Anticipating SW:TOR? Yes, maybe, not really.
My anticipation went way up when Gordon Walton joined BioWare for an MMO project. He’s very capable and I have huge respect for the history of games he has been involved with. Plus hey, it’s BioWare.
My anticipation dipped when it was announced as a licensed Star Wars game (I’d have preferred a BioWare original IP), but I was tempered with the timeline deep in the past. It’s good that we don’t have to live in the shadows of Han Solo and Darth Vader. On the other hand the KOTOR timeline is just Star Wars without the celebs: Despite being thousands of years earlier it’s a Sith vs Jedi playground that could have been just a few decades before.
I came to peace with that though, my ex-fanboy backlash on Star Wars was offset by my admiration for BioWare. Plus, Star Wars does lend itself to some seriously cool RPG scenarios. And lightsabers.
Where my excitement in The Old Republic really sank was on the announcement of classes and faction choice at character creation. If there’s ever been a key dramatic point of the Star Wars universe, it’s been that perpetual tug of war in every decision and action. It’s a Darkness and Light parable to the core. The best RPG aspect of the license, squashed in a bid to sell comfortably established Diku / EQ / WoW gameplay.
Meh, meh and again I say Meh.
Don’t get me wrong, there’ve been some great games on the Diku gameplay model, but this is like pushing a square peg into a round hole and the corners getting cut off are some of the best bits.
I don’t doubt the game will do well. Financially for EA it was probably an imperative (casual gaming and whatnot), but I expect even some of the folks at BioWare were cringing at that decision.
So here I am. I signed up for a chance at Beta, not because of great anticipation for the game, but because I’m jaded and skeptical. Without the pivotal Sith <--> Jedi repercussions for my character, even a great BioWare story may not pull it through. If I was seriously anticipating it, I’d skip Beta and just buy / preorder the game at release.
Mythic + BioWare restructuring
EA has reorganized Mythic and BioWare and kinda / sorta / maybe merged them. In name at least, they’ll remain separate but basically the gist of it is that the two docs at BioWare are in charge and Mark Jacobs gets flicked off the gameboard. If you want the more complete description + commentary I recommend reading Lum’s take and Keen’s take, each with their own perspectives.
This is probably a reflection of the current status quo: The upcoming big expectations of the next game versus the somewhat disappointing results of the last game. If you recall, EA also restructured soon after Mythic was acquired.
I admit I’m not a fan of Mark Jacobs. As a personality he’s um… large, but that didn’t stop me from trying Warhammer. There’s an inappropriate temptation to roast him right now, but I only met him once and that was years ago. You could probably get more mileage from the opinions of Lum (who worked at Mythic once-upon-a-time) or Keen (who’s interviewed Mark more recently).
