SWTOR: Timeline 1 and Threat of Peace 3

Time to get out of the OnLive rants and back to what the blog is here for: Star Wars: The Old Republic. And with it being Friday there's another update. Or, in fact, two.

First of all there's the third part of the Threat of Peace comic, clearly keeping to its bi-weekly schedule. Here's the official news:

The third issue of Threat of Peace™ reveals the conclusion of the confrontation between Lord Angral and Jedi Master Orgus Din on Coruscant. As Lord Angral proceeds with his ruthless agenda, a desperate transmission is sent to interrupt the peace talks on Alderaan. Even as the grim reality of the situation becomes clear to Republic and Jedi leaders attending the talks, hope dwindles for the defense of Coruscant.

Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now.

In this we get some lightsaber combat, an explosion and betrayal at the diplomat's table. But while the comic is enjoyable to read, the better news this week is the first installment of the The Old Republic timeline, detailing events leading up to the game. Here's the official news:

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is set during a unique time period in the galaxy’s history. Decades of war concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic’s capital planet, Coruscant, and forcing Republic Senators and the Jedi Council to agree to a painful peace treaty.

In the years following the treaty, the Jedi Council tasked Master Gnost-Dural, Keeper of the Jedi Archives, with re-examining the galaxy’s history in light of recent events. In his insightful reports, Master Gnost-Dural established a new galactic timeline that became an educational reference for years to come… the very same years in which Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place.

In his first entry, Master Gnost-Dural recounts the events immediately prior to the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant – the turning point in the Republic’s recent history.

Watch Timeline 1: The Treaty of Coruscant narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.

Yes, you read that right; Lance Henriksen.

Before I read that last line I was expecting a written article with perhaps some images in it or such. But it's actually a movie (consisting of concept art) narrated by the famous actor. And it seems that they built a special interface for the timeline movies including a text description and a 'timeline' detailing the various entries (though only this first one is active). From the looks of it the future timeline updates will go increasingly further back in the past, which makes sense as they wouldn't want to spoil the start of the game.

And just because I can, here's the text spoken by Mr. Henriksen:

GREETINGS. I AM MASTER GNOST-DURAL, KEEPER OF THE JEDI ARCHIVES.

THE JEDI COUNCIL REQUESTS I PERFORM A DAUNTING TASK—TO REVISE THE ORDER’S HISTORICAL RECORDS IN LIGHT OF NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT THE FORMATION OF THE SITH EMPIRE.

I AM SPECIFICALLY GUIDED TO TRACE BACK THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE REPUBLIC, THE SITH AND THE JEDI, AND UNCOVER THE ROOTS OF THE STRUGGLE WHICH PLAGUES OUR TIME.

I'VE CHOSEN TO BEGIN WITH THE SINGULAR DEFINING EVENT OF RECENT YEARS—THE UNPRECEDENTED PEACE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SITH EMPIRE AND THE GALACTIC REPUBLIC—THE TREATY OF CORUSCANT.

IT WAS THREE CENTURIES AFTER THE DEATH OF DARTH MALAK AND THE END OF THE JEDI CIVIL WAR THAT THE TRUE SITH EMPIRE FIRST RETURNED FROM DEEP SPACE, ATTACKING THE REPUBLIC AND BEGINNING A WAR UNLIKE ANY OTHER IN THE GALAXY’S HISTORY.

THE GREAT GALACTIC WAR DRAGGED ON FOR DECADES. HUNDREDS OF JEDI AND SITH WERE SLAIN, AND COUNTLESS STAR SYSTEMS RAVAGED.

DESPITE SEIZING CONTROL OF HALF THE GALAXY, THE SITH EMPEROR GREW IMPATIENT—HE HAD EXPECTED HIS TRIUMPH TO COME QUICKLY.

THE LORDS OF THE EMPEROR’S DARK COUNCIL SURPRISED THE REPUBLIC SENATE WITH AN OFFER OF PEACE—A REPRIEVE THE REPUBLIC COULD NOT AFFORD TO IGNORE.

THE REPUBLIC’S MOST CRITICAL TRADE ROUTE WAS STILL RECOVERING FROM A MANDALORIAN BLOCKADE, WHICH SLOWED THE TRANSPORT OF MILITARY SUPPORT TO THE OUTER RIM AND RAW MATERIALS TO THE CORE WORLDS.

