Star Wars: The Old Republic Artwork & Blog Update
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About four months later, I was the first Writer hired in under Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson. At that time, there were only about a dozen people working in the small temporary office, and we still weren't even sure what game we'd be making, only that it would be a story-driven MMO. Just like all starting BioWare writers, I went through three months of training, and because the group was small, Daniel really had the time to mentor me, to show me what he had learned from writing on Dragon Age, and what he envisioned for the new project. It was a priceless education in the art of storytelling that I'll never forget. I remember when I completed my training and became an official (Senior Writer), I told the other writers who were still in training that it was better than graduating from college. Since then, I've heard many of them say the same thing.
What blew me away more than anything in those first few months was that this whole idea of story coming first. it wasn't just talk. The storyline and narrative setting were the starting point of every discussion about design and even the conversations about art. Once we settled on Star Wars: The Old Republic, we started fleshing out the time period we wrote timelines, faction summaries, visions for the planets we'd put in the game. It was a Star Wars: geek's wildest dream! As we progressed, more writers joined the team, incredibly talented craftsmen, some were screenwriters, some were from pen-and-paper gaming, and some, like me, were really from totally different backgrounds. An amazing creative team formed, and some incredible stories were hashed out. and then rehashed out. The process for creating a narrative of BioWare standards is more thorough than you can possibly imagine. And that was before we even started writing dialogue! Talk about edits! The commitment to quality at BioWare and specifically on the writing team would blow your mind. And that commitment to quality only begins there. Just as the writing team has grown, and more than a dozen writers have now been involved, so have all the teams at BioWare Austin grown, and their passion and their commitment to quality is just as strong as it is on the writing team. When you play this game, you'll experience the passion, and commitment we all have to making the best story-driven game in the world Star Wars: The Old Republic will speak for itself.
