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A lot of words have been written about SWTOR lately.

The impression I get is that these words have been mostly positive about Star Wars The Old Republic. And, to a certain extent, this is rightfully so. SWTOR is actually a pretty decent game.

I was given the opportunity over the weekend to participate in the final stress test for the game, and spent the greater portion of the weekend doing so. While I enjoyed my time playing it, despite some fairly annoying bugs, I’ve come to the following conclusion about The Old Republic.

It’s good for themepark gamers, bad for role players.

Darkside/Lightside Points

Bioware for some time now in their games have been using a simple alignment system to let players choose to be nasty or nice. This has the effect of altering the game play to some degree by changing the outcomes of some conversations with NPCs, and even altering the path of the game a little, even though the end result is the same.

This works quite nicely in a game like Mass Effect to provide some replayability and allowing different choices on the way through, but whether a player in Mass Effect goes light or dark really has no effect on anything other than romantic choices. But Mass Effect is not a MMORPG.

The big problem here is that Bioware has tied light and darkside gear to this system. If you are playing a darkside Sith or Jedi, when you reach darkside level 1 you can purchase DS1 lightsabres. It’s not clear to me if this equipment is better than what is normally on offer, or awarded from quests, but if it is then this encourages players to choose one path, dark or light, and stick to it.

Why is that a problem, you say.

Well, your choice is removed. If you want to be able to raid later on, you will need the best gear. Even if raiding is not your goal, having decent equipment is still going to be something to be desired.You are going to want to make the ‘right’ choice for your path, not necessarily the right choice for your character.

In other words the current darkside/lightside system encourages min-maxing.

If you are a role player who also wants to be competitive in raiding or grouping, you will have to choose between picking the option that awards the most points or the option that feels right for your character.If you don’t give a care about end-game, sure feel free to make the choices you want.

I did create a character on the weekend that was intended to be unrelentingly evil, and making the dark choices was fun, but even so, the darkside choice didn’t always feel right. That’s why the best bad guys in books, movies, and TV are so interesting, they make interesting choices. The worst bad guys are the ones who bwaa ha ha all the time.

It’s also interesting to note that the Bioware idea of morality was a bit off at times. Some of the light side choices were distinctly on the wrong side of right.

Legacy System

The proposed legacy system dictates that when your character completes the first chapter you choose a unique legacy surname. That is then used for all your future characters on that server.

This build has our first iteration of the Legacy System! At its core the Legacy system is about allowing players to create a family tree of characters. Family is pretty important to the Star Wars universe, with the Skywalker family having one of the most interesting dynamics in movie history. This version is just the foundational components that we will use to build upon in the future. Here are the features of this iteration:

• Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters on that server – so choose carefully!
• Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase yourLegacy Level.

We already have plans for how we will expand the functionality of the Legacy System in one of our major post-ship patches. This will include being able to shape your Legacy’s family tree, and give you a reward for all those Legacy Levels.

I”m not really certain what the purpose is for this. I’ve seen conjecture that it allows characters on a server to share equipment, or provides some kind of bonus, but from the announcement it isn’t really clear.

Once thing is clear though, once you have a legacy name every character on the same server, no matter what species or allegiance shares the same last name. So your Twi’lek Consular, Human Bounty Hunter, and Chiss Sith Warrior will all have the last name. Nope, no logical problems with that at all. After all different species often share the same cultural background that results in the same last names… Hmmm.

This incredible lack of logic does not even take into account that a player might simply want to create a role play character that is not associated with their other characters. It’s odd to me that Bioware, a company that has grown to greatness on the back of encouraging role play in its games, is almost completely disregarding it in SWTOR.

So, if you are a roleplayer, you are pretty much out of luck.

Companions/Ships

A big part of SWTOR is the companion system. As the player progresses he is awarded companions that he can interact with, do their storyline quests, and even romance. Unfortunately here the role player is also let down.

You see you don’t have a choice.

You are given the companions for your class. You can’t choose from a pool or selection.

Every Sith Warrior is going to run around with that whiney Twi’lek as the first companion. (No wonder I enjoyed shock collaring her so much!) About the best differentiation you can hope for is to change the skin colour.

I remember reading a lot of love for the Jawa companion, Blizz. He’s only available for the Bounty Hunter. So if you love Blizz but can’t stand the BH playstyle, tough. If you want to access Blizz you will have to play a character you don’t like.

