Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Bioware can't create a themepark only game like WOW/WAR or clone those. Here is why:
shadenis
Member Posts: 217
PS: My english isn't really great so sorry for that
PS: this is if bioware secret project is KOTORO
Well , i'm sure allot of people played the games KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2.
They aren't the best like Baldur gate or icewind dale but they are good rpg's. It's really the last RPG from bioware ( KOTOR 1) that was good . KOTOR 1 had a good story.
So IF t he mmorpg is Star wars KOTOR online, then please don't create a THEMEPARK ONLY game. Anyone who says , could better call him a retard because people, you can't create better stories in mmo's. Single player RPG's always have the better story.
Not a single mmorpg has a better story line game play wise then a RPG.
Here is why:
If bioware does create a themepark game ( WOW/WAR wise) they must provide a good quality of quests. But unfortunately, most mmo's have fetch quests, kill x, get reward y. They don't have great quests. And creating quests takes allot of time in a mmorpg.
Creating only epic quests will be to small and it will be like a CORPG. Unfortunately, it's not 15 bucks worth because bioware would better be off creating a single player game because everyone would complete it very fast and everyone knows that themepark games MUST HAVE MASSIVE GRINDS.
Themepark/linear games are quickly completed. CORPG's like KOTOR are not open ended but are great games. Mmorpg's ain't. Another reason is , why would bioware kill the KOTOR franchise by creating a great story but everyone is the hero. I mean lol, i am laughing at this, I MEAN they will create fetch quests and who the fuck wants kill 10 bears in a STAR WARS KOTOR RPG?
I don't.
KOTORO should have a great story but it should not be finished. It must be a WORLD. The story cannot be finished, they should make a seperate KOTOR single player game and make a KOTORO mmorpg. If they will copy WOW, then KOTORO is a disgrace for the KOTOR franchise , it will be screwed just like world of warcraft did to the warcraft franschise.
I rather have a great KOTOR 3 then a crappy WOW clone, if they do that, i will turn my back on bioware.
Remember the polish little CDproject that teached bioware some lessons about how to make a great RPG.
What was it name, ahh yeah , the witcher.
Bioware should create a world, with a great story, great characters, great quests but also a WORLD and i mean sandbox elements like open ended game play. Play your role and decide your role and the KOTOR single player games add more story.
Elements/content like building, war /pvp etc. Sandbox elements and your linear elements in ONE.
That is KOTORO.
Please bioware, make a good game that is set in a WORLD. Do not make a mmorpg like WOW with only themepark elements in it. because then you should MAKE A KOTOR3 and not a damm MMORPG.
Single player storyline and quests --> the shit out of any mmorpg available. Don't SCREW the KOTOR franshise.
Bioware unfortunately have progressed worse in the RPG genre with games like mass effect and jade empire ( although jade wasn't bad , it could have been better) I hope they prove themselves again with dragon age and the secret project. If not , well people , we always have a polish developer who created just one game but already created one of the best RPG'S in 5 years.
-----------------------------------------------------------
the old days, the days of gold.
representer of euhporium, shade/amity , high member of the council.
played
UO,M59,EVE,L2,AC,GW,WOW,LOTRO,SWG pre cu/nge,COH/COV, VG,TR,L1, POTBS,Neocron 1 and 2, DAOC pre TOA and age of conan
playing: EVE ONLINE
Waiting for Earthrise, FE, bioware mmo, guild wars 2, DFO , mortal online , the chronicles of spellborn
Comments
I'm putting chips on Bioware creating a heavily instanced story driven game with a bunch of side mechanics that have non-core stories that aren't istanced.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
There is no reason why they can't create a themepark wow clone with a starwars skin. And there are many reasons why they will. So they will, most probably.
W/e it's star wars not ran by SOE, I'm all for it no matter what direction it goes. Casual or sandbox matters not and those that are already speculating would you just wait for the announcement that is coming soon, christ sakes.
Bioware have a great oppertunity here to create something that will finally turn the events and change the direction of the current day MMO. As the above poster states, there is no reason for Bioware not to copy and paste the WoW dynamic, put their own spin on it and add something new. Why? Because thats exactly what Blizzard did some four years ago.
