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The Old Republic vs. World of Warcraft – Round 2

Another shot has been fired in this recently rekindled war of sorts.

Early on, BioWare made it clear that there’s room enough for everyone in the MMO space and they weren’t out to “kill” anyone. But recent comments from Electronic Arts executives have thrown a little bit of fuel on the competitive fire.

This time around, EA Games’ Frank Gibeau sends a volley toward the Blizzard behemoth.

IndustryGamers.com talked with Gibeau recently and has filed a report on the discussion:

“When I play World of Warcraft, you go and get your quests, and you go and do your quests, but it feels more like doing a shopping list at times,” Gibeau explained. “Our game is more about talking to characters, learning what’s going on, investing in it, getting emotionally attached to it.”

Further, Gibeau is quoted as saying:

“Yes, it’s late, and it’s expensive, but these are tough games, and you’ve got to get them right. You don’t want to ship the game prematurely. It has to be BioWare quality; it will be,” he stated.

Head on over to IndustryGamers.com for the full read!

 

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Gordon Walton Departs BioWare

Gordon Walton, Co-Studio General Manager of BioWare’s Austin studio, has left the company and is now with Disney-owned Playdom.

Gordon, along with Co-Studio General Manager Rich Vogel were the two who first approached BioWare with the idea of doing a massively multi-player online game, which eventually became Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Darth Hater has the following statement from BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid:

With great thanks and appreciation, we say goodbye to Gordon Walton for helping bring the game to the phenomenal state it is in today. Rich Vogel remains the Executive Producer and VP of Production, while Greg Zeschuk continues to oversee the entire project as General Manager along with Ray Muzyka as BioWare Group General Manager and we remain confident that the game will excite and delight players worldwide.

Reid goes on to reaffirm fans:

It is business as usual at all BioWare studios, where we remain committed to creating, delivering and evolving the most emotionally engaging games in the world.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet Gordon personally on several occasions, and there just couldn’t be a nicer more genuine person. He also has a wicked sense of humor!

Gordon, good luck with your future projects… !

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GDC Online: Day 1 – The Expo

Although today was technically the 2nd day of GDC Online here in Austin, it was the first day that the Expo Floor was open to attendees and the media. So I did what any fanatical Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ fan would do, and ran straight over to the BioWare booth on the show floor!

As this is an industry conference for folks who make games, the focus is not actually on playing them, such as at PAX or GamesCom. As such, I didn’t expect TOR to be available to play here, and I was correct.

BioWare’s booth was set up primarily as a recruiting tool, as these shows are well attended by folks looking to network for new opportunities, and students who may just be getting out into the workforce.

They also had a large HD flat screen set up in the booth that were looping both the Hope and Deceived trailers. Needless to say, people that were stopping to view it were in awe (and yes, there are some folks who had not seen them!)

At the booth, I had the pleasure of meeting Joanne (pictured below) and James, both from the community team. As is the case for every BioWare employee I’ve ever met, they couldn’t have been nicer – truly a pleasure to speak with!

So although there isn’t much “meat” to today’s post, we at least wanted to give you a small taste of the happenings so far! Tomorrow and Friday are the actual sessions where BioWare designers and developers will be participating in, so be sure to check back for that!

On  final note, I asked Joanne what Friday’s update would be… and…. there will be one! That’s all I could get out of her :)

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Sean Dahlberg – Exit… Stage Left

By now you may have heard the news that Sean Dahlberg has left BioWare:

Hi Everyone –

Sean Dahlberg has recently left BioWare. We would like to thank Sean for doing a great job building the TOR Community and we wish him well in his future endeavors!

Best,

The Star Wars: The Old Republic Team

Sean himself confirmed it on his own blog with a post just a short while ago:

No, I’m not terminally ill. No, I didn’t break any bones. No, I didn’t run off and get married. No, I didn’t stay in Germany and run off with anyone. No, I haven’t left earth and taken residence in my very own Death Star to begin the final stages of galactic domination… although that one would be pretty cool. Yes, as announced, I am no longer with BioWare.

So I just wanted to personally say thanks to Sean for everything he’s done… for setting up the foundation for a great community, for having a great sense of humor, for just being regular guy and above all for helping Ask A Jedi get off the ground!

Sean, we wish you the very best in your future quests, and can’t wait to find out what you’re up to!

p.s. You had a real shot at taking over largest size tag in the tag cloud too. ;)

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Hall Hood Interview – Star Wars Celebration

Ask A Jedi spent all last weekend at Star Wars Celebration V, right here in sunny Orlando, Florida. There were all sorts of “Star Warsy” things to do and see, but it goes without saying that the highlights for us revolved around everyone’s favorite upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

For our first interview, we wanted to give you the discussion we had with Hall Hood, Senior Writer with BioWare. He’s a veteran writer who brings a lot of experience to the BioWare writing team. He’s also the main man behind the Smuggler class. To top it off, he really couldn’t have been a nicer guy.

So, we hope you enjoy the interview, and don’t forget to watch the video clip of Ask A Jedi team member Professor Walsh clearing up one of the great forum debates with Hall. Priceless!

