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KOTOR MMorpg, how many chances?
Volkmar
Member UncommonPosts: 2,501
Greetings,
I know this is not a proper SWG topic, but seeing the distress the community is in, i thought better to post this here than on the general forum.
Recently, Bioware announced their intention to enter the MMorpg arena
http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_releases/2006_03_15_Austin/
No details have been announced at this time about this new MMorpg but it comes as a little surprise considering everyone is doing mmorpg nowadays (and considering the increased and sustained revenues, i see this becoming more and more common, at least for PC game market).
Most of you will be aware of the enormous amount of deep and excellent RPG that bio ware is responsible of, not least the KOTOR series.
The KOTOR series has been heralded by many has the best Star Wars games to come in a long way, or even ever by some. It is undoubted they are some quality RPGs.
Now, considering their experiences, there is good potential in their MMorpg project, whatever it would be, but i think they actually have 4 options.
1) Do a Dragon Age based MMorpg as they are developing a single player game based in the same world. This would promote both games, give more deep and background to the MMorpg (as the single player would be, most probably, released a year or two before the MMorpg) and try to follow the WoW road.
This option has 2 problems. the first is that Dragon Age, while in development by some years and got accolades at E# of 2004, is no way a sure hit. It has great potential, surely, but it could become a merely "good" game and not sell as many copies as forseen. Starting developing of a MMorpg on the basis of something not solid, might be not the best idea.
the Second problem is that Dragon Age, and a mmorpg based on it, is a classical, if original, fantasy setting and the market is getting saturated of fantasy games.
2) A completely original project. I suppose this is possible. having a mmorpg with no links to any of their past productions, but with so many exciting names under their belts, why not use some of them?
3) Make a MMorpg based on Jade Empire. this probably could work, but Jade Empire, while a good game, wasn't the smashing success they wanted it to be. Well... there is really nothing against making a Jade Empire MMorpg i guess 
4) make a KOTOR MMorpg. Based on widly succesful games and on the star wars name. an MMorpg based on Kotor would have much more freedom than SWG as the era is not very fleshed out by Lucas, but it was fleshed out by BioWare themselves! So they can expand on their previous work.
Having dozens of jedi would be normal in such a period (i can envise even a Jedi-only game as they are so versatile to cover most possibilities, especially introducing some of the EU variants, like the Paadu neutral jedi (one of which was actually present in KOTOR 1)) and the two projects, SWG and KOTOR Online could survive side by side. How? Simple, SWG has been.... transformed in a console game and speculations suggest it will be ported on the PS3 as soon as the system is ready. KOTOR Online would take SWG place in the PC market, offering a more complex and not so immediate and FPS-ish experience.
Lucasarts already know BioWare know what they are doing and they worked on the license before, the two Eras and game systems are different enough to have 2 different game experiences and try to capitalize on both markets (console and pcs), a thing SWG clearly can't do after the last debacle.
So, what you think are the chances of this becoming reality?
edit: Ah yes, why not a D&D based MMORpg? Well, i guess that is a possibility, but i do not see WOTC wanting ANOTHER D&D mmorpg so early. DDO success is yet to be determined, but chances are it will be good enough. Beside that and the fact it would be another fantasy game, i guess there aren't any other reasons against it... so maybe it is option 5 
Comments
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
KOTOR Online.
can you even being to imagine how cool that would be
with the freedom that time period would allow, not having to include cheesy links to 'iconic' movie tie- ins and with Bioware in charge.
well I can dream....
I think a KOTOR based MMO would be awsome, I'd be lining up to play that for sure.
And for that reason, I'm almost positive that it will never happen. There must be a good reason that Bioware did not do KOTOR 2, most likely problems with LucasArts, so I can't really see them wanting to tie themselves down with paying LA a stack of cash just for the SW liscense.
Will probably be an original game with no liscensing fees or the problems that go along with having to answer to the liscense owners. Plus more profits for them that way, and I don't think they will have trouble marketing their MMO without a big name liscense, the Bioware name alone has a good amount of fans that love their games, and as long as the MMO is done right then it will attract it's own players.
Now all we have to do is wait the 3 years or so for Bioware and NCsoft to make their new MMO's, lets hope Vanguard be good enough to pass the time till then with.
kotor suck if they make something it should be cool like diablo
A KoToR-based MMORPG would be something close to a wet dream, however, I see problems with this. If they want to develop such a game, they would have to go back to LA and renegotiate their old KoToR agreement or draft an entirely new deal. Bioware has always gone their own way and I believe them to be fiercely independent. Taking "orders" from LA in regards to creative control would not sit well with them. My money is on a completely new setting with Bioware calling the shots as to how, when and why this game should be.
I thought that Bioware doesn't want to work others IP's anymore. They have concentrated to products which IP rights belong to them. They pretty much pissed up for LA with KOTOR1 (LA did pushed product out too early) - and I guess that there was also some creative problems between LA and Bioware. Bioware's spin-off company Obsidian (KOTOR2 and NWN2) is specialized to work with IP licences.
Thought - it wouldn't be completed ruled out that Bioware would develope another SW game - if they get licence from LA.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
Yeah, pretty sure that Bioware will venture onto new ground instead of dealing with licensing a title. As Resetgun mentioned - they had their fill after dealing with LA. KOTOR would be an interesting game but there is no chance of LA letting them do it the way they want it. God only knows how much of a hand they had in SWG's downfall.
