Comic-Con 2011

Comic-Con 2011 Live Schedule

BioWare tells tales of Star Wars: The Old Republic's storyline

By Tor Thorsen

Comic-Con 2010: Trio of EA studio's writing leads discusses the ways in which players will experience the narrative in upcoming MMORPG; space combat confirmed.

Who was there: BioWare Austin creative director and Star Wars: The Old Republic lead designer James Ohlen was joined onstage by principal writer Drew Karpyshyn and managing editor Alexander Freed.

What they talked about: BioWare has a reputation for knowing how to tell a compelling story, and the Electronic Arts-owned studio will be bringing this pillar of its game-development strategy to its first massively multiplayer online role-playing effort, SW:TOR. In a Comic-Con panel titled "Beyond Solo: Crafting the Multiplayer Story in Star Wars: The Old Republic" in San Diego today, three of BioWare's writing leads discussed just how they were cramming a story into the genre, in addition to announcing that starship-based space combat would be in the game.

BioWare says The Old Republic will have nearly 12 times the plot of the first KOTOR.

BioWare says The Old Republic will have nearly 12 times the plot of the first KOTOR.

The panel began by taking attendees back to the beginning, five years ago, when the team first started to lay the groundwork for their MMORPG. Story being such a big emphasis for the studio, BioWare said that it first began to engage LucasArts to make a Star Wars online game because of the possibilities for telling a reaching narrative. A compelling story, he said, is the best way to immerse players in an RPG, especially when they feel ownership over it.

As BioWare has repeatedly noted, SW:TOR bears a storyline that is equivalent to a dozen or more versions of its acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic. The team emphasized that each player class--eight in all--has its own storyline to pursue, and each of these is equivalent to the plot in the original KOTOR. Also, SW:TOR's scope allows the team substantial latitude when it comes to telling a wide variety of stories.

Quests aren't limited to players' individual stories, however. The team discussed the concept of world arcs, which take place on a more inclusive scale and involve players joining up to complete a prolonged mission. The BioWare trio offered an example of the Battle of Hoth from the Empire Strikes Back film as one example of a world arc, where there are numerous conflicts and several principal characters to engage with.

However, given that SW:TOR presents an environment where players' individual choices matter to the way they experience the universe, grouping with others could be problematic. This is mostly the case because each player in a group will be able to interact with non-player characters who serve as quest pieces, and choices aren't always made on an individual basis.

BioWare felt that experiencing quests in this way creates interesting dynamics, and it wants to expose people to what it is like to try to cooperate and interact with others. However, the team also noted that they didn't want to punish players for grouping with people they didn't necessarily know. Therefore, even if the group decides to pursue a course that isn't what a player would have chosen individually, the player won't be knocked for it.

The team then shifted to the differences between the two factions, Empire and Republic. Namely, they noted that quests won't be shared between the two factions. This fact, along with the variety of gameplay between, say, a Sith warrior and a smuggler, will hopefully encourage players to continue creating new characters and experiencing the full breadth of the storyline from a variety of angles.

The fact that quests aren't shared between the two factions doesn't mean players from opposite sides won't be interacting with one another, however. For instance, many planets can be visited by both factions, but the quests will play out on different world arcs--ones that are focused on either Republic or Empire interests.

Quote: "For world content, we want you to experience what it's like to work with other people, and dealing with the fallout of that."--James Ohlen, on multiple group members engaging the same NPC.

Takeaway: BioWare's team of a dozen or so writers has crafted a massive amount of storyline content for players to experience in SW:TOR, covering both single-player and multiplayer quests. The challenge for players, now, is to experience all of that content.

By Tor Thorsen

73 Comments

  • revanknight

    Posted Jan 15, 2011 7:50 am GMT

    I have to say, I like the mechanics! You may be an important character, but I like how there will be situations where you'll have to team up with someone else. I think it WOULD create interesting dynamics. Demon's Souls is proof of that.

  • bleg32

    Posted Nov 14, 2010 1:31 pm GMT

    I've always been a fan of MMOs that realize that there are a million people playing and so it feels cheap when everybody is supposed to be the special savior of the world. Wish they would have done that. Not everybody has to be Luke Skywalker. I'm fine just to be a clone.

  • L3X18999

    Posted Oct 3, 2010 9:22 pm GMT

    It rubs the lotion on it's skin unless it wants the hose again.

  • mschaef79

    Posted Aug 18, 2010 11:16 am GMT

    @amari24

    Dost thou doubt the power of Bioware!? I have faith that they will deliver a long and meaningful storyline in the form of an MMO. Plus, they have Lucasarts there to help them along the way. We wont need a KotOR3 for a long time thanks to SW:TOR. Bioware shall deliver!

  • fLaMbOaStiN

    Posted Aug 6, 2010 11:38 am GMT

    I've always been more of a solo-MMO player myself.. And as so i feel like im missing out playing MMO's because i could just play a single player game and get more of a cohesive story out of it.. The only MMO's whos story actually pulled me in was Fallen Earth; which is prolly the best solo-playing MMO out there.

    Lets just say i'd give my left nut for this game to come out tommarow.

  • ShadowFlame6

    Posted Aug 2, 2010 11:09 pm GMT

    @ amari24 The storyline -is- as good as in a single player game. And by the way, this basically is a Kotor 3. It has the guy who wrote both original Kotor games as the lead writer.