Of course you get a choice of which of the companions to take with you on a mission, but even this is limited by your class. A Jedi Knight for example is a tank. A JK player will always take the companion that offers the best support role, a healer for example. Some companions will be useless (does a tank need a tank companion?) Other companions will be indispensible and always chosen.

The same goes for the ship you get. Every character gets a ship which is nice, but the bounty hunter gets one single type of ship while the Jedi Knight gets another.

Now while this doesn’t directly affect a players role playing choices as much as the first two points above, there is an indirect effect in that all players in a class are exactly the same.

No two Jedi are unique. No you are not a precious snowflake in Bioware’s galaxy.

Homogenousity

Okay. Made up word.

I guess everything I wrote above boils down into my biggest criticism of Star Wars The Old Republic.

There is very little room for customisation.

From character creation where there is barely any difference in some of the face styles and other choices (why couldn’t my Republic Zabrak have Darth Maul colourings?) to the rewards for light/dark side choices and companion and ship allocations there is very little chance for customisation.

For the most part players will be constrained to playing Star Wars The Old Republic through a fairly narrow and linear corridor.

Themepark players will love this game, as long as they are not roleplayers too. SWTOR is a masterpiece of themepark design, taking the player along on what appears to be a great story. But that’s about where it stops. It’s a very limited game in some respects, perhaps only having long term playability for raiders and those who enjoy battleground style PvP. There’s no sandpit in this themepark.

While the story that I’ve encountered so far is excellent, it is the Bioware story that is being played, not yours.

That’s why I think that SWTOR will be bad for role players.

How about you, what do you think?

 

 

Why Star Wars The Old Republic Is Bad For Role Players

Filed under: Tech stuff, Controller, Video, Homebrew, Features, Revolutionary

In the year 1996, with Sylvester Stallone’s Demolition Man still fairly fresh on our minds, developer Shiny took the opportunity to name one of their games after an abbreviated phrase that was mentioned several times in that film. Under the assumption that MDK stood for “Murder, Death, Kill” and the fact that you run around as a guy whose head is a sniper rifle, the Playstation generation couldn’t wait to get their hands on it. As it turned out, the game was not the gruesome murder simulator many people expected, but a humorously quirky action title like most of the prior games Shiny was known for. In the sequel, the main character from the first game, Kurt Hectic, would share the duty of saving the earth with Doctor Fluke Hawkins and the four-armed, gun-toting, cigar-chomping robotic dog, Max, the other members of the game’s titular trio. It’s the crazy sort of stuff that keeps gaming fresh, and with its recently-announced comeback in the making, I can think of no better place for the franchise to make a killing than on the Wii.I’m writing this script for MDK 2, primarily because it’s more modern and easier to get running on a modern computer than the original MDK. Though the first game was arguably more fun, Bioware’s sequel is a worthwhile follow-up because it made Doc and Max controllable characters. Playing as Kurt alone would be a blast, but Doc and Max’s inclusion provide the kind of variety and assorted gameplay that would make it a perfect match for the Wii audience.

The first level puts you in Kurt’s prototypical “coil suit,” and has you free-falling into an alien minecrawler on a mission to eliminate every creature on board. A freely deployable ribbon chute slows your descent, and then it’s onward to the green bloodletting.

In the next stage, you’ll play as Max, who can equip different weapons in each of his 4 paws/hands, and do a bit of flying with a jet pack. It’s more straightforward shooting against lots of baddies, but sometimes that’s all you need in a gaming session. There is still a place in the world for that sort of thing, right?

The frail Dr. Hawkins has to use his wits to MacGuyver various apparatus for dispatching the alien threat from his orbiting space ship, the Jim Dandy, in the third level. From there on you’ll cycle through each level with a different one of the three characters. The levels are expansive and don’t have auto-saving checkpoints, but that ought to be re-considered for Wii gamers-on-the-move, who don’t have the time to sit through and replay long missions.

MDK2 uses OpenGL for graphics, but Direct X’s DirectInput is used for mouse controls, so I adapted Carl Kenner’s first person shooter script for aiming and looking around. This requires an IR source, such as a Sensor Bar, for aiming, but if you the IR source falls out of the Wiimote’s view, the view will continue moving in the same direction until you point back at the Sensor Bar.