THE JEDI COUNCIL URGED THE SENATE TO CONSIDER THE SITH’S OFFER WITH CAUTION, BUT EVEN THE JEDI HAD TO AGREE—THE WAR WAS UNWINNABLE—PEACE WAS THE ONLY HOPE.

REPUBLIC AND IMPERIAL DIPLOMATS CONVENED ON THE PLANET OF ALDERAAN TO DISCUSS A GALAXY-WIDE CEASE-FIRE…

BUT THE SITH STILL HAD ONE PLAY TO MAKE.

THE IMPERIAL FLEET LAUNCHED A SURPRISE ASSAULT, BOMBARDING THE REPUBLIC CAPITAL OF CORUSCANT FROM ORBIT AND THEN STORMING THE CITY-WORLD’S BOTTOMLESS TOWERS.

WITH CORUSCANT’S DEFENSES INCAPACITATED, THE IMPERIALS ANNIHILATED THE JEDI TEMPLE, CAPTURED THE SENATE TOWER, AND HELD THE ENTIRE PLANET HOSTAGE.

BACK ON ALDERAAN, REPUBLIC DIPLOMATS HAD NO CHOICE. DESPITE UNFAVORABLE TERMS, THE TREATY OF CORUSCANT WAS SIGNED.

JEDI AND REPUBLIC TROOPS BEGAN WITHDRAWING FROM BATTLEFIELDS AROUND THE GALAXY, LEAVING STAR SYSTEMS TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES AND TO BE QUICKLY SWALLOWED UP BY THE SITH EMPIRE.

THE JEDI RETURNED TO CORUSCANT TO FIND THEIR TEMPLE IN RUINS AND IRATE SENATORS BLAMING THE JEDI ORDER FOR ALL THE REPUBLIC’S TROUBLES.

THOUGH STILL COMMITTED TO DEFENDING THE REPUBLIC, THE JEDI RELOCATED TO THEIR ANCIENT HOMEWORLD OF TYTHON—THERE TO REST, MEDITATE, AND SEEK GUIDANCE FROM THE FORCE.

THUS BEGAN AN UNPRECEDENTED STALEMATE—THE JEDI RECONNECTING WITH THEIR ROOTS, THE REPUBLIC NURSING ITS WOUNDS, THE SITH CONSOLIDATING THEIR POWER, AND A GALAXY DIVIDED BETWEEN DARKNESS AND LIGHT.

IN RETROSPECT, THIS OUTCOME WAS INEVITABLE, AND WOULD HAVE COME SOONER WERE IT NOT FOR SOME OF THE REPUBLIC'S LESS SAVORY ALLIES. I WILL ELABORATE ON THIS THEORY SOON.

Based on the final comment (and the image shown with it in the video) as well as one of the timeline entry descriptions (talking about "a smuggler convoy") it's fairly certain that one of the Republic classes yet to be revealed will be the Smuggler. Which makes sense as this would be the Han Solo archetype. The timeline also makes mention of "imperial intelligence" which might suggest yet another class (it's been speculated that the balancing class for Smuggler might be some kind of Imperial Spy). But that's reading a lot into very little.

Either way a very exciting update, better than I was expecting after the two previous great updates.

More on OnLive

Yes, I’m still pretty excited about OnLive (as I previously blogged). And since yesterday some more information has surfaced such as an hour long OnLive press conference video.

The video is quite exciting, showing a number of more in-depth demonstrations (such as Crysis running on a low-end laptop) and giving a bit of a better view at how using the system works. Additionally they give a fair bit more information on the service (such as the launch being US only, boooo, though they’re planning to go international pretty son after that). If you’ve got an hour and are interested in this at all then would be well worth the watch.

There’s also an article up at 1up and IGN has an article asking whether this’ll change the future of gaming (as well as some videos). OnLive’s website (which I linked to before) also went live in the meantime with some bits of information (and a chance to sign up for the beta if you’re in the US).

Reading the comments people post on these articles there’s a fair amount of excitement and hope, but also a fair bit of negativity (well, probably wouldn’t be the Internet otherwise). People seem to be concerned about pricing (a valid concern) or don’t believe that it can work and cause too much latency (another valid concern) as well as concerns about ownership (which I find less valid personally). Some are even saying that they’re convinced that it’ll never work or that they hope it doesn’t (which seems particularly silly).