Of course, one of the most aggressive factors here which spins in Bioware's favour is the Sci-Fi element. I think people will be eager to try something new as a lot of us are growing tired of traditional Swords and Sorcery type MMO's and long for something that can truely attest to the word MASSIVE(ly) - The Star Wars Universe is the absoloute pinnacle of adventure and awe and is the perfect setting (if done right, WoW clone or otherwise) for the next chapter in MMO's.
Bioware have a great oppertunity here to create something that will finally turn the events and change the direction of the current day MMO. As the above poster states, there is no reason for Bioware not to copy and paste the WoW dynamic, put their own spin on it and add something new. Why? Because thats exactly what Blizzard did some four years ago.
Of course, one of the most aggressive factors here which spins in Bioware's favour is the Sci-Fi element. I think people will be eager to try something new as a lot of us are growing tired of traditional Swords and Sorcery type MMO's and long for something that can truely attest to the word MASSIVE(ly) - The Star Wars Universe is the absoloute pinnacle of adventure and awe and is the perfect setting (if done right, WoW clone or otherwise) for the next chapter in MMO's.
The only hope I have is that investors will see the new MMOs are not doing so good and try to go for something more challenging, but the money invested is so big, the risk has to be minimal and that means going for the known formula.
While that is true (and only because of Blizzard I might add) there is no reason why Bioware cannot base the core of the game around the fundemental ideas in WoW and add some spice of their own. I think everyone and their dog is waiting for a reinvention of the wheel but ever since Blizzard showed people how much you can make from playing it safe I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon. Unfortunately.
If everytime i turn around and hit a loading screen, aka AOC, then i'm afraid Bioware won't be getting my money. SW or no SW, if a mmo company has to instance everything just to have good graphics and tell a story, that acttually if you ask most SW fans that play mmo's, would rather live in a breathing world than run through a predetermined themepark, i would say that equals to a big failure.
Hey, GL and Bioware have lot's of money and if they develope a SW mmo that is crap, then it will fail with all the rest of the latest crap that has been released.
A new SW mmo will have to compete with other mmo's coming out like, Darkfall, Earthrise, Mortal Online, STO and a few more that will be heavily based on huge open worlds and hardly any instances, that leans toward sandbox systems.
Time will only tell, and for all the SW nerds, like myself can hope that Bioware doesn't drop the ball.
If everytime i turn around and hit a loading screen, aka AOC, then i'm afraid Bioware won't be getting my money. SW or no SW, if a mmo company has to instance everything just to have good graphics and tell a story, that acttually if you ask most SW fans that play mmo's, would rather live in a breathing world than run through a predetermined themepark, i would say that equals to a big failure.
Hey, GL and Bioware have lot's of money and if they develope a SW mmo that is crap, then it will fail with all the rest of the latest crap that has been released.
A new SW mmo will have to compete with other mmo's coming out like, Darkfall, Earthrise, Mortal Online, STO and a few more that will be heavily based on huge open worlds and hardly any instances, that leans toward sandbox systems.
Time will only tell, and for all the SW nerds, like myself can hope that Bioware doesn't drop the ball.
If the market is gonna be over saturated with sandbox games like you say then Bioware would be well off staying clear of them and just do what they do best, make a good non-sandbox story driven MMO.
So you all accept bioware creating a WOW clone?
Sure they can but is it worth it?
3 things could happen
1. It will fail because of the oversaturated clones ( mmo's that use the WOW/EQ formula)
2. It will be a success ( around 500-1 million)
3. It will be very niche because blizzard has the monopoly and people do not leave WOW for another game. Bioware mmo is yet another 100000000 niche of 100 -300 k subscribers along the 1000 other clones that said they where gonna be a succes and retarded fanboys saying it must be WOWified in order to gain millions of subs but the opposite happens just like all those other clones. ( even WAR is niche)
and why the hell does everyone say: sandbox or linear? Why can't it have both?
Now what would you rather have?
KOTORO a themepark /WOW/EQ clone would be:
- kill 10 quests
- you have your epic quests but unfortunately everyone will finish it so nothing is special
- The world is static.
List goes on.
KOTOR 3
KOTORO ( themepark + sandbox based aka hybrid with single player ( KOTOR 3) to create new lore etc.
-Quests, story, linear elements
-building , events ( world changing) pvp , non-combat content like professions or housing etc. sandbox/open ended elements.
