Episode Six, completely unexplained. Can the writers do it? Sure. Would it make for a good story? Nope. Real world logic dictates this.
LucasArts is a part of this project and they're making sure evrything stays in cannon. The time period selection allowed for greater breadth of creativity because the cannon for it is not as great as later time periods. This allows them to create new cannon with the IP owners blessing and watchful eye. So we know it's accurate for the world in which it is set.
The more flash and bang for the buck the more subs it will sell.
Let's use a little more common sense and tune out the inner d-bag.
I can't believe how many people are calling him a troll when he posed a very legitimate question.
Star Wars and most good stories use fictional characters and storytelling to both entertain and also to teach the audience (human readers in our reality) lessons and to start discussions on themes applicable to the real world. Sure every fictional story is based in falsehoods: characters that never existed doing things that never happened. Does that mean that "reality has nothing to do with it?" Of course not. If you can't find any real world application from any lesson you could learn from watching Star Wars (or any movie or any book for that matter), then you are the "none too bright."
Fictional stories are based on reality and are often times used as a way to give readers and viewers new perspective on reality. To think that fiction is there simply to exist in its own unreal universe is to intentional remain ignorant of the purpose of enjoying a good story.
Not everything has a reason. I think you give people way too much credit.
If we follow your logic, then everything is propaganda, and all story tellers ate trying to brainwash us.
However, if one looks closely at these so called myths about Zeus and Apollo, they will see that these are cultural translations of much earlier tales taken from the sumerian epic of creation. While some consider it a myth, one cannot deny that the old testament itself is a cultural translation of the epic of creation. We must remeber that stories are all about context, and what most people are ignorant of, is not the deeper meaning of stories, for some are simply there as entertainment, but, the cultural bias that permeates tales which have shaped our history. Star Wars is not one of these stories, and if anyone takes the time to read the previous posts, there is quite a few explanations that countered the OP's post. In fact it would seem that there are volumes of information detailing the old republic.
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
Fact: SWTOR plays in a very different timeframe to allow for more freedom to it's background and story.
Fact: SWTOR still needs to look and feel like Starwars as much as possible while being different in detail to get the right vibe and conform to people's expectations.
Trying to make sense of it in a temporally acurate way or condemning it for the discrepancies which you are bound to come across when trying to do so, is kind of an effort in futility in my eyes.
It's space fantasy/science fantasy not science fiction. They travel at light speed between solar system in a matter of hours or days, when in reality at that speed it would take tens if not hundreds of years to get from one plante to another, not to mention the planet might not exist anymore. They dodge asteroids in an asteroid field, when these rocks are thousand of km apart in reality. There is sound from lasers and bombs in space, when sound waves can't propagate in vacuum. Fantasy or myth, stop applying real world logic to a make belive univers.
Whether you want to accept or even recognize it or not, it is undeniable that there is a difference between "having sound in space" and have a huge plothole in the storyline. The two instances are completely unrelated. The asteroids I saw were close together. They obviously had technology we can't imagine if they are travelling faster than we can imagine would be possible.
The "real world logic" argument is a bad one due to the fact that good stories are those that don't have glaring plot holes without explanation. To accept the 3500 year gap without explanation is like if Yoda would have returned to help Luke kill the emperor in Episode Six, completely unexplained. Can the writers do it? Sure. Would it make for a good story? Nope. Real world logic dictates this.
I am preety sure Han Solo says they are traveling at light speed so that's the speed mentioned in the movies. Also, as was said before, in Lord of the Rings, there is talk about wars that took place thousands of years before, that was fought with blades and bows. In the books, thousands of years later, they still fight with swords and bows. Does it make it a bad story? In my oppinion, it's a damn good story, but by your logic, they should be fighting in jet planes, tanks, maybe some mechs even. How about ships don't need new designs because there's no need for them to be more aerodynamic since there's no friction in space? Weapons fire faster, on board ship computers can do more calculation, evolution that is not obvious just by looking at it.
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Holy crap, seven pages of people arguing about how un/realistic SW is...people need to just sit back, relax, and enjoy themselves a little bit. Damn lol
Seriously. Why don't we have an argument about some of the Final Fantasy games or the realism of WOW?
