The Blog of a Future Game Designer

As many people know, we just recently were "revealed" the official existence of this MMORPG based on the fantastic RPG series Knights of the Old Republic. None of this should really be a surprise to anyone that's a fan of the series since John Riccitiello essentially told everyone of it's existence a while back. Add to that, the "partnership" between LucasArts and Bioware really only meant one thing... granted they could have made an Indiana Jones RPG. Finally, top it off with the Austin branch of Bioware and you have the makings for a KoToR MMORPG.

There isn't a ton of information out about this game right now, however they have made some things known which I will talk about. The most talked about of these is clearly their declaration of being the "first MMO" to truly focus on story telling.

An example of this was explained when they said that they won't make people go out and kill 10 of this creature and collect 10 of that. Basically, things that have been part of the mind-numbing experience leveling up entails in practically every MMO out there. I'm going to tell you what this means to me now... it means the future.

I myself have always envisioned an MMO where the single player story experience was merged with the cooperation of an MMO. Now there is no guarantee that the game is exactly how I am thinking right now, but if it is along these lines it could be revolutionary. Now will it be to the extent of World of Waracraft (WoW) in popularity? It depends on how many features are involved with the social interaction that MMO's are so famous for. They will be using a fair amount of instancing to preserve the story element without outside interference (random 14 year old spamming text and hitting your mob), but will they make the planets you travel to large like in Star Wars Galaxies (SWG)? Will there be player housing for people to get attached too? How big is this game going to be? How about space combat?

With 12 full time writers they are no doubt taking the story element serious. Especially since they say that every class you chose will have their own completely original story. You also have companions to grow with, of which you can only have one out at a given time. I will say that I wish it could have been two out like in the KoToR games due to ability to create arguments or resentment between your two companions along with the capability to side with one. I just feel it creates a more immersing atmosphere than just one companion. This decision however is probably due to gameplay mechanics and balancing issues which I can easily side with.

So this has been (Part 1) of my discussion on The Old Republic. There are a few things I didn't really hit on, but I'd like to wait on some more information before I dive into this more. My next blog is going to be about the original Knights of the Old Republic and it's less praised sequel The Sith Lords.