PIE.FrameRate = 60Hz
var.BoxSize = 60%
var.BoxSpeed = 700 Mickeys //per half screen of movement
var.ScrollSpeed = 800 Mickeys per second
var.X = MapRange(Wiimote.PointerX, 0,1, -1,1)
var.Y = MapRange(Wiimote.PointerY, 0,1, -1,1)
/*Use a different system when the cursor is visible. Also, stop scrolling when the Wiimote moves significantly while it is not pointing at the screen */
If Mouse.CursorVisible
var.BeingUsed = False
If Wiimote.PointerVisible
Mouse.X = Wiimote.PointerX
Mouse.Y = Wiimote.PointerY
EndIf
ElseIf Wiimote.PointerVisible
var.BeingUsed = True
ElseIf |Wiimote.RelAcc| > 7
Var.BeingUsed = False
EndIf
If var.BeingUsed
If |var.X| < var.BoxSize
//pointer is inside the box (horizontally), so move based on change in pointer position
Mouse.DirectInputX += delta(var.X)*var.BoxSpeed
Else
//pointer is outside the box (horizontally), so scroll based on fixed rate and sign of x (+/-)
Mouse.DirectInputX += var.ScrollSpeed*sign(var.X)
EndIf
If |var.y| < var.BoxSize
Mouse.DirectInputY += delta(var.y)*var.BoxSpeed
ElseIf var.BeingUsed
Mouse.DirectInputY += var.ScrollSpeed*sign(var.Y)
EndIf
EndIf

When I used to play this game with a game pad or keyboard and mouse back in the day, I’d get a little confused switching between characters. With GlovePIE, I can map functions to multiple buttons and/or motions, so it’s a little easier to transition between characters.

Equals = Wiimote.Up //Use, Equip, Right Hand
Minus = Wiimote.Down or Nunchuk.CButton //Unequip, Left Hand
ArrowKeys = Nunchuk.Joy //Move, Zoom
Mouse.LeftButton = Wiimote.B //Shoot, Combine
Space = Nunchuk.Zbutton //Sniper Mode
Mouse.RightButton = (Nunchuk.GY < .5) //Jump, Jet Pack Throttle
LeftBracket = Wiimote.Minus //Inventory Left
RightBracket = Wiimote.Plus //Inventory Right
Shift + P + I + E = Wiimote.Home //Stop script

This is just a rough and basic port of the controls that anyone who’s experienced with playing first or third person shooters on the Wii should have no difficulty getting right into. But in a built-for-Wii version of MDK, I’d hope for more inventive controls. The Nunchuk has 2 buttons and the Wiimote has more than that, so you should be given independent control of each of Max’s weapons. Selecting and combining objects in Doc’s levels should also have independent controls for both hands, perhaps using gestures and motions to assemble the gadgets or use them. Kurt can be done with typical shooter controls as in the video, just so long as you don’t have to move the Wiimote in and out to control zooming in sniper mode. Does anyone realize how much we hate having to do that? It’s not realistic and nine times out of then, it just doesn’t work.

Playing MDK2 again after all these years, it kind of leaves something to be desired. There’s not much variety in enemies and the level design isn’t quite as captivating as I remembered. It’s still a brilliantly conceived premise that should be warmly received by the hardcore Wii fanbase, just so long as it is brought up to the standards of today’s games.

MDK may not have been my first choice among Interplay classics I’d like to see ported to the Wii, but I still desire it greatly. If you’ve got some Interplay favorites that deserve waggle-ification, feel free to tell us in the comments.

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This is an exclusive sneak peek at a Sci-Fi Channel documentary about the new Xbox 360-exclusive game Mass Effect that was released worldwide last week.

The program features interviews with the developers at BioWare, game-industry insiders, science & technology experts, and a mix of celebrities, actors & athletes who all have a lot to say about how science & technology meet art & fiction in this epic new story.

The complete 30-minute documentary has already aired on the Sci-Fi Channel, so hopefully it will be made available as a free download on Xbox Live Marketplace in the near future. — Thanks to Joe for sending this in.

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The staff at Mass Effect developer BioWare have taken the time to answer some Frequently Asked Questions. Here’s the huge list of FAQs about the game in general, its characters, universe, gameplay (RPG & combat), interface & controls, and future plans.

General questions:

1. What is Mass Effect?
Mass Effect is the latest Action RPG from Edmonton-based BioWare. For more information, let’s turn to Casey Hudson, Bob McCabe, Chris Priestly, and other members of BioWare’s fine development team.

Bob McCabe: Well, when I asked Casey about this he kept saying “Epic Sci-Fi with an immersive storyline set in an incredible science-fiction galaxy. And then he’d go on about inspirations for the game like the Design styles of Sid Mead or movies like Blade Runner and Alien.

