The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation
by Kyle Horner 
Nov 15th 2008 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, Opinion, The Digital Continuum
kotor-mmo posts
The Daily Grind: Will The Old Republic break new ground?
by Krystalle Voecks Oct 22nd 2008 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Star Wars: The Old Republic
Yesterday evening, you may have noticed a disturbance in the MMO blogosphere. It was as if a million voices cried out "awesome" at once at the announcement of Bioware and Lucas Arts' new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. It appears that Bioware and Lucas Arts are setting the standards fairly high in terms of development, too. From initial reports, players will be able to affect the world, not just in little "kill-ten-rats" fashion, but broad changes. Apparently NPC companions can turn on you and betray you, and so very much more that set heads spinning here at the Massively virtual offices.
Of course, as time wore on, we started to see rumblings of "cartoony" equally met with "but it's Bioware - they do awesome storylines" then rebutted with "but they don't know about MMOs, having never put one out." The commentary has truly run the gamut since last night. As such, this morning we thought we'd ask -- are you excited about the confirmation of the long-suspected Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, or no? What are you intrigued by, or not so thrilled about after reading all the news?
Of course, as time wore on, we started to see rumblings of "cartoony" equally met with "but it's Bioware - they do awesome storylines" then rebutted with "but they don't know about MMOs, having never put one out." The commentary has truly run the gamut since last night. As such, this morning we thought we'd ask -- are you excited about the confirmation of the long-suspected Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, or no? What are you intrigued by, or not so thrilled about after reading all the news?
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Bioware has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details -- from liveblogging the announcement to screenshot galleries and more. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away! |
Star Wars MMO announced as The Old Republic
by Samuel Axon Oct 21st 2008 at 5:31PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic
A huge amount of information is SWTOR is already hitting the internet like a tsunami -- there's a preview at IGN, a video interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk at GameSpot, screenshots at Eurogamer -- this is just the beginning, folks! We're in for a fine, fine day for Sci-Fi nerds! Check out the GameSpot vid behind the jump!
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Bioware has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details -- from liveblogging the announcement to screenshot galleries and more. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away! |
LucasArts and BioWare confirm impending announcement
by Samuel Axon Oct 6th 2008 at 4:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, News items
EA's John Riccitiello already confirmed the existence of that game under the table way back at E3, and other tidbits of news have only supported it since then. But hey, we suppose it could be something else. It was suggested in the Massively offices that maybe LucasArts bought the rights to He-Man, and it is in fact a He-Man MMO. Or maybe GI Joe. Yeah, we're a-stretchin'. More likely: a Willow game.
According to Worlds in Motion, the invitation says it's "the game that's been rumored about for years." Uh-huh. The announcement will come October 21st, so hold your horses. Or your speeders. Whatever.
The Daily Grind: What do you want in the KotOR MMO?
by Samuel Axon Sep 30th 2008 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Opinion, The Daily Grind
Since this site is about MMOs, and since we're going on about Star Wars, you've probably guessed that today's Daily Grind is about the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO in development at BioWare's Austin studio. We want to know: what do you think the KotOR MMO needs in order to achieve greatness? It can't just be World of Warcraft with lightsabers and sociopathic droids. It needs to be radical.
So what's it gonna take? What are you expecting -- nay, demanding -- from BioWare in perhaps the most hotly anticipated MMO since WoW or possibly of all time?
Black Ops MMOs: Games in development under the radar
by Samuel Axon Sep 28th 2008 at 9:00AM
Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, Rumors
We're bringing this up because there are a bunch of MMOs in the list. In fact, they pretty much dominate it. Titles mentioned include the KotOR MMO, the Red 5 Studios project, 38 Studios' Copernicus, ZeniMax Online Studios' MMO (which is possibly Elder Scrolls-based), and of course Blizzard's mysterious "Next-Gen MMO." Interesting stuff. Head over to Big Download to find out what's up on the down low.
Top 10 things we all want in a KotOR MMO
by Shawn Schuster Sep 19th 2008 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion
The Knights of the Old Republic MMO concept has been laid out there, despite no "official" announcement, and excitement is brewing everywhere. What would this MMO bring to the table? How would they successfully create another Star Wars-based online world and make it at least competitive in today's crowded MMO market? Enter IGN's "Top 10 Things We Want in a KOTOR MMO" list. This list was compiled by the folks on IGN's PC Team to let us know what they think would make the game exciting and successful. Some of the features they've cited include space combat comparable to TIE Fighter, player-run territories (planets?) and no over-saturation of Jedis. Check out the complete list at their site for more, and let us know what you'd add to that list.
LucasArts looking for PC and console MMO testers
by Kyle Horner Aug 5th 2008 at 2:30PM
Filed under: New titles, News items, Rumors
The good side of this news is you could meet the criteria LucasArts has set for a tester and be one of the first people to play the game. The bad news is that a new single-player KOTOR seems unlikely to be in anyone's current future. So if you're not initially sold on a massively multiplayer KOTOR, hopefully BioWare will actually own up to their claim of trying something different and change your mind in the long-run.
