KOTOR 3: Single Player VS MMO

Now that we know that the next in the KOTOR series is definitely going to be an MMO, I have already read a number of negative forum posts with people complaining. "Now we'll never see a good ending to the KOTOR storylines" or "I don't want to have to deal with l33t speak n00bs all the time". Some of the points are valid, some are not-so-much.

I loved the first 2 very much. My character was pretty cool looking and I wandered through the single player worlds switching between my crew members. That was pretty fun - getting the chance to try out different styles. Near the end of The Sith Lords, I ended up taking a screenshot of my character so I could send it to my mates even though they had never played the game before. Why did I do this? Because KOTOR 1 and 2 had an experience progression system in place and a way of making me feel unique, yet no way of me showing off what I had achieved. What was the point of becoming a “Just Jedi” when the game had finished? Nothing really (except from a slightly different crew combination and a little different ending).

In Tabula Rasa, I loved the fact that we all started off on the same footing. We were just random soldiers recruited to the war effort and as we leveled up, we specialized and "became" different characters. I ended up playing as a medic running around blasting people in the face with my shotgun and healing, whereas a friend of mine trained down the sniper path. It was cool to see what we had become when we had moved through the levels and how our new found skills could go toward the end game in totally different ways.

KOTOR MMO has the potential to do this very well, providing it stays away from the Star Wars Galaxies way of doing things, and by this I mean changing the way people become a Jedi (this is a whole other topic that I wont go into now). If I'm leveling up while making evil decisions and my friend is making wise decisions, then our paths will be very different and by the end of it, we'll be fighting against each other. It's beautiful!

I'll be the first to say, I don't like having to pay for a subscription to games. I mean, we already pay for the game box, why should we have to pay to play too? Saying this though, MMO's have the potential to be the most involved, immersive games you will ever have the chance to play, and it's this reason alone that gets my vote for KOTOR 3 to be a MMORPG.

Truly immersive single players are few and far between. Oblivion is an example of one of them. The freedom we had in Oblivion was nice - to be able to go wherever we wanted and do whatever quests we wanted. These quests allow the player to experience the story more deeply rather than the traditional linear single player games. But because of the way it was designed, when you leveled up so did the mobs so you never felt like you were getting any more powerful. That was how it allowed the user to travel anywhere they wanted and still have quests to level up. MMO's give you a huge playing area, packed full of quests allowing you to level up and be immersed in the bigger picture storyline and by the end of the zone, you feel substantially more powerful. MMO's by nature have to be large and open to support all the players. Because of this, they have to make a huge effort to help you be part of the storyline. Because of this, each action you take moves you along in the story.

Sometimes in MMO's, some of the quests seem inconsequential. Kill 10 bears please. Why? Oh no reason really, you just look like you need some more experience points. Age of Conan attempts to get around this problem with a nice quest line called the Destiny Quest that runs all the way through your game experience. KOTOR could easily employ something like this to make your character feel special and integral to the story.

Anyway, make up your own minds on this subject. Not that it really matters; the decision has already been taken out of our hands. Maybe in the future someone will make a single player sequel, but until then, I'll be waiting with baited breath for the new MMO.

What does the announcement mean to me?

Before last weeks announcement of KOTOR MMO, I had heard the rumors of the BioWare / Lucasarts new project (originally announced back in October 2007 with this press release: http://www.lucasartsbioware.com) and couple that with BioWare’s MMO project statement back in March 2006 (http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_releases/2006_03_15_Austin). Like a lot of people, I had my fingers, toes and any other extremities crossed that it was the aforementioned game.

Funnily enough, I was conceptualizing the game just a couple of weeks ago during my 1 hour long car journey home from work and even mentioned it to my non-gaming wife when I got home. As I prattled on about the game, its predecessors and how the force might work, her eyes glazed over in boredom and I gave up. Since that day, it’s been running around in my head every now and then. Last week, when I read that all the wonderful rumors were true, I decided that for the sake of our marriage, I needed another listener and so now all you unfortunate soles get to listen (or in this case read) about my thoughts.

I’ll talk about my ideas in another blog, so for the sake of official chronology, I’ll carry on with the announcement…

I remember a couple of weeks ago watching the Blizzard teaser homepage melt the ice toward space which eventually led to the Diablo III announcement. I have played a little Diablo and thought it was pretty decent but the hype on the interweb was crazy! All these die-hard fans cheering, screaming, critiquing, signing petitions and wetting themselves they were so excited.

Well the KOTOR MMO announcement was a little like this but without the details. We’ve had no screenshots, no story, no classes, not even a stinking name. Nevertheless, the excitement has been insane. Why do some developers announce games half done and others with merely a single line of code? Maybe some of the hardcore Diablo fans who were complaining about it looking too pretty and WoW-like wouldn’t have been so pissed off if they hadn’t seen screenshots and videos of it?

I only hope that BioWare do half the job of advertising and releasing information that EA-Mythic have done over the past 3 years in regards to Warhammer Online. I personally thing WAR is going to be huge because 1) they have worked bloody hard on making a kick-ass game and 2) because they’ve done such a fabulous job of giving us just enough information each week/month to and keep us hooked and gagging for more. If BioWare gave us just a couple of pieces of artwork and maybe the game name, that might be enough to hold the heaving masses at bay for a while.

Already there is a buzz in the community about the game and what it could become. Will it become the infamous SWG? Will it be the next WoW killer? More than likely, it’ll fall somewhere in the middle. Over the next few weeks I’ll be covering the following topics:

* KOTOR 3: Single Player vs MMO
* Why I am interested in KOTOR MMORPG
* Will everyone become a Jedi (or will other careers/classes be available)?
* What attracts a player to the Light / Dark side of the force (or more commonly, play as the good guys or the bad guys)?
* How KOTOR MMO will take into account the Bartle test
* I’ll give my thoughts on a potential leveling path (adapted from the original KOTOR games)
* Would it be lore breaking to have Light, Dark and the Grey area in between (3 factions rather than 2)
* How is BioWare's past history going to affect KOTOR MMO?

Hello and Welcome...

...to my Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (KOTORMMO) Blog.

I have no idea how many people will read this as the game has only just been revealed and there doesn’t seem to be any other KOTOR MMO blogs about (does this mean nobody is interested in it? I’ll assume not and continue anyway). So for the time being, I’ll just be rambling about my thoughts on the game. If you stumbled across this whilst looking for The Cathedral of St. Tryphon, then I apologize and you’ll find what you were looking for here: http://www.matf.bg.ac.yu/konferencije/kotor/

I also realize that within this first post, there doesn’t seem to be a lot about KOTOR – this is me warming up my typing fingers and trying out this Blogging business. It’ll get better I promise.

In order to make it slightly more StarWarsy and to prove I’m not lying about the reveal, here’s a link to the announcement:

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2008/07/17/ea-to-play-in-knights-of-the-old-republic

Be safe and have fun!