Look for anyone who thinks there is a loop hole in the story line, start typing, or go get a pen and paper and start writing (of course pen and paper has been around for thousands of years so that would be an insult to you). This is an ENTIRELY MADE UP UNIVERSE, do you realize how much man power and time it would take to cover every single part of an ENTIRE UNIVERSE? If something's missing stop whining about it and write it. BIOWARE is not responsible to make sure that everyone, everywhere, will never ever find something that does not make sense to them. It's a video game for the love of mike. Retract your claws, put away your swords, and calm down LOL.
I think by now there's been plenty of possible explanations in this thread. Even ones you yourself agreed had merit.
How exactly are there no explanations?
Is it likely that a galactic civilisation won't advance that much in 3500 years? Nope.
Is it possible that a galactic civilisation won't advance that much in 3500 years? Yup.
Maybe they hit some sort of scientific problem which prevented them from advancing. We know quantum computing is possible and that it's likely the next step. We just don't know how exactly to do it yet. What if we encounter some weird problem nobody foresaw and it basically meant we were stuck with transistor based computers for an extremely long time until the next Einstein comes along to solve it?
Maybe there were other advancements that aren't highlighted in the movies? Maybe the advancements made just aren't that visible? 2 MP3 players can look identical but if one can compose it's own songs for you then it's a lot more advanced then your normal MP3 player.
There's plenty of explanations. It's a fantasy world that's by now composed by dozens of authors. Pick one you feel happy with and give it the benefit of the doubt until one of those writers starts delving into the period in between.
Hell, maybe there's some big story element in the game that explains why a scientific Dark Age would start. If there isn't then maybe there will be some story about it someday.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\
( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o)
(")("),,(")("),(")(")
I think we know where each other are in regards to WHETHER it's relevant... so I'll now move on and humor the idea that it is. Not much point in responding if I don't!
I guess I'm still not certain what people might expect. Once space travel is as common as land travel is, now, where would technology advance from 3500 years from that point? What would we see? And what would indicate to us, if shown such a world through ones imagination, what was futuristic and what was medieval?
I wonder, If an alien, in no way familiar with our technology, was to be shown a picture of a brand new 57 Chevy Belair, then a picture of a 2011 Mustang GT, if they would be able to determine which was made first? At first, I think, "well... the mustang because of all the shiny lights and stuff...", but it's not that simple.
While our imagination would pin the sophistication badge on the shiniest, lightiest thing, that really isn't necessarily the right choice. Look at the difference between consumer tech, and industrial/military tech. Most consumer tech LOOKS(IMO) far more sophosticated than most ind/military tech, but is it really so?
I went into what I'd tend to think advances in technology would actually be in earlier threads. In short, it seems to me that once tech hits a certain point, there really would be no way to go other than faster-more durable-more efficient/self efficient, etc., and most of those things would be counteracted against by opposing technology, or would just be absorbed the non-sensational as eventually, "everything is that way". ".3 past light speed? Big deal. My X-wing has that, too."
But what kind of stuff would LOOK different? User interfaces? Minority Reports holo-controls, for example? Where would you go beyond that? Controlling a ship with your mind? And if you got to THAT point, wouldn't the old ship's console look MORE sophisticated than one where all the knobs, buttons and doohickeys were all in your mind?
This.
I guess some things will never change. Go figure!
This is interesting... It seems your methods of ridding the forums of trolls in this eden of wasted hope is to kill them via refeeding syndrome, rather than the more conventional (read: rational) "starvation" approach.
Bravo!
I vote for the green bit.
The 2 oldest ships in the immediate canon, the Millenium Falcon and Slave 1, were both upgraded and refit with modern engines, weapons and defenses. So we've never actually SEEN a fight between a flawless but unmodded ship that's a couple hundred years old, and a modern ship of the same class. And since we're well aware of the "Fistful of Dollars" game that would likely happen in the SW universe, where you sell one guy a more powerful shield all while you sell his enemy a more powerful gun, we simply don't know whether that stock TIE fighter predecessor could stand a chance against the latest model.