But I think a lot of it comes from fear, fear of change. And I think that people don’t quite realize that this is (just) the start. It seems almost as if people fear that this time next year you won’t be able to play games the old way anymore and instead will have to play through OnLive.

I doubt it’ll go that fast. I’m certain that for many years to come the current model of gaming will continue to exist next to OnLive-type services (and there will be more, more on that in a bit). It’s quite possible that it’ll continue to exist indefinitely. After all, despite television people still buy DVDs (though interestingly OnLive has the potential to be the end of both of those in the long run). I suspect that it’ll be at least ten years before OnLive becomes the main method of gaming for people (though I was wrong about how soon something like this would be introduced too). This generation of consoles might be the last one, but I think we’ll see one more generation. And PC gaming will continue to exist if only as a development platform.

We’re at the dawn of a new chapter in gaming, but it will take time for it to rise to its peak.

I also suspect that it will take hardcore gamers longest of all to adopt to this, while those more inclined to more casual gaming and use of consoles might be sooner to adopt this. Those who already have their high-end systems and have no problem investing in their hobby, those who want to have full control, don’t really have much use for something like this and it would sound like less quality (lower resolution and crispness and possibly more latency issues as well as being dependent on an external party) for more money (the subscription fee, though people often seem to forget that they could save that in the cost of upgrading their systems).

For everyone else though this could be a blessing, allowing people to play the latest games at high quality (much higher than they otherwise could) whenever they want on hardware that doesn’t cost much at all (beyond perhaps a HDTV). Include services like game rental (after playing some single-player games for a week one likely gets tired of it anyway) this would allow people to play what they want when they want.

We’re moving to an always-online world where the whole concept of “local machine” fades away. Just look at the Internet; articles you read aren’t local either and yet using the Internet is nearly seamless. Or look at television, does it really matter if you’re playing from a local DVD or watching a broadcast (particularly if you can start/stop/pause/rewind/etc on demand)? The same will be true with games; you simply choose the game to play and you play it, whether it’s local or online or something else in the end doesn’t matter.

And OnLive isn’t the only one doing this. David Perry, creative officer at Acclaim, has come out and stated that he has a team working on the same kind of thing (independent of Acclaim). He was originally going to announce it at E3 this year, and he isn’t quite as far along in development, but OnLive’s announcement now stole his thunder and forced his hand. Others might be working on something similar too, that’s only natural. Such advancements usually happen by several unrelated projects at roughly the same time. And console developers like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo kind of have to go along with this (possibly creating their own versions of this) if they want to continue to survive (or they could become pure content developers, but then they lose control over the platform).

But all of this, as I said, is going to take time. For the next ten years, I suspect, people will still be able to play their games as they are now as people slowly start adopting these new services, get used to them, and eventually perhaps switch over completely. Then in ten years time perhaps we can have some discussion on the “death of consoles”.

Exciting times for gaming to say the least.

Gamasutra: Simutronics' HeroEngine Adds Large Single-Shard Capabilities

As I said in the previous blog entry, it's GDC and that can mean lots of news. Such as this one.

Gamasutra reports that Simutronics, developers of HeroEngine which in turn is being used by BioWare to create Star Wars: The Old Republic, will now support large single-shard capabilities. This means that, potentially, they might be able to run Star Wars: The Old Republic on a single shard (i.e. one 'server') or have only a few large shards (instead of dozens of shards making it impossible to connect with friends already playing).

Here's the news report:

Simutronics has announced that its HeroEngine MMO development platform now supports more than 100,000 concurrent users on a single shard.

The company refers to it as its "Seamless World" technology, and says it allows developers to connect several areas to create one large space without boundaries.

"There is no limit on how large a single seamless world can be," Simutronics explains, adding that the worlds themselves can be instanced as needed for specific requirements. HeroEngine is currently being used by BioWare on its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.

Simutronics also says it will continue developing scalability features between worlds to increase the maximum capacity per shard over time.

At the same time, the company's also added Linux server support for HeroEngine -- noting that both Windows and Linux servers are interoperable within the same environment.

Finally, the latest version of HeroEngine adds Autodesk Maya 2009 support and content packages for publishing via LivePush so that players can deploy content updates without ending their session.

"Creative visionaries are no longer bound by arbitrary limits on the size of their virtual worlds or how areas in those worlds can connect together”, said Simutronics CEO and HeroEngine Architect David Whatley. "And, they can choose to run their virtual worlds on Windows or Linux, or any combination, in order to meet their cost and performance goals."

