Emmanuel-Lusinchi
Latest
BioWare considering free-to-play for Star Wars: The Old Republic [Updated]
BioWare Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi has dropped a word-bomb on the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, stating that the game may be heading in the direction of free-to-play. Lusinchi said that the studio is investigating possibilities: "We are looking at free-to-play, but I can't tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on." This comes out of an interview in GamesTM magazine, in which Lusinchi addressed the challenges of being competitive in a largely F2P industry. While SWTOR has a large playerbase, it lost 400,000 subscriptions from its peak earlier this year as well as several members of its dev team. Lusinchi says that the challenge isn't just that SWTOR is a subscription-based game but that there's a lot of great options in the field. "If it was just free-to-play games and they weren't very good it wouldn't even be a question," he said, "but there are definitely good games out there and good games coming out, so of course all of this competition impacts your plan with what you want to do." Of course, we did hear about the limited free trial at E3, but this interview seems to indicate the possibility of a move to full F2P in SWTOR's future. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] [Update: It seems the original article at GamesTM was pulled, but you can find images of the interview here and here.]
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's group finder and server transfers
Update 1.3 for Star Wars: The Old Republic is nearly upon us. Developers at BioWare hope that this update gives players a better sense of community. In other words, some server populations are really low, and it sucks to play on them. Update 1.3 hopes to diminish that feeling of loneliness with the two biggest features in 1.3: the group finder and server transfers. Game launches vary in scale and scope. SWTOR's launch was huge! Over two million copies of the game were sold, and over 150 servers spun up the first week. That made some of features you'd find in older MMOs redundant. Group finders and server transfers are really not necessary when you have everything that you need at your fingertips.
BioWare responds to SWTOR layoffs
If anyone knows just how brutal and unforgiving the MMO industry can be, it is certainly the folks at BioWare. Last week delivered a one-two punch to the studio, as the team had to contend with layoffs while breaking the news of server merges to the playerbase. Star Wars: The Old Republic Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi admitted that this came with the territory: "The MMO is the toughest part of the game industry without a doubt, and we live in tough economic times in general." Despite the layoffs, Lusinchi said that the development team is still "one of the biggest" in the industry and has detailed plans for SWTOR's future. Still, that didn't make dealing with the realities of the job cuts any easier. "On a personal level it's quite difficult to have people that you've been working with for a long time that you know personally, you go to their barbecue and you meet their families and it's never easy," he said. "I doubt it'd be easy in any industry for anyone, but it happens."
Hyperspace Beacon: Gooey GUI
As far back as my interview with Blaine Christine at PAX 2010, I have been concerned with the user interface of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although the question did make it into that article way back when, I did ask him about the UI because at that time, it was mostly black and rather clunky. We knew that incarnation would not be the final product. Animations were being touted as innovative at the time; I had asked about the UI's drawing the player's attention to the center of the screen because that's where the action was happening. Of course, he answered that the ultimate goal with the UI was to enhance the player's overall experience. That's what all UIs should do, right? One the sticking-points during my beta impressions centered around my having to stare at my UI as I waited for cooldowns. I know that it's not a new thing for MMOs. In fact, nearly every MMO I can think of has some sort of abilities that require cooldown. Generally speaking, I am OK with having to look at the UI for those cooldowns. However, the positioning of SWTOR's UI really drew my attention away from what was happening on the main part of the screen. Exactly three months after release, I have become comfortable with how the Star Wars whack-a-mole works, but with the changes in Update 1.2, I can dream of something better...
Epic in scope: SWTOR's James Ohlen explains plans for the future
As the Star Wars: The Old Republic guild leaders lined up to get a taste of the Lost Island flashpoint, I was at BioWare studios getting my hands dirty with deeper PvE and PvP content as well as speaking with developers like Combat Designer Georg Zoeller, Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, Art Director Jeff Dobson, and Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi. However, the best part was at the end of the day when I was able to speak one-on-one with Creative Director James Ohlen. Ohlen touches nearly every aspect of the game's development. It was important to me to find out why this game is as popular as it is and what BioWare was going to do to retain its current playerbase. The first stop was the latest game update, which should hit test servers really soon.
Massively's hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 1.2
Goodness, I hope you have heard that Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing a new patch soon. It's been jokingly dubbed the "Jesus Patch" because it's supposed to contain everything, and incidentally, it may "save" the game. Many critics have written off the game because developers missed some essential MMO ingredients when it launched. Despite that, SWTOR currently stands as the fastest-growing MMO ever and retains the second largest subscription base, according to Electronic Arts' investor calls. During the recent Guild Summit, while the guild leaders and fan site press were shuttled off, the press made its way to BioWare studios to try out the new content in Update 1.2. Each member was given his or her station to tool around with. Immediately, I noticed that the two Bounty Hunters in the character selection screen wore armor I had never seen before: Black Hole armor and War Hero armor. We were about to step into the new flashpoint called the Lost Island as well as the new Novare Coast warzone.
Rakghouls and raging Hutts with SWTOR's Gabe Amatangelo
A month after Star Wars: The Old Republic began its official journey in the public eye, the developers of this game-changing MMO are ready to extend the story, which they call the fourth pillar of the MMO genre. In patch 1.1, which also brings the usual round of bug fixes, players will be introduced to a brand-new level 50 flashpoint as well as a completed version of the Karagga's Palace 8-to-16-man operation. In the official press release for 1.1, BioWare founder Greg Zeschuk notes, "A month ago when we launched the Early Game Access program for Star Wars: The Old Republic, we promised our fans that this would just be the beginning of our journey together." That's all well and good, but we want details. So we rang up BioWare's Gabe Amatangelo to discuss the new flashpoint, Karagga's palace, Ilum, and the future of SWTOR PvP. Be aware that there will be some minor spoilers, but we'll warn you in advance!
SWTOR lead designer explains item mod changes
If you're concerned about tweaks to Star Wars: The Old Republic's item modding system, you'll want to have a look at a lengthy post that just showed up on the game's official boards. The piece was written by BioWare associate lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi and it clarifies a few things that raised fan eyebrows as the feature underwent various changes. Lusinchi's wall o' text is more than we can fully relate here, since it pretty much sums up the entire history of SWTOR's item mod mechanics. Lusinchi pays a little lip service to the original iteration of the system, but he also calls it "less than stellar" despite fond remembrances of it among members of the testing community. The ultimate goal of all the changes, Lusinchi says, is a polished system that preserves the concept of customization from earlier versions without sacrificing game balance. "To put it simply, we want moddable items to offer an alternate and optional loot system that allows players to customize their look and their stats with more freedom and without penalty for doing so," he explains.