The day bioware creates KOTORO with 10000 of quests ( which means that 90% is fetch useless quests but more like tasks) and the list goes on ( bad things) is the day the KOTOR franshise is ruined. ( RPG/Story wise )
-----------------------------------------------------------
the old days, the days of gold.
representer of euhporium, shade/amity , high member of the council.
played
UO,M59,EVE,L2,AC,GW,WOW,LOTRO,SWG pre cu/nge,COH/COV, VG,TR,L1, POTBS,Neocron 1 and 2, DAOC pre TOA and age of conan
playing: EVE ONLINE
Waiting for Earthrise, FE, bioware mmo, guild wars 2, DFO , mortal online , the chronicles of spellborn
I think we're forgetting something. Say for instance Bioware do decide to go for something similar to WoW then it's safe to assume it won't be just an average run-of-the-mill 1 million subs as it has two things:
1) Bioware, one of the most competent and adept developers in the World.
2) Massive brand recognition. Star Wars is universally massive and much more popular per capital than Warcraft.
Like OP I rather see a new Kotor3 then a MMO of it.
But I do feel that their MMO will be more like HOW LOTRO does it then HOW WOW has done it.
And yes I know I be hated for this but PLEASE NO KOTOR MMORPG, regardless my love for Star Wars. Still hope they will deliver something unique and different and NO kotor online.
So you are willing to pay $50 for 1-2 weeks of hardcore game play, Vs $50 for one month of hardcore gameplay and $14.99 per month afterwards? Why? What if there are some great solo play elements to this MMO? You might see the occasional other player but is this really game breaking for you? I'm not being rude, just curious as to why some people don't want a MMO version of KOTOR.
o.0
Jade Empire and Mass Effect bad?
Guess I'll have to get your opinion on why those were bad, because I enjoyed both of them immensly.
Personally I was kinda hoping that they would take the things they've learned since KotOR and apply it to an MMO with a basic mechanic similar to Mass Effect, just with the needed changes such as user interface. Really, I went back to their older games and found that the long pausing and some of the other mechanics that they changed really made the game a little disjointed and pulled me way too easily out of the game.
I would rather see Bioware do it's own thing with KotOR, mainly because it will posthumiously sink otherwise.
Difference is I guess that I support the direction they're moving in modern times because their stories are as great as ever and their gameplay caters well to my playstyle hopefully without killing it for the casual players. I would hope at least, given it's not that hard of a game still...
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
It's called rationalization. You don't want a thempark based game and you come here with a list of talking points to justify it. I would be extremely surprised to find the game to be a non-themepark game. As other have said a wow style + star wars is mostly and what I would bet the house on.
This right here. That's what it'll be.
Prove this, please. Thanks.
KotoR 3 won't be a full fledged MMORPG. It'll have MMO elements, but when you think about it, KotOR, while being an awesome single player game, wouldn't make a great MMO.
I don't understand these people who think that if a game is fun singleplayer, then it must have a multiplayer to make it even more awesome! They use the same logic with Elder Scrolls, which would suck as an MMO.
As for the next Star Wars MMO, its supposed to be set in the Old Republic, yes, but by Old Republic, they mean Clone Wars era. That's not to say this KotOR MMO isn't coming out, but its not the SWG successor.
Darkfall Travelogues!
I totally agree, but one minor correction. The term "Old Republic" isn't JUST the Clone Wars. The Old Republic lasted for many thousands of years. The Clone Wars were actually near the decline and eventual downfall of the Old Republic era - when Palpatine became 'the Emperor', turning it into the Galactic Empire.
The NEW REPUBLIC happened after the Empire is overthrown by the REBEL ALLIANCE which was started by old Republic loyalists.
Useless info hurra, hehe
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Well I would hope not to be the one to say it, but...
While you are correct Signus, you're also kinda wrong. At least I hope...
The hope banking on whether or not people actually mean they want a KotOR cloned into an MMO, or a KotOR MMO with a similar concept.
Yes, you can't take a game that's highly linear and turn it into a true MMO. The farthest you can get is a game like Guild Wars.
However, the basic mechanics of the game is something that can be transposed (unless you're talking about Oblivion, which would kill a server way too fast), and that alongside an involved and branching questline that either mirriors the storylines from the game or uses the lore built up as a premise for world events, that can work.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
I totally agree, but one minor correction. The term "Old Republic" isn't JUST the Clone Wars. The Old Republic lasted for many thousands of years. The Clone Wars were actually near the decline and eventual downfall of the Old Republic era - when Palpatine became 'the Emperor', turning it into the Galactic Empire.