2. Is Mass Effect played from a first-person or third-person perspective?
Bob McCabe: Preston, the lead designer, agrees with you that Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever. And I know he appreciates the camera angle of Resident Evil 4. On the other hand, he, and we, all know that the POV has to match the gameplay. And, if possible, alternative options would be nice.

We’ve designed how we want the game to play out, but once you get everything up and running, things tend to shift slightly this way or that. As such, the current POV is in flux.

3. Is Mass Effect a single-player only game?
Chris Priestly: Mass Effect is planned as a Single Player RPG.

4. Which engine is using Mass Effect? Is it Unreal 3?
Chris Priestly: Well, tools have been added to the existing engine and we’ve made some modifications and extensions for Mass Effect. But basically, yes.

Bob McCabe: Yep, this question has been answered before - but that’s OK! Mass Effect will, more or less, be using the Unreal 3 engine. I’m not a tech guy so I can’t answer this perfectly clearly, but the idea is that we’ve done a lot of work with the engine to fit it into our brand of RPG - but basically, yeah… Unreal 3.

5. When is the release date of Mass Effect?
Mass Effect’s release dates are November 20th in America & Canada, November 22nd in Australia, and November 23rd in Europe.

6. Will Mass Effect be coming to the PC?
Chris Priestly: Mass Effect is planned as an Xbox 360 exclusive title. This means we are not working on a PC version and have no plans to start making one.
(more…)

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Microsoft, Yahoo! and SCI FI Channel celebrate the upcoming release of the Xbox 360-exclusive action role-playing game Mass Effect, with two weeks of exclusive special programming and events. As the November 20 launch date for Mass Effect for Xbox 360 draws nigh, the threat of an alien rogue force looms ever closer. To help unlock some of the secrets and mysteries of the vast universe in the highly-anticipated action RPG.

Yahoo started out by airing this new “distress call” trailer showing the game’s depth of choice with quotes as “Many decisions lie ahead… none of them easy.”

On Tuesday, November 20, the SCI FI Channel will celebrate the launch of “Mass Effect” with the debut of a 30-minute special entitled “Sci vs. Fi: Mass Effect.” Scheduled to air at 11 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, the special will feature more in-depth information about the game, exclusive interviews and exciting behind-the scenes footage.

In conjunction with the special, fans are encouraged to go to SCI FI’s Mass Effect page to find all the show times and sign up for the “Mass Effect” sweepstakes, starting November 13, for a chance to win the coveted limited collector’s edition of Mass Effect.

Also fueling anticipation for the game is the new Mass Effect micro-site on Xbox.com, which launched today. The micro-site offers a wealth of “Mass Effect” content in one convenient portal, including the latest news and events on the game, as well as screenshots and special promotional items that no space traveling enthusiast should be without. Music fans will also find the “Mass Effect” Original Game Soundtrack, now available for presale and at retailers on November 20.
(more…)

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LucasArts and BioWare today announced that they have entered into an agreement to create an interactive entertainment product. Us gamers call this thing a “game” and you’re out of luck if you were hoping for some details, because none were given, except that it will be “Ground-Breaking” and “will push the boundaries of the gaming market by utilizing the strengths of both companies to deliver an innovative, high-quality experience.” In other words Bioware will be developing and Lucasarts publishing and likely (our guess) providing them with an IP (Intellectual Property) they own.

“LucasArts has a deep commitment to developing compelling stories and characters for the unique medium of interactive entertainment, and we have been searching for a developer that shares this value. We found this in BioWare,” said Jim Ward, president of LucasArts. “Through our previous collaborations, we know that BioWare has an impressive ability to blend gripping stories with technological advancements, and we believe that our upcoming product will deliver an experience that will span the traditional boundaries of video game entertainment.”

“BioWare’s mission is to deliver the best story and character-driven games in the world, delivering powerful emotional experiences to our fans.” said Ray Muzyka, chief executive officer, BioWare Corp. Added Greg Zeschuk, president of BioWare Corp., “The collaboration with LucasArts allows us to combine our passion for creating high quality and innovative experiences with those of a company dedicated to bringing only the finest games to market.

Bet you didn’t expect to hear a new game announcement so soon after the take-over of Bioware by Electronic Arts. I wonder what Lucasarts franchise they might use, maybe a Star Wars MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) or Monkey Island adventure-RPG?

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Electronic Arts today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. — the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.

BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Saboteur, in addition to several unannounced projects.

So how much did it cost? EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition. So we’re talking about $810 million total!

Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia. John Riccitiello, EA’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I’m glad to be working with them again. They’ll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties.”

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