Got something you'd like to know about BioWare's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic? After playing around with a Sith Inquistor for about 20 minutes, I had plenty of questions for Producer Blaine Christine. Unfortunately, stumpers like, "Hey, when's this game coming out?" and, "What's the level cap, anyway?" all earned me a whole lot of we-haven't-talked-about-it-yets.
So while we didn't talk about all kinds of amazing stuff, we did talk about storytelling, romance and sex in BioWare games, and the recently announced companion feature -- players will pick up their very own Chewbacca- and R2-D2-esque followers. Perhaps even a Jar Jar, if you're lucky! But I can't talk about that.
It seems like you're designing each class to have an analog on the opposite faction. What are the differences between a Sith Warrior and his nice-guy counterpart, the Jedi Knight?
Blaine Christine: Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight are going to be somewhat similar in that, yes, they're both the type of force user that is going to charge in, use more melee attacks, and have very fast and powerful attacks. That said, of course we work hard to make sure there's differentiation -- first of all there's dramatic differentiation in the story, they each have a completely different storyline.
So really in terms of action it's our job to make sure that, even though they're both force users [and] they both have light sabers, there are differences in the way that they play and feel, and we're sort of achieving that. They do come across as feeling sort of light side and dark side.
The Sith Warrior definitely feels more destructive in terms of how he uses his force powers, whereas light side force users like the Jedi Knight, it definitely feels a little more controlling in terms of how the knight sets up attacks and uses the lightsaber, even. Also a little bit more finesse, I would say. Like when we talk about the Sith Warrior and how he uses the lightsaber, in terms of animations you see very dramatically powerful attacks like overheard strikes, whereas the Jedi Knight is much more graceful, almost a more like martial arts-type of style.
So will classes have specialized roles? Do you adhere to the usual tank, healer, DPS, ranged-DPS archetypes?
BC: We started with the idea -- rather than saying, hey we have certain archetypes that are traditional MMO archetypes -- we really built the classes around iconic imagery and characters from the movies.
So if you think about a Jedi Knight, for us, it's like a Luke Skywalker-type of character. If you think about the Sith Warrior, it's more of a Darth Vader-type character. If you think about the Smuggler, Han Solo-type character.
And then from there, we have this idea of customizing your playstyle, which is customizing your character, but it goes beyond that because we also have the addition of companion characters as a way to customize how you play in a group or a solo experience. Companion characters each have their own abilities. So if you need, for instance, a healer, you may be able to get that by adding in a companion character who has that ability.
But within that, there're also branches within the classes that have healing. We haven't really revealed specifics around that a lot; we have talked about the idea that the Smuggler has some healing abilities, which I think is something that people weren't necessarily expecting.
But really, again, to go back to your question, it's the idea of Star Wars archetypes and then branching out from there to be able to customize your character and playstyle in the way that you want to play the game.
So it would be possible to have a group of people playing and not have someone on a main healer sort of role, it could be the companions who are filling in that role?
BC: That is potentially the way that it could work out, and that's certainly what we want. Because we feel that right now, the way that current MMOs play, there's always this necessity where you've got to find this specific character type before you go into a group play experience. So yeah, companion characters are definitely one way you can do that.
How does the player gain these companion characters as they progress through the game?
BC: For anybody who's played previous BioWare games, you're going to be pretty familiar with it -- you basically unlock them as you go through the story. So they're important not only from an action standpoint and how they interact with you and your group, but also from a story standpoint. Because they each have their own story and you sort of get a different play experience based on which companion character you select to go along with you at any given time, because they're going to interject at certain times, maybe remark on how you complete a certain quest.
Particularly in terms of light side and dark side choice...if you have a companion character that has "a positive outlook on life," they may react negatively if you decide to kill someone when, perhaps, the situation doesn't warrant it.
Can they decide to leave your service?
BC: Yes, as with previous BioWare games, absolutely. There's going to be opportunities where, if they really get upset with you, they may leave, and then once they leave, they're gone. There are also opportunities in certain cases to romance companion characters.
It's kind of interesting, you guys are the only company I can think of that is addressing romance and sex in games throughout the arc of your work, and taking steps forward in different ways at different times. How are you looking to evolve the way that romance and/or sex happens?
BC: Well I think it's less about trying to evolve that [and] more about the idea that, obviously, relationships are a very important part of storytelling. So for us, if we're telling true stories, romance is a big part of life, of movies, of whatever. Even within the Star Wars universe, there are some significant romantic interests within the storylines of the Star Wars movies. So it's part of the Star Wars universe, it's part of how BioWare tells stories, it's part of life.
Are you planning to include actual sex scenes in the game?
BC: At this point it's safe to say that it's going to be very similar to what you found in the original Knights of the Old Republic. Which is, you're aware that the romance is going on; typically, when that happens, there's sort of a fade to black. You know that there's a kiss, maybe there's more, but is anything graphically shown? No.