The NEW REPUBLIC happened after the Empire is overthrown by the REBEL ALLIANCE which was started by old Republic loyalists.
Useless info hurra, hehe
Nah, this I know. What I meant to point out was that the game that will take over for SWG will be set during the Clone Wars era, if not specifically the clone wars, then at least the Prequel movies.
Darkfall Travelogues!
1UP News
BioWare Austin Talks About Upcoming MMO
Being on South Park, building the right end game for an MMO and more.
By Shawn Elliott, 11/27/2006
As you've likely heard, the December 2006 issue of Games for Windows magazine (in stores now) features a massive cover story on BioWare's upcoming RPG Dragon Age (check out some first details on the game here). But as part of the cover story, the guys at GFW also spoke with BioWare's Austin studio to get the scoop on its upcoming MMORPG. While the team isn't ready to talk details or world settings, they did go into a lot of the philosophy behind the game. As one of the best RPG developers in the business, the sheer prospect of an MMORPG from the studio is exciting, so read on for some intriguing comments.
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine: How long has your new MMORPG been in development?
Gordon Walton, co-studio director, BioWare Austin: We announced the game around March, but we'd really started on it in the beginning of December 2005.
James Ohlen, creative director, BioWare Austin: We've got a lot designed -- we've got the GDD [game design document] done, we've finished more than three quarters of the detail design documents. We've got a couple prototypes up.
We've licensed [Simultronics'] HeroEngine. It's a very good engine, and we're very impressed with it so far.
And we can talk about the high-level goals: We basically want to bring what BioWare's famous for to the online space, and one of the things BioWare's famous for is storytelling ... and it's something that pretty well doesn't exist in the online space right now. Most "storytelling" in MMORPGs is just FedEx quests -- you know, you have to go get some eggs -- and it's presented in a format that's just a bunch of text thrown at you in paragraph for ... and that's not so exciting. We want to bring a level of storytelling that's equal to the single-player box games that BioWare has done. I think we can do that. One of the big challenges will be making our storytelling work in an environment that has multiple players.
GFW: It seems that one of the big challenges in a big multiplayer universe is that you can't really have the player shape the world like you can in a single-player game ... .
JO: Here's the thing -- you can't have a story that involves saving the world from the dark lord Sauron -- not that we're making a Lord of the Rings game, but I'll use LOTR as a good example. You can't stop the world from being destroyed by [Sauron], but you can do a lot of things that are personal to your character. You change how your character evolves over the game, the player's personal story -- and a player's personal story can be quite epic. It can involve parts of the world that, while they're epic, exciting, and interesting, don't change the landscape of the entire world for everyone else.
Smaug [from The Hobbit] is a good example. You can have a personal quest to kill an ancient red dragon; you can have a story that goes all the way through, and you can meet all these interesting characters, and eventually you end up killing the ancient red dragon. Other characters in the online world will know you killed a red dragon, but you haven't changed the world for them. And they can still -- especially when you use things like instances -- go on a quest that involves killing an ancient huge red dragon. We can change the player's personal story, and that gives players the sense they're having an impact on the game world.
Rich Vogel, co-studio director of product development: One thing we don't want to do is NPC Pez dispensers, as I call them -- go over there, dispense a quest, and then go "vacuum-clean" a zone. We want to make sure you listen to NPCs, because choices matter. And that's really important.
JO: There are lots of quests in a classic BioWare game that would work in an online world. You'd be surprised how few wouldn't.
GFW: One of the big problems with MMO gameplay is repeating the same content, or same instance if you're specifically talking about WoW, over and over again ... .
JO: That's something we don't want to encourage. We want to encourage players to continue to make progress in their story, to do new quests, consume new content, constantly move forward. The grind is not attractive in any way. Going and killing the same dragon over and over again is not something I want to do. There are lots of different ways to encourage players to move forward. Simply putting more weight on storytelling experience points is a good way to do that. In WOW, you get XP when you finish a quest, but the weighting on that is pretty low; there's not much benefit to doing that over finding the perfect monster to grind and kill. If those quest experience points were a little higher, it would make a lot more sense to go along with the story. Now, that's a very mechanical way to ensure players go along with your story -- the other way is to make sure your story is good, that the presentation is exciting, it's personal to the player, that the player has a lot of motivation to move forward in their story. That's not to say that experience and treasure aren't still important, though.