  • nicedude82

    Posted Aug 1, 2010 7:44 am GMT

    Looks like I will be spending a lot of time playing this game next year... now I just need to get a better laptop...

  • amari24

    Posted Jul 27, 2010 5:07 am GMT

    Nice job BioWare! But I seriously doubt a long storyline in an MMO, could be anywhere near as good, as a storyline in a single player game. I like Quality over Quanity...

    With that being said, can you now give everyone else a KotOR 3?

  • Holy_Terra

    Posted Jul 27, 2010 12:04 am GMT

    @Xtremedude09 damn it cant find anything on the swtor forums about the beta... Im pretty sure you are right its been such a long time and so many people put their names forward its unlikely to include me any ty for saying.

  • z_eratul

    Posted Jul 26, 2010 8:20 pm GMT

    @angelcar

    I completely share your views. Infact I have been thinking that this will probably be the only MMORPG i might get into. Plot makes everything OH so much more better. Amen.

  • angelcar

    Posted Jul 26, 2010 7:27 pm GMT

    Epic

    This has the potential of being the MMORPG that's ropes me in. Games have to have a good story in order for me to be engaged.

  • Yajarobi

    Posted Jul 26, 2010 11:36 am GMT

    o m g

  • lightwarrior179

    Posted Jul 25, 2010 3:33 pm GMT

    For me and many others the main problem with MMOs has been the lack of any character development or solid plot progression and the dishing out repetitive/generic quests. TOR here seems to represent a new vision for MMOs focused on storytelling and a proper quest structure while keeping the social aspects of MMOs intact. There are definite problems or questions in our mind, but I think that TOR can turn out to be a very important MMO if it's done right and I think there's no better developer to do it than BioWare at the moment.

  • Icehearted

    Posted Jul 25, 2010 1:06 pm GMT

    I can understand your point, brakus, but I've seen games pushed out all too often by companies like EA because investors get impatient or they need their stock to rise immediately.

    Also, if it's EA's money, I'd say that would give them more leverage than anything, which was what happened to Origin and Ultima.

    I'll wait and see, but I'm still far from optimistic.

  • brakus

    Posted Jul 25, 2010 9:19 am GMT

    EA is fronting the money Icehearted, but this game is being handled by Bioware and LucasArts. And LucasArts is giving more control to Bioware with EA just backing the production cost. So EA is really just the money backer to this huge project. Plus, EA has since leaned that rushing an MMO project is a quick way to have that title die. ((Ex. Warhammer)) So they are giving full control to Bioware since they have had a great track record for game releases. Now many people will throw outthere that Bioware does not have experience with MMO, but I will counter with this: Blizzard had no experience with MMO until they released WoW. So I feel Bioware is doing something that will change the way other companies will design their games in the MMO world. Bioware has seen there is a huge target for an MMO that actually has story. Not the sub-par story we have seen from games past, but something that truely allows people to effect the way their character can change the environment around them. I think Bioware can do this and can't wait for the game to come out.

    Now the game might be taking away from WoW, but Wow took from EQ1, so if it works don't break it. We will see in the future another game that will take away from SWTOR, and build from there. Only time will tell, but from everything that I have seen on SWTOR website since this game was announced, they are really headed in the right direction.

  • Icehearted

    Posted Jul 25, 2010 7:59 am GMT

    @Gelugon_baat
    I wish more than anything that what you're saying is true. KotOR stands as one of my favorites (even the broken and truncated second one), but I loathe the MMO formula. I gave it a 3 year shot with WoW and never enjoyed it as much as I tried to. I've just been burned out, and I've seen enough devs failing to keep similar promises to be all that optimistic about what these guys are saying. Also, EA owns them, and EA has a strong rep of ruining franchises and rushing MMOs out for fast cash. Remember what happened to Origin? Ultima Online and such? EA had a big hand in that fiasco.

  • K-Grogg

    Posted Jul 25, 2010 7:25 am GMT

    Too bad it uses the same old tired MMO combat system that every MMO released in the last 10 years has had. Maybe Dark Millennium will break the mold :/

  • wowner

    Posted Jul 24, 2010 9:45 pm GMT

    One of the best articles ever.

    "in addition to announcing that starship-based space combat would be in the game."

    Only time will tell how it all plays out, however it's nice to see Bioware taking a more sensible response to questing and the like by adding breadth to the ever stale approach to questing. MMORPG's SHOULD be about character customization and community and the interactions with the world, thus creating a role, not a carrot-on-a-stick approach that causes the player to care more about gear and less about the fact that they ARE a specific race or class, and care little for those around him, I'm looking at you Blizzard. Bioware's approach is fresh and vivid, and something I believe a standard will be made from.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Jul 24, 2010 9:11 pm GMT

    Unlike some users who don't seem to read carefully a single article that has been published about this game, I don't think that this game is going to turn out like other MMOs. There has been a lot of developer focus on the character development and plot thus far, with little talk about the usual features of an MMO like looting, guilds and social networking features.

    However, while I would like an MMO that is actually focused on character and plot development than the do-what-you-may approach of other MMOs, the impression that I am getting thus far is that this game is essentially single-player gameplay experiences that are similar to the ones in the Knights of the Old Republic games but with multiplayer options woven in.