I think I just shat myself watching that.

They certainly know their crowd. I was very impressed by this cinematic, and i even shivered a little when all of the red lightsabers activated from inside the dropship.

This is one of the few MMO games I don't mind actually paying for, although naturally I'll get a free press pass anyway :P

Galaxies was actually pretty cool before Sony messed it up. I liked their flexible skill tree system instead of levels.

That said, Bioware's hype is instead great. Most of it has been focused on all of the story stuff they're cramming into the game and how picking different options during those stories (read: quests)  have the potential to impact long-term play.

Novel, but will it work? Only time will tell. I'll probably be checking it out very early in (possibly from day 1 - heck, may even try to get in on a beta).

This IS Bioware we're talking about though. Even if the game mechanics aren't really new or even that great, their story writers are amazing. KOTOR and Mass Effect are just some shining examples of that. Even Jade Empire was fun, though it was quite linear at some points.

Well, there was the NWN2 incident. I loved the first one, but never got the second because of the poor reviews.

NWN 2 sucked because it lost the point of what DnD is about. No, I dont want the half-demon in my team but I cant kill her... or have her not join the team. The expansions corrected such wrongs, but it was too little too late.

Ibram Tyrol wrote:The only thing that is 'different' so far is that there is going to be no 'text talk' in the games at all

Age of Conan did that, made the game roughly 25 gig on install and the speech only lasted till you cleared the starter area. Voice acting is overrated (look at the difference between Morrowind and Oblivion) because you can add alot more in when everything is text as it doesnt require actors. Less actors means lower overheads means more time spent on actual quests and content.

Wrex wrote:KOTOR and Mass Effect are just some shining examples of that.

Both single player games. A game with no multiplayer leaves a lot of time for improvement. You'll probably find the story in the MMO will be a bland and a little uninspired or at least end up that way.

And for everyone saying they'll pick it up on day one, I laugh at you in a condescending fashion. MMO's are games that come out half finished, since they just roll out patches continually. Odds are you'll be stuck with a half-finished, buggy version that is wildly unbalanced or worst case barely playable. Every MMO is the same. Add the likelyhood of clogged or downed servers due to extreme traffic and you'll cry yourself to sleep wonder how they could do this to starwars.

Ibram Tyrol wrote:WoW isn't the best MMO out there

The sad truth is, that it is. Its the benchmark.

Sure, other games have done things better. AoC for graphics, Tabula Rasa did have some pretty awesome ideas but for every success there are also many failures.

The only MMO that is significantly different then any other MMO is EvE.

But EvE is a second job in every sense of the word, unlike WoW which is a second job 75% of the time

Ibram Tyrol wrote:ioWare already have a reputation of being great story tellers - so I can see that being a big point in the game. The fact that it's star wars will also help. Even Galaxies was a good thing before Sony got their hands on it, so it's not like history is working against them.

But what you are forgetting is that this story/tale/adventure needs to last till the level cap, or at least be peppered with interesting or fun side quests.

And I've yet to see a game that hasn't just padded out the level cap with meaningless fetch and grind quests. Sure, the main stories are there but every so often it is stalled by a random NPC who proclaims

"You cant pass here until you are more experienced"

or my favourite

"I'm gonna need X amount of Generic animal/critter parts for this"
*X being some insane amount of somewhat of a rare item.

I foresee a main quest for each class that will degenerate into such things and a main storyline that will ultimately leave you hollow and alone. And of course the thing you have to remember is, People don't play MMO's for the storyline. I know players from across the MMO genre who couldn't give two shits about it and adding in voice acting will only balloon the games install size and be more or less a gimmick.

AoC had it and even though it was only for the beginners area, I started skipping it after a while because I had things to grind.

As for space-based PvP, Eve's PvP is about as interesting as watching paint dry. because it, from memory, actually depicts proper space battles. Soundless with two ships sitting still or gently orbiting one another whilst they firing back and forth till the other explodes (face it, that's what a space battle is). *Note, I could be horribly wrong... but I dont think I am, I think.

Jump to light speed on the other hand was a sad attempt by a loved on to resuscitate a dead MMO after the EMT's had walked away. I'd much rather have them not have space at all and just focus on the planets and other, more meaningful content.

And finally, so I can keep this thread going.

Ibram Tyrol wrote:There are only so many ways you can do an MMO game, therefore you need to think 'outside of the box' in order to make it appealing.

Name some. Name one.

And remember, it has to be a sure fire way of attracting and keeping players whilst not being a gimmick or your multimillion dollar MMO, who's succcess is now soley dependent on this feature/features, will fail and die.

http://kotaku.com/5277689/star-wars-the-old-republic-preview-bam-here-it-is

Kotaku have had some hands on time. Looks promising, although it sounds like it is still a long way off...