BioWare: The Old Republic time frame, just like the KotOR time frame, offers us a lot of freedom when it comes to building new "Star Wars" canon. We don't necessarily have to worry about some of the more subtle continuity issues like the rule of two among the Sith or the extermination of the Jedi under Order 66. We have a blank canvas to work with when it comes to storytelling and world-building, which is very exciting for our teams.
Setting the game three centuries after KotOR arose from sitting down and writing out a timeline of events that took place after the fall of Darth Malak, during and after the events of KotOR 2. We had always alluded to a great darkness in Deep Space which Revan had sought to confront after KotOR, and we decided that great darkness would be a massive Sith Empire in exile, biding its time and waiting to come back for vengeance against the Jedi and the Republic. As we catalogued the events that took place between Revan's departure, through the initial attack of the Sith Empire and up to the actual time period we wanted to set the game, it turned out that this timeline was about three hundred years. So it was really a very organic process.
GameSpy: Players can choose to support the Jedi or Sith factions in the game. Will this choice be hard-coded from character creation, or will players choose a faction only during gameplay?
BioWare: Player Choice is essential to BioWare storytelling, and we have kept that a huge priority for The Old Republic. We want players to have as much choice as possible in the game, and choosing your class and allegiance to either the Republic or the Sith Empire during character creation is really just the first of many choices you'll make in the game. You'll face many choices that will cause you to think long and hard about loyalty and about your character's morality. Some will be cut and dry, and others will be more difficult. This is "Star Wars", so just because you're a Jedi doesn't mean you can't fall to the dark side. Darth Vader was of course the perfect example of this in the movies because he fell to the dark side and then was redeemed in the end by Luke and turned against Darth Sidious.GameSpy: Along those lines, how will the factions be handled? In games like Warhammer or World of Warcraft, opposing factions can't even communicate, whereas with games like Star Wars Galaxies, players could secretly work for either group without other players knowing. What are your plans?
We want every one of our players to experience their own personal "Star Wars" fantasy. If you want to fall, you'll have that chance, and conversely, even those born under the Sith Empire will have the opportunity to make choices that will bring them back toward the light! Beyond this even, we've alluded to the fact that there will be many cool roles in the game other than Sith and Jedi, and within those, you'll have other allegiances with another set of interesting choices. We're inspired by the high-fantasy archetype roles that are in the "Star Wars" movies.
BioWare: We're looking at all these MMOs and many more for all our systems and weighing out what works best for our game, but as to cross-faction communication specifically, we're not ready to talk about that just yet!GameSpy: Are you planning for the new game to emphasize social features (crafting, housing, etc.) or are you leaning more toward a focus on action?
BioWare: The great thing about MMOs is that they offer a large variety of activities for all kinds of players. You've got the real "role-players" who really get into their characters and the story, and then some people who just want to rush through the missions and level up as fast as possible and then you've got another group of people who just want to dive in to play player versus player. You also have players who like to build guilds and enjoy the social aspects of the game, and other players who get really into crafting and the game economy. The Old Republic will have opportunities for all these types of players to play the game exactly the way they enjoy playing it. We're taking a really balanced and comprehensive approach in this respect.
Our greatest strength, however, is in creating this really immersive story-driven gameplay experience and that's the area where were really innovating the most; however, we also have a commitment of to deliver on all of the things that people value the most in MMOs -- it's a delicate balancing act but we believe we're up for it!
