Author Topic: E3 Annoucement: Star Wars: The Old Republic - A WoW killer?  (Read 1280 times)

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TheHeckler!

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Not to be confused with KoTOR, the Old Republic will be the second MMORPG using the Star Wars IP, developed by BioWare. So many MMO's have come out in recent years trying to topple - or at least ride the bandwagon of - World of Warcraft... and so far, they have by and large failed. Old Republic I believe may stand a better chance than the rest of taking away some of Blizzard's marketshare, or at least the portion dominated by WoW. Star Wars is going to have something that no other MMO has had yet, and that is full voice acting for every NPC. This is extremely important, and will likely be the single most influential addition to the genre in several years.

Why is this so important? Because of story telling. Although clever writing can help immerse someone in a fictional setting, by itself it pales in comparison to quality voice acting. The player simply becomes more engrossed and emotionally connected to game character the more 'alive' they appear, and a character often feels far more alive when you are hear their voice - along with the tone, inflections, and body language - versus merely reading what they want to convey on a piece of digital parchment. This is one addition that I predict will become not simply preferred by gamers, but absolutely necessary for all future MMO's who want to compete seriously in the marketplace.

There are other things going in Lucas Arts & Bioware's favor as well, and one of them is that the market for MMO's has grown exponentially since the last Star Wars MMO - Star Wars Galaxies - was released in 2003; there are simply far more customers to entice than before. The fact that they already have experience in the MMO genre and an iconic IP to build upon only works in their favor. Another factor aiding to its likely success is that despite respectable upgrades to the WoW engine, the World of Warcraft is starting to look quite dated, especially the older content, which Blizzard has defiantly refused to upgrade in any significant way over the years.

Blizzard realized these facts at least a year ago (probably more) and acknowledge - at least privately - that Old Republic - or some other IP - will start to chip away at their fan base in the not so distant future. To combat this problem, Blizzard has been working on another, unnamed, MMO that will be an entirely original IP. It is difficult to say how this next Blizzard MMO will perform, since we have no information on it at this time, but hopefully for the fans sake - and their own - they are not lulled into complacency by the success of WoW. That is exactly the same trap that the developers of Ever Quest II fell into, and forever doomed that game to mediocrity.

If you haven't seen the E9 demo, you owe it to yourself to give it a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvkuDlOFu7g
There is no gameplay footage unfortunately, but the CG shown is quite impressive.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2009, 04:03:25 pm by TheHeckler! »

Berger

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Re: E3 Annoucement: Star Wars: The Old Republic - A WoW killer?
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2009, 06:41:40 pm »
There is no gameplay footage unfortunately, but the CG shown is quite impressive.

Some ingame footage here: http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/video-documentary-2

TheHeckler!

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Re: E3 Annoucement: Star Wars: The Old Republic - A WoW killer?
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2009, 03:24:37 pm »
I stand corrected, thanks for the link.