Of course, there's no guarantee that BioWare will actually use these capabilities or, if they use them, that they'll use them to run just a single shard. But personally I do greatly hope that they will just have a single shard because these shard divisions that MMOs usually have are not only stupid, they're also damaging to the community. And if there's one thing all MMOs live on then it's their communities.

So here's hoping that they'll just have one shard now that HeroEngine seemingly supports it.

GDC: OnLive Introduces the Future of Gaming

Ho—ly crap.

Sorry for the expletive, and apologies for the non BioWare/Star Wars/The Old Republic news, but this truly has me amazed.

As you might be aware the Game Developers Conference (GDC) is currently underway, and there are always some interesting things rising from that (particularly if you’re a game developer), but I didn’t see this one coming.

That is to say, I’ve been saying that it was coming for years. For example, when the controversy around online authentication for BioWare’s Mass Effect rose and people were decrying being treated like criminals I defended the system as a first step to an always-online situation. I predicted that online verification would be followed by more widespread digital distribution of games. After that I predicted that games would more and more move towards a system of streamed content (much like Guild Wars) where you only download specific content when the game you’re playing needs it. Until finally it would move to a system where the games run completely online and all you download ire the final, rendered frames. That, I predicted, would be the way forward for games as it would likely completely eliminate piracy.

But I expected it to take many years where now it seems we’re about to skip a few steps straight to the final one.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about OnLive, which was announced today at GDC.

So what is OnLive then? Simply put, OnLive is on-demand gaming requiring almost no hardware while giving you a top-of-the-line gaming experience. How this works is through cloud computing which, in simple terms, means that they have a lot of powerful computers that run a game for you online. Your input is sent online to them, they run the game, and stream the video back to you. This would allow you to run Crysis on your ten-year-old laptop or even on your TV (with a small “micro-console” that does nothing other that read your input, send it to them and then receive the video to display on your TV).

No more hardware upgrade, no more console wars, no more DRM, no more physical media that can get lost. Heck, not even download times anymore. You just log in and play the latest games at maximum settings.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that this could revolutionize gaming as we know it. Heck, it could quite possibly revolutionize all of digital entertainment (television, movies, music, etc).

To read more on it see the articles at Gamasutra, IGN or Kotaku, or see the video interview at GameTrailers. Denis Dyack (of Silicon Knights) has an article at VentureBeat explaining as well how cloud computing will impact games.

Of course, there are some considerations as well before we get too enthusiastic. First and foremost is whether it really works. With all that data streaming a good, stable online broadband connection is vital. It would seem that any lag could potentially seriously affect the gameplay experience. Though they assure us that they’ve solved a lot of the latency issues (and according to one article linked above they’re even working with ISPs to improve their connections), I’ll remain cautious until I’ve actually seen it in action on my own system.

A second issue is that of “ownership”. Or rather, this is a conceptual problem to overcome in consumers. One of the big complaints one often hears towards online activation is that consumers feel that they ‘own’ the game. Personally I feel that this isn’t true; you pay for the experience of playing the game, not for owning it. People already seem to have an issue overcoming this hurdle with digital distribution (there is the need to have something physical in your hand for many), so this isn’t going to make it any easier for them. But I think that for the first number of years at least it can live happily next to traditional forms of acquiring games as people slowly get used to it. And think, it might at least be a quick and easy way to get to try a demo of games before you buy the disc.

A third issue is one I personally find much more interesting to see an answer to, and that’s the issue of user-created content. Right now a lot of games live on user-created content to various degrees. But with the game running completely in OnLive’s cloud that means that it’ll become that much more difficult to modify the game. Unless games have a built-in way to create and share content it’s going to be impossible to do, and even then only that which the game explicitly allows. Games like Spore and Little Big Planet would work, but will we ever see another Counterstrike? How about games in between like Neverwinter Nights and the upcoming Dragon Age? Questions of how custom content would work and how it would be handled is one I’d most want to see answered.

I’m sure people might have other issues as well. Pricing is one such for example; it’s likely that we’ll have to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to OnLive’s service and then have additional fees on top of that for the game purchases, though it’s quite possible to have a rental system too. If it costs too much and/or if the list of provided games is inadequate then it’s not going to be adopted very fast.

