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The Lore of Star Wars: The Old Republic
The hotly anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) from BioWare has only just been announced, but they've already given us a clear picture of the game's setting and a bit of the lore as well. From what we can tell, you won't need to be a die-hard fan of Star Wars to appreciate the title, which is good news as there's a daunting amount of Star Wars canon out there. That said, it'll certainly help to have at least some grounding in what's going on in Star Wars: The Old Republic. To that end, Massively's put together a brief primer on the lore of SWTOR.Who is this written for? People who've seen the films but may not necessarily have played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) on PC or console, and especially those who haven't read the novels or various comic book lines released over the years. Read on, and we'll introduce you to the backdrop and factions of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Get Educated, Padawan >>
The Daily Grind: Will The Old Republic break new ground?
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? 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!
Views from Star Wars: The Old Republic
The flood gates have opened to the Old Republic, and Massively has you covered both in written and visual content. BioWare has unleashed a wave of screenshots and artwork for their latest announced game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we don't want you to run around the internet to find all of the content. So, we've collected all the wallpapers, screenshots, and concept art from the Old Republic and dropped all of it into three holocrons... er... galleries just for you! SWTOR screens >> %Gallery-35034% %Gallery-35033% %Gallery-35036%
SWTOR has dialogue trees, irreversible choices, love interests
In the midst of all the frenzy over the announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we learned that players will have NPC companions like they do in single-player BioWare games. But there's more: BioWare has said that players will be able to engage in dialogue trees with their companions, and the decisions made in those trees will have irreversible implications.Anger your companion, and he or she might leave your party forever, or become your enemy. BioWare also hinted that romances with NPCs will be possible -- again, as in the single-player games. This all fits nicely into SWTOR's commitment to storytelling as an addition to traditional MMO gameplay. Things just gets better and better, don't they?Some questions are raised by this: how will players socialize with one anotherwhen they're constantly tied up in dialogue trees? Will it use the old BioWare dialogue method found in the KotOR games, or will it use the new, cropped Mass Effect one? Stay tuned, ya'll!%Gallery-35034% 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!
Begin to shape the very game world itself in Star Wars: The Old Republic?
These levees broke hard. The information pouring out of various game sites is fascinating, and we're watching keenly for the choice parts. For example, IGN's exhaustive coverage mentions that "your own actions can begin to have a lasting impact on the game world." Storytelling is clearly a critical aspect of the SWTOR approach, and we're intrigued to see how the fate of the world is entangled with that of the protagonists.Another point that caught our eye was the limitation on content: "there are places that you won't be able to go and things you won't be able to do unless you join a mixed party." Although you'll be able to bring along NPC companions (sounds rather like the way Guild Wars handles it) it's not clear whether this would allow devotedly solo players to access the group content. More news as it emerges.%Gallery-35033% 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!
Introducing The Old Republic community team!
With the opening of the Star Wars: The Old Republic website comes an introduction to three members of the community team that will be handling the communication between BioWare and the rabid SWTOR fans: Robert "Jedi Rob" Chestney, a former member of the design team and a senior writer, Amy Crider, a new addition to BioWare but experienced in the game industry, and Sean Dahlberg, a veteran of the community management scene and a former U.S. Marine.Where there are questions, there will be answers coming from these three folks at BioWare. They will be reading and watching the forums, answering questions and also interacting with the community on behalf of BioWare. While it's early in the design process and questions may not be answered at a lightning fast pace, these three team members will be the ones spearheading all accurate information that BioWare will be releasing in the future through both the forums and the community blog. 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
We've waited for it for a long time, we knew it was coming: BioWare has announced the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic-inspired MMO at last: the title is Star Wars: The Old Republic! Commence rejoicing with Ewoks and Gungans in the streets!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!%Gallery-35034%%Gallery-35033%%Gallery-35036% 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!
Joystiq live from LucasArts/BioWare press conference
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/LucasArts_BioWare_press_conference_liveblog'; 4:57PM ET – We're live from the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco! Event should get under way in just minutes.5:04PM ET – We're still in the holding pen outside the theater. There's a life-size Boba Fett staring at us!5:18PM ET – Phew! Made it inside. SPOILER: Game's called Star Wars: The Old Republic -- we spotted it on BioWare bosses Greg and Ray's shirts. (Also: No photography allowed -- BOO!)
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO unveiled
Looks like someone snuck in ahead of everyone else! Don't even pretend you're surprised. Before today's LucasArts and BioWare press conference, IGN and Gamespot let slip Star Wars: The Old Republic -- you know, the MMO based on BioWare's massively successful Knights of the Old Republic series whose name was trademarked back in July. What we know so far: The project originated just after KOTOR II launched in 2005. SW:TOR is reportedly the reason Electronic Arts paid $860 million to purchase BioWare and Pandemic. The MMO takes place 300 years after the first KOTOR II, which puts it about 3,500 years before the film. You can choose between two factions, the Galactic Republic or the re-energized Sith Empire. You can also align yourself as a Dark or Light Side character in either situation. Two classes have been revealed: Jedi and Sith, both of which can use lightsabers and the Force early on. No release date, and no word on console releases.We also happened to see the name printed on t-shirts worn by BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. Meanwhile, the official press conference is about to begin. Here's hoping the game has better luck than Star Wars Galaxies! Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Massively and Joystiq liveblog the Star Wars / BioWare announcement!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/LucasArts_BioWare_press_conference_liveblog'; You've waited. We've waited. The wait is over. Join Joystiq.com and Massively.com for a liveblog of the LucasArts / BioWare announcement below the cut! In the meantime, check out our post on the announcement from earlier today for more context on this momentous occasion4:57PM ET – We're live from the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco! Event should get under way in just minutes.5:04PM ET – We're still in the holding pen outside the theater. There's a life-size Boba Fett staring at us! . 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, BioWare unveiling new game Oct. 21
Click to Embiggen On October 21, at around 2PM Pacific, BioWare and LucasArts will finally reveal whatever the heck they've been working on, as evidenced by Massively's invitation to the event. More than a few signs point the way to the project being an MMO based on Knights of the Old Republic. Massively speculates that the title of the game could be Star Wars: The Old Republic.We'll definitely be at the event and you can check out the other side of the invitation after the break (location details covered to prevent LucasArts and BioWare from force choking us).
The Daily Grind: What do you want in the KotOR MMO?
LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has sold like, a bajazillion copies since it launched a couple weeks ago. The Star Wars franchise definitely sells video games, even when they get lukewarm reviews. But we're not going to talk about sales today. We're going to talk about quality.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
Our colleagues over at Big Download have listed several PC games in development that they call "Black Ops" projects. The idea is that these games are operating out of sight, under the radar; nobody knows what's going on. It's all very hush hush and mysterious. The game industry and secrecy go hand in hand, after all.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.
New Lucasfilm trademarks sound suspiciously KotOR MMO-like
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]
