Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview
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GameSpy: What attracted you to this part of the "Star Wars" lore? Why 300 years after Knights of The Old Republic?
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.
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GameSpy: Here's the big question! From your earlier interviews we know that BioWare is going to focus on story as a major part of the experience. But how can you incorporate meaningful story into an MMO universe, where everyone has to share the same world? What techniques are you using? What can people expect?
BioWare: Storytelling is BioWare's greatest strength and we think it's a critical part of the gaming experience whether you're playing online or offline. More than anything, we're trying to bring this high-quality storytelling to the MMO space to make a game that's really as compelling and emotionally engaging as it can possibly be. There's a lot of amazing stuff going on in the "Star Wars" universe during this time period, and we're giving players the opportunity to get involved in some truly galaxy-spanning plots in which their choices will really make a difference.
These storylines are each crafted to match the fantasies represented by each of the classes: As you can imagine, an epic fantasy for a Jedi is quite different from a saga tailored to a Sith. Though all the different classes in the game are playing in the same galaxy, and in the same virtual space, they're getting caught up in a really diverse set of storylines and interacting with a lot of different characters. So while they may be visiting many of the same places and sharing a lot of adventures, each player will also be pursuing his or her own personal storyline, a storyline that develops and really changes pretty dramatically based on the player's choices.
One of the things that makes this especially cool is that you can play through the game as one class, and then pick up another class and have an entirely different storytelling experience which focuses on entirely different themes and activities. You'll visit brand-new worlds, learn some deep secrets about what's going on in the galaxy, but you'll still be an epic hero (or villain) taking part in a story which we intend to be as big and as exciting as the original trilogy of movies George Lucas created!