On a side note - did anyone catch this...
Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.
hehe
My dream would be that they are in austin and in fact about to start taking over the running of SWG. Didn't we hear rumblings of NCsoft and Bioware being the pair of companies linking up? Add to that a studio head - Gordon Walton (a.k.a. tyrant) from SWG before he was labelled "between projects"
I know it is wishful thinking, but if you had an MMO geared towards Star Wars fans, who better to take over implimentation if not flat out creating SWG 2 than one of the most trusted names among Star Wars Games developers? I won't get my hopes up, but I actually think this is very interesting.
does any site have his producers letter from back in 2004 archived?
KOTOR would not be a good time period. We would just have more of the same old arguements as we have now in SWG regarding jedi.
In the KOTOR series, jedi are not numerous. In fact only a handful of jedi are left after the war. And depending how you played KOTOR II even those were killed. Remember the loading screen messages said before the Sith War there were thousands of jedi. But after less then 100 remained. And most of those were killed during a conclave on a planet along with the population of the planet. The main reason the few you go to find are in hiding.
This would be a valid arguement to use against NOT having jedi players. But the retort would be almost identical to the one we had in SWG. Jedi are KOTOR. Its in the title. KNIGHTS of the Old Republic. And I, for one, dont feel like repeating history again. Reading forum post and chat messages arguing for and against player jedi would be ridiculous indeed. Especially after the forum wars on SWG that we had over the issue.
No if they want to do a Star Wars MMO they need to go to a completely different time period. 1,000 years after the events in KOTOR (2,000 years before ANH) comes to mind. The timeline jumps from 3,951 years before ANH with KOTOR II to 1,000 years before ANH with the saga of Darth Bane. Another completely empty period ready to filled with content and stories.
Kai
Most of you are dead wrong... This game will suck harder than an Oreck... The reason is because KOTOR is going to be too loosely based on the SW canon... There isn't going to be the identifiable races we know and love from the movies... They will involve something like EVE's bloodlines that are completely made up for the game...
Why does this work for EVE? Because EVE isn't pretending to be SW, KOTOR would be pretending... Besides, more often than not MMO's suck rather than actually being good... It will be a cookie cutter clone of WoW with LA's demand, and will leave a lot left to be desired... It will be rushed out and buggy with LA at the helm and will be backed by the same crooked publisher SOE dealt with with SWG...
This is why the failure of SWG is so monumental, there are people like me who won't even bother picking up a SW MMO... I prefer the Sci Fi setting over fantasy, and am a fan of the movies, but not a diehard... But given the mess that ensued with LA and SOE, IO would rather drink terpentine and piss on a brushfire before going back to LA and an online SW MMO... They had a chance, and the messed it up...
All you SW fans will be lining up for it, but will have to settle for a non-sandbox game that will allow you to kill Exar-Kun right out of the tutorial and have your quests served to you on a silver platter... No thanks... I'll stick with EVE unti VSOH and then maybe start my Captain's Log in a year or so...
I think LA's greatest achievement so far is hanging SOE out to dry and having the wool pulled over your eyes... SOE's main fault is for being spineless and having LA boss them around, but SW is a billion dollar franchise, so LA carries some weight... Instead of Shayde having Smed's pic in his avatar with "pure evil" on it, it really should be Lucas's picture...
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
i think the idea would be to have the game during the first Sith War or just before it. So you have basically Jedi vs Rebel jedi and there are thousands of them around.
I agree that a SW game should either have ALL jedis or NO jedis. So this would be a ALL Jedis game. (or better, ALL force-users)
From what we have seen of the period, there were so many of those, that having variance is not a problem. The game could offer also not only traditional Light side Jedi, but also Dark side jedi, Paadu neutral jedi, Monk jedis and what not. The EU (Expanded Universe) is full of strange and particular force-wielding traditions.
About the game not being SW because it is too loosely based, i just have to point to KOTOR to prove you wrong. Was it loosely based? yes. Was it Star Wars? Heck, yeah!
They could just continue building on what they already have.
Of course i had forgot about the problems with the first KOTOR and the fact the second was done by obsidian and not Bioware proper.
So, yeah, i suppose they are gonna go with their own original IP, Dragon Age or something else.
They also have that action RPG in the making for the 360, called Mass Effect that looked pretty interesting, but what said for Dragon Age is even more valid here as the game is not even for PCs. Of course the Sci-Fi setting would help differentiate it from the rest.
Have a nice day
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
If you check this link (http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions/austin_combat_design_lead.html), you'll find requirement "Familiarity with fantasy role-playing games is a must". I think its not KOTOR but Fantasy MMO game. Licensed MMO's usualy are announced if they ever mentioned.
In last month i see many signs that LucasArts going to produce MMOG's internally. They created Online Gaming Business Unit and hiring peeps for San Francisco. That peeps who are hired "will focus on multiplayer development for Xbox Live, Sony PS2, and next generation consoles".
This means we can stat that LEC is developing Console MMO Game. I think it is Star Wars related MMO and they want to produce it fully in-house.
Edit: source for LEC hiring peeps http://www.gamedev.net/directory/careers/default.asp?jobid=1020