Ask A Jedi: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background, and maybe some things you’ve worked on before?

Hall Hood: I am a mysterious man who came from the shadows to work on the greatest MMO ever created! Haha. No, actually, I started out as the staff screenwriter for an independent producer, and I spent numerous years developing feature films and television pilots, things like that. I managed to earn a living doing this, yet saw none of those projects ever make it to film. It became a little disheartening after a while. I dabbled in video games from time to time, I got to work a little bit on Ultima Online 2… right before it got canceled. So that was very exciting. I am determined to not crush this game, so this game is coming out even if I have to ship it myself!  I went to film school at the University of Texas at Austin, so it worked out. I managed to stay in Austin long enough to get a job here doing something that I love.

AAJ: How early were you involved in the TOR development project?

HH: I was involved very early on, and got to see it unfold from the beginning. I have many great stories to tell, none of which I can tell right now. Haha.

AAJ: Since you’re the Smuggler guy, could you give us a description of the Smuggler class in your own words?

HH:  The Smuggler is a wise-cracking scoundrel who never takes anything too seriously. He’s always on the lookout for the next great opportunity to get rich – but is also the best shot in the galaxy. And the ultimate survivor. Smugglers are awesome. I grew up wanting to be Han Solo…

Romance is a big thing. Fly around the galaxy, walk into the cantina, see the very attractive patron… that kind of thing. It’s humor, it’s romance, and it’s a lot of high-octane action.

AAJ: Other than for game mechanics and balance, how is it that the Smuggler aligns with the Republic when they’re an independent sort?

HH: Right, so stop and think about it for a second. You are an independent business person. You own your own ship, flying around the galaxy taking jobs from whoever you wanna take them from. Where would you want to do business? In the free enterprise, peace-loving, freedom-loving Republic? Or in the oppressive totalitarian Empire that controls everything that you not only can do, but also how you do it. So its kind of a natural fit for Smugglers to operate in Republic space. Which is not to say that you can’t occasionally work with the Empire. If you’re a particularly evil Smuggler, you’re gonna be looking for that opportunity to take jobs from anybody, and you’re not particular about who they serve. For me the evil Smuggler’s attitude is basically faction-shmaction as long as I get rich!

AAJ: Is there a Smuggler other than Han Solo that maybe served as inspiration for the Smuggler character?

HH: Well of course… there is a long tradition of the charming rogue in any kind of popular fiction, and I adore all of those characters. I’m a big fan of Firefly, Captain Mal… also a fan of Big Trouble in Little China. I love Kurt Russell’s character in that. He’s really fun. He’s more of a comedic fool character, who sort of blunders his way to victory. My Smuggler is slightly more competent than that. Here’s another one, it’s sort of esoteric so don’t go too far with it but Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit…

AAJ: We’ve heard statements in the past that as a Smuggler, you’re the best in the galaxy… as a Bounty Hunter, you’re the best in the galaxy. But in an E3 interview with Dallas Dickinson, we also heard that the Jedi will just be average Jedi; thousands of them running around out there. Can you clarify this?

HH: You’re not going to be average anything in our game. Where’s the fun in that? Why would you play the Jedi Knight if you weren’t going to be able to get the Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker experience? It has to be huge and epic! And as someone who has written for the Jedi Knight, I can tell you it’s huge… it’s epic… it’s amazing. You’re gonna get to places in the plot where you say “wait a minute, I get to do what? My quest is to do what?!” And that’s true of the Sith classes as well. The Sith classes are incredible. The Sith Warrior story is Vader plus a million. The Inquisitor – everything you like about Palpatine is there, and then some. Our idea has always been to start from what is great about the characters from the movies, and then add as much on to that as we possibly can.

AAJ: So, whatever class you play, are you the best of your breed in the galaxy?

HH: Absolutely. As an Imperial Agent, you’re the super best. As a Sith Warrior, the Emperor calls you personally. As a Jedi Knight, you are the last hope in the galaxy!

AAJ: Will you be able to communicate with members of the other faction?

HH: If by communicate you mean shoot at them, then yes! There are many forms of communication. Are you asking if its like WoW, where you can’t understand what the other faction is saying? I don’t think we would want to go in that sort of direction. I can’t really speak to exactly how the communication would happen between factions, but I think you’re on the right track.

AAJ: Will there be a common enemy or foe that represents a greater threat than each other?

HH: Occasionally, sure. I think that would be a really exciting story to have that opportunity to unite against a much more dangerous foe. I can’t answer wether or not we actually have that type of content, but I like the idea and I think its cool.

AAJ: Will we get to explore a story written about our species and our origin background?

HH: Well it’s always been a staple of BioWare stories to acknowledge players choices about who they are. We acknowledge gender. We acknowledge alien species. So it is important, and it does impact gameplay. It matters.

AAJ: Hall, thanks a bunch for taking the time to answer our questions and allowing yourself to be subjected to Professor Walsh!

HH: Glad to do it, any time at all!

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