The Daily Grind: The MMO you're most looking forward to
by Elizabeth Harper Jul 28th 2008 at 8:00AM
Filed under: New titles, The Daily Grind
The Digital Continuum: Five KOTOR MMO Jedi counter-measures
by Kyle Horner Jul 19th 2008 at 11:30AM
Filed under: Classes, Opinion, The Digital Continuum
There are no two ways about it. Star Wars as an MMO presents developers with a tough issue: how to deal with the Jedi class. I still think that one of the many mistakes with Star Wars Galaxies was setting it during the original trilogy, where Jedi were almost non-existent. I got the draw of the setting, but for an MMO it really didn't cater to the fervent desire to roll a Obi-wanna be character. Yet I also feel like it's a mistake making Jedi readily available without presenting players with other options that are equally appealing. Neo-futuristic-magical-samurai with energy swords aren't a hard sale for most players choosing which class they want to play. Thankfully, BioWare seems to have chosen itself a wonderfully powerful loop-hole: Knights of the Old Republic.
KOTOR MMO confirmed by Electronic Arts
by Kyle Horner Jul 17th 2008 at 2:17PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles
We've had plenty of speculation -- lots and lots of it -- but now we've got confirmation from Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is indeed getting a massively multiplayer online iteration. Portfolio.com has the story. The article quotes Riccitiello as saying, "... the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it." When directly asked if this was confirmation of Knights of the Old Republic Online, the executive said simply, "yes".
You can commence the freaking out now.
E308: BioWare says there is no KOTOR MMO (wink)
by Mike Schramm Jul 16th 2008 at 8:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Rumors, Massively Event Coverage
We just saw BioWare show off their new Dragon Age: Origins here at E3, and while that singleplayer game looks great (imagine a Mass Effect game set in the world of Baldur's Gate), we did spring the requisite massively multiplayer question on them for you. At the very end of the Q&A session with developer Dan Tudge after the demo, the PR rep told us there was just "time for one more question," and we threw it out there: "So, how's the Knights of the Old Republic MMO coming?"There was silence in the room for a moment. Tudge quietly said, "I... have no idea what you're talking about," and then everyone laughed as the PR rep nervously said, "Good answer." Tudge added, "You're asking me that in front of my boss?" And so we revised the question: Dragon Age has a very MMO-style design -- there's a minimap in the upper right, party portraits in the upper left, and a bar with icons for skills across the bottom. Does BioWare really want to make an MMO? "The interface looked like Baldur's Gate to me," said Tudge cooly. "The real question is, how much of the MMOs did Baldur's Gate influence?"
Touché. But we left the press conference with a smile, a special secret that we'll share with you now. As much as Tudge was thrown off by the question, as much as the PR flack was aghast that we asked it, we did leave with this satisfactory piece of information: they didn't, in point of fact, deny.
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Did you enjoy this? Check out all of our E3 coverage as the week rolls forward! |
New Lucasfilm trademarks sound suspiciously KotOR MMO-like
by Samuel Axon Jul 12th 2008 at 8:30AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Rumors
Lucasfilm has registered a number of new trademarks, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Old Republic, Star Wars Legends, and Star Wars Sagas. This news is interesting as is, but it gets really juicy when you read the type of patent and its description: "Entertainment services provided on-line by means of global and local area networks, namely, providing interactive computer game software, interactive video game software and interactive computer games and interactive video games, all on-line by means of global and local area networks ... "That sounds awfully MMO-like, doesn't it? It's not even remotely conclusive though. It could be another kind of multiplayer, or it could even be some kind of web-based community service connected to a single-player game; the patent description suggests that it's also for news and "fan club services."
That said, it could be the fabled, BioWare Austin-developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO. We suppose it all depends on just how badly you want to believe!
[Via Kotaku]
BioWare MMO release window revealed, KotOR rumors persist
by Samuel Axon Jun 19th 2008 at 5:30PM
Filed under: Launches, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Rumors
There's also the rumor that will not -- cannot die. An alleged disgruntled ex-LucasArts employee (the "ex" bit because of the recent layoffs) e-mailed gaming blog Kotaku saying that one of the projects "in the pipeline" at LucasArts is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3. That alone is no surprise, since LucasArts and BioWare announced a new collaboration months ago, but ... he also said that KotOR 3 is an MMO.
Oh noes! Not that rumor again! Well, anyway, we're sure our very intelligent readers know to take with a kilogram of salt the paraphrased words of an alleged disgruntled former employee. Right?
Muzyka: BioWare MMO is innovative, polished like WoW
by Samuel Axon May 19th 2008 at 10:00PM
Filed under: Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items
Gamasutra spoke at length with BioWare head honcho Ray Muzyka about living under the EA banner, and his company's vision for its up-and-coming MMO. He assured Gamasutra that the unique identity of BioWare has been preserved despite EA's acquisition, and pointed out studios like DICE and Criterion as other EA acquisition success stories. He noted also that BioWare now has non-mandatory access to all the tools and technologies of the EA family. Of the Austin studio's mysterious MMO project, he said: "It's going to feel like a BioWare game. It's going to have the best of breed of MMO features, and some new innovations that when we reveal them, hopefully they'll be impactful for people." As we learned a while back, he has a positive opinion about World of Warcraft and Blizzard. "I think they've done a great job," he said. "But the fact that people want to play that kind of game is an opportunity to really deliver that level of polish and quality, and innovate in a few key areas, while they continue to innovate in a few key areas, too."
Still no word on what those innovations are. Keep on guessing!