No Dragon Age-style sex scenes or alien side-boob, then.
BC: I don't think that would be the case, no. There are good reasons, both from a gameplay perspective, the audience we're trying to reach, the license....
How many companions are you going to have to choose from, is it going to be common to group up with characters who have the same companion out at the same time?
BC: That is certainly possible. What I will say is that there's a number of companion characters for each class, so you're going to have options. That said, it will be possible for players to select -- if they're both of the same class -- it'll be possible for them to have the same companion character. We're going to have some customization options for those companion characters so that perhaps they don't look the same or feel the same, but we haven't talked about details on that yet.
How is the story set up, I assume each class plays through an origin/training section...is that divided up by Alliance and Sith, or is it class-based and they all come together at one point?
BC: We haven't really talked about that yet so I don't know how much detail I can go into. We've sort of talked about the idea that there is a Jedi homeworld, which is Tython -- Korriban is the homeworld of the Sith -- and we've talked about these as starting points for some of our classes. I think it's natural to assume that those classes are going to find each other at some point, but we haven't really talked about the details of that yet.
And then at what point will players come across human players on the opposite faction?
BC: Again, haven't really divulged details, but PVP will of course be a part of our game, so there's certainly going to be areas within the game world where you're going to come up against players of the opposite faction.
Can you talk about the level cap, and what the end game is going to be like?
BC: No specifics on that yet. What I can say is that, in terms of length of play and duration, we've talked about the idea of hundreds of hours of gameplay. When you factor in all of the many activities the player will do, whether it's going through storytelling, social activities, combat, etc., we're talking about an extensive storyline, an extensive play experience for each one of those classes. With the total number of classes that we have, that's pretty expansive in terms of the gameplay experience you can expect to have.
I'm sure you're playing many of the other MMOs out there, as well as other kinds of games. Can you point to any specific influences or mechanics that you've seen elsewhere and brought into this game?
BC: Obviously, all of us at BioWare are playing lots of different games all the time. Specifically, I guess I could point to...you know the cover mechanic is one that we felt was important to some of our classes, we've talked about how the cover mechanic is part of our Smuggler class, and then the recently announced Imperial Agent.
There are some first person shooters out there that of course we checked into, and wanted to see how they played, and tried to make sure that within an MMO setting we were doing our due diligence and paying homage to games out there that use cover in a meaningful way.
The beauty of our studio is the experience of the people there that have worked on a number of different titles, but also, since we are all gamers, we're all talking about stuff all the time. Influences come from everywhere.
I've been on a big Borderlands kick lately, and while that game isn't an MMO, it feels kind of like one in terms of the quests, loot drops, co-op, etc. Now when I go back and play a traditional MMO, the way they handle aggro really breaks the immersion for me. You see some guys across the room but they don't react to you until you're 30ft away.
BC: That's certainly a valid point. But I think it comes down to the design of your particular game, and what is fun. I think the essence of good design is really, what is the core of your game, what are the fundamentals of design and what's going to be fun. If that fits into your fundamentals and that makes the gameplay more fun, absolutely, that's important.
Is that in our game at this point? No, you're going to find that it's probably a little more traditional in the way that we deal with aggro radiuses, etc., and that's sort of an MMO convention. But, obviously, the game's still in development, so it's hard to say where that will go.
Let me go back to [your last] question, too, I feel like I kind of skated by on this one. In terms of what I'm playing now, personally, I've been really into Batman: Arkham Asylum, it's been a great experience. And talking about aggro and stealth and how that works, that's an interesting game to look at.
I just picked up Call of Duty but haven't played through much of that yet. And I'm personally excited about Left 4 Dead 2. I played the first one and enjoyed that as a group experience, which is obviously important to MMOs as well.
How do you handle death in The Old Republic? When I was playing, there seemed to be sort of respawn stations?
BC: None of that is really final yet, so I don't know that I can really talk about that per se. Obviously, there's going to be healing mechanics, where either other players or companion characters will be able to revive you. But the actual mechanics of death, none of that's concrete just yet.
Finally, and this is a bit off-topic, but considering the Warcraft franchise's 15-year anniversary, do you have any strong memories of that series?
BC: Of Warcraft? Yeah, in fact, I distinctly remember being in college, playing...well I'm trying to think timeline-wise, so I guess it would've been Warcraft 2, and then also Diablo, playing online for the first time, really playing a game where you could team up with somebody else and play through, [that] was very exciting.
Warcraft 2, definitely strong memories of that. I remember that's the first time actually enjoying an RTS, because of the rich world that they gave you, and the storytelling within an RTS setting. Which is something that -- obviously, at BioWare, we're fans of strong storytelling. They have a great storytelling heritage and a very rich world.