GFW: Are there things in the other MMOs -- whether yours or another developer's -- that you've worked on that you can see working here? Any "lessons learned"?
RV: I think the big thing is that making a quality polished product with good gameplay is key. WoW proved that. WoW didn't really innovate all that much -- it just did a very good job of polishing what was out there. [Blizzard] took the best and put it in their game. But we want to develop an experience that's a BioWare experience first and foremost. And for that, it's very important to have directed content ... especially if you want to get to a mainstream audience.
JO: And by directed, we don't mean linear -- we mean that you know where you have to go to have fun.
GFW: How many of your key staffers migrated from SOE [which also has a studio in Austin]?
GW: I don't know that we have a count. Some from SOE, some from BioWare Edmonton, some from other companies completely. It's not like we had to go knocking. Experienced people want to work on a product that can be successful.
GFW: Can you talk about where the game takes place? Is it fantasy? Sci-fi?
JO: We can't talk about the setting of the game yet.
RV: The key points that we're gonna do that no one's done before in an MMOG are bring story, character, and emotion to it. Decisions matter, and NPCs aren't pez dispensers, and you're not in a grind. You're really compelled to get on and play what's happening to day ... kind of like watching a series like Lost on TV ... putting page-turning in an MMO. It's going to be extremely challenging thing to do, believe me.
GFW: Another BioWare strength, aside from story, is character customization. For lots of reasons, most MMORPGs lock you into classes without a ton of flexibility, which conflicts with customization. What's your philosophy?
RV: It's really important to have roles in an MMORPG. If you understand your role in the world, and others understand your role in the world with you, then you can get group dynamics and social behavior. [Developers] can set up interdependencies, which promote social dynamics in a game. If you don't have that, then you end up with loners ... and the world breaks down a little bit. Now, you'll be able to solo if you like in our game, that's for sure -- it's one thing that WoW proved can work. But it'll be a choice whether or not you want to group or not. You run into problems when people feel they're forced to group up or raid to get somewhere in the game.
JO: And while roles are important for gameplay, the visual aspect of your character is an area where we can let player differentiate themselves. We are gonna have a good selection of visual customization. We're probably gonna have more visual customization than you've seen in a BioWare game before.
GFW: Repetition of the same instances and raid dungeons is a huge part on what constitutes "end-game content" when you reach a level cap in an MMO. What's your plan for end-game content?
JO: We have big plans for end-game content that we can't talk about because it's a major part of our design. We think it's a very important aspect of the game, and we don't want players to be stuck grinding through the same content over and over again -- I know when I hit level 60 in WoW, I pretty much quit. So whatever end-game model we have, it's not going to be that.
GFW: And what of player-created content? Player-built cities, player-run businesses, that sort of thing?
RV: There'll definitely be an economy in our game, like WoW. But is our game going to be a simulation? No. Our game is an entertainment experience.
JO: If we're going to create immersive, epic stories that are believable, that really goes against having a simulation-type world. Those two things don't go together well.
GW: And putting the onus on players to create all the fun is ... a challenge.
GFW: How big is your writing team? Can you explain your writing process?
JO: One of the things we want to do is create more story content than in any other BioWare game before, and we started a writing team earlier than in any other BioWare project -- more than twice as big, nine total, and they'll be on the project twice as long. The reason is that the world is huge and has tons of paths and options.
GFW: How do you select your writers?
JO: It seems you can't get a writer from the same place twice -- we've got one from Hollywood, one straight out of school, one who was a designer and programmer before he decided he wanted to be a writer. They send submissions created in the Neverwinter Nights toolset, and cull out the ones we don't like. Senior writers give feedback to the ones that make the initial cut, and the potential writers make changes and turn it back in. It's some of the harshest testing for any position at BioWare, really.
GFW: What are you all playing right now?
JO: I'm playing in a World of WarCraft group with a few of the writers. We're in a Horde group.
RV: WoW, and I've started playing a bit of Eve Online. It's extremely ... niche.
GW: I still play Ultima Online every month, and play World of WarCraft right now. But mostly console games.
GFW: World of WarCraft all around. What's that game doing best right now? What keeps you playing?
RV: It's a very polished experience.
GW: It's got the best interface of any MMO by a longshot. It has craploads of content. You're always being directed from quest to quest.