And in pretending we've never seen either ship before, we wouldn't know which came first. Z-95 vs. the X-wing, anyone? Why should I assume the Z-95 came first other than, the author says so?
If you've ever read any of the old Tales of the Jedi comics, you'll see that at one time, the universe around the time period of the Old Republic had a much more medieval feel as exhibited in this fine piece of artwork:
(Difficult to see in the photo, but the jedi even have cords on their lightsabers connected to a powersupply on their belts.)
If you take a look at Wookiepeedia, you'll see that the Great Hyperspace War occured aproximately 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin whereas the Old Republic game takes place approximately 3,500 thousand years before. It's not entirely unrealistic to say that there simply weren't a whole lot of technological changes between the Old Republic Era and the era of the movies, as one only has to look at the history of our own world to see our rapid technological progress within the last 300 years or so is a relative anomaly when compared to earlier times in history. I mean, the Roman Empire lasted for 1,000 years, yet look at their pace of progression compared to that of the United States or the progression of European nations within even the last 100 years.
I say all this because it is possible that the Star Wars universe simply entered a period of rapid technological development shortly after the Hyperspace war that ended sometime before the time period in which the Knights of the Old Republic games are set, with the universe then being in a much slower pace of development similar to that seen within the ancient world of our own history.
Of course, aside from the fact that my explanation there was probably the nerdiest thing I have ever typed, I'd say it's more a matter of the fact that BioWare felt that the Old Republic era did not resemble Star Wars as most casual fans know it, so they retconned an entire series of comics to bring the visual aspect of the game world more in line with what you see in the movies. SW:TOR is an even bigger offender given that it hopes to appeal to an even broader audience, and that's why you see the Sith "Empire," Star Destroyers, and Republic soldiers which look like Storm Troopers 3,000 years before the Clone Wars.
I wonder how many man hours of work have failed to be done because of this conversation about a make believe universe.
This is the weakest argument against a Scifi/Fantasy setting that I have ever seen.
Since you started using periods of time in relation to modern earth, I will play that game. Humanity as we have it is very early in technological development in comparison to anything seen in most science fiction. Believe it or not technology actually bottlenecks in certain industries for periods of time.
Where we are currently at, bottlenecks last a few years to a few generations, before minor differences are seen. Now let's fast forward real life 1 million years into the future, and suppose humanity hasn't already destroyed itself or failed to develop into a series space ages. Generally, as technology advances, the bottleneck grows.
3,500 years time at a period of 1 million years from now may be equivilent to how much cars have changed within the last 100 years in modern time. This is on the assumption that future technology will still continue to be built off of a base point. Similar to how automobiles today are all derivitives of the first recognized automobile made by henry ford. The wheel is no longer invented, instead it is improved upon.
It's space fantasy/science fantasy not science fiction. They travel at light speed between solar system in a matter of hours or days, when in reality at that speed it would take tens if not hundreds of years to get from one plante to another, not to mention the planet might not exist anymore. They dodge asteroids in an asteroid field, when these rocks are thousand of km apart in reality. There is sound from lasers and bombs in space, when sound waves can't propagate in vacuum. Fantasy or myth, stop applying real world logic to a make belive univers.
Read the Sumerian "epic of creation"
According to them, for 400,000 years there has been space travelers on planet Earth, in fact the term Earth is derived from a sumerian word which means "home in the farway". It wasnt until 200,000 years ago, roughly, that the Annunaki got bored of working in the gold mines, and they genetically engineered man to do the work for them. Hey, even the book of Genesis said God made adam to work in the garden and toil the earth.
The anglo-saxon corporation in S.Africa, in the 70's employed archaeologists to find ancient mining sites, some 100's of 1000's of years old, and at all these sites they found gold. The epic of creation states that the anunaki had come to earth to find rare minerals to repair their failing atmosphere.
Infact, much about what we have learned about our solar system was already know to the sumerians,in fact they referred to Earth as the 7th planet, which would only make sense if you were traveling from outside the solar system heading in.
Satisfy you?
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
Apart from the logical answer of "It's a fantasy universe", which really is all that need apply here, but doesn't seem to be enough...
