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How does Star Wars: The Old Republic differ from other MMO titles?
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be similar to other MMOs but with several key innovations. Traditionally MMOs are built on three pillars; Exploration, Combat, and Progression. We at BioWare and LucasArts believe there is a fourth pillar: Story. Our mission is to create the best story-driven games in the world. We believe that the compelling, interactive storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic are a significant innovation to MMOs and will offer an entertainment experience unlike any other.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be similar to other MMOs but with several key innovations. Traditionally MMOs are built on three pillars; Exploration, Combat, and Progression. We at BioWare and LucasArts believe there is a fourth pillar: Story. Our mission is to create the best story-driven games in the world. We believe that the compelling, interactive storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic are a significant innovation to MMOs and will offer an entertainment experience unlike any other.
I'm sure I'm going to be preaching to the choir here, but I remember reading this and thinking, "Story's always been in MMOs." MMOs have always had stories behind them which allow players to RP in the game world. Some's better than others, but it's always there, and the good ones give players a way to interact with each other, even non-RPers. I mean, how can you not have a story when you shove a bunch of people into the same area and make them earn rewards? The more I read their descriptions of "story," the more I realized that this concept that Bioware was pushing was single player story lines. Options to be good or evil based on what you do to NPCs after a quest writer has made some elaborate story, game designers have made reputation mechanics, quest designers have created quest triggers, etc., that are based on said decisions. And those are fun... for single player games. Nothing Bioware brought up seemed human. I love the good RPGs for bringing literary quality worlds to life, but I thought MMOs were about creating stories with other people.
TOR co-director Rich Vogel, surprisingly, worked on a little sandbox MMO called "Ultima Online." It may be a bit shocking to some of us that in an interview with Gamasutra, Vogel actually denounces FFA pvp with few limits. He has example after example of what he felt went wrong with Ultima. Why does this matter compared to story? If you read through the article, you'll see that he actually has quite a few stories to tell. Player gangs, extortion, family dinners in quiet houses, etc. Stories that can never happen in other MMOs, made by real people in real interactions. But this isn't always done through raw PvP.
Asheron's Call had one of the most epic story driven events that I've ever heard of in an Online RPG (here is a pretty good summary of the event). While developers created the scenario, they gave players all the tools they needed to make the scenario better, which allowed those of us who participated to create a shared story that none of us, or the other people who played the game, will be able to forget. For those who don't know of the event or care to read a semi-lengthy post, here's a short summary from mmocrunch about the Shard of the Herald event that took place on Asheron's Call's PvE server, Thistledown:
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The Shard of the Herald was the final shard in Asheron’s Call which was hidden until the first 6 shards had been destroyed. With the destruction of the final shard, the legendary demon Bael’Zharon would be released as well as new more powerful weapons and items for player . However players were given a choice to either attack or protect the final shard. The playerbase on all the servers became divided into those wanting to destroy the shard and those who swore to protect it. As the battle raged across AC’s servers, the defenders held their ground and were able to protect the shard, this was until the developers stepped in to help the attackers. NPC controlled by developers contacted the most powerful players and those that passed the test were given powerful items for their service and dubbed Bael’Zharon’s “Dark Masters”. Shortly after the Shard of the Herald was destroyed on all servers except for one, Thistledown. Defenders on Thistledown got organized and started to monitor the status of the shard and setup shifts where players would come to protect it. The defenders were able to successfully defend the shard until once again the developers step in and stacked the side of the attackers by adding several mythological followers of Bael’Zharon to aid in the attack. The Shard of Herald was thus destroyed, but the defenders of the shard on the Thristledown server were rewarded with a statue bearing the names of the leaders to commemorate those who stood against Bael’Zharon’s dark followers.
On the topic of the event, AC's developers said:
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People wanted the chance to defend the crystal, to keep BZ imprisoned. We thought that this would make for fantastic role-playing, and tried to come up with a system that would allow people to take a more active part in the event. Thus the PK-only dungeon for the final Shard was created. We wanted to give the players a choice -- to defend the Shard, or to destroy it.
What followed became, half by design, half by fortune, what was probably the most dramatic event in any ORPG to date. While most worlds broke the crystal in rather short order, Thistledown mounted a defense. And what a defense it was! The Shard was monitored around the clock in well-organized shifts. Needless to say, this exceeded our expectations by a long shot!
What followed became, half by design, half by fortune, what was probably the most dramatic event in any ORPG to date. While most worlds broke the crystal in rather short order, Thistledown mounted a defense. And what a defense it was! The Shard was monitored around the clock in well-organized shifts. Needless to say, this exceeded our expectations by a long shot!
This combined with Vogel's own stories about FFA PvP show that, whether you like it or not, player driven content, by and for the players, creates shared stories. No one's forgotten about the "fourth pillar" as described by Bioware. RPGs are alive and well. I love my Dragon Age grey warden's story, but I'll never talk about that the way I'll talk about my adventures in MMOs against other players. The stories we create, even by non-RPers, are social, which is very unique to the MMO genre. Having a game world you're attached to and can invest in is so much more meaningful than comparing "stories" of a single player experience with your friends.
To me, ArcheAge has the chance to reproduce true fourth pillar experiences. I don't think it's a coincidence that the PvP continent will also be where some "old power" is hidden. Another Shard of the Herald style event may not sound terribly creative, but it'd be a lot better than farming an "ultimate evil" once a week for a month to get a hammer to drop, or getting betrayed by an NPC that was supposed to be on my side. They're far more uncommon these days than the usual trigger and NPC dialogue we've been getting for the past, what, 7 years?
I look forward to having a house and neighbors who want to take it from me. I want to join forces with other people to take down a large guild of griefers who've taken a monopoly of the game's rare resources... or be allied with them and wait for the inevitable battle. I may play TOR as a single player sequel to the KotOR series, but I can't see myself lasting in it like I can see myself in AA.
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