But, overall, this looks like very exciting stuff that could potentially change gaming forever, and put a stop to the rampant pirating.

And not just for gaming. I can also see television shows being added to the service where show makers add the latest episode to the service after which one can select to watch it (for a reasonable fee) whenever one wants. The same with movies, no more need for having your house filled with DVD cases. Then music, books, etc. It could quite literally become the new face of digital entertainment.

Will it do that? We’ll see; it’ll likely take years for the service to develop and spread, be adopted by more and more people. It’s also likely that consoles will try to offer similar services (as I understand the PS3 is already offering something similar, but that might just be PS3-to-PSP). They kind-of have o or otherwise they’ll be competed out of the game (who buys an expensive console if you can play online virtually for free). Either that or Sony and Microsoft become pure content developers.

I also have to wonder how quickly this will come to Europe, because at the moment I get the feeling that it’s a NA-only service to start (they’re planning to have a beta this summer and launch in the winter of this year). But if it does well there then it’s only a matter of time before it crosses the pond. As I understand Europe already tends to have better Internet connections anyway, so it’s more likely to take off here.

Anyway, exciting times. I’m much looking forward to how this develops.

Bounty Hunter Class Reveal

Last week BioWare revealed their third class (though they are saying that it is their first official class reveal): the Bounty Hunter. And this week we get all kinds of Bounty Hunter goodness, including a class details page with some new screenshots, concept art, videos and information.

Here is the news post:

We are proud to announce the first playable character class revealed in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, the Bounty Hunter.

An infamous mercenary of the Star Wars™ universe, the Bounty Hunter’s journey is ruthless yet rewarding. Deadly missions and assassinations are just part of the dangerous tasks involved in choosing the Bounty Hunter career path. With missiles and flamethrowers at arm’s reach, the Bounty Hunter uses the latest in advanced armor and weapon technology to carry out these assignments - gaining not only money, but notoriety as a reward.

Access more data about the Bounty Hunter! And make sure to deck out your desktop with our newest wallpaper!

The class page gives a general overview of the class, giving a brief description as well as a description of appearance and tactics.

Here's an excerpt from the overview:

Hunter, seeker, killer for hire

Countless enemies stand in the way of the Sith Empire’s drive for domination. The Empire spares no expense eliminating these threats, offering massive bounties to employ the galaxy’s most lethal hunters. Earning a death mark from the Empire means a life spent in fear, constantly looking over one’s shoulder. It’s never a question if a Bounty Hunter will find you… only when.

At least that confirms one thing I've been saying all along: Bounty Hunter is a Sith Empire specific class. But the rest of the page makes me suspect that I might be wrong about a Smuggler class being the Republic equivalent of the Bounty Hunter. Considering that the class is described as heavy armor and heavy weaponry it's more likely that a Republic Commando or such will fill that role.

Anyway, as the news post states, next to the class page they also have not one, but two new wallpapers with a surprisingly sexy-looking Bounty Hunter:



Quite an exciting update I think, even if I have absolutely no interest in the class.

In-Depth: BioWare's Vogel On The Power Of Speech In Games

Gamasutra posted an article detailing a talk by Rich Vogel, who serves as co-director of the BioWare Austin studio developing The Old Republic, at a recent South by Southwest panel about the differences between layered communications in text and speech.

Here's an excerpt:

The good thing about virtual worlds as opposed to real life, says Vogel, is that virtual worlds actually free up introverted people to talk to others. This was something he saw during the early day of Ultima Online.

"The barriers are lifted there for those kinds of people," Vogel says of players who were handicapped, or simply nervous around other people, and are suddenly able to communicate without their normal difficulties.

I must say that while I agree with a number of his points (like the one quoted above as to some degree I probably fall in that same group of introverted people), there are others I strongly disagree with.

For example his point on user-created content. It seems to me that it only 2% of people create content that is really good then with a playerbase of a million players you get 20,000 people creating content that's really good. Which is a factor 100 to 1,000 times the number of people in the development team (ostensibly creating that much more quality content then the dev team could, or in another way to put it creating 100 to 1,000 times the base game).

That sounds like an awful lot to me, to say nothing of if you get numbers similar to WoW (and even with less numbers that's still an awful lot of good content). No way that any dev team can ever hope to match that.

