BioWare bossman Ray Muzyka has told VG247’s US editor Stephany Nunneley that plans for what happens after you finish Star Wars: The Old Republic are in place.As I said, nothing really shocking yet. But thought it was nice to hear the bosses' thoughts.
But speaking at GDC alongside fellow head of the studio Greg Zeschuk, the pair wouldn’t go into specifics as to what would be coming.
“We have plans for end game, but can’t be more specific,” said Muzyka, before teasing: “Actually, we can, but we won’t.
“But soon actually, it’s nice to be able to reveal things a little bit over time.”
“It’s been a long cycle, but we knew that going in and we’ve been very thoughtful about details. People who play MMOs want details,” added Zeschuk.
That said, there will be stuff in the game from the go that will keep you occupied for a long time.
“We have a story in place that will keep people playing and having fun for a really long time, and you should see the pillars we have describing to us what makes a great MMO or RPG for that matter, as they’re very similar kinds of pillars,” said Muzyka.
“We look at narrative and story, we look at combat and conflict, progression, customization, all those have aspects that transcend the primary main game and all of them have place in the end game too.”
The MMO was announced back in October 2008, with a release set for spring next year. Wont be out before April, though.
[link] to news article at VG247.
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2 comments:
I'm interested to see BioWare's take on endgame. When you cut away all the illusion, all that endgame really amounts to is a "carrot on a stick". For the long term subscribers, it's something to keep them going when they've explored the rest of the content.
TOR is already shaping to combat the boredom of exploring multiple classes, a tedious exercise in any existing MMO that require retreading the same ground each time. Having a truly unique storyline for each class should conceptually make it feel like eight RPGs in one, although I still question exactly how much will be unique and how much will simply be different points of view overlapping threaded stories.
I'm a roleplayer; for me "endgame" consist of roleplaying for a large part. As long as a game provides the tools to do so I avoid the "carrot on a stick".
Unfortunately in most MMOs trying to roleplay feels more like you're fighting the game. And to be honest I don't expect SWTOR to be any different in that regard; if you think that they've talked little about the MMO qualities or their endgame, they haven't said anything yet about it being a roleplaying game. Quite the contrary, what little things they've said sooner seem to point away from that.
So it seems that, for me, in this game endgame will be just as for everyone else. So I definitely get the concerns. I just suspect that no matter how great their endgame, after playing for a couple of month it'll likely become stale. There is something nothing that can keep a game fresh as much as the imaginations of your fellow players; but if they're all focused on raiding and PvP...
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