GFW: Are you worried about taking on the World of WarCraft monster?
GW: There hasn't really been anything that's been built to beat it yet -- but we just want to be competitive. We're not looking to kill WOW. Will some people who play WOW play our game? Of course. But we'd be better off if we got new customers, too. It's not a zero-sum game out there.
JO: Aside from BioWare, Blizzard is the company I respect the most -- and yes, WOW is an amazing game. But there's still so much room for growth, and WOW still has tons of room for improvement. It's not a genre that's going to slow down any time soon. MMORPGs are going to be taking huge steps in so many place I can see.
GFW: What's the biggest improvement you want to see happen in MMOs?
JO: I'm a huge story guy. I want to play in a world where I feel like I'm reading a good book, where I feel like I'm there. I have lots of fun with World of WarCraft, but it's not because of the story or characters. So if we made characters you could care about and believe in ... that would be huge.
GFW: So when will we be playing the "BioWare MMORPG"?
GW: Anything worth doing well is worth taking the time. It's hard to predict when it'll be right. It's important for use to wait and make sure it's right. That's gonna take some time. Everyone who's tried to cram one into a ship date has had issues -- been there and done that a couple times.
JO: We're gonna make the best game we can.
RV: "When it's ready."
GW: The fan base of BioWare would love to see a Bioware MMO. And this was part of the genesis of this -- it's the natural progression for an RPG company to try this medium. We're happy to work with world-class game designers who aren't just copying what's come before. We have a really good studio. We probably have the most experienced team in the business, as far as building MMORPGs. We're excited about we're doing. The moment we talk about what we're going, expectations fly through the roof -- then you have to be the second coming. It's very difficult to live up to expectations; they keep escalating while you're trying to finish what you started.
GFW: And what are your personal goals in all this?
GW: I just want to entertain a lot of people. We are story-telling creatures. Story really helps make entertainment experiences more accessible.
RV: I just want to be on South Park.
Prove this, please. Thanks.
I don't have tp prove a thing. All anyone has to do is sit back and observe. At the end of the day, mmo consumers are way beyond fed up playing these themepark type mmo's that hold your hand and lead you around like a goat on a rope.
This is why you are seeing alot of the up and comming mmo's breaking away from the WOW model and reintroducing sandbox systems.
Look, just because WOW created a mmo that became something of an anomily in the gaming world, doesn't mean that it's success will ever happen again, even if it's a new SW mmo. WOW is old and dated, and every mmo that has tried to copy it has been a total failure within 6 months after release.
Even when Sony jumped on the band wagon and changed SWG and lost hundreds of thousands of subs, looking to cash in on WOW's thempark style of play, they still didn't succeed, so what is that telling you.
MMO's like Darkfall, Mortal Online, Fallen Earth, STO, Earthrise and a few more, are trying to take the mmo genre to a next lvl. The times of thempark dev hand holding and gear grinding day in and out are coming to an end.
If Bioware wants to compete, they better have done their homework and have not copied a product that is 5 yrs. old and worn out.
As far as my statement of SW mmo player's would rather play in a breathing world than a turned up instanced one with spoonfed dev content. I can for sure tell that all Bioware has to do is look no further than SWG.
Telling a story and having a player get involved with it is not a problem. The problem comes from not giving the player the option to choose if they want to participate or not. As well as give the players the in game tools to create their own story that changes the online world.
SW is a massive open book, when the KOTOR era is being observed. By making it a thempark mmo, in the vain of WOW, AOC, GW, and to many other 's to even mention would be doing the SW franchise a diservice.
Bioware has the opportunity to do something that is cutting edge and could be brilliant. On the other hand they could dress a turd up and try and pass it off as the next big thing and fail miserably.
Where did all these Star Wars Old Republic MMO fans come from? The way the idea was shunned for the last few years I always assumed there weren't alot of people excited about the idea. Now every game site in the industry is is getting in on this.
The fallacy in many views here is that you can either do WOW or a sandbox.
Look at what bioware is good at (KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect) .... good STORY based RPG. Note that WOW is NOT a story based game. No one ever cares enough to read the quest descriptions beyond what you need to do and what loot you will get afterwards. WOW is a great hack-n-slash game.
I think bioware can take the theme-park idea further, using more instancing to make a story driven MMO. It would be very nice if bioware can get people to focus on stories and may be stories that need particpation of the many.