The problem, I think, comes from the fact that those 2% of people only start creating content at the same time as that the other 98% start playing. And since creating quality content takes time this means that those 98% will be left wanting until that time. So it's vitally important that the developers themselves provides the first brunt of content to keep those 98% busy while the 2% start developing their quality content. I believe that it's here that Neverwinter Nights failed (and yet it's still one of BioWare's longest-running products).

I also disagree with his notion that you need to give people goals. Personally I feel that what you need to do is keep people entertained. if the experience now is enjoyable then people are likely to come back for more, as long as it stays enjoyable. In fact, I believe that this is far closer to why WoW is successful; not because of the game itself being so enjoyable but because it became a social platform where people enjoy being with each other and spending time together. When you listen to people talk about their enjoyable experiences in WoW (or any other games) they very rarely talk about that great goal that they chased and/or reached, and instead they talk about the experiences they had with their friends and the unique personal stories they experienced (the Leeroy Jenkins meme is just one great example of that; it has very little to do with the game design or its goals).

As such, again, I belief that providing a space for players to interact together and enjoy content together is vital. When players start running out of content you start to rely on the somewhat shaky requirement of people being able to connect in the game (better than in another game). So again there, by letting players create content themselves they can entertain each other (not themselves as such, but each other). This can help make the content personal the way general developer-created content has a hard time of reaching (is it more enjoyable to recover that sword that some random knight NPC lost or that sword that belonged to your deceased father).

And thus I do strongly belief that user-created content games will end up being much stronger and long-lasting than those that rely purely on developer-created content.

Anyway, seems this turned into a bit of a rant. My apologies for that.

IGN: Community Focus: The Old Republic

There's an article over at IGN where Sean Dahlberg, community manager at BioWare Austin (where they're making Star Wars: The Old Republic), details what community management is and how it has changed.

Though the title says "The Old Republic" there's really nothing in it specific to that game (in fact when Sean even mentions specific games he mentions all of BioWare's games equally), so I filed this under BioWare instead. Even so it's a good read and a nice insight in what goes on in community management for The Old Republic too.

Here's an excerpt:

It will be interesting to see where we go. While the field has evolved since its inception, it is still in its infancy. Companies are increasingly learning how beneficial it can be to their products to have strong, healthy communities. For example, the one I work for, BioWare, has a very established commitment that is evident in the communities that have sprung up around Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Our fan base is incredibly dedicated, and we rely on the members' support and input to help ensure our games meet their expectations of quality.

Good luck, Sean. I know that pre-release communities aren't always easy (fans always demanding so much and often completely wrong about a game). And Star Wars: The Old Republic is certainly no exception. But I'm sure you have things well in hand, and thanks for the insights.

Threat of Peace 2, Video Documentary 2 and third class

BioWare just (yesterday) released a big update for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

First of all they just released the next three pages of the Threat of Peace webcomic. Here's the official news:

The second issue of Threat of Peace™ take us to the frontlines in the Sith Empire’s assault on Coruscant. After destroying the planet’s satellite security stations, the Sith armada begins its attack on the planet’s surface. Lord Angral personally leads a strike team to confront some of the Republic’s bravest defenders and assault the Senate Tower. Meanwhile, Sith warships begin their bombardment of the Jedi Temple.

Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now.

Issue two has your Sith and your Jedi, but there's also another guy together with the Jedi in a white-and-yellow stormtrooper-like armor that I suspect is another class players can play (for the Republic). But the class isn't named and I don't think that it is the third class they revealed in the other update.

This other update is the second video documentary, this one titled "The Story and Setting". I won't embed the video here (as then it'll play as soon as you load the blog page), but clicking on the image below should take you to the video.

Here's the news article:

We are excited to release our second Video Documentary for Star Wars™: The Old Republic.

Set 300 years after the events of Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™ and thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader, the setting of The Old Republic is a relatively unexplored timeframe in the Star Wars™ canon. This allows a significant amount of freedom to create an epic storyline that will allow players to make ethical decisions and become immersed in their personal Star Wars saga.

Watch as the LucasArts and BioWare teams reveal how Story and Setting will enhance the player experience.

The video is quite exciting, talking about how you, as a player, get to determine the direction of your own stories and being both the actor and director on your own personal tales. It talks about how there is this big story about the war between the Republic and the Empire, and in that there are all these classes with their own stories with all these iconic moments and all that. And how they're using those stories to keep players interested in playing as it should feel that you're part of something, how you want to see what the stories will bring next. So that all sounds very exciting.