In the lore, the Republic goes through a series of wars after the one in TOR's timeperiod, finally resulting in a "dark age" about two thousand years after TOR in which there is a technological recession due to war with the Sith and a series of catastrophes.
TADA!
Star Wars has always tried to put the past forward as something mysterious and powerful, not unlike many other epics. Argueing why fictional settings and themes exist because they are not in our own universe is pretty ridiculous. I don't see it happen on all forums of all the fantasy and all sci fi games here either, although there are plenty of arguments no doubt.
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This was all that needed to be said from the beginning. This is a perfectly acceptable answer to OP's question. Now the only question is what are the canon sources that discuss this part of the story?
I can't believe how many people are calling him a troll when he posed a very legitimate question.
Star Wars and most good stories use fictional characters and storytelling to both entertain and also to teach the audience (human readers in our reality) lessons and to start discussions on themes applicable to the real world. Sure every fictional story is based in falsehoods: characters that never existed doing things that never happened. Does that mean that "reality has nothing to do with it?" Of course not. If you can't find any real world application from any lesson you could learn from watching Star Wars (or any movie or any book for that matter), then you are the "none too bright."
Fictional stories are based on reality and are often times used as a way to give readers and viewers new perspective on reality. To think that fiction is there simply to exist in its own unreal universe is to intentional remain ignorant of the purpose of enjoying a good story.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/1,000_BBY
Whether you want to accept or even recognize it or not, it is undeniable that there is a difference between "having sound in space" and have a huge plothole in the storyline. The two instances are completely unrelated. The asteroids I saw were close together. They obviously had technology we can't imagine if they are travelling faster than we can imagine would be possible.
The "real world logic" argument is a bad one due to the fact that good stories are those that don't have glaring plot holes without explanation. To accept the 3500 year gap without explanation is like if Yoda would have returned to help Luke kill the emperor in Episode Six, completely unexplained. Can the writers do it? Sure. Would it make for a good story? Nope. Real world logic dictates this.
Warning: I am about to renderd my opinion....
This topic is lame.
LucasArts is a part of this project and they're making sure evrything stays in cannon. The time period selection allowed for greater breadth of creativity because the cannon for it is not as great as later time periods. This allows them to create new cannon with the IP owners blessing and watchful eye. So we know it's accurate for the world in which it is set.
The more flash and bang for the buck the more subs it will sell.
Let's use a little more common sense and tune out the inner d-bag.
Not everything has a reason. I think you give people way too much credit.
If we follow your logic, then everything is propaganda, and all story tellers ate trying to brainwash us.
However, if one looks closely at these so called myths about Zeus and Apollo, they will see that these are cultural translations of much earlier tales taken from the sumerian epic of creation. While some consider it a myth, one cannot deny that the old testament itself is a cultural translation of the epic of creation. We must remeber that stories are all about context, and what most people are ignorant of, is not the deeper meaning of stories, for some are simply there as entertainment, but, the cultural bias that permeates tales which have shaped our history. Star Wars is not one of these stories, and if anyone takes the time to read the previous posts, there is quite a few explanations that countered the OP's post. In fact it would seem that there are volumes of information detailing the old republic.
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
Yup. And completely not mattering at all to me.
Fact: SWTOR plays in a very different timeframe to allow for more freedom to it's background and story.
Fact: SWTOR still needs to look and feel like Starwars as much as possible while being different in detail to get the right vibe and conform to people's expectations.
Trying to make sense of it in a temporally acurate way or condemning it for the discrepancies which you are bound to come across when trying to do so, is kind of an effort in futility in my eyes.
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I am preety sure Han Solo says they are traveling at light speed so that's the speed mentioned in the movies. Also, as was said before, in Lord of the Rings, there is talk about wars that took place thousands of years before, that was fought with blades and bows. In the books, thousands of years later, they still fight with swords and bows. Does it make it a bad story? In my oppinion, it's a damn good story, but by your logic, they should be fighting in jet planes, tanks, maybe some mechs even. How about ships don't need new designs because there's no need for them to be more aerodynamic since there's no friction in space? Weapons fire faster, on board ship computers can do more calculation, evolution that is not obvious just by looking at it.