But I think that for most the most exciting thing in that video is the almost off-the-cuff announcement of the third class in the game (next to the already announced Jedi and Sith): Bounty Hunter. There's some nice footage of the Bounty Hunter in the video including use of a flamethrower and use of a jetpack to launch into the air (!) and shoot an enemy from above. Looks quite fun (though I'll stick with my force-sensitive classes myself).

They haven't announced what faction the class is for (as far as we know it's even possible that you could play some classes for either faction, but I doubt it). I suspect that it'll be a Sith Empire faction though. Of course, that's just pure speculation.

Anyway, this was one of the better updates in a while. And it's looking like the game should be a lot of fun. Keep up the good work, BioWare, and can hardly wait to hear more.

NowGamer BioWare Q&A

The site NowGamer has a Q&A with BioWare('s CEO Ray Muzyka) up. It talks a bit about where they are now with EA, looks at the past and the future of their games.

It's a decent read, but most of all it speaks of a certain passion that BioWare has for games and making certain that they deliver quality entertainment.

Here's an excerpt that briefly talks about Star Wars: The Old Republic:

Sony has been making a lot of noise about making the PS3 into a major platform for MMO (massively multiplayer online) gaming. Is that something BioWare will want in on?

Maybe. There’s challenges with the interface – making sure that the features players expect in an MMO are enabled and are feasible on a console. If those can be overcome, and I think it would be a good challenge to try, then yeah… people like playing with other players. That’s true whether it’s a limited multiplayer setting or a massive multiplayer setting.
Star Wars: The Old Republic we’ve only talked about PC, and that’s our development focus. Will we explore other systems in the future for other MMO games in the future? Yeah, maybe. We have nothing we’ve announced on that front. Our main focus with The Old Republic is to make sure that the PC version of the game is awesome, and to make sure that it’s a high quality experience.

So from that, no definite word on SW:TOR on consoles as they're focusing on PC right now. Which, considering that I'm a PC gamer, is good news for me.

Anyway, enjoy the read.

BioWare Blog: Creating the Polluted World of Hutta

I was away last weekend so a bit late with the update, but last Friday BioWare posted another BioWare blog entry for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This time it describes how the environment artists went about create Nal Hutta.

It's an interesting read as you get to see the general process involved with creating the environment of the various planets they have. Though it doesn't really give much game details that tell us how the game will play, it's still nice to read.

Here's an excerpt:

When we began work on Hutta, we knew it was supposed to be a polluted, filthy sewer of a planet, just like the Hutts would like it. Without any movie reference, we gathered a wide variety of real life photos of swamps and wetlands, taking note of common themes and basic shapes that come up again and again, like hanging moss, thin trees and ankle-deep water. We complimented this with a collection of images from industrial sites, construction zones and junk yards. Now that we know what this dump is supposed to look like we’re ready to start!

It goes on to detail how they create a representative test area, how they reiterate over that a few times to get it perfect, and then venture out to do the rest of the planet adding environment details to the rough gameplay map already created.

BioWare Forms New Montreal Group

I should be in bed already, but I just noticed this news on Gamasutra and thought I'd post it first.

It seems that BioWare is forming a new group within EA Montreal to help work on Mass Effect 2:

BioWare Forms New Montreal Group To Work On Mass Effect 2

BioWare is forming a new studio group within Electronic Arts Montreal, hiring 30 new staffers to support the team developing Mass Effect 2 in Edmonton.

"Our new presence... will be located within the existing EA Montreal facilities," BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka tells Gamasutra today. "It's great that we have a strong foundation to build out of."

The company will be hiring artists, animators, designers and other positions to join the team working on Mass Effect 2.

"We'll be working together with our friends at EA Montreal," says Muzyka. "There's a great studio here continuing full-force with a whole bunch of really cool, exciting things as well."

The new studio and project won't affect existing projects at EA Montreal. Neither will BioWare's existing work on Dragon Age and Star Wars: The Old Republic in Austin be affected -- nor any of what Muzyka calls "a couple unannounced projects... really cool future stuff."

Sounds like BioWare is expanding again, which is only good as it means more good BioWare stuff for us in the future. Of course, it's not really BioWare as such and more EA so it's just as likely that after Mass Effect 2 that Montreal group will continue to work on non-BioWare products. But we'll see.

Thanks to The Escapist, Kotaku, and VG247 for reporting the news.